The South Pole is a particular place on the earth.When people stand at the top of it looking around,they will find all directions face to north.No matter how they make their first step in which direction,they will always walk towards the north.That’s to say,only north and south exist there,neither east nor west exists.
At the top of the South Pole,any clock or watch keeps good time because all meridians（子午线） join there.All kinds of local time are completely suitable there.It is even difficult to distinguish（区别） New Year’s Eve from New Year’s Day.
The explorers and scientists from different countries always fix the time according to their own.Therefore the time by their watches was different when the people with different nationality gathered there.
The Winter Solstice（冬至日） is an important festival at the South Pole.It is always on June 21 or 22.This day is called Midwinter Festival,on which the daytime is the shortest in a year and the night the longest.All people at the South Pole extend greetings to each other and present gifts to each other.They usually give all kinds of celebrations.From that day on,the daytime will get longer day by day.At the top of the South Pole,your watch will ________.
| A．keep good time | B．be five minutes fast |
| C．stop | D．be ten minutes slow |
The Winter Solstice is an important festival ________.
| A．in the world | B．at the South Pole | C．at the North Pole | D．in China |
On the Winter Solstice,________ is the shortest in a year.
| A．the night | B．the noon | C．the morning | D．the daytime |
IV.阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
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 automobile 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 in various ways. The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenage 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). They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age. Students have formed a similar organization, SADD(Students 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.
56.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 of work.
D. Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools.
57.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.
58.We can infer from the text that __________ in America.
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.
Beijing had its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap (寒潮) since 1981. And freezing weather is hitting the Deep South, including Florida’s orange groves and beaches.
Whatever happened to global warming?
Such weather doesn’t seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn’t contradict global warming at all—it’s just a temporary phenomenon in the long-term heating trend. “It’s part of natural variability,” said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist. With global warming, he said, “we’ll still have record cold temperatures. We’ll just have fewer of them.”
Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes. But experts did not connect the current cold snap to climate change.
So what is going on?
“We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere”, Arndt said.
In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air restricted. But recently, this air flow has become bent into a zigzag (之字形) pattern, wandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.
But in the eastern United States, like 
some other unlucky parts of the globe, Arctic air is coming from the north. And that’s how you get a temperature of 3 degrees in Beijing, a reading of minus-42 in mainland Norway, and 18 inches of snow in parts of Britain. The zigzag pattern arises naturally from time to time, but it is not clear why it’s so strong right now.What is the best title of the text?
| A．Freezing weather is hitting the Deep South. |
| B．We’ll still have record cold temperatures. |
| C．The air flow has become a zigzag pattern. |
| D．Cold snap doesn’t contradict global warming. |
With global warming, we will ______.
| A．also meet with severe cold snap |
| B．have more hot temperatures forever |
| C．never experience cold temperatures |
| D．have more cold temperatures |
According to experts, the current cold snap ______.
| A．suggests that the climate has changed greatly |
| B．is not related to the climate change |
| C．shows that the climate will turn cold |
| D．is affected by global warming |
Beijing had its biggest snowfall since 1951 because of ______.
| A．a fence from the Arctic | B．a cooling trend in climate |
| C．a big outbreak of Arctic air | D．its large population |
We can conclude that ______.
| A．not all the parts of the Northern Hemisphere are cold in face of the cold snap |
| B．the zigzag pattern arises naturally accidentally |
| C．Beijing will get cold weather next year |
| D．Washington state and Alaska will not face cold weather next year |
Rarely have I experienced a reaction like that which came about following the idea of banning private education. One of those who contacted me to disagree with the idea was 17 year old Anirudh Mandagere. He got 10 A*s at GCSE and is currently studying English, French, Math and History at a private school in Manchester. Here is his response:
For me, the idea that all private schools should be banned is not only ridiculous and unrealistic, but goes against the idea of liberty. We must have the freedom to choose between state-funded and privately educated schools. If parents pay taxes, surely they should be able to choose whether they send their children to a state-funded or a privately-funded school.
The economic impacts of abolishing private education are vast. Banning private schools would obviously contribute to a great transfer to state schools. Many state schools are already overburdened; do they really need more pupils? Abolishing private education would lead to higher taxes for taxpayers since more money would be needed to educate the 7% who were previously private educated. In the times of economic crisis, should the taxpayer need to fork out more money to pay for their education? There would also be a great rise in unemployment of the staff who works at private schools.
It is noted that, in general, private schools have better grades at GCSE and A level than state schools. Yet, why do people view this as a bad thing? The higher private school grades eventually force the government to endlessly improve state education so that the middle-classes do not totally abandon state education for private education. This competition creates reform and progress within state schools and eventually promote them! If the private schools did not exist, where would be the impetus for state school improvement?
Government should not simply ban a system which produces results. It should learn from it and use the private education model as a basis for the state education model. Abolishing a successful system will not help anybody, learning from a successful syste
m will.In the eye of Anirudh Mandagere, parents have the right to ______.
| A．criticize state-funded schools |
B．pay taxes for the promotion of private schools |
| C．choose the way their children receive education |
| D．advocate the competition between state schools and private ones |
According to the passage, banning private education will ______.
| A．obviously contribute to lower taxes |
| B．not cause the state schools to be overburdened |
| C．force the government to boost state education |
| D．lead to many people losing their jobs |
The underlined word “impetus” in the fourth paragraph probably means ______.
| A．motivation | B．prevention | C．participation | D．assessment |
Compared with state schools, private ones ______.
| A．educate a little fewer students | B．conduct better than all state ones |
| C．are better received by the public | D．are more competitive on the whole |
Which of the following statements will Anirudh Mandagere agree with?
| A．His wonderful performance results from the education his private school offers. |
| B．Without the existence of private schools, state ones wouldn’t get improved much. |
| C．Private education is a good system to make students successful in life. |
| D．Private schools are supposed to be sponsored more than state ones. |
Sleeping in on Saturday after a few 
weeks of too little shuteye may feel refreshing, but it can give a false sense of security.
New research shows long-term sleep loss cannot be cured that easily. Scientists researched the effects of short- and long-term sleep loss and found that those who suffer long-term sleep loss may function normally soon after waking up, but experience steadily slow
er reaction times as the day goes by, even if they had tried to catch up the previous night.
The research has important safety significances in an increasingly busy society, not just for shift-workers but for the roughly one in six Americans who regularly get six hours or less of sleep a night.
“We know that staying awake 24 hours without sleep will affect your performance to do all sorts of things, and this effect equals to drinking too much when driving,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But when those who suffer long-term sleep loss become all-nighters, “the harm is increased ten times,” Cohen said.
The National Institutes of Health says adults need seven hours to nine hours of sleep for good health. Regularly getting too little sleep increases the risk of health problems, including memory impairment and a weakened immune system. More immediately, too little sleep affects reaction times; sleepiness is to blame for car crashes and other accidents.
It has critically important complicated and unexpected results for anyone who works “crazy hours” and thinks they are performing fine with a few hours of w
eeknight sleep, said Harris, director at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center. “Don’t think you can just bank up your sleep on the weekend, because it doesn’t work that way,” he warned.The text mainly advises people ______.
| A．to sleep more time | B．to sleep in on Saturday |
| C．to sleep scientifically | D．to sleep little on weekend |
People with long-term sleep loss ______.
| A．are quicker in thinking | B．may feel refreshed soon after waking up |
| C．are surely energetic | D．can have a strong sense of security |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Most of the Americans get six hours or less of sleep a night. |
| B．Staying up is worse for those who suffer long-term sleep loss. |
| C．Traffic accidents have little to do with sleepiness. |
| D．One in six Americans are all-nighters. |
Which of the following is the immediate effect of long-term sleep loss?
| A．Health problems | B．Immune system |
| C．Reaction times | D．Memory impairment |
The underlined phrase “bank up” in the last paragraph most probably means ____.
| A．pile up | B．pick up | C．add up | D．build up |
I made a promise to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts.
The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands and their wives. Then he went on to say, “Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love.” To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change.
And it did. Right from the moment I kissed Evelyn at the door and said, “That new yellow sweater looks great on you.” “Oh, Tom, you noticed”, sh
e said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled. After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, “Evelyn’s been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me.” We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.
So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that’s how the whole vacation passed. I made a new promise to keep on remembering to choose love.
There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“Tom,” she said in a voice filled with distress, “ I don’t?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…that checkup I had several weeks ago…our doctor…did he tell you something about me? Tom, you’ve been so good to me…am I dying?”
It took a moment for it all to be understood. Then I burst out laughing.
“No, honey,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “You’re not dying; I’m just starting to live.”In the first paragraph, “No ifs, ands or buts” probably means ______.
| A．Unintentionally | B．Independently |
| C．Impressively | D．Unconditionally |
From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage ______.
| A．with his family | B．with Evelyn |
| C．alone | D．with his children |
During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because ______.
| A．he was determined to be a good husband |
| B．he had made a lot of money in his Wall Street firm |
| C．she looked lovely in her new clothes |
| D．the doctor said his wife was seriously ill |
The author says, “There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment.” What does “one thing” refer to?
| A．He praised her sweater, which puzzled her. |
| B．She insisted on visiting a museum, which he hated. |
| C．He knew something about her illness but didn’t tell her. |
| D．He was so good to her that she thought she must be dying. |
By saying “I’m just starting to live,” Tom means that ______.
| A．he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life |
| B．he is just beginning to enjoy life as a loving husband |
| C．he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change |
| D．he is beginning to feel regret for what he did to his wife before |