You may have never heard of Ladislao Biro, but you have certainly heard of the pen he invented—the ballpoint pen, or biro. Before Biro invented his pen, people wrote with fountain pens. The ink smudged(弄臟) and blotted and the pens sometimes leaked. In the 1930s Biro was a magazine editor in Budapest in Hungary. He noticed that the inks which the magazine’s printers used dried very quickly. Biro wondered if quick-drying inks could be used in pens. He came up with the idea of a tube of ink with a free-moving ball on the end. As a person wrote, the ball collected ink from the tube and rolled it on to the paper. The pen would be cheap and could be thrown away when the ink ran out.

Biro began to work on his invention, but before he could patent it the Second World War broke out. Biro left war-torn Europe and fled to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There, he and his brother Georg, who was a chemist, began to improve the pen. In the early 1940s Biro began to manufacture his new pen, the biro. In 1944, he sold his invention to another company, who began to mass-produce the pen for the British and American armed forces.

Biro was pleased that his pen was popular, but he did not gain much from his invention. The biro was later sold to the French firm, Bic, who now sell twelve million pens a day. Biro sank into obscurity in South America. His name, however, has become a household word.

48. The reasons for the popularity of ballpoint pens are these EXCEPT that_______.

A. the inks dried very quickly                      B. they were cheap

C. they were easy to carry around           D. they were mass-produced

49. Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Biro?

a. applied for patent for first ballpoint pen

b. began to manufacture pens

c. fled from Hungary to escape Nazis

d. sold his invention

A. a c d b                    B. c d a b           C. a c b d           D. c a b d

50. The underlined part “sank into obscurity”(last paragraph) is closest in meaning to“_______”.

A. became unknown to many people       B. became popular with people

C. lost interest in business                         D. lost a lot of money

51. What does the passage mainly tell us about Biro?

A. He is successful in business.                 B. He is an important inventor.

C. He is a famous magazine editor.         D. He is a popular writer.

第二卷（非選擇題）

第三部分：寫作（共三節(jié)，滿分55分）

第一節(jié)：完成句子（共10題，每題1.5分，共15分）

閱讀下列各小題，根據(jù)括號內(nèi)的漢語提示，用句末括號內(nèi)的英語單詞完成句子，并將答案寫在答題卡上的相應(yīng)題號后。

66．——Has Li Lei finished his work today?

——I have no idea, but he ___________________（做實(shí)驗(yàn)）when I saw him this morning．（conduct）

67．——They aren’t quiet, are they?

——No．They are accustomed ___________________（不說話） at meals．（talk）

68．From the distance ___________________（來了一個士兵） who was riding a horse．（come）

69．It is a rule in our school that no books ___________________（帶出）unless you have a library card．（take）

70．The news spread quickly through the village ___________________（戰(zhàn)爭已結(jié)束）, making villagers wild with joy．（end）

71．The local Tibetans laughed at the strange bottles containing ___________________（他們稱之為） “English air”．（refer）

72．Misunderstandings arising from lack of social communication，unless __________________（處理恰當(dāng)），may lead to serious problems．（handle）

73．——I felt it very difficult to carry on the work all by myself．

——I could have helped you, but you ___________________（沒有要求我）．（ask）

74．Turesson’s findings show that habitat, such as soil conditions, ___________________（同等重要）to the output of crops．（significance）

75．Willie has complained to the sales manager about the PC he bought ___________________（其屏幕爆炸）for no reason yesterday．（explode）

The managers discussed the plan that they would like to see___________ the next year.

A．carry out          B．carrying out        C．carried out        D．to carry out

   Do you have bright ideas? Ideas or inventions that change society or, at least, make life easier for somebody? Perhaps we all do sometimes, but we don’t often make the idea a reality. Recently, in Britain, there was a competition called British Designers for Tomorrow. The competition encourages young people to carry out their bright ideas. There were two groups in the contest; Group One was for schoolchildren under 16; Group Two was for schoolchildren over 16. And there were eleven prize-winners altogether.

Neil Hunt, one of the prize-winners, was called “Sunshine Superman”. It’s important when people study the weather to be able to record sunshine accurately. We need to know how many hours of sunshine we have and how strong it is. Most sunshine recorders only record direct sunlight. Neil’s is more accurate(精確的) and this is very important for research into the way of using solar power.

You can do so much with animated cartoon. Look at Simon West’s idea for animated road signs. He uses pictures which appear to move as you go nearer to or farther from them. This isn’t a new idea. But it is new to use these pictures on road signs. “We found that people were more likely to see moving signs,” said Simon. So now, you can really see rocks falling, trains moving , horses running or a car falling over the edge of a cliff(懸崖). Quite a warning!

The ideas in the competition were so inventive that we are surprised that British industry doesn’t ask more schoolchildren for suggestions. Perhaps this will be the start of “pupil power!”

1. The writer holds that people seldom ______.

   A. have bright ideas       B. turn their bright ideas into reality

   C. make their life easier    D. think of inventing something

2. Neil Hunt’s design would finally lead to the improvement of the way of _______.

   A. recording direct sunshine        B. recording the hours of sunshine

   C. using the energy of the sun       D. knowing how strong sunlight is

3. What’s the use of Simon West’s animated road signs?

   A. To warn people to be careful while working.

   B. To warn people on the roads of the danger ahead.

   C. To add to the beauty of a city.

   D. To help make a car trip more exciting.

4. The writer seems to be encouraging the British industry to ______.

   A. take better care of schoolchildren   

B. help schoolchildren in their studies

   C. stop asking schoolchildren for suggestions

   D. pay more attention to schoolchildren’s inventive power

It is only ___our power to carry out ( ???) the rules, rather than make them.

A. within     B. on         C without          D. off