第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分）
High-tech gadget shows draw throngs of excited consumers each year in the United States, Japan, Europe and the Arabian peninsula. Though many people are already surrounded with all kinds of smart electronic devices, some always need one more -- better and smarter than the previous one.
At electronic shows, visitors flock around the newest tablet computers, cameras, 3D television screens, even small robots, dreaming of taking one home.
Consumers spend hours waiting in lines and spend hundreds of dollars to be among the first to get the latest smart phone.
The modern world seems to be infatuated with shiny expensive objects that keep us connected, help us navigate, record our thoughts and memorable events, and even talk to us. So infatuated, we no longer merely "own" our gadgets -- we have relationships with them, according to clinical psychologist and life transition therapist Francine Lederer.
“It’s a lot easier to have, right, a one-sided relationship with your computer, your phone, than it is with a live person. So that at the end of the day, you don’t need to worry about somebody being angry with you, you don’t need to worry about getting blamed for anything,” she said.
Magical devices
Although having a thousand Facebook friends may be perceived as equivalent to having a thousand real, authentic friendships, Lederer said in reality it is not so.
“It comes down to a lot of the internal stuff. How we feel about ourselves, our own sense of self-esteem, our self-worth, a lot of those things,” she said.
But gadgets are magical. They fascinate us the same way we are intrigued by a magician’s trick, said psychology professor at the University of the South Pacific, Robert Epstein.
“If you don’t know how they’re doing it, that’s very fascinating and intriguing. But if they do it 10 times or 20 times or 100 times, it gets boring and you want something else. That’s why magicians do not repeat the same trick over and over again,” he said.
Plugged in, isolated
Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today magazine, said he is concerned that gadgets will take on a life of their own.
“All we’re seeing so far is a little bit of the so-called wearable technology that you might wear on your wrist or in your glasses, but we’re moving very rapidly, whether the public knows it or not, toward real biological interfaces so that the gadgets will be built into us to some extent,” he said.
Lederer said the danger is that our dependence on electronic gadgets is increasingly being perceived as normal.
“I think our society in a way, and the media, often times normalizes the extent to which we use these gadgets and phones, but the reality is, it’s really not healthy for us,” she said.
Scientists predict that gadgets with biological interfaces may be available within the next 20 years and, coupled with strong artificial intelligence, will be much smarter than today.What does the underlined phrases “be infatuated with” mean？
| A．be worried about | B．be used to |
| C．be attached to | D．be popular with |
Why do people like to have relationships with gadgets?
| A．Because they are cleverer. |
| B．Because they will not have burden with the gadgets. |
| C．Because they have no feelings. |
| D．Because they are easier to operate. |
What’s the similarity between gadgets and magicians according to the passage?
| A．They both make people happy. |
| B．We will be bored with them. |
| C．They both cheat people. |
| D．They both don’t use the same trick repeatedly. |
What is Lederer’s opinion?
| A．It’s abnormal for us to rely on electronic gadgets too much. |
| B．Gadgets will take on a life of their own. |
| C．It’s healthy for us to use model electronic gadgets. |
| D．The gadgets will be built into us to some extent. |
Donald had his own difficulties in sleeping that night. Not just because of the bright lights of the shelter or people’s constant voices, it was the happening repeatedly nightmare that caused him to stay awake, to fear sleep. Donald was back in his small house. He did his best to ignore the howling winds outside his window. Yet he could not turn out the fearful whimpers (呜咽) of his little dog, or the uncomfortable sounds of his mother anxious in her room next door, unable to sleep through the storm despite her insistence they would be all right.
Donald did not want his mother to be upset, but on some level, he was glad to hear she was awake, It meant he was not alone in the dark. Though he was 12, until recently it was impossible for Donald to fall asleep unless his mother lay down by his side.
Suddenly there was a crash. Their living room window is shattered (打碎) by 125 miles an hour winds. Troy rushed to Donald and sat anxiously on the edge of his bed. He did his best to calm his mother, and she had to comfort him. Soon water was seeping (渗入) into the single floor house. Quickly it rose from ankle level to leg level. At Donald’s insistence, they pushed their way through the water --- now chest high --- toward the front door. When they fought their way into the living room, water rose to their chins.
It was a struggle for the boy and mother to stay afloat. In a total panic, desperate to hold on to something, Troy caught a curtain rod. She was breathing hard, shouting that she couldn’t swim.
Donald cried out, “Mom! Hold on!” Just then Donald also caught a floatable wood board.The passage is mainly about _____.
| A．how a storm happened and caused damage |
| B．how a mother and son experienced a storm |
| C．how a mother and son survived a storm |
| D．how a son helped his mother in a storm |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the story?
| A．The rising water. | B．The broken window. |
| C．The lucky dog. | D．The noisy environment. |
Which phrase can describe Troy’s feelings at the beginning of the storm most suitably?
| A．In excitement. | B．In calm. | C．In anxiety. | D．In despair. |
What will the author most probably talk about next?
| A．How the other people struggled in the storm. |
| B．Why the rainstorm happened. |
| C．What damage the rainstorm caused. |
| D．How Donald and Troy struggled to save themselves |
Recently a Beijing father sent in a question at an Internet forum (论坛) asking what "PK" meant. "My family has been watching the 'Super Girl' singing competition TV program . My little daughter asked me what 'PK' meant, but I had no idea," explained the puzzled father.
To a lot of Chinese young people who have been playing games online, it is impossible not to know this term. In such Internet games, "PK" is short for "Player Kill", in which two players fight until one ends the life of the other.
In the case of the "Super Girl" singing competition, "PK" was used to refer to the stage where two singers have to compete with each other for only one chance to go up in competition ranking.
Like this father, Chinese teachers at high schools have also been finding their students' compositions using Internet jargons (行话) which are difficult to understand. A high school teacher from Tianjin asked her students to write compositions with simple language, but they came up with a lot of Internet jargons that she didn't understand.
"My 'GG' came back this summer from college. He told me I've grown up to be a 'PLMM'. I loved to 'FB' with him together; he always took me to the 'KPM'," went one composition.
"GG" means Ge Ge (Chinese pinyin for brother). "PLMM" refers to Piao Liang Mei Mei (beautiful girl). "FB" means Fu Bai (corruption). "KPM" is short for KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonald's.
Some specialists welcome Internet jargons as a new development in language.
If you do not even know what a Kong Long (dinosaur, referring to an ugly looking female) or a Qing Wa (frog, referring to an ugly looking male) is, you will possibly be regarded as a Cai Niao! By writing the article, the writer tries to ________ .
| A．explain some Internet language |
| B．suggest common Internet language |
| C．laugh at the Beijing father |
| D．draw our attention to Internet language |
What does the writer think about the term "PK"?
| A．Fathers can't possibly know it. |
| B．The daughter should understand it. |
| C．Online game players may know it. |
| D．"Super Girl" shouldn't have used it. |
The examples of the Beijing father and the Tianjin teacher are used to show that Internet jargons ________ .
| A．are used not only online |
| B．can be understood very well |
| C．are welcomed by all the people |
| D．cause trouble to our mother tongue |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A puzzled father |
| B．Do you speak Internet-ish? |
| C．Keep away from Internet-ish |
| D．Kong Long or Qing Wa? |
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all whether rich or poor, clever or stupid - one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degree；they refuse to do what they think "low" work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be ashamed of one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.The writer of the passage thinks that _______.
| A．education can settle most of the world's problems |
| B．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world |
| C．free education won't help to solve problems |
| D．all the social problems can't be solved by education |
The writer wants to prove that _______.
| A．our society needs all kinds of jobs |
| B．our society needs free education for all |
| C．a farmer is more important than a professor |
| D．work with hands is the most important |
The purpose of education is _______.
| A．to choose officials for the country |
| B．to prepare children mainly for their future work |
| C．to let everyone receive education fit for him |
| D．to build a perfect world |
The passage tells us about _______ of the education.
| A．the means | B．the system | C．the value | D．the type |
If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery, a small reward like a sticker for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously disliked foods, a UK study said.
Though it might seem obvious that a reward could encourage young children to eat their vegetables, the idea is actually controversial, researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. That’s because some studies have shown that rewards can backfire and cause children to lose interest in foods they already liked, said Jane Wardle, a researcher at University College London who worked on the study. Verbal praise, such as “Brilliant! You’re a great vegetable taster,” did not work as well.
The study found t hat when parents gave their small children a sticker each time they took a “tiny taste” of a disliked vegetable, it gradually changed their attitudes. The children were also willing to eat more of the vegetables-either carrots, celery, cucumber, red pepper, cabbage or sugar snap peas-in laboratory taste tests, the study said.
Researchers randomly assigned（分派）173 families to one of these groups. In one, parents used stickers to reward their children each time they took a tiny sample of a disliked vegetable. A second group of parents used verbal praise. The third group, where parents used no special vegetable-promoting methods, served as a “control”.
Parents in the reward groups offered their children a taste of the “target” vegetable every day of 12 days, Soon after, children in the sticker group were giving higher ratings to the vegetables-and were willing to eat more in the research lab, going from an average of 5 grams at the start to about 10 grams after the 12-day experience. The turnaround also seemed to last, with preschoolers in the sticker group still willing to eat more of the once disliked vegetable three months later.
Why didn’t the verbal praise work? Wardle said the parents’ words may have seemed “insincere” to their children.The purpose of writing the passage is .
| A．to introduce a practical method of making children eat vegetables |
| B．to show the procedure of an experiment on children’s diet |
| C．to explain why children hate to eat vegetables |
| D．to present a proper way of vernal praise to parents |
The underlined word “backfire” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ”.
| A．shoot from behind the back |
| B．make a lire in the hackyard |
| C．produce an unexpected result |
| D．achieve what was planned |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
| A．Most children are born to dislike carrots or celery. |
| B．It remains a question whether rewarding is a good way to get children to eat vegetables. |
| C．Oral praise wokrs quite well in encouraging children to eat vegetables. |
| D．Children in the sticker group will never lose interest in eating vegetables. |
How did the researchers get their conclusion from the experiment?
| A．By comparison. | B．By asking questions. |
| C．By giving examples, | D．By discussion. |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Children like rewards, not verbal praise. |
| B．Parents should praise their children in a sincere tone. |
| C．Children are difficult to inspire. |
| D．Parents should give up verbal praise. |
Jack London had endured more hardships by the age of twenty-one than most people experience in a lifetime. His struggles developed in him sympathy for the working class and a lasting dislike of hard work and provided inspiration for his career as a writer.
London grew up in San Francisco in extreme poverty. At an early age, he left school and supported himself through a succession of un skilled jobs ----working as a paper boy, in bowling alleys, on ice wagons, and in canneries（罐头食品厂） and mills. Despite working long hours at these jobs, London was able to read constantly, borrowing travel and adventure books from the library.
The books London read inspired him to travel, and his job experiences led him to become active in fighting for the fights of workers. He sailed to Japan on a journey aiming at catching seals and joined a cross-country protest march with a group of unemployed workers. After being arrested for vagrancy near Buffalo, New York, London decided to educate himself and reshape his life. He quickly completed high school and entered the University of California.
After only one term, however, the appeal of fortune and adventure proved uncontrollable. London gave up his studies and traveled to the Alaskan Yukon in 1897 in search of gold. Jack London was among the first of these miners. He may have searched for more than gold, however. London once commented, “ True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” Although he was unsuccessful as a miner, London’s experiences in Alaska taught him about the human desire for wealth and power and about humankind’s inability to control the forces of nature. While in Alaska, London also absorbed memories and stories that would make him known one hundred years later.
Once back in California, London became determined to earn a living as a writer. He rented a typewriter and worked up to fifteen hours a day, spinning his Alaskan adventures into short stories and novels.
According to legend, London’s piles of rejection slips from publishers grew to five feet in height!
Even so, London preserved. In 1903, he earned national fame when he published the popular novel The Call of the Wild. He soon became the highest paid and most industrious writer in the country. During his career, he produced more than fifty books and earned more than a million dollars. Several of his novels, including The Call of the Wild(1903),the Sea-Wolf(1904),the White Fang(1906),have become American classics. In fact, he was a creative writer whose fiction explored several regions and their cultures: the Yukon, California, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. He experimented with many literary forms, from traditional love stories and dystopias（反面乌托邦小说）to science fantasy. His noted journalism included war communication, boxing stories, and the life of Molokai lepers（麻风病患者）. He was among the most influential figures of his day, who understood how to create a public persona and use the media to market his self-created image of poor-boy-turned-success. London's great passion was agriculture, and he was well on the way of creating a new model for spreading through his Beauty Ranch when he died of kidney disease at age 40. He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which have been translated and continue to be read around the world. His best works describe a person’s struggle for survival against the powerful forces of nature. “To Build a Fire”, for example, tells the story of a man’s fight to survive the harsh cold of the Alaskan winter._________made Jack London reconsider his life in the future.
| A．His job experience | B．The books he read |
| C．Being arrested | D．Long-hour work |
What is TRUE about Jack London?
| A．Jack London was poor all his life. |
| B．Jack London got enough money while in the search of gold. |
| C．The books Jack London read inspired him to travel and become active. |
| D．The experience of gold searching made Jack London determined to write novels about Alaska adventures. |
After the experience in Alaska, Jack London ________________.
| A．realized the nature of human beings. |
| B．knew people could control the nature finally. |
| C．regretted being there. |
| D．thought highly of himself. |
In paragraph 4, the sentence “True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” implies_______________________________.
| A．Jack London regarded Alaska a poor place as he never got any gold there. |
| B．people would have been ill at home if they had never been Alaska. |
| C．People searching for gold there still have chance to win. |
| D．Alaska was a poor but large region. |
Which one of following works doesn’t belong to Jack London according to the passage?
| A．love stories | B．poetry | C．journalism | D．essays |
What can we learn from Jack London’s final success?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．Knowledge is powerful. |
| D．All of above. |
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