第二部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分50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。（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
A
Now, it’s time for some brief news items.
1 China wins women's 3,000m short track relay, S. Korea disqualified
VANCOUVER, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Twice Olympic champion Wang Meng led the Chinese short track speed skating team to the top podium of women's 3,000m relay with a world record at the Vancouver Winter Games here on Wednesday, as South Korea was later disqualified. Canada took the silver, with the United States picking up the bronze. South Korea's skaters had already started waving flags in joy after crossing the line but later the juges decided Kim Min-jung had impeded(阻碍) during an exchange push.
2 Severe drought cracks Airport's runway
China Daily(2010-03-18)-- Severe drought continues to plague southwestern China's Yunnan Province.
In the provincial capital Kunming, the surface of Wu Jiaba International Airport's only runway has been fractured(断裂的). Repairs have been going on since Tuesday. The airport is closed every day from midnight to seven-thirty in the morning. Airport authorities say the severe drought is the cause of the damage. The airport also needs to repair its plane taxiing and parking area. Chen Zhiwei, Security Dept., Kunming International Airport, said, "The drought has greatly lowered the underground water level. And this has affected the runway foundations. The damage to its surface is severe."
3 School Soldiers
Russian school students will have to do basic military training in their final year of school,
the government has decided. The lesson will include learning to fire guns, marching drills
and how to deal with a chemical, nuclear or biological attack. The activity is seen as part of
a drive toward the education of their love for their country.
4____________
Is it hard for you to get up early and get ready for classes? Some students at Winter Park High School just roll out of bed in their pajamas(睡衣)and go to class in their own bedrooms, Of course, their teachers and classmates do not see them because all their class work is on the computer. The Florida High School, the state’s only online program take classes in algebra, American government, chemistry, computer, economics, and web-page design. They also have to go to regular school to attend other classes.
1. Which country ranks fourth in the women's 3,000m short track relay according to the first news?
A. S. Korea. B. Canada. C. The USA. D. Not known.
2.Which of the following is correct according to the second news?
A. The airport has been closed since Tuesday.
B. Drought caused the trouble for repairs.
C. The underground water level became lower, and that’s why the Airport's runway cracked.
D. Wu Jiaba International Airport had another runway, and flights were not really stopped during the day.
3.Why will Russian school students have basic military training?
A. To get ready for a military parade. B. To learn to protect themselves.
C. To gain some military knowledge. D. To develop their love for the country.
4.The news from Florida can be given a title “________”.3
A. Get up Late B. Online School
C. The special pajamas D. The popular subjects
Big Brothers Big Sisters is based on the simplicity and power of friendship. It is a program which provides friendship and fun by matching vulnerable young people (ages 7-17) with a volunteer adult who can be both a role model and a supportive friend.
Volunteer tutors come from all walks of life—married, single, with or without children. Big Brothers and Big Sisters are not replacement parents or social workers. They are tutors: someone to trust, to have fun with, to talk and go to when needed.
A Big Sister and Little Sister will generally spend between one and four hours together three or four times each month for at least twelve months. They enjoy simple activities such as a picnic at a park, cooking, playing sport or going to a football match. These activities improve the friendship and help the young person develop positive self-respect, confidence and life direction.
Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations exist throughout the world. It is the largest and most well-known provider of tutor services internationally and has been operating for 25 years.
Emily and Sarah have been matched since March 2008. Emily is a 10-year-old girl who has experienced some difficulties being accepted by her schoolmates at school. "I was pretty sure there was something wrong with me.”
Emily’s mum came across Big Brothers Big Sisters and thought it would be of benefit to Emily by "providing different feedback(反馈)about herself other than just relying on schoolmates to measure her self-worth. ”
Sarah wanted to get involved in a volunteer program. "I paid close attention to it and found out how to be a part of it. I thought it would be fun for me to get involved in making time to do something because sometimes it’s all work and no play. ”
Big Brothers Big Sisters has been of great benefit and enjoyment to both Emily and Sarah. They love and look forward to their time together and the partnership has certainly helped Emily be more comfortable in being the wonderful, happy and unique girl she is!What is the aim of Big Brothers Big Sisters?
| A．To offer students public services. |
| B．To provide partnership and fun for young people. |
| C．To organize sport activities for young people. |
| D．To help students improve their grades |
A volunteer is usually expected to work within a year for at least .
| A．24 hours | B．72 hours |
| C．48 hours | D．36 hours |
According to Emily’s mother, this program may provide Emily with .
| A．a new way to assess herself |
| B．advice from her teachers |
| C．a new way to judge her schoolmates |
| D．more comments from her schoolmates |
Why did Sarah want to get involved in the program?
| A．She used to be a volunteer. |
| B．She felt a bit bored with her life. |
| C．She needed a part-time job. |
| D．She wanted to get a challenging job. |
According to the passage, ‘vulnerable young people’ underlined in Paragraph1 are probably those who are .
| A．popular at school |
| B．rather weak physically |
| C．easily hurt emotionally |
| D．confident in themselves |
In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopted and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the middle of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be __________.
| A．a writer | B．a teacher |
| C．a judge | D．a doctor |
Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?
| A．She wanted to study by herself. |
| B．She fell in love and got married. |
| C．She suffered from a serious illness. |
| D．She decided to look after her grandma. |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?
| A．She was busy yet happy with her family life. |
| B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons. |
| C．She wanted to remain a full-time housewife. |
| D．She was too confused to make a correct choice. |
What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Little by little, one goes far. |
| C．Every coin has two sides. |
| D．Well begun, half done. |
Which of the following can best describe the author?
| A．Caring and determined. |
| B．Honest and responsible. |
| C．Ambitious and sensitive. |
| D．Innocent and single-minded. |
A sick little girl is being kept alive thanks to her best friend — a dog who carries her oxygen tank on his back. Alida’s faithful dog companion Mr Gibbs has been specially trained to shepherd the three-year-old, who breathes through a tube most of the time. He follows her closely as she plays in her family’s ten-acre land in Louisville, uses the slide or even rides her bike.
Alida was diagnosed with neuroendocrine hyperplasia of infancy（NEHI）when she was just eight months old. Her rare condition has just eight hundred documented sufferers throughout the world, and causes diseased pieces of the lungs to filter oxygen through extra layers of cells, making it hard or almost impossible to breathe. For Alida and her parents, it meant that even a walk in the park was very difficult because oxygen equipment was too heavy for the youngster to be able to carry herself. As parents, they wanted to do something to help their daughter survive despite having a tube following her all the time. The couple found out about “service dogs” from a TV program and realized an animal trained to help the blind could be trained to help Alida. They finally found help in the shape of golden doodle—a retriever crossed with a poodle-dog Mr Gibbs. Now thanks to trainer Ashleigh Kinsley—Alida and Mr Gibbs love nothing more than playing and running around together with the dog acting as Alida’s life saver.What is Mr Gibbs?
| A．A pet dog. | B．A policeman. |
| C．A doctor. | D．A firefighter. |
When did the doctor know Alida caught the disease?
| A．At her birth. |
| B．At the age of eight. |
| C．Before she was one year old. |
| D．When she was three years old. |
The underlined part “the couple” in paragraph 3 refers to _______.
| A．Alida’s classmates | B．Alida’s parents |
| C．Alida’s doctors | D．Alida’s pets |
How did Alida keep alive?
| A．By training her dog. |
| B．By staying with her parents. |
| C．By playing with her fellows. |
| D．By breathing through a tube. |
It was reported last week that developers could take photos from Apple mobile and Google Android devices without the phone owners knowing that the images were being taken. In Apple’s case, developers can also obtain the location information for each photo.
Senator(参议员) Charles Schumer said in a telephone interview that his office had spoken with officials at both Apple and Google on Monday.
“We asked them if they could find a way on their own to prevent Apple from having access to private information,” Mr. Schumer said. “They were friendly and open to the idea that this ought to be changed.”
On Sunday, Mr. Schumer said that he planned to send a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to investigate Apple and Google after the privacy concerns came to light. Claudia Bourne Farrell, an F.T.C. spokeswoman, said the agency had received the letter but she could not comment further.
“It worries people to think that one’s personal photos, address book, and who knows what else can be obtained and even posted online without permission,” Mr. Schumer wrote in his letter to the F. T.C. “If the technology exists to open the door to this kind of privacy invasion, then surely technology exists to close it, and that’s exactly what must happen.”
Mr. Schumer said if Apple and Google could not come to an agreement to fix the problem, then he would be forced to take the issue further.
He said other companies had been willing to work with his office to fix issues. “I’m optimistic that we can get this changed without any regulation,” he said. “If it’s not changed, then we’ll turn to the F.T.C., and if that doesn’t work then we’ll consider legislative approach.”
The F.T.C. has warned companies to try to be more vigilant(警醒的) in their efforts to protect consumers when it comes to privacy.The senators spoke with officials at both Apple and Google_______.
| A．to urge them not to invade consumers’ privacy. |
| B．to discuss whether it is illegal to have access to private information. |
| C．to stop them from developing the technology of taking photos. |
| D．to keep them from obtaining the location information for each photo. |
Which of the following statements is True?
| A．Privacy invasion from Apple has existed for a long time. |
| B．Mr. Schumer takes the privacy concerns caused by Apple and Google seriously. |
| C．Privacy invasion from Google has existed for a long time. |
| D．Apple and Google have decided to make a change. |
Mr. Schumer’s letter to the F.T.C. mainly shows that the technology to open the door to privacy invasion_______.
A. causes privacy invasion to happen frequently.
B. can be used if permitted.
C. causes people to worry about the safety of their personal information.
D. causes personal information to be posted online without permission.Where can we read about the passage?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a magazine. |
| C．In a science report. | D．In a textbook. |
Besides containing attractive flowers, trees and other plants that beautify the community, ecofriendly rain gardens are healthy for the environment and the people living and working nearby.
A rain garden is not very different from a traditional garden. It is just a far more ecofriendly garden. Usually it is built lower than the ground. Rain gardens make smart use of rain and storm water by temporarily holding water from rain and storms and letting it soak(浸入)slowly into the ground before it runs into streams or enters the public drinking water supply.
Thus, a rain garden keeps the water, allowing it to be used as needed by plants in the rain garden, rather than flowing immediately into nearby streams and going unused. The water will soak slowly into the ground within a day or two. This creates an advantage that the rain garden does not allow mosquitoes to breed. This is a simple, attractive, and ecofriendly “green” way to treat storm water.
What’s more, planting a rain garden helps reduce pollution and improve the environment. Without using expensive machinery and chemicals, rain gardens remove harmful chemicals in the rainwater and cut down on the amount of pollution reaching streams and rivers by up to 30%.
Native plants are recommended for rain gardens because they are more used to the local climate, soil, and water conditions. They may attract local wildlife such as native birds. Water your rain garden immediately after planting and once a week, unless you have had at least an inch of rain during the week. Once native plants establish the necessary root system, they will require little care.
Often, local governments and private businesses develop large rain gardens in their yards and in public parks as a way to improve the environment and solve flooding problems. However, you don’t need to be a professionally environmental engineer to create a rain garden. As long as you’re ecoconscious homeowners, you can help the environment by building smaller rain gardens in your yards.Which of the following is NOT true for the function of rain gardens?
| A．They are good for living conditions. |
| B．They increase pollution. |
| C．They can beautify the community. |
| D．They improve the environment. |
Which of the following is the ecofriendly function of rain gardens discussed in Paragraph 4 ?
| A．They can help reduce the pollution problem. |
| B．They can keep the rain and storm water. |
| C．They can be healthy for the people around. |
| D．They can make the environment more beautiful. |
One of the main reasons why native plants are recommended is that.
| A．they cost less and are much easier to get |
| B．they may attract local wildlife to come |
| C．they require little care from the local gardener |
| D．they are more used to the local growing conditions |
What do we know about rain gardens?
| A．They need little water after all the plants are planted. |
| B．They may attract local birds and change the local climate. |
| C．They usually need at least an inch of rainwater a week. |
| D．They may reduce the water pollution problem by 70%. |