Michael, a typical American, stays home on workdays. He plugs into his personal computer terminal in order to connect with the office. After work, he puts on his headphones, watches a movie on his home video recorder, or plays baseball on the computer. On many days, Michael doesn’t talk to any other human beings, and he doesn’t see any people except the ones on television. Michael is imaginary, but his life style is very possible. The inventions of modern technology seem to be cutting us off from contact with our fellow human beings.
The world of business is one area in which technology is isolating us. Experts say, for example, that many people will soon be able to work at home. With access to a large central computer, employees such as office clerks, insurance agents, and accountants could do their jobs at display terminals in their own homes. They would never have to actually see the people they’re dealing with. In addition, the way employees are paid will change. Workers’ salaries will be automatically paid into their bank accounts, making paper checks unnecessary. No workers will stand in line to receive their pay or cash their check. Personal banking will change, too. Customers will deal with machines to put in or take out money from their accounts. Another area that technology is changing is entertainment. Music, for instance, was once a group experience. People listened to music at concert halls or in small social gatherings. For many people now, however, music is an individual experience. Walking along the street or sitting in their living rooms, they wear headphones to build a wall of music around them. Movie entertainment is changing, too. Movies used to be social events. Now fewer people are going out to see a movie. Many more are choosing to wait for a film to appear on television or are borrowing videotapes to watch at home. Instead of laughing with others, viewers watch movies in their own living rooms.
36. After work, Michael likes to ________.
| A．listen to music at the concert hall |
| B．watch a movie in his living room |
| C．run a program on his computer in his office |
| D．play baseball with his workmates |
37. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Clerks will be able to work at home. |
| B．One can play baseball on the computer. |
| C．One can listen to music without disturbing others. |
| D．One can borrow books from libraries at home. |
38. The sentence “Michael is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very possible” means ________.
| A．Michael is a person full of imagination and he can make his dreams come true |
| B．Michael is not a real person but the lifestyle does exist |
| C．Michael has ambitions but he can’t make his dreams come true |
| D．Michael is a person full of imagination and his lifestyle is common nowadays |
39. What will the author most probably discuss after the last paragraph?
| A．Games and sports. | B．Personal banking. |
| C．Music and films. | D．International business. |
40. What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．We may no longer need to communicate with other human beings. |
| B．Modern technology seems to be separating human being. |
| C．We may no longer need to work in the office. |
| D．Modern technology makes it possible for us to work and entertain ourselves at home. |
The 115 islands that sparkle in the middle of the Indian Ocean are one of the world's greatest treasures 'A place where natural purity and simplicity can be found and innocence rediscovered; a place like no other and another world entirely. 92 of those islands consist of Seychelles, which is known as "the last paradise".
For over two centuries, the islands of Seychelles have remained a melting pot of different races, traditions and religions from the four corners of the earth. The Seychellois are a colorful blend of peoples of different races, cultures and religions. .At different times in its history, people of African, European and Asian origin have come to Seychelles, bringing with them their distinct traditions and customs and contributing to the way of life and to Seychellois culture.
Throughout Seychelles, there are many artisans producing works of art that are as varied and diverse as their surrounds and which include stained glass, products made from coconut shell, husk, seashells and corals, clothing, gold, silver and other forms of jewellery, recycled materials, bamboo, metal and pottery. They are probably poorly educated, but they have talent for producing handicraft articles.
Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives are all island countries, but Seychelles is unique. Mr. Alanin, Director of Tourism Marketing of Seychelles Tourism hoard said, "There are a variety of islands in Seychelles. Mauritius has only one island. In Maldives, there are a lot of islands, but they are all coral islands. Seychelles has big granite (花岗岩) islands. In addition, the people are different. We have a mixture of people, and you can see how friendly they are.
Most importantly, all these natural disasters do not exist in Seychelles because we are out of the belt. Nothing will happen to visitors when they are in Seychelles. In Seychelles, harmony is a way of life."
41. The islands of Seychelles are NOT ______.
A. polluted B. world famous C. beautiful D. various
42. Which of the following of Seychelles is not mentioned in the passage?
A. The nature. B. The people.
C. The food. D. The culture.
43. From the 3rd paragraph we can guess that an "artisan" is ______.
A. a professional artist producing works with recycled materials
B. a person whose job requires skills with his hands
C. a factory where handicraft articles are produced
D. an organization who sell natural things
44. Which of the following is a part of the reasons for that Seychelles is unique?
A. Seychelles' islands are all granite ones.
B. Seychelles had more islands than Mauritius and Maldives.
C. Seychelles has more races and the people are friendly.
D. Seychelles is located at a safe position on the earth.
45. What's Mr. Alanin's purpose to say all these words in the last paragraph?
A. To attract visitors to travel in Seychelles.
B. To praise the beauty of Seychelles.
C. To express his feelings to his country.
D. To explain the difference from Mauritius and Maldives.
SHANGHAI-Famed Chinese scientist Qian Weichang died here on Friday morning, saddening millions of his countrymen.
He was 98.
Qian, a pioneer in mechanics and applied mathematics in modern China, was one of the three famous "Qians" in China's science and technology field. He was well known alongside Qian Xuesen, the father of China's space program, and Qian Sanqiang, a nuclear physicist who oversaw the development of China's nuclear program.
Wu Shuqing, former president of Peking University, said Qian was an internationally well-known scholar whose modesty and conduct has set a good example for following generations.
After learning about Qian's death, millions of Chinese people offered their condolences (吊唁) online.
Many students from Shanghai University, where Qian was a former president, burst into tears after hearing the news, saying it was a great loss to the university and to China.
For those off campus for the summer vocation, many visited their university website, which had been turned gray. Some said they planned to return to the campus to mourn him.
Many of those still on campus voluntarily joined preparations for a mourning (哀悼) service that will begin at the university on Saturday.
The university has set up two mourning halls at two of its campuses and publicized the mourning time and phone numbers at the two sites.
Qian was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, in 1912. Although he was initially not good at science, he chose to study physics at Tsinghua University because he believed science and technology were the keys to strengthening China in the 1930s.
He graduated from Tsinghua in 1935, and earned his PhD in applied mathematics from the University of Toronto in Canada in 1942.
He returned to China in 1946 and became a mechanics professor and later vice-president at Tsinghua University.
Qian made great contributions to the engineering applications of sciences, such as the fluttering of airplanes, armor penetration, the design of instruments and pipe systems.
He is an academician (院士) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
36. Qian Weichang used to work at ______.
A. Tsinghua University and Peking University
B. Shanghai University and Toronto University
C. Peking University and Shanghai University
D. Tsinghua University and Shanghai University
37. According to the passage, the students expressed their sadness to Qian's death in the following ways EXCEPT that they ______.
A. held mourning meetings in the university
B. could not stop crying for losing him
C. went to the university to mourn him themselves
D. offered their help to the mourning service
38. The passage tells us that ______ made Qian Weichang aim at science in his university time.
A. his talents at study
B. his failures at science
C. the family's expectation
D. his love to the country
39. Which of the following statements is WRONG according to the passage?
A. Qian Weichang graduated from Tsinghua University.
B. Qian Weichang used to work side by side with Qian Xuesen and Qian Sanqiang.
C. Qian Weichang spent at least four years studying and living abroad.
D. Qian Weichang was not good at science before he went to university.
40. What is the best title of this passage?
A. Respected Scientist Passes on at 98
B. The Great Life of the Scientist-Qian Weichang
C. The Whole Nation Mourn Qian Weichang
D. A 98-year Old Man Passed in Shanghai
Beyond the Factory: Child Labor in the Cities
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, factory owners faced few restrictions on the way they employed their children workers, who were between the age of 7 and 12. Gradually laws came into being.
The first child-labor laws were passed at the state level in America and usually focused on both required education and a minimum age for employment. And added rules limited the length of the workday for children. Pennsylvania, for example, limited the workday to 10 hours for children under 12. However, government officials cared little whether businesses followed the law. In fact one group of children was left entirely unprotected by labor laws -- the children of immigrant families.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, piecework appeared, for which people were paid by the piece. Significant numbers of women sewed baby dresses or men's neckties and made the artificial flowers used to decorate hats. Piecework turned homes into factories that were free from the law, and countless children worked long hours alongside their mothers and old sisters.
Manufactures exploited the system shamelessly and paid the lowest wages they could. Embroidering (刺绣) a silk dress, which was a 10-day job, might generate a five-dollar payment. In the case of "willowing", workers needed to add more strands to ostrich feathers used on hats to make them longer and more graceful. The first willowers were paid 15 cents per inch, but a few months later, the pay was reduced to 13 cents. Within three years, willowers were earning only three cents per inch.
In order to survive under these circumstances, pieceworkers had even their youngest children help them. In one Italian neighborhood, a three-year-old girl helped her mother sew clothes. In another case, a child of eight who had lived in New York for three years had never been to school at all and could speak almost no English. Slowly child labor laws brought these abuses to an end.
31. The first child-labor laws required ______.
A. workplace safety and conditions
B. minimum payment and age
C. education and working time
D. minimum payment and schooling
32. Manufactures who hired women to do piecework ______.
A. were kind and concerned employers
B. were sometimes called "willowers"
C. usually paid the lowest salary
D. forced children to turn home into factories
33. "Willowing" was a kind of ______.
A. handwork activity B. workplace
C. payment requirement D. workers
34. By raising the example of the three-year-old girl's experience in the last paragraph, the author intended to ______.
A. show how poor the situations were for children workers
B. blame those adult pieceworkers for allowing children to work
C. attract attention to protect young children
D. emphasize the importance of educating young children
35. Which of the following sentences best summarizes the passage?
A. The first child-labor laws were limited due to working at the state level.
B. Early child-labor laws offered no protection to children who worked at home.
C. Some immigrant children did not learn English because of their piecework.
D. Child-labor laws should have come into being before children became workers.
II.阅读（共两节，满分50分）
第一节阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的A、B，C和D项中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Like all other mothers who have small children, I, too, have to steal time-from my own children at home and from the children who know me as their teacher-just to put a few words down on paper. Many times I've wanted to write for myself, for other women, for my parents, for my husband, and especially for my children. I would have liked to leave a legacy (遗产) of words explaining what it has meant to have twins. One reason that there is not a great deal written about being a mother of a new baby is that there is seldom a moment to think of anything else but the baby's needs.
With twins, I did not have a spare hand to write with.
Before my twins were born, my days were long and I had nothing to write about. After the twins' birth I did have something to write about, but I found myself facing not a pen and paper but milk bottles.
Some nights, friends would visit. They would leave at 11 p.m., heading for bed, and for us the night was only just beginning. With twins, there is really no night. Each feeding lasts a long time. At 1:00 a.m., each of them would begin crying from hunger. At 4:00am, when I finally put them down, I felt exhausted.
Two years have passed since then and we've managed to live through it all. My days are still very full and even now there isn't one evening when I put the twins down for the night that I don't have a break. At last a little time for myself.
26. When did the writer have time but she didn't feel like writing anything?
A. Before the birth of her twins.
B. When she faced bottles of milk.
C. After her friends visited her home.
D. When she had to think about the babies' needs.
27. What does the writer mainly write about?
A. Her role as a wife. B. Her work as a writer.
C. Her experience as a mother. D. Her feeling as a woman.
28. Why did the writer say the night was just beginning (in the 4th paragraph)?
A. Because her friends left her house too late.
B. Because she started to take care of the twins even at night.
C. Because her babies often cried and she woke up.
D. Because she could not sleep till four in the morning.
29. This passage is probably from a(n) ______.
A. blog B. newspaper C. guidebook D. advertisement
30. What can we learn from the passage?
A. The writer was unhappy because of no time for writing.
B. The writer cared her babies more than her own interests.
C. The writer hated to be a mother of twins.
D. The writer could steal a little time at night.
The Zhoukoudian Beijing Man Site is one of the most important world heritage sites in China. Since the discovery, which changed China’s knowledge of its history, was made in the 1920s, Zhoukoudian has become an important place for archaeologists from all over the world. At the site in the south-west suburb of Beijing, there is, for example, the earliest evidence of the use of fire by humans. It has also been proved that people lived there continuously between 500,000 and 10,000 years ago.
Today, however, Zhoukoudian is in serious danger. Parts of the cave have been badly affected by rain and exposure to the air. Some areas are almost completely covered in weeds, causing serious damage. Pollution from nearby cement factories has also contributed to the problem.
The site is extremely expensive to maintain and it will cost between three and five million yuan to repair it. At the moment, visitors are not allowed to visit the caves.
Zhoukoudian is on the World Cultural Heritage List, organized by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The list is constantly checked. Any site which is seriously damaged or which is not properly protected is an endangered heritage, and UNESCO is very quick to do something about situations like this. They have recommended that the site be closed and repaired. If nothing is done to repair it, it could be removed from the list.
This is a very serious matter and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is trying to raise public awareness about it. They have suggested that the general public be encouraged to help with the problem. A professor at the Academy has proposed that a fund be established to raise money.
Dr Zhu Ming of the Academy said, “ We have requested that the government get involved, but we also need assistance from ordinary people. They can help by contributing to the cost of repairing the caves. They are a precious part of our cultural heritage—it is of vital importance that we do something. If not, it will be a catastrophe.”
36. Why is Zhoukoudian of great importance in China?
A. Because the site tells some information about how man lived in the old times.
B. Because it has brought in lots of money as a place of interest.
C. Because it is the only place in China on the World Cultural Heritage List.
D. Because it changed our knowledge of China’s history of the 1920’s.
37. What is the second paragraph about?
A. Zhoukoudian’s discovery B. Zhoukoudian’s future
C. Zhoukoudian’s in danger D. Zhoukoudian’s protection
38. The following has caused the damage of the site except________________.
A. Weeds B. Rain C. Fire D. Cement factories
39. The passage suggests that to repair Zhoukoudian, Chinese Academy of Sciences is seeking help from_________.
A. Archaeologists from all over the world B. Government and the public
C. Experts from UNESCO D. Visitors
40. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “catastrophe”?
A. case B. worry C. wonder D. disaster