English may not be a world language forever
While 375 million people around the globe use English as their native language, the number of people using it as a second language has already been well over that figure (数字).
It is said that by the end of 2000, one billion people could use English to communicate with others, including both native speakers and non-native speakers.
“The rise and fall of a language is closely connected with that country’s economic(经济的) strength and development potential (潜力).” Rhodri Jones, the English 2000 manager of the ELT group of the British Council said.
An expert who has given many lectures on the future of English said the economic boots（快速发展）in Asia would raise(提高) the position of the Chinese and Hindi languages. Therefore, the English language is facing a serious problem. Where will English turn in the next fifty years or the century?
The recently introduced book from Britain “Future of English” might give people concerned with their question some enlightenments (启发). The book helps to help English teachers, planners, managers and decision makers with a professional interest in the development of English worldwide.
With the book translated into Chinese and to be published soon, the book might be brought to wider sphere (范围)of people.
“From the book, we learn many facts about the English language, and we may be able to predict (预测) its future after reading it.” said Dorothy Humphrey, who used to be a senior English teacher for the British Council.
60.The reason why some language rises in the world depends on _______ .
A. the population of the country
B. the country’s economic strength in the world
C. the number of the population who use it
D. the country’s economic strength and development potential
61. The book “Future of English” helps to _______ .
A. improve the standard of people’s learning English
B. adds to people’s interest toward English
C. emphasize (强调) the importance in the world
D. make people interested in the development of English worldwide
62. After reading “Future of English” we know _______ .
A. English is the language that the people who speak it is the most in the world
B. English may disappear sooner or later
C. the world is keeping changing all the time
D. what the future of the English language
is
63. The main idea of the passage is _______ .
A. why English has been popular in the world
B. how to improve people’s ability of learning English
C. English has a bright future
D. the usage of English may become less in the world one day
64. According to this passage, English may not be a world language forever because _______
A. more and more people will come to visit China
B. people in the world won’t like English in the future.
C. the economic boots in Asia would raise the position of the Chinese and Hindi languages
D. China and India will be more developed than those English-speaking countries
Now let us look at how we read．When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, rough movement．We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate(凝视)．Each time they fixate, we see a group of words．This is known as the recognition span or the visual span．The length of time of which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person．It also varies within one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text．Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness．
Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page．As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation．For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second．One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side．Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation．All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently．Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words．Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text．
59．The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts EXCEPT________ ．
A．one’s familiarity with the text B．one’s purpose in reading
C．the length of a group of words D．lighting and tiredness
60．The author may believe that reading ______．
A．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation
B．requires a reader to see words more quickly
C．demands a deeply-participating mind
D．demands more mind than eyes
61．What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?
A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted．
B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to
comprehend words．
C．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading．
D．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job to improve one’s ability to see
words．
62．What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
A．critical B．neutral C．pessimistic D．optimistic
1. Summer came early to Middlesbrough yesterday, as temperatures shot up to 22°C (71°F), a record for March. But local NFU agent Jim Wilkes says it could be bad news for farmers. “The crops will think it's summer,” he told our reporter, “and start sprouting (发芽) four weeks before time.”
2. The death toll (死亡人数) of the Burnside train crash rose to four yesterday when John Phillips, 
32, of Petersville died in Wallsend Hospital. Another six people are still on the danger list. Mr. Phillips, an electrical engineer leaves a wife and two children.
3. China and the United States reached an agreement on the protection of intellectual property rights (知识产权) yesterday, after difficult marathon talks.
The agreement is good news for all parties concerned. The Chinese Foreign Trade Minister described the agreement as a "turning point" in Sino-US trade relations that "promises further progress" in the future. The agreement will not only favorably influence trade relations between China and the United States. It may favorably influence the overall relations between the two countries.
61. What do you get to know from article 1?
A. It is as cold as usual in Middlesbrough, and the farmers are pleased.
B. It is hotter than usual in Middlesbrough, and the farmers are pleased.
C. It is hotter than usual in Middlesbrough, and the farmers are worried.
D. It is colder than usual in Middlesbrough, and the farmers are worried.
62. How many people have died in the train crash in article 2 ?
A. Only John Phillips has died.
B. Ten people have died in the crash, including John Phillips.
C. Four people have died in the crash, including John Phillips.
D. John Phillips, his wife and children all died in the crash.
63. Who are on the danger list?
A. Petersville and Wallsend. B. An electrical engineer and John Phillips.
C. John Phillips' wife and two children. D. Another six people who were on the train.
64. What agreement did China and the United States reach in article 3?
A. It is an agreement on 
a marathon race.
B. It is an agreement on trade relations.
C. It is an agreement on overall relations.
D. It is an agreement on intellectual property rights protection.
65. What are relations going to be like between China and the United States?
A. Relations between China and the United States are going to be sometimes worse and sometimes better.
B. Relations between China and the United States are going to be better.
C. Relations between China and the United States are going to be worse.
D. Relations between China and the United States are going to remain the same.
In 1977, a dead author of detective stories saved the life of a 19-month-old baby in a most unusual way. The author was Agatha Christie, one of the most successful writers of detective stories in the world.
In June 1977, a baby girl became seriously ill in Qatar, near Saudi Arabia. Doctors were unable to find out the cause of her illness with confidence, so she was sent to Hammersmith Hospital in London. She was then only semi-conscious (半清醒状态) and on the "Dangerously Ill" list. A team of doctors hurried to examine the baby only to discover that they, too, were confused by the very unusual symptoms (症状). While they were discussing the baby's case, a nurse asked to speak to them.
"Excuse me," said Nurse Marsha Maitlan, "but I think the baby is suffering from thallium poisoning. (铊中毒)"
"What makes you think that?" Dr. Brown asked. "Thallium poisoning is extremely rare."
"A few days ago, I was reading a novel called A Pale Horse by Agatha Christie," Nurse Maitlan explained. "In the book, somebody uses thallium poison, and all the symptoms are described. They're exactly the same as the baby's."
"You're very thoughtful and you may be right," another doctor said. "We'll carry out some tests and find out whether it's thallium or not."
Tests showed that the baby had indeed been poisoned by thallium, a rare metallic substance used in making special glass. Once they knew the cause of the illness, the doctors were able to give the baby the correct treatment. She soon recovered and was sent back to Qatar. Later it was reported that the poison might have come from an insecticide (杀虫剂) used in Qatar.
56. The one who first suggested the correct cause of the baby's illness was _____.
A. a doctor in Qatar B. Nurse Maitlan C. Dr. Brown D. Agatha Christie
57. The baby was sen
t to London because _____.
A. she was born there
B. the hospitals in Qatar were full at that time
C. she was the daughter of a docto
r in London
D. the Qatar doctors were not sure whether they could cure her
58. As far as we can tell from the passage, Agatha Christie _____.
A. had never met this baby
B. had spent a long time studying the baby's case
C. visited the baby in the hospital at Hammersmith
D. gave Nurse Maitlan some advice on the phone
59. It see
ms likely from the passage that the baby's illness had something to do with _____.
A. a dangerous pair of glasses
B. the water in Qatar
C. a harmful substance used to kill insects
D. a dead writer
60. When the baby was sent to the hospital in London, her case was considered to be _____.
A. an urgent one B. quite a simple one
C. a usual one D. the result of thallium poisoning
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes (撞击) through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars or even catch fire, are professionals (专业人士). They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman' s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action, for nowadays there are stunt girls too!
51. Stuntmen are those who ______.
A. often dress up as women
B. prefer to lead dangerous
lives
C. often perform seemingly (表面上) dangerous actions D. often fight each other for their lives
52. Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
A. playing their dirty tricks B. selling their special skills
C. jumping out of high windows D. jumping from fast moving trains
53. When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.
A. he needs little protection
B. he will be covered with a mattress
C. his life is endangered
D. his safety is generally all right
54. Which of the following is the main factor (因素) of a successful performance?
A. Strength. B. Exactness. C. Speed. D. Power.
55. What can be inferred from the author' s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
A. Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B. The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C. Parachutes must be of good quality.
D. The cliff is too high.
Ⅳ. 阅读理解（共20小题，每题1分，满分20分）
When my first wartime Christmas came, I was in basic training in New Jersey and not sure if I could make it home for the holidays. Only on the afternoon of December 23 was the list of men who would have three-day holidays posted. I was one of the lucky soldiers. It was Christmas eve when I arrived home, and a light snow had fallen. Mother opened the front door. I could see beyond her, into the corner of the living room where the tree had always stood. There were lights, all colors, and ornaments (装饰物) shining against the green of a pine. “Where did it come from?” I asked.
“I asked the Gates boy to cut it,” my mother said. “I wouldn’t have had one just for myself, such a rush！He just brought it in this afternoon…” The pine reached to the proper height, almost to the ceiling, and the tree top crystal star was in its place. A few green branches reached about a little awkwardly at the side, I thought, and there was a bit of bare trunk showing in the middle. But the tree filled the room with warm light and the whole house with the pleasant smell of Christmas. “It’s not like the one you used to find,” my mother went on. “Yours were always in good shape. I suppose the Gates boy didn’t know where to look for a good one. But I couldn’t be fussy (挑剔的)．”
“Don’t worry,” I 
told her. “It’s perfect.” It wasn’t, of course, but at the moment I realized something for the first time: all Christmas trees are perfect．
46. From the passage, we can infer that ______．
A. the writer spent his first Christmas during the war
B. soldiers did not all go home for Christmas during the war
C. all the soldiers had three-day holidays
D. the writer could not go home for Christmas
47. When the writer got home, ______．
A. it was December 23th
B. it was snowing heavily
C. he found a Christmas tree in the living room
D. the Gates boy was cutting a Christmas tree for his mother
48. From this passage，we can conclude that ______．
A. the writer used to cut very beautiful Christmas trees
B. his mother didn’t like perfect trees
C. his mother didn’t want to have a tree
D. the writer wouldn’t have a tree cut by someone else
49. “All Christmas trees are perfect”，because they can remind you of ______．
A. the wartime B. the green of a pine
C. the pleasant smell D. the sweet home
50. The best title for this passage would be “______”．
A. How to Choose a Christmas Tree
B. How Soldiers Spent Christmas
C. The Perfect Christmas Tree
D. The Christmas Without a Tree