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Passage 50 Young men often give flowers to young women when they are in love. This tradition may have come from Turkey. In the 1700s in Turkey, it was quite popular for people in love to send each other baskets full of strange things. The baskets were delivered secretly to the person who was receiving it. Usually, an old woman who sold flowers or fruit on the street left the basket beside the person’s door. These baskets included a variety of "gifts": flowers, stones, feathers, wax, and even charcoal. Each thing in the basket had a special meaning. By figuring out the secret message contained in each item, the person who received the basket began to understand little by little the true feelings of the person who sent it. (50) This idea of sending gifts of love with secret meanings quickly spread to Germany, France and England. However, as time passed, only sending flowers remained popular. An innocent bunch of flowers told young ladies about the feelings in the hearts of young men. Each different flower held a different meaning. For example, the flowers from an orange tree meant, "You are beautiful and pure." Pink carnations meant, "My love for you is strong and great." Yellow roses, on the other hand, meant, "I saw you with someone else. " Many flower dictionaries were made to help young people in love understand the meaning of the flowers they received. Not all of the dictionaries agreed, however, on the meaning of each flower, so a person had to be careful about the flowers they chose to send. By the 1880s, using flowers to send messages had fallen out of fashion, and the more direct way of sending love letters began. Today, flowers are still considered a lovely gift, but the meaning for each kind of flower has been lost. To which place did the idea of sending gifts of love spread

A. To Asia.
B. To Australia.
C. To Europe.
D. To North America.

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Passage 44 For more than thirty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages, as well as messages on spaceships traveling through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive to such messages. Scientists are using powerful radio telescopes to "listen" to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100 light years of the earth. In addition, they will scan the entire sky to listen for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight million channels at a time. Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists find that five percent of the stars are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like the earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for the temperatures to be right for the evolution of life. Believing that there are the inhabitable (that can be lived in) planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are that one or more of these planets support some life. However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Some believe that thirty years of searching without any intelligent messages show that no one is out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely. (44) Other scientists believe that our search hasn’t been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family is only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20 billion years old. In that time some scientists think it is likely that civilizations are much more advanced than ours. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking. Which of these statements is true based on the information in the passage

A. The earth is one of the oldest planets in our galaxy.
B. Most scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets.
C. Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets.
D. More advanced civilizations than ours have developed on other planets.

Passage 36 The market is a concept. If you are growing tomatoes in your backyard for sale you are producing for the market. You might sell some to your neighbor and some to the manager of the local supermarket. But in either case, you are producing for the market. Your efforts are being directed by the market. If people stop buying tomatoes, you will stop producing them. If you take care of a sick person to earn money, you are producing for the market. (36) If your father is a steelworker or a truck driver or a doctor or a grocer, he is producing goods or service for the market. When you spend your income, you are buying things from the market. You may spend money in stores, supermarkets, gas stations and restaurants. Still you are buying from the market. When the local grocer hires you to drive the delivery truck, he is buying your labor in the labor market. The market may seem to be something abstract. But for each person or businessman who is making and selling something, it’s very real. If nobody buys your tomatoes, it won’t be long before you get the message. The market is telling you something. It’s telling you that you are using energies and resources in doing something the market doesn’t want you to do. The underlined word "real" in the last paragraph may most probably mean______.

A. serious
B. important
C. true
D. concrete

Passage 40 Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something which has not been said before. He hopes that the public will listen and understand--he wants to teach them, and he wants them to learn from him. What visual artists like painters want to teach is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experiences into shapes and colors, not words. (40) They seem to feel that a certain selection of shapes and colors, out of the countless billions possible, is exceptionally interesting for them and worth showing to us. Without their work we would never have noticed these particular shapes and colors, or have felt the delight which they brought to the artist. Most artists take their shapes and colors from the world of nature and from human bodies in motion and stillness; their choices indicate that these aspects of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful sights. Contemporary artists might say that they merely choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, and that there is nothing more in it, yet even they do not choose entirely without reference to the character of their subjects. If one painter chooses to paint an injured leg and another a lake in moonlight, each of them is directing our attention to a certain aspect of the world. Each painter is telling us something, showing us something, emphasizing something--all of which means that, consciously or unconsciously, he is trying to teach us. Without the artists’ work, the public would not______.

A. notice particular shapes or colors
B. see the shapes and colors that express his experience
C. feel his delight in shapes and colors
D. all of the above

Passage 49Although English is not as old as Chinese, it is spoken by many people around the world every day. English speakers are always creating new words, and we are often able to know where most words come from. Sometimes, however, no one may really know where a word comes from. Did you ever think about why hamburgers are called hamburgers, especially when they are not made with ham About a hundred years ago, some men went to America from Europe. They came from a big city in Germany called Hamburg. They did not speak good English, but they ate good food. When some Americans saw them eating round pieces of beef, they asked the Germans what it was. The Germans did not understand the question and answered, "We come from Hamburg." One of these Americans owned a restaurant, and had an idea. He cooked some round pieces of beef like those which the men from Hamburg ate. Then he put them between two pieces of bread and started selling them. Such bread came to be called "hamburgers". Today, "hamburgers" are sold in many countries around the world. Whether this story is true or not, it certainly is very interesting. Knowing why any word has a certain meaning is interesting, too. The explanation, for most English words, can be found in any large English dictionary. According to the author, which of the following can often be found in any large English dictionary

A. Where all the new words come from.
B. Where those Germans came from.
C. The reason why a word has a certain meaning.
D. The reason why English is spoken around the world.

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