What will the future be like? What do you think of it? Here are some answers from some students.

Roy Burns: I think life in the future will be better. Most people in the world will use “green cars” by 2020, so there will be less pollution and people will live to be 200 years old. As for space travel, I would say, we will travel to Mars(火星) and some other stars in about fifty years.

Helen Lester: If we don’t take good care of the earth now, our children and grandchildren will be born into a world with too much pollution. There will be fewer trees and more buildings, because there will be more people.

Kitty Smith: I agree with Helen Lester. Things will be worse. The weather in the future will be much hotter. Human beings will have to look for another planet to live on.

1.What are the students doing?

2.How many things does Roy Burns predict?

3.What does Helen Lester think life will be like in the future?

4.What does the underlined word “planet” mean in Chinese?

5.Why does Kitty Smith think human beings will have to live on another planet?

Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the language of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.
There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present-day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.
Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time, some even die out completely. About 1,000 years ago, English was a little known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.
If a language has a number of speakers, or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of people. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can’t understand speakers from other parts.
【小題1】The first paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

閱讀下面的短文，并根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容回答問(wèn)題。（共5小題，計(jì)10分）

???? More than 6000 languages are spoken on the earth today.Many of these languages are spoken by small groups of people,and over 200 languages are spoken by one million or more people.Chinese is a language spoken by the largest number of people in the world.But English is most widely spoken in the world

????? English is spoken by more than 400 million people as their first language.It is spoken by most people in the U.S.A.,Great Britain,Canada,Australia and New Zealand.And it is also used very widely in many other countries of the world.

????? Look at the back of your watch.You may see the English words? “Made in China”, “Made in Japan”,or “Made in Germany”.English is spoken as the first language in none of these countries.Why are English words written on it?That is because in the modern world English is widely used for business between different countries.

1.How many languages are spoken on the earth today?

____________________________________________

2.Which language is spoken by the largest number of people in the world?

____________________________________________

3.Is English spoken by more than 400 million people as their first language?

____________________________________________

4.Do? Americans speak English ?

____________________________________________

5.Why may English words be written on your watch?

Every country has its own way of cooking．Ameri can people have their own way of cooking，don't they?Most people in the United states like fast food，but if  you think that American people don't 1 ike cooking，you are wrong．It's true that most Americans eat fast food for their breakfast and lunch，but they also think cooking is interesting．Parents see the importance of teaching their children how to cook，and most Americans say that home—cooked meals are the best．
Americans have their own way of cooking．For example，baking(烘烤)is the most popular way of cooking in America．Most American families have ovens(烤爐)．American cooks(廚師)pay attention to(注意)the balance of food．When planning a big meal，they try to cook meat，a few vegetab]es，some bread and sweet food．They also like to make the meal look beautiful．There are so many kinds of colorful foods，so the meal is healthy and look beautiful，too．
【小題1】Most Americans  ______．