Potatoes are very popular today. But in the past this was not true. Potatoes grew in South America 5,000 years ago. But they only became popular in other places 200 years ago.

In the 16th century, the Spanish took the potato from South America to Europe. But the people didn’t like this strange vegetable. Some people thought that their skins would look like the skin of the plant if they ate the potato. So they only ate the leaves. This made them sick because there is poison (毒药) in the leaves.

In the 1800s, people started to eat potatoes. Potatoes became the main food in Ireland. Then something unlucky happened. In 1845, a disease killed all the potatoes in Ireland. Two million people died of hunger.

Today each country has its potato dish. Germans eat potato salad, and the USA has the baked potato. Of course, the French invented French fries.

Fill in the blanks according to the passage. Only one word for each blank.

Potatoes were(76)______in South America 5,000 years ago. But they weren’t popular in other places(77)______200 y ears ago. In the 16th century, the Spanish took them to Europe. They ate leaves (78) of having potatoes. As a result, people were badly ill because of the poison in the leaves. In the 1800s, people started to eat potatoes. (79)______, there was something wrong with the potatoes. Two million people died because of the shortage (缺少) of potat oes in 1845. But now there are many (80)______of potato dishes in the world.

( E )

In the mid 1990’s, people started doing business on the Internet. There were two kinds of companies then. First, there were traditional companies. They sold things in stores. Then, there were Internet companies. They didn’t have a s tore, and they only sold things on the Net.

Traditional companies didn’t want to lose any business. Quickly, they made their own websites and began selling things on the Net. These are the so-called“brick and click”companies (砖块点击公司). Many stores are made of brick. And you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That’s where the name“brick and click”comes from.

By the late 1990’s, competition among Internet companies was great. So e-business like amazon.com, buy.com, and etoys.com were in trouble. Their profits (利润) were not very high. Many of these businesses were losing much money. In 2000, many e-businesses went out of business.

Why are brick and click companies, like Barnes and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust (相信) their names. Their websites are easy to remember. These companies also have a lot of experience. In a word, they know how to run a successful business.

In the world of e-commerce (商业), companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will brick and click companies win the war? Only time will tell.

Answer the following questions according to what you read.

81. How many kinds of companies were there in the mid 1990’s?

82. Did Internet companies sell things in st ores or on the Net?

83. What did the traditional companies do to keep their business?

84. What gave Internet companies a lot of trouble by the late 1990’s?来源http://www.12edu.cn/zhaokao/zk/lnzt/

85. What can you learn from Barnes and Walmart if you have an Internet company?

第四部分 书面表达 (共计15分)

得分 评卷人

VI.Writing (本题共15分，A题5分，B题10分)

(注意: 文中不能出现考生真实姓名、校名和老师名，否则不赋分)

( A ) 6月1日，张丽莉老师班级的学生组织召开了“为老师祈福”的主题班会，会后由你(张佳岩)代表班委会给老师发一封E-mail。询问她的身体状况，表达感激与思念，并告诉她同学们一定会努力学习， 同时祝她早日康复。要求：字数30—50词。

Dear Ms Zhang,

How are you?________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Zhang Jiayan

( B ) 今春我省部分地区发生干旱，水资源严重短缺。请你以Saving Water为题用英语写一篇短文。(参考词 tap 水龙头 reuse 再利用 recycle 再循环 drought 干旱)