第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40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。
Sam, an unemployed piano tuner, said it was only the second thing he had ever won in his life．The first thing was an Afghan blanket at a church raffle（抽奖） when he was 25 years old．But this was much bigger: it was $120,000! He had won the Big Cube, a state lottery(彩票) game．To win, a contestant must first guess which number a spinning cube will stop on．The cube has six numbers on it: 1X, 10X, 50X, 100X, 500X, and 1000X．If he is correct, the contestant must then guess which of two selected variables（变量） is going to be greater．So, just guessing which number appears on the cube does not guarantee that you will win any money．
Sam correctly guessed 1000X, but he still had to choose between two variables．One variable was the number of cars that would run the stop sign at Hill Street and Lake Avenue in six hours．The other variable was the number of times that a teenage boy would change TV channels in a three-hour period．This was a tough decision．
Finally, Sam flipped a coin．It came up heads, so Sam picked the teenager．He picked right．The stop sign was run only 76 times, but the teen clicked 120 times．Sixty-year-old Sam jumped for joy, for he had just won 1000 times 120, or $120,000．Sam dreamily left the lottery studio．Talking excitedly on his cell phone while crossing the street, he got hit by a little sports car．
Sam is slowly getting better．He was in the hospital for a month．His hospital bill was $110,000．And the insurance company for the little sports car’s owner sued（起诉）Sam for $9,000 worth of repairs．Also, Sam still has to pay federal taxes on his winnings．Sam doesn’t play the state lottery any more．He says it’s better to be unlucky．
56．What can be inferred about Sam from the passage?
A．He always has bad luck. B．He seldom goes to a raffle.
C．He is a very careful person in life. D．He used to be crazy about lottery tickets.
57．Which of the following played a vital role in Sam’s winning the big prize?
A．The cube. B．The coin. C．The blanket. D．The stop sign.
58．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．The lottery game was a complete lie.
B．Sam was quite familiar with the boy.
C．The owner of the car is now in hospital.
D．Sam will have none of the prize money left.
59．What could be the best title for the passage?
A．Curiosity killed the cat B．Joy puts heart into a man
C．Extreme joy ends in sorrow D．A bird in hand is worth two in the bush
“Confidence” is probably one of the most noticeable traits (品质) in the Americans. They show confidence in the way they talk, the way they smile, the way they dress and the way they walk. Living and competing with all these confident American students, I find it extremely important to be confident as an international student and instructor. As a student, being confident means you should never hesitate to raise your hand whenever a question or a point comes to your mind. Don't mind if it sounds simple or silly. Otherwise you will never get a chance to speak in class at all. What's worse, the professors may think you are not prepared for the discussion or you do not have your own opinion on the issue—this is the last comment any graduate would like to receive.
Being confident for me as a foreign instructor means calmly asking the student to repeat what he or she has said if I did not get it. Pretending to understand what you actually did not may just bring yourself embarrassment or even disgrace. But the time I most need to be confident is when my students come to my office and bargain about the grades I have given for their speeches. (The course I'm teaching here is Public speaking). Modesty is a trait highly valued in China, but it won't be of much help here if you want to survive and succeed in a good American graduate program.To compete with American students it's very important to.
| A．be quite confident |
| B．be polite and friendly |
| C．have more discussions with them |
| D．understand what they think about |
A professor will have the worst opinion of a student who.
| A．gives a silly or simple answer |
| B．tries to seize any chance to speak in class |
| C．shows no interest in the course |
| D．is considered to have no opinion of his own |
The author is most likely to feel embarrassed if .
| A．he asks a student to repeat what he has said |
| B．the students bargain with him |
| C．he pretends to know what he doesn't |
| D．he has to give a speech |
We learn from the second paragraph that .
| A．we should also remain modest in America |
| B．modesty doesn't help you much in America |
| C．Americans also like modest people |
| D．modesty can help you through an American graduate program |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．American students are ready to accept the grades from the teacher. |
| B．The writer teaches in Europe for a living. |
| C．Students are encouraged to present simple questions. |
| D．One’s ignorance will give away in time. |
A cancer-stricken British teenage girl said Thursday she had been moved by messages of support from around the world after writing an online “Bucket List” of things she wanted to do before dying.
Alice Pyne, l5, created an Internet blog in which she described her fight against a cancer of the white blood cells. “ I've been fighting cancer for almost four years and now l know that the cancer is gaining on me and it doesn't look like I'm going to win this one,” she wrote.
For her list, the teenager took inspiration from the 2007 film “The Bucket List”, in which two terminally ill (患绝症的) men, played by Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, draw up a list of things they wish to do before they die.
On her list, at the site www. alicepyne. blogspot. com, she has included making everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor (骨髓捐赠者), swimming with sharks, meeting boy band Take That and getting a purple iPad computer.
Messages of support and offers of help quickly flooded her webpage and it became one of the most talked about subjects on Twitter.
“Oh dear and I thought that I was just doing a little blog for a few friends!” she wrote after her site attracted huge attention. “Thank you so much for all your lovely messages to me.”
Pyne, who lives with her family in the northwest English town of Ulverston, revealed (透露) the management of Take That had arranged for her to see the band after reading her blog. A group of local lawmakers have also joined forces with the Anthony Nolan blood cancer charity to encourage people to join its stem cell register. What happened after Alice Pyne wrote her“Bucket List”?
| A．The media called on people to help her. |
| B．People sent gifts to her from all over the world. |
| C．A lot of people offered to donate bone marrow to her. |
| D．People around the world sent messages to support her. |
Alice Pyne wrote her “Bucket List” to.
| A．express her last few wishes |
| B．say goodbye to a few friends |
| C．give comfort to two terminally ill men |
| D．catch people's attention |
It can be inferred from the second paragraph that Alice Pyne .
| A．is unaware of her own conditions |
| B．is calm to know that death is approaching |
| C．is very sad to know that she will die |
| D．is still quite confident in fighting against cancer |
Which of the following is NOT on Alice Pyne's “Bucket List”?
| A．To meet a boy. |
| B．To get a cool computer. |
| C．To swim with sharks. |
| D．To ask people to donate bone marrow. |
Take That will arrange to .
| A．invite Pyne to join the band |
| B．help Pyne in any possible way |
| C．donate money to Pyne |
| D．meet Pyne in person |
When Boris left school, he could not find a job. He tried hard and pestered (纠缠) his relatives, but they had problems of their own. He answered advertisements until he could not afford to buy any more stamps. Boris grew annoyed, then depressed, then a little hardened. Still he went on trying and still he failed. He began to think that he had no future at all.
“Why don't you start your own business?” one of his uncles told him. “The world is a money-locker. You'd better find a way of opening it.”
“But what can I do?”
“Get out and have a look round.” advised his uncle in a vague sort of way. “See what people want; then give it to them, and they will pay for it.”
Boris began to cycle around the town and found a suitable piece of a waste ground in the end. Then he set up his business as a cycle repairer. He worked hard, made friends with his customers and gradually managed to build up his goodwill and profit. A few months later, he found that he had more work than he could deal with by himself. He found a number of empty shops but they were all no good: in the wrong position, too expensive or with some other snag(障碍). But at long last, he managed to find an empty shop on a new estate where there were plenty of customers but no competition.
Boris and his assistant taught themselves how to repair scooters and motor-cycles. Slowly but surely the profits increased and the business developed. At last, Boris had managed to open the money-locker and found bank notes and gold coins inside.Which of the following best describes Boris' job hunting experience?
| A．Surprising. | B．Encouraging. | C．Boring. | D．Disappointing. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Goodwill is the key to success |
| B．The world is a money-locker |
| C．No education, no future |
| D．Difficulty of starting a small business |
Boris started his career by .
| A．repairing cycles | B．developing a waste ground |
| C．cycling around the town | D．buying empty shops |
Boris finally chose an empty shop on a new estate because .
| A．it was not so expensive |
| B．he had a lot of old customers there |
| C．there were good opportunities there |
| D．he could make good use of his skills there |
We can infer from the last paragraph that Boris.
| A．still couldn't make good profits |
| B．found a lot of gold coins by accident |
| C．set off in a successful career |
| D．had great difficulty running his business |
In the summer of 1978 an English farmer was driving his tractor through a field of wheat when he discovered that some of his wheat was lying flat on the ground. The fattened (压平的) wheat formed a circle about six meters across. Around this circle were four smaller circles of flattened wheat. The five circles were in a formation like five dots. During the following years, farmers in England found the strange circles in their fields more and more often.
The circles are called “crop circles” because they appear in the fields of grain - usually wheat or corn. The grain in the circles lies flat on the ground but never broken; it continues to grow, and farmers can later harvest it. Farmers always discover the crop circles in the morning, so the circles probably form at night. They appear only in the months from May to September.
At first, people thought that the circles were a hoax. Probably young people were making them as a joke, or farmers were making them to attract tourists. To prove that the circles were a hoax, people tried to make circles exactly like the ones that farmer had found. They couldn’t do it. They couldn’t enter a field of grain without leaving tracks(痕迹), and they couldn’t flatten the grain without breaking it.
Many people believe that beings from outer space are making the circle to communicate with us from far away and that the crop circles are messages from them.
Scientists who have studied the crop circles suggested several possibilities. Some scientists say that a downward rush of wind leads to the formation of the circles - the same downward rush of air that sometimes causes an airplane to crash. Other scientists say that forces within the earth cause the circles to appear. There is one problem with all these scientific explanations: crop circles often appear in formations, like the five-dot formation. It is hard to believe that any natural force could form those.In the summer of 1978, an English farmer discovered in his field that __________.
| A．some of his wheat had been damaged |
| B．his grain was growing up in circles. |
| C．his grain was moved into several circles |
| D．some of his wheat had fallen onto the ground. |
According to the text, the underlined part “hoax” (in the 3rd paragraph) probably means __________.
| A．an attempt made to fool people |
| B．a special way to plant crops |
| C．a research on the force of winds |
| D．an experiment for the protection of crops. |
Which of the following may prove that the crop circles are not made by man?
| A．The farmer couldn’t step out of the field. |
| B．The farmers couldn’t make the circles round. |
| C．The farmers couldn’t leave without footprints. |
| D．The farmers couldn’t keep the wheat straight up. |
A proper title for this passage is ___________.
| A．An Unsolved Mystery |
| B．Strange Flying Objects |
| C．The Power of Natural Forces |
| D．The discovery of Strange Circles |
Howling(吼叫) is a behavior commonly observed among a wolf pack(狼群). As pack animals, wolves work together to hunt and rely on howling as an important means of communication among each other. There’re different explanations of a wolf’s howl and it appears that there may be more to discover．
One theory is that wolves howl to bond better together. It’s almost as if howling together helps the pack stay together. Perhaps something similar to people feeling a sense of involvement with each other when singing a song together. But this theory may be wrong, explains Fred H. Harrington, a professor who studies wolf behavior.
Indeed, there have been times when wolves have been seen one moment howling in a chorus(合唱), and the next, quarreling among each other. It appears that usually the lowest-ranking members of the pack may actually be “punished” for joining in the chorus at times. So is howling a way to strengthen a social bond or just a way to reconfirm status (地位) among its members? Why do wolves howl for sure?
What is clear, however, is that howling is often used among pack mates to locate each other. Hunting grounds are distant and it happens that wolves may separate from one another at times. When this happens, howling appears to be an excellent means of gathering.
Howling, interestingly, is a contagious behavior. When one wolf starts to howl, very likely others will follow. This is often seen to occur in the morning, as if wolves were doing some sort of “roll call” where wolves all howl together to report theirWhat is the possible similarity between wolves’ howling together and human’s singing in chorus?
| A．The act of calling each other． |
| B．The sense of accomplishment． |
| C．The act of hunting for something． |
| D．The sense of belonging to a group． |
Why does Harrington think the “social bond” theory may be wrong?
| A．Wolves separate from each other after howling． |
| B．Wolves tend to protect their hunting grounds． |
| C．Wolves sometimes have quarrels after howling together． |
| D．Wolves of low rank are encouraged to join in the chorus． |
Researchers are sure that wolves often howl to______．
| A．show their ranks | B．find their companions |
| C．report the missing ones | D．express their loneliness |
“Howling… is a contagious behaviour”（in the last paragraph）means_______．
| A．howling is a signal for hunting |
| B．howling is a way of communication |
| C．howling often occurs in the morning |
| D．howling spreads from one to another |