An Announcement
It was a small town which lay by the coast.Most people there lived by catching fish.The hurricanes often struck the area from July to October.Some of the people died on the sea when their boats were blown over by the high winds.So they paid much attention to the weather forecasts.They were afraid to meet with the hurricanes when they were catching fish on the sea.Each of the families had a radio and people always took them with themselves and listened to them at any time.
It was September.A hurricane attacked the town one night.Plenty of trees were pushed over and all the electric and telephone lines were broken.People couldn’t watch TV,or call their friends,or go to work.To their anger,they couldn’t listen to the weather forecasts the Town Radio Station broadcast.The food and fresh water would soon be short and the patients couldn’t be given medical care—no medicine could be carried there.People didn’t know what would happen and they looked anxious.
On the fourth day they read an announcement（通告）on the Town Weekly.It was written,“Recently we have to stop the weather forecast because of the bad weather.We usually get the forecasts from the airport.But the roads are all blocked by the fallen trees and stones.Whether or not we’ll be able to broadcast the weather forecast tomorrow depends on the weather！”The people in the town often took radios with themselves because______.
| A．they felt lonely when catching fish on the sea and listened to the weather forecasts |
| B．they were interested in the weather forecasts |
| C．they couldn’t watch TV on the sea |
| D．they hoped to listen to some good news |
The writer writes the passage mainly to ______.
| A．desrcibe the importance of weather forecast |
| B．give a news report |
| C．describe a bad effect of natural disasters |
| D．to warn people to be careful against hurricane |
Read the announcement,the people were______.
| A．encouraged | B．happy | C．excited | D．disappointed |
B
Read the following reviews for movies that are showing at the moment. And then answer questions.
Happiness(Romance) ★★★★
Happiness tells the story of two people (Lisa Turbot and Danny Roy) who work for different advertising companies. They talk on the phone all the time and don't like each other. But then they correspond by email and fall in love. This movie will be very popular with teenagers and people who like romances. It also has beautiful music.
I Scream (Thriller) ★★
In I Scream, Paul (Colin Jacks) is a young man who joins a thriller club. Each of the members tries to frighten the others. Paul is told to stay in an old house for the night. Everyone who has tried to stay in the house before has died. This movie is very frightening but also quite silly. It doesn't make sense for Paul to stay in the house when things start to go wrong. Only for people who like thrillers.
Paul's Heroes (Comedy) ★★★
This is a very funny war movie set in World War Two. Six soldiers (including Sammy Turblow) have to get to Italy to take secret messages to the American army there. During the movie, they dress up as women and fight with Italian workers. You can guess the ending, but it's great fun getting there.
______________ (Drama) ★★★★
This is a very good drama with Jack Ross, who pays a hard-working truck driver. His wife becomes ill and he has to find a doctor who can help her. In his travels he meets Dr. Lloyd (Phil Driver) who has found the cure for the illness, but Jack Ross has only twelve hours to get the medicine back to his wife on the other side of America. This is an excellent movie, which is very exciting.
59. Which of the four movies is the least popular with people?
A. The 1st one. B. The 2nd one. C. The 3rd one. D. The 4th one.
60. The underlined word "correspond" can be replaced by ______________.
A. date B. exchange C. write D. communicate
61. A thriller is most probably a film which tells something _______________.
A. frightening B. instructive C. humorous D. interesting
62. Which of the following is the best title for the fourth film?
A. A Hard-working Truck Driver B. Medicine
C. A Strange Illness D. Twelve Hours
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。s5u.com
A
Your Genes, Your Future
How would you feel if someone gave you an envelope with a description of every one of your genes? Supposing this information could tell you what illnesses you were likely to get, or even what illness you might die of, would you open the envelope?
It's a difficult question to answer. But the fact is that scientists have already begun to discover how certain genes influence us. And in the next decade, they will learn a lot more.
We have known for a long time that many of our physical characteristics are inherited. For example, our eye colour and certain diseases are decided by our genes. As long as you have a good diet, scientists can predict your height by looking at your parents' heights. And we now know that the need to wear glasses has a genetic cause. Our eating habits also appear to be decided by our genes!
With other characteristics, things are not so clear. Certainly, scientists have now shown that some traits are strongly influenced by our genes. Do you prefer getting up early or late? To a great extent, it's your genes that decide, Do you enjoy dangerous sports such as car racing? There is a gene that influences how much excitement we need.
But with most psychological characteristics, scientists are learning that both our genes and our environment affect us. This is true of things such as how violent we are, and how well we get on with other people. So, even though scientists may soon be able to describe our genes in detail, it does not mean they will be able to predict our future with any real success.
Nonetheless, the fact is that scientists will be able to "read" our genes in the near future. This will create new problems. To give a few examples, insurance companies may not want to insure people whose genes predict certain illnesses. Employers may not want to employ people who have a gene for violence. One thing is already clear -- with these new developments, life is going to become even more complicated!
56. Which characteristics is mostly likely to be inherited?
A. Eye colour. B. Interest. C. Future. D. Ability.
57. What kind of problem will these new developments create?
A. You may die of a certain illness described in the envelope.
B. There will be an increased number of violent people.
C. People may take part in dangerous sports such as car racing.
D. Insurance companies may refuse to insure people with a gene for certain disease.
58. Why won’t scientists be able to tell us a lot about our future?
A. Because we’re affected not only by our genes but also by our environment.
B. Because scientists will not able to read our genes in the near future.
C. Because life in the future will be more complicated.
D. Because scientists can’t describe our genes in detail.
Will there ever be another Einstein? This is the undercurrent（潜流） of conversation at Einstein memorial meetings throughout the year. A new Einstein will appear, scientists say. But it may take a long time. After all, more than 200 years separated Einstein from Isaac Newton.
Many physicists say the next Einstein hasn't been born yet, or is a baby now. That's because the search for a unified theory that would explain all the forces of nature has pushed current mathematics to its limits. New math must be created after the problem can be solved.
But researchers say there are many other factors working against another Einstein appearing anytime soon. For one thing, physics is a much different field today. In Einstein's day, there were a few thousand physicists worldwide, and the theorists who could argue with Einstein probably would fit into a streetcar with seats to spare. Education is different, too. One key aspect of Einstein's training that-is little noticed is the years of philosophy he read as a teenager --- Kant, Schopenhauer and Spinoza, among others. It taught him how to think independently about space and time and it wasn't long before he became a philosopher himself.
And Einstein was a clever musician. The interplay between music and math is well-known. Einstein would play his violin hard as a way to think through a knotty physics problem.
Today, universities have produced millions of physicists. There aren't many jobs in science for them, so they go to Wall Street and Silicon Valley to apply their analytical skills. Those who stay in science don’t work alone and they sometimes do experiment together which takes years.
It's hard to imagine a renegade(背叛者) like Einstein standing it. “Maybe there is an Einstein out there today,” said Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, “but it would be a lot harder for him to be heard.”According to the second paragraph, the next Einstein will ___________.
| A．have to create new math | B．create a unified theory |
| C．have to be born now | D．push math to its limits |
The underlined words “knotty” in the fourth paragraph means ____________.
| A．easy | B．interesting | C．strange | D．difficult |
Which of the following will be useful for the next Einstein to be born?
| A．There will be music around. |
| B．There will be no problems to solve. |
| C．There will be suitable philosophy to study. |
| D．There are only a few physicists. |
The bold words “unified theory” in Paragraph 2 refers to ___________.
| A．agreement | B．mathematical rule |
| C．unique idea | D．physical saying |
A husband-and-wife team from California reached the Pacific Ocean after a 4,900- mile-cross
-country walk, becoming the first to backpack the American Discovery Trail in one continuous
walk.
Marcia and Ken powers, of Pleasanton, started the travel across 13 states, through 14 national parks and 16 national forests on Feb. 27 from Cape Henlopen in Delaware. Nearly eight months later, the excited couple walked through water into the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, a day ahead of time.
“We are a little sad that a great adventure is over. It was a fantastic adventure. And now we go home and just do housework. It's really sad.” Marcia, who said she's in her 50s, and her 60-year-old husband traversed cities, desert, mountains and farmland before reaching the Pacifics alone with arms around each other' s backpacks.
They overcame deep snow in the East, a quicksand in Utah, close lightning strikes in the Mid- west and strong desert sandstorms in the West while averaging 22 miles a day and taking only four days off. But they enjoyed the French history of St. Louis' the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and the kindness of strangers they met along the way. They particularly remember two brothers ---- a
doctor and dentist-------who put them up in their homes, after terrible days, and a motorcyclist who gave them water after they failed to find any on Utah's lonely Wah Wah Desert.
“Americans are truly warm-hearted and wonderful people.” Marcia Powers said. “We got to meet people that we would never meet in our daily living at home. We got to touch it with our feet and hands and smell all its scents and hear its wildlife. It' s an amazing country,” she added.Which of the following about couple's walk is TRUE?
| A．The walk covered more than 13 states. |
| B．The walk lasted about half a year. |
| C．The walk didn't meet any desert. |
| D．The walk might end before October 27. |
The underlined word “traversed” in the third paragraph means “____________.”
| A．enjoy | B．move across, through or over |
| C．overcome | D．look at |
According to the text, we can infer that during the walk the couple __________.
| A．were treated warm-heartedly by the local people |
| B．never stopped to have a rest |
| C．were ever caught in a heavy rain and became ill |
| D．felt the quicksand in Utah was very interesting |
The couple went through many places except ____________.
| A．big rivers | B．desert | C．hills | D．fields |
Nate suffered a hard blow when he lost his job. His boss had spoken rudely, “Your services are no longer needed.” Nate left the building filled with despair. By the time he reached home, he was in a deep depression. When he entered his house, he blurted out to his wife Sophia, “I lost my job. I am a complete, absolutely failure.” A tense silence followed. Then a smile crept across Sophia's face. “What great news!” she responded, “Now you can write the book you have always wanted to write.”
“But I have no job and no prospect of a job,” he objected, completely without hope. “If I struggle to be an author, then what will we live on? Where will the money come from?” Sophia took her husband by the hand and led him to the kitchen. Opening a drawer, she took out a box that was full of cash. “Where on earth did you get this?” Nate gasped. “To whom does it belong?”
“It's ours!” Sophia replied. "I always know that one day you would become a great writer only if you were given the chance. From the money you gave me for housekeeping every week, I have saved as much as I could so you would have your chance. Now there is enough to last us a whole year.”
What a surprise! What encouragement! What a wife! The unemployed husband did concentrate on writing that year, and the novel he wrote became a literary masterpiece（杰作）. The book is The Scarlet Letter. Sophia had an even greater achievement, and she turned Nathaniel Hawthorne from a poor clerk into a world famous master. Which of the following can be inferred from the first paragraph?
| A．Sophia was very disappointed to hear the news. |
| B．Nate was too sad to speak any more. |
| C．Sophia was thinking of how to encourage Nate. |
| D．Neither husband nor wife had any idea of what to do. |
Sophia saved money because ____________.
| A．she knew her husband would lose his job one day |
| B．she knew their life would be in difficulty |
| C．she was very careful with money |
| D．she was trying to help her husband in every possible way |
From the passage we can know that Sophia was ___________.
| A．kind and brave |
| B．careful and encouraging |
| C．friendly and warm-hearted |
| D．honest and determined |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Sophia's Achievement |
| B．A Great Writer's Struggle to Success |
| C．Great Encouragement in Hard Times |
| D．Failure is the Mother of Success |
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