50. If you want to know more information about the singing competition, you can _______.

　　A. go to www. teenvoice.com B. go to ww.booksalot.com

　　C. call them at 321703 D. call or text 998456

　　51. Tom wants to play computer games with his friends, what should he buy?

　　A. Teen Voice. B. Future World. C. Best Bike Ride. D. Forest Street.

　　52. Which of the following is NOT true?

　　A. "Best Bike Ride" is written by Kim Jams.

　　B. The new magazine for teenagers is on sale every week.

　　C. Eleven-year-old David is allowed to drive a jeep in the desert on Tuesday.

　　D. Paul and Tina are going to the Big Wheel with their 4-year-old son, they should pay $9.5 for the tickets.

　　C

　　Many years ago, a French naturalist, Comte de Buffon, wrote some books about natural history. The books were a great success even though some critics(批评家)did not like them.

　　Thomas Jefferson did not like what Comte de Buffon had said about the natural wonders(奇观)of the New World. It seemed to Jefferson that Comte de Buffon had spoken of natural wonders in America as if(好像)they were unimportant.

　　This troubled Thomas Jefferson. He was also a naturalist, as well as a farmer, an inventor, a historian, a writer and a politician(政治家). He had seen the natural wonders of Europe. To him, they were no more important than those of the New World.

　　In 1788, Thomas Jefferson wrote about his home state, Virginia. While writing, he thought of its natural beauty and then of the words of Comte de Buffon. At that moment, Jefferson created a new word—belittle. He said, “Comte de Buffon believes that nature belittles her productions on this side of the Atlantic(大西洋).”

　　Noah Webster, the American word expert, liked this word. He put it in the English language dictionary in 1806, “Belittle—to make small, unimportant.”

　　Americans had already accepted Jefferson’s word and started to use it. In 1797, the Independent Chronicle(独立纪事报)used the word to describe a politician the paper supported. “It is an honorable man,” the paper wrote, “so let the opposition try to belittle him as much as they please.”

　　In 1872, a famous American word expert decided that the time had come to kill this word. He said, “Belittle shouldn’t become English. And more critical writers of America, like those of Britain, feel no need of it.”

　　This expert failed to kill the word. Today, belittle is used where the English language is spoken.

　　53. Thomas Jefferson was NOT a ______.

　　A. naturalist B. historian C. politician D. musician

　　54. We can infer(推断)that Jefferson created the word “belittle” out of his ______.

　　A. anger B. excitement C. kindness D. responsibility

　　55. What can we know about the word “belittle” from the passage?

　　A. It has already disappeared from the English language.

　　B. It had been used before it was put in the English language dictionary.

　　C. It is used to describe natural wonders now.

　　D. An American politician decided to kill this word in 1872.

　　56. What’s the passage mainly about?

　　A. How the word “belittle” came into being. B. The argument about natural wonders.

　　C. Every word has a long history behind. D. Noah Webster supported Jefferson’s idea.

　　D

　　You don’t need to get in a time-travelling machine to see how technology will change our lives, such as the way we shop. Several new technologies that are to change your buying habits already appear. Let’s see what’s in store for your future shopping.

　　Try it on, virtually(虚拟地). Want to shop online for a new pair of glasses? You don’t need to guess which pair looks best on you—use the eBay Fashion iPhone app to try a pair of glasses you’re checking out on a picture of your face. But what about buying something bigger? Thanks to Microsoft Kinect’s action tracking(跟踪)camera, you can cover clothes on your screen body. You can even choose the background of your virtual fitting room to improve your shopping experience.

　　Get a perfect, custom fit. Everyone’s body is shaped differently. To get a perfect fit, you sometimes have to get your clothes changed. But by using 3D scanning technology, all the clothes you buy will fit your body perfectly. Some companies scan(扫描)your body using High-tech to get the real sizes, so they can make special clothes just for you.

　　High-tech shopping carts(推车)and checkout counters(收银台). High-tech shopping carts could be common in malls and supermarkets in the future. Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts are under test. The cart can follow you along the aisles(通道), controlled only by your movement and your voice.

　　In the United States, several supermarkets use a certain set called “Scan It” that gives buyers the freedom to scan products on their own while they shop. If we don’t want to wait in line before the checkout counters, we can use Toshiba’s new object Recognition Scanner. The machine identifies(辨认)a product as soon as it’s placed in front of a camera just by its shape and color, even if it has no bar code.

　　57. According to Paragraph 2, the eBay Fashion iPhone app can ______.

　　A. only make pictures of our faces B. help us sell more clothes online

　　C. create us a virtual dressing room D. choose suitable glasses for us

　　58. Which of the following can help get the correct shape of our body?

　　A. Object Recognition Scanner. B. The eBay Fashion iPhone app.

　　C. 3D scanning technology. D. Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts.

　　59. What can we infer from this passage?

　　A. Checkout counters will disappear from supermarkets in future.

　　B. High-tech shopping carts will be widely used in malls and supermarkets

　　C. “Scan It” cannot be used by buyers themselves.

　　D. The new technologies are only dreams that are impossible to come true.

　　60. This passage mainly talks about ______.

　　A. a new time-travelling machine B. the influence of new technology

　　C. some inventions to change habits D. the ways for future shopping