阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Fireworks may seem like a very American tradition, 1. (especial) on the 4th of July. But fireworks go back many years before the first American Independence Day celebration, which took place in 1777, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The 2. (early) Fireworks can date back to around 2,000 years ago in China. People then 3. (say) to have roasted bamboo stalks (茎). The stalks turned black and made sounds. The air inside the hollow (空的) stalks would explode. Baozhu is a Mandarin Chinese word 4. firecracker. It means “exploding bamboo.”
Years later Chinese chemists took fireworks a step further. This 5. (happen) sometime between 600 and 900 A D . People filled bamboo with gunpowder. They threw it into a fire. Steel dust or iron shavings were added 6. (make) them sparkle (冒火花). In China, these firecrackers were often used in 7. (tradition) celebrations.
In the 13th century, fireworks spread to Europe. In the centuries that followed, 8. (European) started moving to North America. So it was no surprise that when July 4th began to be celebrated as America’s Independence Day，fireworks 9. were invented by Chinese people witnessed 10. great moment as part of the plan.
Today, fireworks are an established July 4th tradition. Will you see a fireworks display this Independence Day?
In 1999, Eve and Norman Fertig, a couple, saved a two-week-old shepherd (牧羊犬) named Shana.
One winter several years later, as the Fertigs, both then 81, ________ the injured and hungry animals housed in one of their buildings, a ________ snowstorm blew in. When the couple went outside to check the weather, several trees fell,________ them in a narrow path between two ________. Eve and Norman couldn’t climb over or duck below the ________. For the next two and a half hours, they crowded together for ________ as the snow piled higher. “We were ________,” Eve said. “I thought we could die out here.”
Around 9:30 pm, Shana , who was outside, began ________ toward Eve and Norman in the deep snow. It took her nearly two hours, but ________ she cleared a narrow tunnel(隧道)about 20 feet long ________ the front door of the main house with the Fertigs’ ________.
When breaking through the snow and ________ the couple, the 160-pound dog barked and caught Eve’s jacket and________ the 86-pound woman onto her back. Norman ________ Eve’s ankles, and for the next two hours, Shana pulled the couple through the tunnel.
Thanks to Shana’s ________, they finally reached the house around 2 am., and the Fertigs ________ to get just inside the front door. Extremely ________, they lay there, still. The storm had ________ the electricity and heat, ________ Shana slept next to them all night to keep them warm until the firemen found them.
After five months, Shana’s feet recovered from the injuries she ________ while digging.
1.A.fed B.found C.rescued D.trained
2.A.strange B.unique C.violent D.normal
3.A.covering B.pushing C.delivering D.trapping
4.A.rooms B.buildings C.tunnels D.animals
5.A.trunks B.fences C.leaves D.roofs
6.A.faith B.warmth C.freedom D.sympathy
7.A.in vain B.in sight C.in trouble D.in place
8.A.barking B.checking C.digging D.scanning
9.A.carefully B.eventually C.casually D.hopelessly
10.A.comparing B.providing C.equipping D.connecting
11.A.position B.bedroom C.tree D.tent
12.A.observing B.reaching C.returning D.passing
13.A.threw B.controlled C.fastened D.guided
14.A.lifted B.turned C.pressed D.seized
15.A.efforts B.growth C.habits D.eagerness
16.A.managed B.planned C.waited D.afforded
17.A.stressful B.unprepared C.tired D.desperate
18.A.focused on B.knocked out C.got over D.kept off
19.A.for B.since C.or D.but
20.A.discovered B.predicted C.received D.remembered
Bad communication, either written, oral, or body language, can send the wrong message in more ways than one. Here are some tips that will improve your communication skills.
1. Stand up straight, and it will show confidence. Smile, and you will seem approachable. Don’t cross your arms over your chest, because this tells people you disapprove. Keep your hands to your side, or if you are sitting, keep them in your lap.
Have confidence when you speak. If you are shy and quiet，project your voice. 2. Never turn your head away from someone when you are speaking to them, because it may show them you don’t care enough to give them your full attention, and it will make it harder for the other person to hear what you are saying.
3. If you always say “I’ve no idea of it”, it will make others feel like you don’t care enough to give a response, or that you aren’t knowledgeable enough to answer. When people ask questions, they want answers. 4. Say something like “I’m in the middle of something, can I get back to you?” or “I don’t want to ill advise you, let me find out for you.”
In written communication, always he clear. Before you send an e-mail, or any type of written communication, read over it at least once, to be sure it makes sense. 5. Written forms of communication can be tricky, because there is no way to put your tone of voice in, so if you feel like you are writing a message on a touchy subject that could he misunderstood, it’s probably best to have a face to face conversation.
A. Have good body language.
B. Listen to the person attentively.
C. Never answer with “I don’t know”.
D. Don’t give the person you are speaking to a quick response.
E. Always look the person in the eye when you are speaking to them.
F. If you aren’t sure it’s clear, have someone else read it before you send it.
G. If someone puts you on the spot, you don’t have to answer them right away.
Britain’s first zero-carbon homes are being built—and they look like something from a science-fiction movie.
There are 25 eco-friendly homes currently being built in Southmoor, near Abingdon, Oxon. Buyers are able to have the final say on floor layouts，kitchens and bathrooms. One three-bedroom home is on the market for￡801 ,000,with a custom build available to suit your own specification. These eco-friendly houses are powered entirely by electricity from solar panels around the houses. They also have advanced ventilation (通风) systems, making sure that temperatures inside the building don’t go beyond 25℃ for more than 10% of hours annually, as well as mini heat pumps to generate (产生) the heating and hot water on-site. Part of the cooling design includes avoiding east-or west-facing windows, and window shading.
And they’re in high demand. Ian Pritchett, of Ssassy Property, thinks the Government should do more to promote the construction of this type of housing. “Unfortunately, the Government relaxed the proposed 2016 zero-carbon targets after being lobbied(游说)by house builders,” Ian explained. “At present, the main house-building corporations control the land and only build at the rate they are sure will sell, keeping the UK’s housing shortage so that the normal rules of ‘supply and demand’ don’t apply. When there is a shortage of housing, buyers have to purchase what is available rather than what they might want.”
In any sensible society, we would expect the planning system to actively encourage zero-carbon houses，and he tough on anyone failing to deliver the necessary standard. Instead, we have a planning system that focuses on other aspects such as numbers of bedrooms, garden sizes, and parking places. These are important aspects, but they pale into insignificance compared to the catastrophic consequences of climate change.
1.What can a purchaser do before buying the type of housing?
A.Negotiate its price. B.Choose where to build it.
C.Decide how the inside of it looks. D.Design its ventilation.
2.How do people react to the zero-carbon homes?
A.Welcome. B.Uncaring.
C.Skeptical. D.Demanding.
3.What do house-building companies intend to do?
A.Balance the “supply and demand” of houses.
B.Purchase more land to stop climate change.
C.Build more houses powered by the sun.
D.Make it more difficult to buy houses.
4.What’s the author’s attitude to the Government’s planning system?
A.Satisfied. B.Disapproving.
C.Worried. D.Ambiguous.
In the shadow of Kenya’s Mount Kilimanjaro, nine Rothschild giraffes, the rarest giraffes on the planet, are free to wander at the English-style manor (庄园). Every day shortly before 9am, they come up to the house and stick their heads through the windows and doors in search of morning treats. The manor’s owners, Tanya and Mikey Carr-Hartley, share their dining table with them. And now the couple are sharing the fantastic experience with the public by opening the manor gates to guests at the giraffe hotel, the only hotel of its kind in the world. Now, guests can feed the giraffes at breakfast but can also get up close to them from their second-floor bedrooms.
Mr and Mrs Carr-Hartley，both 38, spent their childhood living close to the house in Nairobi and have always been enthusiastic about the animals. Tanya said, “Mikey and I grew up near this manor house when we were children. We are both third generation Kenyans and have always wanted to work in conservation. Mikey’s family have been related to the protection of animals for many generations. His granddad helped the removal of giraffes as far back as the 1930s because the Rothschild giraffes lost much of their natural living space. When the house came up for sale, we jumped at the chance to buy it as we had always dreamed of owning it. Now, we were absolutely overjoyed to do something for the giraffe protection. Having the giraffes so close is very special and something which people can now experience by staying in one of the ten rooms at the hotel.”
A conservation project to save them was started at the manor in 1974 by the previous owners. “The previous owners ran a very successful breeding (繁殖) programme, where many giraffes were set free into the wild and we hope to continue,” said Tanya.
1.Why are the Carr-Hartley family unusual?
A.They’re living on the rarest giraffes. B.They share their home with giraffes.
C.They’re good at making giraffes’ food. D.They train giraffes to manage the hotel.
2.What can we know about Mikey’s family?
A.It has had a long connection with giraffes. B.It used to raise giraffes around the manor.
C.It built a new manor for the wild giraffes. D.It removed giraffes to Mount Kilimanjaro.
3.Which can best describe the manor’s previous owners’ conservation project?
A.Visitor-friendly. B.Energy-saving. C.Costly. D.Fruitful.
4.What is the suitable title for the text?
A.Giraffes’ breakfast by guests B.Reasons for giraffe protection
C.The world’s only giraffe hotel D.History of the giraffe manor
Some scientists believe that one of the most intelligent beings on Earth is in fact the octopus (章鱼).
Octopuses usually live at the bottom of river mouths and seas-areas which are not attractive to researchers. They are not social animals so it can be hard to study their interaction with others. And the octopus’ intelligence is not easy for humans to understand. When we observe some animals such as rats or dogs, we can often understand their behavior. Octopuses，however can seem like aliens (外星人). Scientists need to have a lot of imagination to understand what an octopus is thinking!
In the 1950s, the US Air Force sponsored scientists to study the way octopuses use their brains. They hoped that they could use this knowledge to help them build better computers. However, their brains were so complex that the scientists felt it of no significance to continue with it. Octopuses have a very complex nervous system and recent research suggests that they have some of their intelligence inside each arm, which means that each arm can “think” for itself. It also appears that they have a good memory, perhaps similar to a cat’s.
Perhaps the most striking thing about octopuses is their ability to change their color and body pattern. They do this to camouflage themselves to avoid their enemies and also to communicate with others. They can completely change their appearance in less than a second. It can change its skin to look like rocks, sand or planktron (浮游生物).
Some scientists have even suggested that these different patterns and colors are in fact a very hard language-and that each design is a different verb，adjective or noun. But nobody has been able to work out what they might be saying. There’s a long way to go to get to know the octopus completely.
1.What can we infer about the octopus’ intelligence from Paragraph 2?
A.It does not attract scientists. B.Little has been known about it.
C.It is equal to the cat’s or dog’s. D.Much has been done about it.
2.What can we say about scientists’ study on the octopus in the 1950s?
A.They had to give it up eventually. B.They used computers to help.
C.They found its arms could think. D.They judged it lived like a cat.
3.What does the underlined word “camouflage” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Relax. B.Strengthen. C.Hide. D.Express.
4.What does the author think of the octopuses?
A.They are the smartest animals. B.They’re easy to be seen in the sea.
C.It is useful to copy their language. D.It is difficult to understand them.
