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Attempt a guess at the following question: In the English-speaking world, which country has the least affordable homes? You are wrong if you guessed the US, even with the housing bubble (气泡) and main sadness. Nor is it the UK, where prices have risen because demand is far from supply. According to a recent survey of 227 cities around the globe, you must go south of the equator (赤道) to Australia to find the priciest homes.
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure.
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing (配给制) and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government.
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage(抵押)crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes.
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under.
To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____.

A.3 times or less of the average family’s income
B.4 times or less of the average family’s income
C.5 times or less of the average family’s income
D.9.5 times or less of the average family’s income

What caused the prices of houses to increase in Australia?

A.The rising family’s income. B.The demand over supply.
C.The excessive development charges. D.The decrease of land.

The underlined word “dismal” in Paragraph 3 may mean _____.

A.cheerful B.satisfactory
C.difficult D.gloomy

What might be the most suitable title for the passage?

A.Affordable Houses B.A House is a Dream First
C.Housing Bubble D.Homes Too Expensive
科目 英语   题型 阅读理解   难度 中等
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There are several reasons for hair loss in women. However, in most cases, treatment is quite effective. Female hair loss patterns in women are not as easily recognizable as they are in men. A woman may experience it temporarily due to pregnancy or illness, although they may experience it for other reasons.
Hair loss can be due to a variety of factors, including a genetic tendency (which is not genetically linked to just one parent—both parents contribute to the tendency to lose hair).
Women who are experiencing hair problems seem to have more limited choices than men. There are some female hair loss treatments that are available such as the Tricomin System which is a topical treatment that is nutrition based. Shen Min for Women is another natural treatment that contains herbs (药草) that are said to stimulate(刺激) hair growth and even restore hair that is graying to its natural color.
The majority of the popular, proven hair loss treatments are only intended for men and are not suitable for women. True, a woman’s hair issue is different from a man’s. The biological makeup is different and the needs are different. Women have different needs and their bodies react in different ways to environmental changes, physical illness and even the treatments that are available. There are many natural treatments such as vitamin and mineral supplements that are said to stimulate hair growth, but, for the most part, these claims are currently unproven.
One of the first and most important factors to effectively treating is to get a diagnosis from a doctor. Talk to your doctor about any symptoms that you may be experiencing in addition to the thinning hair. Stress, weight loss or gain, illness and depression, all of these can be contributing factors.
50. It can be learned from the 1st paragraph that ___________.
usually hair loss is hard to heal
B . female hair loss is more common than the men’s
women tend to suffer from hair loss during the pregnant period
only illness contributes to hair loss
51.Which of the following statements matches the text about the two treatments?
A. Both are to solve the problem of male hair loss.
Tricomin System is effective in speeding the growth of the new hair
Shen Min is an updated way of treating hair loss
D. The former is nutrition-based, while the latter is medicine-based.
52. The reasons for the differences between the female and male hair loss problems do not include _______.
A. The biological structure and composition of the hair
The wants and needs
The reactions and responses to the outside changes
The approach to taking exercise
53. The natural treatments __________.
include vitamin and mineral supplements
B. are applied to keep the hair healthy
C. have been proved useful
D. are the most commonly-used ways

第二部分阅读理解(共两节,满分 40分)
第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
阅读下列四篇短文,从每小题后所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。
“A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right,” says Mollie Hunter. Born and brought up near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is always and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market is. In Mollie's opinion it is necessary to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing. “If you aren't telling a story, you're a very dead writer indeed,” she says. With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Mollie is indeed an entertainer. “I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,” she says. “This love goes back to early childhood. I've told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them, I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said ‘Nonsense, Mollie, dear, you’ll be a writer.’ So finally I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.”
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical and gives a picture both of Mollie's ambition and her struggle towards its achievement. Thoughts of her childhood inevitably(不可避免地)brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields—sadly now covered with modern houses. “I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I'll never go back,” she said. “Never.” “When I set one of my books in Scotland,” she said, “I can recall my romantic(浪漫的)feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that's important, because children now know so much so early that romance can't exist for them, as it did for us.”
46. What does Mollie Hunter feel about the nature of a good book?
A. It should not aim at a narrow audience.
B. It should not be attractive to young readers.
C. It should be based on original ideas.
D. It should not include too much conversation.
47. In Mollie Hunter's opinion, which of the following is one sign of a poor writer?
A. Being poor in life experience. B. Being short of writing skills.
C. The weakness of description. D. The absence of a story.
48. What do we learn about Mollie Hunter as a young child?
A. She didn't expect to become a writer.
B. She didn't enjoy writing stories.
C. She didn't have any particular ambitions.
D. She didn't respect her teacher's views.
49. What's the writer's purpose in this text?
A. To describe Mollie Hunter's most successful books.
B. To share her enjoyment of Mollie Hunter's books.
C. To introduce Mollie Hunter's work to a wider audience.
D. To provide information for Mollie Hunter's existing readers.

HOLIDAY HOMES IN MALLORCA
Holiday houses in Mallorca sailing and fishing port - quiet even in summer season. Beautifully situated houses with sights of sea and mountains, yet near to shops and restaurants. Cars and bicycles for hire. Sailing and sports clubs nearby.
ITALY IN COMFORT
Luxury coach trips of Italy, out of normal holiday season. 21 days to visit five Italian cities starting from London 1st May, 1st September. The trips are guided by Professor Martin Davis, Head of Italian Studies, London University. See the arts and culture of historic Italy.
KIBBUTZ HOLIDAYS IN ISRAEL
Working holidays on a kibbutz (co-operative farm) in Israel. All nationalities welcome for one to three months, if prepared to work morning with kibbutz members. Accommodation, food and trips to historic sights all provided free - you pay only for the special low-cost return flight.
TWO WEEKS ON A CARIBBEAN ISLAND
Two-week holidays in the Hotel Splendid, on a lovely beach with golden sands and deep-blue sea. Tennis, golf, sailing and all water sports, trips around the island arranged. Near to town of Castries with lively evening entertainment - dancing.
1st November - 31st March =£720 per person
1st April - 30th October =£850 per person
Jack and his wife Mary, who have recently retired, want to see places of cultural and historic interest abroad, but Mary hates flying.
Peter and Maria, university students, want to travel as far as possible on little money, and would like to get to know a country by working there for three months with other young people.
Michael, a young computer programmer, has been working hard and needs a holiday to relax in winter. He would like to go somewhere warmer and sunny, where he can swim in the sea, and he enjoys sports and dancing.
Henry and Kate, both teachers, and their two sons, have to take their holiday during the school summer holidays. There must be plenty for the boys to do, although Harry and Kate just want to have beautiful scenery, good food and wine- and peace.
57. Michael would most probably go to _______ for his holiday.
  A. Italy   B. Israel C. Mallorca   D. a Caribbean island
58. The best holiday for Jack and Mary would be _______.
  A. the 21 - day coach trip of Italy
  B. the 2 -week stay in the Hotel Splendid
  C. the 14 -day trip around a Caribbean island
  D. the working holidays for 1 -3 months on a kibbutz in Israel
59. Harry and Kate and their sons would like _______.
  A. a holiday working on a kibbutz in Israel
  B. a holiday visiting cities by coach in Italy
  C. a holiday house in the fishing port in Mallorca
  D. a holiday hotel on a lovely beach on a Carribean Island
60. You can find this passage most probably in _______.
  A. a school library B. a tourist agency C. the post office D. the museum

In the 1920s demand for American farm products fell, as European countries began to recover from World War I and started austerity (紧缩) programs to reduce their imports. The result was a sharp drop in farm prices. This period was more disastrous for farmers than earlier times had been, because farmers were no longer self-sufficient. They were paying for machinery, seed, and fertilizer, and they were also buying consumer goods. The prices of the items farmers bought remained constant, while prices they received for their products fell. These developments were made worse by the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and extended throughout the 1939s.
In 1929, under President Herbert Hoover, the Federal Farm Board was organized. It established the principle of direct interference (干预) with supply and demand, and it represented the first national commitment to provide greater economic stability for farmers.
President Hoover's successor attached even more importance to this problem. One of the first measures proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933 was the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which was later passed by Congress. This law gave the Secretary of Agriculture the power to reduce production through voluntary agreements with farmers who were paid to take their land out of use. A deliberate shortage of farm products was planned in an effort to raise prices. This law was declared unconstitutional (违背宪法的) by the Supreme Court on the grounds that general taxes were being collected to pay one special group of people. However, new laws were passed immediately that achieved the same result of resting soil and providing flood-control measures, but which were based on the principle of soil conservation. The Roosevelt Administration believed that rebuilding the nation’s soil was in the national interest and was not simply a plan to help farmers at the expense of other citizens. Later the government guaranteed loans to farmers so that they could buy farm machinery, hybrid (杂交) grain, and fertilizers.
53.What caused the problem in the demand for American farm products?
A. The effect of the Great Depression.
B. The shrinking of overseas markets.
C. The destruction caused by the First World War.
D. The increased exports of European countries.
54. The word “successor” refers to ______.
A. President Hoover B. US Secretary of State
C. President Franklin D. Roosevelt D. US Secretary of Agriculture
55. The Agricultural Adjustment Act encouraged American farmers to ______.
A. reduce their scale of production
B. make full use of their land
C. adjust the prices of their farm products
D. be self-sufficient in agricultural production
56.The Supreme Court rejected the Agricultural Adjustment Act because it believed that the Act ______.
A. might cause greater shortage of farm products
B. didn't give the Secretary of Agriculture enough power
C. would benefit neither the government nor the farmers
D. benefited one group of citizens at the expense of others

The world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012, the US space agency insisted Monday in a rare campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie.
The latest big screen offering from Sony Picture, 2012, arrives in theaters on Friday, with a 200-million-dollar production about the end of the world supposedly based on myths backed by the Mayan calendar. It is claimed that the end of time will come as a Planet X---or Nibiru---heads toward or collides with the Earth.
Some websites accuse NASA of hiding the truth on the planet’s existence, but the US space agency condemned such stories as an “Internet hoax”. “There is no factual basis for these claims,” NASA said in a question-and-anwser posting on this website. “If such a cllision were real, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” it insisted. “After all, our planet has been getting along just well for more than four billion years,” added NASA.
There is another planet, Eris, floating in space. But the small planet similar to Pluto will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can come no closer than four billion miles to the Earth, according to NASA.
Earlier theories set the disaster for May 2003, but when nothing happened the date was moved forward to the winter in 2012 to coincide with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar.
NASA insisted the Mayan calendar in fact does not end on December 21, 2012, as another period begins immediately afterward.
And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our planet would be “negligible(unimportant)”, NASA said.
“And while comets and asteroids (小行星) have always hit the Earth, big hits are very rare,” NASA noted. The last major impact was believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting in the end of dinosaurs.
“We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs,” the space agency said.
49. ______ played a key role in the spread of the rumors.
A. A new book B. The Internet and a new Hollywood movie
C. NASAD. An Indian calendar
50. We can infer that ______.
A. people didn’t take the rumor seriously
B. Planet X --- or Nibiru does exist
C. astronomers have been tracking Planet X for over ten years
D. the rumor caused a panic among some people
51. NASA thinks that Eris ______.
A. might have a threat to the Earth
B. dosen’t have any threat to the Earth
C. is too far away to be visible
D. is similar to our planet, where life might exist
52. Which of the following is the best title?
A. New Hollywood movie 2012
B. December 21, 2012, Not the end of the world
C. End of the ancient Mayan calendar
D. How rumors came into being

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