chelyabinsk，russia答案解析

A meteorite (陨石) flew fast across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured l,200 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave.

According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the fireball, travelling at a speed of 30km per second, had burnt very brightly across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200km away. Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted.

“I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day,” said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains. “I felt like I was blinded by headlights.”

The meteorite, which weighed about 20 tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart 30-50km above ground, according to Russia’s Academy of Sciences.

The energy released when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere was about several thousand tons, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.

No deaths were reported, but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about l,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from broken pieces of glass.“While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts.”

51. When did the meteorite incident happen?

   A. At midnight.                                                      B. In the early morning.    

C. In the late morning.                                    D. In the evening.

52. According to the text, the meteorite explosion caused _________.

   A. some deaths                                                      B. road accidents

C. communication problems                                   D. building collapse

53. The Russian government’s response to the incident was ________.

A. a little slow but effective                                  B. quick and serious

C. cold and slow                                           D. quick but ineffective

54. It can be inferred that the loss caused by meteorites _________.

A. is nearly unavoidable                                         B. happens every few years

C. can be avoided                                            D. is hard to estimate

He knows so much about Russia that he's universally acknowledged as a(n) _____ on Russian affairs.

A．authority          B．routine           C．privilege          D．boundary

THIS was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, snow storms, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter of a million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.

Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and weird（古怪的） year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.

Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable（脆弱的） buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.

Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes "are pretty much constant," said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. "All the change that's made is man-made."

The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people - many of them living in poverty - and more poorly built shanties than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.

In February, an earthquake that was more than 500 times stronger than the one that struck Haiti hit an area of Chile that was less populated, better constructed, and not as poor. Chile's bigger quake caused fewer than 1,000 deaths.

Climate scientists say Earth's climate also is changing, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.

In the summer, one weather system caused oppressive heat in Russia, while farther south it caused flooding in Pakistan that inundated 161,200 square kilometers, about the size of Wisconsin. That single heat-and-storm system killed almost 17,000 people, more people than all the worldwide airplane crashes in the past 15 years.

Scientists have calculated that the killer Russian heat wave—setting a national record of 43.9℃—would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.

1.What is responsible for the most human deaths in 2010?

A．Natrual disasters.                        B．Terrorist attacks.

    C．Poor buildings.                      D．Too rapid developrnent.

2.According to Andreas Schraft,             .

A．earthquakes are happening more often because of human beings

B．earthquakes are causing more damage because of human beings

C．stronger houses should be built to limit storm damage

D．Port—au—Prince is now overpopulated

3.The main point of the article is to            .

A．list the natural disasters that occurred in 2010

B．give the details of some natural disasters of 2010

C．warn that more natural disasters are to strike

D．blame humanity for not helping those affected by the disasters

People being tested for radiation exposure

The crisis at the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Station in northern Japan has raised worries about radiation risks. We spoke Tuesday with Jonathan Links, an expert in radiation health sciences. He is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland.

Professor Links says workers within the nuclear plant are the only people at risk of extremely high doses of radiation.

JONATHAN LINKS: "Of course, we don't know what doses they've received, but the only persons at risk of acute radiation effects are the workers."

For other people, he says, there may be a long-term worry. People can get cancer from low doses of ionizing radiation, the kind released in a nuclear accident.

Professor Links says scientists can use computers to quickly model where radioactive material has blown and settled. Then they measure how large an area is contaminated. He says if the situation is serious enough, officials could take steps like telling people not to eat locally grown food or drink the water.

JONATHAN LINKS: "But that would only be the case if there was a significant release and, because of wind direction, the radioactive material was blown over the area, and then settled out of the air into and onto water, plants, fruits and vegetables."

The reactors at Fukushima are on the Pacific coast. But Professor Links says people should not worry about any radioactive material leaking into the ocean.

JONATHAN LINKS: "Even in a worst-case scenario accident, the sea provides a very high degree of dilution. So the concentration of radioactivity in the seawater would still be quite low."

Japan is the only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it. That memory from World War Two would create a stronger "psychological sensitivity" to radiation exposure, Professors Links says.

Next month is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the explosion and fire that destroyed a reactor at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The nineteen eighty-six event was the world's worst accident in the nuclear power industry.

A new United Nations report says more than six thousand cases of thyroid cancer have been found. These are in people who were children in affected areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The report says that by two thousand five the cancers had resulted in fifteen deaths.

The cancers were largely caused by drinking contaminated milk. The milk came from cows that ate grass where radioactive material had fallen.

To get the latest updates, go to www.unsv.com.

Contributing: James Brooke

1.The passage mainly tells us __________.

A. What measures the Japan Government takes to solve the nuclear crisis .

B. Worries and influences caused by the nuclear crisis .

C. With great efforts of scientists , the Japan Government has put the nuclear crisis under control .

D. To explain that the nuclear crisis has less effect on its neighboring countries.

2.Which of the following is NOT the influences caused by the leak of Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Station?

A. Workers at the nuclear station are suffering the risk of death .

B. People can get cancer from low doses of ionizing radiation, the kind released in a nuclear accident.

C. The radioactive material may be blown over the area causing the pollution to water .

D. The concentration of radioactivity in the seawater can not be diluted.

3.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “dilution”?

A. chemical     B. salt     C. dissolution  D. elimination

4.According to the passage which of the following is not TRUE ?

A. Water people drink ,food and vegetables people eat may be polluted by nuclear radiation .

B. Japan is the only country to have had atomic bombs dropped on it.

C. You can go to www.unsv.com. to get the latest news .

D. The nuclear accident in Japan is the worst in the nuclear power industry.

Many people take it for granted that black is a color of bad things while white should always mean something good. This may be because, in their opinion, black is related to darkness and white to purity. However, that is not always the case. Did you know that the same colour may mean differently in different places of the world?

In the English-speaking world, black is the colour of mourning. People wear black clothes at the funeral. Red is concerned with danger or bloodshed (流血). Yellow is the word for fear. If you are afraid, you are yellow. Yet none of these sayings is true outside the English-speaking world. In China and Korea white is the colour of mourning. In Russia, China and some other countries, red stands for beauty, life and excellence. In Italy and Germany, you are yellow with anger, not with fear.

Even within the English-speaking area it is not difficult to find colour contradictions. A redcap in the United States is a porter in a railway station. In Britain, however, a redcap is a military policeman. Both names are logical because both men wear red caps. Similarly, the British term for an American white collar worker is sometimes called a black-coated worker.

One does not have to cross an area to find colour differences. Would you rather be red-blooded? If we go back to the origin, we find that both terms are logical as both names suggest. The expression "blueblood" comes from Spain, where some noble families proudly said that they had "blue blood". But then why "blue" blood? Because they were fairskinned, and it is only natural that their blood vessels (血管) stood out appearing blue.

1.Yellow is concerned with anger in                .             

A. Russia            B. China                   C. Britain              D. Germany

2. The two meanings of the term "redcap" form a difference in                .     

A. pronunciation        B. logical relationship     C.  custom              D. climate

3. Both Britain and America would probably agree that                .         

A. a black-coated worker is employed in an office       B. black is the color of mourning

C. red stands for beauty and excellence                 D. a redcap is a porter in a station

4.The best title for this passage is               

A. The Development of the Symbolic use of Colors        B. The Meaning Concerned With Certain Colors 

C. Colors that Carry Bad Meanings                   D. The Origin of Blue Blood.

5.When some Spanish called themselves “blueblood”, they actually meant               .

A. they came from a noble family                        B. their faces looked blue

C. they had blue blood in their vessels                     D. they were fairskinned

If there is one thing I’m quite sure about, it is that in a hundred years from now we still be reading newspapers. Not those newspapers are a necessity. Even now some people get most of the news from the television or have the radio switched on in the background or in the car. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday. But for most people a newspaper has become a habit passed down from generation to generation.

The basic British character won’t change, and one of the characteristics of the British is that we don’t much like talking to each other when we get up. So what better way is there to keep yourself thinking in the morning than to wrap yourself in a newspaper?

Over the past couple of centuries, human beings have developed a close relationship with the newspaper. It has become as natural as breathing or enjoying the sun. And it is not just the British who love newspapers. On suburban trains in Calcutta, for instance, just one person in the whole car will buy a newspaper and read aloud the best bits to his fellow passengers, much to everybody’s enjoyment.

The nature of what is news may change. What essentially (本质上) makes news is what affects our lives and the big political stories, the coverage of the wars, earthquakes and other disasters, will continue much the same. I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though. It’s already happening in areas that may directly affect our lives, like genetic engineering. In the future I think there will be more coverage of scientific explanations of why we feel as we do, whether it’s love or depression. We develop a better understanding of how the brain operates and what our feelings really are.

It’s quite possible that in the next century newspaper will be transmitted electronically from the national equivalents of Fleet Street (伦敦的舰队街，以报馆集中而著称) and printed out in our own homes. In fact, I’m pretty sure that that is how it will happen in future. You’ll be probably selecting from a menu, making up your own bespoke newspaper by picking out the things you want to read and say. You might even have an intelligent screening device (装置) to do the job for you.

I think people have got it wrong when they talk about the competition between the different media. They actually have a relationship, feeding off each other. It was once predicted that television would kill off newspapers, which hasn’t happened. What is read on the printed page is more enduring (持久的) than pictures on a flickering screen or sound lost in the sky. And as for the Internet, it’s never really satisfying to read something just on a screen.

1.The author of the passage is most probably from _______________.

   A. Russia       B. India        C. Britain       D. America

2.According to the passage, the future of newspapers ____________.

   A. will be mainly connected with scientific research

   B. will report more important political activities

   C. will directly cover more on scientific research

   D. will build a bridge between different people

3.The underlined part “bespoke newspaper” of the passage probably refers to _____________.

A. a newspaper which dares to report the truth

B. a newspaper edited to one’s own interest

C. a newspaper edited and published for the public

D. a newspaper which only covers the life of family members

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. It was centuries ago that newspapers came into being  .

B. Televisions have taken the place of newspapers .

C. The Internet will gradually take the place of newspapers.

D. The nature of news may remain the same over generations.

You can’t always predict a heavy rain or remember your umbrella. But designer Mikhail Belvacv doesn’t think that forgetting to check the weather forecast before heading out should result in you getting wet. That’s why he created lampbrella, a lamp post with its own rain sensing umbrella.
The designer says he come up with the idea after watching people get wet on streets in Russia. “once, I was driving on a central Saint Petersburg street and saw the street lamps lighting up people trying to hide from the rain. I thought it would be appropriate to have a canopy(伞蓬)built into a street lamp.” he said.
The lampbrella is a standard-looking street lamp fitted with an umbrella canopy. It has a built-in electric motor which can open or close the umbrella on demand. Sensors(传感器)then ensure that the umbrella offers pedestrians shelter whenever it starts raining.
In addition to the rain sensor, there’s also a 360°motion sensor on the biberglass street lamp which detects whether anyone’s using the lampbrella. After three minutes of not being used the canopy is closed.
According to the designer, the lampbrella would move at a relatively low speed, so as not to cause harm to the pedestrians. Besides, it would be grounded to protect from possible lighting strike. Each lampbrella would offer enough shelter for several people. Being installed at 2 meters off the ground, it would only be a danger for the tallest of pedestrians.
While there are no plans to take lampbrella into production, Belyacv says he recently introduced his creation one Moscow Department, and insists this creation could be installed on any street where a lot of people walk but there are no canopies to provide shelter.
【小题1】For what purpose did Belyacv create the lampbrella?

WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.

The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.

“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退却) farther this month.

That means that polar bears—some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing(简报).

Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.

“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.

“Because the observed trajectory(轨迹)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”

In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.

Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears’ disappearance would probably take place as young cubs(幼兽)failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.

1.What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?

A. To determine whether the polar bear was in danger.

B. To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic.

C. To check the predictions of the computer models.

D. To find out the exact number of the polar bear.

2.What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?

A. The pollution of the Arctic region.    B. The sea ice melting at high speed

C. Fewer food sources being left.         D. The temperature getting colder.

3.The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.

A. help young polar bears to survive the cold winter

B. have large number of seals living in the oceans

C. make sure there is enough sea ice in the Arctic

D. provide chances for adult polar bears to reproduce

What brings a nation together? Of the four choices — shared values, language, history, and religion, it’s shared values. In our latest poll (民意调査), seven out of 16 countries chose values as the greatest factor (因素）bringing a nation together, and six preferred language. Both choices scored high in the poll, suggesting that our values and how we express them are closely linked .Still, history was not forgotten in some countries, particularly in Mexico and Russia. Even Canada and the United States chose national histories as the second-most important factor uniting their people. The biggest surprise? Not one country picked religion as its top choice.

Peggy Hilt wanted to be a good mother. But day after day, she got out of bed feeling like a failure. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t connect with Nina, the 2-year -old girl she’d adopted from Russia as an infant （幼儿). The preschooler （学龄前儿童）pulled away whenever Hilt tried to hug or kiss her. Nina was physically aggressive with her 4-year-old sister, who had been adopted from Ukraine, and had violent tantrums（发脾气). Whenever Hilt wasn’t watching, she destroyed the family’s furniture and possessions. “Every day with Nina had become a struggle,” she recalls now.

    As the girl grew older, things got worse. Hilt fell into a deep depression. She started drinking heavily, something she’d never done before. Ashamed, she hid her problem from everyone, including her husband.

    On the morning of July 1, 2005, Hilt was packing for a family vocation, all the while swallowing one beer after another and growing increasingly angry and impatient with Nina’s deeds. “Everything she did just got to me,” Hilt said. When Hilt caught her reaching into her diaper（尿布）and smearing feces（粪便）on the walls and furniture, “a year and a half of frustration came to a head,” Hilt says. “I snapped（崩溃). I felt this uncontrollable rage.”

    Then Hilt did something unthinkable. She grabbed Nina around the neck, shook her and then dropped her to the floor, where she kicked her repeatedly before dragging her up to her room, punching her as they went. “I had never hit a child before,” she says. “I felt horrible and promised myself that this would never happen again.” But it was too late for that. Nina woke up with a fever, and then started throwing up. The next day she stopped breathing. By the time the ambulance got the child to the hospital, she was dead.

Hilt is now serving a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder in a Virginia prison. She and her husband divorced, and he is raising their other daughter. She realizes the horror of her crime and says she isn’t looking for sympathy. “There is no punishment severe enough for what I did,” she told NEWSWEEK in an interview at the prison.

This story mainly tells us __________.

A. a cruel mother who killed her daughter

B. a social problem of adoption

C. a family problem in Western countries

D. an unlucky child’s fortune

How did Hilt let out her depression at the beginning?

A. By hitting her adopted girl.

B. By showing her more love.

C. By drinking heavily.

D. By hugging and kissing her.

What does the underlined sentence in Para.4 mean?

A. It was too late to hit the girl in order to make her good.

B. It was too late to save the girl’s life.

C. It was too late to regret hitting the girl.

D. It was too late to regret adopting the girl.

“NEWSWEEK” in the last sentence of this text refers to a __________.

A. magazine         B. journalist       C. book        D. policeman

Why do some adoptions go so wrong？

   A. It’s the kid’s fault.              B. It’s the mother’s fault.

   C. It’s the fault of the society.           D. The writer doesn’t mention the reason.

Russia won the host right of the 2018 World Cup           England lost it on December 2.

Russia’s president fires senior military officers for failing to stop a naval base _________ by wildfires that have killed 48.

A. being swept         B. swept          C. to be swept            D. having swept

MEGADIM, Israel (AP)-The worst forest fire in Israel's history on Thursday destroyed one of the country's few forested areas, killing at least 36 guards on their way to rescue prisoners there, destroying homes and forcing the evacuation (疏散) of thousands. The fire ran through the Carmel forest in Israel's Galilee, reaching the coastal city of Haifa, jumping from place to place in the forest. The fire broke out around midday and quickly spread and was still burning out of control as midnight approached. Investigators (调查者) supposed that the fire could have been set accidentally, or it might have been a criminal act, but pretty much ruled out (排除) some sort of attack by a Palestinian group. “This is a huge disaster，” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “The government is using all means to control the fire.” He said some countries such as Cyprus, Italy, Russia and Greece agreed to provide backup. Most of the dead were Prison Service guards racing through the fire toward a prison to evacuate the prisoners, most of them Palestinians. A tree fell across the road, blocking their bus. Some guards were burned alive inside, while others died as they tried to escape. Fourteen bodies were found near the burnt bus 10 hours after the fire started. The fire heavily damaged one of Israel's few large forests, made up of natural growth and planted areas, a favorite place for camping and a home for dozens of species of wildlife. Forestry workers tried to evacuate animals from the fire. The forest recovered slowly from a fire in 1989, but experts said Thursday's big fire was many times worse.

1.Some Prison Service guards died when they tried to ________.

2.According to the investigators, which of the following might be the cause of the fire?

3.We learn from the text that ________.

4.The text is mainly about ________.

Long ago there was a poor farmer in Russia. He had been very__1__with everything he had. However，when he found his elder brother was_2__than him，he felt disappointed. So he__3_hard about how he could also be richer. Finally he got an idea. He started to spend less money on food and clothes to__4__some money to buy more land. Once he had enough money，he started__5_for land.

He__6__that on the neighboring land，there were some nomads (游牧民) living there. He bought some gifts and went to__7__their head. He presented the gifts to the head and told him the__8__of his visit. The head welcomed him，accepted the gifts and agreed to his_9__to get the land. The head told him that he could have the land__10__giving him anything. He can take as much land as he could__11__by walking through the land before sunset (日落)．He should start in the morning and whatever distance he could travel during the__12_，he could have it.

The farmer became very__13__when he heard this offer. Now he could have lots of__14__without paying anything. He came_15_the next morning and started running，not walking，__16__he could cover the largest area. To reach his goal，he neither ate food，nor drank water，nor had any rest. He just continued__17__.Without eating，or drinking，or resting he just got very__18__.When he came back to the head in the evening，he__19__right on the spot. Sadly his son buried him in a piece of land about 6 x 4 feet.

Don’t be greedy (贪婪的) or you will__20__everything finally.

1.                A．careful　　　   B．pleased         C．bored　　　  D．busy

2.                A．healthier       B．stronger        C．richer    D．cleverer

3.                A．thought        B．learned         C．tried D．worked

4.                A．borrow         B．spend          C．make D．save

5.                A．waiting         B．looking         C．preparing D．caring

6.                A．explained       B．hoped          C．noticed   D．guessed

7.                A．see            B．follow          C．help D．cheat

8.                A．chance         B．result          C．condition D．purpose

9.                A．promise        B．request         C．suggestion D．order

10.               A．for            B．by             C．without   D．before

11.               A．cover          B．farm           C．buy  D．have

12.               A．year           B．month         C．week D．day

13.               A．interested      B．sad            C．happy D．calm

14.               A．land           B．crop           C．experience D．knowledge

15.               A．quietly         B．early           C．finally D．suddenly

16.               A．so that         B．even if         C．because   D．whether

17.               A．dreaming       B．walking         C．speaking   D．running

18.               A．nervous        B．excited         C．tired  D．worried

19.               A．refused        B．died           C．appeared  D．rested

20.               A．lose           B．face           C．change    D．defeat

71.______  People use money to buy food, furniture, books, bicycles and hundreds of other things they need or want. When they work, they usually get paid in money.
Most of the money today is made of metal or paper.7 2.____One of the first kinds
of money was shells.
Shells were not the only things used as money. In China , cloth and knives were used. In the Philippine Islands, rice was used as money for a long time . Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used as money in parts of Africa.
The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the center. 73____
Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money.74____Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later some countries began to make coins of gold and silver
But even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive. Again the Chinese thought of a way to improve money. 75_____The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than the paper money used today
Money has had an interesting history from the days of shells money until today.

Violin prodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were all Jews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West.
Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field to nurture (培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stern, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance（遗传） plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music.
【小题1】     Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because ________.

（D）
Between ten and midnight the United States is politically leaderless——there is no center of information anywhere in the nation except in the New York headquarters of the great broadcasting companies and the two great wire services．No candidate and no party can afford the investment on election night to match the news-gathering resources of the mass media; and so, as every citizen sits in his home watching his TV set or listening to his radio, he is the equal of any other in knowledge．There is nothing that can be done in these hours, for on one can any longer direct the great strike for America’s power; the polls have closed．Good or bad, whatever the decision．America will accept the decision——and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes．The general vote is an expression of national will, the only substitute for violence and blood．Its decision is to be defended as one defends civilization itself．
There is nothing like this American expression of will in England or France, India or Russia or China．Only one other major nation in modern history has ever tried to elect its leader directly by mass, free, popular vote．This was the Weimar Republic of Germany, which modeled its unitary vote for national leaders on the American practice．Out of its experiment with the system it got Hitler．Americans have had Lincoln, Wilson and two Roosevelts．Nothing can be done when the voting returns are flooding in; the White House and its power will move to one or another of the two candidates, and all will know about it in the morning．But for these hours history stops．
76．Between ten p．m．and midnight, the United States has no leader because________．
A．the President has resigned
B．the strike for power has ended
C．the polls have closed and the results are not in
D．there has been a revolution
77．“The great strike for America’s power” in paragraph 1 refers to_________．
A．the strike of the mass media    B．the great coal strike
C．striking while the iron is hot   D．the election campaign
78．According to the author only one other major modern nation ever tried to elect its leader by mass, free, popular vote．That nation was___________．
A．India B．Germany  C．Russia      D．England
79．The author believes the decision at the polls will     ．
A．lead to anarchy B．result in men being cut down
C．cause violence and blood D．be defended by all Americans

E

Governments and health officials around the world continued to take steps Tuesday against the outbreak of swine flu that has killed scores of people in Mexico and spread to the U.S., Europe and possibly Asia.

By early Tuesday, the swine flu outbreak in Mexico had caused in 152 deaths and more than 1,600 illnesses. So far, at least 113 cases have been proved worldwide, including 64 in the United States; six in Canada; 11 in New Zealand and two each in Spain the United Kingdom and Israel. None has yet resulted in death.

The World Health Organization on Monday raised its alert level from three to four on its six-level scale. The move means the U.N. agency has determined that the virus can transmit

from human to human.

"In this age of global travel, where people move around in airplanes so quickly, there is no region to which this virus could not spread," said Fukuda, assistant director-general of the WHO.

Governments around the world struggled to prevent further outbreak. Some, like China and Russia, banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico. U.S. President Barack Obama said the outbreak was a cause for concern, not for alarm. The government urged travelers to avoid non-essential travel to Mexico.

The latest WHO report listed only seven proved swine flu deaths in Mexico but it was not clear why there was the discrepency.

Mexico City has closed all schools until at least May 6 to help curb(control) the spread of swine flu and ordered 35,00 public venues to close or serve only takeaway meals. In addition, bars, clubs, movie theaters, pool halls, gyms, sport centers and convention halls have been told to close until May 5. Armed police officers are also guarding hospitals in Mexico City while roads and schools in the city of 20 million people are deserted. Officials also have talked about shutting down the bus and subway systems.

57.How many people were found catching swine flu in Spain?

A. 2.                     B. 11.             C. 6.                     D. 64.

58.When learning the outbreak of swine flu, the WHO was ____.

A. calm          B. nervous      C. shocked      D. careful

59. Fukuda’s words suggest that _____.

A. he likes travel by air

B. global travel hasn’t been affected

C.this virus can spread quickly because of global travel

D. planes must be forbidden to take to prevent swine flu

60.The last paragraph mainly tells us _____.

A. Mexico has taken measures to control swine flu

B. Mexico City is too dangerous to live in

C. the normal life in Mexico has been changed

D. people in Mexico are badly in need of help

“China is expected to complete its first exploration (探索) of the moon in 2010 and will found a moon base just as we did on the North and South Poles,” Ouyang Ziyuan, head of China's moon exploration program, promised during national science and technology week.
After its first man in space, China plans a space laboratory, a lunar orbiter to look for valuable elements and minerals, robot landings on the moon and then the human touchdown.
The price of space exploration is enormous. Russia and the US, the only two countries to have achieved manned flight, are struggling to keep their new investment, the international space station.
But China, which has a long tradition in physics, mathematics and engineering, finds its doctoral graduates welcomed in the US and Europe for decades. And it has been able to learn from 40 years of pioneering successes and mistakes by the USSR and the USA.
Space flight is a gamble and the stakes (赌注) are high. If successful, China could become a member of the world's most exclusive club, set up a second home on the moon and get a powerful hand at the strategic bargaining table.
Two designers from the Shenzhou III project said that 12 astronauts now are undergoing intensive training. One more unmanned space flight is planned before the first manned launch.
Experts say that the Shenzhou spacecraft already provides China with a space vehicle capable of mounting（发起）a lunar program. Chinese scientists have also predicted that Mars will be the next target after the moon.
【小题1】According to Ouyang Ziyuan ________.