Do you like to eat out? Do you like to eat quickly? Do you like inexpensive food? Some people go to fast-food restaurants for these reasons. In the past, people usually went to diners (小饭馆 )for these reasons, too. In fact, many people in the States still go to diners today for the same reasons.
A man named Walter Scott had the first "diner" in 1872. It wasn't really a diner. It was only a food cart. People on the street walked up to the cart to buy food. These carts served late- night workers who wanted a cup of coffee and a late-night meal. The meal was a sandwich or boiled eggs. In 1887, Samuel Jones built the first diner big enough to allow the customers to come inside. However, they did not sit down. Later, people built diners with counters and stools, and people sat down while they ate.
Before long, many diners stayed open around the clock. In other words, people were able to eat in a diner at any time. Diners changed in other way, too. The original menu of sandwiches and coffee became bigger. It included soup, favorite dishes, and a breakfast menu. In addition, diners soon became permanent buildings. They were no longer carts on wheels.
Diners today look similar to the diners of the early 1900s. They are usually building with large windows. Inside, the diners have shining counters with stools, booths, tables and chairs. People can eat all three meals in a modern diner.
Today, many people eat in fast-food restaurants such as Mc Donald's and Burger King. However, the diner remains an American tradition, and thousands of people still enjoy eating there. It was popular a century ago, and it is still popular today.What kind of meal did the first "diner" serve?
| A．Only breakfast. | B．Only lunch. | C．Only supper. | D．All of the above. |
According to Paragraph 3, diners changed in .
| A．two ways | B．three ways | C．four ways | D．five ways |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Diners existed before fast-food restaurants. |
| B．The menu included more food than sandwiches and coffee. |
| C．Burger King is a fast-food restaurant. |
| D．Sandwiches became bigger. |
The main idea of the passage is that .
| A．the diner is a traditional, popular place to eat in the United States |
| B．Samuel Jones built the first diner big enough to allow the customers to come inside |
| C．American diners serve many types of food 24 hours a day to their customers |
| D．diners are different from fast food restaurants in many ways. |
B
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman' s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. 
His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls tool.
46. Stuntmen are those who ______.
A. often dress up as actors
B. prefer to lead dangerous lives
C. often perform seemingly dangerous actions
D. often fight each other for their lives
47. Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
A. playing their dirty tricks
B. selling their special skills
C. jumping out of high windows
D. jumping from fast moving trains
48. When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.
A. he needs little protection
B. he will be covered with a mattress
C. his life is unprotected
D. his safety is generally all right
49. Which of the following is the main factor (因素) of a successful performance?
A. Strength. B. Exactness. C. Speed. D. Carefulness.
50. What can be inferred from the author' s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
A. Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B. The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C. Parachutes must be of good quality.
D. The cliff is too high.
III. Reading Comprehension 40%
Section A 30%
Directions：Read the following four passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
A
Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began 
his struggle to escape. Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot.
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock.
Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and jumped out of the ditch.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
41. What is the best title for this newspaper article?
A. The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman
B. Car Boot Can Serve As The Best Escape Route
C. Driver Escapes Through Car Boot
D. The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident
42. Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?
A. The hammer. B. The coin. C.The screw. D. The horn.
43. Which statement is true according to the passage?
A. Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.
B. Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.
C. Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.
D. Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat.
44. “Finally it gave” (Paragraph 4) means that _______.
A. Luckily the door was torn away in the end
B. At last the hammer went broken
C. The lock came open after all his efforts
D. The chance was lost at the last minute
45. It may be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. the ditch was along a quiet country road
B. the accident happened on a clear warm day
C. the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch
D. Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended
（D）
Sorry to say , our brains naturally start slowing down at the cruelly young age of 30 . It used to be thought that this couldn’t be helped , but new studies show that people of any age can train their brains to work faster . “ Your brain is a learning machine , ” says University of California scientist Dr . Michael Merzenich . Given the right tools , we can train our brains to act like they did when we were younger . All that’s required is the practice designed just for the purpose : a few exercises for the mind .
Merzenich has developed a computer-based training method to speed up the process in which the brain deals with information ( positscience. com ) . Since much of the data we receive comes through speech , the Brain Fitness Program works with language and hearing to better speed and accuracy .
Over the course of training , the program starts asking you to distinguish sounds ( between “ dog ”and “ bog ” , for example ) at an increasingly faster speed . It’s a bit like tennis instructor , says Merzenich , hitting balls at you faster and faster to keep you challenged (受到挑战) . You may start out slow, but before long you’re pretty quick .
The biggest finding in brain research in the last ten years is that the brain at any age is highly plastic. If you ask your brain to learn, it will learn . And it may even speed up while in the process.
To keep you brain young and plastic you can do one of a million new activities that challenge and excite you : playing table tennis or bridge, doing crossword puzzle , learning a language ….“ When it comes to preventing ageing, you really do ‘ use it or lose it ’ , ” says Barbara Sahakian , professor at Cambridge University .
67. Dr . Merzenich’s training method mainly depends on .
A. speech training B. computer languages
C. the activities on joins in D. the information being dealt with
68. By saying “ the brain at any age is highly plastic ”, the writer probably means the brain can be .
A. used B. mastered C. developed D. researched
69. What can we learn from the text?
A. Practice makes a quick mind.
B. Brain research started ten years ago .
C. Dr. Merzenich is a scientist in computer.
D. People believed nothing could stop the brain slowing down.
70. Which of the following agrees with the writer’s idea?
A. The training methods work better for the old.
B. People should use the brain to stop it from ageing.
C. The training of the brain should start at an early age.
D. It’s necessary to take part in as many activities as possible.
(C)
Read the advertisements carefully .Then answer the questions that follow.
| INTERESTED IN CHILDCARE? Qualified person of preschool teacher needed for busy childcare center , south of the river . Full-time work guaranteed .Immediate start necessary . The candidate must be able to work as a co-operative team member. Phone 63452345 for an interview and fax resume to 6345 2311 |
WE NEED OFFICE CLEANERS Three people are required for professional cleaning in the CBD area. Working hours from 5:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Approximately five hours per shift. A good record is necessary. Experience preferred . Phone 6345 7843 now. |
| WANT TO WORK AS A DENTAL NURSE? This is an exciting opportunity for a qualified dental nurse with a confident and cheerful personality to work in the School Dental Health Scheme. You must be able to get along well with children because work involves talking to groups about dental health practices. For further information, visit our website at : schooldentalservices@gov. sg . And fax your resume to 6234 454. |
FLORIST WANTED Are you a creative and trained florist with at least two years of experience? Then this may be just what you are seeking. The city’s leading Florist Artist Studio needs another part-time member on their wedding team. Please phone 6098 7888 now! |
63. You may find the above advertisements
A. in a store window B. in a school magazine
C. in a newspaper D. on a company notice – board
64. The position of a(n) is a part – time job.
A. florist B. artistC. preschool D. dental nurse
65. Which of the following is the most important for the childcare job?
A. Cooking skills B. Childcare experience.
C. The ability to start work in two weeks
D. The ability to work well with other people.
66. The office cleaners will be required to work about hours a week.
A. 5 B. 10 C. 15 D. 20
(B)
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many .
This is Life , all right , but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and , unhappily ,we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do . Then , at 60 or 65 , we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for real life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English :“ Have a nice day ”they speak slowly and seriously in their shops , hotels and sandwich bars . I think it is a wonderful phrase , reminding us , in effect , to enjoy the moment : to value this very day .
How often do we say to ourselves , “I’ll take up horse-riding (or golf , or sailing ) as soon as I do get a higher position ,”only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position .
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper . At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state . How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area ? I wanted to know .
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser , I see the sense in it . In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure . He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his sitting on Southern Region trains.
60. The first paragraph of the passage tell us that___________________.
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom fulfill them
C. we always enjoy many of life’s best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
61.The underlined phrase “ turn his back on ”( Paragraph 6 ) most probably means______________.
A. leave for B. return to C. give up D. rely on
62. What is probably the best title for the passage ?
A. Provide Homes For Our Family B. Take Up Horse-riding
C. Value This Very Day D. Stay Alive