A desert is a beautiful land of silence and space. The sun shines, the wind blows, and time and space seem endless. Nothing is soft. The sand and rocks are hard, and many of the plants even have hard needles instead of leaves.
The size and location(分布) of the world’s deserts are always changing. Over millions of years, as climates change and mountains rise, new dry and wet areas develop. But within the last 100 yeas, deserts have been growing at a frightening speed. This is partly because of natural changes, but the greatest makers are humans.
Humans can make deserts, but humans can also prevent their growth. Algeria Mauritania is planting a similar wall around Nouakchott, the capital. Iran puts a thin covering of petroleum(石油) on sandy areas and plants trees. The oil keeps the water and small trees in the land, and men on motorcycles(摩托車) keep the sheep and goats away. The USSR and India are building long canals to bring water to desert areas.
小題1:In this passage, “needles” refers to _______.
A．small, thin pieces of steel.
B．long, thin pieces of branches.
C．small pointed growth on the stem(莖) of a plant.
D．small, thin pieces of sticks.
小題2:Which of the following is NOT true?
A．The greatest desert makers are humans.
B．There aren’t any living things in the deserts.
C．Deserts have been growing quickly.
D．The size of the deserts is always changing.
小題3:People in some countries are fighting a battle against _______.
A．the growth of desertsB．the disappearance of desert plants
C．natural changesD．congenital climate
小題4:We can guess that Mauritania and Algeria belong to _______.
A．Asian countries 　　　　B．American countries
C．European countiesD．African countries
小題5:Choose the sentence which best gives the main idea of the passage.
A．The deserts of the world are always changing.
B．Man is to take measures to control the growth of the world’s deserts.
C．Deserts are lands of silence and space.
D．Deserts have grown at a fast pace in the past 10 years.

小題1:C
小題2:B
小題3:A
小題4:D
小題5:B

文章主要講的是人們正采取措施控制和治理沙漠。
小題1:C。詞匯猜測題。從instead of leaves可知needles是沙漠中植物的葉子，眾所周知沙漠中植物的葉子是針狀的, 再看steel(鋼) 、branches(樹枝) 、stick(棒) 都不是與葉對應(yīng)的物體, 只有C項(長在植物莖上的尖的小物體)是“針狀葉”的意思，故答案選C。
小題2:B。細節(jié)題。從many of the plants even have hard needles instead of leaves可知B項錯誤。
小題3:A。細節(jié)題。從Humans can make deserts, but humans can also prevent their growth(認(rèn)為可能造成沙漠，但人類也可以防止沙漠的增長)可知答案A正確。
小題4:D。推斷題。根據(jù)常識非洲沙漠遠近聞名, 這說明那里最需要治理, 作者舉例也會舉典型的, 增加文章的可信度，故答案選D。
小題5:B。主旨題。文章第2 段講沙漠增長速度驚人，第 3 段舉例說明人類正采取措施控制沙漠增長, 可見文章談沙漠增長的目的是為了引出人類對它的治理，故答案為B。
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科目：高中英語 來源：不詳 題型：閱讀理解

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① dam  n. 大壩
② lagoon  n. 瀉湖
③ boggy  adj. 泥濘的
④ encroachment  n. 蠶食
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The Advanced Placement International English Language (APIEL) will be offered for the first time throughout the world on May 10, 2002, said Jen.
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D．Chinese students will prefer the IELTS rather than the APIEL even in the future.
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Bipedalism—walking on two feet, is one of the defining characteristics of being humans, and scientists have debated for years how it came about. In the latest attempt to find an explanation, researchers trained five chimps(黑猩猩)to walk on a treadmill(跑步機)while wearing masks that allowed measurement of their oxygen consumption. The chimps were measured both while walking upright and while moving on their legs and knuckles(膝關(guān)節(jié)).That measurement of the energy needed to move around was compared with similar tests on humans and the results are published in this week’s online edition of “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”.
It turns out that humans walking on two legs use only one-quarter of the energy that chimps use while knucklewalking on four limbs(肢).And the chimps, on average, use as much energy using two legs as they did when they used all four limbs.
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“What we were surprised at was the variation(變異) ”, he said in a telephone interview. Interview. “That was pretty exciting, because when you talk about how evolution works, variation is the bottom line, without variation there is no evolution.”
Walking on two legs freed our arms, opening the door to drive the world, said Raichlen. “We think about the evolution of bipedalism as one of first events that led hominids(原始人)down the path to being humans.”
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the L.S.B.Leakey Foundation.
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B．scientists have had different views on why chimps walk on four legs
C．scientists have had different views on how humans’ walking on two legs vame about
D．scientists have had similar views on how humans’ walking on two legs came about
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B．Why chimps didn't walk on two legs.
C．David Raichlen studied chimps.
D．Different chimps consumed different energy.
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D．How to teach a child about money.
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A．paying children for their housework is no good
B．a(chǎn) child’s initiative can be developed if he or she is paid for all the housework
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