A land free from destruction, plus wealth, natural resources, and labor supply—all these were important 1 in helping England to become the center for the Industrial Revolution. 2 they were not enough. Something 3 was needed to start the industrial process. That "something special" was men—4 individuals who could invent machines, find new 5 of power, and establish business organizations to reshape society.

　　The men who 6 the machines of the Industrial Revolution 7 from many backgrounds and many occupations. Many of them were 8 inventors than scientists. A man who is a 9 scientist is primarily interested in doing his research 10 .He is not necessarily working 11 that his findings can be used.

　　An inventor or one interested in applied science is 12 trying to make something that has a concrete use. He may try to solve a problem by 13 the theories 14 science or by experimenting through trial and error. Regardless of his method, he is working to obtain a 15 result: the construction of a harvesting machine, the burning of a light bulb, or one of 16 other objectives.

　　Most of the people who 17 the machines of the Industrial Revolution were inventors, not trained scientists. A few were both scientists and inventors. Even those who had 18 or no training in science might not have made their inventions 19 a groundwork had not been laid by scientists years 20 .

　　1.A.cases        B .reasons      C .factors      D .situations

　　2.A.But         B .And         C .Besides     D .Even

　　3.A.else         B .near         C .extra       D .similar

　　4.A.generating    B .effective     C .motivating   D .creative

　　5.A.origins       B .sources      C .bases       D .discoveries

　　6.A.employed     B .created      C .operated    D .controlled

　　7.A.came        B .arrived       C .stemmed   D .appeared

　　8.A.less         B .better        C. more       D .worse

　　9.A.genuine      B .practical     C .pure        D .clever

　　10.A.happily     B .occasionally  C. reluctantly   D .accurately

　　11.A.now        B .and         C .all         D .so

　　12.A.seldom      B .sometimes   C .all         D .never

　　13.A.planning    B .using        C .idea        D .means

　　14.A.of         B .with         C .to          D .as

　　15.A.single      B .sole         C. specialized   D .specific

　　16.A.few        B .those        C .many       D .all

　　17.A.proposed    B .developed    C .supplied     D .offered

　　18.A.little       B .much        C .some        D .any

　　19.A.as         B .if           C .because      D .while

　　20.A.ago        B .past         C .ahead        D .before

Miss Gogers taught physics in a New York school. Last month she explained to one of her classes about sound, and she decided to test them to see how successful she had been in her explanation. She said to them, “Now I have a brother in Los Angeles. If I was calling him on the phone and at the same time you were 75 feet away, listening to me from across the street, which of you would hear what I said earlier, my brother or you and for what reason?”
Tom at once answered, “Your brother. Because electricity travels faster than sound waves.” “That’s every good,” Miss Gogers answered; but then one of the girls raised her hand, and Miss Gogers said. “Yes, Kate.”
“I disagree,” Kate said. “Your brother would hear you earlier because when it’s 11 o’clock here it’s only 8 o’clock in Los Angeles.”
【小題1】 Miss Gogers was teaching her class_________.

“Imagine you are walking along the road. Suddenly you fall over and all the passers-by burst into laughter. You feel very　 1　 and think the world is laughing at you . But in fact, five minutes later, they have　 2　  it ever happened.” The other day when I came across these words in an article, I didn’t agree with the　 3　 .
The author thinks the best thing to do in this kind of　 4 is to pretend nothing has happened, and so avoid　 5　 trouble.
I admit that we should keep　 6　 because “Your tears will only remind others of what happened, while your　 7　 can let them forget it.” But this is far from satisfactory. We should do　8　 to make things better.
I used to be a(n)  9　 girl and not very good at maths. Our new maths teacher asked me a question and I still remember how I hung my head in  10  when I couldn’t answer it.
“If you don’t know the answer, just tell me.” the teacher said, “If you don’t how can I know 　 11　 you know the answer or not?” All of my classmates burst into laughter. My face turned red but the teacher　 12　 me to go to the blackboard and　 13　 what I knew. If I had　 14　 the words in the article, I would have given up. But I tried my best. And to everyone’s  15　, I succeeded! The teacher smiled and said, “Well done! I　 16　 you could do it!”
Since then, I have become active in maths as　 17　 as in other subjects. I used to think doing maths exercises was a waste of time. But now, I know　 18　 I do can make things better. Everyone is the　 19　 of his own fate.
If we make mistakes, we should take on an active　20　 . Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep(哭泣), and you weep alone.

HOUSTON (Reuters) — Houston tops a U.S. magazine’s annual fattest cities list for the fourth time in five years, with four other Texas cities in the top 25.
　　Fast food restaurants — Houston has twice the national average number — are partly to blame for the dishonor, Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton said.
　　“Americans work long hours, don’t take vacations, and when they’re faced with the worst food choices, they indulge (沉溺于) in those,” he said.
　　High humidity, poor air quality and some of the nation’s longest commute (每天去上班的路程) times also helped Texas’ most populous city unseat Detroit, the 2003 heavy weight champion, the magazine said.
　　Houston Mayor Bill White, who has worked with a major food company to develop healthy food products and the city’s public schools to improve lunch menus, called the report “mostly ungrounded and nonsense.”
　　“On the other hand, it calls attention to real issues the mayor is trying to deal with,” his spokesman, Frank Michel, said.
　　The magazine said it looked at factors such as the number and types of restaurants, park space, air quality, weather and the number of health clubs.
　　Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago followed Houston on the seventh edition of the fat list. Texas cities Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso were in the top 14, which Boulton said was no surprise.
　　“It’s pure big indulgence, just living big, and that’s part of the culture,” said Boulton.
　　Seattle ranked as the fittest city. Austin and Arlington, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, were the only Texas cities on the fit list. Austin was 19th and Arlington 22nd out of 25.
【小題1】What decides the magazine’s annual fattest list?

　There is a story of a country where the rate of inflation（通貨膨脹率）is so high that clever people pay for a taxi ride before the trip instead of after. This story may or may not be true. But inflation was almost that serious in Germany from July 1920 until December 1923. Prices went up so fast that by the end of 1923 they were 50 billion percent higher－a rise of almost 25000 / 40 a month.

　　There was so much paper money, and it had so little value, that people carried bags full of money around to pay for things. One woman told the story of standing outside a shop with a basket full of 500 000 mark notes（馬克）. She wanted to buy just one piece of meat, and she hoped she had enough money. But when she was looking, a thief robbed（搶奪） her. He didn't take her money, though, he threw it away and took the basket in stead.

　　At first workers demanded to be paid every day. But as the situation be came worse, they had to be paid twice a day. But they had to run out and spend the money at once, or it would lose its value. People bought anything that was for sale, but food was almost impossible to find. Farm workers re fused to take money. They wanted to be paid in potatoes instead.

　　New policies（政策）ended the inflation in 1923, when the government introduced a new money. But about half of the German people lost every thing in those three and a half years.

　　1．People paid for a taxi ride before the trip because they________

　　　　A. did not want to carry so much money with them

　　　　B. had so much paper money that they wanted to spend them quickly

　　　　C. wanted to save money

　　　　D. were afraid of the taxi driver

　　2．According to the passage, in Germany the prices in 1920 were ________.

　　　　A. higher than those in 1923

　　　　B. lower than those in 1923

　　　　C. the highest in history

　　　　D. the lowest in history

　　3．The thief stole the basket instead of the money in it because he thought _________

　　　　A. he couldn't buy a piece of meat with the money

　　　　B. the basket was more valuable than the money

　　　　C. the basket was what he needed most

　　　　D. the money was of no value

　　4．The farm workers demanded to be paid in potatoes because they be lieved that _______

　　　　A. the money could not buy potatoes

　　　　B. the money might lose its value

　　　　C. the potato was too expensive

　　　　D. the potato was valuable