Popular music is very popular with American students. Almost every student carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play music loudly as they drive on the street. Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programmes are music.

Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make CDs or tapes which radio stations in many places broadcast (广播) . Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a pop star.

There are other kinds of music that are popular among Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music.

1. _____ kinds of music are mentioned in this passage.

2.When pop singers ______, they are regarded as pop stars.

3.From the passage we know that country music is about the______.

4.Which of the following is true?

Millions of years ago dinosaurs (恐龙) lived on the earth. In the days of dinosaurs the whole earth was warm and wet. There were green forests and they could find enough to eat. Later, parts of the earth became cold and dry. and the forests there died. Then dinosaurs could not find enough to eat. This must be one reason why dinosaurs died out.

We can guess another reason. New kinds of animals came on the earth. Some had big brains and were fast and strong. They could kill dinosaurs. There may be other reasons that we don’t know about yet. Scientists are trying to make more discoveries about dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs were of many sizes and shapes (形状).  Some were as small as chickens, while some were about 90 feet long.

There were also terrible fights between dinosaurs. They might have happened more than 100 million years ago. Though there was no man to see any of the fights, we can be told by the animal’s footprints (足迹) that fight did take place.

1.According to the passage, dinosaurs did exist only ______on the earth.

2.One reason why dinosaurs died out is that______.

3.One more reason may be that ______.

4.We can see from this passage ______.

Do you know that a fast reader can get the ideas better than a slow reader can? Of course, you save time by reading fast, but this is not the main reason for fast reading. The main reason is that you understand better what you are reading when you read fast.

As your eyes move along the line of print, they make fixations (固定) or pauses. It is important that you see several words at a fixation. It is also important that your eyes leave a group of words quickly and move on to another group. The number of letters or words that you see at a fixation is called your eye span. Pay more attention to improving your rate of reading. With practice you can learn to read faster than you usually read.

The way in which you read always depends on what you are reading and for what purpose. You should know the different ways of reading so that you can apply whatever method that is necessary. Here are four ways of reading:

(1) Skimming is an important kind of reading. This method can be used when you wish to review something that you have forgotten. You can skim to get the main points.

(2) Rapid first reading and then rereading certain parts carefully is important. You may use this type of reading to study a science lesson or a history lesson.

(3) You need to do careful reading and rereading sometimes. This type of reading is necessary for making an intensive (精深的) study of your school subjects, solving Maths problems or reading directions.

(4) Rapid reading is used when reading stories for enjoyment. you may also do rapid reading when reviewing material that you already know well.

1.The main reason for reading fast is that you can _______what you are fast reading.

2.The way of reading always depends on _______.

3.The underlined word "skimming" in the fourth paragraph means _______.

4.Careful reading is an important kind of reading _________.

 friend of mine met with an accident driving in darkness. His legs were so hurt that he couldn’t move. What was the  36  was he found himself unable to ask for help — his mobile phone went out of   37  as a result of exhausted (用尽的)battery. Nothing could be done but  to   38  in cold wilderness. It was 8 hours later that day broke, and then the   39 of the rescue.

It is almost   40  that he could stand the horror in the darkness for so long. Even more surprising was his   41  : "First of all I checked up my   42   conditions and found myself not in mortal （致命的）danger. As there was no   43  to call for help ,I leaned back in my seat trying my best to keep the wound from  44  .In this way I dozed （打盹）off ."

His story put an end to my regret for the   45  of an exploration adventure that happened last year. A group of young men  46   to explore a mountain cave and got lost .   47  to find a way out in the dark cave they were frightened and ran anxiously without a sense of  48  .Finally they fell dead in fear and exhaustion（筋疲力尽）.According to the   49   people that found them, the place where they got lost was only about 10 meters away from the   50  of the cave. If they stayed on the spot when they lost their way and tried to   51  themselves, they would probably sense a faint light glimmering （闪烁）not far away .

Don’t you think that you can compare it with   52  itself? When you meet with obstacles （障碍）in life and work ,you are lost in darkness.   53  you it’s unclear yet and you needn’t put up struggle   54  . It seems to be a negative （消极的）attitude,   55  a person who can afford to do so must have foresight as well as a great courage in the first place

---- Olympic champion Luo Xuejuan was chosen as the first Chinese torchbearer carrying the torch in March 2008.

---- She _____ very happy.

---- Yes, she said, “ To be the first Chinese torchbearer is a great honor. ”

At this time of last year, part of Southeast Asia was struck by floods, from _____ effects the people are still suffering.

I regret ______ that I’m too busy ______ in the talk.

All the Harry Potter books by Joanne Rowling, a poor single mother _____ in Edinburgh,   _____ all over the world.

— You don't look well. Are you ill?

— No, the exam is coming and I _____ reading until midnight.

Your mother will be ____ until she hears you are safe.