When punctuation（標點） began, it was mainly to help people read out loud. Until a few hundred years ago, not many people were taught to read, so there was a lot more reading out loud by the few people who could.

To help those reading out loud in the old days, sign（符號） known as “points” were added to pages of writing. Punctuation comes from the Latin word punctus, meaning “point”. These points told readers when to pause（暫停） or take a breath, and what to emphasize（加重）.

In Europe from the early centuries AD, these points were widely used although not everybody used the same points for the same thing. When printing was invented, printers had to be made more clearly about what to put where, so that everyone was doing the same thing. Since that point, all sorts of punctuation rules have been discovered and invented.

Speech marks “...”

Speech marks or quotation marks are used to show that someone is speaking. The sort we have in English today began to be widely used during the 18th century. Before that readers simply understood from the way a sentence was written that someone was speaking although sometimes spoken words were underlined.

Comma , colon: period（full stop）.

All three of these sorts of punctuation marks were given their Greek names by Aristophanes, a librarian who lived in Byzantium in the 2nd century BC. They were marks on the page, each with a message to the reader. Comma meant a short pause. Colon meant a medium（中等的） sized pause. Period meant a long pause.

Exclamation mark！

In the early days of punctuation, if you saw this sign, you were supposed to pause. Some people think the exclamation mark began as what the Greek word IO looked like if it was turned 90 degrees. This word means “Oh, gosh!” With the I on the top and the O under it, the sign as we know it today was developed.

Question mark?

In the middle age, a squiggle（圓�。� above a full stop was sometimes used to show the sentence was a question and that a person’s voice should go up at the end. By the 17th century it had turned into what we call a question mark. The shape may have come from the letter Q short for that Latin quaestio, meaning “question”.

Writers make choices about punctuation because they think differently about sentences and words. It’s part of the personality of their writing. Some writers hate punctuation, but others love punctuation. So whether you love or hate punctuation, the best advice may be to just enjoy it, play with it, think about it and use it. It belongs（屬于） to the language and it belongs to you.

1.When did punctuation begin to be widely used, according to the passage?

A．In the 17th century. B．In the 2nd century BC.

C．In the 18th century. D．In the early centuries AD.

2.All punctuation rules were discovered and invented in order to ________.

A．help people read out loud B．meet the need of printing

C．guide the way of writing D．mention the spoken words

3.Which of the following is true?

A．A long pause comes after question mark.

B．Speech marks were named by a librarian.

C．Question mark comes from a Latin word.

D．The shape of a word makes exclamation mark.

4.What’s the problem about punctuation today?

A．People have completely different ideas about it.

B．Not many people are taught to use it correctly.

C．It has different meanings to different people.

D．Sometimes spoken words must be underlined.

Many people have talked about whether or not computing machines can think. Can they or can’t they?

Almost certainly, a machine can do any work in thinking that a person can do—if the correct way for doing the thinking work can be told exactly. Besides, many programs have been made to direct machines so that they work in very clever ways. Machines have been taught to play chess and to learn from what happens in the games so as to make their play better and better. Machines can beat many persons who play chess. Machines can translate from one language to another. They can prove statements in geometry（幾何） as taught in school. Machines can notice printed marks on paper, so that a person is no longer needed to look at the marks.

Computers can be used in many ways, such as business, science, industry, and government. Computers study oilfield examinations made by airplanes； they keep record of oil sales； they study the working condition of the machines； they help in planning and producing oil； and much more.

If people cannot tell exactly the correct way to do certain work in thinking, it is still a question how much of this work a machine can do. Suppose a person is “teaching” the machine and telling the machine “yes” when the machine is right, and “no” when the machine is wrong. Then the machine can keep on searching among possible ways for solving a problem—until the machine can do as well as the person, and perhaps much better.

But, what is thinking？ People can agree about much that is thinking, and much that is not thinking； but they can’t reach agreement because the word “think” is not a scientific word with an exact meaning. A lot of the discussion is wasted breath because the persons are using different meanings of the word “think”.

People, however, have only had experience with machines that appear to think since 1944.

It would be too early to say that after the next 200 years, machines will not be thinking. And to consider that machines can think gives people a big push to give to machines more and more work in thinking.

1.The underlined part in paragraph three is about computers used in ________.

A．Education. B．Government.

C．Sports. D．Industry.

2.What does “this work” mean in paragraph four？

A．Thinking. B．Teaching.

C．Searching. D．Telling.

3.What is the main idea of paragraph five？

A．There is much to say about thinking.

B．People discuss a lot about thinking.

C．There is no answer to what thinking is.

D．People already know what thinking is.

4.What does the writer want to say in the passage？

A．A machine will do any work in thinking like a human being.

B．A machine can do better translation than human beings.

C．A machine won’t be able to beat every chess player.

D．A machine will be able to make plan programs.

5.Which probably is the best title for the passage?

A．What Is Thinking?

B．Can Machines Think?

C．Can Machines Be Taught to Think?

D．Can Machines Beat All Checkers Players?

“Track!” said my master.

Like any good tracker-dog who has received the command（命令） he most loves, I gave a bark of excitement, put my nose down to the ground and sniffed. The ground was rich with smells. Even in the high-class housing area where we were working, the stones held traces of many sole and confusing scents （smells）. As I searched for the scent that would give me a clue to the tail of the guilty man, my tail wagged slowly, thoughtfully, delightedly. Work was like play to me； I enjoyed it.

A small group of people gathered behind us. Among these onlookers was the old caretaker of the building next door to ours. He spoke in a scornful voice, “You actually think your dog might catch a thief three days after the event?” My master said nothing, but I'm sure he must have smiled. I did not turn to look. I knew he would not speak unless it was to give me a new command.

I needed to concentrate. My task was difficult. I had to pick out one scent among the many that lay about and then tracked it to its source.

“You're wasting your time,” said the caretaker. I looked at him without raising my head. He was running his hand over his fat stomach. His rough palm and smooth shirt combined to make a slight noise. It was part of my training to be aware—often it is only a little whisper of a noise that alerts（提醒）you to be drawing of a weapon. But of course the aging caretaker was going to do no such thing. There was no smell of fear or nervousness about him. He was merely being clever and talkative.

“I've seen many tracker-dogs in my time,” said the caretaker to the onlookers. I served with the police years ago. We would never have thought of using a tracker-dog to find a car thief. Impossible. Everyone knows that dogs are useless in such matters.

In a sense he was right. I'm sure there's no need to tell you that, just as a dog's hearing is much better than a human being's, so his sense of smell tells one thing from another far better than a great detective. If Sherlock Holmes could work out that a man had had an egg for breakfast by seeing the yellow stain on his mouth, a trained dog could tell you whether the hen that laid the egg was healthy or not.

I know it sounds funny and I mean it to be. But I'm not exaggerating. A dog can tell you—if you understand a dog’s way of communicating—all this and more without even setting eyes on the man he is investigating.

1.Who do you think the dog was tracking?

A．The thief. B．The caretaker.

C．The master. D．The onlookers.

2.How did the dog react to the command to track?

A．It thought for a while and did what was asked.

B．It was happy, even though it wasn't trained for the task.

C．It was angry because there were so many smells.

D．It was excited because it took pleasure in tracking.

3.In the dog's opinion, its sense of smell ________.

A．can give us fewer details about what a human has already discovered

B．can achieve more than what a human's only if the smell is not hidden

C．is particularly trained to pick out one scent among hundreds

D．is better than its sense of hearing when it does tracking

4.According to the passage, the dog is ________.

A．honest and hopeful B．smart and helpful

C．kind and careful D．popular and thoughtful

Imagine that you are the first person ever to see Hawaii. What would be the first thing you would set foot on?

The beach, naturally. There are hundreds of miles of beaches on the twenty islands of Hawaii. These islands cover 1,600 miles and are about 2,300 miles west of California. Most of them are covered with fine white sand. They are thought to be among the finest beaches in the world.

Another wonderful thing about the beaches of Hawaii is the water temperature. The year-round average（平均） temperature of the water at the famous Waikiki Beach is 23℃!

The same is true of air temperature. In fact, there are no real seasons in Hawaii. There is a difference of only two or three degrees between the hottest day of summer and the coldest day of winter. That's why the Hawaiians don't have a word for weather in their language.

Perhaps the nicest thing about Hawaiian beaches are the waves. The earliest settlers（定居者） in Hawaii, the Polynesians, quickly learned how much fun it was to ride the waves. They developed a sport which is now very popular on the islands called body surfing. You go out into the ocean, wait for a big wave to come towards you, jump on it, and ride it all the way to the beach.

Now imagine once again that you are the first person ever to set foot in Hawaii. What do you think would be the second beautiful thing you would notice?

Would it be those strange triangles（三角形狀物） rising out of the water hundreds and hundreds of meters high? What are those beautiful things? They are volcanoes（火山）, of course. These volcanoes are not just a part of the islands. They made the islands at first. Because of them the islands are still growing.

The most famous volcano on Hawaii is Mauna Loa. It is the world's most active volcano. It has been erupting（噴發(fā)） for thousands of years. Even when it isn't erupting, smoke comes out of the earth from a thousand little holes.

In 1950 Mauna Loa erupted for twenty-three days. That erupting produced the greatest amount of lava（熔巖） in modern history. In 1960 it erupted again. That time it added a kilometer of beach to the island. Because Mauna Loa has erupted so often, it has become the biggest（but not the tallest） mountain in the world.

These volcanoes could be dangerous to the population of Hawaii. In fact, Hilo, the second largest city in Hawaii, is built just under Manna Loa. The volcano could erupt at any time. Most people believe that it will erupt sometime in the next twenty-five years. But the people of Hilo do not seem worried. They live with the danger as part of their lives.

1.According to the passage, what are the two most beautiful things in Hawaii?

A．Waves and cities. B．Beaches and language.

C．Volcanoes and beaches. D．Volcanoes and people.

2.Which is NOT the reason why the Hawaiians don't have a word for weather in their language?

A．There are no real seasons in Hawaii.

B．The temperature of the water at one of the beaches is always 23℃.

C．The Hawaiians feel almost the same in the hottest day and coldest day.

D．There is not much difference in air temperature all the year round in Hawaii.

3.What should be the meaning of “body surfing”?

A．Riding waves. B．Body-building.

C．Sea bathing. D．Jumping into the sea.

4.It can be inferred that ________ according to the passage.

A．volcanoes are more active because the area of the island is enlarging

B．the visitors to Hawaii can probably see more than one active volcano

C．Mauna Loa is the tallest mountain in the world because it has erupted so often

D．people in Hilo are sure that more visitors will come because of volcanoes

According to a survey（調查） by CIF, there's room for improvement all over Britain.

Cleaning our home, love or hate it, is one job you have to work on. But that is not to say everyone spends the same amount（量） of time or effort on making their places tidy. A new survey by CIF—experts on making cleaning jobs easier—shows that when it comes to washing windows or cleaning the oven（爐）, where you live in the UK may show how much effort you put into the job.

BATHROOM

25% of men have never cleaned the toilet, but those in Wales are the worst. Nearly four in ten Welsh men said they never cleaned anywhere in the house. Hate cleaning the shower head? You are not alone—a quarter of a million British people say the same. 20% of Scottish people regard window-cleaning as their most hated job.

KITCHEN

36% of people in the southeast say cleaning the cooker is their hated task. 68% of those in the northeast spend more than six hours a week cleaning their homes, especially the kitchen. In sharp contrast（強烈的對比） to that, 49% of Welsh people put their hands up to cleaning for under an hour.

BEDROOM

18% believe cleaning starts here: that's the percentage of women who clean wearing their dressing gowns（a kind of clothes）. 51% of women in the northwest may be staying in bed and giving their husbands a cuddle（擁抱）as a “thank you” for helping them clean. In other places, there are far fewer helpful men.

LIVINGROOM

32% of women in the northeast turn up the CD player to help make the cleaning more fun. Almost six in ten women agree, however, that cleaning is seriously energetic exercise.

★ SHIFT （除掉） THE DIRT WITH CIF! ★

It's no secret that the right cleaning products will cut cleaning time and effort in half and no one knows that better than CIF. For all your cleaning needs, here are some of CIF's top tips:

·Stop a lot of build-up on your shower head. Give it a quick squirt（噴） with CIF bathroom spray（噴劑） once a week.

·Stainless steel（不銹鋼） tools seem to need endless cleaning. The CIF Wild Orchid Oxy-Gel lifts dirt easily and leaves the kitchen smelling fresh and clean.

·Cooking outside? CIF cream will get your barbecue （燒烤） completely clean, ready for those long, lazy summer evenings. Perfect!

1.The main purpose of this passage is to ________.

A．tell us the results of a certain survey

B．advertise a certain cleaning product

C．show us which is the hardest job at home

D．advise men to do more cleaning housework

2.From the survey we can know that people in different parts of Britain ________.

A．have different ways to do housework

B．like to do different kinds of housework

C．have so many different kinds of tools on house cleaning

D．spend different amounts of time and effort on house cleaning

3.According to the survey, ________ spend the most time cleaning their homes.

A．people in Wales B．people in the northwest

C．people in the southeast D．people in the northeast

4.CIF in the passage probably refers to ________.

A．an organization doing research on housework

B．some experts who give advice on doing housework

C．a company providing advice and products on cleaning

D．a TV show about providing cleaning products

Little Tommy was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything —tutors (家庭教師), cards, special learning centers—in short, everything they could think of. Finally they took Tommy to a catholic (天主教的) school.

After the first day, little Tommy came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying. Books and papers were spread (鋪開) out all over the room and little Tommy was hard at work. His mother was surprised. She called him down to dinner and as soon as he finished eating, he went back to his room, without a word. In no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before. This went on for some time, day after day while the mother tried to understand what was happening.

Finally, little Tommy brought home his report card. He quietly put it on the table and went up to his room and hit the books. His mom looked at it and to her surprise, little Tommy got an A in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity (好奇心). She went to his room and asked, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns (修女)?”Little Tommy looked at her and shook his head, “No. ”“Well then,” she asked again. “WHAT was it?”

Little Tommy looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school, when I saw that man nailed (釘) to the plus sign (加號), I knew they weren’t joking. ”

1.Why did Tommy’s parents send him to a catholic school?

A. Because he could eat well there.

B. Because he could earn more about nuns.

C. Because his parents wanted him to do better in his math.

D. Because his parents didn’t want him to learn math any more.

2.Tommy’s mother felt surprised that his son _______.

A. was still the same as usual

B. ate so much at dinner

C. kissed her hello after school

D. worked hard but said little

3.“Hitting the books” means “_______” in Chinese.

A. 用功 B. 捶書

C. 發(fā)泄 D. 振作

4.The last sentence in the passage shows that _______.

A. Tommy felt sorry for the mail

B. Tommy was afraid of being nailed

C. Tommy didn’t like the plus sign

D. Tommy liked playing jokes on others

5.From the passage, we can infer (推斷) that _______.

A. teachers should be strict with their students

B. mistaking (誤解) might do good sometimes

C. a catholic school is much better than other ones

D. nuns are good at helping children with their math

You’d better take a taxi,____you’ll miss the train.

A．and B．or

C．but D．though

Look at the man over there. _____he is!

A．How tall B．How high C．What a tall

____picture books in class, please.

A．Not read B．No read

C．Not reading D．Don’t read

I don’t think she will agree with me,______?

A．won’t she B．will she

C．does she D．isn’t she