C
Jenny Bowen, an American living in Beijing, has been selected as the only American to carry the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch on Chinese soil. She and seven other non- Chinese winners were from a pool of 262 applicants from 47 countries.
When Bowen runs with the Olympic torch, she will not only be representing the United States. She will also be representing thousands of Chinese orphans, ABC news said.
Bowen, a mother of two adopted (领养的) Chinese daughters, is executive director of Half the Sky Foundation, an organization which was set up in 1998 and aims to enrich the lives and improve the future for orphaned children in China.
Nearly 10 years later, Bowen and Half the Sky Foundation have touched the lives of over 13,000 children. Half the Sky Foundation is now present in 36 welfare institutions in 28 Chinese cities. About 4,000 children are active in the program, which provides trained staff, educational tools, medical support and love for orphans.
Bowen hopes that running with the Olympic torch will help draw attention to the children in China. She will be among the 19,400 runners who will carry the flame along an 85,000-mile,130-day route across five continents. Beijing organizers say it will be the longest torch relay in the Olympic history.
Like Bowen, the seven other non-Chinese winners, including a German engineer and a Venezuelan designer, live in China. The other countries represented will be the Philippines, Colombia, India, Japan and Russia.
According to Olympic organizers, candidates (候选人) were selected based on their “love of Chinese culture and history” and devotion to “ communicating information about a real China to their native countries.”
Each runner will carry the torch for 200 meters on Chinese soil.
69. Jenny Bowen will represent thousands of Chinese orphans mainly because _______.
A. she is an American orphan who lives in China.
B. she likes Chinese orphans very much.
C. she is director of the Half the Sky Foundation.
D. she has done a lot to the welfare of Chinese orphans.
70. Which of the following statements is false about Jenny Bowen?
A. She has been communicating information about the real China to the USA.
B. She is executive director of Half the Sky Foundation.
C. She loves Chinese culture and history very much.
D. She will carry the flame along an 85,000-mile route.
71. How many factors for selecting a candidate are mentioned in the passage?
A. One B. Two C. Three D. Four
72. What is the passage mainly about ?
A. Jenny Bowen, executive director of Half the Sky Foundation
B. The longest torch relay in the Olympic history.
C. Eight non-Chinese persons to carry the Olympic torch in China.
D. A US woman to carry the Olympic torch in China.
A child-like robot, Wakamaru, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and combining the roles of nurse, companion and security guard, will soon be in the market to look after the growing number of old people with no one to look after them.
Cameras implanted under the “ eyebrows” of the robot enable it to “see’’ as it moves around in a house. The images can be sent to the latest mobile telephones, which can show the pictures. Wakamaru speaks with either the voice of a boy or a girl. It is also designed to provide companionship, greeting its “ papa”, when he comes home. Based on a vocabulary of around 10 000 words, it is the first household robot which is able to hold simple conversations. It can not only speak, but also understand answers and react accordingly. It will ask“ Are you all right?” if its owner does not move for some time. If the answer is no, or there is no answer, it will telephone preset numbers, send images and work as a speakerphone. It can recognize up to 10 faces. It can be set to remind forgetful people when it is time to take medicine, eat and sleep.
However, like most robots, it cannot climb stairs. Mitsubishi developed Wakamaru from robots which have already been made to go around nuclear power facilities(设施). “ Looking at the ageing of society and the falling birth rate we decided that this could work as a business. We want to offer it as a product that helps society,’’ said the project chief. The developers plan to sell the robot from April next year at between 5,000 and 6,000 pound.
The life expectancy of Japanese women has shot up to almost 85, the highest in the world. At the same time, extended families are being replaced by nuclear families. This has left many Japanese anxious about their elderly parents. Therefore, the technology has gained nation-wide publicity in Japan.
68.Which of the following is TRUE about Wakamaru?
A.It is used in some nuclear power faciliti
es.
B.It can speak but cannot understand answers.
C.It can go up and down the stairs easily.
D.It can recognize as many as 10 people.
69.The passage is written with the purpose to ______.
A. introduce a new product
B solve the aging problems.
C. tell people how to use the robot
D show the rapid development of technology
70. What can be inferred from the passage ?
A. The robot can dial proper numbers for help
B. The robot is likely to have a promising market.
C. The robot enables the Japanese to live longer
D. Many elderly Japanese are anxious about their future
China may be the world's most populous country ,and it won the most gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But its prowess at soccer is lamentable. China is ranked 84th in the sport's world standing.
Chinese are huge soccer fans, and hundreds of millions are expected to tune in to the World Cup, with all the matches broadcast live on public TV. But this time the Chinese don't have their own team to root for.
"Chinese have a reputation of being good at math, but they have trouble explaining why a population of 1.3 billion cannot produce a winning 11-member soccer team," said Xu Guoqi, a history professor at the University of Hong Kong. Journalists and soccer fans offer a number of reasons, most often money issues, politics, corruption（腐败）and culture, and sometimes a combination of the four.
Even though China now boasts wealthy companies and individuals who could sponsor（赞助） teams, there is little support as long as Chinese teams are perceived as perennial losers. "This is a very bad circle," Ma said. "No results, no money. No money, no results."
Few Chinese children are playing soccer. Some sports journalists and fans attribute the lack of interest partly to schools de-emphasizing sports in general and the lack of playing venues in the country's dense urban areas. "What can Chinese kids do?” said Fan Huiming, 61, a Chinese soccer fan who grew up watching matches at Beijing's Workers' Stadium, which was built in 1958 near his childhood home. "If they play soccer, the ball may fly directly into the glass of someone's home."
For young people, soccer has largely been eclipsed by basketball, thanks in part to Chinese NBA players who are treated like rock stars. Journalists and fans say NBA's aggressive campaign of marketing and merchandise in China has helped swell the popularity of basketball. By comparison, they noted that international soccer does not even have an office in China.
Rowan Simons, a Briton who came to China more than two decades ago and discovered he wasn't able to play weekend soccer, has been on a campaign to popularize the sport here. Simons said the main problem is that soccer elsewhere has traditionally started as a series of neighborhood clubs, but in China, "there's virtu
ally no
football at community level".
"Football in China can only succeed if it's a grass-roots activity organized by the people
," he said.
67. This time the Chinese don't have their own team to root for in the World Cup because__________.
A.China is ranked 84th in soccer 's world standing.
B.they are angry about why China cannot produce a winning soccer team.
C.the Chinese huge soccer fans support other soccer teams.
D.the Chinese soccer team is not capable to go as far as the final part of the World Cup.
68.Why are few Chinese children playing soccer?
A.No results, no money. No money, no results.
B.If the footballs fly directly into the glass of someone's home,they’ll be criticised.
C there is little support from wealthy companies and individuals sponsoring teams.
D.schools don’t pay much attention on sports and they lack playing venues in dense urban areas.
69. The underlined word“eclipsed”in the six paragraph can be replaced by .
A.occupied. B.beaten. C.led. D.compared.
70.According to Rowan,what can be inferred ?
A.NBA players are more popular than soccer players in China.
B. The future of Chinese football is rather promising.
C. Chinese football should get into the life of ordinary people to survive.
D.Grass-roots Chinese football players can be popular .
The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in Californina decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.
Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhyhm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scie
ntists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music.
Thanks to Snowball, that scientific opinion is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band.
Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Instiute in San Diego. After seeing Snowbaill’s dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he’s called home for two years. The scientist played “Everybody” for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.
Patel isn’t the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner’s team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.
Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music.
63.The underlined words “that scientific opinion” in the third paragraph refers to the theory that .
A.birds like Snowball have the ability to keep the beat
B.humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music
C.the brain and the nervous system contribute to some mental abilities
D.bird pets can have their special rhythm under human’s instruction
64.From the fourth paragraph we may know that .
A.Patel is the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves.
B.Snowball is able to adjust his dandcing to match the rhythm.
C.Snowball cannot dance to the versions of the song Everybody.
D.it is the brain and the nervous system that control the mental abilities.
65.The idea of studying animals’ ability to keep the beat comes from .
A.bird lovers’ discovery B.humans musical sense
C.the same abilities in children D.videos of dancing birds
66.According to the scientists, Snowball’s ability to dance to music is probably related to the fact that .
A.it is the only bird member of thd Backstreet Boys band
B.it has the ability to imitate sounds
C.it is a kind of dancing parrot
D.it has the same abilities as preschool children
Despite all the reports of Internet security attacks over the years, including the recent ones on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug (耸肩).
Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker（黑客） stole last month from Rock You, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it.
The list provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.
Some Web sites try to keep back the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.
To improve security, some Wed sites are forcing users to mix letters,numbers even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.
Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are unwilling to put too many controls in place.
Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction（拍卖） by freezing the accounts of other potential buyers.
But owing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords— a complex one for Web sites where security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for less risky places, such as social networking and entertainment sites.
Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five-and six-character passwords.
“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his companions,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”
59.The underlined sentence “Many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug” shows that many people .
A.don’t take seriously the hacker’s break-ins
B.are worried and frightened at the hacker’s break-ins
C.don’t know what to do with the hack
er’s attacks
D.are eager to get helps from the experts
60.According to the passage, which of the following web sites needs a more complex password?
A.A social web site. B.An entertainment web site.
C.A commercial web site. D.A game web site.
61.The Internet users are advised to in order to keep back the hackers.
A.mix letters, numbers and symbols as well
B.choose passwords with at least 12 characters
C.choose passwords with 5 or 6 characters
D.choose at least two different passwords
62.Which would be the best title for the passage?
A.Password, good luck or risk! B.Popular Passwords, High Risk!
C.Clever Hackers, Stupid Netizens. D.Hacker,the Enemy of Internet Security.
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从各篇短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
It was shortly before midnight, and Dr Patricia was getting ready for bed. The phone rang on the end of the line was a woman about to break a promise.
The woman was her mother’s neighbor. Flora Harris had made the neighbor swear she wouldn’t tell her daughter she’d had a heart attack and was in the hospital, for fear her daughter would worry. The neighbor wisely decided to disobey orders.
Harris desperately wanted to get to the hospital immediately, but she couldn’t. She lives in Washingt
on, D. C, and her mother lives in California.
For the past year a half, Harris has gone to Los Angeles every other month to take care of her mother. Flora Harris takes care of her husband, James, who’s 91 and has Alzheimer’s disease. They live in their own home, and a caregiver comes to help them a few hours a day.
Harris is one of many Americans facing the heartache of how to take care of aging parents from afar. She’s often worried, not to mention exrtemely busy with a demanding job, two teenage daughters and the frequent trips to California.
In some ways, Harris is lucky. She has the resources to make the trips to Los Angeles. Plus, Harris is a doctor who treats the elderly.
“But it’s still tough,” she says. “I can foresee what the next few years are going to look like, and it’s not a pretty picture. My father’s going to need diapers (尿布). There will come a time when he won’t recognize me and he’s easily excited. I worry he’s going to be violent and hurt my mother.”
So what do you do when you live a continent away from your aging, sick parents? There are no magic answers. You can hire someone to help, but you can’t oursource it completely.
51.Why was the woman thought to have broken a promise?
A.She failed to take care of Flora.
B.She was not supposed to call Harris at midnight.
C.She couldn’t go to hospital on time.
D.She told Harris about her mother’s illness.
52.What can we learn about Patricia Harris from the passage?
A.She thinks it harder to look after her parents the next few years.
B.Her parents cannot take 
of themselves at all.
C.She cannot do a demanding job.
D.She cannot afford to go to California often.
53.What does the underlined word “outsource” in the last paragragh mean?
A.Arrange somebody outside to do a job.
B.Work something out by oneself.
C.Speak something out for help.
D.Understand something.
54.What’s the main idea of this passage?
A.Aging people in the USA are increasing.
B.The rate of heart disease is high in America.
C.It is difficult to tend aging parents from afar.
D.Harris advises on tending aging parents from afar.