三、阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
第一节阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
A gentle breeze blew through Jennifer's hair. The golden red sun was setting. She was on the beach, looking up at the fiery (火红的) ball. She was amazed by its color, deep red in the middle, softly fading into yellow. She could hear nothing but the waves and the seagulls flying up above in the sky.
The atmosphere relaxed her. After all she had been through, this was what she needed. "It's getting late," she thought, "I must go home. My parents will be wondering where I am."
She wondered how her parents would react, when she got home after the three days she was missing. She kept on walking, directing herself where she spent every summer holiday. The road was deserted. She walked slowly and silently. Just in a few hundred meters she would have been safe in her house.
It was really getting dark now. The sun had set a few minutes before and it was getting cold too. She wished she had her favorite sweater on: it kept her really warm. She imagined having it with her. This thought disappeared when she finally saw her front door. It seemed different. Nobody had taken care of the outside garden for a few days. She was shocked: her father was usually so strict about keeping everything clean and tidy, and now... It all seemed deserted. She couldn't understand what was going on.
She entered the house. First, she went into the kitchen where she saw a note written by her father. It said: "Dear Ellen, there is some coffee ready. I went looking." Ellen was her mother but－where was she? On the right side of the hallway was her parents' room. She went in. Then she saw her. Her mother, lying on the bed, was sleeping. Her face looked so tired, as if she hadn't slept for days. She was really pale. Jennifer would have wanted to wake her up but she looked too tired. So Jennifer just fell asleep beside her. When Jennifer woke up, something was different－she wasn't in her mother's room and she wasn't wearing the old clothes she ran away in. She was in her cozy bed in her pajamas.
It felt so good being back home. Suddenly she heard a voice, "Are you feeling better now, dear? You know you got us very, very scared."
41. Three days later Jennifer came back home .
A. at sunrise B. at sunset C. at night D. at midday
42. What does the underlined phrase "This thought" most probably mean?
A. The idea of going back home.
B. Her anxiety about her parents.
C. The feeling of being warm in her favorite sweater.
D. The feeling of getting back home safely.
43. Her father didn't take care of the garden because .
A. he was busy looking for her
B. he had to look after his wife
C. he was not strict with his job
D. he no longer enjoyed working in the garden
44. What can we infer from this passage?
A. In fact Jennifer's mother had been sick for days.
B. As Jennifer walked towards home, she became increasingly scared.
C. When she found the garden deserted, she realized she was wrong.
D. Having experienced a lot outside, Jennifer felt home was safest for her.
Dear Customers,
I love slipping (滑落) into a comfortable chair for a long read—as I relax into the chair, I also relax into the author’s words, stories and ideas. The physical book is so elegant that it disappears into the background, and what remains is the author’s world.
Today, we at Amazon are excited to announce Mindle, a wireless, portable reading device with instant access to more than 90,000 books, magazines and newspapers.
We’ve been working on Mindle for more than three years. Our top design objective was for Mindle to disappear in your hands—to get out of the way—so you can enjoy your reading. We also wanted to go beyond the physical book. Mindle is wireless, so whether you’re lying in bed or riding a train, you can think of a book, and have it in less than 60 seconds. No computer is needed—you do your reading directly from the device.
We chose the same wireless technology used in advanced mobile phones. But unlike mobile phones, there are no monthly wireless bills, no service or data plans, and no yearly contracts. There is no software to install (安装，设置)。 We want you to get lost in your reading and not in the technology.
Mindle uses a new kind of display called electronic paper. Sharp and natural with no strong light, reading on Mindle is nothing like reading from a computer screen. Mindle weighs only 10.3 ounces—less than paperback—but can carry two hundred books.
Enjoy learning about Mindle and many thanks!
Jeff Bezos Founder & CEOThis passage most probably is a(n)________.
| A．advertisement |
| B．news story |
| C．lab report |
| D．letter of thanks |
From the passage we learn that Mindle is a device which ________.
| A．has neither wires nor weight |
| B．is operated by a computer |
| C．disappears while you read |
| D．can find a book within one minute |
With the device, the reader is able to ________.
| A．enjoy reading when driving a car |
| B．improve reading skills |
| C．gain access to free software |
| D．get rid of heavy books made of paper |
Different from mobile phones, Mindle________.
| A．has a much more friendly screen |
| B．can work in the absence of electricity |
| C．doesn’t involve regular bills |
| D．is wireless and can be used anywhere. |
Make a five-minute film and win!
Do you love the winter holidays but hate being bored? Then why don’t you enter the Film Street Summer Shorts Competition by making a short film this winter with your family and friends?
What you have to do
To enter the competition, you have to make a short film that is around 5 minutes long (It can be shorter but not longer!) on a digital camera, or mobile phone.
Awards
The best short film entered into our competition will be shown in Film Street’s Cinema and you’ll win a Cineworld Cinema pass for yourself and three more for other members of your filmmaking crew (演职员)。 If you have a Cineworld Cinema pass, you can watch as many films as you like for a year, for free, at any Cineworld Cinema.
Rules
We can’t show films that tell others about either your or any other kids’ names or addresses.
We can’t show films that hurt, harm or insult (侮辱) other people.
We can’t show films that have bad languages.
Copyright Checklist (版权清单)
Getting permission to use someone else’s work in your film can be expensive, so check your film to make sure that:
Your film is original and you haven’t copied anyone else’s.
There are no scenes of branding on shop signs, books, magazines or CDs.
There are no scenes of anyone else’s artwork.
Address and Date
Post your finished film on tape, CD or DVD by Monday, October 1st, 2011 to:
Film Street Summer Short Competition
First Light Movies
Unit 6, Third Floor, The Bond
180-182 Fazeley Street
Birmingham
So what’s stopping you? Start making your Film Street Summer Short now!Who is the passage mainly written for?
| A．Students | B．Parents |
| C．Teachers | D．Actors |
How many Cineworld Cinema passes will the winner of the competition be awarded in all?
| A．One | B．Two |
| C．Three | D．Four |
From Paragragh 3, we can learn that _______.
| A．the winner’s short film can be shown in any cinema |
| B．the competition is held by Cineworld Cinema |
| C．the winner can watch films for free for one year at any Cineworld Cinema.\ |
| D．the winner will be paid for his short film |
The underlined word “original” is the closest in meaning to “_______”.
| A．interesting enough |
| B．exciting enough |
| C．good for children |
| D．made by yourself |
Scientists at Harvard University and Bates College find female chimpanzees (黑猩猩) appear to treat sticks as dolls, carrying them around until they have children of their own. Young males engage in such behavior much less frequently.
The new work by Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham, described this week in the journal Current Biology, provides the first evidence of a wild nonhuman species playing with dolls, as well as the first known sex difference in a wild animal’s choice of playthings.
The two researchers say their work adds to a growing body of evidence that human children are probably born with their own ideas of how they want to behave, rather than simply mirroring other girls who play with dolls and boys who play with trucks. Doll play among humans could have its origins in object—carrying by earlier apes (猿类), they say, suggesting that toy selection is probably not due entirely to socialization.
“In humans, there are obvious sex differences in children’s toy play, and these are remarkably similar across cultures,” says Kahlenberg. “While socialization by elders and peers has been the primary explanation, our work suggests that biology may also have an important role to play in activity preferences.”
In 14 years of data on chimpanzee behavior at the Kibale National Park in Uganda, Kahlenberg and Wrangham counted more than 100 examples of stickcarrying. Some young chimpanzees carried sticks into the nest to sleep with them and on one occasion built a separate nest for the stick. “We have seen juveniles occasionally carrying sticks for many years, and because they sometimes treated them rather like dolls, we wanted to know if in general this behavior tended to represent something like playing with dolls,” says Wrangham, a Professor at Harvard. “If the doll hypothesis (假设) was right, we thought that females should carry sticks more than males do, and that the chimpanzees should stop carrying sticks when they had their first child. We have now watched enough young chimpanzees to prove both points.” What does a female chimpanzee do with sticks?
| A．She gives them to her child to play with. |
| B．She treats them as dolls. |
| C．She makes useful tools from them. |
| D．She treats them as weapons. |
What causes the different toy selection of chimpanzees, according to the passage?
| A．Sex difference. | B．Socialization. |
| C．Environment. | D．Cultural difference. |
We can infer from the fourth paragraph that ________.
| A．socialization has nothing to do with human’s choice of playthings |
| B．sex difference is the only factor in human’s choice of playthings |
| C．the biology factor may also influence toy choice |
| D．people choose different toys in different cultures |
It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
| A．both humans and chimpanzees choose their playthings due to sex difference |
| B．different factors cause humans and chimpanzees to choose different playthings |
| C．only female chimpanzees have playthings |
| D．chimpanzees usually choose playthings for their children |
I credit my typing skill to so many hours of chatting online. Unfortunately, as my typing speed increased on the Internet, all grammatical rules went out of the window. You see instant messages have their own shorthand language and grammar isn’t important, of which even a newbie (新手) is aware. They can leave out articles, subjects (主语), pronouns, etc. They can misspell or “respell” almost any word. They often ask “A/S/L” when they first chat. Abbreviations (缩写) and capitalizations (大写) are particularly important. English-speaking instant messengers also refuse to burden themselves with punctuation and capitalization.
After I came back China, I discovered not one but two instant messaging crazes. The first, which brought back memories of my previous addiction to the computer, was QQ. I can see evidence that the Chinese have the same kind of separate instant messaging language, even when they chat in English. My first word in this language, for example, was “ft”. This abbreviation for “faint” is used whenever there is a need to express surprise. I also discovered that Chinese use the same kind of abbreviation for a laugh. And there is an extraordinary number of smileys (表情符) to the “vomit” and “army soldier” smileys. There is even a SARA smiley.
After QQ, there is another, perhaps more widespread messaging trend. You guessed it --- cell phone text messaging. I now understand how useful text messaging is and why it is so common. I admit that I have been guilty of sending text messages while walking outside or sitting on the subway. Who hasn’t ? No matter where I go, I see people on their cell phones, messaging. In fact, it’s rare to see someone actually talking on their phone!
So it looks as if there is no escape from the instant messaging crazes, no matter where in the world I go. And that’s plainly not going to change. In the end, though, I can’t complain: instant messaging is quick, it’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s extremely fun too. And after all, everyone’s doing it.The underlined phrase “went out of the window” in Paragraph 1 probably means .
| A．increased | B．occurred | C．disappeared | D．changed |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Grammar and correct spelling are very important while chatting online. |
| B．There are enough smileys and icons to express yourselves while chatting on line. |
| C．The writer is skilled at typing and once was addicted to online games. |
| D．It is impolite to leave out some unimportant words or letters while chatting online. |
The writer believes that instant messaging is .
| A．full of fun but time-consuming |
| B．widespread but unnecessary |
| C．quick but difficult to do |
| D．common, used and cheap |
Which might be the main idea of the passage?
| A．Who can escape QQ and cell phone text messaging? |
| B．Why is instant messaging so popular? |
| C．Chatting online is good for your typing skill. |
| D．Chatting on QQ is natural for people. |
Memory is the ability to keep track of things that have happened in the past. Memory really is learning. One needs memory to ride a bicycle. A dog needs to remember if it is to come when called.
Memory is said to be stored in the brain as a “memory trace（记忆痕）.” What makes up this trace is not known. Some scientists believe that certain chemical substances may carry certain memories. For example, one substance, when given to rats, causes them to fear the dark.
Other research into memory has to do with how the brain works. Psychologists use three means to find out how a person remembers. For example, give a person a grocery list. Let the person memorize the list, then put it away. The most natural way to find out how much a person remembers of the grocery list is to ask what he or she remembers. This is called the method of recall. Another method is called recognition. Give the person another grocery list. Ask him or her to choose items on the first list from the items that are on only the second list. Often a person will be able to recognize things that he or she cannot recall. A third method of finding how much a person remembers is called relearning. Here the person is asked to read over the first list. The person will probably learn the list the second time faster than he did the first time. The difference in the time it takes to relearn the list is thought of as a measure of how much a person has remembered.
One way of remembering something is to repeat it many times. Interest is very important. Boring lists of facts are much more difficult to remember than something that we understand and are interested in. Motivation, or wanting to do something, is also important. Motivation is linked with reward. For example, a hungry animal quickly learns how to do something if that action gets the animal food. In humans, wanting to learn is often motivation. The praise of a teacher or the knowledge that an answer is correct is rewarding.We can learn from the 2nd paragraph that ___________ .
| A．bad memories may cause rats to fear the dark |
| B．it is hard to tell what a memory trace consists of |
| C．chemical substances carry certain memories |
| D．memory is stored in the brain as a substance |
The way to pick out the items on the first list from the second is known as ________ .
| A．recognition | B．recall | C．memorization | D．relearning |
What is considered as a measure of how much one has remembered?
| A．The length of the list. |
| B．The type of list items. |
| C．The time difference of relearning. |
| D．The time difference of brain working. |
A good way to train an animal to do something quickly is to ________.
| A．make the action easy | B．praise it in words |
| C．reward it with food | D．weaken its motivation |