Have you ever heard of Paynes Prairie? It is one of the most important natural and historical areas in Florida. Paynes Prairie is located near Gainesville. It is large, 21,000 acres. This protected land is called a preserve. The Florida Park Service manages the preserve.
The Paynes Prairie basin was formed when limestone dissolved and the ground settled. It is covered by marsh(沼泽)and wet prairie vegetation. There are areas of open water. During brief periods it has flooded enough to be considered a lake. Except for that, the basin has changed little through time.
Man has lived on Paynes Prairie a very long time. He lived there as far back as 10,000 B. C. At one time, the Seminoles lived there. The prairie is thought to have been named after King Payne, a Seminole chief. During the late 1600s, the largest cattle ranch in Florida was on Paynes Prairie. Today, Paynes Prairie is preserved land. It is occupied by visitors and Florida Park Service employees.
Willam Bartram visited Paynes Praire. Bartram was the first person who portrayed (described) nature through personal experience as well as scientific observation. He lived 200 years ago. He visited Paynes Prairie in 1774. At that time he described it. He called Paynes Prairie the “great Alachua Savannah.”
Most of the animal life, which Bartram described, is still here. A large number of sandhill cranes, hawks and waterfowl are here in winter. The animal diversity is increased by the presence of pine flatwoods, hammock, swamps and ponds.
The Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is open year round. The Florida Park Service works hard so that the park will appear as it did in the past. It offers many opportunities for recreation. At the park you can camp and picnic. You can hike and bike. You can boat and fish. You can ride on horse trails. And you can see lots of nature and wildlife. You can see Florida as it was in the early days.
Paynes Prairie is a part of our Florida history. It is an example of our Florida natural resources. It is a place for recreation. Paynes Prairie is an important experience of the Real Florida.
1.How was the Paynes Prairie basin formed?
A. By the Seminole Indians.
B. By the Florida Park Service.
C. From dissolved limestone and the ground settling.
D. From lots of flooding and wet prairie vegetation.
2.The underlined word “diversity” means “ .”
A. variety B. society C. population D. area
3.All of the following are true EXCEPT that __ .
A. Paynes Prairie has changed little through time
B. Paynes Prairie is covered by wet prairie grasses
C. there used to be a big cattle farm on Paynes Prairie
D. William Bartram was the first person to visit Paynes Prairie
4.The purpose of the passage is to .
A. call on people to protect widlife
B. attract people to this preserved park
C. show you the formation of Paynes Prairie
D. introduce the recorded history of Paynes Prairie
On June 17, 1774, the officials from Maryland and Virginia held a talk with the Indians of the Six Nations. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. In a letter the next day they refused the offer as follows:
We know that you have a high opinion of the kind of learning taught in your colleges, and that the costs of living of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced that you mean to do us good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you must know that different nations have different ways of looking at things, and you will therefore not be offended if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the college of the northern provinces: they were taught all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad manners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods – they were totally good for nothing.
We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we refuse to accept it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, teach them all we know, and make men of them.
1.The passage is about ____.
A. the talk between the Indians and the officials
B. the colleges of the northern provinces
C. the educational values of the Indians
D. the problems of the Americans in the mid-eighteen century
2.The Indian chief’s purpose of writing the letter seems to be to ____.
A. express their opinions on equal treatment
B. politely refuse a friendly offer
C. show their pride
D. describe Indian customs
3.According to the letter, the Indians believed that ____.
A. it would be better for their boys to receive some schooling
B. they were being insulted by the offer
C. they knew more about science than the officials
D. they had better way of educating young men
4.Different from the officials’ view of education, the Indians thought ____.
A. young women should also be educated
B. they had different goals of education
C. they taught different branches of science
D. they should teach the sons of the officials first
Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn’t see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It’s hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can’t talk back. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
1.From paragraph 2 we know that __ .
A. animals are as clever as human beings
B. all dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees
C. chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills
D. all dogs have similar learning abilities as 3-year-old children
2.Both experiments show that .
A. Rico is smart enough to get all commands right
B. Rico can recognize different things including toys
C. Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics
D. Rico won’t forget the names of objects once recognizing them
3.Which of the following statements is true?
A. The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie’s mental abilities.
B. Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training.
C. The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects.
D. Rico is born to understand its owner’s commands.
4.What does the writer want to tell us?
A. To train your dog.
B. To talk to your dog.
C. To be friendly to your dog.
D. To be careful with your dog.
Robert Owen was born in Wales in 1771. At the age of ten he went to work. His employer had a large private library so Owen was able to educate himself. He read a lot in his spare time and at nineteen he was given the job of superintendent(监工) at a Manchester cotton mill. He was so successful there that he persuaded his employer to buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland.
When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody paid any attention to the workers’ houses or their children’s education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.
Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the children's education. In 1816 he opened the first free primary school in Britain.
People came from all over the country to visit Owen’s factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825, but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.
Owen never stopped fighting for his idea. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad. He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. “If you give people good working conditions”, he thought, “they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people.”
1.For Owen, his greatest achievement in New Lanark was _____________.
A. improving worker’s houses
B. helping people to save money
C. preventing men from getting drunk
D. providing the children with a good education
2.From the passage we may infer that Owen was born ___________.
A. into a rich family B. into a noble family
C. into a poor family D. into a middle class family
3.We may infer form the passage that no children in Britain could enjoy free education until ___.
A. 1771 B. 1816 C. 1825 D. 1860
假定你是李华，于2015年3月2日搭乘某航空公司(Flight HZH9211) 回国。到机场后，发现遗失了行李箱。现请你用英语给该航空公司写一封信，请他们帮你寻找。
要点包括： 1. 陈述写信原因； 2. 描述行李箱； 3. 期待回复并表示感谢。
注意：1. 次数100左右； 2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语和结束语已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Li Hua, and I was a passenger __________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
Regards,
Li Hua
短文改错（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
假段定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(
)，并在其下面写出该加的词。删除：把多余的词用(＼)划掉。修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分;
3. 必须按答题要求做题，否则不给分。
Today is Sunday. The sky is full of sunshine, so does my life. In about 9:00am, I went to a bookstore with my friends. There was so many new books that I didn’t know which one to buy, because these books were both useful to me. At last, I choose two. At 10:00, my friends and I went to the cinema, for we knew what the film Titanic was very popular. It took us about 3 hours to see the film. After seeing the film, and everyone was deeply moved. Some friends even burst into tears. From the story, I understand that love is noble and valuable. That’s really wonderful film. It is well worth seen again.
What a happy day! I hope tomorrow I will be even happy!
