Our brains work in complex and strange ways．There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two．Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write．
Dr．J．Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887．He called these people idiot savants．An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment （损伤） , such as in autism ( 孤独症，自闭症) or retardation．At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people．The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory．
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr．Benjamin Rush, an American doctor．His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in1724．It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds．Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write．
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s．Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical 
pieces beautifully．
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly．
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment．Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills．Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills．However few people wish to participate in such experiments．There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain．The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate．Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots．
72．What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities．
B．Human Beings have complicated thinking process．
C．The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired．
D．The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary．
73．Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A．He can play wonderful pieces of classical music．
B．He can guess out exactly the lengt
h of a man's life．
C．He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast．
D．He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly．
64．What can you infer from the passage?
A．Idiot savants have real talents for art and math．
B．Dr．Down is the first person who found idiot savants．
C．Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations．
D．Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants．
75．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
My Best Enemy
Once again, I was in a new school. So was a girl in my class named Lisa. That’s where the similarities ended.
I was tall and she was small. My thick black hair had been recently cut short into an untidy style. Her natural blonde hair flowed to her waist and looked great. I was 12 and one of the oldest in the class while she was 11 and the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my enemy. But she liked me and wanted to be friends.
One day, she invited me over and I said yes—I was too shocked to answer any other way. My family had moved six times in six years, and I had never managed to develop any friendships. But this girl who wore the latest fashions wanted me to go home with her after school. She lived in a fun part of town that had two pizza places, an all-right bookstore, a movie theater and a park. As we walked from the school bus stop through her neighborhood, I tried to guess which house might be hers. Was it the white one with the perfect lawn or the three –story house with a front porch? I got very surprised when she led me into an old apartment building. She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother, her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister.
When we got into the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Barbies, which was my next surprise. I had never played with them. We sat on the floor, laughing as we made up crazy stories about the Barbies. We found out that we both wanted to be writers when we were older and both had wild imaginations. We had a great day that afternoon.
Lisa was loved by the whole neighborhood. The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines; the movie theater gave her free tickets…. Soon I was included in her magic world. We slept over at each other’s houses and spent every free moment together.
Lisa, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the rough years of early adolescence（青春期）and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: you worst enemy can turn out to be your best friend.
54．The writer and Lisa were similar in the way that________ .
A．they were both new students B．they had the same hair styles
C．they were both tall D．they were of the same age
55．One day Lisa invited the writer____________.
A．to go to the movie B．to go to her home
C．to go to walk in a parkD．to go to a pizza place
56．In the passage the writer described Lisa as a girl who was___________ .
A．awkward and shy B．rich and happy
C．quiet and lonely D．friendly and lovely
57．Which of the following did the writer learn from Lisa?
A．How to make up stories. B．How to deal with enemies.
C．How to make friends. D．How to live a better life.
If you need extra employment support because of a disability, your local job center put you in touch with one of their Disability Employment Advisers(DEA). Disability Employment Advisers can give you help and support regardless of your situation. They can help you find work or gain new skills even if you have been out of work for a long time, or if you have little or no working experience.
Referral service
Your DEA can offer you an employment assessment to identify what type of work or training suits you best and also offer you a work program designed to help disabled people, like the Job Introduction Scheme, WORKSTEP or Access to Work. The DEA can let you know about jobs that match your experience and skills and offer you more work information.
Employment assessments
An important employment assessment can help you identify your abilities. Your employment assessment will usually take place at your local Job centre. You will have an interview with your DEA, which is an opportunity for you to talk about your skills and abilities and any previous working experience you may have. As part of the assessment, you may be asked to carry out some practical tasks and written work. These tasks will be similar to common tasks involved in various types of work. The assessment may take half a day or longer, depending on your individual needs. The DEA will discuss the length of your assessment with you beforehand.
After the assessment
You and your DEA will talk about your assessment and agree on an action plan to help you achieve your job goals. Your action plan may include training or taking part in the “Work Preparation” program.
An employment assessment does not affect your benefits. You can claim travel expenses for attending an assessment.
45. DEA will help you find a job even if you ______.
A. don’t like your former work at all
B. have been seriously ill for a long time
C. are disabled and have no working experience
D. are a normal man without knowledge
46. The program “Access to Work” aims at ______.
A. exchanging working experience
B. helping the disabled people
C. offering more work information
D. advertising some products
47. From the passage we can learn that ______.
A. the employment assessment is not necessary
B. the employment assessment takes place in a company
C. the employment assessment is carried out by employers
D. the time of the employment assessment is up to you
48. Before you take your job you need ______.
A. training or preparation
B. some travel expenses
C. paying DEA some money
D. very excellent skills
49. According to the ad, which of the following is TRUE?
A. An employment assessment can be done in every Job centre.
B. DEA is a job agency only for disabled people.
C. DEA can help the disabled a lot in finding a job.
D. An employment assessment can value a job seeker in every aspect.
第二部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15题；每小题2分，满分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。
If you are looking for a new pet, don’t even think about Komodo dragons, which are the largest lizards and can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds. Komodo dragons run fast and eat almost any kind of meat, including dead or live animals, other Komodo dragons and people. “These things are powerful killing machines,” says Bryan Fry, a biologist.
If those reasons aren’t good enough, consider the bite of a Komodo dragon. According to a new study, it may kill prey like snakes by injecting venom. This chemical, according to Fry and his team of scientists at the University of Melbourne in Australia, can cause shock in the unlucky victim. A person or animal goes into shock when the body can’t offer enough blood to organs to keep functioning. As a result, the body starts to shut down.
Scientists have only recently begun to understand why a Komodo dragon is so deadly. Some people used to believe that a Komodo dragon’s bite contained bacteria from the mouth that would cause a severe infection in the victim’s blood. The infection would finally kill the animal. Fry says that after being bitten by a Komodo dragon, animal usually die quickly.
After more studies, Fry and his team found that Komodo dragon venom contained some of the same ingredients as snake venom. These ingredients thin the blood and cause blood vessels to become larger. To test the venom, the scientists injected rats with it and observed that the rats became still.
Fry’s work shows that Komodo dragons kill their prey with venom, and not by bacteria — and gives us another reason why we should avoid coming across them. That is easy to do, since they live on a few islands in the tropical country of Indonesia.
41. From the passage we can learn that ______.
A. Komodo dragons live on a few islands of India
B. a Komodo dragon weighs more than 300 kilograms
C. a Komodo dragon is more than eleven feet long
D. nobody dares to keep a Komodo dragon as a pet
42. The underlined word “venom” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. the chemical that does no harm
B. a kind of way that kills its enemy
C. a kind of poisonous liquid of some animals
D. the gas which could cause death
43. Why does a victim get into shock after being injected?
A. He or it is too afraid to move about.
B. His or its organs can’t get enough blood.
C. His or its body was hurt and shuts down.
D. He or it is bitten and loses much blood.
44. Komodo dragons can’t easily hurt us because ______.
A. they are afraid of human beings
B. the venom in them is not so powerful
C. our blood can make them close to us
D. they only inhabit a few islands in Indonesia
When the famous dancer Fred Astaire was interviewed for a job by a Hollywood producer, the movie “expert” turned him down, saying, “Can't sing. Can't act. Dances a little.” Here's another stupid mistake. When the great scientist Albert Einstein was at school, his teachers considered him rather dull. And a final story, the famous Polish pianist Paderewski was told by a teacher that he'd never be a success as a performer because the middle finger on each hand was too short.
What lessons can be drawn from these three experiences? First, true genius(天才) cannot be suppressed(压抑). For some reason or other it works its way out. Second, early judgements of a person's abilities may be unfair or just wrong. Third, when there is a real determination to succeed, obstacles fall by the wayside.
The famous motto “ad astra per aspera” can be translated as “To the stars through hardships.” Astaire, Einstein and Paderewski proved their critics wrong.
45.Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
A.Fred Astaire was a famous dancer.
B.True ability will always make itself known.
C.Some people never get discouraged
D.Albert Einstein proved his teachers wrong.
46.When Paderewski's teachers told him he'd never be a success, they were ______.
A.being humorous B.cheerful, though concerned
C.somewhat hesitant D.seriously mistaken
47.“Ad astra per aspera” is used in the passage ______.
A.as a motto for the three men's lives
B.to show the value of Latin
C.to send the reader to the dictionary
D.to point out that genius is always recognized early
48.The writer of the passage thinks that the reader ______.
A.knows that the three men were successes
B.someday dreams to become like one of the men
C.sympathizes with(同情) the poor teachers of the three men
D.knows that Fred Astaire was an actor famous for performing
Shakespeare's plays
第二部分：阅读理解（共两部分，满分45分）
第一节（共20小题；每小题2分,满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的选项A、B、C、D中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Situated in the South West of England, between Exeter and Plymouth, Torquay is one of the most popular holiday resorts（度假胜地）in Britain. It provides sophisticated（精致）entertainment, sports of every kind and cultural facilities, all set in a position of outstanding natural beauty. Visitors can choose between luxury hotels by the sea, with private suites（套房），swimming pools and saunas, and comfortable but less expensive guest houses. There are camping sites, too, and hundreds of houses displaying“B & B”signs.
As well as a number of small quiet bays, which are ideal for beach barbecues away from the crowds, Torquay has large sandy beaches where you can buy refreshments（饮料）and hire deck chairs, boats and even beach huts. There are large areas of grassland overlooking the sea, and miles of winding cliff paths for walkers who just want to enjoy the scenery and what is often said to be the healthiest air in the country. For the sportsmen and women there are opportunities not only for golf, tennis, squash and bowls, but also for water-skiing, hang-gliding and deep-sea fishing.
After a day in the open air, there’s lots to do in the evenings, too. There are plenty of discos, the occasional opera or ballet, and summer variety shows in the seafront theatres. For the children, there is a beautiful model village with a complicated railway layout which is remarkably realistic-especially when the lights are all on at night.
Of course, there’s no need to spend your whole holidays in Torquay. Only a short drive away is Dartmoor National Park, where you can walk for miles through dramatic, unspoiled countryside, or picnic by beautiful rivers and streams. Or, nearer to home, you can sail across Tor Bay to the lovely old fishing village of Brixham.
Torquay seems to have something for everyone. But don’t take my word for it-come and see for yourself.
41．Which of the following best explains what “B & B” means on the signs?
A．Bed and breakfast B．Breakfast and bath
C．Beach and barbecue D．Beautiful and British
42．According to the text Torquay might be described as .
A．comfortable and expensive B．crowed and lively
C．remote and beautiful D．fresh and healthy
43．What is special about the model village?
A．It opens at night.
B．It has something for the children
C．It’s in the open air.
D．It has a real railway system.
44．What is the purpose of writing this text?
A．To introduce the geography of Torquay to students.
B．To make some places known to visitors.
C．To show the beauty of resorts.
D．To attract more tourists.