History is the story of us, human beings. Everyone who has lived and everything that has happened are
part of history. But history is not only what happened in the past. The word also means the study of the past,
through old written records and other kinds of facts.
     Why do we study history? One reason is that we enjoy it. A good story is even better if it is true, and
history is full of good stories, though they can be terrible too. A more serious reason is to understand ourselves
and the world we live in. To understand events happening now, we need to know their causes. We cannot
understand the present if we know nothing about the past. History helps to explain why things are the way they
are.
     Of course, history books cannot tell us everything about the past, not even everything that is recorded. A
history of the world has to pick out the people and events that changed the world.
     Since ancient times, great civilizations have appeared in different countries and regions. Usually, only three
or four existed at the same time. While they lasted, they changed the lives not only of their own people, but of
their neighbors too.
注：(1) civilizations 文明 (2) exist 存在 (3) region 地區(qū)

1. What is history?
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2. How do we study history?
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3. Why do we study history? Please give two reasons. 
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    __________________________________________________________
4. What have appeared in different countries and regions since ancient times? 
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5. What title can you give to the passage? 
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     Dreams may be more important than sleep. Some people don't need much sleep. But we all need to dream,
scientists say.
     (A) Dreams take up about one quarter of our sleeping time. People have several dreams each night. Dreams
are like short films. They are usually in color. Some dreams are like old films. They come to us over and over
again. That may be because the dreamer is worrying about something.
     Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer. Some people get new ideas about their work from
dreams. They could have been thinking about their work all day. These thoughts can carry over into dreams.
     Sometimes we wake up with a good feeling from a dream. But often we can't remember the dream. Dreams
can disappear quickly from memory. (B) The more we sleep, the longer we dream. Too much dreaming can be
harmful. The mind is hard at working when we dream. That is why we may have a long sleep and still wake up
tired.

1. Are dreams very important to us? （簡要回答）
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2. According to the author（作者）, what are dreams like?（簡要回答）
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3. Why do we sometimes still feel tired after a long sleep? （簡要回答） 
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4. 將文中的句子（A）譯成漢語。 
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5. 將文中的句子（B）譯成漢語。 
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     Dreams may be more important than sleep. Some people don't need much sleep. But we all need to dream,
scientists say.
     (3) Dreams take up about one quarter of our sleeping time. People have several dreams each night. Dreams
are like short films. They arc usually in color. Some dreams are like old films, They come to us over and over
again. That may be because the dreamer is worrying about something.
     Dreaming may be a way of trying to find an answer. (4) Some people get new ideas about their work from
dreams. They could have been thinking about their work all day. These thoughts can carry over into dreams.
     Sometimes we wake up with a good feeling from a dream. But often we can't remember the dream. Dreams
Call disappear quickly from memory. (5) 我們睡覺越多, the longer we dream. Too much dreaming Call be
harmful. The mind is hard at working when we dream. That is why we may have a long sleep and still wake up
tired.

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容簡要回答問題。
1. What does the text tell us?
    ________________________________________________________________________
2. Why do we sometimes still feel tired after a long sleep?
    ________________________________________________________________________
將短文中的（3）、（4）兩句譯成漢語。
3. ______________________________________________________________________
4. ______________________________________________________________________
將文中的句子（5）譯成。
5. ______________________________________________________________________

     Do you know kind words and light music (輕音樂) have something to do with plants?
     Many people talk to their plants. Many people play music to their plants. And many people try very hard
to protect (保護(hù)) their plants from loud noises, strong lights, and unpleasant (討厭的) smells (氣味).
     That's not all. Some people are very careful (小心的) about what they say or do in front of plants. They
won't talk about unpleasant things. They won't beat (拍打) a fly (蒼蠅) near their plants.
     Why? Those people are afraid that they may hurt their plants' feelings.
     Can you hurt a plant's feelings? Do plants have feelings? Professor Backster thinks so. Many pupils think
so. Even a few scientists think that plants have feelings.
     But most scientists (科學(xué)家) don't agree (同意). They don't think that plants can be happy, worried,
angry, loving or frightened (害怕). They don't believe that a plant's feeling can be hurt.
     Who is right? Then along came the experiments (實驗) of professor Backster. From his experiments,
Backster decided that plants have feelings. He said that, like people, plants need love and kindness (親切).
They can feel worried and happy.
     Two years later, in l 968. Baekster wrote about his experiments in a magazine (雜志). And much of the
world took notice (注意). Plant lovers of the world were happy.

1. The writer think kind words and light music ________  plants.

A. have nothing to do with
B. have something to do with.
C. are bad for
D. destroyed

2. Some people think loud noises and unpleasant smells ________.

A. can protect plants
B. have nothing to do with plants
C. can make plants grow better
D. can hurt plants

3. Some people think it is helpful to plants to ________.

A. play light music
B. talk about unpleasant things
C. shout loudly
D. beat a fly

4. ________ plants have feelings.

A. Only Backster believes
B. Nobody believes
C. Baekster and some other people believe
D. Most scientists believe

5. Backster wrote about his experiments in a ________.

A. book
B. magazine
C. novel (小說)
D. newspaper

     Robots seem very new to most people. But they have a long history. The first one was made by a Greek
inventor. You may see robots in some films. The robots in these films are stronger, faster and cleverer than
people. In real life, most robots are used in factories. They are used to do many dangerous, difficult or boring
jobs. Some people can't look after themselves and robots are used to help them. For example, some people
can't see, many of these people use a dog to help themselves move around. This dog is called a guide dog.
Scientists are making a robot to help them. In the future, robot dogs might take the place of these guide dogs.
     Robots are also used in American hospitals. At one hospital, a robot takes meals from the kitchen to the
sick people's rooms. It never loses its way because it has a map of the hospital in its computer system.
     In the future, robots will work in space. But robots will never take the place of human help. They can,
however, help us in a lot of different ways.

(     )1. Robots have a long history.
(     )2. The first robot was invented by a Greek.
(     )3. Robots can only be seen in films.
(     )4. Robots can help some people look after themselves.
(     )5. Today's robots have quite a few different uses.

     Can plants eat people? Probably not, but there are many plants that eat meat. Some of them are big, and
they can eat small animals. One famous meat-eating plant is the Venus flytrap (捕蠅草).
     The Venus flytrap is a very strange plant. It grows in dry parts of the United States. Its leaves are like the
pages of a book. They can open and close very quickly. Inside the leaves, there are three small hairs. If a fly
touches one of the hairs, the leaf closes quickly. The fly cannot get out. In about half an hour, the leaf presses
the fly until it is dead. Then, the plant covers the fly. Slowly, the plant eats the fly.
     Why do plants do it? Most plants get what they need from the sun, the air and the ground. In some places,
the ground is very poor. It doesn't have all these important things, especially nitrogen (氮). Animal meat has a
lot of nitrogen, so some plants eat meat to get what they need. Let's hope that some of the bigger plants don't
get the same idea!

1. The Venus flytrap is a kind of          .

[     ]

A. plant
B. animal
C. food
D. drink

2. The Venus flytrap grows in           .

[     ]

A. most parts of the world
B. some parts of Africa
C. dry parts of the United States
D. Asia

3. From the passage, we learn that           .

[     ]

A. all plants can eat people
B. all plants can eat animals
C. some plants Can eat animals
D. some plants don't eat anything

4. The underlined word "presses" probably means            in Chinese.

[     ]

A. 擠壓
B. 關(guān)上
C. 打開
D. 調(diào)高

5. Why do some plants eat animal meat? Because           .

[     ]

A. plants are dangerous (危險) to animals
B. animals are dangerous to plants
C. plants want to get what they need from animal meat
D. plants get some water