My destination is the River Walk, one of the most popular places in all of Texas. In the first half of 20th century, to control flooding, the city fathers began redirecting the San Antonio River. They built a network of canals that pass through the downtown area. At nearly every street corner, stairs lead down to walkways on both sides of the canals.
The River Walk is linked with cafes, bars, shops --- and, of course, plenty of bridges. You can easily cross over to the other side without having to return to the street. It’s a constant party along the River Walk, with music and festivals throughout the year. The Mud Festival, for example, takes place each January, when the city empties this section of the river to clean it out. That’s when the Mud King and Mud Queen are crowned.
No visit to Texas would be complete without seeing a rodeo --- another aspect of this part of the country that is completely foreign to someone from New England. The announcer walks on stage and gets the crowd excited with talk about the courageous cowboys who’ll be performing. While he’s talking, a band plays sad songs about love gone wrong.
Suddenly the announcer calls for silence. He takes off his tall hat and asks us to join him in prayer. We pray for the cowboys who are, we are told, risking their lives to entertain us, as well as for the bulls and other animals taking part in the shows. We pray for the tourists who are visiting. The rodeo gets going and the fun begins.
Our prayers for the cowboys and animals are answered, and nobody gets hurt. But as we walk over to the cowboy dance hall after the show to enjoy a Texas-size barbecue, it’s clear that not enough prayers were said for the bulls’ less athletic relatives --- the ones not chosen for rodeo work. They’ll be our meal. It seems that moving too slowly has its disadvantages, too.
46.What do you know about the River Walk from the article?
A. People hold parties to celebrate festivals here every day.
B. It refers to the sidewalks on either side of this section of the San Antonio River.
C. There are many bridges that connect the River Walk and the Main Street.
D. Stairs link the River Walk to cafes, bars and shops in the street.
47. Which of the following statements about Mud festival is NOT true?
A. Mud Festival dates back to the first half of 20th century.
B. Mud Festival is held in January every year.
C. Mud King and Mud Queen are chosen in the festival
D. Mud Festival is celebrated to clear the mud of the San Antonio River.
48. What does the underlined word “rodeo” refer to?
A. One aspect of the American country life. B. The concert given by a band.
C. The cowboys’ performance. D. The grand Texas-size barbecue.
49. Why do some bulls become the visitors’ meal?
A. Because they do not run as fast as those taking part in the shows.
B. Because the visitors do not pray enough for them before the shows.
C. Because they lose the competition to their relatives in the shows.
D. Because they are only beef cattle intended as people’s food.
50. Which of the following words can NOT be used to describe the writer’s mood?
A. light-hearted B. excited C. anxious D. humorous
Three Boys and a Dad
Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park,” he’d told his wife. “I’ll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom.”
Things started well, but just after eight o’clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex—came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” When food had not appeared within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex’s head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat（节拍）. Mike chanted “Where’s my toast, where’s my toast” in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.
Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy’s underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named “Not Me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.
By ten o’clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his colour pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room，but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realised that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.
At exactly 11:17, Brad called the daycare centre (日托所）.“I suddenly have to go into work and my wife’s away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.When his wife left home. Brad expected to.
| A．go out for a walk in the park |
| B．watch TV talk show with his children |
| C．enjoy his first day off work |
| D．read the newspaper to his children |
Which of the following did Randy do?
| A．Drawing on the wall | B．Eating apple jam |
| C．Feeding the fish. | D．Reading in a room |
Why did Brad ask the daycare centre for help?
| A．Because he wanted to clean up his house. |
| B．Because he suddenly had to go to his office |
| C．Because he found it hard to manage his boys home. |
| D．Because he had to take his wife back |
This text is developed.
| A．by space | B．by comparison | C．by process | D．by time |
What brings a nation together? Of the four choices — shared values, language, history, and religion, it’s shared values. In our latest poll (民意调査), seven out of 16 countries chose values as the greatest factor (因索）bringing a nation together, and six preferred language. Both choices scored high in the poll, suggesting that our values and how we express them are closely linked Still, history was not forgotten in some countries, particularly in Mexico and Russia. Even Canada and the United States chose national histories as the second-most important factor uniting their people. The biggest surprise? Not one country picked religion as its top choice.
| Respect your elders In most countries, the oldest generation considered values more important to a nation than did those who are under 45 years old. |
Do you speak Canadian? Language scored lower in Canada than in all other countries polled, perhaps because the country speaks two official languages, French and English. |
Church and state Most people polled do not connect their religious beliefs to their national pride. Religion ranked last in 13 countries — with France scoring it at 1%, the lowest of all. |
According to the poll, what was the most important factor in bringing a nation together?
| A．Language. | B．Values. | C．History. | D．Religion. |
In which country did language score the lowest in their national pride?
| A．Canada. | B．Mexico. | C．France. | D．America. |
According to the charts, shared values and language were considered equally important in .
| A．Australia | B．Brazil | C．China | D．India |
阅读下面短文，并根据短文后的要求答题（请注意问题后的字数要求）。
［1］If you are worried about things and are under a lot of stress at work or school，then you are prob-ably not sleeping well. Worry can keep you awake，tossing and turning in bed until the early hours of the morning when you eventually fall asleep. When you wake up，you don't feel refreshed，but tired and worn out and unable to face a new day.
［2］ Dr. Henry Winkle，in a recent newspaper article entitled Stress and Sleep，indicates that .Dr. Winkle says，“The more we worry，the less we sleep，the more we are unable to deal with stress. If we can find a way to get a good night's sleep，”he adds，“we can often find the energy to deal with what's worrying us.”
［3］So，what is a good night's sleep? Research shows that the amount of sleep which people need in order to keep healthy varies a lot. Seven hours is about the average amount，though strangely enough，sleeping longer often gives you a headache instead of making you feel more refreshed.
［4］Dr. Winkle believes that preparing for sleeping is important. People who work late should try to give themselves a short break and do something restful before going to bed. This could be watching TV or listening to music. Doing some exercise earlier in the day should help you to feel physically as well as mentally tired. A bedtime drink can also help，but coffee or tea should be avoided as they contain caffeine and will keep you awake.
［5］ “When you put the light out，” Dr. Winkle says，“concentrate on relaxing your muscles，working slowly up from your feet，and you 'll be asleep before you know it.”What is the main idea of the text? (no more than 5 words)
Complete the following statement with words from Paragraph 2. ( no more than 3 words)
People shouldn't go to sleep immediately but shouldafter working late in the night.Point out the disadvantage of drinking coffee and tea before going to bed. (no more than 6 words)
Fill in the blank in Paragraph 2 with proper words. (no more than 10 words)
What does the word “it” (Line2，Paragraph5) probably refer to? (no more than 3 words)
In a few years，you might be able to speak Chinese，Korean，Japanese，French，and English-and all at the same time. This sounds incredible，but Alex Waibel，a computer science professor at US's Car-negie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe，announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application，called Lecture Translation，can easily translate a speech from one language into an-other. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Us-ers also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another machine can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what languagethey speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you，”Waibel said
Prefer to read? So- called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal display(LCD) screen.
Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech.The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face，according to research-ers.
During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus，a Chinese student named Sang Jun had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks，neck and throat. Then he mouthed-without speaking aloud- a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later，the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”
This particular instrument，when fully developed，might allow anyone to speak in any number of lan-guages or，as Waibel put it，“to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the universi-ty's prototypes is to create'good enough' bridges for cross- cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world，”Waibel said.
With spontaneous(自发的) translators，foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio; tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people;leaders of different coun-tries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.What can't be learned from the text?
| A．The spontaneous translators will help us a lot. |
| B．There is no Muscle Translator in the world now. |
| C．Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth. |
| D．A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily. |
What does the underlined word mean?
| A．happening at at the same time. | B．happening by itself. |
| C．similar in size. | D．Similar in quality. |
What's the final destination of inventing the language translators?
| A．To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier. |
| B．To help students learn foreign languages more easily. |
| C．To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably. |
| D．To help people learn more foreign languages in the future. |
What can be inferred from the seventh paragraph?
| A．The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need. |
| B．The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge. |
| C．With the help of the translator，you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all. |
| D．The translator needs to be improved before being put into market. |
Where can we probably find this passage?
| A．A newspaper. | B．A magazine on science. |
| C．A fairy tale. | D．A scientific fantasy book. |
The United States is already one year into a depression That was the news this week from the Na-tional Bureau of Economic Research. The downturn is the longest since a depression that began in 1981and lasted sixteen months.
Economists generally wait for production to shrink for six months in a row before they declare a re-cession. But the bureau, a private group, uses a wider set of information to measure the economy. Thenews only confirmed what many people already knew: that the world's largest economy is weak and maynot recover soon.
Worsening conclitions have led to a big drop in spending, especially on costly products like new cars. Even Japanese automaker Toyota saw its sales fall thirty - four percent in the United States in November from a year ago.
The heads of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors retumed to Congress this week to again ask for federal aid. Congressional leaders denounced(指责) them two weeks ago after they came in private jets with no clear plans for saving their industry. This time, the chiefs drove to Washington in fuel- saving hybrid vehicles. And their companies presented detailed restructuring plans. The reguest for aid has risen from twenty-five billion dollars two weeks ago to thirty-four billion in loans and credit lines.
G.M. wants almost half of that, and says it needs four billion dollars this month. It warned that without support it cannot continue to operate.
Ford is in a better position, But the sharing of suppliers means it could be affected if G.M. or
Chrysler fails. Ford is asking for a nine billion dollar credit line in case it needs it.
Chrysler is the smallest and most trouble of America's Big Three. It says it needs a seven billion dollar loan by the end of the month.
Two days of congressional hearings began Thursday in the Senate Banking Committee. The chairman, Democrat Chris Dodd, said he would support helping the automakers for the good of the economy.
But the committee's top Republican, Richard Shelby, continued to express opposition to a bailout(贿政援助）．
A main root of the world financial crisis is the weak housing market in the United States. The Trea-sury Department has been under pressure to help troubled homeowners. Now comes news that the depart-ment is developing a plan aimed at reducing interest rates on mortgage loans(汽车贷款) for some buyers of homes. That could be good for homeowners trying to sell.From the first two paragraphs, we know.
| A．the United States is expected to recover soon |
| B．the depression has lasted more than 16 months |
| C．the depression is much more severe than expected |
| D．the depression will last no more than 6 months |
Why were the automakers refused for federal aid two weeks ago?
| A．Because the government had no extra money to help. |
| B．Because they didn't have a ciear plan to save their industry. |
| C．Because they had wasted too much on costly new cars. |
| D．Because they had enough money to save their industry. |
Which of the following is asking for the largest federal aide
| A．G.M. | B．Toyota. | C．Chrysler. | D．Ford. |
From the passage we may know Richard Shelbytile automakers' request for federal aid?
| A．was for | B．was against | C．didn't care about | D．took no notice of |
Which of the following statement is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The hearings on Thursday agreed on a federal aid to the automakers. |
| B．The main cause of the crisis is weak housing market in the U.S.. |
| C．The government is taking measures to save t he housing market. |
| D．The Treasury Department had to help the troubled homeowners. |