Some say everyday miracles(奇迹) are predestined(注定的)----the right time for the appointed
meeting. And it can happen anywhere.
In 2001, 11-year-old Kevin Stephan was a bat boy for his younger brother's Little League team in
Lancaster, New York. It was an early evening in late July. Kevin was standing on the grass away from the plate, where another youngster was warming up for the next game. Swinging his bat back and forth, giving it all the power an elementary school kid could give. The boy brought the bat back hard and hit Kevin in the chest. His heart stopped.
When Kevin fell to the ground, the mother of one of the players rushed out of the stands to his aid.
Penny Brown hadn't planned to be there that day, but at the last minute, her shift(换班)at the hospital had been changed to see her son’s performance. She was given the night off. Penny bent over the senseless boy, his face already starting to turn blue, and giving CPR, breathing into his mouth and giving chest compressions. And he revived in the end.
After his recovery, he became a volunteer junior firefighter, learning some of the emergency first-aid
techniques that had saved his life. He studied hard in school and was saving money for college by working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant in his spare time.
Kevin, now 18, was working in the kitchen when he heard people screaming, customers in confusion,
employees rushing toward a table. He hurried into the main room and saw a woman there, her face turning blue, her hands at her throat. She was choking.
Quickly Kevin stepped behind her, wrapped his arms around her and clasped his hands. Then, using
skills he'd first learned in Scouts. The food that was trapped in the woman's throat was freed. The color began to return to her face.
"The food was stuck. I couldn't breathe," she said. She thought she was dying. "I was very frightened."
Who was the woman?
Penny Brown.
( )59. The author wrote the passage to show us that_______.
A. miracles are predestined and they can happen anywhere
B. whoever helps you in trouble will get a reward one day
C. God will help those who give others a helping hand
D. miracles won’t come without any difficulty sometimes
( )60 Which of the following statements is True of Kevin Stephan?
A. He was hit on the face by a boy and almost lost his life
B. He was a volunteer junior firefighter, teaching the players first-aid skills
C. He worked part-time in a local restaurant to save money for college
D. He saved Penny Brown though he didn’t really know how to deal with food choke
( )61. Why did Penny Brown change her shift and was given the night off that night?
A. She was invited to give the players directions
B. She volunteered to give medical services
C. She was a little worried about his son’s safety
D. She came to watch her son’s game and cheered him
( )62. The underlined word “revived”(paragraph3) most likely means______.
A. came back to life B. became worse C. failed D. moved
( )63. When Kevin knew the woman was Penny Brown, probably he first felt _____.
A. happy B. surprised C. sad D. worried
（C）
From good reading we can derive pleasure, companionship, experience, and instruction. A good book may absorb our attention so completely that for the time being we forget our surroundings and even our identity. Reading good books is one of the greatest pleasures in life. It increases our contentment when we are cheerful, and lessens our troubles when we are sad. Whatever may be our main purpose in reading, our contact with good books should never fail to give us enjoyment and satisfaction.
With a good book in our hands we need never be lonely. Whether the characters portrayed are taken from real life or are purely imaginary, they may become our companions and friends. In the pages of books we can walk with the wise and the good of all lands and all times. The people we meet in books may delight us either because they resemble human friends whom we hold dear or because they present unfamiliar types whom we are glad to welcome as new acquaintances. Our human friends sometimes may bore us, but the friends we make in books need never weary us with their company. By turning the page we can dismiss them without any fear of hurting their feelings. When human friends desert us, good books are always ready to give us friendship, sympathy, and encouragement. One of the most valuable gifts bestowed by books is experience. Few of us can travel far from home or have a wide range of experiences, but all of us can lead varied lives through the pages of books. Whether we wish to escape from the seemingly dull realities of everyday life or whether we long to visit some far-off place, a book will help us when nothing else can. To travel by book we need no bank account to pay our way; no airship or ocean liner or stream-lined train to transport us; no passport to enter the land of our heart's desire. Through books we may get the thrill of hazardous adventure without danger. We can climb lofty mountains, brave the perils of an Antarctic winter, or cross the scorching sands of the desert, all without hardship. In books we may visit the studios of Hollywood; we may mingle with the gay throngs of the Paris boulevards; we may join the picturesque peasants in an Alpine village or the kindly natives on a South Sea island. Indeed, through books the whole world is ours for the asking. The possibilities of our literary experiences are almost unlimited. The beauties of nature, the enjoyment of music, the treasures of art, the triumphs of architecture, the marvels of engineering, are all open to the wonder and enjoyment of those who read.
1. Why is it that we sometimes forget our surroundings and even our identity while reading?
A. No one has come to disturb you.
B. Everything is so quiet and calm around you.
C. The book you are reading is so interesting and attractive.
D. Your book is overdue; you are finishing it at a very fast speed.
2. How would you account for the fact that people like their acquaintances in books even more?
A. They resemble human friends exactly. B. They are unfamiliar types we like.
C. They never desert us. D. They never hurt our feelings.
3. Which of the following is true?
A. Your wish to visit some far-off place can be realized through the pages of the books.
B. To escape from the dull realities of everyday life you should take up reading.
C. Books can always help you to live a colourful life.
D. You may obtain valuable experience from reading good books.
4. The word “weary” means ______.
A. “to attract someone’s attention” B. “to distract someone’s attention”
C. “to make someone very tired” D. “to make someone interested”
5. “... the whole world is ours for the asking” implies that ____________.
A. in books the world is more accessible to us
B. we can ask to go anywhere in the world
C. we can make a claim to everything in this world
D. we can make a round-the-world trip free of charge
NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed Lander on Mars’ icy North Pole to search for clues for water and possible signs of life.
The $386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface.
Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes existed in the ice.
Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low-cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth,” Peter Smith said.
True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well-known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999. The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet’s south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely, causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.
The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench-digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.
46. The passage mainly tells readers that _________.
A. clues of water will be found in Phoenix
B. Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars
C. August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off
D. the Mars Scout program will be carried out
47. The underlined word “prematurely” (paragraph 5) means _________.
A. on time B. behind the time C. out of work D. ahead of time
48. According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars _________.
A. in May 2008 B. in August 2007
C. in August 2008 D. in September 2008
49. According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of _________.
A. rebirth B. death C. energy D. hope
50. After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly _________.
A. find soil samples and send them to the earth
B. look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples
C. take photos and send them to the earth
D. find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander
III. 阅读 (共两节，满分40分)
第一节：阅读理解(共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage (="drink)" containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw material for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it wound end up buried in landfills(垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.
Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence post, paint brushes, etc.
As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard unti1 somebody figures out how to give it a second life — and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life va1ue.Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.
Shrinking landfill space and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to savings of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and reduces the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.
1. What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?
A. A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling.
B. Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling.
C. Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them.
D. Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles.
2. The returned plastic bottles in New York used to .
A. be turned into raw rnateria1s
B. be separated from other rubbish
C. have a second-life value
D. end up somewhere underground
3. The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is .
A. how to reduce their recycling costs
B. to sell them at a profitable price
C. how to turn them into useful things
D. to lower the prices for used materials
4. Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because .
A. recycling causes litt1e pollution
B. other methods are more expensive
C. recycling has great appeal for the jobless
D. local governments find it easy to manage
5. It can be concluded from the passage that .
A. recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally
B. local governments in the U. S. can expect big profits from recycling
C. rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materials
D. landfills will sti1l be widely used for waste disposal
信息匹配（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
请阅读下列应用文和相关信息，并按照要求匹配信息。请在答题卡上将对应题号的相应选项字母涂黑 (若选择E，请涂AB；若选择F，请涂CD)。
以下是各个电视节目的简介：
Wild World——this exciting show takes you around the world to places of unimaginable natural beauty and danger. Learn more about our world and see animals as they live in nature.
Time：Friday 8.30－9.30 pm
Sports Sunday—learn what’s happening in the world of sport. See how your team performed, find out who is playing and watch interviews with all your favourite sports stars.
Time：Sunday 1-5 pm
The Music Man——John Rogers is a musician by day but a secret superhero crime fighter by night in this long—running television action drama.
Time：Weekdays 3.00－4.00 pm
Lateline——All the latest news and opinions from around the world. If you want to know where there is trouble in the world or the reasons behind the global economic crisis，join our team of award winning journalists.
Time：Weekdays 9—10 pm
Entertainment This Week—Covers the world of entertainment. Hear this week’s number one song, watch the newest movie reviews and listen to all the latest gossip about the stars.
Time：Saturday 6 pm
Pop Star—Hundreds of young and (sometimes) talented performers sing the latest songs and compete to see who will become the nation’s newest Pop Star.
Time：Thursday 7.30 pm
以下是每个人的情况介绍，请匹配每个人与其拟选择的电视节目：
Sarah O’connor. Sarah is trying to decide where she will spend her summer vacation. She has a number of different places in mind but is worried about terrorism and her safety so she doesn’t want to go anywhere that is dangerous or may become dangerous soon.
John Smith. John loves football and as a senior company manager needs to know the latest economic news. He seldom gets home before 10 o’clock at night during the week so he likes to relax in front of TV on the weekend.
Robert Wise. Robert is a fan of action. He loves to watch exciting TV shows whether they are fictional or real. He usually only has time to watch TV on weekday evenings as he works during the day and on weekends he likes to go hiking and camping.
Joan Johnson. Joan is a housewife who sometimes feels bored at home so she enjoys watching exciting TV shows. When the kids are home on the weekends and after school she never gets a chance to watch TV as they want to watch the shows they like.
Bill West. Bill is a music fan and a musician. He is always trying to hear the newest and most popular songs and learn more about his competitors. He is usually free after he finishes work at 5 pm except on weekends when he plays with his musical group in a local club.
An epidemic (流行病) of the use of street-culture language broke out in some English exams, according to examiners.
A report said there were “a surprising number of small mistakes” in standard (标准) English. It asked teachers that they should prevent pupils from using "street language and text style", adding, “Most answers require formal expression of language.”
“Many concerns were expressed by examiners about basic errors, often appearing in the work of clearly able students,” the report continued.
It added that the use of street and text language “appeared with surprisingly regularity in the work of students who clearly desired a higher grade”.
“Most answers require formal expression but even when an informal style is appropriate--students should know the examination context and, in particular, should not use street language and text style.” it said.
There is rising concern about pupils’ writing skills, especially among boys. National test results for 11-year-old boys’ writing standards had fallen this year. Only 55 percent reached the level expected of an 1l-year-old by the time they left primary school, the results showed.
Many educationalists are now arguing that teachers should also think of ways of improving writing standards.
The report said spelling was “in general inconsistent (不一致)” and “variety of vocabulary and of sentence structure is often limited”. It went on, “Punctuation (标点符号) errors continue to be widespread.”
However, it added, “Some examiners felt that this year they had met an improvement in the whole structure of students' writing.”
What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. The street-culture language is being examined in English exams.
B. Street language is appearing in the standard English exams.
C. The English say no to the street-culture language in daily life.
D. What the street-culture language is in England.
The underlined word “appropriate” (in Paragraph 5) means “ _______”
A. comfortable B. possible C. acceptable D. valuable
What problems concerned examiners?
A. Small mistakes in spelling and punctuation,
B. Limited vocabulary of boy pupils.
C. Teachers teaching writing skills.
D. Poor sentence structure, and errors in spelling and standard English.
How does the author feel in writing this passage?
A. worried but positive B. worried and negative
C. concerned and sad D. warm and excited
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. In English exams, most answers require informal expression of language.
B. When an informal style is correct, the students are allowed to use it.
C. Boys' writing skills are worse than those of girls in England.
D. There is no improvement in the whole structure of students' writing.