The deadly earthquake and tsunami (海啸) that struck Japan on March 11 damaged two nuclear power stations. Officials are now working to prevent dangerous radiation from poisoning the air in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The Japanese government has ordered people living within 12 and a half miles of the plant to evacuate, and asked those living 12 and a half to 20 miles away to stay indoors.

Nuclear power plants create energy using a chemical reaction that produces large amounts of heat. Reactors(反应堆)in Japan have many long, thin rods, called fuel rods(棒), which must be kept cool.

If the reactor’s fuel rods aren’t cooled, the reaction can burn out of control. That’s what happened at the two Japanese plants after the quake caused a power failure and the cooling systems malfunctioned(发生故障). This overheating could cause radiation to escape and sicken many people.

Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are built to withstand the many small or moderate earthquakes the country faces each year. But Friday’s earthquake was one of the most severe earthquakes ever recorded.

People exposed to unsafe levels of radiation have a higher than normal risk of getting cancer. The Japanese government has been distributing potassium iodide(碘化钾)pills to people in the surrounding areas to protect those who may have come in contact with radiation from the power plant. The pills flood the body with healthy potassium iodide. The potassium iodide works to crowd out “bad” iodine in the body that may have been poisoned by radiation.

On Tuesday morning, 750 workers left the Fukushima Daiichi plant. However, 50 workers stayed behind to use sweater to cool the fuel rods. These dedicated employees are risking their own lives to save many others.

On Thursday, officials used helicopters, fire trucks, and water cannons to spray water on the reactors to cool the fuel rods. But it’s not clear whether these efforts were successful. Officials are now working on a power line to restore electricity to the plant. They hope this will help restart the plant’s cooling system and stop the fuel rods from leaking radiation.

1.The underlined word “evacuate” in Paragraph 1 probably means            .

2.What can we learn from the text?

3.In the last paragraph, the author mainly states            .

4.This text is most probably taken from            .

To see the world is one thing; to have someone to share it with is another. Indeed, travel becomes more interesting when you have a travel partner. A travel partner can be a close friend, a family member, a pal you’ve met online, or a business friend.

You can have someone to talk to

Traveling alone is fun, but wouldn’t you feel lonely? Having a travel partner can remove the feeling of loneliness. This is especially true if you can get a travel companion who is very familiar with the place you’re traveling to. You don’t have to ask any information from the locals, and you can increase the time you spend in the country.

One of the major headaches in traveling is the costs involved. You can’t simply ignore the rising price of hotels or plane tickets. You should also think about your daily needs, such as your food. Of course, you can’t simply go back without bringing any souvenirs (纪念品) to your friends and family. All these can ruin your budget. However, when you have a travel friend, you can have someone to share the expenses with.

You can meet a good friend

Having a travel mate is a good way of meeting a new friend or even a lifelong partner. You can never count the number of couples who actually found their way into each other’s heart while traveling together in another country.

You can have someone to watch out for you

When you’re in a foreign land, you’ll never be really safe. You don’t know the rules as well as the culture of the people. A travel will be perfect to remind you of your duties in the country and to watch your back just in case you get lost. So why don’t you find a travel companion now!

Let’s find out how…

1.What’s the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

2.What’s the best title for the 3rd paragraph?

3.Which of the following statements agrees with the author’s opinion?

4.Which of the following things is NOT mentioned?

If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.

Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meanings of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.

As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.

For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.

1.According to the author, which should you improve first among the four skills?

2.The underlined phrase “come across” in Paragraph 2 can probably be replaced by“          ”.

3.The author seems to agree with the view that            .

4.The passage is mainly about how to            .

My friend Karen and I were always together. Karen was only a few months older than I. I always thought she was so beautiful, with long hair and blue eyes. I loved Karen so much because she liked me for being the way I was. I could be myself and share my secrets with her and I never felt like I was being judged.

We had so much fun and were really quite silly. One time I asked my mom to make us the same dresses so we could pretend we were twins.

We continued as best friends throughout grade school. One day, Karen was going to another friend’s place and asked me to come along, but I couldn’t go because I had a babysitting job that afternoon. We walked together to the Becker’s home where I was to babysit and then she continued on her way without me. We had agreed that I would meet her at the corner when she returned and I finished my job.

At four o’clock I rushed to the corner so I wouldn’t be late for meeting Karen. Just as I arrived at the corner, I saw Karen crossing the street. In a second it happened. I saw Karen’s body fly up in the sky. A car had hit her！

Karen was on life support for a week before it was decided that they would allow her to go in peace. Karen’s parents wanted to donate her organs(器官)to the hospital, but there was nothing left healthy enough to be used because she was hit so hard.

I have never got so close to another person since Karen died. I do miss her! Do you cherish(珍惜)your friends? If you don’t, please do, as you may lose them one day.

1.What’s the best title for the passage?

2.When Karen was hit by a car, she was            .

3.Why were Karen’s organs unable to be donated?

4.What does the writer suggest we do?

There was once a boy called Mario who loved to have loads of friends. He always   31   off how many friends he had at school. One day his grandfather said to him, “Mario, I   32  you a big bag of popcorn that you don’t have as many friends as you think. I’m sure many of them are nothing more than companions.”

Mario   33  the bet without hesitation. However, he wasn’t sure how to test   34  his schoolmates were real friends or not, so he asked his grandfather. The old man answered, “Wait a minute.” Then the old man left,   35  soon as though carrying something in his hands, but Mario could see   36  there.

“Take it. It’s a very special chair because it’s invisible (看不见). It’s rather   37  to sit on it, but if you take it to school and   38  to sit on it, you’ll activate (激活)its magic and you’ll be able to    39  who your real friends are. ”

Mario, brave and determined, took the   40  and set off for school. At break time he asked everyone to form a(n)    41  , and he put himself in the middle, with his chair. Having difficulty seeing it, Mario tried to sit on it and   42  straight onto his backside. Everyone around him had a pretty good laugh.

“Wait！Let me try again,” Mario said. But again, he missed the seat,   43  more surprised looks and a few catcalls (尖叫，喝倒彩). Mario didn’t   44  and kept trying to sit on the magic chair. But he kept falling onto the ground…until，  45  he tried again but didn’t fall. Looking around, Mario saw three of his best friends   46  him up. Meanwhile, many others he had   47  as friends had done nothing but make   48  of him.

And there, the show   49  to an end. Mario understood that true friends were those who   50 for him, and not just the companions that happened to be passing by. And someone who took joy in his misfortunes (不幸) was even less of a friend.

—Have you seen my pen bought during my visit to Hong Kong Disneyland?

—Oh, Jane must have taken it _________ ; she has the same one as yours.

My parents and I are flying to London for a holiday and I’ll _________ the chance to practice my spoken English.

She was so amused with the magician’s tricks that she _______ a smile.

The doctor’s reputation was completely _________ in the accident. Nobody believed that he had been innocent.

—I don’t think he should leave his job.

—That’s ________ what I told him yesterday.