As a boy, Charles Robert Darwin(达尔文) collected anything that caught his interest: insects, coins and interesting stones. He was not very clever, but Darwin was good at doing the things that interested him.

       His father was a doctor, so Darwin was sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, and was planned to follow a medical career. But Charles found the lectures boring. Then his father sent him to Cambridge University to study to be a priest. While at Cambridge, Darwin’s interest in zoology and geography grew. Later he got a letter from Robert FitzRoy who was planning to make a voyage around the world on a ship, the Beagle. He wanted a naturalist to join the ship, and Darwin was recommended(推荐). That voyage was the start of Darwin’s great life.

       As the Beagle sailed around the world, Darwin began to wonder how life had developed on earth. He began to observe everything. After he was home, he set to work, getting his collection in order. His first great work The Zoology of the Beagle was well received, but he was slow to make public his ideas on the origin of life.

       Later Darwin and Wallace, another naturalist who had the same opinions as Darwin, produced a paper together. Darwin’s great book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”(《物种起源》) appeared. It attracted a storm. People thought that Darwin was saying they were descended from monkeys. What a shameful idea! Although most scientists agreed that Darwin was right, the Church was still so strong that Darwin never received any honors for his work.

       Afterwards, he published another great work, The Descent of Man. His health grew worse, but he still worked. “When I have to give up observation, I shall die,” he said. He was still working on 17, April, 1882. He was dead two days later.

21. Darwin’s father sent him to Edinburgh to _____.

       A. make him like natural history                   B. make him become a doctor 

       C. let him change his hobbies                     D. have him give up his collection

22. According to the passage, Charles Darwin’s whole life was changed by _____.

       A. his study at Cambridge University                B. his collection of coins

       C. the naturalists at Cambridge                     D. the voyage of the Beagle

23. The underlined part “they were descended from monkeys” probably means “_____”.

       A. they gave monkeys life                            B. they were different from monkeys

       C. they were developed from monkeys                  D. they had to live with monkeys

Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.

　 Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a ＄10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet. In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to “speak” with their teachers, their classmates, and their families. However, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees—anywhere at all!

　 Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, the portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher-education officials are studying how laptops can help students. State officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.

　 At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff use computers. The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons. As one Westlake teacher said, “Here we are in the middle of Virginia and we’re giving students a window on the world. They can see everything and do everything.”

24. The main purpose of the laptop program is to give each student a laptop to _______.

A. use for their schoolwork                        B. access the Internet

　C. work at home                                        D. connect them to libraries

25. Which of the following is true about Westlake College?

　A. All teachers use computers.                       B. 1500 students have laptops.

　C. It is an old college in America.                   D. Students there can do everything.

26. A window on the world in the last paragraph means that students can _______.

　A. attend lectures on information technology

　B. travel around the world

　C. get information from around the world

　D. have free laptops

27. What can we infer from the passage?

　A. The program is successful.                         B. The program is not workable.

　C. The program is too expensive.                    D. We don’t know the result of the program yet.

Ammie Reddick from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, was only 18 months old when she had the accident that had scarred(留下创伤) her for life. The curious child reached up to grab the wire of a hot kettle in the family kitchen and poured boiling water over her tiny infant frame.

Her mother Ruby turned round and, seeing Ammie horribly burnt, called an ambulance which rushed her daughter to a nearby hospital. Twenty percent of Ammie’s body had been burned and all of her burns were third-degree. There, using tissue(组织) taken from unburned areas of Ammie’s body, doctors performed complex skin transplants(移植) to close her wounds and control her injuries, an operation that took about six hours. Over the next 16 years, Ammie underwent 12 more operations to repair her body.

When she started school at Maxwelton Primary at age 4, other pupils made cruel comments or simply wouldn’t play with her. “I was the only burned child in the street, the class and the school,” she recalled, “some children refused to become friends because of that.”

Today, aged 17, Ammie can only ever remember being a burned person with scars; pain is a permanent part of her body. She still has to have two further skin transplants. Yet she is a confident, outgoing teenager who offers inspiration and hope to other young burns victims.

She is a member of the Scottish Burned Children’s Club, a charity set up last year. This month, Ammie will be joining the younger children at the Graffham Water Center in Cambridge shire for the charity’s first summer camp. “I’ll show them how to get rid of unkind stares from others,” she says. Ammie loves wearing fashionable sleeveless tops, and she plans to show the youngsters at the summer camp that they can too. “I do not go to great lengths to hide my burns scars,” she says, “I gave up wondering how other people would react years ago.”

28. What did other children do when Ammie first went to school?

A．They were friendly to her.                 B．They showed sympathy to her.

C．They were afraid of her.                   D．They looked down upon her.

29.   Ammie will teach the younger children at the Graffham Water Center to___________.

A．face others’ unkindness bravely          B．hide their scars by proper dressing

C．live a normal life                             D．recover quickly

30.   What does the underlined word “permanent” in the 4^th paragraph mean?

A. necessary          B. life-long         C. difficult       D. important

31. What can be the best title of the passage?

A．A Seriously Burned Girl Survives             B．Ways to Get Rid of Unkind Stares

C．Permanent Scars And Pain For a Girl         D．A seriously burned angel of Hope

The death of languages is not a new phenomenon. Languages usually have a relatively short life span as well as a very high death rate. Only a few, including Egyptian, Chinese, Greek, Latin, have lasted more than 2,000 years.

   What is new, however, is the speed at which they are dying out. Europe’s colonial conquests caused a sharp decline in linguistic diversity, eliminating at least 15 percent of all languages spoken at the time. Over the last 300 years, Europe has lost a dozen, and Australia has only 20 left of the 250 spoken at the end of the 18th century.

The rise of nation-states has also been decisive in selecting and consolidating national languages and sidelining others. By making great efforts to establish an official language in education, the media and the civil service, national governments have deliberately tried to eliminate minority languages.

This process of linguistic standardization has been boosted by industrialization and scientific progress, which have imposed new methods of communication that are swift, straightforward and practical. Language diversity came to be seen as an obstacle to trade and the spread of knowledge. Monolingualism became an ideal.

More recently, the internationalization of financial markets, the spread of information by electronic media and other aspects of globalization have intensified the threat to “small” languages. A language not on the Internet is a language that “no longer exists” in the modern world. It is out of the game.

The serious effects of the death of languages are evident. First of all, it is possible that if we all ended up speaking the same language, our brains would lose some of their natural capacity for linguistic inventiveness. We would never be able to figure out the origins of human language or resolve the mystery of “the first language”. As each language dies, a chapter of human history closes.

Multilingualism is the most accurate reflection of multiculturalism. The destruction of the first will inevitably lead to the loss of the second. Imposing a language without any links to a people’s culture and way of life stifles the expression of their collective genius. A language is not only used for the main instrument of human communication. It also expresses the world vision of those who speak it, their ways of using knowledge. To safeguard languages is an urgent matter.

32. Which of the following does not contribute to the death of languages?

   A. Colonial conquests of Europe                            

B. The boom of human population

   C. Advances in science and industrialization      

D. The rise of nation-states

33. The underlined word “ stifles” in the last paragraph probably means “_____”.

Taking good notes is a time-saving skill that will help you to become a better student in several ways____36_____.Second, your notes are excellent materials to refer to when you are studying for a test. Third, note-taking offers variety to your study time and helps you to hold your interest.

       You will want to take notes during classroom discussions and while reading a textbook or doing research for a report. ____37_____Whenever or however you take notes, keep in mind that note-taking is a selective process. _____38____

The following methods may work best for you.

●Read the text quickly to find the main facts and ideas in it.

●Carefully read the text and watch for words that can show main points and

supporting facts.      

● Write your notes in your own words.

● ____39_____

● Note any questions or ideas you may have about what was said or written.

As you take notes, you may want to use your own shorthand(速记). When you do, be sure that you understand your symbols(符号) and that you use them all the time. ____40_____

A．Use words, not complete sentences.

B．There are three practical note-taking methods.

C．You must write your notes on separate paper.

D．Otherwise, you may not be able to read your notes late

E. you will also want to develop your own method for taking notes.

F. That means you must first decide what is important enough to include in your notes.

G. First, the simple act of writing something down makes it easier for you to understand and remember it.