第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I was walking along Orchard Road when I realized a tall young man wearing a jacket and tie was following me. I noticed him because not many people wear a jacket and tie in the middle of a hot summer day, and I had already seen this man four times that afternoon.
To make sure he was following me, I walked on quickly, turned right into a shopping center and then stopped to look in a shop window. Soon the man appeared and stopped at another shop window. I walked on and stopped several times. When I stopped, he stopped too.
I began to be rather worried and decided to try to get rid of this strange man. When I saw a taxi coming, I jumped into it. As I was telling the taxi driver where to go, I found the man get into another taxi, which then followed mine. As the two taxies slowly made their way along Orchard Road, I looked back at the taxi behind, and saw that the stranger was looking out at me. At MRT station, I told the taxi driver to stop and I got out. As I was paying my fare, I saw the man was getting out of his taxi.
By now I got angry, so I turned and walked straight to him. I asked him why he was following me. 
At first he said he was not following me at all, but when I threatened (威胁) to call the police, he admitted he was. He then told me that he was a journalist (news reporter) and that he was writing an article on how elderly people in Singapore spend their time. He said he was observing me to gather materials for his article.
56. What is strange about the man who followed the writer?
A. He seemed to be wearing too much.
B. He was out on such a hot day.
C. He walked quickly behind.
D. He was a tall young man.
57. Why did the writer get into a taxi?
A. To test the young man. B. To call the police.
C. To lose the young man. D. To get home earlier.
58. What did the stranger do when the writer jumped into a taxi?
A. He tried to stop the taxi.
B. He got into another taxi.
C. He almost gave up following him.
D. He made his way along Orchard Road.
59. The stranger followed the writer because ______.
A. he was interested in elderly people
B. he often did such things
C. he was writing a book about old people
D. he needed materials for his article
If your mother wants to tell you something, she uses words. Birds cannot talk as we do. But some birds can make sounds to warn their young of danger.
The jackdaw is a kind of blackbirds that lives in Europe. Jackdaws live together. Young jackdaws do not know their enemies. When an older jackdaw sees a dog, it makes a loud rattling sound. The younger birds know this sound means danger is nearby. The sound warns them to know their enemies.
If a young jackdaw is in a dangerous place, a jackdaw parent flies over him from behind. The parent bird flies low over the young bird’s back. The parent’s tail feathers move quickly from side to side, trying to express, “Follow me.” At the same time, the parent calls out, “Key-aw, key-aw. ”The parent mean, “Fly home with me.” The young bird then follows the older one home. Young jackdaws do not have to learn what certain sounds mean. They know the meaning of these sounds from the time they hatch（孵出）.The jackdaw lives in .
| A．Europe | B．Australia | C．America | D．Africa |
Which of the following does this story lead you to believe?
| A．All animal parents can talk to their young. |
| B．Dogs are the most dangerous enemies for jackdaws. |
| C．Young jackdaws know the meaning of their parents’ sound when they grow older. |
| D．Some birds can give information to one another. |
Parent jackdaw can use their tail feathers to .
| A．ask their young to follow them |
| B．play a game with the young |
| C．tell the meal time |
| D．give a warning of a fire |
All her life, my mother wanted busy children. It was very important that her house should remain at all things clean and tidy.
You could turn your back for a moment in my mother's house, leave a half written letter on the dining room table, a magazine open on the chair, and turn around to find that my mother had "put it back where it belonged." as she explained.
My wife, on one of her first visits to my mother's house, placed a packet of biscuits on an end table and went to the kitchen to fetch a drink. When she returned, she found the packet had been removed. Confused (疑惑的), she set down her drink and went back to the kitchen for more biscuits, only to return to find that her drink had disappeared. Up to then she had guessed that everyone in my family held onto their drinks, so as not to make water rings on the end tables. Now she knows better.
These disappearances had a confusing effect on our family. We were all inclined to (有......的倾向) forgetfulness, and it was common for one of us, upon returning from the bathroom, to find the every sign of his work in progress had disappeared suddenly. "Do you remember what I was doing?" was a question frequently asked, but rarely answered.
Now my sister has developed a second-hand love of clean windows, and my brother does the cleaning in his house, perhaps to avoid having to be the one to lift his feet. I try not to think about it too much, but I have at this later time started to dust the furniture once a week.Which of the following is TRUE about my mother?
| A．She enjoyed removing others' drinks. |
| B．She became more and more forgetful. |
| C．She preferred to do everything by herself. |
| D．She wanted to keep her house in good order. |
My wife could not find her biscuits and drink in my mother's house because _______.
| A．she had already finished them |
| B．my mother had taken them away |
| C．she forgot where she had left them |
| D．someone in my family was holding them |
The underlined part to the fifth paragraph suggests that my sister _______.
| A．is happy to clean windows |
| B．loves to clean used windows |
| C．is fond of clean used windows |
| D．likes clean windows as my mother did |
This passage mainly tells us that _______.
| A．my mother often made us confused |
| B．my family members had a poor memory |
| C．my mother helped us to form a good habit |
| D．my wife was surprised when she visited my mother |
You do not need every word to understand the meaning of what you read. In fact, too much emphasis (强调) on separate words both slows your speed and reduces your comprehension.
First, any habit which slows down your silent reading to the speed at which you speak or read aloud, is inefficient. If you point to each word as you read, or move your head, or form the words with your lips, you read poorly. Less obvious habits also hold back reading efficiency (效率). One is "saying" each word silently by moving your tongue or throat; another is "hearing" each word as you read.
These are habits which should have been outgrown long ago. The beginning reader is learning how letters can make words, how written words are pronounced, and how sentences are put together. Your reading purpose is quite different, which is to understand meaning.
It has been supposed that up to 75% of the words in English sentences are not really necessary for expressing the meaning. The secret of silent reading is to find out those key words and phrases which carry the thought, and to pay less attention to words which exist only for grammatical completeness.
An efficient reader can grasp the meaning from a page at least twice as fast as he can read the page aloud. He takes in a whole phrase or thought unit at a time. If he “says" or "hears" words to himself, they are selected ones, said for emphasis.This passage is mainly about ______.
| A．improving eye movement |
| B．reading more widely |
| C．changing poor reading habits |
| D．reading as fast as you can |
Saying each word to yourself as you read _____.
| A．improves comprehension |
| B．increases reading speed |
| C．gives too much emphasis |
| D．reduces reading efficiency |
Your reading purpose should be _____.
| A．to understand all the words |
| B．to make fewer eye movements |
| C．to understand meaning |
| D．to understand the grammatical structures |
While reading, efficient readers usually _____.
| A．move their eyes quickly |
| B．take in whole phrases or thought units |
| C．point at key words |
| D．read only important points for speed |
In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeastern corner of the country, which is called New England.
New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyone who has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The first job has been cutting down the trees. The new job has been digging out the roots of the trees. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from his land. This work of removing stones never really ends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thin soil from the rocks below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from the fields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for two hundred years still keep producing more stones. That is why stone walls are used instead of fences (篱笆) in New England fields. The stone walls are not high and a man can easily climb over them. However, they keep the farmer’s cows from joining those of his neighbor’s.Where is New England?
| A．In England. | B．In North America. |
| C．In South America. | D．In Australia. |
Why do stones keep appearing?
| A．Because the farmers keep digging them out. |
| B．Because there are rocks below the soil and the soil is too thin. |
| C．Because there are no trees at all. |
| D．Because the wind keeps blowing. |
Why do the farmers build stone walls instead of fences?
A. Because the stone walls are not high and a person can easily climb over them.
B. Because the stone walls can stop the cows from joining their neighbor’s.
C. Because there are too many stones.
D. Both A and B.Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．There are almost no trees in New England. |
| B．Farming is difficult in New England. |
| C．It’s difficult for farmers to remove stones from the fields. |
| D．The stone walls in New England are not high. |
In the past ten years, many scientists have studied the differences between men and women. And they all got the same answer: The sexes(性别) are different, because their brains are different. And this, the scientists say, makes men and women see the world in different ways.
Boys, for example, generally are better than girls at mathematical ideas. Boys also generally are better than girls at the kind of hand and eye movements necessary for ball sports. Girls, on the other hand generally start speaking earlier than boys. And they generally see better in the dark than boys and are better at learning foreign languages.
What makes men and women better at one thing or another? The answer is the brain. The brain has two sides connected by nerve(神经) tracks. The left side generally is used for mathematics, speech and writing. The right side is used for artistic creation(创造) and the expression for emotions(情感). In men and women, different areas in each side of the brain develop differently. In boys, for example, it’s the area used for mathematics. In girls, it is the area used for language skills. Another interesting difference is that the two sides of a man’s brain are connected by a smaller number of nerves than the two sides of a woman’s brain are.Which of the following is the best title of the article?
| A．Research on the Brain |
| B．Men and Women are Different in Brain |
| C．People’s Different Brains |
| D．Who Are Better, Boys or Girls |
__________ men and women think differently.
| A．The different brains make |
| B．Sex makes |
| C．The different experiences make |
| D．The influences(影响) of society make |
According to the article, girls are generally better than boys at __________ in your school.
| A．mathematics | B．physics | C．English | D．chemistry |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The left side of brain in boys generally develops better than that in girls. |
| B．The left side of brain in girls generally develops better than that in boys. |
| C．Men are better than women in all things. |
| D．The area in girls used for language skills develops better. |
60. The number of nerves connecting the two sides of the brain in men __________.
| A．is the same as women’s |
| B．is different from women’s |
| C．is larger than women’s |
| D．is twice as large as women’s |
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