If he’d survived his sudden illness in 1990, Jim Henson might be turning 79 years old on September 24, 2015. He would probably still be at work. We can only guess where his imagination would have taken him — and us — in the 25 years we missed. There’s no doubt that he would have broken new ground, for Henson was a neverstopping innovator (创新者)．
His long career began far back in 1955, when he created Sam and Friends for a Washington D．C. television station. The programmes were just five minutes long and scheduled in the noman’sland between afternoon and evening programming. Yet the show won an Emmy for best local entertainment programme in 1958.
When it ended in 1961, Henson struggled to find work. He could only get brief appearances on other programmes like The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live. Only in 1976 did a British producer finally give Henson the green light to start a fullscale television show. The Muppet Show was produced and broadcast in Great Britain before finally arriving on prime time (黄金时间) US television. The network continued to identify it as a children’s programme, though the programme won a wide following of adult viewers.
One reason for its appeal to grownups was the obvious skill in catching the imagination. Henson’s talent was so great that it’s difficult to think of Kermit or Miss Piggy as nothing more than piles of cloth when they aren’t being operated. But Henson himself never forgot how much work went into creating his characters.
Way back in his early days, Henson created Kermit the Frog. His body was made from a green coat his mother had thrown away and his eyes were two halves of a pingpong ball. Over the years, his shape became more expressive. “Kermit is the character through whose eyes the audience is viewing the show. He’s a nice guy，” Henson said.
1.Which of the following programmes marked the start of Jim Henson’s career?
A. The Tonight Show. B. Sam and Friends.
C. Saturday Night Live. D. The Muppet Show.
2.It can be inferred from the passage that Miss Piggy was ________.
A. a character Jim Henson created
B. Jim Henson’s close friend
C. a television programme
D. Kermit’s girlfriend
3.From the passage, we can infer that ________.
A. it was easy for Jim to create his characters
B. Jim Henson died of illness at the age of 54
C. the Muppet Show was broadcast in the US first
D. the programme Sam and Friends was not popular locally
Most parents in Britain log onto social networking sites like Facebook to spy on what their children are doing, a study has found. Figures showed that nearly 55% of parents thought of snooping_around on their children’s profiles (基本信息) to see what they are up to. They did it to avoid having “awkward conversations” with the children but nearly a quarter admitted it was the only way they could find out about their lives.
Websites like Facebook and MySpace along with microblogging site Twitter have become popular among teenagers and children. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that last year among 16 to 24yearolds,75% posted messages on them. The majority of 13 to 16yearolds have more than 100 “friends” on Facebook while more than 750,000 are using the website below the age limit, which is 13.
Experts and parents however have expressed anxiety about how they can monitor what the young are up to when they go online. Almost one in 20 mothers and fathers even log on with a friend’s account to avoid detection and gain better access to their children’s profiles.
While 55% said they did spy on their children, 40% said they did not, but the remaining 5% said they would do if they knew how.
Some 41% monitor their children’s status updates and 39% look at their “wall”， which is where they and friends can write things. Just under one third, 29%, looked at pictures their children had uploaded (上传)．
When asked why they behaved like they did, 6% of parents blamed their “overprotective” instincts (本能) and 14% admitted they were just being curious.
1.What do the underlined words “snooping around” probably mean?
A. Posting messages freely.
B. Investigating secretly.
C. Moving around casually.
D. Communicating easily.
2.According to the passage, what makes experts and parents worried?
A. What children write in their profiles.
B. Whom the children would make friends with.
C. Why teenagers like posting messages online.
D. How they can monitor children’s online behavior.
3.According to the study, ________.
A. more than one third parents monitor their children’s status updates
B. uploading pictures is bringing children great danger
C. most parents are against making net friends
D. few parents know what “wall” is
4.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Experts and parents want to know what the young do online.
B. People younger than 13 are not allowed to use Facebook in Britain.
C. Under one third of parents looked at pictures their children had uploaded.
D. About 25% of parents have many ways to find out about their children’s lives.
B
An extinct mountain goat that was once common in the Pyrenees became the first animal to be brought back from extinction.Researchers used frozen DNA to produce a clone，but the newborn kid died within minutes of birth due to breathing difficulties.
The Pyrenean ibex is a type of mountain goat，which is believed to have died out completely in 2000.Before the death of the last known individual (a 13yearold female known as Celia)，biologists took cells from her skin and ears，which were frozen in liquid nitrogen (氮)．An earlier cloning attempt to use the skin cells failed.But the latest attempt involved the creation of 439 cloned embryos (胚胎)．Of these cloned embryos,57 were put into the female domestic goats，but only one goat gave birth and the newborn cloned kid died after seven minutes as a result of lung disease.
Researchers say that other cloned animals，including sheep，have been born with similar lung disease，but they say that overall the experiment was a major step forward in the effort to bring the ibex back to its mountain home.The leading researcher Jose Folch says，“The cloned kid was genetically like the ibex.In species such as the ibex，cloning is the only possibility to avoid its complete disappearance.”
The failure to produce a living clone from DNA that was frozen only fifteen years ago shows the difficulty researchers would face in trying to bring back species that have been extinct for decades or centuries. Researchers have had the idea of bringing back the Tasmanian tiger, which went extinct in 1936. There are，however, other species that have been seriously suggested for cloning, such as the giant panda, the African bongo antelope, the Sumatran tiger and the pygmy hippo. Supporters believe cloning provides hope of keeping these endangered animals alive before they die out.
1.What do we know about the cloned ibex?
A. It died of lung disease.
B. It was the first cloned animal in the world.
C. It lived for thirteen years.
D. It was born in 2000.
2.We can conclude from the passage that ________.
A. cloning has developed quickly in developed countries
B. no more animals will die out in the future
C. cloning makes it possible to preserve endangered species
D. cloning seldom results in physical problems for animals
3.What’s the best title for this passage?
A. Great advancement in cloning goats
B. Difficulties in saving extinct animals
C. Public concerns about cloning
D. Cloning brought back an extinct species for a while
4.In which part of a newspaper would you most probably read this passage?
A. Society. B. Sports.
C. Amusement. D. Science.
（题文）假定你是李华，你校的交换生Terry给你发邮件想让你给他推荐一门选修课。请你给他回封邮件，内容包括：
1. 推荐书法课(calligraphy)及其原因；
2. 课程的主要内容；
3. 需要做哪些准备。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；
3. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。提示词：选修课optional course
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，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仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
I always dream life in the future. What will it be like?
Perhaps some people will go to the moon for the holiday, and some people may live under the sea and in pace. Besides, probably there’ll be more educational program on the Internet. And therefore, students will be able to study at home instead of go to school every day. What’s more, maybe in the future each family will have a robot, that will be able to do whatever it was told to, such as going to shopping, doing housework and so on.
With the breakthrough of technology, I believe that their life will certainly become easier, happy and more colorful.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Hoh Xil or Kekexili is the world’s third 1. (large) uninhabited (无人居住的) area. Many examples of wildlife can 2. (find) in the remote area of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. The view of mountains, glaciers and lakes here 3. (make) it a good place in terms of natural beauty.
At the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee 4. (hold) in Poland, Hoh Xil was approved5.a new world heritage site, becoming the 51st world heritage site in China. It is home to more than 230 species of wildlife,6. (include) the endangered Tibetan antelope. The illegal hunting of Tibet antelope used to be 7. serious problem in the 1990s. The wool of Tibetan antelopes, soft and warm, can be obtained without hurting the animals. But poachers (盗猎者) would choose simply8. (kill) them before taking the wool,9. caused the number of Tibetan antelopes to drop rapidly. The struggle to stop illegal hunting was described in the 2004 film Kekexili: Mountain Patrol.
Now that Hoh Xil has made it onto the UNESCO list, it’s believed that the 10. (protect) of the region’s wild animals and special ecosystem will be more effective.
