Forests have always been useful and important to men who make use of them in many ways. Every day trees are serving man everywhere. Trees supply man with fruits and building materials in the form of wood. Without trees it would be impossible to build houses, boats, bridges and so on. Furniture such as desks, chairs and beds is made of wood. Trees can stop man from the terrible heat. They’re also useful in preventing(阻止) good and rich top soil from being washed away during heavy rains. If there were no forests, heavy rains would wash away the rich surface(表層) soil that is so important to plants. The result is that the land will become a desert. There are plenty of desert areas in the world. A long time ago these desert areas used to be very rich areas, but men in the past had no enough knowledge about science of nature, and they cut down too many trees in the area where they lived and never planted new ones. By and by, the rich surface soil was blown and washed away by strong winds and heavy rains. In the end the rich land changed into useless deserts where nothing could grow.
根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，判斷正（T）誤（F）。
1.Trees are not serving man everywhere.
2.Without trees it would be possible to build houses, boats, bridges and so on.
3.Trees can stop man from the terrible heat.
4.There are few desert areas in the world.
5.In the end the rich land changed into useless deserts where nothing could grow.

Now satellites(衛(wèi)星)are helping to forecast(預(yù)報(bào))the weather. They are in space and they can reach any part of the world.The satellites take pictures of the atmosphere(大氣), because this is where the weather forms(形成)。They send these pictures to the weather station. So meteorologists(氣象專家)can see the weather of any part of the world. From the pictures, the scientists can often say how the weather will change.
Today, nearly five hundred weather stations in sixty countries receive satellite pictures. When they receive new pictures,the meteor- ologists compare(比較)them with earlier ones. Peerhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours .This may mean the weather on the ground may soon change,too. In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.
So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists. Before satellites were invented, the scientists could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours. Now they can make good forecasts for 3 or 5 days. Soon,perhaps , they may be ablet to forecast the weather for a week or more ahead(提前)
【小題1】Satellites travel__________.
A in space           B in the atmosphere
C above the ground    D above space
【小題2】Why do we use the weather satellites to take pictures of the atmosphere? Because___________.
A the weather satellites can do it easily
B clouds form there
C the weather forms there
D the pictures can forecast the weather
【小題3】 Meteorologists forecast the weather________.
A when they have received satellite pictures
B after they have compared new satellite pictures with earlier ones
C before they receive satellite pictures
D while they study satellite pictures
【小題4】Maybe we’ll soon be able to forecast the weather for _______.
A one day   B two days  C five days   D seven days or even longer
【小題5】The main idea of this passage is that satellite are now used    in______.
A taking pictures of the atmosphere
B receiving pictures of the atmosphere
C doing other work in many ways
D weather forecasting

Can plant eat people? Probably not. But there are many plants that eat meat. Some of them are big, and they can eat small animals. One famous meat- eating plant is the Venus flytrap(捕蠅草).
The Venus flytrap is a very strange plant. It grows in dry parts of the United States. Its leaves are like the pages of the book.. They can open and close very quickly. Inside the leaves, there are three small hairs. If a fly(蒼蠅) touches one of the hairs, the leaf closes very quickly. Then the fly can’t go out. In about half an hour, the leaf presses the fly until it is dead. Then, the plant covers the fly. Slowly, the plant eats the fly. Why do plants do it? Most plants get what they need from the sun, the air, and the ground. In some places, the ground is very poor. It doesn’t have all the important things, especially nitrogen(氮). Animal meat has a lot of nitrogen. So some plants eat meat to get what they need. Let’s hope that some of the bigger plants don’t get the same idea.
根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容判斷。
1. The Venus flytrap grows in wet parts of the United States.
2. The Venus flytrap is a kind of plant.
3. The underlined word “presses” probably means（擠、壓） in Chinese.
4. In the world, many animals eat plants but plants never eat animals.
5. From the passage, we know that not only animals eat plants, but also some plants eat animals.

Have you ever seen snow? Many people in the world have not. Some countries never have snow; some have only a little on the tops of very high mountains. In the north of England, there is quite a lot of snow every winter, but in the south of England, there is usually little.
When a student from a warm country comes to England in autumn for the first time, he feels cold at first. There are often dark clouds, grey sky and cold rain in England in autumn, and most students from warm countries do not like this.
But snow is different. Though it is cold, it is also beautiful. Perhaps, after several dark mornings, the student wakes up one day, and there is a lot of light in his room. He thinks “Is it so late?” and jumps out of bed. But no, it is not very late. He looks out of the window and there is the snow on the ground and on the houses and everywhere. The light of his room comes from clean, beautiful snow.
【小題1】In which part of England is there much snow in winter?

Do you know why you sleep? You may think it’s because you’re tired. Or perhaps you’ve been told sleep is good for you. Yet no one knows exactly why or how people sleep.
Until the early 1950s, most scientists thought the body and brain rested during sleep. Then a scientist watched people sleep. He noticed that during periods of between 5 and 30 minutes each, sleepers’ eyes made rapid movements, as if they were watching something. He called these periods REM sleep, for Rapid Eye Movement. Periods when sleepers’ eyes did not move he called non-REM sleep.
Whenever the scientist woke people during REM sleep, they were having vivid dreams. Measurements showed that sleepers’ pulses（脈搏）went up quickly during REM sleep. Their breathing, heartbeat, and the blood going to the brain also increased. Far from being a time of rest, REM sleep is a time when the body is hard at work. Scientists still don’t know the reason for this. Some believe REM sleep makes learning easier. Babies spend a lot of time in REM sleep. Because of this, some scientists believe that REM sleep helps the brain grow. Others think REM sleep is a time for the brain to empty the day’s garbage.
One thing all the scientists agree on is that sleep is necessary. Without enough sleep, people make mistakes. Most major car accidents happen during the early morning hours, when people are sleepiest.
【小題1】During REM sleep, a person’s breathing and heartbeat ________.

  The panda is one of the animals most in danger. Three are about 1,000 pandas living in nature reserves today. Zoos and research centers look after about 160 pandas. Scientists are studying how they live and more baby pandas are born in the zoos.
Pandas live in the forests and mountains of Southern China. They mainly live on bamboo, and each pandas needs to eat a lot of bamboo every day. The area of bamboo is becoming smaller for many different reasons, so pandas have less and less land to live on. Pandas don’t have many babies, and baby panda often dies. The situation is becoming very serious.
Our government is working hard to save pandas. There are more than 30 nature reserves to protect pandas but these are not enough. The government has made a new plan to help pandas. The nature reserves will be bigger and the bamboo will grow better. Then the pandas will have enough food and enough places to live in. Pandas born in the zoos may go back to live in the nature reserves.
Most people love pandas. The panda is one of the best-known animals in the world. It is the symbol for the World Wide Fund for Nature. The WWF works to protect all animals in danger, so the panda has become the symbol of all animals in danger. There is still a long way to save the panda. Think of other animals in danger. There is still a long way to go to save the panda. Think of other animals in danger such as tigers, whales, turtles and elephants—and we need to save them, too.
【小題1】 There are about ___ pandas living in the nature reserves today.

Dictionaries say that “spring fever” is a lazy or restless feeling . People usually have the feeling on the first warm day of spring. Everyone has probably felt it at one time or another . people have talked about it for years.
Recently, scientists have taken a good look at spring fever. What they found is quite surprising.
In many places we live in , the winter months often seem dark and dreary. When spring comes late March , the world becomes colorful . The number of daylight hours grows with each passing day. According to many scientists, all the sunlight sets off chemicals in the brain (大腦). The chemicals make our feeling change and bring on spring fever.
【小題1】How do people who have spring fever feel ?

What makes 15,000 men and women run for hours, and what makes them run through the streets on a cold day without coats? I was one of those runners.  The race is called marathon (馬拉松).
I had never run more than eight miles before, and here I was training.  Since the race is in April, I had to run throughout the winter, and in Boston, winters are cold. For most people, just putting on their shirts, sweaters, jackets, and hats is exercise enough. I found myself out on the dark streets, running along ice sidewalks (人行道). Even in gloves, my fingers got so cold that they looked like red carrots. My nose didn’t get warm until lunchtime !
Finally, the big day arrived. The weather was cold, with ice and rain. Bang! The gun sounded, and we started. I didn’t go anywhere at first because I was standing behind so many people. I had to wait for them to move.
At first, the running was easy.  The other runners just seemed to pull me along. Somewhere around the 20-mile mark I even said to myself, "This is nothing, why did I train so hard?"
Then I hit "the wall". "The wall" is what marathon runners call the special point. I knew my body reached the point and I thought I couldn’t go any more. I was out of breath and my legs turned into pieces of wood.  I was almost falling down.  I can’t remember anything about the last five miles of the race.
I kept running though. At last, I heard a voice at the finishing line.
"You look good," my friend Ted said. "How did it feel?"
"Wonderful !" I replied.
For everything, if you devote yourself into it, there will be a way. I finished the race, at least, in my heart, I was the winner.
【小題1】Which one best describes the weather on the race day?

Our nearest neighbor is the moon. In the sky,  the moon and the sun seem to be of the same size because the moon is much nearer.
The moon makes the tides—the changes in the level of the sea. The moon and the sun together pull the sea. In some parts of the world,  the difference between * high tide’ (when the sea is very near to the land) and ’ low tide’ (when the sea is far away from the land) is very big. This is very important for ships.
The moon is very different from the Earth. Gravity on the moon is six times weaker than that on the Earth. There isn’t any air. During the day,  it is very,  very hot but at night it is very,  very cold. Nothing can live on the moon.
If the moon goes between the Earth and the sun,  we have an eclipse of the sun(日食) . The moon stops the light from the sun and we have night in the day.
If the Earth goes between the moon and the sun,  we have an eclipse of the moon. The moon goes into the shadow( 影子) of the Earth and it disappears for a few minutes.
【小題1】When the moon goes between the Earth and the sun,  we have night in the day, we call it the eclipse of

Scientists are placing robotic dogs in the homes of lonely old people to test whether they can improve the quality of life for humans. Alan Beck, an expert(專家) in human-animal relationship, and Nancy Edwards, a professor of nursing, are leading the animal-assisted study on the effect of robotic dogs on old people’s depression (沮喪) , physical activity, and life satisfaction.
In the study, the robot, called AIBO, is placed for six weeks in the houses of some old people who live alone. Before placing AIBO in the home, scientists will collect baseline data(數(shù)據(jù)) for six weeks. These old people will keep a diary to note their feelings and activity before and after AIBO. Then, the scientists will review the data to test if it has produced any changes in the life of its owner.
“I talk to him all the time, and he responds to my voice,” says a seventy-year-old lady. “When I’m watching TV, he’ll stay in my arms until he wants down. He has his own mind.”
The AIBOs respond to certain orders. The scientists say they have some advantages over live dogs, especially for old people. Often the elderly are disabled and cannot care for an animal by walking it or playing with it. A robotic dog removes exercise and feeding concerns.
“At the beginning, it was believed that no one would relate(與……相關(guān)) to the robotic dog, because it was metal and not furry.” Beck says. “Hopefully, down the road, these robotic pets could become a more-valuable health helper. They will record their masters’ blood pressure, oxygen levels or heart rhythms(心律). AIBOs may even one day have games that can help stimulate(刺激) older people’s minds.”
【小題1】The purpose of Beck and Edwards’ study is to _____________.