第三部分：阅读理解（共16小题：每小题1.5分，满分24分）
第一节 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。（共13个小题，每小题1.5分，满分19.5 分）并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Our little boy came up t
o his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was preparing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his mom dried her hands on her apron (围裙) , she read it, and this is what was said:
For going to the store for you $2.
For cutting the grass in the garden $3.
For cleaning up the yard this week $2.5.
For cleaning up my room this week $2.
For setting the table for meals this week $1.
For baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping $1.5.
For getting a good school report $5.
Total owed: $17.
His mother looked at him, who was standing there with expectation. Memories flashed through her mind. Then she picked up a pen, turned over the paper he had written on, and wrote:
For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me, No Charge(收费) .
For all the nights that I’ve sat up with you and taken care of you, No Charge.
For all the problems and troubles that you’ve caused through the years, there is No Charge.
When you add it all up, the cost of my love is No Charge.
For all the nights that were filled with fear and for the worries I knew were ahead, No Charge. For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping up your nose? There is No Charge. And when you add it all up, the full cost of real love is, No Charge, Son.
Well, friends, when our son finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight up at his mother and said, “Mom, I sure do love you..” And then he took the pen and in great letters he wrote, “ PAID IN FULL.”
1. What might the mother be doing when the boy came into the kitchen?
A. Getting the dishes ready. B. Repairing the cooker.
C. Washing dirty dishes. D. Laying the table for dinner.
2. According to the boy’s bill, his mom owed him ______ for his helping with the house work.
A. $7.50 B. $10.50 C. $12.00 D. $17.00
3. This story tries to tell us that ________.
A. real love is priceless B. housework is endless C. the mother is wise D. the boy is selfish
A severely handicapped teenager who cannot walk, talk or hold a
paintbrush has won a place at Oxford to study fine art. Hero Joy Nightingale, 16, who communicates through hand movements, is to be given assistants to paint and sculpt(雕塑) in place of her .Her mother Pauline Reid “translated” for her daughter during interviews for the place at Magdalen College.
The teenager is the most severely handicapped student ever to be given a place at Oxford. She suffers from a terrible disease caused by brain damage that makes her unable to speak and her body useless.
She is unlikely ever to be able to walk, feed or care for herself but, thanks to the efforts of her mother. She can communicate. When Hero was four, Pauline designed a system of hand gestures that is equal to the alphabet.
By dictating to the her mother , Hero has created an internet magazine, From the window, which contains by George Carey, Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Atwood and Kofi Annan — all of whom are invited to write for her.
A spokesperson for Oxford said, “The university welcomes applications from students with disabilities. In cases where students are profoundly disabled, there may be many issues(问题) that need to be carefully talked about before an individual can take up a place, such as fixing firmly how the student can best be taught and examined.”
Hero, who suffers almost daily epileptic fits and has a hole in her heart, has not attended school since she was six. She has been taught at home by her mother and father, who work at Kent University.
Peter Giles, her art tutor until last year, said she has a gift for art. “She is ferociously gifted. We would sit together and her mother would grab her daughter’s hand and then we would begin work,” he said.
Together, they built several modern sculptures from plaster and metal. “The instructions would talk a while to decipher(解释，解密). But finally, they would come, and finally make sense.”
Hero’s classes will be held at the Ruskin School Drawing and Fine Art.According to the passage, which of the following statement is NOT TRUE?
| A．Oxford University has taken in other handicapped students besides Hero. |
| B．Hero’s mother is the only person who can understand her fairly well. |
| C．Hero can not create any art works without her fairly well. |
| D．Only through her hand movement, is Hero able to paint and sculpt. |
In the sentence: “But finally, they would come and finally make sense.”, the word “they” refers to _______.
| A．the assistants | B．the mother and the assistants |
| C．Hero’s instructions | D．the mother’s instructions |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Disabled Hero and her Mother |
| B．Disabled Hero Wins Oxford Place |
| C．Oxford University Welcome Disabled Students |
| D．Disabled Students Living in Oxford University |
BEIJING, Oct. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A recent sudden temperature drop in most areas of China has set off fears of a possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the country has mobilized to prepare for another outbreak.
North China's Tianjin Port resumed a temperature reporting system on Sunday. Any passengers through the port with a temperature above 38 degrees Celsius would be provided medical observation and reported to relevant authorities.
Zhong Nanshan, a well-known anti-SARS scientist during the last outbreak, said it was unlikely the SARS virus would die out naturally and it would definitely come back, but predicted no widespread epidemic outbreak and the epidemic would not cause serious damage again.
Caught unprepared this spring, Chinese authorities have learned to act quickly before the epidemic can take a hold.
Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi Thursday urged strictly implementing the daily SARS epidemic reporting system and warned that people delaying reporting or hiding the true situation would be severely punished.
In Beijing, the disease control center in Dongcheng District has recovered a 24 hour schedule for possible epidemic breakout. Every afternoon before 3:00 o'clock, the center receives SARS reports from every hospital in the district and then reports to the Beijing municipal disease control center and health bureau.
In Beijing Xiehe Hospital, plans are ready for fever patients to receive treatment in a special section. Doctors in that ward, wearing protective clothing, will observe patients for any possible respiratory diseases. Patients with high fever and symptoms of respiratory diseases are required to be observed for one or two weeks.
North China's Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the two other hardest-hit areas in the last SARS crisis, have both set up an emergency response mechanism and mobilized all concerned departments. The system has also been set up in rural Inner Mongolia.
People are urged to pick up again the healthy habits they formed during the last SARS outbreak. Zhong Nanshan said the most important way to prevent SARS was to play more sports and maintain good ventilation. Spitting in public and eating wild animals were very dangerous, said Zhong. This passage is mainly about_______.
| A．Zhong Nanshan, a well-known anti-SARS scientist |
| B．What happened during the first outbreak of SARS |
| C．How well China is prepared for another likely outbreak of SARS |
| D．What hospitals in Beijing have done |
Which isn’t included in the measures taken by the Chinese?
| A．A temperature reporting system. | B．The daily SARS epidemic reporting system. |
| C．A 24-hour schedule for possible epidemic breakout. | |
| D．An emergency response mechanism all over the country. |
Which doesn’t belong to Beijing’s reaction to the possible epidemic?
| A．SARS reports must be given to the disease control center and health bureau. |
| B．Fever patients receiving special sections are ready. |
| C．High fever patients are to be observed for 3 weeks. |
| D．Doctors treating high fever patients will wear protection clothes. |
Mass media are tools of communication. They allow us to record and pass information rapidly to a large, scattered audience. They extend our ability to each other by helping us overcome limits caused by time and space. Mass media can be divided into two groups: print media and electronic media. By print media, we mean books, newspapers and magazines. Electronic media include television, radio and movie.
There are a number of ways in which mass media make daily life easier for us. First, they inform and help us keep a watch on our world. They gather and pass on information we would be unlikely or unable to gain on our own.
Second, mass media help us to arrange our time and life. What we talk about and what we think about are greatly influenced by the media. When people get together, they tend to talk about certain happenings on the newspapers or on TV. Because we are provided with differing points of view through different kinds of media every day, we are able to comment on all sides of a certain issue.
Third, mass media help us to connect with various groups in society. Through mass media, we are able to keep in contact with politicians in the world; with famous actors and actresses, and with our beloved singers.
Fourth, the media help to socialize us. We learn about the preferred behavior and values from the people we meet as well as from the media. Through portrayals of people, the media tell us what proper behaviors are. By doing so, they teach us standards of behavior and values, and help us in our daily life.
Fifth, the media are used to persuade people. A good example is advertisements through the media. Newspapers, magazines and TV are filled with all kinds of colorful, persuasive advertisements. Though many advertisements may not say openly that they want you to buy a certain product, they describe their products in such a way that you may want to but them.
Sixth, the media entertain. All of the media make some effort trying to entertain their audience. For example, even though the newspaper is a main medium of information, it also contains entertainment features. Many newspapers offer their readers at least some of the following: comics, fiction books and puzzle games, televisions and magazines are devoted mainly to entertainment. It is guessed that in the future, the entertainment function of mass media will become even more important than it is now.They underlined word “scattered” in paragraph 1 means______.
| A．faraway | B．nearly | C．a small number of | D．small and far apart |
The underlined word “portrayal” in Paragraph 5 means ______.
| A．photograph | B．words | C．description | D．clothes |
According to the passage, which of the following statements isn’t true about medium?
| A．Mass media have an effect on our speech and thoughts. |
| B．Mass media keep us informed and connected. |
| C．Mass media persuade us into buying what we don’t need at all. |
| D．Mass media help us spend time with others in a friendly way. |
Which of the following isn’t included about mass media in the passage?
| A．entertainment | B．sports | C．famous people | D．advertisements |
______ is an old form of mass media now.
| A．Mobile phone | B．Computer | C．Radio | D．Television |
Sherlock Holmes is considered by many people as the greatest detective in fictional literature. He is, in fact, more famous than his own creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the popular series of stories, Holmes is described as “tall and lean, pope-smoking, always in his cape and speaks in a splendid manner”. Doyle gave Holmes’ address as 221-B Baker Street, London, and to this day some visitors to London still go to Baker Street to search for 221-B. Of course, there never was really any such address. Holmes’ flat was supposed to be shared by the lovable, but sometimes clumsy Doctor Watson who went around with Holmes trying to solve crimes before Holmes did. Poor Dr Watson lost out to Holmes every time.
Doyle gave Holmes a masterly skill of deduction---the ability to come up with interesting conclusion from the simplest clues found at the scene of a crime. Doyle said that the description of Holmes was modeled on one of his lecturers at Edinburgh University where he studied medicine. That man was Dr Joseph Bell. Sherlock Holmes first appeared in Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet published in 1887. Holmes was so loved by all that when his author killed him off in one of his stories, readers wrote in anger to complain. They refused to allow Holmes to die! Holmes was brought back to “life” and appeared in further stories.
The stories of Sherlock Holmes have been reprinted many times ever since then. Today we can watch Holmes at work on cinema and television screens as well as on stage.Sherlock Holmes was________.
| A．the greatest detective who ever lived |
| B．Dr Joseph Bell |
| C．Arthur Conan Doyle |
| D．only a character made up by Arthur Conan Dolye |
Dr Watson was________.
| A．tall and learn |
| B．lovable but always clumsy |
| C．lovable but sometimes clumsy |
| D．lovable and never clumsy |
Holmes was supposed to have lived_______.
| A．with Dr Watson | B．with Dr Joseph Bell |
| C．with the greatest detective | D．with Doyle |
Doyle made up the description of Holmes_______.
| A．from his own imagination |
| B．based on a famous London doctor |
| C．based on Dr Joseph Bell at Edinburgh University |
| D．based on a model of Holmes |
Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the learned in the early days of the history, while during the fifteenth century the term “reading” undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become popular.
One should be careful, however, of supposing that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is distraction（分散注意力）to others. Examination of reasons connected with the historical development of silent reading shows that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.
The last century saw a gradual increase in literacy（读写能力）and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of listeners dropped, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the popularity of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, trains and offices, where reading aloud would disturb other readers in a way.
Towards the end of the century there was still heated argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its advantages are, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media on the one hand and by books and magazines for a specialized readership on the other.
By the end of t he century students were being advised to have some new ideas of books and to use skills in reading them which were not proper, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological developments in the century had greatly changed what the term “reading” referred to.Why was reading aloud common before the nineteenth century?
| A．Because silent reading had not been discovered. |
| B．Because there were few places for private reading. |
| C．Because few people could read for themselves. |
| D．Because people depended on reading for enjoyment. |
The development of silent reading during the nineteenth century showed_______.
| A．a change in the position of literate people |
| B．a change in the nature of reading |
| C．an increase in the number of books |
| D．an increase in the average age of readers |
Educationalists are still arguing about__________.
| A．the importance of silent reading |
| B．the amount of information provided by books and newspapers |
| C．the effects of reading on health |
| D．the value of different types of reading material |
What is the writer of this passage attempting to do?
| A．To explain how present day reading habits developed. |
| B．To change people’s way to read. |
| C．To show how reading methods have improved. |
| D．To encourage the growth of reading. |