As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) trend in the US continues to grow.
“we needed furniture for our living room,” says John Ross, “and we just didn’t have enough money to buy it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Roses took a 2-week course for $280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $520. “ I was deeply upset about it. Now I have finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it-youselfer”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.
60. We can learn from the text that many newly married people_______.
A. find it hard to pay for what they need
B. have to learn to make their own furniture
C. take DIY courses run by the government
D. seldom go to a department store to buy things
61. John and his wife went to evening classes to learn how to ______.
A. run a DIY shop B. make or repair things
C. save time and money D. improve the quality of life
62. Jim decided to become a do-it-yourselfer when______
A. his car repairs cost too much
B. the car repair class was not helpful
C. he could not possibly do two jobs
D. keeps house and looks after his children
63.when the writer says that Jim has a full-time job at home, he means Jim____.
A. makes shoes in his home
B. does extra work at night
C. does his own car and home repairs
D. keeps house and looks after his children
第三部分:阅读理解(共20题;每小题2分,共40分)
阅读下列短文,从每题中所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。
You have heard the expression “horse sense”. As you may imagine, it came from the time when the majority of people traveled in vehicles drawn by horses. A horse does have a lot of common sense, and there are many true stories about horses having saved their drivers from danger of death.
Today for the most part, people travel by train, ship, airplane, and car, but very little by the use of horses. Modern vehicles are propelled by engines, and an engine does not have any sense. In case of danger, many horses could be depended on to help. Not so with the engine; the driver must do all the things.
In recent years, the speed of travel has increased greatly. With the increased speed comes greatly increased danger. The driver of a powerful engine needs to be careful. A moment of being careless may cost a life. In order to drive today, a person must be able to see clearly, and he must learn and follow carefully the rules for safety on the road. Greater attention is the price we pay for using a machine instead of a horse.
56. The passage mainly talks about ______.
A. engines B. safe driving C. using horses D. modern machines
57. The underlined word “propel” in the second paragraph means ______.
A. repair B. raise C. push forward D. made
58. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. a driver must know the rules of safety
B. a driver needs to be able only to tell red from green
C. an eye test is an important part of a driver’s examination
D. greater attention is needed for a driver while driving a machine
59. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. A driver must be able to see and hear well.
B. The driver of a car must follow the rules of safety.
C. Horses are known to have saved their drivers from injury.
D. It is better for vehicles to be pulled by horse than to be pushed by engine.
Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all times, really
did fools' experiments?
Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic that other people just thought they were foolish?
Sometimes people think they already know the answer to a question or the solution (解决办法) to a problem. Sometimes they really do know an answer or a solution, but without thinking they are important.
Charles Darwin didn’t settle for (满足于) just thinking he knew something. And, he believed all things could be important however simple they seemed to be.
Suppose you drop two sheets of paper which are exactly the same size and shape. If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way. Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other sheet. What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn't be worth anything.
But this simple experiment is important. It explains part of our present-day understanding of physics ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton. And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek physics.
Science sometimes stops to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them. Even the simplest idea, what we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations (基础) of science.
68. “Sometimes people think they already know the answer to a question.” This means that _________.
A. they are already told the answer
B. the question is so important that everyone should know the answer
C. they are already to answer such a question by others
D. the question is simple enough for them to answer
69. From the passage, we learn that Charles Darwin _________.
A. did many fools' experiments
B. enjoyed doing simple experiments
C. was not satisfied with what he knew
D. tried to prove that Galileo and Newton were sometimes wrong
70. The underlined phrase “set aside” most probably means “________”
A. throw away B. store up B. put to use D. realize
71. The author of the passage tries to ________.
A. convince(使…信服) us that Charles Darwin, Galileo and Newton are the greatest scientists in the world
B. draw the conclusion that basic sciences are simple things
C. prove that two sheets of paper, with the same size and shape, will fall at the same speed
D. draw our attention to everyday happenings around us
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.”
64. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Street language is appearing in the standard English exams.
B. What the street-culture language is in England.
C. The English say no to the street-culture language in daily life.
D. The street-culture language is being examined in English exams.
65. The underlined word “appropriate” (in Paragraph 5) means “ _______”
A. available B. possible C. valuable D. acceptable
66. What problems concerned examiners ?
A. Small mistakes in spelling and punctuation,
B. Poor sentence structure, and errors in spelling and standard English.
C. Teachers teaching writing skills.
D. Limited vocabulary of boy pupils.
67. 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.
On the wall in my mother’s bedroom there was a photo, which showed a soldier with a gun.
Below the photo there was the word ”Speaking”.
“Who’s that soldier called Speaking?” I asked one day.
“He was Harold.” She said, ‘He was my only brother. When the Second War began, Harold was eighteen. I was twelve then, and my sisters were ten and nine.”
“Harold liked to play with us, and we often quarreled. When we quarreled, we said, ‘We’re not speaking to you.’ But before long we were all happy again, and then we said, ‘I’m speaking now. Are you speaking to me?’”
“When the war broke out, Harold joined the army. A month later, he came to see us. He brought the gun to show us. Then he went miles away to the war. We didn’t see him for three years, three long, empty years. We didn’t often hear from him. But one day in May there was a loud bang on the front door.”
“I ran to open it, it was Harold! He was an old Harold, a thinner Harold, too. He looked at me with his two green eyes and smiled. That smile was just the same as before, then he said one word “Speaking’”.
‘I didn’t. I couldn’t answer. I just fell into his arms and he dropped his gun. He stayed with us for a month. We played all our old games again. Then he went back to the war, and never came back again. So I wrote the word on the photo.”
60. When I first saw the word “Speaking” below the photo, I thought ____.
A .the soldier was calling “Speaking”
B. it was taken when the soldier was speaking
C .“Speaking” was the soldier’s name
D. Mum wished the soldier could speak to her
61. How old was the author’s mother when Harold came back for the last time?
A.Twelve B.Thirteen C. Fifteen D. Twenty-one
62. When Harold came back home, ____.
A.he changed a lot except for his eyes and smile
B.he made a shoot in front of the door
C.his sister could hardly recognize him
D.his sister had another quarrel with him
63. Harold never came back again because ____.
A.he didn’t want to speak to his sister any more
B.he died in a battle
C.his sister had not answered him when he came back
D.he went far away to the war
第三部分:阅读理解(共16小题;每小题1.5分,满分24分)
阅读下列短文,然后从各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。
You’ve no doubt heard people say how much they “need” a holiday, when what they really mean is that they want one. Certainly, people working under pressure feel a very strong desire to escape from work and become less tight during holidays, and experience a changed environment.
However, work for many people today is office work and mental, rather than physical tasks. These people may seek much more energy-taking activities while on holiday, rather than simply lying on a beach.
Once people become used to going on holiday, taking holidays becomes a habit. For many people the holiday is one of the last things to be given up, and indeed many workers have chosen to spend some of their last pay when being on holiday. It may give them a “lift” in facing some difficulties in life.
Most of us also enjoy showing off the lovely tans --- dark skins we get from a holiday. So many tourists are now able to afford holidays in the sun that tans have become quite common; although we join a tan together with health, it has been fully shown that too much sunshine will result in high danger of skin problems, as well as drying out one’s skin and leading to more lines on your face later in life.
56.According to the passage above, more and more people choose to have holidays because they __________.
A. love working outdoors all the time
B. want to get away from work
C. love enjoying the beauties of nature
D. become rich and want a better life
57. When office people have holidays, they often _________ .
A. lie on the beach and enjoy sunshine
B. spend more than they can afford
C. think about their work on the beach
D. choose to do more physical exercise
58 The word “lift” in the last sentence of the third paragraph may _______
A. cheer someone up
B. help someone find a job
C. be the last thing not to be given up
D. bring good luck to someone
59 At the end of the passage the writer tries to tell the reader _________.
A. the importance of getting sunshine
B. the bad effect of being on holiday
C. the result of getting sun tanned
D. the healthy look of being tanned