In 1752, three years after two Scotsmen, Alexander Wilson and Thomas Melville, fastened thermometers to kites to record the temperature of clouds, Benjamin Franklin made his famous experiment with a kite, a string, and a key. Franklin hoped to show that nature's tremendous displays of electricity in lightning were the same thing as the feeble electric sparks scientists of the day were producing in their laboratories. He built a square kite to which he attached an iron wire. He flew the kite with a hemp string(麻线), and near the base of the string he tied a large brass key. The kite rose into a dark thundercloud, where the iron wire picked up electrical charges. Franklin noticed that the strands of the string(绳串) were beginning to stand up with electricity. As rain wet the string, it conducted more electricity. Standing in the shelter of a shed, Franklin cautiously reached out his finger to touch the brass key. A series of sparks jumped from the key to his finger. He thus proved that lightning and electricity are the same. We now know that this experiment was a dangerous one, for Franklin might have been killed by a bolt of lighting.
1.The best title for this passage is ________.
A. The Discover of Electricity
B. The kite and Science
C. Franklin, a Great Scientist
D. Franklin's Experiment with Lightning
2.According to the passage, Benjamin Franklin ________.
A. recorded the temperature of clouds
B. was killed by a bolt of lightning
C. proved that lightning and electricity have the same essential nature
D. proved that lightning can be controlled by man
3.Two Scotsmen experimented with kites in ________.
A. 1752 B. 1746
C. 1749 D. 1755
4.Franklin did not use a ________.
A. string B. wire
C. thermometer D. key
5.The fact that Franklin was not injured was apparently due to ________.
A. wisdom B. luck
C. the materials D. the shed's protection
When he took office, George W. Bush, son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush, became the first son to follow his father into the White House since John Quiney Adams followed John Adams in the early 19th century.
Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. Although George Herbert Walker Bush began his career in the oil industry, he finally served as a congressman(国会议员), and vice(副) president and president of the United States.
At the age of two, Bush moved with his parents from Connecticut to Odessa, Texas, where his father took up the oil business. After a year in Texas, the family moved to California for business reasons. A year later, the family returned to Texas and settled in Midland, where Bush lived from 1950 to 1959.
In 1959, again for business reasons, the family moved to Houston, Texas. In 1961 Bush left Texas and went to Andover, Massachusetts, to attend Phillips Academy, aboarding school(寄宿学校) that his father had also attended.
At Phillips, Bush played basketball, baseball, and football. He was best known for being head cheerleader. In 1964 he enrolled at Yale University in Connecticut.His father and grandfather had also attended Yale. At Yale, Bush was considered an average student, but he was popular with his classmates.
Bush graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1968. Then he joined the Air National Guard and remained in the Guard until 1973. After earning his MBA from Harvard in 1975, Bush returned to Midland. Like his father, he first entered the oil industry as a “landsman(新手)”. However, Bush’s oil companies never enjoyed great success. He took more interest in politics. He helped his father to become president and in 1994 he himself was elected governor of Texas.
In the summer of 1999, Bush began to run for the president of the USA and on January 20, 2001, George W. Bush, hand raised, took the oath(宣誓) of office to become the 43rd president of the US.
1.What does the writer intend to tell us in the first paragraph?
A. George W. Bush is the first son in American history to follow his father into the White House.
B. George W. Bush is the first son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush.
C. George W. Bush is the second one in American history to follow his father into the White House.
D. John Quincy Adams and his father were both former American presidents.
2.We may learn from the text that young Bush ______.
A. got on very well at the universities
B. was very good at basketball, baseball and football
C. was a very successful politician like his father
D. did everything as his father had done
3.Which of the following is NOT true about George W. Bush?
A. He once studied at a university that his father and grandfather had also attended.
B. Young Bush lived with his family in Texas from 1948 to 1961.
C. He once ruled over an American state before he entered the White House.
D. He once served at the Air National Guard for about five years.
Geena David knew she wanted to be a movie star when she was very young. She was not sure what gave her the idea, but she wanted to look like a movie star. “I have a lot of pictures from my childhood of me wearing sunglasses,” she says. “I used to wear them to watch TV.”
Early movie actors started wearing sunglasses not because they looked good, but because their eyes hurt. The lights used on movie sets were extremely bright and could cause a painful problem known as “Klieg eyes”. It was named after the Klieg brothers who invented the lights. Actors wore sunglasses to give their eyes a rest. But when movie stars began wearing their sunglasses in public, they quickly became a must.
Eventually actors started wearing sunglasses in their movies as well as on the street. Audrey Hephburn wore ultra-cool Ray-Ban sunglasses in the 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As a result, Ray-Ban sunglasses started to appear more and more in the movies. In 1979, Ray-Ban “Wayfarers” were worn by Jake and Elwood in The Blue Brothers. Tom Cruise wore Ray-Ban “Aviator” sunglasses in the 1986 hit, Top Gun. Then in 1997, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones made Ray-Ban “Predator” sunglasses famous in Men in Black.
Of course sunglasses aren’t just a fashion statement. The main reason to wear sunglasses is to protect our eyes against UV radiation. UV radiation can damage our eyes, so people now choose their sunglasses carefully. But you don’t have to give up style for safety. The choice of frames and lenses available these days is huge. So you can protect your eyes and still be the coolest person on the beach.
1.What is mainly discussed in this passage?
A. The use of sunglasses.
B. The history of sunglasses.
C. Why movie stars like to wear sunglasses.
D. The sunglasses wearing.
2.Why did Geena David like to wear sunglasses?
A. She wanted to follow a movie star.
B. She was a movie star.
C. Wearing sunglasses was good to her eyes.
D. It was good to wear sunglasses when watching TV.
3.Early actors’ eyes hurt because ______.
A. they wore sunglasses
B. they went out in the sun too much
C. their scripts were written in very small writing
D. the lights on movie sets were too bright
4.We may know from this passage that ______.
A. Ray-Ban is the name of sunglasses maker
B. Audrey Hephburn was a famous film star
C. Sunglasses made Top Gun the hit in 1986
D. Men in Black must be an advertisement of sunglasses
5.Now people wear sunglasses ______.
A. for fashion and to protect their eyes
B. just to protect their eyes
C. because of bright lights
D. because movie stars wear them
The famous British inventor George Stephenson was born in 1781 and died in 1848. One of his important inventions was the train. He his first train when he was forty-four years old. When he was experimenting with the engine on the train, he met with from the government, the newspapers and the gentlemen in the country. They said that the noise and the smoke would cows, horses and sheep, that the would burst or that the hot coals from it would their houses. At that time, people believed what they said.
George Stephenson the people that the train could go on small , could pull carriages goods and passengers and there was to them. It was a very matter for him to them believe. However, after , he was able to do it; and the first train that by Stephenson himself what he had said.
The first day the people along the way the noises of the train and saw it running quickly to them, they ran back home as quickly as they could and closed their doors tightly, for they thought it a genius(妖怪).They did not dare to come out until it had passed.
1.A. very B. a lot C. much D. most
2.A. bought B. made C. introduced D. did
3.A. electrical B. atomic C. oil D. steam
4.A. troubles B. success C. people D. pleasure
5.A. buy B. kill C. interest D. take away
6.A. smoke B. noise C. engine D. driver
7.A. pull down B. blow away C. pass D. set fire to
8.A. few B. most C. only a few D. the rich
9.A. said B. spoke C. warned D. told
10.A. roads B. rivers C. rails D. steam
11.A. full of B. short of C. empty of D. without
12.A. dangerous B. no great danger C. a lot of danger D. few danger
13.A. difficult B. easy C. pleasant D. light
14.A. get B. cause C. force D. make
15.A. some time B. sometime C. a few times D. sometimes
16.A. was driven B. was sold C. was pulled D. helped
17.A. believed B. seemed C. proved D. sensed
18.A. when B. of C. while D. for
19.A. caught sight of B. listened to C. thought D. heard
20.A. in the distance B. nearby C. on the far D. from the distance
She just cannot make herself ________ though she tries hard.
A. understand B. understanding
C. understood D. to understand
On AIDS Day, the minister of Health Department demanded that the problems ______ paid special attention to.
A. referred to being B. referred to be
C. refer to being D. refer to be
