Don’t shoot butterflies with guns.

Can you    36    someone running after a butterfly with a gun in his hands? Won’t such stupidity make you burst out laughing? But wait. Stop and consider how often you might have done something    37   .

A hen, Henny-Penny, lived in a forest with many other animals and birds. One fine, sunny morning, she was busy looking for    38    in the ground. Suddenly she let out a frightened cackle (咯咯叫) with wings flapping    39   . A dry leaf had fallen down on her, and she went  40   at whoever she met, “Run, run for your lives; the sky is falling.” The other creatures stopped whatever they were doing. Some ran behind Henny-Penny, screaming warnings with her, while others    41    the unfounded story that the sky was falling.

We all have    42    people like this hen. The rest of us are like the other foolish creatures who didn’t stop to verify (證實) the    43    for themselves. They shoot butterflies with guns. They just will not think for themselves. Why don’t people think for themselves? Often because of laziness, or because they don’t want to be    44    for their way of thinking.

Walking through life    45    is more dangerous than crossing a busy road with eyes closed. Our thoughts should lead us towards the light of wisdom and sense. Our thinking should be high,  46    us to the ranks of the sensible. We have been blessed with reasoning, sensitive minds. Let us make use of them and be    47    of our own minds. Don’t let your mind be enslaved by someone else. Stop, think and then go ahead.

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One afternoon after school had finished , Peter and Jane were walking along the street. Suddenly they heard a big noise.
“Come on” shouted Peter.“That sounds like an accident. Let’ see what’s happened.”
They ran to where the noise came from. As soon as they got there, they could see what had happened. A small car had knocked into the side of a truck. The accident had happened in a quiet street with only four houses in it. Peter and Jane were the first ones to reach the site. No other people came.“We must be the only ones who saw the accident,” said Jane. They found that both the car driver and the truck driver were hurt.
“Peter,” said Jane,“ Run back down the road to Mrs Day’s house. Ask her to call the policemen and the ambulance. Hurry. I’ll stay here.”
Off went Peter as fast as he could. There was nothing Jane could do but wait. She knew that when people were hurt in an accident, they shouldn’t be moved. It wasn’t long before the police car and the ambulance arrived. The policeman got the car door open and they carried the man out. Then they got the truck driver out. The men weren’t seriously hurt, but they were both taken to the hospital. The policemen thanked Peter and Jane, “You were very good to act so quickly when you saw the accident. Thank you for all your help.”
67.The accident happened _______.
A. in a quiet street one school day afternoon
B. in a busy street one school day afternoon
C. in a quiet street one Sunday after noon
D. in a busy street one Sunday afternoon
68. ______in the accident.
A. Only the car driver was hurt        B. Only the truck driver was hurt
C. Neither of the two drivers was hurt   D. Both the drivers were hurt
69._____called the policeman.
A.Jane  B.The drivers   C. Mrs Day    D. Peter
70.Jane did nothing before the policemen arrived because _____.
A. she was too frightened to do anything   B. she was alone after Peter left
C. she was waiting for Peter
D. she knew she shouldn’t move the two drivers

One afternoon after school had finished , Peter and Jane were walking along the street. Suddenly they heard a big noise.

“Come on” shouted Peter.“That sounds like an accident. Let’ see what’s happened.”

They ran to where the noise came from. As soon as they got there, they could see what had happened. A small car had knocked into the side of a truck. The accident had happened in a quiet street with only four houses in it. Peter and Jane were the first ones to reach the site. No other people came.“We must be the only ones who saw the accident,” said Jane. They found that both the car driver and the truck driver were hurt.

“Peter,” said Jane,“ Run back down the road to Mrs Day’s house. Ask her to call the policemen and the ambulance. Hurry. I’ll stay here.”

Off went Peter as fast as he could. There was nothing Jane could do but wait. She knew that when people were hurt in an accident, they shouldn’t be moved. It wasn’t long before the police car and the ambulance arrived. The policeman got the car door open and they carried the man out. Then they got the truck driver out. The men weren’t seriously hurt, but they were both taken to the hospital. The policemen thanked Peter and Jane, “You were very good to act so quickly when you saw the accident. Thank you for all your help.”

67.The accident happened _______.

A. in a quiet street one school day afternoon

B. in a busy street one school day afternoon

C. in a quiet street one Sunday after noon

D. in a busy street one Sunday afternoon

68. ______in the accident.

A. Only the car driver was hurt        B. Only the truck driver was hurt

C. Neither of the two drivers was hurt   D. Both the drivers were hurt

69._____called the policeman.

A.Jane  B.The drivers   C. Mrs Day    D. Peter

70.Jane did nothing before the policemen arrived because _____.

A. she was too frightened to do anything   B. she was alone after Peter left

C. she was waiting for Peter

D. she knew she shouldn’t move the two drivers

In many ways, our society doesn’t simply prepare for the kinds of lives that the elderly must lead. We have made medical advances that allow people to live longer than ever before, but we do not seem to know what to do with them after we have saved their lives. Too little allowance (津貼) is made for the person who is no longer earning a living, who can not walk long distances or drive a car, or who may have physical or mental disabilities that keep him from communicating with others. The institutional (慈善機(jī)構(gòu)的) care we give our older people is a good reflection of the overall attitude of our society toward the aged.

In the past few years, nursing homes have received wide attention as boring, meaningless places where old people often have little else to do but wait for the end of their lives. Elderly wards in mental hospitals are even worse. One of the most shocking things abort nursing homes has been the unwillingness of people on the outside to show real concern for what happens in these institutions. Even people who are entrusting (委托) a parent to the care of a home rarely ask about the nurse-parent ratio (比率), about the kinds of creative facilities or physical treatment equipment available, or about the frequency of doctors’ visits.

And the government has provided federal money without enforcing high standards of care. In fact federal standards were lowered in 1974. Therefore, in some sense our concern for the aged seems to be moving backwards, not forwards. This picture is in striking contrast to the treatment of respectable patriarchs (男長者) and matriarchs (女長者) in many societies.

1. What would be the most suitable title for this passage?

A. Failure of Care for the Elderly                    B. The Elderly

C. Institutional Care                             D. A National Shame

2. We can conclude from this passage that the writer feels ____.

A. nursing homes should be got rid of

B. a country that can help people live longer should also be able to care for them better

C. people have no thanks toward their parents

D. our society’s institutions need to be reformed

3. The writer believes that people who place a parent in a nursing home should ____.

A. demand higher federal standards

B. consider the example set in other countries

C. be ashamed of not keeping the parents in their own homes

D. investigate it first

4. The writer complains ____.

A. about the indifference of some people towards nursing homes

B. about the shortage of equipment in nursing home

C. that nursing homes keep the aged from communicating with others

D. both A and B

NASA’s twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the Red Planet since 2004. But a little more than a year ago, NASA lost contact with Spirit. The space agency has tried several ways to make contact with the rover, but Spirit has not sent back any signals.
Spirit landed on Mars on January 4, 2004. Three weeks later, Opportunity arrived. Soon after, the rovers went to the opposite side of Mars. Spirit’s original mission was only designed to last for three months, but Spirit has worked for more than five years doing additional missions. Both rovers have made important discoveries about ancient Mars. They have taken thousands of images and found evidence in the rocks of a water, warmer past in Mars’ history.
Spirit is solar-powered. It got stuck in a sand trap in April 2009, trapped deep into the soil and with its wheels turning around and around but not able to move forwards or backwards. Spirit had to agree that there is nothing that can be done to change the situation—it’s never going to move again. However, even if it is a not moving station, it can still study the planet’s atmosphere and deep interior.
NASA has been concentrating on trying to position its solar panels to get as much energy from the sun as possible, or to get the rover leaning in a manner that will allow the most amount of sunlight falling on its solar panels, in order to keep it alive during the coming winter months. Engineers have planned to rock the vehicle back and forth to acquire a more favorable position. However, no matter how many efforts have been made, Spirit still could not get out of the soft soil and could not lean itself toward the sun as the Martian winter approached. Without enough energy reaching its solar panels and with so little energy in its batteries, it went into hibernation, just like a polar bear, and has not communicated with Earth since March 22, 2010.
Whatever the future holds for Spirit, its mission has been an outstanding success. When it landed on the Red Planet in January 2004, no one was really sure how long it would continue working in the cold and dusty environment. As a matter of fact, three months was its original goal.
After so many fruitless efforts, NASA scientists are losing hope of ever reconnecting with Spirit, but they will give it one more try. Ground controllers are contacting Spirit over a range of frequencies and at different times during the day in case its internal clock stopped working and it lost track of time. They also are commanding the rover to turn on its backup radio transmitter in case the main one is dead.
If this final effort to connect isn’t successful, NASA will shift the focus to its twin robot, Opportunity, which is in a different part of Mars. Opportunity is still on the move and continues to travel freely to this day. It has traveled 16.6 miles so far, and is currently rolling towards another crater it has yet to explore.
NASA has spent more than $900 million on the project but shows no sign of giving up on these determined and hard-working robots. The rovers are, though, experiencing gradual wear and tear, the expected damage to something caused by using it repeatedly over a period of time. Even before Spirit got trapped, one of its wheels had failed. And NASA says it’s just a matter of time before both robots break down completely.
【小題1】According to the passage, what can we know about Spirit?

A．It had explored Mars several times.

B．Its original mission was to work for five years.

C．It landed on Mars three weeks later than Opportunity.

D． It discovered that Mars was once a warm and wetter place.