People often think that having a million dollars would make all their dreams come true. There are TV game shows that give contestants the chance to become millionaires. When asked the question "What would you do with a million dollars?", most people tend to give similar answers: “Quit my job.”, "Buy my dream house," or “Go traveling.” Twenty years ago, it was possible to realize these dreams. However, things are not so easy today.
In many developed countries, the cost of living is higher than ever. Over the last twenty years, for example, housing prices in many of the world's cities have soared. In the U. S., luxury homes in the state of Arizona sold for about $ 800, 000 in 1995. These same homes now cost more than $ 1.5 million. Now, because more people live in the area, the cost of property has risen.
Apartments in many city centers are also more expensive now than in the past. Today, people want to be closer to their workplace, and many are now moving back into the city center. As a result, living in or near this area costs more than ever. Apartments in London's Mayfair district or in Manhattan in New York City often sell for over a million dollars.
Inflation is another important reason for the rise in the cost of living. Over the last 150 years, as prices have gone up, the value of money has gone down, so we now need more money to buy things. In 1850, for example, $50,000 had as much buying power as $1 million dollars does today. Of course, people now earn more money than they did 150 years ago, but they also spend more on necessities such as food, medicine, and housing.
In order to live well after you stop working, you should begin saving for retirement early. Experts suggest that after you retire, you will need 75 percent to 80 percent of your salary to live on every month. This calculation assumes that you have no mortgage on a house to continue paying, or any other major expenses.
Due to increased demand for housing, higher inflation, and longer life expectancy, a million may not be enough to live on. To be able to retire early, travel the world, and build your dream home, you may have to appear on that game show and win more than once!
46. What is the main cause of high housing price?
A. People generally make more money today.
B. There are more luxury homes than apartments.
C. There is less housing available there for sale or rent.
D. People would rather live in the suburbs than in the city.
47. The word "inflation" in the 4th paragraph refers to _____
A. the amount of money required for life's necessities
B. a continuing increase in prices over time
C. a bank loan for a house or piece of land
D. things that one must pay for regularly
48. If you make $ 4,000 per month, you will need _______ per month after you retire.
A. $2,250~$2,400 B. $ 3,000~$ 3,200
C. $3,500~$3,750 D. $2,550~ $ 2,700
49. What does the underlined sentence mean in the last paragraph?
A. You will be so lucky that you can win another million dollars.
B. Don't expect too much for just a million dollars that cannot change your life completely.
C. A million dollars is too little to travel around the world.
D. To win another million dollars is the only way to make you live better after retirement.
50. The passage mainly tells us _______.
A. what a million dollars can buy
B. higher housing prices have become a social problem to deal with
C. how much money you will need in order to live well after retirement
D. we should not neglect the fact that money may not be as that much as before
All plant cells are capable of taking up（吸收）water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption（吸收）of water by dead cell walls makes wood become larger.
In common land plants, the living cells of roots take upmost of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens（苔藓）you see on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plants started to enter the land, the first land plants did not have roots.
Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are “the higher plants” because they evolved（进化）recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale（进化度）.
In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water only from the dew（露水）it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies.
In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation（绝缘物）of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.Wood becomes larger because of .
| A．dead cell walls | B．water entering dead cells |
| C．the growth of cells | D．the death of cells |
From the passage we know that the evolutionary scale is graded according to.
| A．evolutionary cycles | B．heights and depths |
| C．time | D．kinds |
The “bromeliad” is a plant that.
| A．has no roots | B．is a pineapple |
| C．can grow anywhere | D．takes up water through its leaves |
The most suitable title for this passage is “”.
| A．Absorption of water by plants | B．Rootless plants in America |
| C．Plants in the desert | D．Higher plants |
Let’s pretend we’re sailing down the Rhine River on a pleasure boat. The Rhine is one of the main waterways of Germany, and the river traffic is heavy. It’s interesting to watch the many boats going up and down the river. But the river traffic is not nearly so interesting as the beautiful scenery along the banks and hillsides. The boat is passing many old castles. We can see people working in the vineyards (葡萄园) on the hillsides. There are vineyards as far as the eye can see. Wine from the Rhine Valley is famous all over the world.
Suddenly our boat slows down and begins to turn a little. We are coming to a sharp bend in the river. On our right we can see a rocky cliff over 400 feet high. At first it looks quite ordinary, but there is nothing ordinary about it. There are many stories, poems, and songs about the cliff. We are looking at the Lorelei. Then someone on the boat begins to sing in German, the song of the Lorelei. It is a song about a beautiful siren (妖妇) who has lured(引诱) many sailors to their deaths.
The siren is supposed to sit on the rock combing her long golden hair and singing. The sailors who hear her forget to steer（掌舵）, and the current of river hurls (掀翻) their boats on the rocks and dashes（猛撞）them to pieces.
Soon other people on the boat begin to sing. The beautiful song adds to special magic to the moment, and you begin to realize why so many people have made this trip down the Rhine to see the rock of the Lorelei.The most interesting thing to those who are sailing down the Rhine River on a pleasure boat is.
| A．to watch many boats going up and down the river |
| B．to see the beautiful scene along the banks and hillsides |
| C．to hear a song about beautiful siren |
| D．to see a beautiful siren combing her golden hair |
Which of the following is famous all over the world?
| A．The Rhine River. | B．The River Traffic. |
| C．Wine from the Rhine Valley. | D．The Lorelei. |
We can see a rocky cliff over 400 feet high.
| A．on our right when coming to a sharp bend | B．on the Rhine hillsides |
| C．from the Rhine Valley | D．on the boat |
The song of the Lorelei is about.
| A．The Rhine wine |
| B．a rocky cliff |
| C．the beautiful scenery along the Rhine River |
| D．a beautiful and dangerous siren |
Gene technology to benefit people
Among all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Sometimes it is a hot topic discussed by people.
The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if the gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, bringing happiness and more living days to the patients, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved, therefore it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span(寿命) can be prolonged.
Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families, with the English imperial(皇室) family being a good example, have hereditary(遗传的) diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditary diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. The scientist just need to find the wrong gene and correct it and a healthy child will be born.
Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to manufacture human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning a sheep; therefore these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned. But I believe cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in very normal way. Of course, the governments must take care to control gene technology. What does "these two killers" in the second paragraph refer to?
| A．Gene technology and another treatment of the two diseases. |
| B．The two murderers who killed the cloned baby |
| C．The two diseases of cancer and heart disease |
| D．Hereditary diseases and cancer |
What’s the main idea of the third paragraph?
| A．How gene technology can be applied in the field of treating hereditary diseases. |
| B．Gene technology can be used to clone human babies. |
| C．Gene technology can help people to give birth of a baby. |
| D．Gene technology can help the English imperial family out |
In what way gene technology can help to treat hereditary diseases?
| A．Using gene technology, people with hereditary diseases can have more living days. |
| B．Using gene technology, scientist finds the wrong gene and corrects it. |
| C．Using gene technology, human babies can be cloned. |
| D．Doctors can cure cancer and heart disease with the help of gene technology. |
What is the main purpose of writing this passage?
| A．Expressing the writer’s idea that gene technology will benefit people |
| B．Telling people the advantages of gene technology |
| C．Telling the readers that gene technology will not benefit people |
| D．Explaining that gene technology will also do harm to the humanity |
In the West, advertisements are the fuel that makes mass media (大众传媒) work. Many TV stations, newspapers, magazines, radio stations are privately owned. The government does not give them money. So where does the money come from? From advertisements. Without advertisements, there would not be these private businesses.
Have you ever asked yourself what advertising is? Through the years, people have given different answers to the question. For some time it was felt that advertising was a means of “keeping your name before the public”. And some people thought that advertising was “truth well told”. Now more and more people consider it in this way: Advertising is the paid, non-personal, and usually persuasive presentation of goods, services and ideas by some certain sponsors (赞助商) through various media.
First, advertising is usually paid for. Various sponsors pay for the advertisements we see, read, and hear over the various media. Second, advertising is non-personal. It is not face-to-face communication. Although you may feel that a message in a certain advertisement is aimed directly at you, in fact, it is directed at large groups of people. Third, advertising is usually persuasive. Directly or indirectly it asks people to do something. All advertisements try to make people believe that the product, idea, or service advertised can benefit them. Fourth, the sponsors of the advertisement must show their names. From the advertisement, we can see if the sponsor is a company, or a single person. Fifth, advertising reaches us through old and modern mass media. Included in the old media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and films. Modern media include emails, matchbox covers, and boards on top of buildings.The existence of the privately owned mass media depends on the support of ________.
| A．the government | B．their owners families |
| C．advertisements | D．the TV stations |
The passage seems to say that different ideas about what advertising is are given due to ________.
| A．the change of time | B．the subject of the advertisements |
| C．people’s age difference | D．people’s different opinions |
Which of the following is considered modern mass media? ________.
| A．Newspapers | B．Emails | C．Magazines | D．Films |
According to the passage, which of the following statements about advertisements is NOT true?
| A．The sponsors are always mentioned. |
| B．Advertising must be honest and humorous. |
| C．There is the description of things advertised. |
| D．Advertising is directed at large groups of people. |
Most students hate their endless homework. The students from Class 2, Senior 2 of the High School Affiliated to Peking University certainly did before they published their own collection of English novels at home.
Their small book contains stories about a holy (神圣的) war, the happy life of a self-taught artist and the story of a laid-off worker who devoted his last breath to playing his beloved accordion (手风琴). The book becomes an instant hit on campus. About 3,000 copies have been sold and the class is already working on the second volume.
"We’re up to our ears in homework. Exercises and exams make us out of breath. But to do something creative and full of imagination is such a great achievement," said Yu Xiaoxiao, 16.
"I took the writing as an ordinary homework at the beginning, but after I finished the first part of my story, I could not help but let it flow," said Wang An, who wrote "Accordion".
Inspired by "Lord of the Rings", Jiang Lu wrote his story about magic wars between angels from the light and the dark side. "The main message of the story was to look at the balance of the world. Both dark and light angels fight with love as their weapons. I want to tell people that selfish love might bring hate," Jiang said.
"I was shocked by their work and felt so proud to be the editor of my students’ book," said Nathaniel Timmermann, the oral English teacher at the school. Liu Xiuqin, an English teacher, started the project by asking students to write whatever was in their mind every week. "They have performed beyond expectation," Liu said. "They wrote interesting stories and their English has improved after they started to express their real minds."
"We never imagined that our homework would be so popular and profitable (盈利的). We sell the novels at five yuan, but many teachers pay more to encourage us," said Yuan Mengyao. After Wang An finished the first part of his story, he _________.
| A．couldn’t go on | B．had to put it aside |
| C．just wanted to express it freely | D．lost it |
What was not the outcome of the students’ homework of writing whatever was in their mind?
| A．Being popular. | B．Being profitable. |
| C．Improving their English. | D．Winning prize. |
What is the reason for the students’ liking to write interesting stories?
| A．It is creative and imaginative. |
| B．It is profitable. |
| C．Interesting stories are sure to be popular. |
| D．Interesting stories can be well sold. |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Creative homework leads to a popular book |
| B．Writing interesting stories |
| C．Students’ new book |
| D．A popular book |