You have heard the expression “horse sense”. As you may imagine, it came from the time when the majority of people traveled in vehicles drawn by horses. A horse does have a lot of common sense, and there are many true stories about horses having saved their drivers from danger of death.
Today for the most part, people travel by train, ship, airplane, and car, but very little by the use of horses. Modern vehicles are propelled by engines, and an engine does not have any sense. In case of danger, many horses could be depended on to help. Not so with the engine; the driver must do all the things.
In recent years, the speed of travel has increased greatly. With the increased speed comes greatly increased danger. The driver of a powerful engine needs to be careful. A moment of being careless may cost a life. In order to drive today, a person must be able to see clearly, and he must learn and follow carefully the rules for safety on the road. Greater attention is the price we pay for using a machine instead of a horse.
1.The passage mainly talks about ______.
A. engines B. safe driving
C. using horses D. modern machines
2.The underlined word “propel” in the second paragraph means ______.
A. repair B. raise C. push forward D. made
3.It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. a driver must know the rules of safety
B. a driver needs to be able only to tell red from green
C. an eye test is an important part of a driver’s examination
D. greater attention is needed for a driver while driving a machine
4. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. A driver must be able to see and hear well.
B. The driver of a car must follow the rules of safety.
C. Horses are known to have saved their drivers from injury.
D. It is better for vehicles to be pulled by horse than to be pushed by engine.
People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahal or the Louvre.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure— a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Murmansk, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day. -
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball”. They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “Killer Whale”, but they’ re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin.. These beautiful animals travel together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earthwatch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorini. This explosion was more terrible than Krakatoa or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompei. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earthwatch vacation is for you.
1.The Tai Mabal may be _________.
A. a shopping center B. a hotel
C. a dancing ball D. a place of interest
2.From the passage, on an adventure trip, people ______________.
A. may not spend much time on sightseeing
B. won’ t meet some difficulties or hardships
C. can’t enjoy themselves -
D. can’t learn something
3.If you want to learn something about people of the past, you can ___________
A. join the team to Hawaii B. join the team to the Far North
C. join the team to Washington D. join the team to Greece
4.The word “intelligent” in paragraph 4 means __________________.
A. exciting B. beautiful C. large D. clever
5.Which of the following is false ?
A. Some people find sightseeing trips boring.
B. Earth watch is planning all these special adventures
C. The number orcas is decreasing.
D. 3 volcano explosions in all broke out 3, 500 years ago in Greece.
What do you do if you're stranded (处于困境的) on a lonely island? Surely you need to find a way to get in touch with the outside world. Your best chance of doing this is to draw the attention of a passing plane.
Body signals (信号)
Pilots from different countries understand body signals if they have the correct training. When you wave your arms up and down in a straight line, it means "yes". When you point downwards and swing your arm from side to side, it means "no". If you want the pilot to know that it's safe to land, push your hands out in front of you and bend (弯曲) your knees. If you want to say that it's not safe to land, put your arms in the air and move them to one side.
Smoke signals
The smoke from a fire can be seen from far away, so it's a good way to draw attention. If the weather is dry, it isn't hard to start a fire. Remember, however, that fires can be very dangerous if they get out of control. Never light a fire unless you're sure that it can't spread. If the ground is dark, light smoke can be seen more easily. Green grass and leaves produce light smoke.
Ground-to-air signals
It's a good idea to build some signals, too. Use large pieces of wood to make the symbols (标记). If you can't find any wood, use earth. Some useful symbols are:
F: I need food and water."
II: I need medicine."
I: I am badly hurt."
X: I am unable to move from here."
Pilots' replies
If the pilot lowers the plane's wings from side to side, this means "message received and understood". (At night, the pilot flashes the plane's green lights.) If the pilots flies the plane in a clockwise circle, this means "message received but not understood". (At night, the pilot flashes the plane's red lights.)
1.Which picture means "it's not safe to land"?
2.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Swinging your arm from side to side means "yes".
B. If the ground is dark, light smoke can't be seen.
C. If you need some medicine, make a symbol "II".
D. The pilots make replies with a blue light at night.
3.What is the passage mainly about?
A. The explanation of building signals on an island.
B. The importance of making signals on an island.
C. Ways of sending out signals on a lonely island.
D. Ways of receiving signals from a lonely island.
Dereck Joubert and his wife, Beverly, have made many films about wild animals in Africa. Their films and photographs are very popular and one of the photographs has been on the front cover of a National Geographic magazine.
A working day for Dereck and Beverly started very early—at 4:30 in the morning! That’s when they get up and start filming. And it’s a long day—they often work until 8:30 in the evening. In the winter it’s very cold and in the summer it can be 40C. Dereck always does the filming—Beverly never does that, and she doesn’t write. But Dereck never takes photographs or records the sound. They work very well as a team, and they both believe we should shoot animals with cameras—not with guns!
When they have finished filming and taking photographs for the day, they have dinner and Dereck usually writes while Beverly looks at her photographs. At night, they usually sleep in a small tent, but they sometimes sleep in the Land Cruiser—when they’re very close to wild animals, it’s sometimes safer to sleep in the car!
Dereck and Beverly have also traveled around the world and given talks about their work. Dereck says that the animals are not just something to look at—they play an important role. Beverly thinks the wild animals can teach us a lot about ourselves.
1.Dereck and Beverly start working_________.
A. at 4:30 in the morning
B. at 4:30 in the afternoon
C. at 8:30 in the morning
D. at 8:30 in the evening
2.Dereck and Beverly usually sleep_________ at night.
A. in a car B. in a tent
C. in a house D. in a hotel
3.Beverly thinks the wild animals __________.
A. are something to look at B. are very popular
C.play an unimportant role D. can teach us a lot
书面表达题
你们班开展了一次以"Less Stress（压力）, Better Life"为主题的英语演讲比赛,请你准备发言稿,谈谈你的一些缓解压力的好办法,与同学分享,内容包括:
●同学们中普遍存在的压力：学习很努力，成绩不理想；作业太多，没时间休息.
●我的压力：成绩好，但与同学相处有困难；与父母缺乏沟通(communicate with…)。
●缓解压力的方法：至少两项。 注意： 1. 词数120左右；
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均限一词。2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。(此题在答题卡上作答)
My friend Henry, with him I studied in the same class, didn’t like studying at school. That’s because he couldn’t go to high school. He had to return back to his hometown, where his father wished him to learn to manage our small shop. However, the young man was not interesting in it and didn’t do as his father said. He spends a lot of time reading and he also learned how to repair cars. Last month, I accepted an e-mail from him inviting me take my vacation in his hometown. I started off. Seeing that he was such successful, I said, “Henry, all road lead to Rome. You are great!”
