D
Have you ever known a married couple that just didn’t seem as though they should fit together—yet they are both happy in the marriage, and you can’t figure out why?
I know of one couple: the husband is a burly(魁梧的)ex-athlete who, in addition to being a successful salesman, coaches Little League, is active in his Rotary Club and plays golf every Saturday with friends. Meanwhile, his wife is petite, quiet and a complete homebody. She doesn’t even like to go out to dinner.
What mysterious force drives us into the arms of one person, while pushing us away from another who might appear equally desirable to any unbiased(没有偏见的) observer?
Of the many factors influencing our idea of the perfect mate, one of the most telling, according to John Money, professor emeritus(荣誉退休的) of medical psychology and pediatrics(儿科学) at Johns Hopkins University, is what he calls our “love map”—a group of messages encoded in our brains that describes our likes and dislikes. It shows our preferences in hair and eye color, in voice, smell, body build. It also records the kind of personality that appeals to us, whether it’s the warm and friendly type or the strong, silent type.
In short, we fall for and pursue those people who most clearly fit our love map. And this love map is largely determined in childhood. By age eight, the pattern for our ideal mate has already begun to float around in our brains.
When I lecture, I often ask couples in the audience what drew them to their dates or mates. Answers range from “She’s strong and independent” and “I go for redheads” to “I love his sense of humor” and “That crooked smile, that’s what did it.”
I believe what they say. But I also know that if I were to ask those same men and women to describe their mothers, there would be many similarities between their ideal mates and their moms. Yes, our mothers—the first real love of our lives—write a significant portion of our love map.
51. What does the underlined word “petite” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. Clever. B. Little. C. Energetic. D. Lovely.
52. What is “love map” according to John Money?
A. One of the many factors influencing our idea of the perfect mate.
B. Our preferences in hair and eye color, in voice, smell, body build.
C. A group of messages encodes in our brains that describes our likes and dislikes.
D. Something that appeals to us, whether it’s the warm and friendly type.
53. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. By age eight, the pattern for our ideal mate has already begun to float around in our brains.
B. We fall for and pursue those people who most clearly fit our love map.
C. Love map is largely determined in childhood.
D. “She’d strong and independent” is the most important reason that drew the couple together.
54. What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. The author believes what the questioned couple said.
B. Our mothers play a very important role in the forming of our “love map”.
C. Our mothers are the first real love in our lives.
D. There would be many similarities between ideal mates and moms.
55. What would be the best title of this passage?
A. The “love map” in our mind.
B. What mysterious force drives us into the arms of one person?
C. The real reason why we choose that special someone.
D. Our mothers write a significant portion of our love map.
A small town in southwest Britain is banning plastic bags in an attempt to help the environment and cut waste—a step that environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.
Shopkeepers in Modbury, population 1, 5000, agreed to stop handing out disposable plastic bags to customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.
Last month, San Francisco became the first U. S. city to ban plastic grocery bags. Internationally, laws to discourage the use of plastic bags have been passed in parts of South Africa and Ireland, where governments tax shoppers who use them or fine companies that hand them out. Bangladesh already bans them, and so do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.
Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London， has also declared a bag amnesty (宽限期), allowing local people to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They will be sent for a recycling.
The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, who saw the effect of bags on wildlife while working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman. She said response in the town so far had been "really positive".
"Modbury is quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker (柳条)baskets to go out shopping anyway," Hosking told Sky News Television.
The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency， states that 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used yearly around the world. What was Rebecca Hosking?
| A．A lawyer. | B．An environmentalist. |
| C．A sailor. | D．A photographer. |
The underlined word "disposable" in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
| A．acceptable | B．valuable |
| C．throw-away | D．long-lasting |
It can be inferred from the passage that ______ .
| A．most of the people in Modbury continue to use plastic bags |
| B．fewer and fewer plastic bags will be used in the world |
| C．San Francisco is the first city to ban plastic bags in the world |
| D．most countries in the world have passed laws to ban plastic bags |
Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Environment |
| B．Cutting Waste |
| C．Effect of Plastic Bags |
| D．A British Town Banning Plastic Bags |
Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are on colors.
Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot，they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.
Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.
Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song Mood Indigo about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: "You ain't been blue till you've had that Mood Indigo." Someone who is blue is very sad.
The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.
Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.
The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time，some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. If you had your wallet stolen while doing some shopping, you may call it ______ .
| A．a white day | B．a black day |
| C．a red day | D．a green day |
Suppose a Mr. Brown says he is very happy because his three children* are all in the pink, this means all his children are ______ .
| A．lucky and wealthy |
| B．gentle and modest |
| C．fit and healthy |
| D．creative and energetic |
When she got home and found nothing had been done by her husband, Jane was really ______ .
| A．red hot | B．green |
| C．blue | D．black |
In the following paragraph, the writer might tell the readers something about ______ .
| A．unpopular polarizations in the world |
| B．people's response towards a black day |
| C．the influence of the traditional blues |
| D．more words about colors，such as brown |
For many in the United States, Arab-Americans are an invisible part of the population. Though Arab-Americans as a community have made great contributions to American society in fields from literature to politics to medicine, many Americans know very little about Americans of Arab backgrounds.
Arab history in the United States goes back to the late 1800's when large numbers of Arab immigrants first began making their journey to a land known simply as "Amreeka".
Historians generally describe Arab immigration to America in two waves. The first wave took place between 1860 and 1924. The first wave consisted of Lebanese and Syrian，and some Egyptian immigrants. These new immigrants，who were mostly Christians, came to America in search of better opportunities. Even the doomed Titanic , which set sail for America in 1912, had close to a hundred Arab passengers aboard. The majority of Arab-Americans today are descendents of the first wave of immigrants； they are the third or more generation Americans.
The second wave of immigrants followed after World War Ⅱ， caused by political unrest in the Middle East. This second wave of immigrants consists of mainly Arab Muslims (穆斯林)and continues to this day.
Arab-Americans make up 3 million of the population in the United States，according to demographers. And quite different from popular belief, 64 percent of them are American-born. Eighty-two percent of Arab-Americans are US citizens.
Arab-Americans are beyond the national average in both education and income. Education is important among Arab-Americans； 82 percent have high school diplomas, 36 percent have bachelor's degrees or higher, and 15 percent have graduate degrees. The- median (中位数的)average income among Arab-Americans is $39, 580, which is higher than the US average. What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Arabs in America. |
| B．The Two Arab Immigration Waves to America. |
| C．Arab-Americans, Contributions to America. |
| D．Arab-Americans, Education and Income. |
The first wave of immigrants took place because ______ .
| A．all Arabs were Christian at that time |
| B．Arabs wanted to hunt for a better development |
| C．the Second World War broke out |
| D．Arabs wanted to gain higher income |
The writer of this passage mentioned Titanic ______ .
| A．to tell us that taking ship at that time was dangerous |
| B．because Titanic became a well-known disaster |
| C．to show us there were many Arabs flocking into America at that time |
| D．to inform us that Arabs are brave enough |
From the last paragraph we can infer that ______ .
| A．Arab-Americans are much more clever than native Americans |
| B．Arab-Americans are hard-working people |
| C．the higher education you receive, the higher income you will get in America |
| D．Arab-Americans play the most important role in the American average in both education and income |
The Poetry Foundation recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation's first children's poet laureate (桂冠诗人). The group created the award as a way to increase children’s love of poetry.
As children's poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children's literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry.
Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty-five books of poems. His first book was called /4 Gopher in the Garden. It was published in 1967. His latest is called Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.
Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to creat a new kind of creature. For example, he combined "radish" with "shark" to get "radishark", "Lion" and "broccoli" became "broccolion", He also created "umbrellaphant", a mixture of the words "umbrella" and "elephant".
Jack Prelutsky says that children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry researchers say that Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children's feeling. An example of this is the poem My Sister Is a Werewolf which is about how it feels to be different.
Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. His poem It's Halloween is a very famous one about the holiday celebrated at the end of October. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Poems with New Words Grow Popular |
| B．First Children's Poet Laureate Named |
| C．Children's Love for Poetry Increased |
| D．Jack Prelutsky Awarded Nationwide |
What is Jack Prelutsky famous for?
| A．Creating new words in his poems. |
| B．His productivity. |
| C．His long time of writing. |
| D．His poems about American holidays. |
Children are in favour of his poems because ______ .
| A．they are easy to understand |
| B．the poet is famous |
| C．children like reading new words |
| D．the poet understands their feelings |
Put the following items in right order according to the passage.
a. two public readings
b. A Gopher in the Garden
c. Behold the Bold Unbrellaphant and Other Poems
d. My Sister Is a Werewolf
| A．b-c-d-a | B．d-a-c-b |
| C．b-d-c-a | D．a-b-c-d |
Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.
Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members，but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care more about. I know this from my personal experience.
E-mail makes it easy to work at home, where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren't necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she'd been born before E-mail became such a practical tool.
The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun—see a great movie perhaps— and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may be tired of telling the story.
With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience，and address it to all the friends who you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.
E-mail is also an inexpensive way to stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children at college.
We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don't take the place of any of the old ways. The purpose of this passage is to ______ .
| A．explain how to use the Internet |
| B．share the writer's joy of keeping up with the latest technology |
| C．tell the usefulness of the Internet |
| D．introduce the basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet |
The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ______ .
| A．spend less time working |
| B．have more time to spend with his children |
| C．work, at home on all weekends |
| D．work at a speed comfortable to him |
According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because the former helps one ______ .
| A．reach a group of people at one time conveniently |
| B．keep his communication as personal as possible |
| C．pass on much more information than the latter |
| D．get in touch with his friends faster than the latter |
The best title for the passage is "______".
| A．Computer—New Technological Advances |
| B．Internet—New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship |
| C．Computer—Have Made Life Easier |
| D．Internet—A Convenient Tool for Communication |