Long working hours,the fewest holidays and the high cost of living mean the big salaries on offer（可使用的）in the UK do not go as far as those earned in other countries,making Britain and Ireland the worst places to live in Europe．
France and Spain are the two countries topping the European Quality of Life Index（指数）out today,according to the place comparison website Switch．com．
The French enjoy longer lives,better healthcare,more holidays and cheaper prices．In contrast Britons work three years longer and die two years younger after paying above the European average for fuel,food,alcohol and cigarettes．The amount we spend on healthcare and education is below the European average．
Only Ireland and Poland spend less,but Ireland has more doctors and hospital beds and Poland has more beds than the UK．People in Germany,Spain,France,Italy,the Netherlands and Sweden all enjoy longer life expectancy than Britons．And while we may be giving up work earlier,the average age at which we retire is still the fourth highest in Europe——and the UK state retirement age is set to rise．
Ann Robinson,of Switch．com,said:“There’s more to good living than money and this report shows why so many Britons are giving up on （对……不再抱希望）the UK and heading to France and Spain．We earn substantially more than our European neighbors,but this level of income is needed just to keep a roof over our heads,food on the table and our homes warm” ． “It’s giving us a decent standard of living,but it’s not helping us achieve the quality of life that people in other countries enjoy．For too long the focus in the UK had been on standard of living rather than quality of life．”In Europe,to enjoy the best quality of life,you’d better live in _______．
| A．Britian and Ireland | B．Spain and France |
| C．Ireland and Poland | D．Britian and Italy |
Which of the following about the UK is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．People in the UK pay more than the European average for fuel,food,alcohol and cigarettes． |
| B．People in the UK enjoy the highest quality of life． |
| C．People in the UK spend most on the healthcare and education． |
| D．People in the UK die two years older than in France． |
The underlined word“decent”in the last paragraph means “_______”
| A．good enough | B．bad enough | C．ordinary | D．neither bad nor good |
What do you think would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Money is a must to make you live a good life． |
| B．High standard of living means good quality of life． |
| C．High standard of living is one thing and good quality of life is another． |
| D．To live a good life,go to Britian． |
第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题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
Last year．I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, DC．I heard a voice say, “Can you help me?” When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended．Immediately, I pulled out all of my change and placed it on her hand without even looking at her．But the blind woman smiled and said, “I don’t want your money．I just need help finding the post office．”
In an instant, I realized what I had done．I acted with prejudice―I judged another person simply for what I assumed she had to be．I hated what I saw in myself．
The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant．I left Honduras and arrived in the US at the age of 15．I started my new life with two suitcases,my brother and sister．Through the years, I have been a doorkeeper, cashier and pizza delivery driver among many other humble(卑微的)jobs, and eventually I became a network engineer．
In my own life, I have experienced prejudice．I remember a time―at the age of 17―when I was a busboy, I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well in school, he would end up like me．
But now, living in my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am, where I have been ,and to lose sight of where I want to be going．That blind woman on the streets cured me of my blindness．She reminded me of my belief in humility(谦虚)．By the way, I helped that lady to the post office．I hope to thank her for the priceless lesson．
1．How did the writer give the blind woman money?
A．In a modest way B．In a polite way
C．In an impatient way． D．In a painful way
2According to the text, the writer__________．
A．still lives a poor life B．was busy with his work
C．was born in Honduras D．was a native of Washington D．C．
3．According to the text, the author most probably agrees that one should__________．
A．be nice to the elderly and the disabled
B．try to experience different kinds of culture
C．treat others equally with love and respect
D．think about one’s past as often as possible
4．What would be the best title of the text?
A．A priceless lesson B．An act of prejudice
C．A sightseeing trip D．A humble moment
The Antarctica is actually a desert.
The Antarctica is all ice all the year. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero at the South Pole. Explorers(探险家) used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But less than ten inches of snowfalls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. Ten times that much moisture(水分) falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts(融化). It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep, it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.
1. Antarctica is called a desert because it _____.
A. is sandy
B. has the same temperature as a desert
C. has little moisture
D. all of the above
2. The Antarctica has _____.
A. ten times as much moisture as the Sahara
B. the same amount of moisture as the Sahara
C. about one-tenth the moisture of the Sahara
D. none of these
3. The snow in Antarctica is very deep because it _____.
A. never stops falling
B. piles up year after year
C. never melts
D. Both B and C
4. The best title for this passage is “_____”
A. A Strange Continent
B. The Antarctica—An Ice Desert
C. Snowfall at the South Pole
D. The World’s Greatest Desert
Oxford is a very old town on the River Thames, about 60 miles from London. Unlike modern university towns, where you usually find the university on the edge of the town, or on its own campus(校园), Oxford’s center is the university; and around the crossroads at the very heart of Oxford, Carfax, there are grey stone colleges and other university buildings. In the center you can also find interesting old restaurants. There are a lot of churches, and few really large and interesting buildings, such as Ashmolean Museum, the round library, the Bodleain and the Radcliff Camera. Like all English towns, there are parks. The Parks is the home of university cricket(板球). In the summer months, as you leave the center and go towards the edge of Oxford you can see industrial areas in one direction; and in another, beautiful suburbs(郊区). There is, in fact, quite a lot of industry in Oxford.
1. The passage mainly introduces to us _____ .
A. an old industrial center.
B. well-known university.
C. a famous university town.
D. newly developed town.
2. Visitors to Oxford will find that _____ .
A. the university is also the town center.
B. one of the crossroads is called Carfax.
C. the university is on the edge of the town.
D. most buildings are modern and interesting.
3. What’s the special about The Parks?
A. All towns in Britain have parks like this.
B. It is the only park in Oxford.
C. It’s the home of Oxford sportsmen.
D. It is related to a popular game.
I was riding along the road when I heard someone shouting behind me. It was a young shepherds(牧羊人). He was running across a field and pointing at something.
I looked and saw two wolves running across the field. One was fully grown, the other was a cub. The cub had on his back a lamb (羔羊) which had just been killed, and he had the leg in his mouth. The old wolf was running behind.
As soon as I saw the wolves, I joined the shepherd and we started in pursuit(追赶), setting up a shout.
When they heard, some peasants started out also in pursuit, with their dogs.
As soon as the old wolf caught sight of the dogs and the men, he ran to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, threw it over on his back, and both wolves increased their pace and were soon lost from the view.
Then the shepherd began to tell me how it happened. The big wolf had sprung out (跳出) from the valley, seized the lamb, killed it and carried it off. The old wolf allowed the young wolf to carry the lamb, but kept running a short distance behind.
But as soon as there was a danger, the old wolf stopped giving the lesson, and seized the lamb for himself.
1. A cub is _____ .
A. an old wolf B. a young wolf C. a strong wolf D. a big wolf
2. The old wolf allowed the young wolf to carry the lamb because _____ .
A. he was lazy.
B. he was being run after.
C. he was wounded.
D. he was training his cub.
3. The old wolf seized the lamb for himself because _____ .
A. the cub wouldn’t carry it any longer.
B. the cub was too tired.
C. there was danger.
D. the cub wouldn’t learn.
4. In order to train the cub, the big wolf _____ .
A. showed the cub how to kill a lamb.
B. let the cub kill the lamb.
C. asked the cub to come to meet him.
D. let the cub do what he could do.
5. The passage is about _____.
A. how a young wolf carried a lamb.
B. how the wolves escaped.
C. how some peasants tried to catch the wolves.
D. how an old wolf taught his cub.
When you watch a movie in the cinema, you may wonder how “the moving pictures” is made and where the voices, and noises and music come from. Now here is the answer.
In modern times, the middle part of a cinema film has lots of small photographs, each one of which is different from the one before it. Each photograph is brought in front of a strong light, and there it stops for a very small part of a second. This photograph, therefore, appears on the screen, and we see it. Then the light is covered and the next photograph is moved to the position in the front of the strong light. Meanwhile, the metal cover turns away from the light. Thus, the second photograph is shown on the screen. This is done again and again, twenty-four times a second, and we think we are watching a moving picture on the screen. But nothing on the screen actually moves. ”The moving picture” is in fact made up of a lot of bits. We see about 86,000 different pictures every hour, but none of them moves.
The voices, noises and music are recorded on the side of the cinema film. The record looks like marks of strange shapes. The side of the film passes in front of another light, and the rays of light which pass through change as the marks change. These marks have been made from the voices and other sounds of the people and events in front of the cinema when the film is being made. The marks may be considered as “printed sounds”.
1. When a cinema film is shown, how long does each photograph appear on the screen?
A. One twenty-third of a second.
B. One twenty-fourth of a second
C. A few seconds
D. One thirty-fifth of a second.
2. Why can we see pictures moving on the screen?
A. We see about 86,000 different pictures every hour.
B. Each picture is a little different from the former.
C. Photographs change quickly.
D. Both B and C.
3. What is a cinema film made up of?
A. Small photographs and a strong light.
B. Small photographs and the sounds.
C. A lot of bits.
D. Voices and photographs.
4. Which is the true about the sound record?
A. It sounds strange.
B. It looks as irregular marks.
C. It is printed in the middle of a film.
D. It is made while the film is being shown on the screen.
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