In this century the traditional American family is constantly faced with the threat of breakdown. Some sociologists suggest that one little-noticed cause may be the introduction of the TV dinner.
Before the appearance of television sets, the American dinner was a big event for the family. In many homes, dinner time may be the only time when everyone got together. A typical dinner was usually in three stages. In the preparation stage, the children and Father frequently helped with setting while Mother put the last touches on the roast. In the eating stage, family members shared the day’s experiences and more than food was eaten. In this stage families got to know one another and made joint decisions around the dinner table, and thus the family unit was strengthened. In the cleaning-up stage, children or Father again gave their hands, so that their importance to the home community was clear. Unfortunately, all of these have been removed by a product-the television set.
By the beginning of the 1980s, the typical American family dinner was just twenty minutes long. The speed-up of the once-leisurely experiences is clearly connected to the pace of modern life and maybe a model of the modern life is the TV dinners-meals designed to be eaten from the beginning to the end of a half-hour program. The once family affair has now become nothing more than the use of a fork and knife.
The underlined word in the second paragraph can be replaced by
| A．big | B．important | C．combined | D．separate |
In the past, Americans tended to .
| A．spend more time eating their food at dinner table | B．eat more food than they have today |
| C．spend more time talking about their day’s experiences at dinner table | |
| D．talk so much that they forgot to eat |
The shortening of the dinner time in America is related to .
| A．The TV programs | B．the pace of modern life |
| C．the wide use of electrical equipment | D．the popularity of fast food |
. The best title for this passage might be
| A．Talk at Dinner Table | B．TV Dinner | C．Pace of Modern Life | D．Problems Caused by TV |
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。
A
We bet that on cold wintry days, many of you love to stay in your warm home and, every now and then, come out into the kitchen for a snack. Unfortunately, plenty of creepy-crawly critters (爬行生物) like to do the same thing!
Winter is the time when bugs (虫子) invade your house without an invitation. The season can be tough for such creatures. In winter the air is cold, the ground is hard and many trees have no leaves. So bugs do what they have to do to survive.
Monarch butterflies head south to warmer climates. Ants crowd in deep underground colonies and eat food they have been storing all year. Many insects go into a deep sleep called diapause. There’re different kinds of diapause, but all are similar to hibernation, a time when bigger animals become inactive in the cold. Insects go into an inactive period, too, but it often isn’t when the temperature drops.
They rely on more dependable signals in the environment. For example, many insects can tell how much sunlight there’s each day. They use that to tell them when to shut down. Bugs are cold-blooded, meaning that their inside temperature is the same as the outside. They can’t move much when it gets below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. So they search for any warm place.
They’re looking for protection. These guys have been doing this for 300 million years, so they don’t really know they’re coming into your house. The home is a recent event in terms of their evolutionary behavior. They enter through tiny cracks or come in unnoticed on your clothes or shoes. Remember that they may be invading your homes for warmth and food, but they don’t care about humans.
56. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?
A. To point out that humans like to stay at home in winter.
B. To mean that humans and bugs have the same living habits.
C. To mean that bugs will invade the house for their winter.
D. To put forward the idea that bugs are not welcome in winter.
57. According to the text, what is diapause?
A. It is the same as the animals’ hibernation.
B. It often appears in warm areas all the year.
C. It is done to keep bugs active in winter.
D. It is a deep sleep similar to hibernation.
58. What often decides bugs’ diapause?
A. The lower local temperatures. B. The amounts of sunlight.
C. Kinds of environmental signals. D. The insects’ inside temperature.
59. According to the text, bugs invade humans’ homes to ______.
A. attack humans B. look for enough food
C. seek for protection D. show their evolutionary results
60. What would be the best title for the text?
A. Bugs’ life on cold wintry days
B. Why bugs invade your home in winter?
C. Good relations between humans and bugs
D. What does diapause mean?
E
Organiaing Yourself
Many new students find it hard to do all the study that has to be done; they find themselves putting off reading assignment, jumping from subject to another and rarely being quite certain what they are trying to do during a particular study session. The best way to overcome these difficulties and to start studying efficiently is to plan your time and organize your work. Let us suppose that you have 15 hours per week of classes and that you decide to allow yourself a 40-hour working week (a reasonable figure, leaving you 70 waking hours for other activities).
You now have to decide how to divide the remaining 25 hours of private study. Naturally the decisions you make will change from week to week according to what essays have to be written and what reading has to be done. Many people find it helpful to draw up each week a seven-day timetable showing the occasions on which they will be working privately and the particular subjects that will be studying on each occasion. By checking such a plan at times during the week, you can see what you have done and what you have still to do: the whole plan becomes more manageable. There are a number of places where you can study—college library, public library, home, empty classrooms, on bus or train—and each has several obvious advantages and disadvantages. The college library is least busy in the evening, on Wednesday afternoon, and all day Friday and Saturday.
When you are deciding where to study, keep the following suggestions in mind:
1．Try to study always in the same place. After a while the familiar surroundings will help you to switch into the right frame of mind as soon as you sit down.
2．Find somewhere with as few distractions as possible.
3．Make sure that your study place has a good light and is warm (but not hot ) and well aired.
72．What’s the main idea of this passage?
A．Plan your time and organize your work.
B．Overcome your difficulties.
C．Be certain what you can do.
D．Find a quiet place for study.
73．A student’s organization of his work will need to change according to____.
A．how many hours he is awake B．how many subjects are required
C．how many lectures he misses D．what he has to write and read that week
74．A student is advised to make a weekly plan and to check it from time to time in order to __________.
A．see whether he has calculated it properly
B．see what day of the week is
C．see what work still needs doing
D．see how he feels at the whole week
75．Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a place where you can study?
A．The bus B．The train C．Home D．A public house
D
Here’s an unusual story: a diamond right was recently found in an egg. The magician, Liu Qian, discovered it, in front of an audience of rail lions at CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala. Liu’s magic tricks have made the centuries-old art of magic fashionable once again, and made him the hottest magician in China.
As a seasoned young magician from Taiwan, Liu is popular worldwide for his magic shows. Countries he has performed in include the United States, Japan, South Korea and the UK.
Witnessing something impossible happen right before your eyes is the root of people’s love for magic.
Liu is known for his interaction (acting together) with his audiences. He has a unique understanding of showmanship (演出技巧).
“It’s actually thinking, rather than one’s operation skills, that is more important to achieving a successful magic show. We think carefully about how to design the shows creatively, to make them appear more interesting. ” Liu said.
Liu Qian’s success dates back to his childhood. Born in 1976 in Taiwan, he found himself attracted to a magic toy in a shop when he was seven years old. At the age of 12, he won Taiwan’s Youth Magic Contest, which was judged by the great American magician, David Copperfield.
Yet, Liu never planned on becoming a professional magician. He studied Japanese literature at university and only hoped to be an amateur magician in his spare time. However, his failure to find a proper job after graduation pushed him towards magic as a career.
To improve his performing skills, he has performed on streets, roads and fields, for passers-by, policemen and farmers.
“Street shows are the biggest challenge for us magicians. We have to deal with unexpected situations and tough crowds,” Liu said.
68．The story is about________.
A．how Liu Qian became China’s hottest magician
B．why people love magic
C．what magic tricks are
D．how fashionable magic is
69．People love to watch magic because________.
A．they can’t figure out the secret of magic
B．it arouses their curiosity
C．they love watching magicians make the impossible happen
D．it is a centuries-old art
70．Which of the following is the key reason that Liu Qian decided to make magic his career?
A．He was interested in magic when he was young
B．He had won Taiwan’s Youth Magic Contest.
C．He became an amateur magician in his spare time.
D．He couldn’t find an acceptable job after graduation.
71．From the story we know that________.
A．Liu Qian competed in many magic competitions
B．Liu Qian often invites audiences to be in his magic show
C．Liu Qian performs on streets in order to increase his fame
D．Liu Qian does street show to make money
C
Business Week ( Oct. 8,2008 )
Introducing Business Week's Power 100, our ranking of the most influential people in the world of sports.
Prospect(展望) ( Oct. 20,2008)
In July, Gordon Brown published a green paper called "The Governance of Britain.” The final section said that we need to be clearer about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and what it means to be British. It proposed(倡议) "to work with the public to develop a British statement of values. " We asked 50 writers and intellectuals to give us their thoughts on this statement and what should inform it.
Science( Sep. 28,2008)
In the journal's 28 September 2008 issue, Science, in partnership with the National Science Foundation, is pleased to present the winners and honorable mentions in the fifth annual Science and Engineering Visualization(视觉) Challenge.
Time( Sep. 1,2008 )
From the phone that has changed phones forever, to futuristic cars, to a building made of water, to a remote controlled dragonfly(蜻蜓)—a dazzling display of ingenuity(独创性).
Guardian( Oct. 17,2008)
Against all the odds, and seeing off competition from favourite to win Ian McEwan and Lloyd Jones, rank outsider Anne Enright,45, has been awarded the Man Booker prize for what the judges called a "powerful, uncomfortable and even at times angry book," The Gathering.
64．What do these five books have in common?
A．Each of the articles in each book is introduced in detail.
B．They are all published in the year and have one article digest.
C．Each of them is commented by a great man in the world.
D．They all introduce the most influential people.
65．What would be the best title for the article from Prospect?
A．In Search of British Values.
B．The Final Section.
C．The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship.
D．50 Writers and Intellectuals.
66．Who wins the Man Booker prize according to the passage?
A．Gordon Brown. B．Ian McEwan. C．Lloyd Jones. D．Anne Enright.
67．The passage probably appears in a _______.
A． report B． magazine C． text book D． science book
B
Hong Kong’s movement has urged the Walt Disney company to cut the maximum number of people allowed into its new park after visitors complained about long queues at trial opening over the weekend.
The park admitted about 30,000 guests on Sunday for a rehearsal, but visitors found themselves waiting in line for up to three hours for some popular rides. Many waited for up to half an hour at fast food outlets.
The park, which was built to take a maximum capacity of 30,000 visitors, officially opens next Monday. But Hong Kong Financial Secretary Heary Tang urged the company to consider lowering the upper limit.
“If it takes in 30,000 people, the queues will be very long and buying lunch would take a very long time,” Tang told reporters late on Monday. “Disney has told us that queues at its other parks are also very long during peak periods, but people may not be used to lining up for so long. So we are discussing with Disney on whether it could manage this more flexibly.”
Asked if the full capacity should be lower than 30,000, he said, “We are now examining this. We should handle it flexibly.”
Disney was not immediately available for comment.
Hon
g Kong’s government holds a 57 percent stake in the park and Disney owns the rest. The project was launched during a time when Hong Kong was in recession (衰退) and was widely regarded as a best cure to the city’s economic trouble.
The park is expected to draw massive crowds, particularly from Chinese mainland. But, not all news associated with the park has been encouraging.
60．When visitors where lining up for tickets for a long time, they were____.
A．excited B．upset C．nervous D．dissatisfied
61．What’s the best title for the passage?
A．HK Disney opens up.
B．HK urges Disney to cut visitors capacity at the new park.
C．HK encourages natives to visit Disney.
D．Disney attracts visitors from Hong Kong and Chinese mainland.
62．By mentioning what Tang said, the author wants to show____.
A．visitors showed great interest in Disney
B．Disney will take some measures to limit visitors
C．why HK governments suggests lowering the number of visitors
D．the HK government tried to co – operate with Disney
63．When HK Disney was launched, ____.
A．people though little of its future development
B．people thought it a way to revive (复苏，恢复) HK’s economy
C．Disney hold belief that it could bring more money
D．Disney was in recession across the global
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