IN the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen’s apple and falls victim to a curse; in Shakespeare’s novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pills that contained mercury, believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.

Poison has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?

An exhibition, the Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison. The exhibition will continue until Aug 2014, reported The New York Times.

The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars, frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren’t much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered in a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.

The exhibition also features interactive activities. In an iPad-based game, visitors are presented with three puzzling illnesses and asked to identify the poisons based on symptoms. In one case, for example, a pet dog is found sick in a backyard and visitors have to figure out whether it was the toad (蟾蜍), the leaky batteries in the trash or the dirty pond water that did it.

“Poisons can be bad for some things,” Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. “Yet they can also be good for others.”

This is what visitors learn from the last part of the exhibition, which displays how poisons can be used favorably by humans, including for medical treatment.

The blood toxins of vampire bats, for example, can prevent blood from clotting (凝结), which may protect against strokes. A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol. One chemical in the venom of Gila monsters can lower the blood sugar of its victims, so it has been used to treat diabetes.

The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances that we regularly take in – chili, coffee and chocolate, etc. – owe their special flavors or stimulating effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects.

1.By mentioning Snow White and Romeo at the beginning of the story, the author intends to____________.

A. show that poison has long been involved in literature

B. show that poison is always linked with evil and death

C. draw readers’ attention to the topic of the article

D. get readers to think of more examples of the use of poison in stories

2.What is the main purpose of the exhibition The Power of Poison?

A. To give people more in-depth knowledge about poison.

B. To teach people how to handle poisonous animals.

C. To inform people about which animals are the most poisonous.

D. To show how poison has been used for medical treatment.

3.Which of the following statements about the exhibition is TRUE according to the article?

A. The exhibition will lead visitors to a real rainforest.

B. Golden poison frogs are the most poisonous animals on display.

C. Those who visit the exhibition can join in some iPad-based interactive games.

D. Visitors can listen to lectures on recent studies of poisonous animals.

第一节：单词拼写：10分

1.It is w___________（值得的） to spend the whole day in the forest and observe how the chimps live.

2.Thanks to his research, the UN has more tools in the battle to rid the world of h________（饥饿）

3.Though he is young, he is s_____（努力，挣扎） to support a large family.

4.It’s hard for her to decide what to buy because she is quite p________（挑剔） about the things she buys.

5.The village lies in a valley and is s__________（包围） by mountains.

6.As is often the case, c___________（好奇心） often drives people to explore the unknown world.

7.Tom was a_________（控告） of stealing his neighbour’s watch by the police.

8.The experiment made no improvement and ended in f_____________（失败）.

9.If we work with a strong will, any difficulty can be o_________(克服) however great it is.

10.The best a____________（方法）to learning English is the study of the spoken language.

第二节：翻译句子20分

1.英语容易学。你可以通过多阅读取得进步。（主语+ be +adj + to do, by doing）

____________________________________________________________________________

2.有这个男孩带路，我们很快到达那里。（with + n + to do / doing /done /介词短语/adj/ adv）

____________________________________________________________________________

3.他还没到场，可能发生了什么事？（turn up, could have happened）

____________________________________________________________________________

4.他说的不可能是真的。他可能正在撒谎。(must be doing)

____________________________________________________________________________

5.我们正要启程这是下雨了（be about to do…when）

_____________________________________________________________________________

6.是老师帮助取得这么大的进步。（强调句）

_____________________________________________________________________________

7.学英语使我们和外国人交流成为可能。（make it possible for sb to do）

______________________________________________________________________________

8.甚至更重要的是，我们要认真对待作业。(what is even more important, take sth seriously)

______________________________________________________________________________

9.我宁愿骑自行车,也不愿乘坐拥挤的公共汽车。(rather than)

______________________________________________________________________________

10.你能在一周内完成这项工作的想法是错误的。(用that引导的同位语从句）

______________________________________________________________________________

Who is________ young lady with curly blond hair?

A. a B. an C. the D. /

—Excuse me, I’m looking for my umbrella.

—Oh, sorry. I took ________by mistake.

A. yours B. mine

C. hers D. his

Listen, the country music ________so sweet.

A. smells B. sounds

C. feels D. looks

—Excuse me, Sir. ________is it from here to the nearest shopping mall?

—Well, only about five minutes’ walk.

A. How often B. How long

C. How far D. How soon

— I really enjoy Chinese food!

— Me, too. My mouth was watering________ I watched TV program A Bite of China.

A. when B. before

C. since D. after

— Look at the clouds, so beautiful!

— Wow, so many different________, horses, sheep, flowers.

A. sizes B. shapes

C. colors D. styles

Mona doesn’t like making speeches. She feels ________talking in front of the class.

A. annoyed B. excited

C. nervous D. surprised