第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题,每小题2分,满分30分）第一-优题课

With alarming regularity, we read about oil tankers having accidents near land and the terrible consequences of the oil spills(泄露) on people, nature, and the environment．
Millions of dollars have been used in developing special chemicals to help dismiss the spills and to clean up the animals, beaches, and land spoiled by the oil．Unfortunately, when many of these chemicals are used, more damage is caused to the environment, especially to lives in the sea．
Of all today's environmental disasters, an oil spill may actually be one of the least serious．Although oil is poisonous, it is a natural material．In the end, it breaks down naturally．There are, of course, long-term effects, but it is usually more serious in the short term．
Nature by itself works better than chemical materials, but when there is a spill, we demand that governments act immediately with as much hi-tech knowledge as possible．In 1967 the tanker Torrey Canyon sank off the Scilly Isles n ear the coast of England and spilled 120,000 tons of oil into the ocean．If you go there today, you will find it hard to see any sign that it ever happened．
Governments seem to accept the risk of transporting millions of tons of oil by ship every day so that we can fill up our cars and drive around and cause even more environmental damage．Interestingly, the biggest companies in the world produce cars, and the next biggest supply the gasoline to make them run.
We should be thinking more about reducing our dependency on oil．Governments should be encouraging research into new technologies, such as cars run by solar power, electricity, hydrogen, and so on．Much of this research has, in the past, been held back by the oil, gas, and coal．
If the world's millions of cars were 10% more efficient —and the industry could easily produce cars at least twice as efficient, we would need many fewer tankers crossing the oceans each year．If this happened, the risks of oil spills would be reduced, and the air we breathe would be cleaner and fresher, too．
What is the passage mainly talking about?

A．Oil spills pollution．	B．What oil pollution is．
C．Oil tanker accidents.	D．How to reduce oil pollution.

How does the author support the idea that oil spills are not as serious as people
believe?

A．By giving a description．	B．By making an argument．
C．By giving an example．	D．By drawing a diagram．

What does the underlined word "risk" in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Transportation depending more on oil．

B．Poisonous oil breaking down naturally．

C．Millions of tons of oil spilling into the sea．

D．More environmental damage being caused．

Which suggestion is made for reducing oil tank accidents according to the passage?

A．We should build safer tankers in the near future．

B．We should develop new technologies to cut oil use．

C．Tankers should not be allowed to sail near the coastlines．

D．Countries should build more oil pipelines under the sea．

Ticket Types	Regulations	Notes
Single Day Admission	For all visitors On any standard Day other than Peak Day *One ticket per person, valid(有效的)for one entry on the day of admission	Standard Day tickets refer to the tickets for all visiting days(167 days in total) except for Peak Days during the Expo.
Special Admission	For the disabled For people born in or before 1950 For students with valid IDs For children above 1.2m For Chinese military personnel on active duty Valid IDs are required upon ticket purchase and entry On any Standard Day other than Peak Day One ticket per person, valid for one entry on the day of admission
3 Day Admission	For all visitors Valid for any three days except Peak Days *One ticket per person, valid for one entry per day	The tickets are designed to meet the multi-entry demand of visitors.
7 Day Admission	* For all visitors Valid for any seven days except Peak Days One ticket per person, valid for one entry per day

_______ can get a Special Admission ticket for himself/ herself.

A．A 56-year-old bus driver	B．A school girl with her valid student card
C．A policeman in his forties	D．A U.S. army officer on active duty

If you want to enter the Expo Park once every week in one month and don’t want to bother to buy the ticket each time, you can buy a ______ ticket.

A．Single Day Admission	B．Special Admission
C．3 Day Admission	D．7 Day Admission

The function of the table is to ______ .

A．remind the public of the difficulty buying the Expo tickets

B．show which groups of people can get admission into the Expo Park

C．provide information about the Expo tickets and regulations

D．introduce all the visiting regulations in the Expo Park

Being able to multitask---doing several things at the same time---is considered a welcome skill by most people. But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen, we should think again.
What we often see nowadays is that young people juggle an ever larger number of electronic devices as they study. While working, they also surf on the Internet, send out emails, answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods. In a sense, they are spending a significant amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.
Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members. As young people give so much attention to their own worlds, they seem to have no time to spend with the other people around them. They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house, nor can they eat at the family table.
Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace. When asked about their opinion of the effect of modern gadgets on their performance of tasks, many young people gave a positive response. However, the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive.
Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills. They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills. Similarly, employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again, as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.
What does the underlined word “juggle” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

A．Want to buy.

B．Take the place of.

C．Use at the same time.

D．Seek for information from.

In Paragraph 3, the author points out that ________.

A．family members do not eat at the family table.

B．family members do not greet each other.

C．young people live happily in their families

D．young people seldom talk with their family members

What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．multitasking is harmful to young people’s development.

B．Young people benefit a lot from modern gadgets.

C．Multitasking is an important skill to young people.

D．Yong people must learn skills for future jobs.

The author develops the passage mainly by ________.

A．providing typical examples

B．following the natural time order

C．comparing opinions from different fields

D．presenting a cause and analyzing its effects

A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a short way of saying web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like.
There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas to many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write their ideas and react to the ideas of others.
A research company called Peruse has studied more than 3,000 Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.
However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products.
At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended. Last week, blogging leader Dave Winner closed his free blog service, weblogs.com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago, and thousands of people had written on it.
One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. It involves much useful information for readers. Rebecca Blood created the Web site in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called “The Weblog Handbook”. It has been translated into four languages so far.
Ms Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about 30,000 visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything----politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from online bank accounts.
The text is written mainly to ____

A．introduce an Internet computer Web site called “blog”

B．introduce a way of reading on blogs

C．tell readers about blogs

D．tell readers how to write blogs

From the text we can learn that blogs cover almost everything except __ _.

A．different ideas

B．medical advice

C．advertisements

D．account codes

According to this passage , which of the following is NOT true?

A．Politicians don’t use blogs at all

B．A lot of bloggers no longer write or read blogs

C．Those who like to use blogs are mostly teenage girls

D．Dave Winer closed his “weblogs.com” because of money shortage

The reason why Rebecca’s Pocket is still going strong is that____

A．it was created by a woman

B．it provides plenty of useful information and advice

C．it is about the history of books

D．it has editions in at least four different languages

A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to evade policemen after a bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn’t touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was caused by terror. Can the guy be held responsible for the woman’s death? Prosecutors(公诉人) said that he can under the state’s murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person’s death while committing or fleeing from a severe crime like robbery—even if he or she doesn’t kill someone on purpose.
But, medically speaking, can someone actually be frightened to death? We asked Martin Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Absolutely, no question about it.
The body has a natural protective method called the fight-or-flight response(战或逃反应), which was originally described by Walter Cannon，the chairman of Harvard University’s physiology department from 1906 to 1942. If, in the wild, an animal is faced with a life-threatening situation, the autonomic nervous system responds by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, and slowing digestion, among other things. All of this increases the chances of succeeding in a fight or running away from an aggressive beast. This process certainly would be of help to primitive humans. However, in the modern world there is obvious decline of the fight-or-flight response.
The autonomic nervous system uses the chemical messenger to send signals to various parts of the body to activate the fight-or-flight response. This chemical is toxic in large amounts; it damages the organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. It is believed that almost all sudden deaths are caused by damage to the heart. There is almost no other organ that would fail so fast as to cause sudden death. Kidney failure, liver failure, those things don’t kill you suddenly.
By the way, any strong positive or negative emotions such as happiness or sadness can cause the same result. There are people who have died in intercourse or in religious passion. There was a case of a golfer who hit a hole in one, turned to his partner and said, “I can die now”, and then he dropped dead. For about seven days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon there was an increase of sudden cardiac death among New Yorkers.
Why the Charlotte, N.C., man was charged?
A. Because he threatened the policemen to kill an old woman.
B. Because he caused an old woman’s terror and she died.
C. Because he beat an old woman and caused her heart attack
D. Because he murdered an old woman while robbing a bank.
What is Martin Samuels’ attitude to the possibility of being frightened to death?

A．Approval.

B．Disapproval.

C．Doubtful.

D．Indifferent.

Which of the following about the fight-or-flight response is true?
A. The fight-or-flight response was raised and proved by Martin A. Samuels.
B. It is a natural protective method that can’t be found in all creatures but humans.
C. The ancient humans had a superior fight-or-flight response than modern ones.
D. The fight-or-flight response is beneficial to both our actions and organs.
What activity can we infer is less likely to damage the organs?

A．Winning a big lottery.	B．Missing a dead family.
C．Watching a horror movie.	D．Listening to a sweet song.

The purpose of the passage is_________.

A．to explain why people will die of a heart attack

B．to offer some advice on protecting us from heart failure

C．to compare different kinds of feelings to cause a death

D．to show strong emotions can cause a sudden death