Free and secure accommodation, no bills and even the odd home-cooked meal. It sounds like the perfect living arrangement for cash-strapped students.
Two mothers believe they have devised（提出） a way for struggling students to save on accommodation costs when they leave home to study at university.
Kate Barnham and Amanda Flude have launched Student Swaps, an online accommodation forum（论坛） for parents and students, in advance of the introduction in September of ￡3,000 higher education top-up fees.
Their website says, “The principle behind Student Swaps is to enable students to literally swap (交换) family homes.” The website will hold a database of students who would like to swap and link them with suitable matches. So those from one town / city could swap with those from a different town / city.
The site describes itself as offering a “cost-free accommodation alternative… at a time of growing student debt”. There is no charge for the service at the moment but Ms Barnham and Ms Flude intend to introduce a ￡10 annual fee if it becomes established.
However, the National Union of Students (NUS) has warned that, while the scheme may sound appealing to struggling freshers, it lacks any formal regulation.
Veronica King, NUS vice-president of welfare, said, “The fact that this scheme has even been suggested is evidence to the high levels of debt students now face on graduation.” Recent research has shown that students are more likely to live at home in coming years, in a bid to cut down on the cost of a degree.
“This is worrying, as it may mean that students choose their university on the basis of where it is, rather than because it offers the best course for them. It also means students will miss out on what is for some a key part of the student experience-living away from home.”
1. A “cash-strapped” student means one who __________.
A. lacks money B. prefers to stay at home
C. is careful with money D. wants to change cash
2. What is Kate Barnham and Amanda Flude’s purpose of launching Student Swaps?
A. To provide cheaper accommodation for students.
B. To let students stay close to their universities.
C. To help students spend less on accommodation costs.
D. To let students exchange ideas freely online.
3. What can students do on Student Swaps?
A. They can find students to exchange homes with.
B. They can make friends with students from a different city.
C. They can borrow money to pay for their higher education.
D. They can voice their opinions against the rising cost of a degree.
4. Now many students would prefer a university _________.
A. which can give them free accommodation B. which is not far away from their homes
C. which offers the best courses D. which can offer home-cooked meals45. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. High Cost Troubles University Students in UK.
B. Students Swaps is Welcomed by Students in UK.
C. Two Mothers’ Good Intention to Help Students in UK.
D. Website Helps Students Live at Someone Else’s Home.
第三部分阅读理解（共20小题，计分40分，每小题2分）
阅读下列短文，并做每篇后的题目，从四个选项中选出能回答所提问题或所给句子的最佳答案。
HONG KONG-Nine out of ten Singapore citizens returned dropped wallets with
money in them, but in Hong Kong only three out of 10 wallets were returned in an
honesty test carried out in Asian cities by Readers Digest.
Larger cities did worse while in general people in smaller places returned secretly planted wallets, results from the experiment showed. Readers Digest secretly
scattered 140 wallets allover Asia, each with a name, address and phone number, family pictures, notes and money in it.
The magazine workers then watched to see what happened. South Koreans in Seoul returned six out of the ten dropped wallets, while those in Inchon returned eight. 50 per cent of the dropped wallets were returned in Bombay, Bangkok, Taipei and Kajang in
Malaysia, with most people saying they would not keep what was not rightfully
theirs. Honesty had little relation to wealth or status(地位), as several well-dressed people in a number of cities were observed to walk away without doing anything to get in touch with the rightful owners.
About 57 per cent of the wallets were returned, compared with 28 per cent in
Europe in a similar experiment and 67 per cent in the United States.
1. The newspaper report is mainly about_________.
A. how the honesty test was carried out
B. where the honesty test was carried out
C. the results of the honesty test in Asia
D. the results of the honesty tests in the world
2. It can be learned from the newspaper report that Bombay is a city in _________.
A. Europe B. Asia C. the United States D. Africa
3. How many of the wallets dropped in Asian cities were taken away without being returned?
A. About 60. B. About 80. C. About 56. D. About 42.
4. Which people did best in the honesty tests?
A. People in Hong Kong. B. People in the United States.
C. People in Inchon.D. People in Singapore.
Happy birthday
The China Nation Opera (CNO)will give a concert to celebrate its 50th birthday.
Different generations of CNO vocalists(歌手), like Li Guangxi, Yao Hong and Ma Mei, will present the concert which will feature both songs from famous Chinese operas like “The White-haired GM “and “The Hundredth Bride”, as well as, arias (咏叹调) of such Western opera classics as “Madame Butterfly”, “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto”.
Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 7, 8
Location : Tianqiao Theatre
Tel : 6551-4787, 8315-6170
Tickets : 60—50 yuan (US $7.2-60.2)
Folk music
A concert will be held to feature some recently-composed traditional Chinese music works.
The concert, given by the Folk Orchestra of the China Opera and Ballet Theatre, will include such pieces as “Memory of Childhood”, “Memorial Ceremony for God” and “Wine Song”.
Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 13
Location: Concert hall at the National Library of China
Tel: 6848-5462, 6841-9220
Tickets : 30-200 yuan (US $ 3.6—24.1)
Moon music
A concert of traditional Chinese music will be given on the eve of the Moon Festival which falls on September 21st this year.
The concert will feature a number of famous pieces centered on this theme of the moon, such as “Moonlight”, “Spring Night on a Moonlit River” and “Lofty Mountain and Flowing River.”
A number of established traditional Chinese music performers, like Zhou Yaokun and Fan Weiqing, will play solos（独奏）as well as collaborate（合奏）with the folk music orchestra.
Time/ date: 7:30 pm, September 21st
Location: Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities
Tel: 6606-8888, 6606-9999
1. If you want to buy tickets for listening to the music “Memory of Childhood”, you will dial .
| A. 6551-4787 |
B. 6848-5462 |
C. 8315-6170 |
D. 6606-9999 |
2. “Madame Butterfly” is .
| A. a Chinese opera |
B. a song |
C. a piece of music |
D. a Western opera |
3. The passage will most probably appear in the column “ ”of a newspaper.
| A. Animals |
B. People |
C. Entertainment |
D. Sports |
Dear Earthmen,
I have enjoyed my stay on your interesting unusual planet. I think I understand the life on earth now and I would like to give you my impressions.
First of all you live in boxes. Every morning you leave your big boxes and get into smaller boxes on wheels. All these small boxes race around and around, and finally stop to rest. You then leave these boxes on wheels and go to very large tall boxes.
After testing all days you get back in your little boxes and return to your big boxes. There you sit and stare at tiny glowing boxes with moving pictures on the front.
Only one thing puzzles me. One day, I went to a football game. A bunch of angry boys fought over a little round ball. Everyone yelled for them to stop but they kept on fighting. They were angry, I suppose, about being cooped up（被关起来）in boxes all day.
Thank you earthmen for this chance to get to know you.
Gratefully,
The man from the Mars（火星）
1. The small boxes on wheels are ________.
| A. toys |
B. cars |
|
| C. houses that can be moved |
D. boxes in which there are wheels |
2. The tiny glowing boxes with moving pictures on the front are ______.
| A. cameras |
B. cinema screens |
C. telescopes |
D. TV sets |
3. In the football game ________.
A. the players were very angry because there was only one ball on the playground
B. the players were very angry because everyone yelled at them
C. the man from the Mars saw fighting among the angry boys
D. the man from the Mars saw a close match
4. The best title of this passage is ______.
| A. The Man from the Mars |
B. Something about Boxes |
|
| C. A Letter from the Mars |
D. A football Game |
5. The man from the Mars thinks _______.
A. it is interesting to live on our unusual planet
B. there are so many boxes on the earth
C. the tiny glowing boxes are moving pictures
D. the angry boys are too foolish to fight over a little round ball
Every people（民族）uses its own special（特殊的）words to show its ideas and feelings. Some expressions are commonly used for many years. Others are popular for just a short time. One such American expression is“Where’s the beef?”It is used when something is not as good as it is said to be In the early 1980s “Where’s the beef?”was one of the most popular expressions in the United States. It seemed as if everyone was using it at the time.
Beef, of course, is the meat from a cow, and no food is more popular in America than a hamburger（汉堡包）made from beef. In the 1960s a businessman named Ray Kroc began building small restaurants that sold hamburgers at a low price. Kroc called his restaurants“McDonald’s”. Ray Kroc became one of the richest businessmen in America.
Other business people watched his success. Some of them opened their own hamburger restaurants. One company（公司）called“Wendy’s”said its hamburgers were bigger than those sold by McDonald’s or anyone else’s .The Wendy’s Company began to use the expression“Where’s the beef?”to make people know that Wendy’s hamburgers were the biggest. The Wendy’s television advertisement（广告）showed three old women eating hamburgers. The bread that covered the meat was very big, but inside there was only a bit of meat. One of the women said she would not eat a hamburger with such a little piece of beef.“Where’s the beef?”she shouted in a funny way. The advertisement for Wendy’s hamburger restaurants was a success. As we said, it seemed everyone began using the expression“Where’s the beef?”
1.______________started Mc Donald’s restaurant.
| A. Ray Kroc |
B. McDonald |
C. Wendy |
D. Three old women |
2. Other people wanted to open hamburger restaurants because they thought .
A. they could sell hamburgers at a low price
B. hamburgers were easy to make
C. beef was very popular in America
D. they could make a lot of money
3. Wendy’s made the expression known to everybody .
A. with many old women eating hamburgers
B. by a television advertisement
C. while selling bread with a bit of meat in it
D. at the McDonald’s restaurant
4. We can learn from the passage that the expression“Where’s the beef?”means .
A. the beef in hamburgers is not as much as it is said to be
B. the hamburgers are not as good as they are said to be
C. something is not so good as one says
D. Wendy’s is the biggest
Once a group of 17-year-old schoolboys decided to break the world basketball marathon（马拉松）record. They wanted to play for 90 hours, which adds 6 hours to the record. Each team had 9 players, with 5 at a time. The boys decided each person would play 21.5 hours and then rest for 2 hours. Then they started at 6 o’clock in the evening.
The first night was very hard for the players. When it was their turn to rest, they were too excited to fall asleep at once. After sleeping for a short time, they had to play again. On the second night, they fell asleep as soon as they stopped, Some of them had trouble with their feet and hands, but the only serious problem was a psychological（心理学的）one. Each boy was thinking: Why am I doing this? How can I play any longer? After the third night, the players knew they could finish the 90 hours. The basketball on the fourth night was very slow. But in the final hours, the players got better. For the last few minutes, the players looked as fresh as when they started. How happy everyone was!
1. Before this basketball marathon, the world record was .
| A. 84 hours |
B. 86 hours |
C. 90 hours |
D. 96 hours |
2. The first night was hard for the players because .
| A. they were too excited |
B. they only slept for a short time |
|
| C. no one watched them play |
D. it was very long |
3. “…the players looked as fresh as when they started.”Here “fresh”means .
| A. 不熟练的 |
B. 兴奋不己的 |
C. 精神饱满的 |
D. 伤痕累累的 |
4. Which of the following is Not true？
A. Some of the boys were hurt when they played
B. It was hard for the players to fall asleep at night
C. The boys started playing at 6 o’clock in the evening
D. In the end, all the boys felt happy