第三节：阅读理解 (共10小题，每小题2分，满分20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，并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。
Letters to the next president
Dear Mr. President:
I would like to personally thank you for your time and concern for our great country. I would like to take a few minutes to address a few concerns that I have with the United States.
First of all, I would like to address the war. In my opinion, we should have never been involved with Iraq to the extent that we are now. I believe we should pull our troops out. However, I think there should be a time table that we follow but the time table should not be released because the enemy does not need to know when we are going to pull out. Also, the war takes out a ton of our money, which leads me to my next issue.
The economy right now, in the opinion of many Americans is the biggest issue with which we are facing right now. No one can predict what will happen one day or the next. The obvious thing to do is to put 700 billion dollars in the economy, but that bill failed and was rejected by the House of Representatives(众议院). Instead of putting 700 billion dollars in, I think the money should be equally distributed among Americans to pay off their debts. I'm not sure if this would work, but I think it is a positive alternative we could take.
My final issue I would like to call to your attention is teacher's salaries. The high school students of today are America's future. In a way, America's future depends greatly on the high school teachers of America. Saying this, it is sad that teacher's salaries are where they are. While teachers are working harder and harder every day to teach high school students, CEO's of big companies that are driving our countries economy into the ground are getting bonuses. I'm not saying that teacher's salaries should be the same of CEO's of companies, but I do strongly believe that action should be taken to increase the salaries of teachers because they have one of the most important jobs in America - - preparing our country for the future.
Once again, thank you for your time and your effort you put in to making this great country a better place.
Sincerely, Walker
41. What's the author's attitude the Iraq War?
A. Supportive B. Objective C. Negative D. Positive
42. What's true about the time of pulling the troops out?
A. We should pull the troops out without delay.
B. There is no need to have a time table to follow.
C. The public has the fight to know the time table.
D. We should keep the time secret from the enemy.
43. According to the author, the 700 billion dollars__________
A. is the biggest issue with which we are facing right now.
B. has been accepted by the House of Representatives.
C. should be equally shared among Americans
D. should be put in the economy
44. When talking about high school teachers, the author thinks that____________
A. the teachers' salaries are not high enough.
B. teacher's salaries should be as high as CEO's.
C. the teachers work harder than CEO's of companies.
D. teaching is more important than any other job in America
45. Which of the topics is NOT included in the letter?
A. Election B. International affair C. Finance D. Education,
To swim across the English Channel takes at least nine hours. It‘s hard work and it makes you short of breath. To fly over the channel takes only twenty minutes as long as you’re not held up at the airport， but it‘s an expensive way to travel. You can travel by hovercraft （气垫船）if you don’t mind the noise and that takes forty minutes. Otherwise， you can go by boat， if you remember your sea-sickness pills. All these means of transport have their problems， and the weary（厌烦的）traveler often dreams of being able to drive to France in his own car. “Not possible， you say. Well， wait a minute. People are once again considering the idea of a channel tunnel or bridge.” This time， the great London Council（议会）is looking into the possibility of building a channel link straight to London. A bridge would cost far more than a tunnel， but you would be able to make a journey by rail or by car on a bridge， yet a tunnel would provide a rail link only. Why is this idea being discussed again？ Is Britain realizing the need for links with Europe as a result of joining EEC？Well， perhaps， the main reason， though， is that a tunnel or bridge would reach the twenty square kilometers of London‘s discussed dockland（船坞）。 A link from London to the continent would stimulate（刺激） trade and revitalize（使重新具有活力）the port， and would make London a main trading center in Europe. With a link over the Channel， you could buy your fish and chips in England and be able to eat them in France while they are still warm！From the lines we can see that people crossed the Channel by ______ in the past.
| A．air | B．boat | C．swimming | D．A， B， or C |
The weary traveler thinks the best way to cross the Channel is ______.
| A．by swimming | B．in his own car | C．by air | D．by hovercraft |
A tunnel would cost______ a bridge.
| A．far less than | B．as much as | C．far more than | D．as little as |
The main idea of the passage is______.
| A．how to develop the trade of London |
| B．when to cross the Channel |
| C．how to get to Europe from London more conveniently |
| D．what to do in the developing of traveling |
The other day I heard a few local musicians talking： “I hate all the terrible pianos in this town. I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They can’t even understand a bit of music.” “I’m never playing in that club again. Too many drunks and nobody listens to us.”
But, one younger musician said, “There are a few clubs that book my band a few nights a month, and I’m trying to find other places to play. I’m also looking to book a few summer festivals this year.”
I’ve heard that you are the average of the five people whom you spend the most time with, or to put it another way, you are who your friends are.
Attitudes are important. Whether they’re positive or negative, they’re rubbing off on you. If you’re around people who complain about lack of work and about other musicians, or blame others, and you play the role of victim, chances are you will start to as well. So it’s time to take a look at the people you call “friends”.
This is an easy exercise: Make a list of the people who you hang out with, and simply stop spending time with the negative people on your list. Set a new standard (标准) for yourself and don’t become friends with people who fall below that standard.
Keep successful people around you and your own chances for success will be much better. Ask them how they do it. Ask if they will help you get the work you’re looking for, or maybe give you some advice to help you on your career path.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed | B．How to make friendship last for ever |
| C．You are who your friends are | D．Friends are the most important in one’s success |
The underlined sentence “they’re rubbing off on you” in Paragraph 6 means ______.
| A．they’ll push you ahead | B．they’ll influence you |
| C．they’ll cover your shortcomings | D．they’ll help you achieve your goal |
The musicians’ words at the beginning are written mainly to show ______.
| A．the musicians’ living conditions are quite poor |
| B．people have poor taste in music |
| C．people have different attitudes towards the same thing |
| D．young people have greater chances of doing things well |
By taking the exercise mentioned in Paragraph 7, you can ______.
| A．improve a lot in making more friends | B．come to the right way of making friends |
| C．develop a better relationship with your friends | D．arrange the time with your friends properly |
Never go into a supermarket hungry! This is a good piece of advice. If you go shopping for food before lunchtime, you’ll probably buy more than you plan to. Unfortunately, however, just this advice isn’t enough for consumers these days. Modern shoppers need an education in how and how not to buy things at the store. First, you check the weekly newspaper ads. Find out the items that are on sale and decide if you really need these things. In other words, don’t buy anything just because it’s cheaper than usual! “New and Improved!” or “All Natural” on the front of a package influence you. Instead, read the list of ingredients(contents) on the back. Third, compare prices: that is, you should examine the prices of both different brands and different sizes of the same brand.
Another suggestion for consumers is to buy ordinary items instead of famous brands. Ordinary items in supermarkets come in plain packages. These products are cheaper because producers don’t spend much money on packing or advertising. The quality, however, is usually as good as the quality of well-known name brands. In the same way, in buying clothes, you can often find high quality and low prices in brands that are not famous. Shopping in discount clothing stores can help you save a lot of money. Although these stores aren’t very attractive, and they usually do not have individual dressing rooms, not only are the prices low, but you can often find the same famous brands that you find in high-priced department stores.
Wise consumers read magazine ads and watch TV commercials, but they do this with one advantage: knowledge of the psychology behind the ads. In other words, well-informed consumers watch for information and check for misinformation. They ask themselves questions: Is the advertiser hiding something in small print at the bottom of the page? Is there any real information in the commercial, or is the advertiser simply showing an attractive image? With the answers to these questions, consumers can make a wise choice.All the following statements are true about the phrase “ordinary items” in Paragraph 2 except ____.
| A．ordinary items never say “New and Improved” or “All Natural” |
| B．ordinary products are usually cheaper than famous brands |
| C．producers spend less money on packaging of ordinary items |
| D．the quality of ordinary items is usually as good as that of famous brands |
What does the writer think about ads?
| A．They are believable. | B．They are attractive. |
| C．They are full of misinformation. | D．They are helpful to consumers. |
One of the author’s suggestions to consumers is ____.
| A．to make use of ads |
| B．not to buy items with words like “New and Improved” or “All Natural” |
| C．to buy high quality items such as famous brands after lunch |
| D．to buy any ordinary items instead of famous brands |
The author implies that ____.
| A．going into the supermarket hungry, you may buy more than you plan to |
| B．the quality of ordinary items is usually high and the prices are relatively low |
| C．discount clothing stores are good places to go to |
| D．ads sometimes don’t tell the truth |
Shakespeare, more perhaps than any other writer, made full use of the greatest resources of the English language. Most of us use about five thousand words in our normal use of English; Shakespeare in his works used about twenty-five thousand words! There is probably no better way for a foreigner to appreciate the richness and variety of the English language than by studying the various ways in which Shakespeare uses it. Such a study is well worth the effort, even though some aspects of English usage, and the meaning of many words, have changed since Shakespeare’s day.
However, it is surprising that we should know comparatively little about the life of the greatest English writer. We know that Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-on-Avon, and that he died there in 1616. He almost certainly attended the Grammar School in the town, but of this we cannot be sure. We know he was married there in 1582 to Anne Hathaway and that he had three children. We know that he spent much of his life in London writing his great works. But this is almost all that we do know.
However, what is important about Shakespeare’s life is not its other less important details but its products, the plays and the poems. For many years scholars have been trying to add a few facts about Shakespeare’s life to the small number we already possess and for an equally long time critics (评论家) have been talking about the plays. Sometimes, indeed, it seems that the poetry of Shakespeare will disappear under the great mass of comment (评论) that has been written upon it.
Luckily this is not likely to happen. Shakespeare’s people have long delighted not just the English but lovers of literature everywhere, and will continue to do so after the scholars and critics and all their works have been forgotten.According to the writer, which of the following remains uncertain about Shakespeare?
| A．His date of birth. | B．His marriage. |
| C．His life in the Grammar School. | D．His date of death. |
It can be inferred from Para.3 that ______.
| A．not all the comments on Shakespeare’s works have produced good effects |
| B．scholars have successfully collected facts about Shakespeare’s life |
| C．critics are more interested in Shakespeare’s plays than his poetry |
| D．the details of Shakespeare’s life are more important than his literary works |
What does the last sentence in Para.3 mean?
| A．People don’t think the poetry of Shakespeare good any more. |
| B．People pay more attention to the comment than the poetry of Shakespeare. |
| C．People can’t see the poetry of Shakespeare any more. |
| D．The comment is printed upon the poetry of Shakespeare. |
“Shakespeare’s people” in Para.4 refers to _______.
| A．the characters in Shakespeare’s products | B．the people whose native language is English |
| C．the people living in Shakespeare’s day | D．the readers of Shakespeare’s works |
Reading is very important to help you learn English. To learn as much as you can from reading, you need to read different kinds of English. This book provides not only different kinds of English but also a good way to check your reading ability.
There are four parts in the book:
Part 1 is Messages: In this part somebody wants to send information in writing to somebody else. There is a test on timetable and a test on text messages.
Part 2 is People: In this part all the tests are about people. For example, there is an informal letter between friends. There is formal English in biography(传记). There is a job application as a model to help with your writing, as well as testing your reading.
Part 3 is Places: In this part, too, many different kinds of English are shown, some informal and some formal. There is the informal English of a holiday postcard. There is also the formal English in a letter of complaint.
Part 4 is Things: You will find some descriptive writing in this part. There are descriptions of clothes and of a computer.
You can do these tests in any order you like, or you can do all the tests with a formal or informal text. I enjoyed writing this book and I hope you enjoy using it.We can find the introduction to a product in ___________.
| A．part 1 | B．Part 2 | C．Part 3 | D．Part 4 |
Which of the following is most probably written in informal English?
| A．A letter of complaint. | B．A computer handbook. |
| C．A letter of a friend. | D．A story of a president. |
What is the best title of the book?
| A．Test Your Reading | B．Help with Your Writing |
| C．Learn Different Kinds of English | D．Practise English in Different Ways |