The breaking news of Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday evening soon aroused public curiosity of the 57-year-old Chinese writer: Why was he favored by the Swedish Academy?

Less than half an hour after the announcement from Stockholm, Mo's works turned to “sold out" status at China's major online book sellers．

One lucky buyer wrote in an online comment: "Rushed to purchase, but to my shame, I have not read any of his novels．”

Although Mo was entitled one of the top China's literature awards before the Nobel Prize, he is not the most popular novelist in China, in either the book market or in reputation．

Chinese media seemed to be shocked as some journalists were reported to be on their way overnight to Gaomi City of East China's Shandong Province, Mo's birthplace where he stayed with his family．

Born in 1955 into a rural family, Mo dropped out of school and became a farmer when he was a teenager． He joined the army and devoted himself to writing． Mo's novels were translated into several languages．

For more than a century, Nobel Prize has been regarded by the world as recognition to an individual or even a nation's cultural and scientific advances．

“I think the reason why I could win the prize is that my works present lives with unique Chinese characteristics, and they also tell stones from a viewpoint of common human beings, which transcends（超越）differences of nations and races," Mo said on Thursday evening to Chinese journalists．

Mo also said many folk arts originated from his hometown, such as paper cuts and traditional new year paintings, have inspired and influenced his novels．

Mo's prize may give powerful encouragement to the country's writers as the more reflective of Chinese lives their works are, the more possible they arise as world literature．

1.From this passage we know that the news of Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in Literature was .

A．a(chǎn) shock to online booksellers

B．curiosity to the Swedish Academy

C．contrary to the belief of the Chinese media

D．beyond the expectation of most Chinese people

2.The "one lucky buyer" mentioned in the third paragraph admitted that he _ ．

A． had not yet read Mo Yan's novels

B． had written an online comment

C． regretted not reading Mo Yan's Novels

D． failed to buy a copy of Mo Yan's novels

3.The underlined word "they" in the last paragraph refers to .

A． the Chinese writersB．the Chinese writers' works

C． the Chinese livesD．Mo Yan's novels

4.What can we infer from this passage?

A．Mo Yan will win another Nobel Prize in the near future．

B．Folk arts originated from Mo Yan's hometown will also be awarded Nobel Prize．

C．Nobel Prize will no longer regarded by the world as recognition to an individual．

D．Mo Yan's success will encourage the Chinese writers to win more Nobel Prizes．

When his book Little Princes begins, Conor Grennan is planning a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month volunteer service at the Little Princes Children’s home, an orphanage(孤兒院) in Nepal.

When he arrived at the orphanage, Conor was immediately welcomed by all the children even though he had no previous experience in working with children. He quickly grew to love the job. But it wasn’t long before Conor came to learn that the children were not orphans at all — they were actually children who had been separated from their parents by a child trafficker(販子).

This realization turned Conor’s global journey into a strong desire to try to find a way to reunite these children with their families. As a part of his efforts, Conor did a great amount of work when he was back in America. He started up a nonprofit organization called Next Generation Nepal(NGN), raising funds in order to buy a house in Nepal for another children’s home. Then, back in Nepal, he began a life-changing trek(艱苦跋涉) into the remote villages in the mountains of Humia.

It is really amazing to read about Conor communicating with the children and to read his descriptions of each of them. He made me truly care about the kids. I wanted them to be able to reunite with their families, too! Unfortunately, this was simply not possible for some of the children. But there were some children who received amazing surprises. Jagrit, for example, had thought for years that both his parents were dead. So, Conor was dumbfounded when he visited Jagrit’s village and was introduced to the boy’s father!

Conor successfully found many of the families of the children. Also, he was successful in finding his future wife while in Nepal.

1.What do we know about Little Princes Children’s Home?

A. It is a profitable organization.

B. The children in it are all orphans.

C. It has many branches all over Nepal.

D. Many children ended up there due to illegal trade.

2. In order to help the children, Conor _________.

a. gave up his plan to travel worldwideb. set up the organization NGN

c. fought against child traffickersd. visited some remote villages

e. decided to settle in Nepal

A. a, b, cB. a, b, d

C. b, c, dD. c, d, e

3.What does the underlined word “dumbfounded” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. Satisfied.B. Interested.

C. Astonished.D. Ashamed.

4.It can be learned from the passage that Conor Grennan _________.

A. is the author of Little Princes

B. is determined to remain single

C. likes teaching very much

D. is a friend of the author’s

For incoming freshmen at western Connecticut's suburban Brookfield High School, lifting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and touching electronic pages on an iPad, A few hours away, every student at Burlington High School near Boston．will also start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional texts．Apple officials say they know of more than 600 districts that have launched what are called "one-to-one" programs．

At Burlington High in suburban Boston, Principal Patrick Larkin says the $500 iPads is better than textbooks in the long term, though he said the school will still use traditional texts in some courses if suitable electronic programs aren't yet available." Lark/n said of textbooks, "but they're pretty much outdated the minute they're printed and certainly by the time they're delivered"．

But some experts warn that the districts need to ensure they can support the wireless infrastructure （設(shè)施）, repairs and other costs that accompany a switch to such a tech-heavy approach． Mark Warschauer, an education and informatics professor said, "I think people will like it． I really don't know anybody in high school that wouldn't want to get an iPad," he said． "We're always using technology at home, then when you're at school it's textbooks．so it's a good way to put all of that together．" Districts are varied in their policies on how they police students' use．

And the nation's textbook publishing industry, accounting for $ 5.5 billion in yearly sales to secondary schools, is taking notice of the trend with its own shift in a competitive race toward developing curriculum （課程） specifically for iPads． Jay Diskey, executive director of the Association of American Publishers' schools division, said all of the major textbook publishers are moving toward electronic offerings, but at least in the short term, traditional bound textbooks are here to stay．"I think one of the real key questions that will be answered over the next several years is what sort of things work best in print for students and what smt of things work best digitally, "

1.The first paragraph is mainly about ．

A． a program to promote iPads marketing in new school year

B． a program to spread electronic learning in new school year

C． a plan of how to use iPads in the coming school education

D． a plan of how to use IT technique in die coming school teaching

2.What's the problem for iPads to be used in schools at present?

A． Some students wouldn't like to have iPads in schools．

B． The iPads are too expensive for school students to buy．

C． Most experts oppose the idea that iPads replace paper textbooks．

D． The iPads may be unavailable for some traditional courses．

3.The underlined sentence in the passage implies that _．

A． traditional textbooks are behind the times before they are printed

B． traditional textbooks possibly need to he printed again before delivered

C． contents of traditional textbooks can't be renewed in time as electronic ones do

D． the iPads can deliver information much more rapidly than printed textbooks

4.From the passage we can draw conclusion that ．

A．more students tend to use printed textbooks rather than electronic ones

B．textbook publishing houses will develop more electronic textbooks of their own

C．it is impossible for the iPads to be widely used in schools in the future

D．electronic textbooks will take the place of printed ones in new school year

A study by St． Louis University has found that a lovable dog named Sparky and a robotic dog AIBO, were about equally effective at reducing the loneliness of nursing home residents． The study confirmed previous findings that dogs have a good effect on nursing home residents（居民）．

Dr． Andrew Smith led the Stanford University team出at built a home-assistance robot． "If humans can feel an emotional tie with robots, some day they could be not just our assistants, but also our companions," he said．

To test whether residents responded better to Sparky, a trained dog, or the Sony-made robotic dog, researchers divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups at three long-term care centers in St, Louis.

One group had weekly 30-minute one-on-one visits with Sparky; another group had similar visits with AIBO; a control group had no contact with either dog．The groups' respective levels of loneliness were tested by having them answer a number of questions at the beginning and near the end of the visits．

After two months, both groups that had contact with the dogs were less lonely and more attached． Most of the elderly regarded Sparky, a 9-year-old dog, as an audience for their life stories, said investigator Marian Banks.

"He listened attentively, wagged his tail, and allowed them to pet him," said Banks, who adopted and trained Sparky after finding him in a street behind her home seven years ago．

Those who were together with AIBO took a little longer to warm to the robotic creature．Over time, however, they grew comfortable with him, and petted and talked to him． He would respond by wagging his tail, vocalizing（發(fā)出聲音）, and blinking his lights．

"AIBO is charming once you start to interact with him," said the study's author, Dr． William Banks, " He's an attractive sort of guy． He gives a feeling: of being personal, not just a robot． "

1.Before the new study, it was known that ．

A． dogs could help get rid of old people's loneliness

B． robots could build close connection with humans

C． robots were more effective at reducing people's loneliness

D． dogs and robots were equally effective at reducing loneliness

2.The first time those who contacted with the robotic dog ．

A． accepted it immediately

B． found it easy to interact with it

C． were not quite comfortable with it

D． were confused by its behavior

3.The findings of the researchers tell us that .

A． robots are actually attractive sorts of guys

B． robots could make a good companion of the old.

C． it's easy for people to become close with robots

D． the elderly will have a robot assistant in no time

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A． Robots Serve People Better Than Thought

B． No More Lonely Old Age with Emotional Robots

C． Dogs equipped with robots to Help the Elderly

D． Robots and Dogs Can Equally Cheer up the Elderly

Australians have evidently realized the fact that water means life and we need to he more thoughtful in our use of this rather precious resource．Since the year 2000, Australians have managed to reduce their use of water by 14% ． In the most populous city, Sydney, they've managed to use less water in 2007 than in 1974, even though the city grew by l． 2 million souls in this period．

Across the country nearly 20% of all households have water tanks．That would probably be due, in large part, to the various state governments offering generous rebates． In NSW, for example, where 24,000 households have taken up the offer, you can get $1,500 AUD back if you fix a 7,000 + litre tank and have it attached into your toilet and washing machine．

Creywater use has taken off too． The Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that it's now the second most common source of water in Australia, with over half of the country's homes reusing water from their washing machines, showers and baths． The state of Victoria leads with 70% using greywater, and Queensland, coming close behind with 63%．

Up in the northern state of．Queensland, some of their dams have been below 20%． Sydney's main dam is only at 56% of its potential capacity．

The country's ongoing drought（干旱） has seen more than 95% of the length of the Murray- Darling Basin （ the two major river systems that supply the nation's 'food basket' ） regarded as ' degraded', Supply of water has become such an issue that hydro-electric power（水力發(fā)電） output has dropped 7% in a recent 9 year period for the states of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania．Not good for promoting our uptake understanding of renewable energy in these climate changing times．But at least the message is getting through about making every drop count．

1.The underlined word "rebate" in paragraph 2 probably means ．

A． discount or allowance B． water tanks for free

C． agreements or payment D． washing machine of high quality

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A． The state of Victoria is playing a leading role in greywater use．

B． More water has been used in Australia with the growing population．

C． The state of Queensland gets its water mostly from the north of its state．

D． Some of the dams in Queensland are too weak to hold potential water．

3.We can learn from the last paragraph that ．

A． the country's water shortage is partly due to continuous drought

B． large quantities of water are being used to produce electricity

C． the author hopes water resource could be used to the fullest

D． the author disagrees with the use of renewable energy

4.The passage is likely to appear in ．

A． a scientist's diaryB． a history paper

C． a travel guidebookD． a newspaper

閱讀下面短文，根據(jù)以下提示：1)漢語提示，2)首字母提示，3)語境提示，在每個空格內(nèi)填入一個適當(dāng)?shù)挠⒄Z單詞。所填單詞要求意義準(zhǔn)確，拼寫正確。

The Old saying starts，“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day。。�！盩hose words were taken to heart by Robert Egger, who used to be in the restaurant business．

He knew from1._______(經(jīng)驗)how much perfectly good food was2.t_______ away each day．So an organization3.________into being to collect leftovers，unserved food from restaurants in the neighborhood．Volunteers put together more than 3,0004.________（均衡的）meals a day and distribute them to5.______(社區(qū))cents and homeless shelters．

But giving6.a_________ food was only step one“I wanted to do more．”he says．As the rest of that old saying7.______，“Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime．”that’s 8._______ the organization also runs a training program for people who are prepared9.________ careers in he food service industry．They learn cooking methods．Many graduates find jobs and express their 10. s_________ thanks to Egger’s training program．“Whether it be food，money or life，”Egger says ,“we can’t afford to waste any of them．”

某英語報舉辦以勤儉節(jié)約為主題的中學(xué)生英語寫作大賽：要求參賽者根據(jù)以下四幅圖內(nèi)容，用英語描述發(fā)生在李華身上真實的故事并闡述其意義。

注意：1、文章的開頭已給出，不計入總詞數(shù)；

2、詞數(shù)120左右。

參考詞匯：節(jié)儉thrift

One day， Li Hua went shopping in a supermarket. At the checkout,

______ today, he would get there by Friday.

A. Were he to leaveB. If he had left C. Did he to leaveD. Had he left

Our new machines are much cheaper to run.

A. effective B. efficient C. energetic D. enthusiastic

What wonderful world it would be if all countries in the world could live peace with one another.

A. a; \ B. the; \ C. a; the D. the; the