I was very disappointed not to be able to go to the jazz concert last Friday. The announcement in the paper said that you could buy tickets at the theatre box office in Richland Hills any day between 10:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Since I work from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., the only time I could go to the theatre was during my 45-minute lunch break. Unluckily, the theatre is on the other side of the town, and the bus service between my office and Richland Hills is not very good. But if you are lucky, you can make the round trip in 45 minutes. Last Monday, I stood at the bus stop for 15 minutes waiting for a bus. By the time I saw one come around the corner, there was not enough time left to make the trip. So I gave up and went back to the office.
The same thing happened on Tuesday, and again on Wednesday. On Thursday, my luck changed. I got on a bus right away and arrived at the theatre in exactly 20 minutes. When I got there, however, I found a long line of people at the box office. I heard one man say he had been waiting in line for over an hour. Realizing I would not have enough time to wait in line, I caught the next bus and went back across the town. By Friday, I realized that my only hope was to make the trip by taxi. It was expensive, but I felt it would be worth to hear the concert. The trip by taxi only took 10 minutes, but it felt like an hour to me. When I got to the theatre, I was relieved to see that nobody was waiting in line. The reason, I quickly discovered, was that they had already sold out all the tickets.The writer could go and buy the ticket __________.
| A．any day before work hours |
| B．both before and after work hours |
| C．only during lunch time |
| D．on Saturday and Sunday |
The writer tried to go to the theatre every day, but was only successful______.
| A．twice | B．three times |
| C．four times | D．five times |
He failed to get the ticket on Friday because _________.
| A．it was impossible to make the round trip to the theatre in 45 minutes |
| B．the concert wasn’t on Friday |
| C．it was expensive to take a taxi |
| D．all the tickets had been sold out |
The word "______" can be used instead of the underlined(划线的)word "relieved".
| A．nervous | B．terrified | C．pleased | D．sad |
The private automobile(私家车)has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobiles is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has been affected(影响)in various ways. The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenager children have the use of the car, their parents can't keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs—or is “showing off” by speeding or breaking other traffic laws. Mothers of victims(受害者)of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD(Mothers Against Drunk Driving). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age. Students have formed a similar organization SADD(Student Against Drunk Driving)and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities. |
| B．Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics. |
| C．Cars have enabled people to live far from their place for work. |
| D．Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools. |
What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?
| A．Parents have paid more attention to their children. |
| B．Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving. |
| C．Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol. |
| D．University students have asked the government to solve the problem. |
We can infer from the text that________in American.
| A．it will be more difficult for people to get new cars |
| B．parents will not allow their children to have their own cars |
| C．the government will encourage people to use public transportation |
| D．cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems |
It's 2035. You have a job, a family and you're about 40 years old! Welcome to your future life.
Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror. “Turn red，” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics(智能电子元件)are rearranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe you're 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You're not even middle-aged!
As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn't eat that，”from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code(电子源码)on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast？”A list of possible foods appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space？”you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space—and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.”Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots(防疫针)are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It's time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot！” you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your enewspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video film rather than read it.What changes the color of your shirt?
| A．The mirror. |
| B．The shirt itself. |
| C．The counter. |
| D．The medicine. |
How do the shoes know that you shouldn't eat the breakfast cereal?
| A．By pouring the breakfast into a bowl. |
| B．By listening to the doctor's advice. |
| C．By testing the food supplies in the kitchen. |
| D．By checking the nutrition details of the food. |
The strawberries the children eat serve as________.
| A．breakfast |
| B．lunch |
| C．vaccines |
| D．nutrition |
How is the text organized?
| A．In order of time. |
| B．In order of frequency. |
| C．In order of preference. |
| D．In order of importance. |
What will our future look like? As for the future home, cookers will be set so that you can cook a complete meal at_the_touch_of_a_switch. Television will give the information on prices at the nearby shops as well as news and enjoyment. Visionphones will bring pictures as well as sound to telephone conversation. Machines will control temperature, lighting, enjoyment and gardening, etc. At work, robots will take over most jobs and working hours will fall to under 30 hours a week. Holidays will get longer. Six weeks will be the holidays every year.
What most shocks us is that in the future it will be possible to use virtual reality(虚拟现实)to bring the dead back to life. People will drag out their old and boring home movies and choose a relative to bring back to life. The visual will be combined with records about that person to create a virtual relative. Then the family can have a chat with that relative, keep it running, and live with it. The experience will be like living with a ghost.This passage is mainly about________.
| A．what our future life will be like |
| B．how machines help us with our life |
| C．what the use of robots will be |
| D．how to live with a ghost |
The underlined words “at the touch of a switch” in the first paragraph mean________.
| A．when you are beside the switches of the cookers |
| B．on touching the cookers |
| C．the moment you turn the cookers on |
| D．as soon as you touch the cookers |
It's true that in the future________.
| A．people will enjoy their holidays for 42 days a year |
| B．robots will do everything for man |
| C．people will see instead of hearing each other when they are talking on the visionphone |
| D．none of the above |
In the future, machines can do the following except that________.
| A．machines can control people's body temperature |
| B．machines can control lighting |
| C．machines can do gardening |
| D．machines can give people enjoyment |
As for the dead in the future, ________.
| A．they can come back to life and become real persons |
| B．people can use virtual reality to bring them back to life |
| C．they will become ghosts and come back |
| D．the family can't chat with them |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in biotechnology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today's leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells(细胞)are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.)
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by________.
| A．diseases and aging |
| B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging |
| D．heart disease and war |
In the author's opinion, today's most important advance in technology lies in________.
| A．medicine |
| B．the Internet |
| C．brain cells |
| D．human organ |
Humans may live longer in the future because________.
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
We can learn from the passage that________.
| A．human life will not last more than 120 years in the future |
| B．humans have to make medicine to build new skin cells now |
| C．much needs to be done before humans can have a longer life |
| D．we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells |
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。
(2012年山东卷，B) One of the greatest contributions to the first Oxford English Dictionary was also one of its most unusual. In 1879, Oxford University in England asked Prof. James Murray to serve as editor for what was to be the most ambitious dictionary in the history of the English language. It would include every English word possible and would give not only the definition but also the history of the word and quotations (引文)showing how it was used.
This was a huge task. So Murrary had to find volunteers from Britain, the United States, and the British colonies to search every newspaper, magazine, and book ever written in English. Hundreds of volunteers responded, including William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor was an American Surgeon who had served in the Civil War and was now living in England. He gave his address as “Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire,”” 50 miles from Oxford.
Mi nor joined the army of volunteers sending words and quotations to Murray. Over the next years, he became one of the staff’s most valued contributors.
But he was also a mystery. In spite of many invitations, he would always decline to visit Oxford. So in 1897， Murray finally decided to travel to Crowthorne himself. When he arrived, he found Minor locked in a book-lined cell at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally insane.
Murray and Minor became friends, sharing their love of words. Minor continued contributing to the dictionary, sending in more than 10,000 submissions in 20 years. Murray continued to visit Minor regularly, sometimes taking walks with him around the asylum grounds.
In 1910, Minor left Broadmoor for an asylum in his native America. Murray was at the port to wave goodbye to his remarkable friend.
Minor died in 1920, seven years before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. The 12 volumes defined 414,825 words, and thousands of them were contributions from a very scholarly and devoted asylum patient.According to the text，the first Oxford English Dictionary ________.
| A．came out before Minor died |
| B．was edited by an American volunteer |
| C．included the English words invented by Murray |
| D．was intended to be the most ambitious English dictionary |
How did Dr. Minor contribute to the dictionary?
| A．He helped Murray to find hundreds of volunteers. |
| B．He sent newspapers，magazines and books to Murray. |
| C．He provided a great number of words and quotations. |
| D．He went to England to work with Murray. |
Why did Dr. Minor refuse to visit Oxford?
| A．He was shut in an asylum. |
| B．He lived far from Oxford. |
| C．He was busy writing a book. |
| D．He disliked traveling. |
Prof.Murray and Dr. Minor became friends mainly because ________.
| A．they both served in the Civil War |
| B．they had a common interest in words |
| C．Minor recovered with the help of Murray |
| D．Murray went to America regularly to visit Minor |
Which of the following best describes Dr. Minor?
| A．Brave and determined. |
| B．Cautious and friendly. |
| C．Considerate and optimistic. |
| D．Unusual and scholarly. |
What does the text mainly talk about?
| A．The history of the English language. |
| B．The friendship between Murray and Minor. |
| C．Minor and the first Oxford English Dictionary. |
| D．Broadmoor Asylum and its patients. |
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