Mexico's neighbours are the United States to the north and Guatemala and Belize to the south. Mexico is about one quarter of the size of the United States. Mexico has more than ninety million people. The language of Mexico is Spanish. This makes Mexico the world's largest Spanish-speaking country.

Mexico City is the capital and largest city of Mexico. The city is also very high. It is 7349 feet high (2240 metres). This makes it one of the highest capital cities in the world. The population, of Mexico City grows bigger every day. About thirty million people live there. It has more people than any other city in the world, even more than Tokyo.

Mexico also has its specialities. Many of the foods we eat started in Mexico. Foods like beans, maize, avocados, tomatoes, peanuts, chili peppers, vanilla, and chocolate come from Mexico. Mexico is also famous for its cactus (仙人掌) plants. Mexico has more kinds of cactus than any other country.

1.Mexico is ____the USA.

A. on the south of     B. on the north of    

C. a part of      D. as large as

2.Mexicans speak______.

3.Which of the following is NOT true?

4.Tomatoes were originally (最初) grown in ______.

5.The best title (題目) of the passage is ___.

The possibility that pleasant smells might reduce pain has recently been suggested by new research. In a scientific study, doctors asked 20 men and 20 women to keep their hands in very hot water for as long as possible while breathing in different smells.

As people believe that strong smells can affect the senses, volunteers were asked not to eat or drink for eight hours before the experiment began. During the experiment, volunteers were asked to take in pleasant smells such as vanilla (香草), and unpleasant smells such as durians (榴蓮). The volunteers kept their hands in the water until it became too hot for them. When they could not bear the pain any more, they took their hands out of the water.

Scientists are interested in whether the senses or smell is related to pain and whether men and women have the same senses. Now, the study has proved that for women, pleasant smells reduce pain. For men, there is no change.

Dr Finkelstein has been studying smells since 1999. He says that scientists already have data from 40 volunteers. He adds that this year, scientists will test another 60 volunteers and will be in a better position to explain the results.

One explanation is that women’s sense of smell developed long ago, and is linked to recognizing the smell of babies. Scientists used to believe that mothers recognized their children by sight only. Now, they have started to believe that the sense of smell also helps, but why pleasant smells do not reduce pain in men is a question still to be answered by scientists.

1.Before the experiment, volunteers ______.

A．a(chǎn)re gathered and take a training

B．cannot eat or drink for several hours

C．must wash their hands carefully

D．will be interviewed by Dr Finkelstein

2.If both men and women are asked to keep their hands in hot water while taking in some pleasant smells, ______.

A．women may stand the pain of the hot water longer

B．men may keep their hands in the hot water longer

C．they will probably take their hands out at the same time

D．we are not quite sure who will take their hands out earlier

3.From the passage we learn that _________.

A．the reason why women are sensitive to smells is clear

B．the experiment for the sense of smell has come to an end

C．unpleasant smells affect men’s senses more than women’s

D．scientists have not totally explained the result of the study

4.Now scientists believe that _______.

A．mothers recognize their children only by sight

B．men’s sense of smell developed a long time ago

C．strong smells have a great influence on people’s senses

D．smells are helpful for mothers to spot their children

5.The writer wrote the passage in order to ________.

A．supply some entertainment to us

B．show women’s sharper senses than men’s

C．inform the readers of some knowledge

D．call for volunteers for the experiment

SECTION B
Directions ； For each blank in the following passage there are four words of phrases marked with A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with a word that best fits the context.
This is a true story about something that happened between a customer of General Motors and its Customer - Care Executive (客服主管).The following complaint was received by General Motors. "???It may sound crazy, but it's a fact that every time I buy a  36   ice cream, and come back from the store, my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts   37   fine, why?" The executive was    38    about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway.
The   39   made three visits to the store with the customer. The first time, he got chocolate ice cream. The car started. The second time, he ordered strawberry. The car started. The third time he got vanilla. The car failed to start. The engineer   40   to believe that the man's car was allergic (過敏的)to vanilla ice cream. He 41   his visits, and noted all sorts of data: the types of gas used and the time it took to drive back and forth.
Soon he came a clue: it took the man less   42   to buy vanilla than any other flavor (味道). Why? The answer was in the layout (布局)of the store. Vanilla, as the most   43   flavor, was in the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept further back, where it took longer to buy them.
Time was now the   44   not the vanilla ice cream！ The engineer quickly put forward an answer: “engine trouble." The extra time taken to get any other flavor   45   the engine to cool down longer. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot to start.
Even crazy 一 looking problems can be real. What really    46     is your attitude to the problem.
Don't just say something is "IMPOSSIBLE" without putting a sincere effort into    47    it out. If you look closer, you may discover that it's possible after all.
36.   A.    chocolate B. strawberry  C. vanilla       D. banana
37.   A.    just  B. only    C. still     D. ever
38.   A.    worried   B. crazy  C. doubtful     D. cheerful
39.   A.    customer B. engineer     C. executive    D. shopkeeper
40.   A.    pretended       B. decided      C. struggled    D. refused
41.   A.    stopped   B. continued   C. valued D. repeated
42.   A.    time B. effort  C. cost    D. speed
43.   A.    strange    B. familiar      C. terrible       D. popular
44.   A.    effect      B. reason C. problem     D. solution
45.   A.    prevented       B. encouraged C. let      D. allowed
46.   A.    matters    B. impresses   C. bothers -    D, concerns
47.   A.    looking   B. figuring     C, trying D. testing

Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag
Difficulty: Very Easy
Average User Rating:★★★★☆(4.3/5)
Milk can become homemade ice cream in five minutes by using a bag! This homemade, creamy treat is a summertime delight for your kids and you alike.
What you’ll need:
1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk; 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla (香草香精); 6 tablespoons of rock salt; 1 small-sized plastic food storage bag; 1 gallon-sized plastic food storage bag; ice cubes.
How to make it:
l Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
l Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
l Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
l Shake until the mixture turns into ice cream, which takes about five minutes.
l Wipe the top of the small bag, and then open it carefully. Enjoy!
Tips:
1/2 cup of milk will make about one spoon of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don’t increase the amount more than that—a large amount might be too big for kids to pick up because the ice itself is heavy.
Here is another version of the homemade ice cream recipe from another parent!
These are the homemade ice cream ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla butter and nuts; 1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk.
These are the other supplies:
Plastic sandwich bag; 12 salt pellets; 1 dish of ice; large plastic bag.
Put the ice cream ingredients in the small bag, and then put the bag, salt and ice in the big bag. Hold the bag shut and move it around on the floor for about 5 minutes.
When I made ice cream at home last time, although the salt pellets didn’t really dissolve (溶解) that well, I still got ice cream. It was not smooth ice cream, probably because of the low-fat milk. It was incredible that it could be ready in 5 minutes (not counting preparing the ingredients)
Next, I changed the recipe, using a tablespoon of cocoa, a tablespoon of sugar, and a cup of milk. It was a bit too chocolaty, but good!
【小題1】The underlined “that” in “Tips” section refers to ____.

SECTION B

Directions ； For each blank in the following passage there are four words of phrases marked with A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with a word that best fits the context.

This is a true story about something that happened between a customer of General Motors and its Customer - Care Executive (客服主管).The following complaint was received by General Motors. "???It may sound crazy, but it's a fact that every time I buy a  36   ice cream, and come back from the store, my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts   37   fine, why?" The executive was    38    about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway.

The   39   made three visits to the store with the customer. The first time, he got chocolate ice cream. The car started. The second time, he ordered strawberry. The car started. The third time he got vanilla. The car failed to start. The engineer   40   to believe that the man's car was allergic (過敏的)to vanilla ice cream. He 41   his visits, and noted all sorts of data: the types of gas used and the time it took to drive back and forth.

Soon he came a clue: it took the man less   42   to buy vanilla than any other flavor (味道). Why? The answer was in the layout (布局)of the store. Vanilla, as the most   43   flavor, was in the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept further back, where it took longer to buy them.

Time was now the   44   not the vanilla ice cream！ The engineer quickly put forward an answer: “engine trouble." The extra time taken to get any other flavor   45   the engine to cool down longer. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot to start.

Even crazy 一 looking problems can be real. What really    46     is your attitude to the problem.

Don't just say something is "IMPOSSIBLE" without putting a sincere effort into    47    it out. If you look closer, you may discover that it's possible after all.

36.   A.    chocolate B. strawberry  C. vanilla       D. banana

37.   A.    just  B. only    C. still     D. ever

38.   A.    worried   B. crazy  C. doubtful     D. cheerful

39.   A.    customer B. engineer     C. executive    D. shopkeeper

40.   A.    pretended       B. decided      C. struggled    D. refused

41.   A.    stopped   B. continued   C. valued D. repeated

42.   A.    time B. effort  C. cost    D. speed

43.   A.    strange    B. familiar      C. terrible       D. popular

44.   A.    effect      B. reason C. problem     D. solution

45.   A.    prevented       B. encouraged C. let      D. allowed

46.   A.    matters    B. impresses   C. bothers -    D, concerns

47.   A.    looking   B. figuring     C, trying D. testing