第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出一个最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
The key to happiness is how quickly you can get back your focus on what’s important.
----Anonymous
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, who almost caused a big accident, started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
Many people are like garbage (rubbish) trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy with what you did.
I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do anymore."
Successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day. What about you? If you let more garbage trucks pass you by, you'll be happier. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So, Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't.
56. What happened one day when the author was taking a taxi?
A. The taxi almost hit another car.
B. The taxi driver was injured.
C. The author scolded the driver of the other car.
D. The author learned a lesson from the driver of the garbage truck.
57. How did the taxi driver respond to the behaviour of the driver of the black car?
A. He yelled back at the driver.
B. He sent the driver to the hospital.
C. He was friendly towards the driver.
D. He dumped some garbage in front of his car.
58. What does the taxi driver think of people according to Paragraph 3?
A. Many people like to drive garbage trucks.
B. Many people dump garbage wherever they like.
C. Many people are warm-hearted to make others happy.
D. Many people tend to be very much depressed.
59. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?
A. The author used to have a lot of garbage trucks.
B. The author used to complain a lot.
C. The author used to have a lot of money.
D. The author used to be a good manager.
60. According to the passage, what should you do if people “dump garbage” on you?
A. Ignore them and go on with our own work.
B. Try our best to persuade them not to do that again.
C. Tell them to dump the garbage in the right place.
D. Take over their work and carry the garbage to somewhere else.
Today, people all over the world are moving out of small villages in the country to go and live in big, noisy cities. They are moving from the peaceful hills, mountains, fields, rivers and streams of the countryside to the busy world of streets, buildings, traffic and crowds. This movement from rural (乡下的) areas to urban areas has been going on for over two hundred years.
In many countries, the main reason people come to live in towns and cities is work. After one or two large factories have been built in or near a town, people come to find work, and soon an industrial area begins to grow. There is usually a residential area nearby, too. The families of these workers need schools, hospitals and shops, so many people come to live in the area to provide these services and a city grows.
In every major city in the world, there is a business district where the big companies have their main offices. In the United States, this area is usually in the city center downtown. It is here that you can see many huge skyscrapers (摩天大楼) and office blocks. The people who work here often travel a long way to work each day. Many of them live in the suburbs of the city, far away from the industrial area and the city center. Some suburbs are very pleasant, with nice houses and big gardens. There are usually parks for children to play in and large department stores where you can buy all you need.
But what is the future of the big cities? Will they continue to get bigger and bigger? Perhaps not. Some major cities have actually become smaller in the last ten years, and it is quite possible that one day we will see people moving out of the major cities and back into smaller towns and villages.The underlined phrase “a residential area” means an area ________.
| A．where people can buy things |
| B．which is near a city center |
| C．where people can do business |
| D．which is suitable for living in |
Why do people move to live in cities or towns?
| A．Because they can live more comfortably there. |
| B．Because they mainly want to find work there. |
| C．Because they are sure of having a better life there. |
| D．Because they like noisy life better than peaceful life. |
What can we know about the business district?
| A．Big companies usually have their main offices in the business district. |
| B．People usually work and live in the skyscrapers in the cities. |
| C．A business district usually lies not far away from the city center downtown. |
| D．It’s reasonable for a business district without a park for children to play in. |
We can infer that this movement from rural to urban areas ________.
| A．has been going on for more than 2,000 years |
| B．will surely continue in the future |
| C．may not continue in the future |
| D．has now stopped already |
Most of my earliest childhood memories are of the beach — in the hot sun, building sandcastles, burying Dad in the sand.
Now the coast has a pleasant and relaxing attraction beyond words. I look forward to a windy cliff-top walk or a rainy day rock-picking just as much as those rare moments when I get to a short sleep in the sun. But there’s nothing more pleasurable than turning up at a beach to find it deserted.
These are my favourite secret beaches — ones either not well known or take a bit of effort to get to. Most of those listed scored highly in the Marine Conservation Society Good Beach Guide 2009; the others are too secret even for them.
Sennen Clove is just a mile northeast of Land’s End, the westernmost point of mainland England. It’s a beautiful spot, with white sands, deep green sea and amazing sunsets over the Isles (群岛) of Scilly, 28 miles away.
The west-facing beach is popular with surfers, with bigger waves and winds often found at the Gwenver end. There’s a beach restaurant with good views of the bay and the sunsets.
The smallest of Isles of Scilly, Bryher is a mile long, half a mile wide — and a natural wilderness of unbelievable scenery. Walk along the narrow sandy roads to the eastern seaboard and you come to two quiet beaches.
Green Bay has views over to the palm trees of Tresco’s Abbey Gardens, and a little further south is Rushy Bay, a beautiful beach facing the deserted island of Samson.
On Bryher, farm shops sell locally grown produce, and they trust you to leave the money in the pot. It’s that kind of place.The best title for this passage is ________.
| A．The Beautiful British Isles |
| B．Secret Beaches on the British Isles |
| C．The Most Pleasurable Place in Britain |
| D．My Experience of Searching Beaches |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．The author is a tourist guide in a tourist agency. |
| B．The author likes walking on a rainy cliff-top most. |
| C．The author wrote the article to advertise for the beaches. |
| D．The author loves beaches that are not known to most people. |
Which of the following maps can correctly describe the geography position?
(LE="Land’s" End SC="Sennen" Cove IS="the" Isles of Scilly)
In the author’s view, farmers on Bryher are ________.
| A．sincere | B．selfish | C．courageous | D．mean |
Did you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? The average women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain consists of “grey matter” and “white matter”. While men have more of the latter, the amount of “thinking” brain is almost exactly the same in both sexes.
It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources（来源）at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.
There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial (空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: Why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!
The differences begin when fetuses (胎儿) are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children as young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.
If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it,” says a biologist.Which of the following is TRUE according to the first paragraph?
| A．Women’s brain is 10% less than men’s. |
| B．Grey matter controls thinking in the brain. |
| C．Grey matter plays the same role as white matter. |
| D．Both sexes have the same amount of white matter. |
What can we infer from the second and third paragraphs?
| A．Women don’t need to tell directions. |
| B．Women prefer doing many things at a time. |
| C．Men have weaker spatial abilities. |
| D．Men do better dealing with one job at a time. |
Which of the following do you agree with according to the fourth paragraph?
| A．Young boys may be stronger than young girls. |
| B．Women may have stronger feelings than men. |
| C．More women take up jobs requiring speech skills. |
| D．Our ancestors needed more spatial skills. |
What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
| A．Defensive. | B．Persuasive. | C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.
TV channels will have disappeared. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers, and books will come to us by computer.
Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Space planes will take people halfway around the world in 2 hours. Today, the United States Space Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just 2 hours.
Robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots — they don’t ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere — in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Medical technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there are devices（设备）that connect directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again.
Scientist will have discovered how to control genes（基因）. Scientists have already produced clones of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they? We can learn from the passage that some big companies prefer robots to human workers, because human workers __________.
| A．often ask for more pay |
| B．can work 24 hours a day |
| C．are not clever enough |
| D．are often late for work |
The underlined word “conquered” in Paragraph 5 most probably means ________.
| A．discovered | B．treated | C．caused | D．cured |
It can be inferred from Paragraph 5 that _________.
| A．few diseases will attack people by 2050 |
| B．there will be no blind and deaf people by 2050 |
| C．medical technology will be more effective by 2050 |
| D．devices are connected directly to the brain to help people hear |
What is the author’s attitude towards the cloning technology?
| A．The author does not support the use of cloning technology. |
| B．The author thinks human cloning is impossible. |
| C．The author does not really support the idea of human cloning. |
| D．The author is quite excited about human cloning. |
According to the passage, which of the following can be realized today?
| A．Read newspapers on a computer. |
| B．Make a space shuttle to go into the land. |
| C．Use computers to control car speed. |
| D．Choose TV programs freely from a “menu”. |
Parent fans, both dads and mums, are shaming British football with their bad behaviour. Hundreds of junior soccer matches had to be abandoned last season because parent fans were swearing or even fighting on the touchline. At schools and clubs across the UK, hundreds of more matches also had to be called off for the same reason.
Reports tell of abuse at referees（裁判）, players and coaches and fight breaking out on the touchline.
Enough is enough Peter Wright, a keen referee of junior soccer, finally hung up his boots last season. He decided to walk away for good. He said “Every week I have had to take abuse and I’ve had enough of it.”
“Parents’ behaviour is reducing many school teachers, referees, coaches and volunteers to despair.”
The kids are suffering Jim Peter, a referee, said, “We are getting desperate and the kids are suffering.” He described the way spectators（观众）behave as abysmal and getting worse year by year. The big question is why so many parents shame their children in this way. Aggressive Behavior Contracts may have to be introduced to stop the violence and abuse. If not, the game will suffer.
Sign up to good conduct Last season players and parents were made to sign a new good behavior contract. “If a parent breaks the contract, I take his or her child off the pitch and get him or her to explain why I have done so to the child,” said Marc Nash, Wallsend’s assistant leader.
“The next step is to ban both the parent and the child, but happily, so far this has not been necessary.”A number of junior soccer matches were abandoned last season because .
| A．players abused spectators in the matches |
| B．parent fans swore and fought outside the pitch |
| C．school teachers persuaded the government to call them off |
| D．referees and coaches fought on the touchline |
Who’s an assistant leader in the passage?
| A．Marc Nash. | B．Jim Peter. | C．Peter Wright. | D．Wallsend. |
The underlined word “abysmal” in the passage means .
| A．extremely bad | B．weak | C．disappointing | D．impolite |