It was a short flight from Shanghai to Xi’ an. Xi’ an is one of the four great ancient capitals of China 1. over 3,100 years of history. Its ancient walls date from the Ming Dynasty and are the best 2.(preserve) in the world. There are bicycles for people to hire. It is 3.(amaze) to ride along the walls to survey this fascinating city.
The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance show is not to be missed, but my favorite is an art gallery, 4.we can enjoy some beautiful artwork and learn how to write Chinese characters.
Most tourists make 5. way to Xi’ an to see the life-size terracotta warriors (兵马俑) and we were no 6. (difference). The collection, which shows the armies of the first Emperor of China, 7.(remain) hidden until 1974 when they were discovered by a farmer sinking a well. Walking among the statues is forbidden unless you are a VIP — but there are plenty of souvenir 8. (shop) in which tourists can buy the replicas（复制品）of them.
All too soon it was time 9.(leave). I really enjoyed my stay in Xi’ an. It is indeed a place of interest worth 10. second visit.
I remember believing in Santa when I was a very young girl. However, as I grew older, I learned many ______ that “proved” his nonexistence. Always _____ by nature, I was determined to use _____ to decide whether Santa Claus was _____.
The first test ______when I was 5. I decided that if I _____ all night on Christmas Eve, I could see if Santa really came down the chimney. ______, that was a useless _____. I fell asleep that year, and when I woke up, I saw a _____ wrapped present under the _____.
At the age of 7, I came up with another test to see if Santa was real. That year, I didn’t send out my Christmas letter to Santa because I wanted ______ for Christmas, but this turned into a plot. By then, I _______knew Santa wasn’t real, but I wanted enough ______ to support this. That year was ______, because on Christmas Eve, my mother dragged me to our local Wal-Mart and led me around the toy section. I ______ to say a word, but did let my eyes _____ on a ballet set. I ______ that “Santa” wouldn’t know what I wanted because he shouldn’t be able to read my _____. However, my mother would know everything that caught my eyes in the store. If I got the ballet set the next morning, I would have my evidence. On Christmas morning, there was the ballet set, sitting under the tree again. ______ I didn’t use it much, my mother ended up returning it a few days later. She ______ Santa was generous enough to leave a receipt. That was the end to my task to discover the existence of Santa.
1.A. theories B. facts C. situations D. choices
2.A. cautious B. typical C. curious D. desperate
3.A. data B. exams C. tricks D. tests
4.A. real B. wise C. merciful D. generous
5.A. worked B. happened C. succeeded D. failed
6.A. called up B. kept up C. stayed up D. made up
7.A. Instead B. Otherwise C. Therefore D. However
8.A. attempt B. suggestion C. effect D. struggle
9.A. roughly B. clearly C. beautifully D. tidily
10.A. bed B. tree C. chimney D. table
11.A. everything B. nothing C. anything D. something
12.A. hardly B. never C. already D. usually
13.A. evidence B. intention C. idea D. experience
14.A. amazing B. strange C. interesting D. annoying
15.A. hated B. tried C. hesitated D. refused
16.A. focus B. try C. put D. call
17.A. hoped B. explained C. argued D. figured
18.A. purpose B. opinion C. mind D. eyes
19.A. As B. If C. Although D. As soon as
20.A. admitted B. promised C. thought D. claimed
Recently some American scientists have given a useful piece of advice to people in industrialized countries.They say people should eat more of the same kind of food eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago.1.
The scientists say that human life has changed greatly. Our bodies have not been able to deal with these changes in lifestyle and this has led to new kinds of sicknesses.2.They are called“diseases of civilization”．Many cancers and diseases of the blood system are examples of such diseases.
The scientists noted that people in both the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age enjoyed very little alcohol or tobacco, probably none.3.However, a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and that today.
Stone Age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which had much less fat than domestic (驯养的) ones. They ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables and fruits. They did not have milk or any other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains. 4. We eat six times more salt than our ancestors and we eat more sugar as well. We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein (蛋白质) and much less vitamin C.
5.But the scientists say that we would be much healthier if we eat much the same way the ancient people did, cutting the amount of fat, salty and sweet food.
A. Stone Age people lived a simple life without any meat.
B. But today, we enjoy eating a lot of these.
C. In that case, they would live a much healthier life.
D. Ancient people also got lots of physical exercise.
E. These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times.
F. People today probably don't want to live like our ancestors.
G. Modern people used to suffer from“diseases of civilization”．
As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information an the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
1.The passage begins with two questions to ________.
A. introduce the main topic B. show the author’s altitude
C. describe how to use the Interne D. explain how to store information
2.What can we learn about the first experiment?
A. Sparrow’s team typed the information into a computer.
B. The two groups remembered the information equally well.
C. The first group did not try to remember the formation.
D. The second group did not understand the information.
3.In transactive memory, people ________.
A. keep the information in mind
B. change the quantity of information
C. organize information like a computer
D. remember how to find the information
4.What is the effect of the Internet according to Sparrow's research?
A. We are using memory differently.
B. We are becoming more intelligent.
C. We have poorer memories than before.
D. We need a better way to access information.
A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.
Frank Hurley's pictures would be outstanding—undoubtedly firstrate photojournalism—if they had been made last week.In fact，they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck(海难), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival.Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegianbuilt threemaster that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all，to the southernmost shore of Antarctica's Weddell Sea.From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled (雪橇) across the continent.The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done.Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and wellresearched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort.Scott's last journey，completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world's imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds.Shackleton, a onetime British merchantnavy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography.Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic，was hired to make the images, most of which have never before been published.
1.What do we know about the photos taken by Hurley?
A. They were made last week.
B. They showed undersea sceneries.
C. They were found by a cameraman.
D. They recorded a disastrous adventure.
2.Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?
A. Frank Hurley.
B. Ernest Shackleton.
C. Robert Falcon Scott.
D. Caroline Alexander.
3.What does Alexander think was the purpose of the 1914 voyage?
A. Artistic creation. B. Scientific research.
C. Money making. D. Treasure hunting.
Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that th
e book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.
Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”
Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Peterson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.
1.Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?
A. To explain what they are.
B. To introduce BookCrossing.
C. To stress the importance of reading.
D. To encourage readers to share their ideas.
2.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2refer to?
A. The book. B. An adventure.
C. A public place. D. The identification number.
3.What will a BookCrosser do with a book after reading it?
A. Meet other readers to discuss it. B. Pass it on to another reader.
C. Keep it safe in his bookcase. D. Mail it back to its owner.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. Online Reading: A Virtual Tour
B. Electronic Books: A new Trend
C. A Book Group Brings Tradition Back
D. A Website Links People through Books
