Yasmin Eisenhauer, a teacher at Lowell School, told her class last fall that they were going to make the trees on their school grounds talk.

　　“What? How are we going to do this?” thought Lusya Mae Engen, a student in Yasmin's class.

　　But the kids soon learned what their teacher meant.

　　“We're trying to get people to talk with the trees through technology，” said Lusya.

　　First, the students picked their own trees. Then, each student had to learn all about his or her tree, like how tall it was, how the tree's leaves felt and looked, and during what season it flowered. To get all the information, they used the Internet and some math.

　　Next, the students wrote what they had learned about their trees and they recorded their own voices talking as if they were their trees, telling people all about who they were. That was the technology part.

　　“It was really cool to connect technology with nature，” said Azur Walla, another student in the class.

　　The kids named their trees things like Dog ‘N’ Woods, Harlo Tree or Freddy. They also added their own creative voices to the project, and asked people looking at the trees to sing a song in their shade (阴凉处) or give the trees a hug (拥抱).

　　“My name is Charlotte. I was given this name by my friend Brooke. She is really nice and tries to visit me every day. What is your name?” Then “Charlotte” tells the listener all about her leaves, and how big she is. She ends by saying: “I hope you come back to visit me because of course I can't come to you.”

　　The project took a whole year to complete. The kids met about once a week to work on it. Now visitors can visit the Lowell school grounds during off­school hours and take the tree tour with their cellphones by calling a phone number that is on a sign next to 22 trees.

21.How did Lusya feel when she heard what her teacher said?

　　A. Disappointed.   B. Surprised.   C. Worried.   D. Excited.

22.According to the text, Charlotte is ________.

　　A. the tree Brooke picked

　　B. a visitor to Lowell School

　　C. the organizer of the project

D. Brooke's classmate and friend

23.To carry out the project, the students have to ________.

　　A. become very creative

　　B. improve their math skills

　　C. know a lot about new technology

　　D. be quite familiar with their trees

　　Four interesting festivals

　　Grand Old Days

　　Phone numeber: (651) 699-0029

　　E-mail address: fo@grandave.com

　　Grand Old Days is one of the Midwest’s largest one-day festivals. It’s held every year on the first Sunday in June. It starts at 7:45 am until 5:00 pm. You should pay $8 for a ticket to enter the live music festival gardens and you must be at least 21 years old. There are a lot of interesting activities for the whole family.

　　Uptown Art Fair

　　Phone numeber: (612) 823-4581

　　E-mail address: info@uptownminneapolis.com

　　There is a wide variety of artwork you can buy from only a few dollars to thousands of dollars. There are also activities held by some artists. Uptown Art Fair starts on August 5th and ends on August 7th. It is free to attend. The opening time and closing time are Friday 11 am-8 pm, Saturday 10 am-8 pm, and Sunday 10 am-6 pm.

　　Minnesota State Fair

　　Phone numeber: (651) 288-4400

　　E-mail address: fairinfo@mnstatefair.org

　　It is one of the most popular fairs in Minnesota. It starts on August 25th and goes through Labor Day on September 5th. Tickets for adults (aged 13-64) are $11, seniors (aged 65 and older) $9, kids (aged 5-12) $8 and children under 5 are free of charge. It opens at 6 am and closes at midnight. The State Fair has lots of fun activities, bands, games, and rides.

　　Nativity County Fair

　　Phone numeber: (651) 696-5401

　　E-mail address: info@nativitycountyfair.com

　　The Nativity County Fair is a kid’s fair, but it has some fun things for adults as well. You can buy tickets for the rides and games, and the price depends on how many tickets you want to buy. It starts from September 16th to September 18th.

24. Which of the following lasts the longest?

　　A. Grand Old Days.    B. Minnesota State Fair.

　　C. Uptown Art Fair.    D. Nativity County Fair.

25. How much should a couple with their 4-year-old son pay to attend the Minnesota State Fair?

　　A. 17 dollars.  B. 19 dollars.   C. 22 dollars.   D. 30 dollars.

26. The author’s main purpose in writing this passage is to _____.

　　A. advertise some popular festivals

　　B. introduce some festival activities

　　C. give advice on kids’ festival safety

　　D. compare the costs of different festivals

27. Where can you probably find the passage?

　　A. In a museum guide.    B. In a business report.

　　C. In a book review.      D. On a tourist website.

　　There was a time when people used to communicate by writing letters to each other. As part of a primary English class, students learned how to write different types of notes, which included the heading, body and closing in each. Among the different styles they learned were the thank-you letters, which were used to send out in response to receiving a gift.

　　Today creating your own thank-you letters is still a polite response to receiving a gift. And sending a thank-you letter after a job interview is also important. A formal letter should have the name and address of the person. They are written on the top of the page as well as the name and address of the person sending it. It should include the date the letter is being written in the heading. Then write a salutation (称呼) and a friendly greeting as the opening line. In the body you should not only thank the person for the item that was gifted, but should name the item as well. This shows the receipt (收到) of the gift. It is also good to mention what uses you have for the gift.

　　Some of the gift-giving occasions include Christmas, weddings and birthdays. These are festive (喜庆的) events where the gift givers are usually present at a party held in honor of the event. Even though you might thank your guests at some point during the party, it is still polite to send a card or note after the event. Other occasions that are not centered around celebrations include hospital stays and funerals. These are times when people send words and gifts of encouragement to the person with the illness or the loss.

28. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

　A. Middle school students began to learn how to write letters.

　B. A letter is mainly made up of the heading, body and closing.

　C. In the old days writing letters is the only way of communication.

　D. Today there is no need to write letters to respond to receiving a gift.

29. What should the heading of a formal letter include according to the passage?

　　① The salutation and a friendly greeting.

　　② The date when the letter is being written.

　　③ The name and address of the person who sends it.

　　④ The name and address of the person who receives the letter.

　A. ①②③ B. ①②④ C. ①③④ D. ②③④

30. The last paragraph mainly talks about 　　　.

　A. how to choose proper gifts

　B. reasons of writing thank-you letters

　C. the occasions of giving gifts

　D. who usually receives gifts

31. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

　A. It is rude for people to thank the guests during a party.

　B. Writing a thank-you letter to your interviewer can help you get the job.

　C. People mention what uses they have for a gift to show that they like it.

　D. It is necessary for people to write thank-you letters after attending a funeral.

　　If researchers want to know what happened on a special day, they often look at newspapers published (出版) on that day. But what would happen if newspapers were to stop publishing? Future researchers would likely turn to the Web.

　　The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine at Archive.org has for years saved websites from the past. But it only does this once a day for news websites. A reporter Ben Welsh decided to create a site similar to Archive.org. But he wanted to archive (存档) only news websites. And he wanted to save their homepages (主页) more often.

　　In May Mr. Welsh created PastPages.org to save the homepages of seventy news websites once an hour. He said, “This schedule of what I call ‘harvesting’ is important in today’s quickly-changing news environment. Because over the course of a day, a news story can develop quite a bit. No one has saved the homepages of so many news websites so often and made that material available (可获得的) to the public. I hope to keep adding to the site until it is archiving material from up to three hundred news websites around the world.”

　　Ben Welsh spent about sixty dollars a month on storage space. He feared the cost would increase beyond what he could afford, so he asked people for help through the website Kickstarter. Within about a week, he had gotten what he had asked for and more.

　　Stephanie Bluestein, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, said, “Now you could go back and see what the lead story was, how the headline changed and how the newspaper played a story. You can actually compare. Today’s news changes so quickly that even archiving once an hour may soon not be enough.”

　32. Why does PastPages.org save homepages of news websites once an hour?

　　A. Because news changes quickly in modern times.

　　B. Because there are over 300 news websites that need to be saved.

　　C. Because the website can make all the news available to the public.

D. Because saving homepages of news websites may earn money.

33. Mr. Welsh asked for help through the website Kickstarter to______.

　　A. help more people save homepages

　　B. make more money from PastPages.org

　　C. to help create another site Archive.org

　　D. raise money to pay for the cost of storage space

　34. What’s Stephanie Bluestein’s attitude towards PastPages.org?

　　A. Uncaring.   B. Favorable.   C. Disagreeable.   D. Doubtful.

　35. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Websites compete with newspapers

　　B. Websites save useful homepages in the past

　　C. Websites save today’s homepages for the future

D. Websites save more homepages than newspapers

Easter is a very popular holiday in Christian countries. __36__ Easter is a “movable” holiday, as it is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox (春分).

　　Easter is known mostly as a Christian holiday. __37__ The holiday was first meant to celebrate the coming of spring and to welcome the birth of plants, animals and all the bright flowers. __38__ Then later the eggs were given as gifts. Sometimes the eggs were exchanged by lovers. Giving special eggs to those that they love is very similar to giving presents on Valentine's Day.

　　Most countries celebrate Easter by decorating eggs, getting together with family, eating chocolate and sweets and playing egg hunts. Many children enjoy Easter because of egg hunts. __39__ Then the children run around searching for them. The most famous egg hunt is done every year on the lawn (草坪) of the White House in Washington D.C.

　　For many children, Easter and the Easter Bunny are second in popularity only to Christmas and Santa Claus. The Easter Bunny, a young rabbit, is a character that represents everything wonderful for spring: life and playfulness. The Easter Bunny first came from Germany and was brought to North America later. __40__ There are even Easter Bunnies made of chocolate!

　　A. It's a very popular character for Easter.

　　B. It's a holiday to celebrate Jesus Christ's return to life.

　　C. Others have hidden eggs around the house, or outside.

　　D. During Easter in Germany, a lamb is a popular symbol.

　　E. The most interesting part of the holiday is looking for eggs.

　　F. The practice of painting eggs was first done to represent the coming of spring.

G. However, many celebrations during this time have nothing to do with Christianity.