第二部分：阅读理解（每小题2分；满分50分）
第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I was hurrying to class one morning when Hillary Barnes, the most popular girl in school, stopped me. “Are you the twin who won the art contest?” she asked.
“No, that’s Christine. I’m Katie,” I said.
We’re not identical twins; we look quite different. Still, we’re the Carpenter Twins. It was making you angry having a twin straight out of a fairy tale. She could defeat Snow White in a beauty contest and attract friends like the Pied Piper! Compared to Christine, I felt like one of Cinderella’s stepsisters.
In math class I dug into my school bag, searching for my homework. “Here, Katie,” said Christine, offering a crumpled paper. “It was under your pillow.” “Thanks,” I said. She’d made my bed again! Truly she was an amazing sister. How could I be angry with her? It wasn’t her fault I was the one with wild, unmanageable hair and no talent.
The bell rang, and I slapped my math book shut. “Katie, don’t forget our basketball game after school,” reminded Christine.
“I won’t,” I said. Joining Christine’s basketball team was my latest effort to be like her. Though I’d practiced hard all season, my shots still bounced off the rim of the basket. I ran awkwardly when trying to dribble(运球) the ball. Once a pass I threw hit Coach Struthers in the shoulder, practically knocking her over.
This was a new day, a new game. As I was breathing slowly, thinking positive thoughts, Christine called, “Katie, here!” She threw me a ball. I jumped for it; it slipped through my fingers and flew into the bleachers. No one was seated right there, but my relief disappeared when the ball crashed into the tape recorder that was used to play The Star Spangled Banner before each game.
I apologized in a low voice as I picked up the broken pieces of the recorder. Coach looked at the mess and asked, “How are we going to play the song now?”
Christine suggested, “Let Katie sing it! She’s always singing at home.”
Coach asked, “Would you?” I found myself nodding. Coach announced the national anthem and everyone stood. Standing before a microphone, I looked at the flag and took a deep breath. The notes seemed to flow from deep inside me, and my voice was steady and clear. When I finished, the gym was silent. Then it filled with cheering. As the game started, teammates patted my back and gave me the “thumbs up” sign.
Laura Jamison said, “You should try out for the school musical!” I nodded and said that I might.
The next morning, Hillary Barnes stopped me in the hallway and asked, “Are you the twin who sings?”
“Yes, that’s me,” I answered, smiling as I walked to class.
41. The author wrote this story most likely to ______.
A. show that people are talented in different ways
B. explain why some people are not talented
C. inform readers about making the most of bad situations
D. persuade readers to always be kind to others
42. Which question does paragraph 6 answer?
A. How did Christine help Katie on the basketball court?
B. How often does the team practice?
C. How does Katie like Christine?
D. Why does Katie join the basketball team?
43. Which detail from the story supports the idea that Katie does a good job singing at the basketball game?
A. She looks at the flag and takes a deep breath.
B. A teammate says she should try out for the school musical.
C. Coach Struthers asks her to sing before the game.
D. Her sister says she is always singing at home.
44. Based on the event described in this story, Katie can best be described as ______
A. foolish B. cheerful C. clumsy D. jealous
Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly (以前) homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families. The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions(碳排放)while also cutting costs.
Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.
ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally (环境方面) clever and affordable homes which are called, the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.
Michael. Bloomberg, New York’s mayor plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?
| A． To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people. |
| B． To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas. |
| C． To show how the environment-friendly building works. |
| D． To compare old and new boiler rooms. |
What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards?
| A． Lower running costs. |
| B． Costing less in construction. |
| C． Less air to be lost in hot days. |
| D． Better prices for homeless people. |
It can be learned from the text that, ____________________.
| A． New York City is seriously polluted |
| B． people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City |
| C． a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in |
| D． some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City |
What is the main purpose of this text?
| A． To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems. |
| B． To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing. |
| C． To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families. |
| D． To introduce healthy, environmentally clever-and affordable housing. |
I grew up in a house where the TV was seldom turned on and with one wall in my bedroom entirely lined with bookshelves, most of my childhood was spent on books I could get hold of. In fact, I grew up thinking of reading as natural as breathing and books unbelievably powerful in shaping perspectives (观点) by creating worlds we could step into, take part in and live in.
With this unshakable belief, I, at fourteen, decided to become a writer. Here too, reading became useful. Every writer starts off knowing that he has something to say, but being unable to find the right ways to say it. He has to find his own voice by reading widely and discovering which parts of the writers he agrees or disagrees with, or agrees with so strongly that it reshapes his own world. He cannot write without loving to read, because only through reading other people’s writing can one discover what works, what doesn’t and, in the end, together with lots of practice, what voice he has.
Now I am in college, and have come to realize how important it is to read fiction (文学作品)．As a. law student, my reading is in fact limited to 
subject matter—the volume (量) of what I have to read for classes every week means there is little time to read anything else. Such reading made it all the clearer to me that I live in a very small part in this great place called life. Reading fiction reminds me that there is life beyond my own. It allows me to travel across the high seas and along the Silk Road, all from the comfort of my own armchair, to experience, though secondhand, exciting experiences that I wouldn't necessarily be able to have in my lifetime.What can be inferred about the author as a child?
| A． He never watched TV. |
| B． He read what he had to. |
| C． He found reading unbelievable. |
| D． He considered reading part of his life. |
The underlined word "voice" in the second paragraph most probably means “”.
| A． an idea |
| B． a sound quality |
| C． a way of writing |
| D． a world to write about |
What effect does reading have on the author?
| A． It helps him to realize his dream. |
| B． It opens up a wider world for him. |
| C． It makes his college life more interesting. |
| D． It increases his interest in worldwide travel. |
Which of the following can be the best title of this text?
| A． Why do I read? |
| B． How do I read? |
| C． What do I read? |
| D． When do I read? |
Years after throwing a bottle-up note into a lake for a class project and just one year after his death, a man’s childhood message was found and returned to his mother.
Eleven years ago, a then 10-year-old boy, Joshua Baker, wrote the message, folded and put it in an empty container, his mother, Maggie Holbrook said. He died last February in a motor vehicle accident in California. He had recently returned after a serving in the Middle East as a US marine. “I think he was just letting us know he was OK and keep doing what we are doing.” Holbrook said.
The message surfaced in White Lake in late April, just days after the 11th anniversary of its being thrown into the lake. It was found by one of Baker’s closest friends, Steve Lieder, she said. Lieder and two friends were chatting near the lake when Lieder looked down and saw the bottle. He broke it open and found the note inside.
“My name is Joshua Baker. I am 10. If you find this, put it on the news. The date is 4/16/98.” They immediately took it to Holbrook, who said she is now having the note preserved and will display it in her home.
She can remember when her son wrote the message for the school project. She said she always wondered why he didn’t put it in the nearby Wolf River, which has a much stronger current.
“I still remember the day he wrote it, ” Holbrook said. “I couldn’t understand why he threw I in the lake. No one would never see it again. Now I know.”What was Joshua Baker when he died in motor vehicle accident in California?
| A．An official | B．A soldier | C．A worker | D．A teacher |
Which of the following statements is correct according to the passage?
| A．The man threw the bottle into the lake without any purpose. |
| B．The man didn’t put the bottle into the nearby river because it had a strong current. |
| C．Not until recently did his mother understand why he put the bottle into the lake. |
| D．The man made the bottle-up note so as to let his parents know he was OK. |
The best title for this passage would be___.
| A．A man’s Bottle Message Found After His Death |
| B．A Ridiculous and Unbelievable Bottle Message |
| C．A Strange Bottle-up Note Appearing In a Lake |
| D．An Important Childhood Message 11 Years After His Death |
A patient came to see me about the stress in her life. She described all the things she had to do －one was to make her bed－from the moment she woke up until she flew out of the door for work. I suggested she experiment by not making her bed for two weeks. She was shocked, probably thinking I’d been raised by wolves in a forest. However, she went along with my idea.
Two weeks later she went into my office beaming. She had left her bed unmade for the first time in 42 years－and nothing bad had happened. “And you know what?” she said. “I don’t dry my dishes anymore, either.”
This woman had made two major breakthroughs (突破). One was discovering that she had choices in her life that she had never seen before. The other was giving herself permission to be less that perfect. This story shows an important principle (原理) about managing time: No one can do it all. Each of us has to make choices and accept trade – offs. The problem is, many people choose in ways that put themselves and their health last. They take better care of their houses and cars than they do of themselves. They put everyone else’s needs ahead of their own.
So what is the solution? There’s an easy way. Decide what you want in your life, and put that first. On a daily basis, that should include regular meals, enough sleep and time with your family. Exercise, leisure, friendships and hobbies should also be regular aspects of life. The point is to do something for yourself every day. The choice is yours: whatever makes you feel good about yourself and your life. Take a nap. Take a walk. Take time to play the piano. Stop bringing your briefcase home from the office. Stop keeping your house as clean as your mother kept hers. Fill more of your time with want – to – dos instead of have – to – dos.What is the solution to the problem of managing time?
| A．Doing more exercises every day. | B．Taking time to visit friends regularly. |
| C．Stopping making bed occasionally. | D．Doing what you want to do first. |
What does the word “beaming” in Line 1, Paragraph 2 probably mean?
| A．Worrying | B．Smiling | C．Depressed | D．Luckily |
What is the major problem of most people managing time?
| A．Most people do not take care of their health. |
| B．Most people put others’ needs ahead of their own. |
| C．Most people cannot keep balance on managing time. |
| D．Most people do not take time to relax themselves. |
What is the author’s attitude toward people’s problems in the passage?
| A．Matter – of – fact. | B．Negative. | C．Indifferent. | D．Worried. |
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| All times are local. All flights to/off from Newark international Airport. |
This passage is most probably ______.
| A．a warning | B．a notice | C．an advertisement | D．an announcement |
If you want to fly to Boston soon after you come back from Minneapolis, you have to wait for _____.
| A．thirty minutes | B．one hour | C．one hour and a half | D．three hours and ten |
Suppose the price of flight ticket is 300 dollars to Phoenix, as a secondary school student, how much can you save after having chosen over a dozen US air discount fares?
| A．120 | B．150 | C．180 | D．225 |
According to this form above, ______.
| A．all flights from Newark leave in the morning |
| B．the flight to Phoenix takes three hours and ten minutes. |
| C．Flights to and from Boston take the same amount of time |
| D．It’s impossible to return from Phoenix and fly to Boston on the same day |