When your parents advise you to “get an education” in order to raise your income, they tell you only half the truth. What they really mean is to get just enough education to provide manpower（人力资源） for your society, but not so much that you prove an embarrassment to your society.

Get a high school diploma, at least. Without that, you will be occupationally dead unless your name happens to be George Bernard Shaw or Thomas Alva Edison, and you can successfully dropout in grade school.

Get a college degree, if possible. With a B. A., you are on the launching pad. But now you have to start to put on the brakes. If you go for a master’s degree, make sure it is an M.B.A., and the famous law of diminishing(逐渐减少的) returns begins to take effect.

Do you know, for instance, that long-haul truck drivers earn more per year than full professors? Yes, the average salary for those truckers was $24000 while the full professors managed to earn just $23030.

A doctorate is the highest degree you can get. Except for a few specialized fields such as physics or chemistry where the degree can quickly be turned to industrial or commercial purposes, if you pursue such a degree in any other field, you will face a future which is not bright. There are more doctors unemployed or underemployed in this country than any other part of the world.

If you become a doctor in English or history or anthropology or political science or languages or—worst of all—in philosophy, you run the risk of becoming overeducated for our national demands. Not for our needs, mind you, but for our demands.

Thousands of doctors are selling shoes, driving cars, waiting on table, and endlessly filling out applications month after month. They may also take a job in some high school or backwater(闭塞) college that pays much less than the doorkeeper earns.

You can equate the level of income with the level of education only so far. Far enough, that is, to make you useful to the gross national product, but not so far that nobody can turn much of a profit on you.

1.According to the writer, what the society expects of education is to turn out people who ______.

A. will not be a disgrace to society????

B. will become loyal citizens

C. can take care of themselves

D. can meet the nation’s demand as a source of manpower

2.Many doctors are out of job because ______.

A. they are improperly educated

B. they are of little commercial value to their society

C. there are fewer jobs in high schools

D. they prefer easier jobs that make more money

3.The nation is only interested in people ______.

A. with diplomas

B. who specialize in physics and chemistry

C. who are valuable to the gross national product

D. who receive little education

4.Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Bernard Shaw didn’t finish high school, nor did Edison.

B. One must think carefully before pursuing a master’s degree.

C. The higher your education level, the more money you will earn.

D. If you are too well-educated, you’ll be overeducated for society’s demands.

5.The writer sees education as ______.

A. a means of providing job security and financial security and a means of meeting a country’s demands for technical workers

B. a way to broaden one’s horizons

C. more important than finding a job

D. an opportunity that everyone should have

Looking back on China's road to outer space, people can easily find it has not been very smooth．In the past years, Chinese people have made hard and determined efforts to realize the dream their ancestors had for thousands of years．

After China's first satellite into the Earth's orbit in 1970 came four flights of unmanned Shenzhou spaceflight from 1999 to 2002．The country carried out its first one-piloted spaceflight in October．2003, making China the third country in the world to have independent human spaceflight ability after the Soviet Union and the United States．Then came another breakthrough on October 12, 2005． when Shenzhou 6, China's second human spaceflight, was launched, with a crew of two astronauts．What's more, the landmark （里程碑 ）spacewalk done by Zhai Zhigang, one of the three boarding Shenzhou 7, launched on Sept．25, 2008, leads the country further in its space exploration．

Meanwhile, China's moon exploration project, started in 2004, has also been progressing satisfactorily. Fifty years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first man-made satellite, China's first circumlunar（绕月的 ）satellite Chang’e 1 took off on Oct．24, 2007, which became the third landmark in China's space achievements after the above-mentioned manned flights．Change 1 was expected to fulfill four scientific goals, one of which was to explore mineral elements on the moon, especially those not existent on the Earth. It's said that the lunar regolith （月壤 ） is abundant in helium-3, a clean fuel that may support the Earth's energy demands for more than a century．Nearly 3 years later, Oct．1, 2010 witnessed the launching of Chang'e 2, China's 2nd unmanned lunar probe, marking another step forward in moon exploration．This time the aim is to test the key techniques of Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4, as a preparation for a soft lunar landing in the future．

With great expectations, people all over the world are looking forward to China's greater space achievements．

1.According to the text, which of the following is TRUE?

    A．China sent its first satellite into the Moon's orbit in 1970．

    B．China is the third country in Asia to make human spaceflight．

    C．By now, 5 astronauts have made successful spaceflight by Shenzhou spaceship．

    D．The launching of Chang'e 1 became the third landmark in China's space achievements．

2.Paragraph 2 mainly deals with the information about China's_   __.

    A．landmark spacewalk                   B．manned Shenzhou spaceflight

    C．first circumlunar satellite          D．unmanned Shenzhou spaceflight

3.We can infer from the text that____．

    A．China's road to outer space has been very smooth for a long time

    B．the lunar regolith is believed to be poor in a clean fuel called helium-3

    C．China's scientists are researching into techniques for soft lunar landing

    D．China's lunar exploration project was started in 2004 and completed in 2007

4.What can be the best title for the text?

    A．Ancient Chinese's Dream              B．The World's Great Expectations

    C．China's Moon Exploration            D．China s Major Space Achievements

5.The author's attitude towards China's space exploration is_   __.

A．negative         B．positive        

C．discouraged     D．uninterested

Taiwan police cannot decide whether to treat it as an extremely clever act of stealing or an even cleverer cheat. Either way, it could be the perfect crime, because the criminals are birds—horning pigeons!
The crime begins with a telephone message to the owner of a stolen car: if you want the car back, pay up then, the car owner is directed to a park, told where to find a bird cage and how to attach money to the neck of the pigeon inside. Carrying the money in a tiny bag, the pigeon flies off.
There have been at least four such pigeon pick-ups in Changwa. What at first seemed like the work of a clever stay-at-home car thief, however, may in fact be the work of an even lazier and more inventive criminal mind—one that avoid not only collecting money but going out to steal the car in the first place . Police officer Chen says that the criminal probably has pulled a double trick: he gets money for things he cannot possibly return. Instead of stealing cars, he lets someone else do it and then waits for the car-owner to place an ad in the newspaper asking for help.
The theory is supported by the fact that, so far, none of the stolen cars have been returned. Also, the amount of money demanded-under 3,000 Taiwanese dollars –seems too little for a car worth many times more.
Demands for pigeon-delivered money stopped as soon as the press reported the story. And even if they start again, Chen holds little hope of catching the criminal. “We have more important things to do,” he said.
1. After the car owner received a phone call. He ______.
A. went to a certain pigeon and put some money in the bag it carried
B. gave the money to the thief and had his car back in a park
C. sent some money to the thief by mail            
D. told the press about it
2. The “lazier and more inventive” criminal refers to ______.
A. the car thief who stays at home                    
B. one of those who put the ads in the paper
C. one of the policemen in Changwa          
D. the owner of the pigeons
3. The writer mentions the fact that “none of the stolen cars have been returned” to show_____.
A. how easily people get fooled by criminals     
B. what Chen thinks might be correct
C. the thief is extremely clever                         
D. the money paid is too little
4. The underlined word “they” in the last paragraph refers to ______.
A. criminals                          B. pigeons                 
C. the stolen cars                           D. demands for money
5. We may infer from the text that the criminal knows how to reach the car owners because______.
A. he reads the ads in the newspaper          
B. he lives in the same neighborhood
C. he has seen the car owners in the park           
D. he has trained the pigeons to follow them

Europe is now the biggest market for organic food in the world, having grown by 25 percent a year over the past 10 years. Denmark’s agriculture minister is herself an organic farmer. The UK market for organic food grew by 55 percent in 2000, while the food market as a whole grew by only one percent. Yet only seven percent of British shoppers account for nearly 60 percent of organic sales. However popular the idea of organic farming may be, it is still an interest for only a few people.

     So what makes the idea of organic farming popular? Organic farming means farming with natural materials, rather than with man-made fertilizers or pesticides. Organic farmers rely on many  methods — such as crop rotation (农作物的轮作) and the use of resistant（有抵抗力的） varieties, because they are necessary for organic farmers to compensate for the shortage of man-made chemicals.

    Organic farming is often supposed to be safer than traditional farming for the environment. Yet after a long research on organic farming worldwide for a number of years, science continues to be against this opinion. The House of Commons committee on agriculture publicized that, even with complete research work, it would fail to find any scientific evidence to prove “that any of claims （宣称） made for organic farming is always true”.

     However, the talk about the benefits of organic farming is going on. This is partly because many people depend on their individual farm, the soil, the weather, and so on.

1.The first paragraph mainly tells us _____.

A. organic farming has been performed only in Europe over the past 10 years

B. governments of European countries have cared less about organic farming

C. organic farming is far from being as popular as expected

D. European countries need organic food more than the other countries in the world

2. The underlined words “compensate for” in the second paragraph probably mean “________”.

A. argue for    B. care for    C. struggle for   D. pay for

3. What can we know about organic farming?

A. It refers to farming with natural materials, instead of chemical fertilizers.

B. It refers to farming with chemical fertilizers rather than natural fertilizers.

C. It refers to farming with soil rather than any other thing.

D. It refers to growing crops with man-made fertilizers and pesticides.

4.According to the third paragraph, _____.

A. organic farming is safer than traditional farming for the environment

B. the idea that organic farming is safer has not been proven by science

C. organic farming is accepted by the UK’s House of Commons committee

D. organic farming is preferred to traditional farming

5.Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage?

A. The UK’s agriculture minister is an organic farmer.

B. Organic farming is popular with young people.

C. Farmers make use of many different kinds of methods to improve the organic sales system.

D. Ninety-three percent of British shoppers don’t buy organic products.

The workers agreed to ______ the strike if the company would satisfy their demands for better salaries and working conditions.

A. call for                         B. call in                       C. call off                            D. call up