阅读理解。

     Olaf Stapledon wrote a book called First and Last Men. in which he looked millions of years ahead. He

told of different men and of strange civilisations (文明), broken up by long 'dark ages' in between. In his

view, what is called the present time is no more than a moment in human history and we are just the First

Men. In 2,000 million years from now there will be the Eighteenth or Last Men. 　　

     However, most of our ideas about the future are really very short-sighted. Perhaps we can see some

possibilities for the next fifty years. But the next hundred? The next thousand? The next million? That's much

more difficult. 　　

     When men and women lived by hunting 50,000 years ago, how could they even begin to picture modern

life? Yet to men of 50,000 years from now, we may seem as primitive (原始的) in our ideas as the Stone-Age

hunters do to us. Perhaps through the cribe, These words, which I have just made up, have to stand for things

and ideas that we simply can't think of. 　　

     So why bother even to try imagining life far in the future? Here are two reasons. First unless we remember

how short our own lives are compared with the whole human history, we are likely to think our own interests

are much more important than they really are. If we make the earth a poor place to live because. we are

careless or greedy (贪婪) or quarrelsome. our grand-children will not bother to think of excuses for us. 　　

     Second, by trying to escape from present interests and imagine life far in the future, we may arrive at quite

fresh ideas that we can use ourselves. For example, if we imagine that in the future men may give up farming,

we can think of trying it now. So set you imagination free when you think about the future.

1. A particular mention made of Stapledon's book in the opening paragraph _______.　　

A. serves as a description of human history 　　

B. serves an introduction to the discussion 　　

C. shows a disagreement of views 　　

D. Shows the popularity of the book

2. The text discusses men and women 50,000 years ago and 50,000 years from now

in order to show that ______. 　　

A. human history is extremely long 　　

B. life has changed a great deal 　　

C. it is useless to plan for the next 50 years 　　

D. it is difficult to tell what will happen in the future

3. Spundels and ballalators are used in the text to refer to _______. 　　

A. tools used in farming

B. ideas about modern life 　　

C. unknown things in the future

D. hunting skills in the Stone Age

4. According to the writer of the text, imagining the future will _______. 　　

A. serve the interests of the present and future generations 　　

B. enable us to better understand human history 　　

C. help us to improve farming 　　

D. make life worth living

阅读理解。

     Why read, and sometimes even write poetry? That question is not difficult to answer if we change the

word poetry to songs.

      I sing when I feel good. When I sing my favorite songs, I feel better. Sometimes when I am listening

to music and to the song words, I feel that it was written for me. A good song always makes me feel

something. There are songs that I sing in my head between classes and songs that I want to sing when the

school bell rings by the end of the day. They help me get through the day.

     They are like bright and warm colours in the middle of greys and shades. I like songs about love and

friendship. The extraordinary thing is, my feelings are more special when I sing my favorite songs in English.

      I also like reading. I used to avoid poetry until an e-pal told me I should recite poems and not look up the

meaning of the words. Poetry uses many difficult words and idioms, but the best thing is to just forget about

them. In the beginning I felt quite strange. Now I always lock the door. Reading aloud gives you a strange

feeling, but when you have some practice and fall into the rhythm, the rhyme and the sounds of the words,

it is really a special experience.

       I started with small poems, but now I think I most like long poems. I have different feelings with

different poems. When I have had a bad day at school, I read Keats and forget everything. when I am sad I

read Wordsworth by the light of candle. When the poem is finished, I close the book and my sadness is gone.

1. I like song words because _________.

A. they are bright

B. they are colorful

C. they are greedy

D. my feelings given by them are more special

2. Choose the best explanation of the word " e-pal".

A. a machine

B. a person

C. a piece of information

D. a friend online

3. From Paragraph 4,we can learn _____.

A. we should read poems aloud

B. poems are strange

C. poems are difficult to understand

D. I am special

4. What's the main idea of the passage?

A. We should read poems with doors closed

B. We should first sing songs then read poems

C. Reading poems can bring people pleasure just like singing a song

D. We should first read short poems then long ones

5.  From the passage,we can infer that ______.

A. the writer used to like poetry very much

B. songs and poems are the same

C. the writer fell in love with poems as soon as e-pal told him something.

D. now reading poems is part of the writer's life.