第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）
I made a promise to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts.
The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands and their wives. Then he went on to say, “Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love.” To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change.
And it did. On arriving at the beach cottage, I kissed Evelyn meeting me at the door and said, “That new yellow sweater looks great on you.” “Oh, Tom, you noticed”, sh e said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled. After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, “Evelyn’s been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me.” We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.
So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that’s how the whole vacation passed. I made a new promise to keep on remembering to choose love.
There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“Tom,” she said in a voice filled with distress, “ I don’t?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…that checkup I had several weeks ago…our doctor…did he tell you something about me? Tom, you’ve been so good to me…am I dying?”
It took a moment for it all to be understood. Then I burst out laughing.
“No, honey,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “You’re not dying; I’m just starting to live.”
1. From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage ______.
A. with his family B. with Evelyn C. alone D. with his children
2. During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because ______.
A. he was determined to be a good husband
B. he had made a lot of money in his Wall Street firm
C. she looked lovely in her new clothes
D. the doctor said his wife was seriously ill
3. The author says, “There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment.” What does “one thing” refer to?
A. He praised her sweater, which puzzled her.
B. She insisted on visiting a museum, which he hated.
C. He knew something about her illness but didn’t tell her.
D. He was so good to her that she thought she must be dying.
4. By saying “I’m just starting to live,” Tom means that ______.
A. he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life
B. he is just beginning to enjoy life as a loving husband
C. he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change
D. he is beginning to feel regret for what he did to his wife before
For as long as they can remember Jynne Martin and April Surgent had both dreamed of going to Antarctica. This winter, they each made it to the icy continent as guests of the National Science Foundation (NSF). But they didn’t go as scientists. Martin is a poet and Surgent is an artist. They went to Antarctica as participants in the NSF’s Artists and Writers program. The NSF is the government agency that funds scientific research in Antarctica. But it also makes it possible for artists, including filmmakers and musicians, to experience Antarctica and contribute their own points of view to our understanding of the continent.
The mixing of science and art in Antarctica isn’t new. Some of the earliest explorers brought along painters and photographers. Edward Wilson was a British painter, doctor, and bird expert who journeyed with Robert Falcon Scott on two separate Antarctic expeditions more than 100 years ago. Herbert Ponting was a photographer who also accompanied Scott on one of those expeditions. In hundreds of photos, Ponting captured the beauty of the continent and recorded the daily lives and heroic struggles of the explorers.
Today’s scientists write articles for scientific journals. Unlike the early explorers’ journals, scientific papers can now be very difficult for non-scientists to understand. Writers in Antarctica work to explain the research to the public. Peter Rejcek is editor, writer, and photographer for the Antarctic Sun, an online magazine devoted to news about the U.S. Antarctic Program. Rejcek began his career in the Antarctic in 2003 by spending a year at the South Pole. He has returned every year since, interviewing scientists about research at Palmer, McMurdo, and South Pole stations.
There are also scientists in Antarctica who work hard to explain their research to the public. Scientist Diane McKnight wrote The Lost Seal, a children’s book that explains the research she and others are doing in an unusual ice-free area in Antarctica called the Dry Valleys.
Antarctica is full of stories and wonders that are scientific, historical, and personal. People such as Martin, Surgent, Rejcek, and McKnight are devoted to bringing those stories to as many people as they can. “Some people are going to be scientists, some people are going to be journalists, some people are going to be artists, but we can all work together,” says Surgent, “to celebrate this extraordinary place.”What do we know about the NSF?
| A．It is a government agency. |
| B．It only funds scientists in Antarctica. |
| C．It encourages the understanding of human nature. |
| D．It enables the mixing of science and art for the first time. |
Why didn’t some earliest explorers bring writers along?
| A．Writers were not funded at that time. |
| B．Writing can’t capture the beauty of the continent. |
| C．Writers were not interested in popularizing science. |
| D．Early explorers’ journals can be easily understood by the public. |
By mentioning Diane McKnight, the author may try to suggest that ______.
| A．scientists should explain their research to children |
| B．writers are not necessary since scientists can tell stories as well |
| C．telling stories to children is more important than knowing the truth |
| D．no matter what role we play, we can work together to appreciate Antarctica |
What would be the best title for this article?
| A．Antarctica: A Land for All |
| B．The NSF: A Program for All |
| C．Antarctica: A Land of Beauty and Stories |
| D．The NSF: A Program for Artists and Scientists |
Ocean animals have been getting bigger over the last half-billion years. Not a little bigger. Not even a lot bigger. They have mushroomed gigantically, scientists now conclude.
Their new finding lends support for something known as “Cope’s rule.” It holds that animals tend to evolve into species that are much larger than their distant ancestors. This hypothesis(假说)takes its name from the 19th century paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope. While studying fossils(化石), he was the first to notice this trend.
Noel Heim is a paleontologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. He also is a co-author of the new study. His team compared the body size of animals between the Cambrian Period and modern times. This was a span of 542 million years. The animals studied included species from more than 17,000 genera. They ranged from ancient trilobites, plesiosaurs (extinct reptiles with a long neck and flippers) and many less familiar creatures to today’s whales and clams.
Ocean animals today are an average of 150 times larger than they were during the Cambrian, Heim’s group reports. The smallest animals alive today — tiny crustaceans called ostracods — are only about one-tenth the size of the Cambrian’s tiniest animals. But today’s largest ocean animals — whales — are more than 100,000 times bigger than the biggest in the Cambrian.
“Classes of animals that were already big … tended to live longer,” Heim says. They also tended to change more than classes of animals that were small did.
The size gains in ocean animals are much larger than would be expected by chance, saysJonathan Payne. He’s a co-author who also works at Stanford.
The scientists don’t know what drives the trend. One possibility is an arms race(军备竞赛)between predators and prey. The idea here is that larger animals are less likely to become some other animals’ meal. Another possibility has to do with oxygen. Land animals evolved from species that started in the ocean. Some of these land animals eventually returned to the ocean. And they kept the ability to breathe oxygen-rich air. That may have made it easier for them to outgrow animals that had to filter(过滤)their oxygen out of the water.What current animals may best illustrate “mushroomed” in paragraph one?
| A．Plesiosaurs. | B．Ostracods. |
| C．Whales. | D．African Elephants. |
What is the third paragraph mainly about?
| A．The result of the study. |
| B．The participants of the study. |
| C．The significance of the study. |
| D．The targeted animals of the study. |
The ocean animals’ change in size ______.
| A．is determined by environment |
| B．cannot be predicted by any factor |
| C．is fully explained by the new study |
| D．relates to the size of their ancestors |
In the last paragraph, the explanations for the trend suggest that ______.
| A．bigger animals will never be eaten |
| B．land animal can get oxygen more easily |
| C．oxygen is important to all ocean animals |
| D．land animals can grow bigger than ocean animals |
As I drive about the Sois in rural Thailand I catch little glimpses of things that barely register on the mind as the scenery flies by; strange things, beautiful things, sad things, interesting things. I wish I could hold on to these scenes; explore them in detail. I wish that I had the time to stop and investigate further as I’m driving by, but time is a commodity(商品)worth more than all the moneys in the world. I wish I had more.
I once had a guy wave to me as I passed him. He yelled out something, almost in greeting, as if he knew me. I wonder if we knew each other once, in another place, another time, and he recognized my soul as I drove by in the truck, and just had to yell a hello. I wish I had stopped and said hello too.
I saw two young girls, dressed in school uniforms. White blouses, blue skirts, books in hand. They were holding hands, talking, walking down the road, jostling(推，搡)each other with their shoulders and teasing each other as they strolled along. As I passed the one closest to the truck looked up. She was close enough to touch almost. Her smiling face, her clear eyes and golden smooth skin are there in my mind’s eye now. I can see her as if she were standing next to me. Once in a while her face just pops into my head. Why? Why is she still there? Sometimes I think maybe I’m a bit mad.
I stopped at a road stop on a corner one time. An old lady standing by the roadside walked over to the truck and put her hand on my arm and smiled at me. Her palm was so cool. It must have been a hundred degrees out that day. She said something in Thai and giggled(咯咯地笑) and walked away. Who was she? Why did she touch me? Why was her hand so cool? Why did I just sit there and let her touch me? I didn’t flinch(退缩)away. It was almost as if I knew her, and we were just saying a quick hello. Her cool touch almost seemed familiar; like my long dead grandmother’s soothing cool touch remembered from when I was just a little boy.
I need more time. I need to stop the truck more often, and just say hello. Things glimpsed along the road are often far more interesting and wonderful than that which seems to consume our daily lives. Slow down. Stop the truck. Get out, and say hello.What kind of life does the writer normally lead?
| A．Busy. | B．Tiring. | C．Meaningless. | D．Boring. |
The man in paragraph two yelled out because he ______.
| A．had met the writer before |
| B．recognized the writer’s soul |
| C．wanted to show friendliness |
| D．mistook me as one of his friends |
The writer describes the two school girls in great details to show ______.
| A．his liking for them |
| B．that he was kind of crazy |
| C．his interest in observing people |
| D．the deep impression they left on him |
Why does the author compare the old lady with his grandmother?
| A．The old lady behaved like his grandmother. |
| B．He suggests the old lady had very cold hands. |
| C．He suggests the old lady’s touch was comforting. |
| D．The old lady reminded the writer of his entire childhood. |
The first time my father and I ever went fishing became a family legend(传奇故事). We spent hours waiting for a bite. The sun was bursting with fire. We were hot, sticky, and mad that the fish refused to suck up our night crawlers(蚯蚓).
Being only seven years old, I observed that perhaps the worms were the problem. Maybe the night crawlers only moved at night, and now they were just lying there motionless on the hook. Dad ignored my assessment of the situation.
We began to pack up to leave. As we headed back to our truck, we heard tires spinning in the distance. Getting into our truck was tough. Having sat in the boiling sun for six hours, the seats were blistering. Naturally, I was wearing shorts.
I shifted from side to side in the seat so as not to cook my bottom. While driving out we saw a truck with a boat trailer and boat that was stuck in the mud. That explained the sound of spinning tires we’d heard.
Being a nice guy, my dad helped pull the man from the mud. In return, this fellow gave Dad some fish for being a Good Samaritan. As Dad climbed back into our truck with a brown bag full of fish, we waved goodbye to our newfound friend.
On the drive home, we agreed to take in the fish as if we had caught them. We were sure there was no way for Mom to know the difference. It was just a little white lie.
We arrived home hot, sweaty, and smelly, and went to clean up while Mom prepared the fish. We made a big deal out of the fact that we had already cleaned them and put them in the bag so as not to make a mess.
After showering, Dad and I met in the hall and exchanged conspiratorial grins(心照不宣的笑). Sitting down to freshly fried fish, we started eating happily and went on about how good something tasted that we had actually caught ourselves. Mother looked suitably impressed.
As we got up to do the dishes, Mom cleared her throat. “I just have one question of you two great fishermen,” she said. We looked at her expectantly, thinking we had another opportunity to delight her with our great fishing ability. With a tiny smile, Mom asked, “How was it again that you two managed to not only clean your fish, but also freeze them before you got home.”Why didn’t the fish eat our night crawlers?
| A．The weather was too hot. |
| B．The reason was not clear. |
| C．The fish were not hungry. |
| D．The fish only ate night crawlers alive. |
Dad was called a Good Samaritan for______.
| A．taking in the fish |
| B．helping a stranger |
| C．showing great strength |
| D．making friends with a stranger |
Mom smiled at the end because she ______.
| A．was amused by the little white lie |
| B．was satisfied with their fishing ability |
| C．was impressed that the fish were clean and frozen |
| D．was delighted that she did not need to deal with the mess |
Why did the fishing become a family legend?
| A．They caught a lot of fish. |
| B．They cooperated well in telling the lie. |
| C．They chose to benefit a stranger rather than themselves. |
| D．They make themselves a fool in front of the mother since they lied. |
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, 并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。
It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech. At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned. Fortunately, the moments are usually not obvious to the listeners. Why? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser. When such moments occur, don’t worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened.
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that doesn’t really matter. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech—“I Have a dream”, you may notice that he stumbles(结巴) over his words twice during the speech. Most likely, however, you don’t remember. Why? Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.
People care a lot about making a mistake in a speech because they regard speechmaking as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication. They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition. But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performance. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly. Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.
As you work on your speech, don’t worry about being perfect. Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ______.
| A．be smarter than you | B．notice your mistakes |
| C．do better than you | D．know what you are talking about |
You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because________.
| A．your attention is on the content |
| B．you don’t fully understand the speech |
| C．you don’t know what the speaker plans to say |
| D．you find the way of speech-making more important |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．giving a speech is like giving a performance |
| B．one or two mistakes in a speech may not be bad |
| C．the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made |
| D．the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Be a Perfect Speaker |
| B．How to Make a Perfect Speech |
| C．Don’ t Expect a Perfect Speech |
| D．Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech |
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