Ⅲ阅读（共两节，满分40分）
第一节：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity, others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self – worth relied (依赖) on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life – and – death affairs. In their single – minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to se ek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self – respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.
41．What does this passage mainly talk about?
A．Competition helps to set up self – respect.
B．Opinions about competition are different among people.
C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development.
D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition
42．Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?
A．It pushes society forward. B．It builds up a sense of duty.
C．It improves personal abilities. D．It encourages individual efforts.
43．The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means .
A．those who try their best to win
B．those who value competition most highly
C．those who are against competition most strongly
D．those who rely on others most for success
44．What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a desire to fail ?
A．One’s worth lies in his performance compared with others.
B．One’s success in competition needs great efforts.
C．One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills.
D．One’s success is based on how hard he has tried.
45．Which point of view may the author agree to?
A．Every effort should be paid back.
B．Competition should be encouraged.
C．Winning should be a life – and – death matter.
D．Fear of failure should be removed in competition.
The Winter Olympics proved no match for television's gold-medal winner, "American Idol". Fox's unbelievable successful contest crashed the Olympics in head-to-head competition on Tuesday night, 27 million viewers to 16.1 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The Olympics recovered a bit after "Idol" went off the air, but its overall audience of 18.6 million was the least-watched winter Olympics telecast since Nagano's closing ceremonies in 1998, Nielsen said.
Since its opening on Friday, the Turin games have been running well below the 2002 Salt Lake City games in viewership interest. Much of that was expected, but Tuesday's rating was the first alarming sign for NBC that increased TV competition has taken a toll.
"The competition from 'Idol' is heavier than the Olympics has ever seen," said NBC Sports spokeswoman Alana Russo.
It doesn't figure to get any easier, with "Idol" and ABC's "Lost" on the air Wednesday. CBS' "Survivor" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" offer more competition on Thursday.
Even figure skating, the most popular winter Olympics sport for viewers, didn't help much on Tuesday. NBC filled about two-thirds of the hour during which it competed with "American Idol" with tape of the men's figure-skating competition.
Through five nights of Olympics coverage, NBC's average prime time rating is 12.7 ( a rating point represents 1,102, 000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 110.2 million TV homes). NBC said before the games started that it had promised its advertisers a rating of between 12 and 14. If it slips below that, NBC will have to make it up to advertisers with free commercial time.
" ‘American Idol' is clearly a phenomenon," said Randy Falco, president of the NBC Universal Television Group. "But we expected it and are tracking fight where we planned to be at this point." Between NBC and its networks, about 65 percent of the nation's television homes have tuned in at least some of the games.How many viewers watched the Winter Olympics on Tuesday night?
| A．110.2 million | B．12.7 million |
| C．27million | D．16.1million |
What did NBC do on Tuesday night to attract more viewers?
| A．To ask the "idol" to go off the air. |
| B．To play the tapes of men's figure skating. |
| C．To add "Survivor" to its program. |
| D．To do more advertising. |
If the rating slips below 12, NBC will .
| A．do more advertising for nothing |
| B．stop running normally |
| C．never cover the Olympics |
| D．pay extra money for advertisers |
What does the underlined word "taken a toll" mean?
| A．paid off. | B．caused loss. | C．broken out. | D．picked up. |
It is always hard for a small fish to live in a big pond. Pluto's recent departure from the classical planet family clearly proves that size really matters.
Astronomers voted on August 24 to create the first scientific definition of the word planet, and Pluto obviously didn't make the cut. It turned out to be only a "dwarf planet" (矮行星). After weeks of heated debate, over 2,500 astronomers from 73 countries voted on the definition of a "planet" at a conference of the international Astronomical Union (IAU). According to the definition, a planet must have a clear neighborhood around its orbit. Pluto has widely been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930. Unfortunately, it has a special orbit which overlaps with Neptune's. It is all because, compared with Neptune, Pluto is very small. It is attracted by Neptune's gravity when the two planets get closer.
According to IAU, a "dwarf planet" should have an orbit around the Sun. It will not have a clear neighborhood around its orbit, and must not be a satellite. The new classification means that the science textbooks will have to be updated. The solar system is now made up of the eight "classical planets," together with a number of dwarf planets. The classical planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The debate over Pluto's status started in 1992. After an advanced telescope was sent into space, astronomers started find a belt of objects, which lies beyond Neptune. The belt contains nearly 1,000 objects, including Pluto. As they continued the exploration, scientists recently discovered at least 41 dwarf planets at the edges of the solar system. There are at least two objects of a similar size to Pluto.
It seems that even if the IAU had kept Pluto's status as a planet, the classical theory of nine planets in the solar system would have had to be changed, but the other way around. More dwarf, planets of a similar size to Pluto would join the family of planets. Scientists will probably find many more dwarf planets.According to the passage, Pluto is .
| A．a planet which has a clear neighborhood around its orbit |
| B．a satellite of Neptune which was discovered in 1930 |
| C．the smallest planet in the solar system |
| D．a planet which has an orbit around the sun |
The sentence "It is always hard for a small fish to live in a big pond" quoted in the beginning of the passage is used to .
| A．tell us a small fish can hardly survive in the big pond |
| B．tell us the size of an object really matters |
| C．mean that a small planet can hardly exist in the solar system |
| D．explain the disappearanee of Pluto in the solar system |
From the last paragraph we can infer that if IAU kept Pluto's status as a planet, the number of planets in the solar system would be.
| A．eight | B．nine | C．less than nine | D．more than nine |
Which of the following statements is NOT true aceording to the passage?
| A．According to definition of a "planet", if Pluto were bigger it would not have left the classic planet family. |
| B．It's quite possible for dwarfs to lose if they compete with big men |
| C．Pluto has a special orbit which overlap with Neptune's, because it is so small as to be attraeted by Neptune's gravity when the two planets get closer |
| D．A "dwarf planet", which can not be a satellite without a clear neighborhood around its orbit, should have an orbit around the Sun. |
A few years ago, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, where I was employed. purchased Norand Corporation. Pioneer's sales representatives in the field used Norand hand-held terminals to upload daily sales information and download new price and sales incentive information. Pioneer bought so many of these hand-held-terminals, the economies made the purchase of Norand look interesting. Owning Norand also allowed Pioneer to explore high-technology markets outside agriculture.
But after a few years, the emerging laptop PC technology made the hand-held units obsolete (已废弃的). Pioneer sold Norand at a loss. Pioneer always took a given percent of the annual profits to divide equally among all employees, so our profit-sharing checks were lower than if Pioneer had not purchased Norand. Additionally, my Pioneer stock was lower than it had been before the purchase of Norand. I was not pleased.
The CEO of Pioneer, Tom Urban, made annual formal visits to each of the Pioneer divisions to talk about the state of the business and to listen to employees' concerns. When he walked into the meeting room for his first visit after the sale of Norand, he acknowledged the group, remove his jacket, and neatly folded it across the back of the chair. He loosened his tie, undid his collar and rolled up his sleeves.The next thing he said was the last thing I ever expected to hear a CEO say.
He said, "I made a mistake buying Norand and I am sorry. I am sorry your profit-sharing was lower because of the purchase, and I am sorry your stock was hurt by the purchase. I will continue to take risks, but I am a bit smarter now, and I will work harder for you."
A great man and leader stood before us that day. As I sat listening to him, I knew I could trust him, and that he deserved every bit of loyalty I could give to him and to Pioneer. I also knew I could take risks in my own job.
In the brief moment of silence before the questions started, I recall thinking that follow him into any battle.All of the following are the results brought by Pioneer's purchase of Norand except.
| A．Pioneer can explore high-technology markets outside agriculture |
| B．Pioneer's sales representatives can upload information using Norand hand-held terminals |
| C．some of Norand's employees joined the Pioneer |
| D．it later led to the lower of profit-sharing checks of Pioneer's original employees |
The underlined sentence in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to .
| A．the next thing he said was what I expected least to hear a CEO say |
| B．the next thing he said was the last thing I heard from a CEO |
| C．the next thing he said was what I expected most to hear a CEO say |
| D．the next thing he said was what I heard from the last CEO |
Why did Tom Urban remove his jacket, loosen his tie, undo his collar and roll up his sleeves before he spoke?
| A．He felt hot in the room. |
| B．He wanted to look cool by doing this. |
| C．He was too excited. |
| D．He wanted to be close and frank with his employees. |
What did the employees feel after Tom Urban apologized to them?
| A．They felt he was a stupid CEO. |
| B．They felt he did not deserve their loyalty |
| C．They felt he was more trustworthy. |
| D．They didn't want to take risks with him. |
Chinese White Collars（白领） Go Down on the Farm
The latest craze among China’s white collar workers, reported in the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, is an online virtual agricultural game called “Happy Farm.” Virtual farmers can visit each other’s farm, trade livestock and can use real cash to buy virtual (虚拟的) items such as special tools, quality seeds, and animals. The free game is played through social networking sites like kaixin001.com, Face book or xiaonei.com.
Urban office workers can escape the pressures and stresses of everyday life and enter a peaceful virtual existence where players can grow vegetables, practice animal farming and receive satisfaction that comes with a hard-won harvest. Because most Chinese white collars have little amusement after work, Happy Farm gives them a virtual world to make their dreams come true.
Global Times, an English language daily based in Beijing, recently reported that there are more than 15 million Chinese urbanites spending more than five hours a day on their virtual “farms.”
According to the English language website of the People’s Daily newspaper, the increased interest in farming among some urban office workers has resulted in some of them becoming real hobby farmers, tending small plots of land in their free time. Mr. Liu, a white collar worker, has rented a piece of farmland for RMB 3000. Mr. Liu and his family like to drive down to their farm on the weekend and do different farming tasks such as watering, weeding, fertilizing and worming. Later on, cabins will be built on agricultural land making it possible for part-time farmers like Mr. Liu to stay on their land for two weeks enabling them to get a little taste of a farmer’s life.
It is a rather interesting social development that some of urban office workers are becoming interested in farming and agriculture, while large numbers of farmers and agricultural workers continue to move to the cities.What is “Happy Farm”? (No more than 7 words)
Why do more and more Chinese white collars go down on Happy Farm?
(No more than 14 words)List 4 farming tasks Mr. Liu and his family do on their farms. (No more than 5 words)
How long do Chinese urbanites spend on their virtual farms every day? (No more than 4 words)
Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells good or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use different senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.
Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their lives eating only one type. The giant panda（大熊猫） eats only one particular type of bamboo. Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet. The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season.
Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life.
Senses to 1.___________ food
| Animals that depend on only 2. ______ sense |
|
| ●the giant panda |
bamboo |
| ●a kind of butterfly |
3. ________ |
| Animals that 4. ________ more than one sense |
|
| ●the bear |
5. ____________ |
| ●the fox |
small animals, birds and fruits |
| Humans’ diets are 6. ____________. The 7.___________for French and British people becoming overweight is that they eat foods with 8.________. |
|
| 9. _____________ |
We should 10. _______the right food in modern life. |