“Mum, what does it mean when someone tells you that they have a skeleton（骨骼）in the closet（衣橱）?” Jessica asked. “A skeleton in the closet?” her mother paused thoughtfully. “Well, it’s something that you would rather not have anyone else know about. For example, if in the past, someone in Dad’s family had been arrested for stealing a horse, it would be ‘a skeleton in his family’s closet’. He really wouldn’t want any neighbor to know about it.”
“Why pick on my family?” Jessica’s father said with anger. “Your family history isn’t so good, you know. Wasn’t your great-great-grandfather a prisoner who was transported to Australia for his crimes?” “Yes, but people these days say that you are not a real Australian unless your ancestors arrived as prisoners.” “Gosh, sorry I asked. I think I understand now,” Jessica cut in before things grew worse.
After dinner, the house was very quiet. Jessica’s parents were still quite angry with each other. Her mother was ironing clothes and every now and then she glared at her husband, who hid behind his newspaper pretending to read. When she finished, she gathered the freshly pressed clothes in her arms and walked to Jessica’s closet. Just as she opened the door and reached in to hang a skirt, a bony arm stuck out from the dark depths and a bundle of white bones fell to the floor. Jessica’s mother sank in a faint（晕倒）, waking only when Jessica put a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. She looked up to see the worried faces of her husband and daughter.
“What happened? Where am I?” she asked. “You just destroyed the school’s skeleton, Mum,” explained Jessica. “I brought it home to help me with my health project. I meant to tell you, but it seemed that as soon as I mentioned skeletons and closets, it caused a problem between you and Dad.” Jessica looked in amazement as her parents began to laugh madly. “They’re both crazy,” she thought.
1.According to Jessica’s mother, “a skeleton in the close” means ______.
A. a family honor B. a family story C. a family secret D. a family treasure
2.What can we learn about some Australians’ ancestors form Paragraph 2?
A. They were brought to Australia as prisoners.
B. They were the earliest people living in Australia.
C. They were involved in some crimes in Australia.
D. They were not regarded as criminals in their days.
3.Jessica’s mother fell down into a faint because she was ______.
A. frightened B. knocked C. injured D. surprised
4.Why did Jessica bring a skeleton home?
A. She planned to keep it for fun.
B. She needed it for her school task.
C. She was curious about it.
D. She intended to scare her parents.
5.Jessica’s parents laughed madly at the end of the story probably because ______.
A. they were crazy
B. they were over excited
C. they realized their misunderstanding
D. they both thought they had won the quarrel
The world is not coming to an end on December 21st, 2012, the US space agency announced to dispel （消除）widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie．
The latest big screen 2012 was based on stories according to the Mayan calendar．It showed that by the end of 2012, a Planet X will collide （碰撞） with the earth．
Some websites accuse NASA of hiding the truth on the planet's existence, but the US space agency considered such stories as tricks．"There is no basis in fact for these claims," NASA said in its website．"If such a collision were real, scientists would have been tracking it for at least the last decade, and we would see it with our eyes now．Obviously, it doesn't exist and there will be no threat to the earth in 2012," it insisted．"After all, our planet has been getting along just well for more than four billion years," added NASA．
There is another planet, Eris, floating in space．But the small planet will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can come no closer than four billion miles to the earth, according to NASA．
And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our plant would be very little．"And while comets and asteroids （小行星） have always hit the earth, big hits are very rare," NASA noted．The last major collision was believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting the end of dinosaurs （恐龙）．
"We are sure that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs," the space agency said．
1.What played a key role in the spread of the rumors?
A．The Internet and the film 2012． B．The Mayan calendar．
C．The US space agency． D．The television screen．
2.The underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to _________.
A．the collision B．the threat C．the Planet X D．the NASA website
3.We can conclude from the passage that __________.
A．the film 2012 is well accepted in the science field
B．scientists have been tracking Planet X for over ten years
C．the earth will exist for more than four billion years
D．the rumors caused a panic among some people
4.What do we know about Eris according to the passage?
A．It doesn't exist in the universe．
B．It won't threaten the earth．
C．It is too far to be seen．
D．It is similar to the earth.
Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major cause of climate change, and now a new study has confirmed that atmospheric CO2 is also affecting the ocean chemistry and potentially harming sea life.
Montana State University scientist Robert Dore has been researching the water in the Pacific Ocean for almost two decades. We've been going to the same spot in the Pacific Ocean, and we try and characterize long-term change in the open ocean environment. And one of the key things that we measure is CO2 levels. And we've been able to record this increasing quantity of atmospheric CO2 into the ocean.
Scientists expected that as atmospheric CO2 increased, more and more of the carbon dioxide would be absorbed into the ocean, affecting the chemical balance of the sea water, with a potentially harmful impact on shellfish and coral in particular.
"As carbon dioxide dissolves（溶解） in the water, or seawater in this case, it forms a weak acid, carbonic acid," Dore explains. "And therefore, as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere goes up and that exchanges with the surface seawater, it drives the PH down, and makes it more acidic."
The seawater Dore and his colleagues have analyzed confirms what the theory predicts.
The effect was particular striking at about 250 meters down, and again at 500 meters. Dore and his colleagues came up with two possible explanations. It could be that surface water picked up CO2 and then moved to those depths. Or there could be a biological explanation.
"It's important to realize that the oceans are really becoming acidic. And it can have negative（消极的） impacts on a whole variety of sea life from fish to coral. It's potentially catastrophic."
1.What can be the best title of the passage?
A．Sea Life Facing Danger
B．Scientist Researching Seawater
C．Oceans Becoming More Acidic
D．Climate Change Affecting Seawater
2.With the increase of atmospheric CO2， .
A．more corals will appear in the sea
B．the surface water is becoming warmer
C．the chemical balance of the seawater is affected
D．the PH of the ocean out here has been increasing
3.Which of the following shows the process of the impact of atmospheric CO2 on sea life?
a．Sea life is endangered．
b．CO2 goes into the surface water．
c．The ocean chemistry is affected．
d．CO2decreases the PH and makes the seawater more acidic．
e．CO2 levels in the atmosphere go up．
4.Scientist Robert Dore came to the conclusion based on .
A．his research and analysis
B．the expectation of other scientists
C．some former theory
D．a major cause of climate change
Volunteers, as an essential part of a successful world exposition, are a major channel for the public to participate in, serve and share the world exposition and a means to showcase the image of the host country and city. The following information is about the volunteer for the World Exposition 2010 Shanghai China．
I．Basic Requirements for Volunteers
● Be willing to participate in voluntary services of Expo 2010;
● Age limit: Expo Site volunteers must be born before April 30, 1992 and Expo City Voluntary Service Station volunteers before April 30, 1994;
● Obey the laws and regulations of the PRC;
● Be able to participate in training and relevant activities before the opening of Expo 2010;
● Possess necessary knowledge and skills needed by the position;
● Be in good health to meet the requirements of corresponding voluntary positions．
II．Further Information for Volunteers
● Source
Residents of Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as overseas Chinese, and foreigners can all apply to be the volunteers．
● Signup methods
Applicants may log in onto the official websites for online signup．They may also consult or connect with the Expo Volunteer Stations．
● Time
May 1 - December 31, 2009
Ⅲ．Volunteer Training
Volunteer training includes general training, special training and position training．General training is carried out through internet, while special training and position training are provided through classroom lectures and field practice．
IV．Volunteer Types
● Expo Site volunteers refer to those offering voluntary services to visitors and the Organizer in the Expo Site, mainly including information, visitor flow management, reception, translation and interpretation, assistance for the disabled, and assistance in media service, event and conference organization and．volunteer management．
● Information booth volunteers are stationed in the Expo's information booths at key transportation centers, commercial outlets, tourist attractions, restaurants, hotels and cultural event places outside the Expo Site．They offer services including information, translation, interpretation and even first aid．
1.If you were born in April 1993, where can you be a volunteer?
A．In the Expo City． B．In the host country．
C．In the Expo Site． D．In Chinese mainland
2.Which of the training will be done on the Internet?
A．Position training． B．General training．
C．Classroom training． D．Special training．
3.Which of the following service is offered by information booth volunteers?
A．Assistance in media service． B．Helping the disabled
C．Emergency First aid． D．Visitor flow management．
As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friends house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It is similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Indian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly—tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us had reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.
1.The author and his friends were often out in the woods to _______.
A. spend their free time
B. play golf and other sports
C. avoid doing their schoolwork
D. keep away from their parents
2.What can we infer from Paragraph 2 ?
A. The activities in the woods were well planned.
B. Human history is not the result of exploration.
C. Exploration should be a systematic activity.
D. The author explored in the woods aimlessly.
3.The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. calm B. doubtful C. serious D. optimistic
4.How does the author feel about his childhood?
A. Happy but short.
B. Lonely but memorable.
C. Boring and meaningless.
D. Long and unforgettable.
After the earthquake hit northeast Japan on March 11, 2011, many touching stories that I saw with my own eyes happened around me.
I had to walk home since all the 36 had stopped after the quake. On my way home I 37 an old Japanese lady at the bakery shop who was giving out free bread, which made my heart 38 . A middle-aged Japanese man was holding a sign that said, “Please use our 39 .” He was 40 his house for people to go to the restroom. My friend wanted to 41 others. He stood in the cold with a sign “If you are okay with a motorcycle, I will 42 you to your house.” And then I saw him take one gentleman home, all the way to faraway place! Then the next day I drove to 43 my car with gas. There was a 44 of gas now and many gasoline stations were either closed or had very 45 lines. I got 46 ,since I was behind 15 cars. Finally, when it was my 47 , the man smiled and said, “ 48 this situation, we are only giving $ 30 worth gas per person. Is that alright?” “Of course, I’m just glad that we are all able to 49 ,” I said. His smile gave me so much 50 .
I saw a man at the evacuation(疏散) center 51 when people brought food to him, It was the first time in three days that food has been brought to their center. However, after he wiped the tears, his next 52 surprised me. “I am very 53 that we are provided with food. But people in the city next to us haven’t 54 any food at all. Please go to that centre as well.” And when hearing that, I realized there is a bright future on the other side of this 55 .
1.A．traffic B．rescue C．communication D．businesses
2.A．missed B．caught C．noticed D．heard
3.A．hungry B．soft C．broken D．warm
4.A．toilet B．hotel C．hospital D．house
5.A．advertising B．opening C．repairing D．decorating
6.A．encourage B．save C．charge D．assist
7.A．drive B．follow C．lead D．send
8.A．start B．fill C．check D．wash
9.A．plenty B．lack C．variety D．diversity
10.A．direct B．straight C．long D．short
11.A．worried B, lucky C．excited D．annoyed
12.A．time B．turn C．duty D．decision
13.A．Apart from B．Together with C．Because of D．Instead of
14.A．share B．offer C．tolerate D．transform
15.A．comfort B．pleasure C．trouble D．entertainment
16.A．waiting B．grabbing C．sleeping D．crying
17.A．promises B．roles C．actions D．remarks
18.A．upset B．grateful C．surprised D．proud
19.A．bought B．supplied C．prepared D．received
20.A．city B, center C．lesson D．disaster
