第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，计分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
America is growing older. Fifty-eight years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 years old or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65 years old. The aging （老龄化） of the population will affect American society in many ways—education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has given us a very different society— one in which people have different ideas of what kind of behavior is suitable at various ages.
A person’s age no longer tells you anything about his / her social position, marriage or health. There’s no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that keeps us on time and tells us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn’t as strong as it used to be. It doesn’t surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.
Many people say, “I am much younger than my mother or my father when she or he was at my age.” No one says “Act your age” any more. We’ve stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.
56. It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America has _______.
A. made people feel younger B. changed people’s social position
C. changed people’s understanding of age
D. slowed down the country’s development
57. The underlined word “one” refers to ________.
A. a very different society B. America C. a place D. population
58. “Act your age” means people should ________.
A. be active when they are old B. do the right things at the right age
C. show respect for their parents
D. take more physical exercise suitable to their age
59. If a 25-year-old man becomes the manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it ________.
A. normal B. wonderful C. unbelievable D. strange
.
第二部分：阅读理解
第一节：阅读下列短文，从A、B、C、D选项中选出最佳选项。（每小题2分，共40分）
Let us begin by saying what causes our dreams. Our dreams do not come from another world. They are not messages from some outside source .They are not a look into the future, either.
All our dreams have something to do with our feelings, fears, longings, wishes, needs and memories. If a person is hungry, or tired, or cold , his dreams may include a feeling of this kind. If the covers on your body, such as a quilt or a blanket, have slipped off your bed, you may dream that you are sleeping on ice or in snow. The material for the dream you will have tonight is likely to come from the experience you have today.
So the subject of your dream usually comes from something that has effect on you while you are sleeping（feeling of cold, a noise, a discomfort, etc.）and it may also use your past experiences and the wishes and the interests you have now. This is why children are likely to dream of fairies, older children of school examinations, hungry people of food, home-sick soldiers of their families and prisoners of freedom.
To show you how this is happening while you are asleep and how your needs and wishes can all be joined together in a dream, here is the story of the experiment. A man was asleep and the back of his hand was rubbed with a piece of absorbed cotton. He would dream he was in hospital and his charming girlfriend was visiting him, sitting on the bed and feeling gently his hands!
There are some scientists who have made a special study of why we dream, what we dream and what those dreams mean. Their explanation of dreams, though a bit reasonable, is not accepted by everyone but it offers an interesting approach to the problem. They believe that dreams are mostly expressions of wishes that did not come true. In other words dreaming is a way of having your wishes carried out.
41. From the passage we know that our dreams_______.
A. are imagination of our daily life
B. are man’s curious look into the future
C. have nothing to do with our feelings
D. are to some degree connected with our feelings
42. In your dream when you feel like eating something it indicates（暗示）that_______
A. you are in a state of being cold B. you are in a state of being tired
C. you are in a state of hunger D. you should have had your dinner that day
43. Older children often dream of examinations probably because_______.
A. they are interested in exams
B. they are often worried about their studies
C. they hope for better life
D. they show much interest in their studies
44. Some scientists’ explanation of dreams_______.
A. is not widely accepted though a bit reasonable
B. gives an exact description of our life
C. provides us with information of dreams
D. is of no use for us
.
Geniuses amaze us, impress us and make us all a little jealous．How do they differ from the average person? Scientists are working hard to figure out that answer．Tune in to the National Geographic Channel to find out about the discoveries they’re making in the series My Brilliant Brain.
When Marc Yu was only two years old, he began to play the piano．After a year, he started learning pieces by Beethoven．Now he’s a world-famous concert pianist at age eight．He learns newer and more difficult pieces with ease and can identify any note he hears．He seems to be specially designed for music．In Born Genius, National Geographic looks at the science behind child prodigies (神童) to explain why some children seem to be born without limits.
Genius didn’t come naturally to Tommy McHugh．His came only after he nearly died from bleeding in his brain．After recovering, McHugh’s head was filled with new thoughts and pictures．So, he began to express them in the form of poetry and art．Now, he’s a seemingly unstoppable creative machine．Sufferers of autism and brain injury have shown that great mental ability can sometimes come from damage or disease．Accidental Genius explores this puzzling relationship.
Can normal people be trained to be geniuses? Susan Polger has shown no signs of extraordinary intelligence．Yet, during her childhood, she studied thousands of chess patterns and learned to recognize them immediately．As a result, she was able to beat skilled adult players by age 10 and can now play up to five games at the same time without even seeing the boards．Make Me a Genius examines what it takes to turn an ordinary brain into that of a genius.
If becoming a genius were easy, we’d all be one．Yet, there is much more to super intelligence than simply being born lucky．Learn more about amazing brains this month on National Geographic’s My Brilliant Brain.
57．My Brilliant Brains is most probably from _______.
A．a website B．the radio C．a magazine D．a newspaper
58．The author takes Marc Yu as an example to show that a child prodigy is .
A．a person who learns something easily
B．a child who is eager to learn new things
C．a student who practices an instrument a lot
D．a kid who works hard to do well in school
59．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A．New things about the brain are still being discovered.
B．People without natural abilities can learn to do things well.
C．Some people naturally have more active brains.
D．People are usually smarter when they recover from brain injury.
60．The author develops the passage mainly by .
A．providing typical examples
B．following the natural time order
C．presenting a cause and analyzing its effects
D．comparing opinions from different scientists
.
When you are little, it’s not hard to believe you can changed the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of 12, I addressed the people at the Rio Earth Summit. “I am only a child,” I told them. "Yet I know that if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this would be. In school you teach us not to fight with others, to work things out, to respect others, to clean up our mess, not to hurt other creatures, to share, not be greedy. Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do? You grownups say you love us, but I challenge you, please, to make your actions reflect your words."
I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur（刺激） action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I've sat through many more conferences, I'm not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual's voice to reach them has been deeply shaken.
When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices--education, career, lifestyle--life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel pressure to produce and be successful. We are learning a shortsighted way of looking at the future, focusing on four-year government terms and quarterly business reports. We are taught that economic growth is progress, but we aren't taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for our future when we were 12 was idealistic and naïve（天真）.
Today I'm no longer a child, but I'm worried about what kind of environment my children will grow up in. I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make choices, we will rise to the challenges, and we will become part of the positive tide of the change. I hope this goal will be met through our common efforts. Thank you all.
53．The purpose of what the speaker said at the age of 12 was to .
A．end poverty and make school beautiful
B．find environmental answers and show off
C．focus people’s attention on some social problems
D．find a wonderful place and clean it up
54．What does the underlined word “ovation” in the second paragraph refer to?
A．A long period of laughing. B．A cold and unfriendly welcome.
C．An expression used for greeting. D．Great applause or cheering.
55．The information in the text is presented mainly through .
A．question and answer B．a personal lecture
C．cause and effect D．listing steps in a process
56．Which of the following best describes the speaker?
A．He is an experienced educator. B．He is an impolite man.
C．He is a man of great worries. D．He is a man of social responsibility.
.
Pushing children too hard is a really big social problem that seems to be getting worse．Now we have 6-month-olds in music classes and swimming classes．Parents fear that if other children are attending these classes，they will be holding their own children back if they do not enroll，too．
The other extreme，simply taking a laissez-faire approach and letting children do—or refuse to do—whatever they want，is not the answer either，of course．
Dr Taylor emphasizes that parents need to push their children based on what is best for the children，not what is best for themselves．If children understand that an activity is in their best interests，then they will accept it, he finds．
Dr Taylor and other family experts remain pessimistic about the possibilities for widespread social change．“The force of our popular culture，driven by money and superficial（表面上的） values，cannot be resisted，” he says．But change can take place at a“micro-level,” in families and schools．
When changes do occur，the rewards can benefit everyone in the family．One mother supporting this new approach toward parenting mentions the advantages her family experienced after her children cut back on activities．“The biggest thing is that since we have done this，we are rested,” she says．“Not only are our kids rested，because they're not in a ton of stuff, but my husband and I are rested，because we're not driving them everywhere．We weren’t living in the moment when we were always busy．We were living by the schedule．The return on our investment of spending time together has been enormous．”
49．One of the reasons why parents push children so hard is that they________．
A．believe in early development in children
B．are too busy to take care of their children
C．don't want their children to lag behind
D．want to repeat what their parents did to them
50．The phrase“a laissez-faire approach”（in Line 1，Paragraph 2）most probably refers to______．
A．denying them what they need
B．controlling children in a flexible way
C．developing a keen interest in children
D．letting children do whatever they want
51．The best way to encourage children to work hard is___________．
A．to make them believe it’s in their best interests
B．to consider the matter from parents' standpoint
C．to emphasize the importance of hard work from time to time
D．to make it interesting and enjoyable to them
52．The new approach toward parenting mentioned in the passage most likely refers to _______．
A．relieving children’s hard work and unnecessary activity
B．resisting the superficial values of pop culture
C．reducing more activity off their school schedule
D．spending more time with their children
.
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45. The advertisements are to________.
A. start a business. B. look for English teachers.
C. provide the latest jobs. D. help people find a suitable job.
46. From the first advertisement, we can learn that ______.
A. English Teacher agency charges teachers for this service.
B. you must go online to offer your basic information first.
C. you may call to get more information about the job.
D. once you join English Teacher agency, you will get a job.
47. Which of the following is TRUE of the private English tutor in Advertisement 3?
A. Be an English language expert from UK.
B. Speak American English.
C. Have rich teaching experience.
D. Spoken English as well as Chinese is quite good.
48. If you didn't pass the interview for Teacher / Librarian, the probable reason should be that __
A. you like working with children. B. you have a strong team spirit.
C. you lack teaching experience. D. you are poor in Chinese.