50. Humble (_____)_ it may be, there is no place like home.

4. Passage Nine Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services. People use money to buy food， furniture， books， bicycles and hundreds of others they need or want. When they work， they usually get paid in money. Most of the money today is made of metal or paper. But people used to use all kinds of things as money. 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. In some parts of Africa， cattle were one of the earliest kinds of money. Other animals were used as money， too. The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the center. People strung them together and carried them from place to place. Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money. The first coins in England were made of tin. Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later， other 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. They began to use paper money. The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than paper money used today. Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today. Why does the author say that even gold and silver were inconvenient if you had to buy something expensive?

A. Because they are easy to steal.

B. Because they are difficult for people to obtain.

C. Because they are not easy to carry around.

D. Because they themselves are expensive， too.

47. By the time the war (_____), most of the people had already left.

A. 　 broke out

B. 　 broke up

C. 　 intervened

D. 　 happen

4. Passage Eighteen An idea that started in Seattle’s public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time. In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all， the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus， as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” project in 1998. Her original program used author visits， study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book， but the idea has expanded to many other American cities， and even to Hong Kong. In Chicago， the mayor appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the “One Book， One Chicago” program. As a result， reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US， stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about the plot and characters. The only problem arose in New York， where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns， where a greater sense of unity can be achieved. Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point， putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself. Ultimately， as Nancy points out， the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book， but by how many people are enriched by the process or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have 【shared a word】. The underlined words “shared a word” in the last paragraph probably mean ( ) .

A. exchanged ideas with each other

B. discussed the meaning of a word

C. gained life experience

D. used the same language

2. Passage Nineteen A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the woods for two days is now safe at home. But Casey Hathaway told his rescuers that he was not alone in the rainy， freezing cold woods. He said he was with a friend——abear. The child went missing on January 22 while playing with friends at his grandmother’s house in the southern state of North Carolina. When the other children returned to the house and Casey did not， the family searched the area for almost an hour before calling the police. Police formed a search and rescue team to look for the young boy in the nearby woods. But two days went by and still——no Casey. The woods of North Carolina are home to many black bears， like this one. It seems one of them helped a little boy while he was lost in the woods. Then on January 24， someone called the police saying they heard a child crying in the woods. Police followed up on the information and found Casey at about 9:30 that night. They pulled him out of some briar (荆棘). He was in good health. Police Officer Chip Hughes said that Casey did not say how he was able to survive in the woods for two days in the cloud， rainy weather， but that “he did say he had a friend in the woods that was a bear that was with him. ” Hundreds of people helped in the search and rescue efforts， including some 600 volunteers， federal police and members of the military. Hughes told reporters that at no point did he think Casey had been kidnapped (绑架). Doctors at Carolina East Medical Center treated Casey for minor injuries. He was then released to his family on January 25 .The woods are mentioned again and again to indicate that they ( ) .

A. provide good places for children to play in

B. are home to bears and thus dangerous to children

C. stand for good environment around Casey’s home

D. may be the cause of the rainy weather in the area

3. Passage Nine Today anyone will accept money in exchange for goods and services. People use money to buy food， furniture， books， bicycles and hundreds of others they need or want. When they work， they usually get paid in money. Most of the money today is made of metal or paper. But people used to use all kinds of things as money. 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. In some parts of Africa， cattle were one of the earliest kinds of money. Other animals were used as money， too. The first metal coins were made in China. They were round and had a square hole in the center. People strung them together and carried them from place to place. Different countries have used different metals and designs for their money. The first coins in England were made of tin. Sweden and Russia used copper to make their money. Later， other 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. They began to use paper money. The first paper money looked more like a note from one person to another than paper money used today. Money has had an interesting history from the days of shell money until today. Why， according to the passage， did ancient Chinese coins have a square hole in the center?

A. Because it would be easier to put them together and carry them around.

B. Because it would be lighter for people to carry them from place to place.

C. Because people wanted to make it look nicer.

D. Because people wanted to save the expensive metal they were made from.

1. Passage Sixteen Justin was always prepared. His motto was “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” His bedroom was so full of flat bicycle tires， bent tennis rackets， deflated basketballs， and games with missing pieces that you could barely get in the door. His parents asked him to clean out his room. “What use is a fish tank with a hole in the bottom?” his father asked. But Justin simply smiled and repeated his motto， “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” When Justin was away from home， he always carried his blue backpack. He liked to think of it as a smaller version of his bedroom——a place to store the many objects that he collected. It was so worn and stretched that it hardly resembled a backpack anymore. It was full of the kind of things that seemed unimportant， but when used with a little imagination， might come in handy. Justin had earned a reputation for figuring things out and getting people out of otherwise hopeless situations. Many of his classmates and neighbors sought him out when they needed help with a problem. On the first day of school， his friend Kenny， came looking for Justin. “Do you think you have something in your bag that could help me remember my locker code?” he asked. “I lost the paper it was written on. I have science class in two minutes and if I’m late on the first day it’ll make me look bad for the rest of the year.” Kenny looked genuinely worried. “Relax，” Justin said， taking his backpack off and opened it. “Remember how you borrowed my notebook in hometown to write the code down? Well， I know how we can recover what you wrote. ” He took the notebook and a soft lead pencil out of his bag. The page that Kenny had written on had left faint indentations (旧凹痕) on another page in the notebook. Justin held the pencil on its side and rubbed it lightly over the indentations. Slowly but surely the numbers of the locker code appeared in white， set off by the gray pencil rubbings. “That’s amazing!” Kenny said. “I owe you one.” And he dashed off to open his locker. Why is Justin’s room such a mess?

A. He always forgets to clean it.

B. He never throws anything away.

C. He has no time to clean it.

D. He shares a room with Kenny.

1. Passage Seven A few centuries ago， people looked at the birds and wondered what it would be like to fly like them. There were stories of heroes who glued bird feathers on their arms and flew up into the sky. About 500 years ago， some people dreamed a different dream. Instead of flying up to the sky， they dreamed of falling from the sky! In the 15th century， Italian inventors designed a cone-shaped (雏形) device that was supposed to bring a man down safely from a great height. The operator held on to a handle with straps strapped to his waist. This was the first known design for a parachute (降落伞) . Even the great inventor Leonardo da Vinci sketched a type of parachute. His parachute design was in the shape of a pyramid (金字塔). Other inventors also sketched their own designs for a parachute. Unfortunately， these were only designs on paper and no one tested them . A Croatian inventor named Fausto Veranzio looked at Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute design and replaced the pyramid shape with one that looked like a sail from a ship. When Veranzio was 65 years old， he fell ill. Thinking he would not live longer， he decided to try out his parachute invention. He built his parachute using wood and cloth. Strapping his invention to his waist， he jumped off the tall bell tower in his city. He landed safely! He was supposedly the first man to successfully use a parachute. However， some people thought this story was not true. If that was the case， then the first person to successfully use a parachute would go to a Frenchman named Louis-Sebastien Lenormand in 1783 . The first known parachute was designed by ( ) .

A. Frenchmen

B. Italians

C. Croatians

D. Englishmen

4. . Passage Twenty All friendships require a certain amount of chemistry. But when two people of the opposite sex become friends， sometimes those friendly feelings can start to resemble something more like sexual tension. Male-female friendships can be an emotional minefield of hidden desires. Does this mean you secretly want to jump into bed with all of your friends? Of course not. But do you ever wonder how many of them might be interested if the opportunity presented itself? Maybe you and your platonic (柏拉图式的) friendship are just a bad breakup and a bottle of wine away from crossing that boundary and hooking up (结合). So can two people of the opposite sex ever really be “just friends?” The Hollywood answer to this age-old question is a decisive HELL NO. On screen， male-female friendships always turn into something more. Harry and Sally， Chandler and Monica， Jim and Pam … … Do I need to go on? Even the characters in Just Friends wind up becoming much more than the film’s definitive title suggests. Cinematic stories dictate that when reasonably attractive men and women befriend one another， they are always on the road to romance， whether they realize it or not. But how much truth is there to this friendship as foreplay theory? It is not a whole lot. Real life isn’t a romantic comedy. Men and women go to school together， work together and hang out in plenty of platonic settings without falling hopelessly in love with one another. Last year， a close female friend of mine moved in with a new male roommate. My immediate reaction was， “You two are definitely going to sleep together.” It seemed to me that a single man and woman living under the same roof would inevitably end up doing it. Much to my surprise， the roommate romance never happened. Almost one year later， the two of them have never even come close to seeing each other naked. Instead， their way of life has come to resemble a sexless marriage. They cook for each other， argue over domestic chores and insist that they never， ever think about each other “that way.” In real life， Hollywood foreplay theory ( ) .

A. has been proved true

B. has been practiced a lot

C. doesn’t work

D. is abandoned by people

40. Her dress was very short and she was a bit embarrassed (_____)_ it.

A. 　 about

B. 　 to

C. 　 on

D. 　 for

37. It makes (_____) to evaluate the risks before taking any action.

A. 　 reason

B. 　 idea

C. 　 meaning

D. 　 sense