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The Amazon rainforest is home to millions of different kinds of animals，plants，and birds．Most of the world's fresh water is here and the forest plants clean the Earth's air every day．

Chico was born near the Amazon town，Brazil，in 1944 and started working when he was very young．Like the rest of his family，the boy got the money by taking a little rubber from the trees in the forest．（The trees are not hurt when the rubber is taken．）The forest and its people lived together comfortably and peacefully．

But some people think too much about themselves and never think about the future．In 1980，the forest was burned to build roads，houses and factories．Chico was angry；he wanted to save the forest! He talked to the government workers，but they didn't listen to him．They were still clearing the rainforests to make quick，easy money．“Many voices are stronger than one，” he thought，so Chico held group meetings．He discovered that hundreds of people agreed with him．His hope grew．More people came together to try to stop the work of the forest clearers．Large areas of the forest were saved．Later he traveled to many other countries for international help．People soon became very much interested in this brave Brazilian．In the next few years Chico's name became famous all over the world．The government of Brazil started making plans to protect large areas of the Amazon rainforest．

But as Chico's dreams started coming true，someone stopped him in the only possible way．The famous forest fighter was murdered right outside his home on December 22，1988．Chico's life was cut short，but his brave new ideas continued in other people．One man changed the world's ideas．After his death，people around the world sent money to help Chico's work．

1．Was Chico born in Brazil?

2．How did young Chico get money?

3．How many things did Chico do after the forest was burned?

4．When was Chico murdered?

5．What did Chico achieve in his life?

Science fiction is a popular kind of writing, and many people think of Jules Verne as the father of science fiction. He was born in France in 1828. His father wanted him to become a lawyer（律師）, but when he was about twenty years old, Verne decided to become a writer. At first he wrote plays for the theater. Then, in 1863, he wrote a story called Five Weeks in a Balloon. The success of this book encouraged him to write more stories such as A Journey to the Center of the Earth （1864） and From the Earth to the Moon （1865）.

In the 19th century, many people were interested in science and inventions. Jules Verne wrote about scientific subjects in his stories and, as a result, they were very popular. Verne’s writing included many predictions （預(yù)言） for the 20th century and many of them came true. He described space flight, movies, and air conditioning, a long time before they appeared. These books were very successful and they made Verne rich.

Jules Verne’s books have been the subjects for many movies. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a successful movie for Walt Disney. It was the first Disney movie to use real actors instead of cartoon drawings. Around the World in Eighty Days is another famous movie based on one of Verne’s books. The main character is an Englishman called Phileas Fogg. For him, the most important thing is to be always on time!

1．What does the phrase “the father of science fiction” mean?

A．The man who loves science and inventions.

B．The writer whose father wrote science fiction.

C．The man who first started writing science fiction successfully.

2．What encouraged Jules Verne to write more stories?

A．The success of Five Weeks in a Balloon.

B．The encouragement from his father.

C．The plays he wrote for the theater.

3．Why were Jules Verne’s books very popular in the19th century?

A．Because his books made him rich and famous.

B．Because his books have been the subjects for many movies.

C．Because many people were interested in science and inventions.

4．Which of the following has the main character called Phileas Fogg?

A．From the Earth to the Moon

B．Around the World in Eighty Days.

C．A Journey to the Center of the Earth.

5．20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a ______.

   A．cartoon movie

B．movie to use real actors

C．book written by Walt Disney

　　Do you know something about tree rings（年輪）? Do you know they can tell us what the weather was like, sometimes even hundreds of years ago?

　　A tree will grow well in a climate（氣候）with lots of sun shines and rainfall（雨量）. And little sunshine or rain fall will limit（限制）the growth of a tree. We can see the change of climate by studying the tree rings. For example, to find out the weather of ten years ago, count the rings of a tree from the outside to the inside, if the tenth ring is far from the eleventh ring, then we're sure that it was sunny and rainy most of that year. If it is near to the eleventh ring, then the climate that year was bad.

　　Tree rings are important not only for studying the history of weather but also for studying the history of man. Many centuries ago there lived a lot of people at a place in New Mexico. But now you can find only sand there -no trees and no people. What happened?

　　A scientist studied the rings of dead trees there. He found that the people had to leave because they had cut down all the trees to make fires and buildings. As all the trees had gone, the people there had to move.

(1) _________ in good climate.

[　　]

A．Tree rings grow far from each other.

B．Tree rings become thinner.

C．Trees don't need sunshine or rainfall.

(2) The scientists are interested in studying tree rings because tree rings can tell________.

[　　]

A．whether a tree was strong or not

B．whether people took good care of the trees or not

C．whether the climate was good or not.

(3) If you want to find out the weather of twenty years ago, you should study _______ of a tree from the outside to the inside

[　　]

A．the twentieth ring

B．the tenth ring

C．the nineteenth

(4) Why did people usually live in places with lots of trees?

[　　]

A．Trees could tell the change of the weather.

B．Trees could be used for burning and for building houses.

C．Trees could make weather not too hot or too cold.

(5) The people had to leave the place in New Mexico _______.

[　　]

A．Because bad weather stopped the growth of trees

B．Because they no longer had water and the land became sand

C．Because they didn't have enough trees for burning

Not long ago, the only time you could see a robot was when you were reading a novel or watching a movie such as Star Wars (星球大戰(zhàn)) . Today, however, a lot of things in science stories have been science facts. Robots are starting to appear in our everyday lives. These robots have different sizes, shapes, and colors. But they all have the same type of man-made “brain”. Leading the robot revolution （革命）are industrial(企業(yè)) robots that work in factories. Industrial（工業(yè)） robots can do different kinds of jobs that are often boring and sometimes dangerous. Robots are also coming to American homes, though not as quickly as they are entering factories. These robots aren’t as friendly and bright as those you saw in  Star Wars. But, their makers say, today’s home robots “walk”, sense objects(感知物體) in their way (and sometimes knock into them), and even carry objects (which they sometimes drop). Well, nobody is perfect.
We may laugh at home robot today, but some day they may see and hear better than humans do. We humans can only see certain wavelengths（波長） of light, and hear certain sounds. That’s because the abilities of our eyes and ears are limited. Robots, however, need not have the same limits as we have. Robot may also be equipped with devices that pick up information humans can’t. To understand what their sensing devices(傳感器) pick up is a hard job. Remember, man—made brains handle(處理)information, including all kinds of data, as zeroes and ones. Imagine the difficulty in trying to explain to a robot what a football looks like—using only zeroes and ones.
【小題1】 From the passage, we can see that factory robots _________.

A．help to improve other types of robots

B．a(chǎn)re most active in industrial revolution

C．a(chǎn)re playing a more important role than other types of robots

D．a(chǎn)re the tallest type among robots

【小題2】 It seems that home robots are __________________.

A．more widely used than factory robots

B．less common than factory robots

C．capable of doing any kind of housework

D．free from making mistakes while performing(執(zhí)行) duties

【小題3】 Robots may deal with information that humans can’t. Which of the following is not one of the reasons?

A．They do not have so many limits as humans do.

B．They have man-made brains.

C．They may be equipped with a special kind of sensing device.

D．They handle information by using zeroes and ones.

【小題4】The development of robots suggests that _________.

A．science and technology are developing fast

B．people are interested in new inventions

C．machines are more capable than humans

D．robots can be very interesting

【小題5】 According to this passage, present home robots ________.

A．a(chǎn)re better than human in seeing and hearing

B．a(chǎn)re as capable as those in Star Wars

C．can pick up objects more quickly than humans

D．sometimes perform wrong actions