11．　　People call Mary's grandmother a "walking encyclopedia" because she knows so (1)      . She could probably write an encyclopedia on her own, without the help of (2)       else! When she takes part in quizzes, she always (3)       . She knows the answers to all the questions and never gets (4)       wrong.
　　"How do you (5)       so many things?" Mary asked her. "There are two reasons, she (6)       . "First, I never (7)       anything I read or hear. All the knowledge I get from books or television programme is stored (储存) inside my (8)       . I particularly (尤其) like reading life stories, so I know a lot about many famous people. (9)      , I have had a long and interesting life. I have done many different things. When I left school, I became a nurse and learnt a lot about (10)       and medicine. Then I married your grandfather. He was a naturalist (自然学家) to study (11)       and animals, so his job was (12)       interesting than mine. He often took me to many different parts of the world and I (13)       many countries and their wildlife. Then my (14)       — your father and his two brothers﹣were born. They grew up and liked all kinds of sports, so I learnt the (15)       of many sport from them.

12．　　This is an article from an encyclopedia.
　　Why do plants grow in some places but not in others?Why does some land have so many plants growing on it while other land has almost no plants growing on it at all?
　　To grow, plants need several things. One is warmth. In very cold places almost nothing grows. Plants also need water. In very dry parts of the Earth only a few unusual plants can grow. That's why there are almost no trees or grass in dry deserts.
　　Plants must also have a place to put down their roots and grow. They find it difficult to grow on hard land. The town is built on hard land. The plants there have only the soil between the cracks of the stones to grow in.
　　Another thing plants must have before they can grow is food. What will happen if we try to make things grow on the sandy beach?A few plants, such as grass, will grow in sand, but most plants won't. Even if the weather is warm enough and we water the plants each day, many of then will die because the sand on this beach has almost no food for plants.

13．　　Once upon a time, a king offered a prize to the artist if he could paint the best picture of peace. The king received thousands of paintings from many artists. He studied each one carefully and finally decided on two that he really liked. He now had to choose between them.
　　The first was a painting of a beautiful calm lake with clear water. It was surrounded (包围) by green forests and high mountain. The sky was blue with white clouds. Th other painting had mountains too, but these mountains were rugged (崎岖的). A huge waterfall fell down one side of the mountains. Above them was an angry sky, lit by lightning, and a heavy rain was falling.
　　Most people agreed that the first painting clearly showed a place of perfect peace. However, when the king looked at the second painting more closely, he found a tiny bush growing behind the waterfall. There, in the small bush, a mother bird built her nest. In the middle of the angry water, in the wind and the noise, the mother bird sat still on her nest﹣in perfect peace.
　　The king chose the second panting. When asked why, he said, "Peace does not mean being in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. Peace means being in the middle of all of these things and yet still being able to find calm and quiet in your heart and to go on with your life. This is the true meaning of peace."

14．　　Better think twice before choosing a password for email, online bank or shopping. Simple passwords are easy to be stolen.
　　A password is like a key to your home. If someone steals it, he'll get chances to steal something else. We use passwords everywhere in our life. We are so used to passwords that we don't pay any attention to them until we lose or forget one.
　　A study of 28, 000 passwords reticently stolen from a popular website showed that people often do the easy thing. It found that 16% took a first name as a password. Another 14% used the easiest keyboard combinations, such as "12345678" or "QWER TY" 5% of the stolen passwords were names of television shows of star popular with young people, 3% of the passwords expressed feelings like "I don't care", "Whatever", " I love you" or their opposite, "I hate you".
　　Robert Graham, who did the study, advises people to choose a password that is longer than eight characters with one capital letter(大写字母)and one symbol.
　　Of course, safe passwords don't mean those hard to remember. Forgetting your password is sometimes a big headache for you. Maybe, the perfect password is easy for you but hard for others.

15．Great inventions
　　Great inventions change the world. They help people live a better life. The following are three of the most important inventions in history.
　　The wheel
　　The wheel is perhaps the greatest invention in history. After its invention, travelling became faster and more comfortable. A few thousand years ago, people started to use wheels on carriages. In the early 19th century, the first trains began to carry passengers. At the start of the 20th century, cars became popular. Without the wheel, we would not have these inventions.
　　The telephone
　　Alexander Graham Bell invented one of the first practical telephones in 1876. Since then, people have been able to speak to each other over long distances. Today millions of people across the world own mobile phones. They allow people to keep in touch with each other anytime, anywhere.
　　The light bulb
　　Thomas Edison developed the first practical light bulb in 1879. Before the invention of the light bulb, people had to use oil lamps, gas lamps or candles to see at night. With light bulbs, people can do as many things in the evening as they can in the daytime. Can you imagine living without them?

16．　　Justin is a very clever boy and he wants to be a famous (1)      (invent) when he grows up. His parents were (2)      (aware)of his high intelligence until he was eight years old. In fact, he (3)       (bear) in an ordinary family, but he had the (4)       (able) to find out many world difficult problems at the age of 13. He not only works well in his study, but also gets along well with his family. He promises his parents (5)      (work) as a useful scientist for the social development. He has been much (6)       (popular) than before across the world since he attended the TV program Super Brain. Let's look forward to (7)       (see) his greater progress in the field of science.

17．Computer Game Problems
　　Good afternoon, parents and teachers. Thank you for attending this meeting.
　　Last weekend, one of our students went to hospital. The student played computer games on the Internet all day Saturday (A) stopping to drink, eat or sleep. Finally, he became very ill.
　　Some students play computer games for too long. This is a serious problem, In the past, students used to play outside more often, (B) now they spend more time (C)in front of computers. (D)This is bad for their health.
　　Tomorrow we'll have some experts here to talk to the students about the bad effects of playing computer games. (E)他们也将给出关于如何使用电脑进行学习的建议。
　　I hope we can all work together to (F)stop students from spending too much time playing computer games. Thank you for your time.

18．　　Practising yoga (瑜伽) is a helpful, popular way to keep fit. There are many kinds of yoga. You may have heard of "hot yoga" before. Now, in India, a new kind of yoga, water yoga, is becoming(A) and more welcome among the local people.
　　In the city of Agra, people practise yoga in water. It is more difficult to practise yoga in water (B)______ on land. ①
　　Harish Chaturvedi, a lawyer, teaches people water yoga for free — even the poor people can learn from him. "(C)水上瑜伽会比其他类型的瑜伽更受欢迎 because the body does not get tired so quickly, "he said. "Everybody can learn to swim, but if they learn yoga at the same time, they will never feel tired. ②"
　　"The level of oxygen (氧气) is very high in water and you will not have any breathing problem." he added.
　　(D)Harish believes that water yoga really helps people to keep away from illness. He mainly trains children. He has classes at the swimming pool of a local sports room regularly. Many children are interested in it and come to learn from him. ③

19．阅读短文, 然后根据其内容从方框中选出可以填入短文空白处的短语．

Computer is one of the greatest inventions of the 20^th century. It has become more and more popular in recent years. Most of us have at least one computer at home, including me.
I would like my computer to be able to (1)      . Then I will never be lonely.
I would like my computer to be able to become (2)      . Then I can know whatever is happening outside without going anywhere.
I would like my computer to (3)      at home, so I will not have to go to school everyday.
I would like my computer to be able to (4)      and my words. Then I will never need to type.
I would also like my computer to be able to take me to the future. Then I will know what I (5)      when I grow up.

20．假定你是李华, 你的英国朋友Mike听说你家最近换了一台新电脑, 来信询问你相关情况．请你给他写一封回信, 内容包括:
1. 新电脑的基本信息;
2. (与之前电脑对比)新电脑的优势;
3. 希望与期待．
注意:
1. 词数80～ 100, 短文的开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数;
2. 可以适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯．
Dear Mike,
　　My family bought a new computer last month. Let me introduce it to you._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua .