US researchers have found traces of an ancient lake on Mars recently, increasing hopes of discovering evidence that billions of years ago the Red planet hosted life.
The lake, which dates back some 3.4 billion years, appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep, said the team from the University of Colorado.
"This is the first clear evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars," said Boulder's research associate, Gaetano Di Achille, in a study published in the latest edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
"The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago."
Analysis of the images has shown the water carved out the canyon (溪谷) in which it was found, which then opened out into a valley depositing (使淤积) sediment (沉积) which formed a delta (三角洲).
"Finding shorelines is a great discovery to us," said assistant professor Brian Hynek, adding it showed the lake existed at a time when Mars was thought to have been cold and dry.
Scientists believe the oldest surfaces on Mars formed during the wet and warm era known as the Noachan epoch, about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago.
The newly discovered lake is believed to date from the Hesperian era and postdates the end of the warm and wet period on Mars by 300 million years, according to the study.
Scientists believe deltas next to the lake may well hold secrets about past life on Mars as such places on Earth have become the natural deposits of organic carbon and other markers of life.
1.The size of the lake found on Mars is ______.
A. 80 square miles
B. 1,500 square miles
C. 3.4 billion square miles
D. 300 million square miles
2.When the lake existed, the weather on Mars was ____.
A. hot and wet B. wet and warm
C. cold and dry D. cold and wet
3.Why do scientists think deltas near the lake may hold secrets about past life on Mars?
A. Because similar places on Earth have become natural deposits of markers of life.
B. Because someone has put secrets about past life on Mars there.
C. Because past life has been found in other deltas on Mars.
D. Because some people are said to have already seen life marks there.
4.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The Noachan epoch was a wet and warm era.
B. The lake might have existed 3.4 billion years.
C. The discovery can’t fully prove that the Mars once hosted life.
D. The lake traces prove that there exists life on Mars now.
In the last few years the popularity of eBooks has exploded. The advantages are clear: You can carry as many books with you as you want. You can simply download even 7 books you like and instantly start reading instead of having to wait for the book to arrive by mail.
However, one thing hadn't changed. If you wanted to rent a book you were still forced to use hardcopy books. Until now that is Amazon. com recently announced the start of a new program where you can rent eBooks.
Where to rent eBooks?
As mentioned before, Amazon. com is the first and currently the only retailer (零售商) that has a program in place for renting eBooks. Luckily, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and their eBook assortment (分类) is massive. They are also the producer of the Kindle, the most popular eReader, which means you can be sure that the eBooks you rent will work.
You can currently only rent eTextbooks. But this is likely to change as soon as the word gets out that you can save money by renting eBooks.
Why rent eBooks at Amazon?
● Save money: Save up t0 80% of the normal price of the eBook.
●Decide how long you rent: From 30 days t0 360 days, you decide how long you want it. You can extend the time by as little as a day. Or simply buy the eBook if you want to keep it after all.
●Use any device: If you rent an eBook from Amazon, you can read it on your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, Android device, Windows Phone 7. Blackberry. or Kindle. .
●Keep your notes: Do you like to keep annotations (注释) and highlights in your eBooks? Don't worry. You can always revisit your notes and highlights through Amazon. com.
How to rent eBooks?
Simply search for the eBook you want to rent on Amazon. com and select the "Rent eBooks" option. After that, a new page will open where you can select how long you’d like to rent the eBook. You can read eBooks for a period of 30 to 360 days.
You decide how long you need the eBook. If you later find out you need it for longer. you can simply extend the time. Or buy it for the normal price whenever you want.
Once you've chosen the time you want to rent the eBook, you simply go to checkout. Or you can use the "Rent now" button.
1.According to the passage, _________
A. eBooks will be changed into other types by Amazon. com
B. eBooks will replace hardcover hooks in the next few years
C. readers get a discount of at least 20% of the normal price
D. readers are able to rent eBooks only at Amazon. com now
2.To rent an eBook online, which of the following goes last?
A. open a new page
B. select the "Rent eBooks" option
C. choose a rental date
D. press "Rent now" button
3.The main purpose of the passage is to __________.
A. inform and explain B. discuss and assess
C. compare and evaluate D describe and argue
Genetically modified (转基因 ) foods have become a focus point of agriculture throughout the news today. This has an effect on many different aspects of the agriculture world. From the seed dealer, to the farmer that buys the seed, to the workers that the farmer sells to; all are affected by the new technologies that are involved in this part of production agriculture.
Genetically modified foods have come under heavy fire lately. There are some countries that are against buying these types of foods. They are tested for safety by the best scientific experts in Europe, the US and the rest of the world. They are not for sale until they have gone through this complete safety process. Since they are a new product, and any slight problem with them could affect a whole country, these tests are very necessary.
These safety tests are carried out because of the new rules that were made with the Novel Foods Regulation. Begun in May of 1997, the Novel Foods Regulation set up an EU-wide pre-market system for all novel foods. A novel food is described as one that has not been eaten by EU consumers widely in the past. By setting up this program the EU hopes to keep its consumers safe from any possible side effects of any new food products.
There are a variety of ways in which genetic modification has helped food producers. They can improve the nutritional (营养的) value or the storage conditions of the food. Today there are only two genetically modified foods that have been allowed for use, these are GM soybean and GM maize.
Despite any safety checks, many people are still cautious about eating genetically modified foods. By providing these people with the necessary information, we can allow them to make decisions about these foods.
1.What do we know about the novel food?
A. It’s very popular in EU.
B. It’s bad for people’s health.
C. It’s a new kind of food.
D. Its story has been published.
2.Genetically foods are allowed to be sold if they are .
A. tested for safety
B. of high quality
C. more nutritional
D. grown in Europe
3.From paragraph 2, we can learn that genetically modified foods .
A. do no harm to people
B. have caused some problems
C. are well received after being tested
D. are criticized and attacked by many people
4.What’s the writer’s attitude towards genetically modified foods?
A. We should warn people that they are too dangerous to be eaten.
B. We should give people information about them so that they can decide whether to buy them
C. We should encourage people to eat them because they are more nutritional.
D. We should tell people that they are trying to fool the farmers.
Bill Javis took over our village news-agency at a time of life when most of us only want to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.
Every day he opened his shop at six a.m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his door-step before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his nearest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometime in the afternoon, the evening paper landed on the doormat, and at 4 o’clock Bill reopened. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.
He lived in a flat above the shop, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the water. He had had no luck, I could see, but he was making no effort to move.
“What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.
For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, “Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right.”
I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.
1.Bill Javis became a news-agent when ________.
A. he needed the money.
B. he decided to take things easy
C. he was quite an old man
D. he gave up clock-repairing
2.Bill opened the shop so early in the day because ________.
A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work
B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came
C. he was never sure of time
D. it was then that he did a lot of business
3.On that sunny afternoon, the writer was surprised when he saw Bill because _______.
A. he thought it was late for Bill to be still fishing
B. he thought Bill was ill, since he was not moving at all
C. Bill had not caught anything, and that seemed strange
D. Bill stayed in his flat
4.What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase in paragraph 2?
A. become noisy B. become less
C. become stronger D. become busy
在日常生活中，人们对于体育锻炼所持的观点各不同，请你以 “ Health means wealth”为题写一篇短文，号召人们坚持健康积极的生活方式：每天锻炼一小时，健康工作五十年，幸福生活一辈子。
要点如下：
1. 大多数人认为健康就是一切。
2. 一些年轻人在闲暇时打牌、上网等，认为他们还很健康没必要锻炼。
3. 一些人只顾工作赚钱，认为钱就是一切。
4. 你的观点：……
注意：词数 100左右；开头已给出
提示词： wealth 财富
2.不能逐句翻译。为使行文流畅，可适当增减细节
Health means wealth
In our daily life, people hold different opinions about taking exercises.
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。文中有10处语言错误。每句中至多有两处错误。请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏符号（∧），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，并在该下面写出修改后的词。
注意：
1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Dear Diary,
Here I am in the middle of a city, 350 miles far away from our farmhouse. Do you want to know why we move last week? Dad lost his job, and as Mom explained, “He is lucky to find other one.” His new job meant I had to say goodbye to my classmate, my school and just everything else I love in the world. To make things bad, now I have to share a room to my younger sister, Maggie. Tomorrow is first day of school. I am very tiring, but I know I’ll never fall asleep.
Good night or remember, you, dear diary, is my only souvenir of my past life and my only friend.
Yours,
Rosemary
