On December 18, 1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower came on shore at modern – day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony.

The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of reform-minded people in England built their own church, which was separate from the state – supported Church of England. Because of this, they were forced to leave the country and settle in Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and make a hard living, the group sought financial backing from some London merchants to set up a colony in America.

On Septmeber 6,1620, one hundred and two passengers – called Pilgrims (朝圣者) by William Bradford, a passenger who would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony – crowded on the Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New World. On November 11,1620, the Mayflower landed at Provincetown Harbor. Before going on shore, 41 male passengers – heads of families, single men and three male servants – signed the famous Mayflower contract, agreeing to form a government chosen by common election and to obey all laws made for the good of the colony.

Over the next month, several small leading teams were sent on shore to collect firewood and hunt for a good place to build a settlement. Around December 10, one of these groups found a harbor they liked on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. They returned to the Mayflower to tell the other passengers, but bad weather prevented then reaching the harbor until December 16. Two days later, the first group of Pilgrims went on shore. After exploring the region, the settlers chose a cleared area once controlled by members of a local Native American tribe (部落). The tribe had abandoned the village several years earlier, after an outbreak of European disease.

That winter of 1620 – 1621 was really hard, as the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and take care of the sick. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower passengers were dead. The remaining settlers made contact with returning members of the Native American tribe and in March they signed a peace treaty (条约) with the tribe chief. In the spring time, helped by the locals, the Pilgrims were able to plant crops – especially corn and beans – that were necessary to their survival.

On April 5,1621, the Mayflower and its crew left Plymouth to return to England. Over the next several decades, more and more settlers made the voyage across the Atlantic to Plymouth, which gradually grew into a successful shipbuilding and fishing center.

1．A group of English were forced to leave their country in 1606 because          .

         A．their belief was different from the official Church

         B．they built their own churches in a foreign country

         C．they lacked financial support from the government

         D．they were ambitious to build the colony in America

2．How many days did the sea journey to Provincetown Harbor last?          .

         A．103    B．96       C．66       D．35

3．Several leading teams were sent in order to        .

         A．hunt for food for the passengers       B．control local Native Americans

         C．build a settlement for the passengers      D．explore the region for their settlement

4．From the passage we know that         between 1620 – 1621.

         A．52 Mayflower passengers died of some illnesses    

         B．Pilgrims had a good relationship with the locals

         C．Plymouth turned a main center for shipbuilding      

         D．Pilgrims tried to plant corns and beans in winter

The Three Gorges (三峡) Dam, the largest dam in the world, is also the largest engineering project on the face of the earth. It aims to make the mother of all floods, the Changjiang River, into a tame river and it will be the largest power source for much of eastern and central China. It will create a huge, deep-water lake, and make it possible for 10 000 ton ocean-going ships to sail 1 500 miles inland from the Pacific to the city of Chongqing with its 30 million people, making it the world's largest river port.

    Construction has already started. The dam will be about 6 860 feet long and 611 feet high, at a spot called Sandouping near Yichang.

    After many years of investigation (调研) experts have drawn a conclusion that this grand project will do a great deal of good. The most important thing is flood control. By building a dam instead of new coal plants to meet its growing demand for electricity, China will give off much less poisonous gases into the air.

    However, some scientists don't agree to the project. They say that Chongqing and dozens of other cities along the river will put much waste into the reservoir (水库) which can do harm to people, fish and other living thing that depend on the river. Sedimentation (沉积) and damage of a breach(决口)are problems, too.

    The Three Gorges Dam could be considered, when it is finished in 2009, a new eighth wonder of the world as to the size alone.

1．Which is not the purpose to build such a huge dam?

    A. To make electricity.

    B. To prevent floods.

    C. To improve navigation (运输).

    D. To make it a wonder.

2．Where does the dam lie?

    A. Near Chongqing.

    B. Near Yichang.

    C. In the Three Gorges.

    D. In Wuhan.

3．Some scientists fear that ________.

    A. when the dam is built, the balance of nature may be destroyed

    B. sedimentation may occur

    C. a breach may cause millions of people to die or to be homeless

    D. electricity will not be as much as expected

4．According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT right?

    A. When finished, the dam will be one of the main bases of power source of China.

    B. People have different ideas about the setting up of the dam.

    C. It will take many years to build the dam because people want to see whether it will be safe and strong enough.

    D. Chongqing will become the largest river port in the world when the dam is finished.

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0??C. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high-security door.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present al the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0??C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most secure gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The project is meant to ______.

A．increase the world’s food output in the future      

B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes   

C．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

D．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.    

C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the threat unclear war forever.   

D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

We can infer from the text that _______.

A．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture   

C．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. 

D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

What is probably the best title of the passage?

A．The Best Place to Store Seeds B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

C．Concerns of World Food Supply    D．A New Way to Feed the World

The Golden Gate Bridge, the first sight for many people arriving in the United States by ship, is a well-recognized landmark, which spans(横跨) the Golden Gate Strait.

The idea for a bridge across the strait had been around for many years, but it was not easy to get the project started. The construction of the bridge finally began in 1933. The construction work set new standards for safety----workers were among the first required to wear hard hats, and an innovative（革新的） safety net saved the lives of nineteen men while the bridge was built. The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937, which was finished ahead of schedule.

Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer in charge of the bridge project. However, he had little experience with the construction of suspension（悬浮）bridges. For this reason, other engineers, architects, and designers made great contributions to the design and construction of the bridge. For example, the bridge owes its art style and unique orange color to the architects Irving and Gertrude Morrow. Charles Alton Ellis was the main engineer on the project and did much of the technical work necessary to build the bridge.

Today, the Golden Gate Bridge has a main span of 4,200 feet and a total length of 8,981 feet, making it one of the longest bridges in the world. The bridge is 90 feet wide, and its span is 220 feet above the water. The towers supporting the huge cables (巨缆) rise 746 feet above the waters of the Golden Gate Strait, making them 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument. About 40 million cars cross the bridge every year. There are foghorns（雾角）to let passing ships know where the bridge is, and aircraft beacons（信号灯）on the tops of the towers to stop planes from crashing into them.

1.The purpose of the passage is to _______.

A. describe the construction work of the Golden Gate Bridge

B. introduce the Golden Gate Bridge

C. tell us the history of the Golden Gate Bridge

D. introduce the engineers in charge of the Golden Gate Bridge

2.Safety innovations during the construction of the bridge included ________.

A. hardhats and a safety net　　　　B. aircraft beacons

C. foghorns          　　　　　 D. all of the above

3. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A. Joseph Strauss was skilled in the construction of suspension bridges

B. it took the construction workers three years to build the Golden Gate Bridge

C. about 100 thousand cars cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day

D. the Golden Gate Bridge is the longest bridge in the world

4.The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 4 refers to ________.

A. towers           B. cables           C. waters          D. bridges

　　Besides Egyptians, people of Mexico also builded　　　　 1._______

pyramids.They didn't build the pyramids for tombs. They　　 2.________

were used to build a pyramid and then build a temple on　　 3._______

top of them. The pyramids of mexico are not as high as　　 4._______

that of Egypt, but they are big. Each pyramid has a wide　　 5._______

stairway that go from the bottom to the top.　　　　　　　　6.________

　　The biggest pyramid in Mexico is almost 2000 year old. 7.________

Scientists think it spent 10,000 men more than ten years　　 8. ________

to build. On top of it they built a temple to worship　　　　 9._________

sun. The temple is no longer there and people call it　　　　 10.________

the pyramid of the sun.