Most island of Australia is dessert.（)

iful and most famous cities in the world.

Paris is called the City of Light.It is also an international fashion center.What stylish women are wearing in Paris will be worn by women all over the world.Paris is also a famous world center of education.For instance, it is the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

The Seine River divides the city into two parts.Thirty-two bridges cross this river.The oldest and perhaps most well-known is the Pont Neuf, which was built in the sixteenth century.The Sorbonne, a famous university, is located on the Left Band (south side) of the river.The beautiful white church Sacre Coeur lies on top of the hill called Montmartre on the Right Band (north side) of the Seine.

There are many other famous places in Paris, such as the famous museum the Louvre, the most famous landmark in this city must be the Eiffel Tower.

Paris as well as the Cathedral of Notre Dame is named after a group of people called the Parisi.They built a small village on an island, in the middle of the Seine River about two thousand years ago.This island called the llede La Cite is where Notre Dame is located.Today around eight million people live in the Paris area.

1.A good title for this selection is().

A.The French Language

B.The City of Pairs

C.Education and Culture in France

D.The SenUior River

2.The word “headquarters”in line 5 means().

A.Clothing

B.Office

C.main office

D.25 percent

3.We may conclude that Notre Dame is located()

A.on the Left Bank

B.On the Right Bank

C.In the middle of the Senior River

D.On neither bank

4.The Pont Neuf was built in ()

A.the 1500s

B.the 1600s

C.the 1700s

D.the 1400s

5.The population in the Pairs area is around()

A.two million

B eight million

C.sixteen million

D.eighteen million

Island is a very special statue called Statue of Liberty. It is one of the most famous sights in the world.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. The statue was made by a French sculptor named Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The inner support system was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the same man who made the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Liberty, of course, means freedom, and the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States to celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of U. S. independence from England. The statue was built in France, taken apart piece by piece, and then rebuilt inn the United States. It was opened for the public on October 28, 1886.

As you might expect, the statue is very big. Visitors can ride an elevator from the ground to the bottom of the statue. If they want to, they can then walk up the 168 steps to reach the head of the statue where they can look out and enjoy the beautiful sight of New York.

A good title for this passage is ______.

A．Famous Sights in the World

B．Liberty Island

C．The Statue of Liberty

D．A Gift from France

hat's where the language was first spoken. But England is often called by other names. This often confuses people and I wonder if you know what these names mean. So, now I would like to tell you about this matter of names. I believe that you have heard people use the names England, Britain of Great Britain. Let's see what each of these names means.

If you look at a map of Europe, you'll see a group of islands--one larger island off the northwest coats, one smaller and many tiny ones. These make up what is called the British Isles (不列填群岛). The largest island of the British Isles in Britain. It is also called Great Britain. The smaller island is Ireland (爱尔兰)。

Britain is divided into three parts: Scotland, Wales and England. But sometimes the word " England" is used instead of "Britain". Why so？

In anceient times, what is Britain now used to be three different countries. People in these different counntries spoke different languages. Over many years the three countries became one. England in the largest and richest of the three and it has the most people. So the English people take it for granted that their own name stands for the whole island.

There's another thing that confuses people; sometimes you may hear people say "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. "That is the official name of the country. Northern Irelnd is only one sixth of the island of Ireland. The rest of the island is an independent state, called the Republic of Ireland. So we have the names of "England", "Britain"," Great Britain", and "the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". Now do you know what each of them means？

English was first spoken in ______.

A．Britain

B．England

C．Great Britain

D．Ireland

years ago. Even though I own a home in Port St. Lucie just minutes from the ocean, an uncontrollable urge wells up to return to Long Island even as others make their way south. I guess I am a snowbird stuck in reverse. Instead of enjoying Florida’s mild winters, I willingly endure the severe weather on Long Island, the place I called home for 65 years.

I’m like a migratory bird that has lost its sense of timing and direction, my wings flapping against season.

So what makes me fly against the tide of snowbirds？ The answer has a lot to do with my reluctance to give up the things that define who I am. Once I hear that the temperature on Long Island has dipped into the range of 40 to 50 degrees, I begin to long for the sight and crackling sound of a wood fire. I also long for the bright display o£ colors — first in the fall trees, and then in the limits around homes and at Rockefeller Center. Floridians decorate too, but can’t create the special feel of a New England winter.

I suppose the biggest reason why I return is to celebrate the holidays with people I haven’t seen in months. What could be better than sitting with family and friends for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or watching neighbors’ children excitedly open gifts on Christmas？ Even the first snowfall seems special. I especially enjoy seeing a bright red bird settling on a snow-covered branch (My wife and I spend winters at a retirement community in Ridge, and I’m grateful that I don’t have to shovel.)

While these simple pleasures are not unique to Long Island, they are some of the reasons why I come back. Who says you can’t go home？

(1) 单选题What does the underlined word "snowbird" in Paragraph 1 refer to？

A.A person spending winter in a warmer climate.

B.A bird seen chiefly in winter.

C.A person permanently living in a foreign country.

D.A bird flying to the south in winter.

(2) 单选题What’s the difference between Florida and Long Island？

A.Winters in Long Island are milder.

B.The snowbirds in Long Island are rarer.

C.Weather in Long Island is severer.

D.Long Island is nearer to the ocean.

(3) 单选题What did the author miss most when he was in Florida？

A.The colorful light display.

B.The family gathering.

C.The cold temperature.

D.The winter landscape.

(4) 单选题What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text？

A.To praise the beauty and warmth of his hometown.

B.To describe his dream to be a free bird.

C.To explain the reasons for moving from his hometown.

D.To express his feeling of missing his hometown.

Passage Four

Within a large concrete room，Cut out of a mountain on a freezing-cold island just 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole，could lie the future of humanity.

The room is a vault(地下库)designed to hold around 2 million seeds,representing all known varieties of the world’S crops.It is being built to safeguard the world’S food supply against nuclear War,climate change，terrorism，rising sea levels，earthquakes and the collapse of electricity supplies。“If the worst came to the worst，this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet，”says Cary Fowler,director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust，an independent international organisation promoting the project.

The Norwegian(挪威的)government is planning tO create the seed bank next year at the request of crop scientists.The ＄3 million vault will be built deep inside a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen.The vault will have metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete and will be protected behind two airlocks and high-security doors.

The vault’S seed collection will represent the products of some 10，000 years of plant breeding by the world’S farmers.Though most are no longer widely planted，.the varieties contain vital genetic properties still regularly used in plant breeding.

To survive，the seeds need freezing temperatures.Operators plan to replace the air inside the vault each winter,when temperatures in Spitsbergen are around-18℃.But even if some disaster meant that the vault Was abandoned,the permanently frozen soil would keep the seeds alive.And even accelerated global warming would take many decades to penetrate the mountain vault.

“This will be the world’s most secure gene bank，” Says Fowler.“But its seeds will only be used when all other samples have gone for sOme reason.”

The project comes at a time when there is growing concern about the safety of existing seed banks around the world.Many have been criticized for their poor security, ageing refrigeration(冷藏)systems and vulnerable electricity supplies.

The scheme won UN approval at a meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in October 2005.A feasibility study said the facility“would essentially be built to last forever”.

46.The Norwegian yault is important in that_________________.

A.the seeds in it represent the rarest varieties of world’S crops

B. the seeds in it could revive agriculture if the worst thing should happen

C.it is built deep in a mountain on a freezing-cold Arctic island

D.it is strong enough against all disasters caused by man and nature

Part I Reading Comprehension

I have learned something about myself since I moved from Long Island to Florida three years ago. Even though I own a home in Port St. Lucie just minutes from the ocean, an uncontrollable urge wells up to return to Long Island even as others make their way south. I guess I am a snowbird stuck in reverse. Instead of enjoying Florida’s mild winters, I willingly endure the severe weather on Long Island, the place I called home for 65 years.

I’m like a migratory bird that has lost its sense of timing and direction, my wings flapping against season.

So what makes me fly against the tide of snowbirds？ The answer has a lot to do with my reluctance to give up the things that define who I am. Once I hear that the temperature on Long Island has dipped into the range of 40 to 50 degrees, I begin to long for the sight and crackling sound of a wood fire. I also long for the bright display o￡ colors — first in the fall trees, and then in the limits around homes and at Rockefeller Center. Floridians decorate too, but can’t create the special feel of a New England winter.

I suppose the biggest reason why I return is to celebrate the holidays with people I haven’t seen in months. What could be better than sitting with family and friends for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or watching neighbors’ children excitedly open gifts on Christmas？ Even the first snowfall seems special. I especially enjoy seeing a bright red bird settling on a snow-covered branch (My wife and I spend winters at a retirement community in Ridge, and I’m grateful that I don’t have to shovel.)

While these simple pleasures are not unique to Long Island, they are some of the reasons why I come back. Who says you can’t go home？

(1) What does the underlined word "snowbird" in Paragraph 1 refer to？()

A、A person spending winter in a warmer climate

B、A bird seen chiefly in winter

C、A person permanently living in a foreign country

D、A bird flying to the south in winter

(2)What’s the difference between Florida and Long Island？()

A、Winters in Long Island are milder

B、The snowbirds in Long Island are rarer

C、Weather in Long Island is severer

D、Long Island is nearer to the ocean

(3)What did the author miss most when he was in Florida？()

A、The colorful light display

B、The family gathering

C、The cold temperature

D、The winter landscape

(4) Which of the following is TRUE according to the text？()

A、The author enjoyed living in Florida

B、The author had a good time in Florida

C、The author owned a home in Florida

D、The author did not like mild weather

(5)What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text？()

A、To praise the beauty and warmth of his hometown

B、To describe his dream to be a free bird

C、To explain the reasons for moving from his hometown

D、To express his feeling of missing his hometown

ilometers from the North Pole, could lie the future of humanity.

The room is a vault (地下库) designed to hold around 2 million seeds, representing all known varieties of the world's crops. It is being built to safeguard the world's food supply against nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, earthquakes and the collapse of electricity supplies. "If the worst came to the worst, this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet," says Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an independent international organization promoting the project.

The Norwegian (挪威的) government is planning to create the seed bank next year at the request of crop scientists. The $3 million vault will be built deep inside a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen. The vault will have metre-thick walls of reinforced concrete and will be protected behind two airlocks and high-security doors.

The vault's seed collection will represent the products of some 10, 000 years of plant breeding by the world's farmers. Though most are no longer widely planted, the varieties contain vital genetic properties still regularly used in plant breeding.

To survive, the seeds need freezing temperatures. Operators plan to replace the air inside the vault each winter, when temperatures in Spitsbergen are around -18℃. But even if some disaster meant that the vault was abandoned, the permanently frozen soil would keep the seeds alive. And even accelerated global warming would take many decades to penetrate the mountain vault.

"This will be the world's most secure gene bank," says Fowler. "But. its seeds will only be used when all other samples have gone for some reason."

The project comes at a time when there is growing concern about the safety of existing seed banks around the world. Many have been criticized for their poor security, ageing refrigeration (冷藏) systems and vulnerable electricity supplies.

The scheme won UN approval at a meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in October 2005. A feasibility study said the facility "would essentially be built to last forever".

The Norwegian vault is important in that ______.

A．the seeds in it represent the rarest varieties of world's crops

B．the seeds in it could revive agriculture if the worst thing should happen

C．it is built deep in a mountain on a freezing-cold Arctic island.

D．it is strong enough against all disasters caused by man and nature

to an island off St. Augustine, Florida, to escape unhappy family situation. In a time he became Florida's first orange baron and his oranges were in great demand in London throughout the 1770's. The English found them juicy and sweet and preferred them to other varieties, even though they had thin skins and were hard to peel.

There would probably have been other successful commercial growers before Fish if Florida had not been under Spanish rule for some two hundred years. Columbus first brought seeds for citrus trees to the New World and planted them in the Antilles. But it was most likely Ponce de Le6n who introduced oranges to the North American continent when he discovered Florida in 1513. For a time, each Spanish sailor on a ship bound for America was required by law to carry one hundred seeds with him. Later, because seeds tended to dry out, all Spanish ships were required to carry young orange trees. The Spaniards planted citrus trees only for medicinal purpose, however, they saw no need to start commercial groves because oranges were so abundant in Spain.

What is the main topic of the passage？

A．The role of Florida in the American Revolution

B．The discovery of Florida by Ponce de Le6n in 1513

C．The history of the cultivation of oranges in Florida

D．The popularity of Florida oranges in London in the 1770's

"The ancient Hawaiians were astronomers," wrote Queen Liliuokalani, Hawaii's last reigning monarch, in 1897. Star watchers were among the most esteemed members of Hawaiian society. Sadly, all is not well with astronomy in Hawaii today. Protests have erupted over construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope(TMT), a giant observatory that promises to revolutionize humanity's view of the cosmos.

At issue is the TMT's planned location on Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano worshiped by some Hawaiians as the piko , that connects the Hawaiian Islands to the heavens. But Mauna Kea is also home to some of the world's most powerful telescopes. Rested in the Pacific Ocean, Mauna Kea's peak rises above the bulk of our planet's dense atmosphere, where conditions allow telescopes to obtain images of unsurpassed clarity.

Opposition to telescopes on Mauna Kea is nothing new. A small but vocal group of Hawaiians and environments have long viewed their presence as disrespect for sacred land and a painful reminder of the occupation of what was once a sovereign nation.

Some blame for the current controversy belongs to astronomers. In their eagerness to build bigger telescopes, they forgot that science is the only way of understanding the world. They did not always prioritize the protection of Mauna Kea's fragile ecosystems or its holiness to the island's inhabitants. Hawaiian culture is not a relic of the past; it is a living culture undergoing a renaissance today.

Yet science has a cultural history, too, with roots going back to the dawn of civilization. The same curiosity to find what lies beyond the horizon that first brought early Polynesians to Hawaii's shores inspires astronomers today to explore the heavens. Calls to disassemble all telescopes on Mauna Kea or to ban future development there ignore the reality that astronomy and Hawaiian culture both seek to answer big questions about who we are, where we come from and where we are going. Perhaps that is why we explore the starry skies, as if answering a primal calling to know ourselves and our true ancestral homes.

The astronomy community is making compromises to change its use of Mauna Kea. The TMT site was chosen to minimize the telescope's visibility around the island and to avoid archaeological and environmental impact. To limit the number of telescopes on Mauna Kea, old ones will be removed at the end of their lifetimes and their sites returned to a natural state. There is no reason why everyone cannot be welcomed on Mauna Kea to embrace their cultural heritage and to study the stars.

1.Queen Liliuokalani's remark in Paragraph 1 indicates

A.its conservative view on the historical role of astronomy.

B.the importance of astronomy in ancient Hawaiian society.

C.the regrettable decline of astronomy in ancient times.

D.her appreciation of star watchers' feats in her time.

2.Mauna Kea is deemed as an ideal astronomical site due to

A.its geographical features

B.its protective surroundings.

C.its religious implications.

D.its existing infrastructure.

3.The construction of the TMT is opposed by some locals partly because

A.it may risk ruining their intellectual life.

B.it reminds them of a humiliating history.

C.their culture will lose a chance of revival.

D.they fear losing control of Mauna Kea.

4.It can be inferred from Paragraph 5 that progress in today"s astronomy

A.is fulfilling the dreams of ancient Hawaiians.

B.helps spread Hawaiian culture across the world.

C.may uncover the origin of Hawaiian culture.

D.will eventually soften Hawaiians' hostility.

5.The author"s attitude toward choosing Mauna Kea as the TMT site is one of

A.severe criticism

B.passive acceptance

C.slight hesitancy

D.full approval

00 in fine cotton dress and with exquisite ornaments of bead, gold, and silver. Few burials rival their lavish sepulchres. Being able to trace the development of such rituals over thousands of years has added to our understanding of the development of human intellect and spirit.

［B］ By 40,000 years ago people could be found hunting and gathering food across most of the regions of Africa. Populations in different regions employed various technological developments in adapting to their different environments and climates.

［C］ Archaeological studies have also provided much information about the people who first arrived in the Americas over 12,000 years ago.

［D］ The first fossil records of vascular plants—that is, land plants with tissue that carries food—appeared in the Silurian period. They were simple plants that had not developed separate stems and leaves.

［E］ Laetoli even reveals footprints of humans from 3.6 million years ago. Some sites also contain evidence of the earliest use of simple tools. Archaeologists have also recorded how primitive forms of humans spread out of Africa into Asia about 1.8 million years ago, then into Europe about 900,000 years ago.

［F］ One research project involves the study of garbage in present-day cities across the United States. This garbage is the modern equivalent of the remains found in the archaeological record. In the future, archaeologists will continue to move into new realms of study.

［G］ Other sites that represent great human achievement are as varied as the cliff dwellings of the ancient Anasazi (a group of early Native Americans of North America) at Mesa Verde, Colorado; the Inca city of Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains of Peru; and the mysterious, massive stone portrait heads of remote Easter Island in the Pacific.