Sina Weibo, one of the country’s most popular micro blogging sites,has launched a paid service．For a 10 yuan ($ l．57) monthly fee, users get a membership on their Sina Weibo accounts．
According to Xu Yuanyuan, a member of the marketing team at Sina, themove is to guarantee a more convenient and safer environment for users．But despite the company’s efforts to increase income, it seems that most of its 300 million users still prefer the free version．
The premium membership (高级会员) plans ,announced by the company on Monday, brought about negative comments from its users ．
“The current service is good enough for me”, said a Beijing based micro blogger．“I don’t really need those value added services and it might be a waste of money．I might consider paying for it if some more features are added．”
Dong Xu, an analyst with consulting firm Analysys International, said that Sina shouldn’t expect a great increase in income brought by the new services．The free services are enough for most users, Dong said．“The company has been making attempts at different profit models since last year．A potential source of income could be gaming．Games and advertisements are so far the two biggest sources of income．” she said．
Other micro blogging service providers have not yet followed suit．Fang Gang, vice president of rival Sohu, said via e mail on Tuesday that Sohu’s micro blogging service will never charge users．“It’s good news for us．Users can come to our website if they have to pay for services (at Sina)．” Fang said．
Most of Sina Weibo’s users______．
| A．aren’t satisfied with its free version |
| B．show no interest in its paid services |
| C．are looking forward to new services |
| D．think highly of its new paid version |
What’s Dong Xu’s attitude towards Sina Weibo’s new services increasing income?
| A．Negative． | B．Confident． |
| C．Indifferent． | D．Positive ． |
Why did Fang Gang consider Sina Weibo’s charging its users good news?
| A．Because Sina will make more money． |
| B．Because Sina will lose the whole Weibo market． |
| C．Because Sohu will attract more users． |
| D．Because Sohu will offer free services． |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．Most of Weibo websites will charge their users． |
| B．Sina Weibo’s new move will be a great success． |
| C．Sina Weibo’s users will enjoy more services． |
| D．A large number of Weibo users like playing games． |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．Sina Weibo Faces Great Challenges |
| B．Sina Weibo Launches Paid Services |
| C．Sina Weibo Expects Income Increase |
| D．Sina Weibo Becomes More Convenient |
C
At present, in many American cities expecially, many teachers in the public schools say they are underpaid. They point to jobs such as secretary or truck driver, which often pay more to start than that of a teacher. In many other fields, such as law, medicine, computer science, a beginning worker may make more than a teacher who has taught for several years.
Teaching has never been a profession that attracted people interested in high salaries. It is by history a profession that has provided rewards in addition to money—the satisfaction of sharing knowledge, of influencing others, of guiding young people. But in the past several years, there are more difficulties in teaching, for many, than there are rewards.
Unruly students, especially in big cities, large classes and a lack of support from the public in terms of money and understanding have led many public school teachers to leave the profession.
As a result, many of the best students, who would have chosen teaching as their life career in the past, are going into other fields.
Another reason for this change in teacher candidates is the changing status of women in the United States. Until the late 1960s and 1970s, one of the most popular choices for women was teaching. But as other professions, such as law and medicine opened up to women, women stopped pouring into teacher training programs. Thus, a major pool of excellent candidates for the teaching profession dwindled.
Bit by bit government officials and others realized that the status of the teacher had suffered. They talked about change. But the change in a vast society like the United States is not easy. People’s attitudes have formed over many years, and sometimes change takes many years.
63．The underlined word “that” in Paragraph 1 refers to “ ”.
A．money B．job
C．secretary D．truck driver
64．What is the present situation of the teaching?
A．Teachers work harder and get underpaid.
B．Teahcers have no opportunities to work in other fields.
C．Teaching can attract best students to work as a teacher.
D．Teaching can provide rewards as well as high salaries.
65．Many public school teachers turn to other professions because .
A．the government doesn’t finacially support them
B．they have to work longer hours than a lawyer
C．their students refuse to listen to them
D．they are not fairly treated
66．The author believes that change in teachers’ status in the United States .
A．is not great
B．is impossible
C．influences people’s attitude
D．needs time
B
At the middle school level, there are many academic clubs in which students can participate. Students can choose clubs that focus on an area of interest.
Mathcounts Club
Mathcounts tries to increase excitement towards mathematic achievement. It hopes to provide students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. Schools select individuals and teams to participate in competitions. Local competitions are held in February with winners progressing to state competitions and then on to the national level. Mathcounts works to challenge student math skills, develop self-confidence and give rewards for their achievements.
Envirothon
The Envirothon program focuses on natural resources knowledge and exposes students to diverse environmental issues, ecosystems, and topography. The ecology field competition for five-member middle school teams offers competitions in wildlife, soils, forestry, current environmental issues and aquatics. Students work and learn in middle school clubs and can compete at the local and state level.
Future Problem Solvers
Future Problem Solvers is an academic club that uses a six-step process to solve problems that may happen in the future. Students who are in the talented and gifted program, who like to “think out of the box,” or who enjoy thinking about futuristic problems may like this club. Teams comprised of four students read future scenes and write up solutions in a booklet using the six-step process. Teams that score high enough can go to the state competition and then to the international competition.
Builders Club
Builders Club is open to any middle school student who wishes to perform community service. Each Builders Club is co-sponsored by a Kiwanis club and the middle school. The members learn by doing, and they learn organization, teamwork, and leadership. Builders Clubs can sponsor a "Teacher of the Year" program, provide a recycling collection point, organize canned food and clothing drives to support local shelters, adopt a resident at a local senior citizens home, adopt a highway, tutor, etc.
Middle school academic clubs offer students a place to explore interests or talents. The clubs they join in middle school can help guide choices in high school and beyond.
59．The students who are not interested in competitions woudld like to choose .
A．Mathecounts Club B．Builders Club
C．Future Problem Solvers D．Envirothon
60．Why do some of the students choose Mathcounts Club?
A．To be successful in science careers.
B．To enjoy solving future problems.
C．To perform community service.
D．To study wildlife and soils.
61．What is the common feature of the four clubs?
A．Competitions. B．Sponsorship.
C．Scientific researches. D．Teamwork.
62．The passage mainly talks about .
A．the state academic competitions B．middle school clubs
C．extra – curricular activities D．the gifted students
三、阅读理解（共两节，40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，共30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。
A
One warm May day, two eighteen – year – old students from San Francisco State College decided to cool off with a swim at Bakers’ Beach. The two students were named Robert Kogler and Shirley O’Neill. They headed out to sea for a distance of 50 metres. Robert was in front.
“Suddenly, I heard him scream,” Shirley recalls. “I looked round and saw this great grey thing going up in the air. The water seemed to be alive.”
Robert sereamed again. “It’s a shark! Get out of here!”
An eye – witness, Army Sergeant Leo P. Day was on guard at the nearby army post. He saw exactly what happened next. “I could see this boy struggling with the shark in the water,” he said. “The sea was red with blood. He was shouting and signalling someone to go back, go back. Then I saw the girl. She was swimming towards him. She completely ignored his warning.”
Shirley reached Robert, and tried to take his hand.
“When I pulled, all I could see was his arm, handing by a thread,” she said.
So she put her arm about Robert’s back, and started to swim towards the shore. She kept praying “Don't’ let it attack again!” That journey to the shore seemed to last for hours. At last, as they neared the shore, a fisherman threw them a line, and pulled them both the rest of the way.
The young man had lost a lot of blood, and died two and a half hours later, From the teeth marks, experts identified the attacker as a Great White Shark.
For what Sergeant Day called “the greatest exhibition of bravery I have ever seen,” the President of the US gave Shirley a medal for bravery.
56．When Albert was attacked by a shark Shirley .
A．was swimming in the sea
B．was watching him on the shore
C．was on guard at the nearby army post
D．was shouting and struggling with a shark, too
57．Choose the right time order of the following events in the story.
a. Army Sergeant saw the girl swimming to the boy.
b. Shirley saw a great grey thing.
c. They headed out to sea.
d. Robert died.
e. A fisherman threw them a line.
f. He saw a boy struggling with a shark.
A．b,c,e,d,f,a B．c,a,f,d,e,b C．b,c,f,a,d,e D．c,b,f,a,e,d
58．We can learn from the passage that .
A．the two students were brave and considerate
B．the fisherman was adventurous and helpful
C．the experts didn’t do much research on sharks
D．the Sergeant cared too much about his own life
D
The recent, apparently successful, prediction by mathematical models of an appearance of El Nino—the warm ocean How that periodically develops along the Pacific coast of South America has excited researchers．Jacob Bjerknes pointed out years ago how winds might create either abnormally warm or abnormally cold water in the eastern equatorial （赤道附近的） Pacific．Nevertheless, before the creation of the models, no one could explain why conditions should regularly change between appearances of the warm El Nino and the so-called anti-El Nino．The answer, at least if the current model that links the behavior of the ocean to that of the atmosphere is correct, is to be found in the ocean．
It has long been known that during an El Nino, two conditions exist: unusually warm water extends along the eastern Pacific and winds blow from the west into the warmer air rising over the warm water in the east．The contribution of the model is to show that the winds of an El Nino, which raise sea level in the east, send a signal to the west lowering sea level at the same time．According to the model, that signal is created as a negative （负的） Rossby wave, a wave of lower sea level, that moves westward parallel to the equator at 25 to 85 kilometers per day．Taking months to move across the Pacific, Rossby waves march to the western boundary of the Pacific basin, which is modeled as a smootli wall but in reality consists of quite irregular island chains．
When the waves meet the western boundary, they are reflected, and the model predicts that Rossby waves will be broken into many coastal Kelvin waves carrying the same negative sea-level signal．These eventually shoot toward the equator, and then head eastward along the equator drove by the earth at a．speed of about．250 kilometers per day．When enough Kelvin waves of adequate amplitude （振幅） arrive from the western Pacific, their negative sea-level signal overcomes the feedback mechanism, raising the sea level, and they begin to drive the system into the opposite cold mode．This produces a gradual change in winds, one that will eventually send positive sea-level Rossby waves westward, waves that will eventually return as cold cycle—ending positive Kelvin waves beginning another warming cycle．
67．What is the passage mainly about?
A．How Rossby waves are found．
B．Where El Nino is formed．
C．What the models predict．
D．How the models work．
68．Where does El Nino often appear?
A．Along the western coast of the
USA .
B．In the Pacific in the south, of the equator．
C．In the Pacific in the north of the equator．
D．Along the southern coast of South America．
69．What is right according to the passage?
A．Rossby waves and Kelvin waves move in opposite directions along the equator．
B．People could explain El Nino before the creation of the mathematical models．
C．Adequate sea-level waves can produce westward positive cold cycle．
D．The speed of Rossby waves is faster than that of Kelvin waves．
70．What does the underlined word "waves" in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A．Kelvin waves． B．Sea-level signals． C．Coastal waves． D．Rossby waves．
C
Our brains work in complex and strange ways．There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two．Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write．
Dr．J．Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887．He called these people idiot savants．An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment （损伤） , such as in autism or retardation．At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people．The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory．
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr．Benjamin Rush, an American doctor．His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724．It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds．Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write．
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s．Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical 
pieces beautifully．
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly．
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment．Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills．Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills．However few people wish to participate in such experiments．There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain．The t
erm idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate．Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots．
63．What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities．
B．Human Beings have complicated thinking process．
C．The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired．
D．The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary．
64．Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A．He can play wonderful pieces of classical music．
B．He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life．
C．He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast．
D．He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly．
65．What can you infer from the passage?
A．Idiot savants have real talents for art and math．
B．Dr．Down is the first person who found idiot savants．
C．Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations．
D．Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants．
66．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
1—5refer to paragraph 1—5.
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