It is one of the greatest mysteries of nature. In case you haven’t noticed, all living things follow very definite, individual rhythms, all as regular as a clock, but what makes them regular?
Though many scientists maintain that these rhythms are the result of some outside force like gravity or radiation or both, the results of most scientific researches agree with other scientists who believe that each living thing has its own built-in biological “time clock.”
Take the mystery of migration for example. Scientists can’t really explain why many species of birds migrate in the autumn even though the temperature is still summery. The birds just seem to snub the comfortable weather that they are having. When a certain time comes, they travel south by the thousand. In spring time, they migrate northwards even though there probably is snow still covering the ground when they finally arrive. Something said “go,” and they did.
Animals that hibernate (冬眠) are obeying individual time clocks, too. When their clock indicates the time to take a winter’s nap, they do, and nothing can stop them. At a certain time in the spring, they wake up and come out regardless of the weather outside.
Plants appear to have yearly rhythms, such as the sprouting of seeds, and they also have daily rhythms. Notice sometimes that plants raise their leaves in daylight and lower them at night.
If you live along the California coast, you can easily observe a demonstration of this mysterious clock functioning regularly. There, from February to September, the highest tides occur exactly every fourteen and four-fifths days, and during these high tides, but at no other time, small silvery fish called grunions surf-ride a wave to the beach. There the female deposits her eggs in the sand and the male fertilizes them; then both hitch a wave-ride back to the sea. Exactly fourteen and four-fifths days later, never before or after, the tiny eggs hatch, and the high tide carries the new babies out to sea.
72. According to the passage, the mysterious rhythms result from ______.
A. the influence of gravity on living species
B. the effect of radiation on living species
C. the influence of a mysterious outer force on living species
D. the internal mechanism inside the living species
73. The underlined word “snub” in the third paragraph probably means ______.
A. fight B. ignore C. symbolize D. criticize
74. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
A. Hibernating animals are obeying an internal time clock.
B. The positioning of the leaves of some plants is due to the daily rhythms.
C. The internal clock functioning is demonstrated in the reproducing habits of grunions.
D. The yearly hibernation is more because of the weather influence than the biological functioning.
75. The passage is mainly about ______.
A. the rhythms of life
B. the reasons of mysterious hibernation
C. strange behaviors of species
D. the timing for different events in the world of species
What does it mean to day that we live in world of persuasion? It means that we live among
competing interests. Your roommate’s need to study for an exam take priority（优先）over pizza. Your instructor may have good reasons not to change your grade. And the object of your romantic interest may have other choices.
In such a world, persuasion is the art of getting others to give fair and favorable consideration to our points of view. When we persuade, we want to influence what others believe and how they behave. We may not always prevail（占优势）--other points of view may be more persuasive, depending on the listener, the situation, and the merits of the case. But when we practice the art of persuasion, we try to ensure that our position receives the attention it deserves.
Some people, however, object to the very idea of persuasion. They may regard it as an unwelcome approach to their lives or as a control. In contrast, we believe that persuasion is inevitable--to live is to persuade. Persuasion may be moral or immoral, selfless or selfish, inspiring or discouraging. Persuaders may enlighten our minds or make us hurt. Moral persuasion, however, calls on sound reasoning and is sensitive to the feelings and needs of listeners. Such persuasion can help us apply the wisdom of the past to the decisions we now must make. Therefore, an essential part of education is learning to resist the one kind of persuasion and to encourage and practice the other.
Beyond its personal importance to us, persuasion is a need to society. The right to persuade and be persuaded is the basic principle of the American political system.
60．What’s the author’s attitude towards persuasion?
A．Critical. B．Uninterested. C．Supportive. D．Neutral.
61．The passage states that some people are against persuasion because they think it is .
A．an unwelcome influence B．difficult to do well
C．not trustworthy at all D．never successful
62．We can conclude from the passage that persuasion means .
A．getting people to act according to your will
B．exercising power over other people
C．making use of your past wise experience
D．getting other people to consider your reasonable points of view.
63．According to the passage, we can infer that .
A．we can learn how to persuade in school
B．only society can benefit from persuasion
C．persuasion plays an important role in America
D．persuasion is considered to be an inborn ability
第三部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节：选择题（共15小题，每小题2分，共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。
I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the
easy carelessness of youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years
later, and ever since have been of great value to me.
Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.
"Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"
"I try to."
"Well, don't," he exclaimed. "When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."
When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano--playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.
There is an important trick in this time--using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste four chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge（投入）in without delay.
56．The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in sentence “”.
A．The forests in the north of the province stretch for hundreds of miles.
B．Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.
C．My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.
D．During his senior year his earnings far enough to buy an old car.
57．Which of the following statements is true?
A．The writer didn’t completely take the teacher’s words to heart at first.
B．Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer's life since he became a student.
C．The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.
D．Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.
58．We can infer that the writer .
A．has new books published each year however busy his teaching is
B．is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy
C．has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels
D．can find sufficient time for mental preparations beforehand, so he's devoted to work instantly
59．What is the best title of this passage?
A．Concentrate on Your Work B．A Little at a Time
C．How I Became a WriterD．Good Advice Is Most Valuable
It is a hot summer day，and you feel thirsty A friend gives you a glass of cold lemonade．How do you feel when you see the glass? Will you describe your feeling as happiness or as pleasure? I believe you will say it is a feeling of pleasure．There is a connection between these two kinds of feelings，and sometimes one causes the other，but they are not the same．Pleasure is more dependent on the five senses while happiness is independent of them．
When you are happy，little unpleasant events usually do not disturb you．When you are unhappy，you feel as if everything is against you．You may compensate for it by eating chocolate and sweets because this gives you pleasure；yet you stay unhappy．A person may smoke cigarettes
because it gives him pleasure，yet，this does not make him happier，especially if he knows the fact that it is not good for his health
The physical world is always in a changing state．At each moment a new thing is being created，changed，transformed and then destroyed. This is the normal state of things and no one call change it．If we stay still in a certain state，we are sure to experience unhappiness sooner or later．On the other hand，if we adjust to the environment，nothing can influence our moods．Then outer events have nothing to do with our inner joy of mind.
The room of the mind was filled with worry or fear．If you are free of thinking about them, the room has been emptied，and then you will see what is happening and experience it When your
mind stays quiet，you will see that happiness comes from the inside．
67．What does the underlined phrase“compensate for”in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?
A．to make a suitable payment for B．to let out your anger for
C．to provide with a balancing effect for D．to solve the problems for
68．According to the passage, in which of the following situations can you feel happy?
A．A friend gives you a glass of cold lemonade when you feel thirsty．
B．You eat chocolate and sweets when you feel as if everything is against you．
C．Smoke cigarettes even though you know the fact that it is not good for your health．
D．You are free from worry or fear when your mind stays quiet．
69．We can learn from the passage___________．
A．happiness is more dependent on the five sepses
B．pleasure sometimes arouses happiness
C．you feel happy when nothing around you changes in a certain state
D．you feel unhappy because you have to adjust to the environment
70．Which can be the best title for the passage?
A．Pleasure Leads To Happiness B．Happiness Changes Us
C．Happiness Is Within Us D．Stay A Quiet Mind
An oasis (绿洲) is an island of life in an ocean of temperature extremes．Any oasis always contains one or more springs Oases make it possible to survive through the desert．In large deserts such as the Sahara．towns are located around sources of water such as oases and rivers．
What causes an oasis? An oasis is actually a spot in the desert where the altitude is low enough that the water table is fight below the surface，resulting in the presence of springs．Even in a desert, it rains occasionally，and this produces a water table just above the bedrock，usually several hundred feet below the surface．Sand is very porous (可渗透的)，so most water runs right
through it and down to the bedrock．
Deserts consist of many millions of tons of sand．There is only one natural force capable of moving it in noticeable amounts：the wind．Although，in an average dust storm，ten cubic feet of air only holds about an ounce of sand，a cubic mile of air can move about 4,600 tons of it，leading to erosion (侵蚀)．A severe storm is capable of moving as much as 100 million tons of sand and dust．
In certain areas where large quantities of sand are moved by storms，erosion digs all the way down to the water table，putting it just beneath the surface Seeds planted in the ground there are capable of extending roots into the moist land，producing an oasis．
Sometimes．the oasis produced by the wind can be very large when vast tracts of desert are wiped clean by storms．The great Kharga oasis in the Sahara，for example，is over 100 miles long and 12 to 50 miles in width. The oasis was produced when erosion caused the edges of the hollow places to sink down to the water table.
63．What does “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to_______．
A．erosion B．water table C．sand D．storm
64．How many conditions of the oasis formation are mentioned in the passage without considering
The wind and seeds?
A．3 B．4 C．5 D．6
65．We can infer from the passage ________．
A．there is at least one spring on an oasis
B．the bedrock is usually just right below the surface
C．the great Kharga oasis is the biggest oasis in the world
D．the great Kharga oasis is at a low altitude
66．In the last paragraph，the author mentions the great Kharga oasis as an example to_______．
A．introduce the great oasis to the readers
B．tell how the oasis was produced by rain
C．show the oasis produced by the wind can be very large
D．tell it’s easy to form oases in the desert after storms
13th CLIC／LISO annual conference set for California
Event
13th annual CLIC／LISO Conference
Dates
May l7 to 19, 2007
Venue
Santa Barbra, California，US
Theme
Conference on Language，Interaction (相互作用) and Culture
Organizer
*The Australia Research Council (ARC)；
*Language，Interaction and Social Organization (LISO) group；
*The Center for language，Interaction and Culture (CLIC).
Keynote and featured speakers
*Barbara Fox，professor of 1inguistics (语言学)，University of Colorado，Boulder，US；
*Celia Kitzinger, professor of sociology，University of York，UK：
*Norma Mendoza-Denton，professor of anthropology (人类学)，University of Arizona，US；
*Jason Raley，assistant professor of education，University of California，Santa Barbara, US
Topic areas
*Anthropological linguistics；
*Pragmatics；
*Conversation analysis；
*Discourse analysis
Participants
Language and culture researchers from institutions across US，Australia and many other countries．
Background information
The Language，Interaction. and Social Organization (LISO) group is composed of professors and researchers in the areas of linguistics，sociology，and education，etc．The Center for Language，Interaction，and Culture (CLIC) is made up of experts from anthropology，applied linguistics，education，psychology，and sociology. Their common purpose is to promote cross-disciplinary discussion of issues regarding language as a complex resource for thinking and acting in the world．
The Australian Research Council (ARC) plays a key role in the Australian government’s investment in the future prosperity and well-being of the Australian community．
For further information，please visit http://www.hcsnet.edu.au/.
60．Who are likely to attend the conference?
A．Language researchers B．Language learners
C．Business men D．Social volunteers
61．What topic will not probably be discussed in the conference?
A．Pragmatics study B．Discourse analysis
C．Economic development D．Language and culture
62．It is inferred from the passage that______．
A．1anguage is so difficult that learners should study sociology first
B．LISO aims to promote the prosperity and well-being of the world
C．the conference will be held in California of Australia
D．language has a close connection with sociology