ALBUQUERQUE, N. M.－With the new year coming, a new website was set up to offer ringtones (手机铃声) of the sounds of dozens of rare and endangered species from around the world.

The Center for Biological Diversity started offering free wildlife ringtones for cellphones a year ago to educate people about the plight of the animals, and the movement enjoyed such success that the environmental group has collected more ringtones and added them to its website for this year.

The group plans to release a kind of new ringtones each month, including the sounds of the African elephant and the Emperor Penguin of the Antarctic, said Peter Galvin, the group’s conservation director.

“We’ve hit the 100,000th download in over 150 countries,” Galvin said Wednesday in a telephone interview. “It’s pretty interesting. We didn’t realize how much of an international hit it would become.”

The response, he said, stresses the worldwide movement to save endangered and rare species.

“The extinction crisis is a worldwide crisis,” he said.

Available ringtones include the howl of an endangered Mexican gray wolf, the bellows of an Arctic beluga whale and the calls of dozens of other mammals, birds and reptiles. Website visitors can also get cellphone wallpaper and facts for each of the species.

And later this year, the website will be available in Spanish and more ringtones from species in Latin America will be added, Galvin said.

17. The new ringtones collect the sound of ____________.

   A. lovely animals                                                     B. common animals

   C. frightened animals                                             D. rare or endangered animals 

18. The new ringtones mentioned in the passage are used to ____________.

   A. add fun to the new year                                     B. celebrate the coming new year

   C. call on people to protect wildlife                                D. develop the cellphone industry

19. The underlined word “plight” in the second paragraph probably means “__________”.

   A. sudden disappearance                                             B. difficult situation

   C. rich knowledge                                                 D. usual habit

20. What would be the best title for the passage?

   A. New Wildlife Ringtones Released in a Website  

   B. A New Way to Protect Wildlife

   C. Great success of New Strange Ringtones

   D. New Ringtones Popular With Cellphone Users

American folk music is the music of the people. “Good Night Irene,” is an example of a traditional folk song. That means the song is so old, no one really knows who wrote it. Huddie Ledbetter, the singer and guitarist known as Ledbelly, first recorded “Good Night Irene” in 1932. Since then more than a hundred other versions have been recorded. “Good Night Irene,” was a huge hit for the Weavers in 1950.

Folk songs sometimes tell stories about real events. An example is the story of a young man whose last name was spelled D-U-L-A but pronounced “Dooley”. Tom Dula was a Civil War soldier in North Carolina. He was found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend. He was sentenced to death and was hanged in 1868, yet the case left many questions. The story was retold in poems and songs—including the hit song, “Tom Dooley,” recorded in 1958 by the Kingston Trio.

Folk singer and songwriter Amy Speace says the history of American folk music can be imagined as a tree with many branches. At the center, she says, is Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie wrote almost 3,000 songs. But he only recorded about 300 of them. His granddaughter Anna Canoni says that was partly because he did not have enough money to record more.

Yet for all his influence, millions of Americans today remember him for just one song, which children learned in school. The song, “This Land is Your Land,” seems like the perfect expression of pride in country. What many people do not know is that it was meant sarcastically(讽刺地), as just the opposite. This meaning is made clear later in the song, in the parts that most children never learn in school.

Some people probably think of a folk singer out of date from the 1960s. A long-haired, guitar-playing idealist sings about bringing the world together. But these days, with music production software, digital video and social networks all easily available, folk artists really can bring the world together.

25. What do we know about “Good Night Irene”?

A. It was first recorded in 1950.                B. It was about a real event.

C. Ledbelly wrote this old song.                D. The Weavers’ version was very successful.

26. Who was Tom Dula?

   A. A hero hanged wrongly.                               B. A real man thought to be a murderer.

   C. A soldier killed in a war.                               D. An imaginary person in a song.

27. From Paragraph3 we can learn that Woody Guthrie ____________.

A. earned a lot by writing folk music        

B. recorded as many as 3,000 songs in his life

C. recorded his songs with a major record company

D. played an important role in the history of folk music

28. What is the author’s attitude toward folk artists?

A. Uncaring                   B. Doubtful                  C.    Supportive           D. Unconcerned

Sharks are among the oldest animals on Earth. There are hundreds of kinds of sharks. Most are about two meters long. The dogfish shark, however, is less than twenty centimeters in length. A shark has an extremely good sense of smell. It can find small amounts of substances in water, such as blood, body liquids and chemicals produced by animals.  29   Sharks eat fish, other sharks, and plants that live in the ocean.
    Sharks grow slowly. About forty percent of all sharks lay eggs.   30   Some sharks carry their young inside their bodies as humans do. Some sharks are not able to reproduce until they are twenty years old. Most reproduce only every two years. And they give birth to fewer than ten young sharks. For this reason, overfishing of sharks is of special danger to the future of the animal.
    Sharks are important for the world’s oceans. They eat injured and diseased fish. Their hunting activities mean that the numbers of other fish in ocean waters do not become too great.    

  31 

People hunt sharks for sport, food, medicine and their skin. Experts say the international market for some kinds of sharks has increased because many parts of a shark are valuable.
    Collectors pay thousands of dollars for the jaws of a shark.   32   The skin of a shark can be used like leather.
    In Asia, people enjoy a kind of soup made from shark fins. Experts say a fisherman can earn a lot of money for even one kilogram of shark fins. Sharks are among the oldest animals on Earth, but some sharks are in danger of disappearing from Earth.   33   

A. The others give birth to live young.
B. They are a threat to other forms of life in the ocean.
C. This powerful sense helps sharks find their food.
D. Sharks are valuable to us and we can make full use of them.

E. Shark liver oil is a popular source of Vitamin A.
F. This protects the plants and other forms of life that exist in the oceans.

G. If too many sharks in one area are killed, that group of sharks may never return to normal population levels.

Festivals are meant to celebrate important times and events. The Western Halloween     takes place on October 31 every year.    54    (obvious), it had its origin in old    55     (believe) about the return of the spirits of dead people. However, children nowadays celebrate it in their own ways and they are always looking forward to its    56    (arrive). Many young people also have great fun with each other, playing music and dancing to it.

Li Hua, an exchange student in the USA, attaches great importance to    57    (learn) about the customs and cultures here.    58    this festive night, he as well as his band,     59    (dress) in fancy clothing, is giving    60    (amaze) performances in the open air. The song which    61    (sing) on the stage now was just written by Li Hua,    62    whom being a famous musician is his forever dream. Actually, it is the same interest they share    63    brings them together.

 “Today is the day I start the big diet,” I told my wife as I raised my hand and        34   , “No chocolate today!”

“Oh, has the hospital gift shop    35    selling it?” she asked.

     “No,” I said. “I’ll just have to    36    my strong determination.”

But when I arrived at the hospital, my little friend Benton had been there    37   . I knew my promise would    38    disappear. Because if Benton had things his way, I’d always be eating a piece of candy from the    39    bag he often shared with me.

     Benton was an eight-year-old boy who was    40    because of a kind of cancer, which

caused him to live in the darkness, when he was fifteen    41    old. For the next twenty six months, he was in and out of our hospital. For nearly four years, it seemed    42    Benton could beat the disease, until one Friday afternoon in April 2009, when he    43    a headache and lost    44    on his right side. His mom    45    him to the hospital.

Over the next several months, Benton came to our   46    many more times. Each time he came, we    47    say hello, while Benton answered the    48    by holding out a candy from his bag.

So, on that first day of my diet, I went to his room and found Benton lying in his bed, his eyes    49    but not looking into this world.

     “We brought his candy bag with us. Would you like to have some?” his mother asked.

Without thinking of my diet, I    50    into the bag and pulled out the first piece my fingers touched. It was my favorite as if Benton had saved one last piece    51   me. At home that evening, I answered a phone about Benton’s    52  . As I    53    the phone, I opened the candy and ate it.