When a rather dirty, poorly dressed person kneels at your feet and puts out his hands to beg for a few coins, do you hurry on, not knowing what to do, or do you feel sad and hurriedly hand over some money? What should our attitude to beggars be? There can be no question that the world is full of terribly sad stories. It must be terrible to have no idea where our next meal is going to come from. It seems cruel not to give some money to beggars.
Certainly, most of the world’s great religions order us to be open-hearted and share what we have with those less fortunate than ourselves. But has the world changed? Maybe what was morally（道德方面）right in the old days, when one knew exactly who in the village had suffered misfortune and needed help, is no longer the best idea. Quite a few people will not give to beggars. Let us look at their arguments.
First, some believe that many city beggars dress up on purpose to look pitiable and actually make a good living from begging. Giving to beggars only encourages this sort of evil（恶行）.
Secondly, there is the worry that the money you give will be spent on beer, wine or drugs.
Thirdly, there is the opinion that there is no real excuse for begging. One might be poor, but that is no reason for losing one’s sense of pride and self-dependence.
There is an opinion that the problem should be dealt with by the government rather than ordinary people. Some people think the local government department should help the beggars
It is hard to come to any final conclusion: there are various cases and we must deal with them differently. A few coins can save a life in some situations, and even if the money is wasted, that does not take away the moral goodness of the giver. What is mainly discussed in the passage?
| A．Moral deeds of people. |
| B．Arguments on giving to beggars. |
| C．Moral goodness of the giver. |
| D．Religious activities of the church. |
What can we infer from the underlined sentence “But has the world changed?” in Para.2 ?
| A．People no longer know who suffers misfortune in the village. |
| B．Some people will not do what was morally right in the past. |
| C．We don’t meet with those who need help any more. |
| D．Now it is the government’s duty to help the beggars. |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Some people dress up to pretend to be beggars. |
| B．Some beggars have no excuse for begging. |
| C．Some beggars use the money to buy drugs. |
| D．Some beggars need money for their children’s schooling. |
In the last paragraph, the writer thinks that it is hard to come to any final conclusion, because________.
| A．there is so much money wasted |
| B．there are so many beggars |
| C．the cases can be so different |
| D．there are so many different arguments |
British researchers are looking for volunteers willing to eat a piece of chocolate daily for a year in the name of science. The trial(实验) will explore whether flavonoids (类黄酮) found in chocolate and other foods can reduce the risk of heart disease.
“We are looking at a high risk group first,” said Aedin Cassidy, a biochemist who will lead the study.
Previous studies have suggested dark chocolate is rich in the beneficial flavonoids linked with heart health, but experts note the high sugar and fat content of most commercially available chocolate might cancel out some of the advantages. Other research has also shown dark chocolate appears to lower blood pressure, improve the function of blood vessels (血管)and reduce the risk of heart attack.
This has encouraged companies to market specific products containing dark chocolate. Mars Inc has introduced Cocoa Via, a line of dark and premium chocolates that plays up such health advantages.
Cassidy said her team will also publish findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showing that flavonoids found in soy and cocoa appear to have the strongest effects of reducing risk of heart disease.
The next step will organize 150 women volunteers with a specific illness. The researchers will look at whether flavonoids help reduce blood pressure, cut cholesterol levels and improve the condition of blood vessels.
Half the women in the year-long study will eat chocolate containing 30 grams of flavonoids found in soy, cocoa and other fruits and vegetables. The others will get chocolate without the active flavonoids.
“This could help doctors give advice to patients on the type and amount of foods to eat to reduce heart disease risk—and it does not necessarily need to be chocolate,” Cassidy said. “If this trial works we will be able to advise on a whole range of foods. People won't have to go around eating specially designed chocolate.”
1. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Volunteers wanted for chocolate study. B. Chocolate is good for health.
C. A new research on heart attacks. D. Flavonoids found in chocolate.
2. What’s the purpose of the trial?
A. To test the advantages of a new kind of chocolate.
B. To find cures for heart disease.
C. To discover how to control blood pressure.
D. To explore the advantages of flavonoids.
3. From Paragraph 3 we can infer that __________.
A. Cassidy’s team has done several studies on chocolate
B. dark chocolate has proved beneficial to health
C. people should eat much chocolate with high sugar and fat
D. most commercially available chocolate doesn’t contain flavonoids
4. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. All the volunteers will eat the same chocolate.
B. CocoaVia is a company that produces dark chocolate.
C. People who want to take part in the trial should be healthy.
D. Soy, cocoa, some fruit and vegetables contain flavonoids.
Texting is a great way to communicate and teenagers are doing just that. New research shows that on average, teens are sending 2,000 text messages a month, and doctors say it’s causing injuries.
13-year-old Bailey Baker keeps using her thumbs, sending text messages to her friends again and again. The past March may have been her best month ever, texting 8,000 times. Now, she says she’s feeling the pain. “Just mainly back and neck problems and thumb numbness,” she says.
Baylor-Garland Dr. Jane Sadler is seeing more and more teens who simply text until it hurts. She says parents, including Bailey’s mom, have no idea how much their kids are texting. “I was thinking she was texting about 25 texts a day,” says Lisa Baker. “Wrong! We’ve uncovered a problem.” It didn’t take Dr. Sadler long to find the problem. She gave Bailey the once-over and learnt that Bailey had developed Texting Teen Tendinitis(肌腱炎)
“A lot of them report pain in their thumbs, back and neck,” says Dr. Sadler. “When we look into it 
and examine a little bit further, we see texting is the main cause of the problem.” Dr. Sadler says back pain is caused by poor posture while texting. Bailey often texts for up to 2 hours a day; that’s a lot of wear and tear on the thumbs which over time, can break down. Dr. Sadler tells over-texting teens to look into the future. “What I tell them is ‘Hey, you might be normal now, but when you are 40 or 50, you can get arthritis (关节炎).’”
Dr. Sadler recommends limiting texting to 50 a day, and keeping good posture. Dr. Sadler also says touch screens are easier on the thumbs than keyboards and hand exercises are great to build up those muscles, making it easier to text.
1. How many text messages did Bailey Baker send a day on average last month?
A. Less than 226. B. About 230. C. About 267. D. More than 300.
2. Because of texting, Bailey Baker suffers from the following problems EXCEPT ______.
A. back pain B. neck pain C. headache D. thumb numbness
3. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. She gave Bailey Baker a quick examination.
B. She solved Bailey Baker’s problem at once.
C. She gave Bailey Baker a piece of advice.
D. She let Bailey Baker send a text message again.
4. What can we conclude from Paragraph 4?
A. Teenagers won’t get hurt if they stop texting right now.
B. Poor posture while texting is the main cause of injuries.
C. Thumbs won’t ache if teens text for no more than 2 hours a day.
D. Over-texting may have a bad effect on people in the long run.
IV. 阅读理解（30%）
The future is time that is to come. The future is not the present or the past. It is later. We have seen many possible futures in science fiction. They range from the world’s polar ice caps melting to nuclear winters. But not all futures are this morbid. We have seen the human race spread all over our universe, humans and aliens living in harmony together all over the universe.
It is very likely that we will make some kind of breakthrough in our ability to travel through space sometime in the next 150 years. This would give us the ability to rule other planets. Ultimately, the earth will die whether it be 1,000 years or 100,000 years. We will be forced to move to another planet then. It’s really just a matter of time. When we do so, what will we discover?
Personally, I think everyone will be speaking the same language in 200 years. A world government definitely seems to be in our future. It is stable and has few wars. Indeed, the only type of wars that can happen is the civil war.
And what if we face aliens? If they are friendly, we would probably benefit a lot from putting our knowledge together. They must have advanced technology to travel for great distances. We could seriously benefit from their technology. But if they aren’t friendly, then we are in trouble. Hope that we have become advanced enough, smart enough, and generally a better race by the time we meet them. But this is all probably being discussed for nothing, because any race out there among the stars is probably as curious as we are about other creatures.
1. The underlined word in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by ___________.
A. unpleasant B. shocking C. expected D. serious
2. What will humans do if the earth dies?
A. Humans have to face death. B. Humans will travel and live in space.
C. Humans will move to another planet. D. Humans will go back to the past time.
3. According to the author, the following statements are right about aliens EXCEPT that _________.
A. we can learn from aliens if they are friendly
B. when aliens arrive, humans will be smarter than them
C. aliens may be as curious as we human beings about other planets
D. aliens have more advanced technology than us
4. After reading the passage, we can know that the passage is based on_________.
A. scientific facts B. time and space
C. advanced technology D. the author’s imagination
第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题：每小题2.5分，满分50分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Today, as in every other day of the year, more than 3000 U.S. adolescents will smoke their first cigarette on their way to becoming regular smokers as adults. During their lifetime, it can be expected that of these 3000 about 23 will be murdered, 30 will die in traffic accidents, and nearly 750 will be killed by a smoking-related disease. The number of deaths attributed to cigarette smoking outweighs all other factors, whether voluntary or involuntary, as a cause of death.
Since the late 1970s, when daily smoking among high school seniors reached 30 percent, smoking rates among youth have declined. While the decline is impressive, several important issues must be raised.
First, in the past several years, smoking rates among youth have declined very little. Second, in the late 1970s, smoking among male high school seniors exceeded that among female by nearly 10 percent. The statistic is reversing. Third, several recent studies have indicated high school dropouts have excessively high smoking rates, as much as 75 percent.
Finally, though significant declines in adolescent smoking have occurred in the past decade, no definite reasons for the decline exist. Within this context, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began its current effort to determine the most effective measures to reduce smoking levels among youth.
36. According to the author, the deaths among youth are mainly caused by __________.
A. traffic accidents B. smoking-related disease
C. murder D. all of these
37. Every day there are over ______ high school students who will become regular smokers.
A. 750 B. 23 C. 30 D. 3000
38. By “dropout” the author means __________.
A. students who failed the examination B. students who left school
C. students who lost their way D. students who were driven out of school
39. The reason for declining adolescent smoking is that __________.
A. NCI has taken effective measures
B. smoking is prevented among high school seniors
C. there are many smokers who have died of cancer
D. none of these
40. What is implied but not stated by the author is that __________.
A. smoking rates among youth have declined very little
B. there are now more female than male smokers among high school seniors
C. high smoking rates are due to the increase in wealth
D. smoking at high school is from low socio-economic backgrounds
Poorer children would be offered the chance to attend lessons on Saturday to help catch up with their middle class peers (同龄人), the shadow schools secretary, Michael Gove, said today. The Conservatives would give English state schools the freedom to choose to have longer teaching hours and extra classes at the weekend, he told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference.
Gove said the move would help to close the achievement gap with richer children whose parents could afford extras such as tutoring and music lessons.
He told delegates (代表) in Manchester: “For children who come from homes where parents don’t have the resources to provide additional stretch and cultural experiences, there are benefits in having those children in the learning environment, in school, for longer.”
“Parents would love to have schools starting earlier in some circumstances, and certainly going on later in the afternoon, given the reality of their working lives,” he said. He held up the example of Kipp (Knowledge is Power Program) schools in the US, which are often based in the poorest communities and open from 7:30 am to 5pm on weekdays, plus Saturdays.
But it would be up to schools to decide to offer longer hours, Gove added.
Parents said Saturday classes could become a “badge of dishonor” if pupils were forced to go, while teachers raised concerns about their workload.
Margaret Morrissey, of Parents Outloud, said: “I think the suggestion the government made about one-to-one teaching for these kids would be a more preferable way of improving these children’s performance. I’m just not sure whether taking away a child at weekends is actually going to make them cleverer in the week.”
The ATL’s general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: “If we want Saturday schools, then we need more teachers doing the extra hours, not the same teachers working longer.”
51. The program is intended for children____________.
A. who are from middle-class families
B. whose parents can’t afford extra help
C. who perform poorly academically
D. whose weekends are mostly unoccupied
52. “Additional stretch” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to_________.
A. music lessons
B. physical relaxation
C. entertainment activities
D. out-of-school improvement
53. Why did Gove mention Kipp schools in the US?
A. To make a comparison.
B. To introduce a new program.
C. To seek supportive evidence.
D. To prove his program is better.
54. What is Margaret Morrissey’s opinion about the new program?
A. Favorable. B. Doubtful. C. Optimistic. D. Acceptable.
55. Which of the following is true?
A. Teachers may not like the program. B. Schools are trying to make profits.
C. The program is already under way. D. The program is popular with children.
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