Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature’s (自然) most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.

Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1.5 metres (4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo.

Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimetres (1 foot) across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.

Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools. Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings.

Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting  new buildings and bridges while they are being built.

In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water. Bamboo pipes  help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money.

1. How is bamboo like grass?

   A. It grows quickly.              B. It’s wood.       C. It is easy to cut              D. It is very thin

2. Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn’t grow       .

A.in China                   B.in Europe            C. on mountains                   D. in Africa

3. Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers? Because        .

A.it is cheap     B.it has different colours     C.it is strong  D.it has been used by Asians

4. Bamboo pipes can       .

   A. make money           B. be trees          C. grow quickly                  D. carry water

5. In Asia, bamboo has been used for      .

A.a short time                                   B.many thousands of years 

C. many hundreds of years                               D. about 100 years

Macao is only forty miles from Hong Kong and it is easy to reach. You can get there by sea. It is an interesting place and it had a long history. Macao is part of China and most people living there are Chinese.

The first Europeans to go to Macao came from Portugal. More than four hundred years ago the Portuguese went there to trade with China. Some settled and made their homes there. They built strong forts to guard the city and the harbor. They also built churches, schools, hospitals and other places. Slowly the city grew. People from many countries came to live and work in Macao.

Today many people visit Macao. Some only go there to watch dog-racing or motor-racing or to gamble with their money. But Macao is a quiet and peaceful place. It is pleasant just to walk around and look at old buildings and forts. You feel you are back in the old days. Of course, some of the buildings are now in ruins. The Church of St.. Paul has only the front wall with many steps leading up to it.. But it is still interesting to see.

When you are hot and tired, there are small cool gardens to rest in. when you are hungry, there are good restaurants with many kinds of food. Nearby there are some islands, which are also nice and are easy to get to. There is certainly a lot to do in Macao.

1. Macao is easy to get to because_______.

   A. it is part of China and most people there are Chinese.

   B. it is an interesting place.

   C. it is very fast and cheap by sea

   D. it is not far away from Hong Kong.

2. Which of the following is Not true?

　 A. Portuguese were the first Europeans to go to Macao.

　 B. Some Portuguese settled in Macao and made their homes half a century ago.

　 C. The city Macao grew slowly

　 D. People there put up strong forts to defend the city.

3. You feel in Macao you are back in the old days because_____

　 A. some of the buildings are now in ruins.

　 B. you can watch dog-racing or motor-racing.

　 C. you can go about and look at the old buildings and forts with pleasure.

　 D. it is a peaceful place.

4. Where will you have a break when you feel worn out?

　 A. In good restaurants. B. In small cool gardens. C. On some islands. D. In beautiful parks.

5. The writer’s idea seems to be that_____.

　 A. people from many countries came to live and work in Macao.

　 B. Portuguese were willing to do business in China.

　 C. people in Macao serve good food.

　 D. Macao is a quiet and peaceful place with a lot to see and to do.

Years ago ,when I started looking for my first job ,wise advised,“Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience. ”How right they were!

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the inner voice that whispers,  “I can do it!”when others shout, “No, you can’t !”It took years and years for the early work of  Barara  McClintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel  Prize in medicine , to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age was. At 90,cellist（大提琴家） Palblo Cassls would start his day by playing Bach.  As the music flowed through his fingers his stooped shoulders would strengthen and joy would reappear in his eyes . As author and poet Samuei Ulman once wrote ,“ Years wrinkle（使-------變皺） the skin ,but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or power . Patricia  Mellrath, retired director of the Missouri  Repertory  Theatre in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father ,a lawyer long ago told me , I never made a dime until I stopped working for money.”

If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth  Layton was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that had troubled her for at least 30 years ,and the quality of her led one critic（評(píng)論家） to say, “I’m tempted to call Layton a genius（天才）.”

We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be ”.We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, which all our senses-including pleasure in the sweet smell of a back-yard garden, the simple picture of a six-year –old ,the beauty of  a  rainbow.

1. What is the Chinese for “Enthusiasm”?

   A.熱情                B. 色彩                                 C. 惰性                  D.金錢

2. Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?

   A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.

   B. If you don’t have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.

   C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.

   D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honor.

3. The author mentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that____

   A. music can arouse people’s enthusiasm

   B. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed

   C. enthusiasm can keep people feel young

   D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy

4. How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

   A. Three              B. Two                             C. Four                      D.  Five

5. The author mainly wants to say that _________

   A. enthusiasm people never get old               

   B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life

   C. enthusiasm is more important than experience

   D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame .

請(qǐng)認(rèn)真閱讀下列短文，并根據(jù)所讀內(nèi)容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一個(gè)最恰當(dāng)?shù)膯卧~。注意：每空1個(gè)單詞。

     Educating girls quite possibly harvests a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Women's education may be an unusual field for economists(經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家), but increasing women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics, with its focus on incentives(鼓勵(lì)), provides an explanation for why so many girls are deprived of(剝奪)an education.

     Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school — the prophecy (預(yù)言) becomes self-fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle (惡性循環(huán)) of neglect.

     An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle（良性循環(huán)）.

     Few will argue that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.

Topic: The significance of female (1) ___________ in developing countries

隨著生活水平的提高，購買私家車已成為一種時(shí)尚。對(duì)此，人們看法不一。因此，你們進(jìn)行了一個(gè)調(diào)查。請(qǐng)根據(jù)下面的提示，寫一篇字?jǐn)?shù)為150左右的短文。

詞匯提示：汽車工業(yè)auto industry  混合燃料hybrid fuel  二氧化碳carbon dioxide

注意：開頭已寫好，不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)。

With the improvement of people's living conditions, owning private cars is becoming popular in China. Different voices arise in a recent survey conducted by us.

The best job is      which uses your skill in doing something together with your interest in   the subject．

A．something    B．the one         C．one   D．it

一Did you visit the famous museum?

一No．We        it．But we spent too much time shopping．

A．can’t have visited                B．could have visited

C．must have visited                   D．shouldn’t have visited

I wonder why you won’t do it as         and it’s the third time you have done so．

A．told you        B．be told   C．you told          D．told to

As we all know，the government is now making every     to set up a harmonious society．

A．effort           B．effect           C．measure          D．performance

The media today can draw public attention to situations        help is actually needed．

A．why             B．while    C．where             D．whose