A woman renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk’s office was asked to state her occupation．She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself．
“What I mean is,” explained the recorder, “do you have a job, or are you just a …”
“Of course I have a job,” said Emily．“I’m a mother.”
“We don’t list ‘mother’ as an occupation… ‘housewife’ covers it,” said the recorder.
One day I found myself in the same situation．The clerk was obviously a career woman, confident and possessed of a high sounding title．“What is your occupation?” she asked．
The words simply popped out．“I’m a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”
The clerk paused, ballpoint pen frozen in midair.
I repeated the title slowly, and then I stared with wonder as my statement was written in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.
“Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “Just what you do in this field?”
Coolly, without any trace of panic in my voice, I heard myself reply, “I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn’t）, in the lab and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out)．Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?), and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it)．But the job is more challenging than most careers and rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.”
There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form, stood up, and showed me out．
As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up (依托) by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants---ages 13, 7, and 3.
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6 month old baby), in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern．
I felt proud! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable (不可缺少的) to mankind than “just another mother.”
Motherhood…What a glorious career! Especially when there’s a title on the door.What can we infer from the conversation between the woman and the recorder at the beginning of the passage?
| A．The woman felt ashamed to admit what her job was. |
| B．The recorder was impatient and rude. |
| C．The author was upset about the situation that mothers faced. |
| D．Motherhood was not recognized and respected as a job by society. |
How did the female clerk feel at first when the author told her occupation?
| A．curious | B．indifferent | C．puzzled | D．interested |
How did the author feel when describing her job to the clerk?
| A．calm | B．panic-stricken | C．confident | D．cool |
Why did the woman clerk show more respect for the author?
| A．Because the author cared little about rewards. |
| B．Because she admired the author’s research work in the lab. |
| C．Because she thought the author did admirable work. |
| D．Because the writer did something she had little knowledge of. |
What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To show how you describe your job affects your feelings toward it. |
| B．To argue that motherhood is a worthy career and deserves respect. |
| C．To show that the author had a grander job than Emily. |
| D．To show that being a mother is hard and boring work． |
It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Ch
ristmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On his arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货），saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole. And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting(持久的，永久的).
52. Why was the bike so important to the couple?
A. The man’s job was bike racing. B. It was their only possession(财产).
C. It was a nice Kona 18 speed. D. They used it for work and daily life.
53. We can infer from the text that ____________.
A. the couple worked 60 hours a week. B. people were busy before Christmas
C. a wonderful stranger bought a bike. D. life was hard for the young family.
54. How did people get to know the couple’s problem?
A. From radio broadcasts. B. From a newspaper.
C. From TV news. D. From a stranger.
55. What do the couple learn from their experience?
A. Strangers are usually of little help. B. One should take care o
f their bike.
C. News reports make people famous. D. An act of kindness can mean a lot.
In the sea, there are many islands. In its warm waters there are some little ones. We call them "Coral Islands".
A coral island is very nice to look at. It looks like a ring of land with trees, grass and flowers on it.
One part of the ring is open to the water. There is a little round lake inside the island. If you look into this lake, you'll see beautiful coral. You may think they are flowers. If you look at a piece of coral, you'll see thousands of little holes in it. In each of those holes, a very small sea animal has lived. These sea animals make the coral.
They began to build under the water. Year after year, the coral grew higher and higher. At last it grew out of the water. Then the sea brought to it small trees and other things. After some years, these things changed into earth. Sometimes the wind brought seeds to the earth. Sometimes birds flew over it and brought seeds to the island. The little seeds grew. In a few years, there were plants all over the islands. In a few more years there were trees growing there.
So you see, these islands were built little by little. The workers were very small. Don't they teach us a lesson? What do you know the lesson is?
48. What does a coral island look like? It 
looks like ________.
A. a desert B. a ring of land
C. trees, grass and flowers D. a colourful lake
49. There are sea animals living in the holes of the coral.
A. thousands of B. 1,000
C. quite a few D. only one
50. ________ in the sea.
A. We can see many flowers B. There are lots of big trees
C. There are some coral islands D. The water is always warm
51. How were seeds of trees, grass and flowers mainly brought to the coral islands?
A. Fishes brought them there. B. The water brought them there.
C. People brought them there. D. None of the above.
四、阅读理解（15小题，计30分）
There are probably no other two museums in the world that share such a similar name. In Chinese, they are both called Gugong. In English, the one in Taipei is named the "National Palace Museum". The other one is in Chinese mainland--the Palace Museum standing inside the Forbidden City (紫禁城) in Beijing.
The name suggests the two museums are connected, and soon they may be. The "National Palace Museum" has a collection of more than 650,000 pieces of ancient Chinese artwork, making it one of the largest in the world. Most of the collection is made up of high quality art collected by China's ancient emperors.
After years of waiting, people from the Chinese mainland could soon get a look at the relics (文物)that were once housed in Beijing' s Palace Museum.
In late February, the mainland agreed to lend 29 Qing Dynasty relics from the Palace Museum to Taiwan to display in October. They hope the favor will be returned. It is reported that the second half of the swap(交换)might happen within the next three to five years.
Chinese citizens are already drawing up lists of relics they'd most like to see in a mainland exhibition. These include the jade cabbage(翡翠玉白菜), the Dongpo look-alike stone(东坡肉形石)and the other half of the Song Dynasty painting Riverside Sceneat Qingming Festival. Half of it has hung in Taipei since 1949; the other half can be seen in Beijing.
45. Which is right about the "National Palace Museum"?
A. The "National Palace Museum" stands inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.
B. It is the largest museum in the world.
C. All the collection in it is made up of high quality art collected by China's ancient emperors.
D. There is the jade cabbage and the Dongpo look-alike stone in it.
46. The underlined sentence "They hope the favor will be returned. "means ________.
A. it's hoped that Taiwan will have some of its relics appear in a mainland exhibition
B. they hope Taiwan will return their favourite relics
C. the mainland hope some relics once housed in Beijing' s Palace Museum will be returned
D. it's hoped that the "National Palace Museum" and the Palace Museum will become one
47. According to the passage, which is right about the painting Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival ?
A. It was painted in Qing Dynasty.
B. In 1949 the whole painting once hung in Taipei.
C. The two halves of the painting were not drawn by the same person.
D. It's likely that half of the painting hangin
g in Taipei was once housed in Beijing's Palace Museum.
Started in 1636, Harvard University is the oldest of all the colleges and universities in the United States. Yale, Princeton, and Columbia were opened soon after Harvard. In the early years, these schools were much alike. Only young men could go to college. All the students studied the same subjects, and everyone learned Latin, and Greek. Little was known about science then. When the students graduated, most of them became ministers or teachers.
In 1782, Harvard started a medical school for young men who wanted to become doctors. Later, lawyers could receive their training (训练) in Harvard’s law school. In 1825, besides Latin and Greek, Harvard began teaching modern languages, such as French and German. Soon it began teaching American history.
As knowledge increased, Harvard and other colleges began to teach many new subjects. Students were allowed to choose the subjects that interested them.
Today, there are many different kinds of colleges and universities. Most of them are made up of smaller schools that deal with special fields of learning. There’s so much to learn that one kind of school can’t offer it all.
1. The oldest university in the US is ______.
A. Yale B. Harvard C. Princeton D. Columbia
2. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Those colleges and universities were the same.
B. People, young or old, might study in the colleges.
C. Students studied only some languages and science.
D. When the students finished their school, they all became lawyers or teachers.
3. As knowledge increased, colleges began to teach ______.
A. everything that was known
B. law and something about medicine
C. many new subjects
D. the subjects that interested students
4. On the whole, the passage is about ______.
A. how to start a university
B. the world-famous colleges in America
C. how colleges have changed
D. what kinds of lessons each college teaches
5. From the passage, we can infer____
A. Harvard is the oldest university in the world.
B. Befoe 1825, besides Latin and Greek, other modern languages were taught in Harvard.
C. Today, most universities only deal with special fields of learning.
D. In the early years, young women couldn’t go to college in the US.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal and China, and it is 8 900 meters high. Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest. They climbed it in 1953. Men from several different countries climbed it after that.
Jumko Tabei, a Japanese from Hokkaido, was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A Tokyo newspaper television organized the climb in 1975. They chose fifteen women from mountaineering (登山) clubs to go to Nepal. The group climbed for several days. Then there was an avalanche (雪崩). The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women. They had to stop climbing, the other five women continued.
Only Ms. Tabei was able to climbing the last 70 meters. She was standing on the top of the world. She was the first woman there.
Ms. Tabei was 35 years old at the time. She is 1 meter 50 centimeters and weighs 42 kilograms. She says that she is an ordinary housewife. She started climbing mountains in 1960. She climbed every mountain in Japan. Then she climbed Mount Annapurna, another high mountain in the Himalayas. Finally she climbed the world’s highest mountain.
When she reached the top, she thought, “I’m at the top and I’m glad that I’m at the top.” Then she climbed back down the mountain.
1. Ms. Tabei was great because _________.
A. she was the first one ever to climb Mount Everest
B. she had climbed every mountain in Japan
C. she was the first woman that climbed the world’s highest mountain
D. she had climbed many mountains though she was small and young
2. “The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women.” The word “injured” means ________.
A. killed B. hurt C. buried D. froze
3. Which of the following is true?
A.None of the group reached the top of Mount Everest.
B. Ms. Tabei was one of the other five women who reached the top of Mount Everest.
C. The other five women reached the top of Mount Everest but Ms. Tabei was the first one.
D. Ms. Tabei was the only one of the group who reached the top of Mount Everest.
4. Ms. Tabei had practiced climbing for _________ years.
A. fifteen B. twenty-two C. thirteen D. ten
5.What’s the main idea of the passage ?
A. The highest mountain in the world.
B. The first woman to set foot on the highest mountain in the world.
C. How to climb the highest mountain in the world.
D. The exploration to the highest mountain in the world.