In our world today, the media and entertainment industries are constantly focusing on beauty over brains. Movies, television shows, commercials, and magazines all make use of models and actors whose wonderful appearance will help sell their products. And make more money for the companies.
As our country become crazy about reducing the obesity numbers, eating disorder statistics continue to increase due to the push for thinner people. Even children as young as primary school age have begun to worry about the numbers that appear on the scale. I agree obesity is a serious medical condition that can lead to many health problems, but many of us try to lose weight for appearance purposes rather than our health. It seems that “fat” has become a new “ugly”.
Two weeks ago, 37-year-old Wisconsin television hostess Jennifer Livingston, who is 235 pounds, received an email from a local security guard named Kenneth Krause. In the email Krause attacked the mother of three, writing, “Your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular.”
Days later on live television, Livingston reacted to this email by responding, “The truth is that I am overweight. But to the person who wrote to me that email, do you think I don’t know that? You know nothing about me but what you see on the outside. And I am much more than a number on the scale.”
While Livingston is not denying her size, she does suffer from hypothyroidism, a hormone (荷尔蒙) disorder that makes it harder to lose weight. Krause doesn’t know that Livingston has also been trying to change her diet and keep a regular exercise since the summer, and has already lost 8 pounds.
What kind of people have we become when we criticize and attack other people we don’t even know? Haven’t we realized by now that weight does not determine character, talent, or qualities?
Today, it seems that a vast majority of people care more about how they look rather than what is inside. Negative attitudes towards heavier people can be seen worldwide because of the growing obesity problem.
The truth is that every person is built differently; we all come in different shapes and sizes. That someone is heavier doesn’t mean they eat large amounts of junk food and hang around all the day. Similarly, even though a person is thin, that doesn’t mean they are necessarily healthy and fit.
If you are reading this and you are fighting with your weight or your appearance, please recognize that you are beautiful and special in your own way. You are worth so much more than you realize, and even if I don’t know you, I respect and support you.
Beauty is not determined by size; it is determined by how we treat others and respect ourselves. Just as the talented film actress Kirstie Alley put it, “There’s a lot more to life than how fat or thin you are.”From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that ________.
| A．fat people are sure to suffer from eating disorder |
| B．models will be out of work if they do not lose weight |
| C．many people nowadays focus too much on appearance |
| D．children in primary schools care little about their weight. |
The writer mentioned the email written by Kenneth Krause in order to tell us ________.
| A．some people still have negative attitudes towards fat people |
| B．Kenneth Krause is an unfriendly person who likes attacking the fat |
| C．we should make an effort to help the fat improve their physical condition |
| D．the fat can not act as a suitable example for the community’s young people |
What do we know about Jennifer Livingston according to the passage?
| A．She has been trying to keep a regular exercise all the time. |
| B．She has already realized her physical condition. |
| C．She is prevented from losing weight because of a kind of hormone. |
| D．She is often attacked by a local security guard because of her shape. |
The article mainly tells us the message that________.
| A．the thin are usually healthier than the fat |
| B．happiness lies first of all in health |
| C．health is more important than appearance |
| D．beauty means more than appearance |
In the writer’s opinion, ________.
| A．“fat” has become a new “ugly” |
| B．your size shows who you are |
| C．the fat should be careful about losing weight |
| D．fat people shouldn’t lose weight |
WASHINGTON Laura Straub is a very worried woman. Her job is to find families for French teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.
It’s not easy, even desperate.
“We have many children left to place: 40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a Paris based foreign exchange programme called LEC.
When exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were willing to help others. For one thing, more mothers stayed home.
But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the
30,000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to have some courses for one year in the United States. as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.
School systems in many parts of the US, unhappy about accepting non taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less 
exotic (异国情调的).
In searching for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly br
oadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.
“We are open to many different types of families.” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers on one-year exchange programmes worldwide.
For elderly people, exchange students “keep us young——they really do,” said Jean Foster, who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Ports from Denmark.
1.Foreign teenagers come to American families with the purpose of _____.
A. finding their parents in America B. finding good jobs in America
C. learning the culture of America D. enjoying the life of America
2.In the past, Straub’s job was easy, because American families _____.
A. needed more money to live B. had fewer children to support
C. had spare rooms to rent D. were not as busy as now
3.To deal with the problem in recent years, Straub and her workmates have to _____.
A. ask different kinds of families for help B. limit the number of the exchange students
C. borrow much money to pay for the costs D. force some families to accept students
4.From the last paragraph we can conclude that _____.
A. exchange students are welcome in America
B. exchange students must pay much money to the host families
C. American students don’t want to join the exchange programmes
D. old Americans can benefit from hosting exchange students
第三部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
Just call Apolo Anton Ohno the most decorated sportsman in the history of the Winter Olympics. The speed skater glided into the history books after the 2010 Olympics, winning a record-breaking eighth Olympic medal after completing the men’s 5,000-meter relay.
Apolo Anton Ohno, born on May 22, 1982, is an American short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two golds, two silvers, four bronzes) in the Winter Olympics. He is one of the only four Americans who have won three medals in a single Winter Olympic Games. He started skating at age 12, and in two years became the best short track skater in the United States. In December1999, he became the youngest skater to win a World Cup event title.
“It feels amazing, especially in a sport as volatile as short track speed skating,” he remarked after his historic win. “This is my third Olympic Games and there is no other athlete here who has gone to three Olympic Games and won a medal every time. I wanted to leave my heart and soul on the ice and I did. I don’t look back at past medals, but I look back at the struggles. I live my life with the philosophy that anything’s possible but I had no idea I’d have this much success.”
Ohno’s third Olympics might have been his last. He is considering retirement, although US national coach Jimmy Jang is hoping to convince his longtime friend to compete four years from now in Sochi, a Russian city where the next Winter Olympics is going to be held.
“I never say ‘never’,” Ohno said. “I need a break from this sport that’s been very good to me.”
After the relay, Ohno skated over to congratulate the Canadians and shook hands with his South Korean competitors. One of them said: “We have some good memories and we also have some bad memories of Ohno. I will be sorry to see him leave the world of short track when he does.”
1. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Short Track Speed Skating
B. Apolo Anton Ohno’s sport dream
C. Eight Gold Medalists in the Winter Olympics
D. “Michael Phelps” on the Ice—Apolo Anton Ohno
2. What does the underlined word “volatile” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. changeable B. violent C. stable D. interesting
3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. His three medals in this Olympics makes him the third one in American sports history.
B. He owes his success to his hard working and his strong belief.
C. He will retire after the next Winter Olympic Games to be held in Russia.
D. He has gained worldwide fame and recognition but his competitors’ envy.
4. In which section of a newspaper is the passage most likely to be found?
A. Health and Entertainment B. News abroad
C. Life and Society D. Great people
31st October —— A team of British explorers has announced they are going to the North Pole to measure the ice cap’s thickness. The exploration will take ground-based readings (仪表的读数) of an ice formation which most scientists agree is shrinking at an alarming rate.
Explorer Pen Hadow’s three-member team will pull a sled-fixed radar device, which measures ice density every eight centimeters, 2,000 kilometers across the Arctic and will produce millions of readings.
They will leave in February, 2008 and will face temperatures of -50℃ on a journey that will take up to 120 days. They have been testing their equipment in Britain and Canada.
Hadow is excited about the prospects (前景), “For the first time we will be able to transmit video images — webcam film of the expedition — as it unfolds so people can track us, and the whole idea is to engage as many people as we can in what we’re doing.”
New fallen snow on top of the ice makes ground-based measurements more accurate than satellite data.
“It has been in the planning stage for a while,” said Hadow. “We spent the last two years developing impulse radar (冲击雷达), which normally is about 100 kilograms and hangs under an aircraft and so on. We’ve managed to get it down to about 4 kilograms. It’s the size of a briefcase and we are dragging it behind the sled as we go.”
The ice cap shrank enough in 2007 so that a pathway through the cap known as the Northwest Passage opened up during the melting of the Arctic summer.
Cambridge University’s Joao Rodrigues explains, “Thickness of the ice cap will determine how much solar radiation will be reflected and the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere and it is thus a vital component (成分) of climate models.”
If warming trends continue, some experts predict that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the summer within a few decades.
１ What would be the best title for the text?
A. Exploration to the North Pole.
B. Arctic ice cap shrinking.
C. Arctic ice survey announced.
D. Ground-based measurements of ice.
２. What is special about the exploration?
A. It will be broadcast live on the Internet.
B. Explorers will use a sled-fixed radar device.
C. Explorers will travel in extremely cold conditions.
D. Ground-based measurements are more accurate.
３. What is the purpose of the exploration?
A. To measure the ice cap’s thickness.
B. To study whether ice will disappear in the Arctic.
C. To make a film about the Arctic exploration.
D. To make people interested in what they are doing.
４. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. ice in the Arctic will disappear in ten years
B. the exploration will last for half a year
C. Hadow spent two years developing a kind of radar, which is about 100 kilograms
D. if there is snow on ice, satellites can’t measure the ice thickness accurately enough
５. From the passage, we learn that ________.
A. the explorers will measure ice density every other centimeter
B. people will be able to follow the explorers and see what they are doing
C. people could go through the Northwest Passage in the 2007 Arctic summer
D. the equipment that Hadow’s team use will be tested in the United States
Sometime in the next century, the familiar early-newspaper on the front porch (门廊) will disappear. And instead of reading your newspaper, it will read to you. You’ll get up and turn on the computer newspaper just like switching on the TV. 
An electronic voice will distribute stories about the latest events, guided by a program that selects the type of news you want. You’ll even get to choose the kind of voice you want to hear. Want more information on this brief story? A simple touch makes the entire text appear. Save it in your own personal computer if you like. These are among the predictions from communication experts working on the newspapers of the future. Pictured as part of broader home-based media and entertainment systems, computer newspapers will unite print and broadcast reporting, and offer news and analysis with video images of news events.
Most of the technology is available now, but convincing more people that they don’t need to read a newspaper is the next step. But resistance to computer newspapers may be stronger from within journalism. Since it is such a cultural change, it may be that the present generation of journalists
and publishers will have to die off before the next generation realizes that the newspaper industry is no longer a newspaper industry. Technology is making the end of traditional newspapers unavoidable.
Despite technological advances, it could take decades to replace newsprint with computer screens. It might take 30 to 40 years to complete the changeover because people need to buy computers and because newspapers have established financial interests in the paper industry.
1. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer newspapers?
A. They are cheaper than traditional newspapers.
B. They are more convenient to read.
C. You can choose the kind of voice you want to hear.
D. You can easily save information for future use.
2. Which of the following is a reason why it will take a long time to complete the changeover?
A. The technology is impossible now.
B. Computer newspapers are too expensive.
C. The popularization of computers needs a long time.
D. Traditional newspapers are easier to read.
3. It
can be inferred that journali
sts are against computer newspapers because _______.
A. they don’t know how to use computers
B. they think computer newspapers take too much time to read
C. they think the new technology is bad
D. they have been trained to write for traditional newspapers
4. We can infer from the passage that _______.
A. all technological changes are good
B. new technologies don’t always replace old ones
C. new technologies will eventually replace old ones
D. traditional newspapers are here to stay for another century
5. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Computer newspapers are well liked.
B. Newspapers of the future will be on the computer.
C. Newspapers are out of fashion.
D. New communications technology.
More perhaps than any other European nation, the Swiss have got used to looking after foreign travelers. As early as the 18th century, wealthy French, Germans and Italians were treating the country as an amusement center while, in the 19th century, it became the major holiday playground for the British nobles. Today, it attracts visitors from all over the world.
The Swiss are clear about the importance of tourism to their economy, which makes up about eight percent of the Gross Domestic Product, and helps industry greatly. Managers of hotels from all over the world go to Switzerland to learn how to do the job, and a high standard can be expected from the great majority of the country’s hotels, most of which are small and pride themselves on personalized service. Public transport is the best in Europe. Both the Swiss Federal railways and the private railways are fully electric-powered, and the total network consists of about 5,000 kilometers of track.
Under the Fly Baggage system passengers can check luggage in at 116 railway stations and have it automatically transferred to their flight. The national highway system is equally well planned, and the mountain roads offer views of some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery. Also serving the mountains is an effective system of railways and cable ways, while more than 160 passenger cars cross the lakes and rivers. Hiking in the mountains is equally popular with Swiss nationals and foreign visitors. For those who want to view the country from a great height without having to climb the mountain themselves, it is always possible to take in the view from a balloon.
１. Compared with other European countries, Switzerland ________.
A. places more importance on entertainment
B. thinks more about foreign travelers
C. has more convenient public transport
D. has more five-star hotels
２. According to the passage, Switzerland is now visited by ________.
A. wealthy French people
B. rich Germans and Italians
C. British nobles
D. people from various countries
３. According to the passage we learn that ________.
A. most of the hotels in Switzerland are big
B. all the hotels in Switzerland offer exactly the same service
C. most of the hotels in Switzerland offer first class service
D. the hotels in Switzerland are accustomed to learning from the rest of the world
４. The Fly Rail Baggage system is a service to transport your luggage between the railway station and ________.
A. the airport B. the hotel
C. the motorway station D. the cable ways
５. The passage mainly tells us about ________.
A. scenery in Switzerland
B. the life in Switzerland
C. tourism in Switzerland
D. the transportation in Switzerland
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