What is red but green, open but closed and old but new?
The answer is: London’s new double-decker（双层）buses.
Red double-deckers are a symbol of the city. Their status was sealed (确定) in 2008 when one bus made the longer-than-usual trip to Beijing to collect a special passenger: the Olympic Flame.
On November 11, a life-size model of the new bus was shown to the media. The Guardian reported that the new design shares some of the features of the much-missed double-decker Routemaster bus. The original Routemaster was introduced in 1956 but December 2005 saw the end of the old bus’s general service. It was because the bus was difficult for some passengers to use and not environmentally fr
iendly. But it can still be seen on two heritage routes in the city.
Its replacements —boxy, modern double—deckers—have failed to win Londoners’ affection.
London mayor Boris Johnson told the BBC that the new buses were “a combination of nostalgia（怀旧）and the latest technology”. “Standing on the back platform of this bus brings a sense of nostalgia but also shows the best part of the latest technology and design, making this bus fit for the 21st Century,” he said.
The new bus also returns to the driver—and—conductor model—a key feature of the original version. It will be quieter than the old type and have a platform offering passengers the traditional hop—on hop—off service.
The first five new buses will be seen on the roads by early 2012.Which of the following shows that red double—deckers are a symbol of London?
| A．They have a long history and are seen everywhere in London. |
| B．They have nothing in common with the traditional Routemaster bus. |
| C．One such bus went from London to Beijing to collect the Olympic Flame. |
| D．They carried British athletes from London to attend the Beijing Olympics. |
Which of the following is true of the original Routemaster?
| A．The bus came into use in the 1960s. |
| B．The bus was banned because it was harmful to the environment. |
| C．Passengers didn’t like the bus because it was slow. |
| D．Visitors to London cannot see such buses on the roads any more. |
According to London mayor Boris Johnson, the new Routemaster .
| A．has not been as well received as was expected |
| B．will be widely used in London in 2012 |
C．is the mo st environmentally friendly bus in the UK |
| D．combines the latest technology with key traditional features |
What is the characteristic of the new red double – deckers?
| A．The buses will make no noises. |
| B．The buses will have no conductors. |
C．They will be equipped with air – conditioning. |
| D．The bus platform will offer passengers a traditional service. |
According to a report by the China News Weekly, Chinese white collars are becoming fully occupied in the office. They pursue many of their activities in the office building, eating, doing exercise, resting, playing games or even dating.
In large cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, where economy is developing at a fast speed, office workers face an increasing work pressure day by day and many of them have begun to make office their home.
As the young generation in society, most of them are aged between 25 and 45. In the eyes of outsiders, they enjoy a comfortable life: they lead the fashion trend in the city and earn a high salary; they enjoy a flexible working schedule and a very good working environment; having a good education background, they don’t have to worry that one day they will lose their jobs.
However, only the white collars themselves know what others see as a good life is in fact a boring life. They often work extra hours, suffer from loss of creative ability and have little time to make friends. When they go off from work late at night, somethimes they might think of asking for a leave the next day and having a holiday somewhere. However, when a new day begins, they find everything back to normal and themselves pushed by new tasks.
In fact, even if they don’t work extra hours in the office, they have no place to go. Many of the young people are fresh from college, or have come to work in large cities from their hometowns. As newcomers, they haven’t established （建立）a social network. They have few friends to go dating. Meanwhile, many of them face a great pressure for earning money to buy a house or a car. If they cannot afford to buy these, they still have to work to pay for high apartment rents and communication fares.The underlined sentence probably means _______
| A．Chinese white collars are not allowed to get out of the office |
| B．The office is crowded with Chinese white collars |
| C．Chinese white collars make the office filled with odds and ends |
| D．Chinese white collars spend most of their time in the office |
The followings are all reasons why white collars want to have a rest EXCEPT that _______
| A．They have to continue to stay at office after work |
| B．They feel more and more difficult to think up a good idea |
| C．They have no interest in anything |
| D．They have little time to make friends |
The main idea of the third paragraph is that_______
| A．white collars are admired by other people |
| B．white collars needn’t worry about losing jobs |
| C．white collars can earn high salary and work freely |
| D．white collars are in the lead in the way of behaving |
From the passage , we can infer that _______
| A．white collars are all workaholics who regard the office as home |
| B．white collars suffer from material and mental pressure in life |
| C．white collars are the models of young people in society |
| D．people have a good understanding of what white collars’ life is |
The painter Georgia O’keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided she wanted to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her bond with the land. Like most painters, O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals of nature.
O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Levered Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New York in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak（荒凉的） landscape and broad skies of the Western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached（变白的） bones found in the desert figured prominently（突出的） in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colorful flowers, rocks, barren(贫瘠的) hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best known works in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, she continued to produce tributes（贡品、颂词） to the Western desert until her death in 1986.
O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She established her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private endeavor. Almost from the beginning, her work was more indentifiably American than that of her contemporaries in its simplified and idealized treatment of color, light, space, and natural forms. Which of the following best tells what this passage is about ?
| A．O’Keeffe was a distinctive modern American painter. |
| B．O’Keeffe was the best painter of her generation. |
| C．O’Keeffe liked to paint only what was familiar to her. |
| D．O’Keeffe used colors and shapes that are too reduced and simple. |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an influence on O’Keeffe’s paintings ?
| A．Her rural upbringing | B．Her life in the West |
| C．The works of European artists | D．The appearance of the natural landscape |
Which of the following is most similar to O’Keeffe’s relationship with nature?
| A．A photoghrapher’s relationship with a model. |
| B．A writer’s relationship with a publisher. |
| C．A student’s relationship with a teacher |
| D．A carpenter’s relationship with a hammer. |
Why is O’Keeffe considered an artistic pioneer ?
| A．Her work became influential in Europe. |
| B．She painted the American Southwest. |
| C．Her paintings had a definite American style. |
| D．She painted things that were familiar to her. |
任务型阅读（阅读下面短文，完成下面表格，每格一词，共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
Third-generation mobile phones, known as 3G, are the next big step for the telecom industry. Data speed in 3G networks is much quicker than that in present technology. This means users can have high-speed Internet access and enjoy video and CD-quality music on their phones.
“Mobile data is not a dream; it’s not an option but a requirement,” said Len Lauer, head of a US communications company, Sprint PCS, at a 3G conference in Bangkok earlier this month.
With 3G, you can forget about text messages telling you yesterday’s news; a 3G phone can receive video news programs, updated four times a day. Internet access will also be much quicker, making it easier to surf the Web on your phone than on your computer at home.
Face-to-face video calls
Don’t worry about getting lost. 3G phones offer map services so you can find a new restaurant just by pressing a few keys on your handset.
However, the most impressive part of 3G technology is video calling. With live two-way video communication, you can have face-to-face talks with friends and family on your mobile phone.
Many European countries have already launched the service. In May 2000 the US Government issued five license to run 3G wireless services, while the first 3G phones arrived in Italy in March this year.
International telecom companies can’t wait to sell 3G in China, the world’s largest mobile telecommunications market. But they will have to be patient. At the moment, China is busy testing its 3G-based technologies, networks and services. This will be followed by a trial period before the phones can finally hit the shops.
“We need to create a pool of 3G customers before the large-scale commercial launch of the service,” said Fan Yunjun, marketing manager for Beijing Mobile. “We expect that the 3G licenses will be seen late next year.”
| Third-generation mobile phones (3G mobile phones) |
|
| A．Data speed: B．Video and C．Video news programs: D．Internet access: quicker and |
|
| Impressive functions |
A．Offer B．Provide two-way video |
| 3G phones in China |
A．China is busy B．3G phones should go through a C．3G phones are expected to be seen |
Children lie on couches or sit on floors, nearly hypnotized(迷住) by all kinds of messages coming from the television. This scene has become all too familiar. Increasingly, young children are adopting a watching-TV lifestyle, at s stage in life when activity is important to their growth. Furthermore, family time is being destroyed by too much TV time. Here are some facts you need to know:
*Research shows that children spend between five and six hours per day watching TV, and they go to bed before having any communication with other family members.
*Time spent in front of a screen is reducing the amount of time children spend sleeping.
*The more time a youth spends in front of a screen, the more likely he or she is to be overweight.
Experts(专家) offer the following advice to parents on how to stop their children from becoming addicted to television:
*Do not put a TV in a child’s bedroom.
*Make meal time, family time -----turn off the TV during a family meal time. Better yet, remove the TV from the eating area.
*Make TV time active time by doing simple exercise during advertisement breaks.
*Help your kids be clever TV watchers by teaching them to recognize a sales trick in advertisements(广告).
*Create family memories by planning fun activities instead of always watching TV with your family.
*_______. Limit your own TV watching to less than two hours per day. The best way to learn is to follow; this is especially true for children.Which fact is not mentioned(提到) as a result of watching TV in this passage?
| A．Family time has been destroyed. |
| B．Children who watch too much TV are often overweight. |
| C．Children spend less time sleeping because of watching TV. |
| D．Children’s study can be badly influenced if they watch too much TV. |
Which of the following is one piece of advice given in this passage?
| A．Parents should teach children to judge TV advertisements. |
| B．TV should be removed from homes that have children. |
| C．The family should watch TV together while eating. |
| D．Parents should not allow children to watch TV. |
The sentence in the blank in the last advice should be “_______”.
| A．Be a good role model | B．Limit children’s TV time |
| C．TV time should not be over 2 hours. | D．Watching too much TV is bad for children |
Brazil is the greatest football nation in the world. There are 170 million Brazilians. How many of them are football fans? 100 million! All of them think they know all about football. This makes life very difficult for the Brazilian team managers. When things go bad for the Brazilian team, the newspapers would demand that the team manager should leave his job. “If we win, they me in heaven,” a manager once said. “If we lose, they put me in hell(地狱).”
You can’t escape football in Brazil. There are football matches on every street and beach. On television, the results of football matches come before the main news programs. There are six television channels(频道) in Rio de Janeiro. On Sundays each channel shows a different football match.
Brazil is not the richest country in the world, but the government spends lots of money on football. It cost more than one billion pounds to prepare for the 1978 World Cup. That’s 10 pounds for every Brazilian man, woman, and child. And many Brazilians don’t earn as much as 10 pounds a week. Is it worth it?
“Brazil must have a great football team,” says one journalist. “If it costs one billion pounds, that’s all right. If the government doesn’t give us a good team, then it will become unpopular. Football is more than a game in Brazil.”
Football is more than a game in Brazil. This is certainly true in its largest city, Sao Paulo. The most popular team is Corinthians. Corinthians’ fans are the most loyal and emotional in Brazil. When Corinthians win, production(产量) in the Sao Paulo car factories increases by fifteen per cent. When they loses, it drops. At one time Corinthians won the national championship for the first time, for four days fans danced and sang in the streets,
Why are people so loyal to one football team? What makes a football fan? One man says, “Without Corinthians my life would be sad. Corinthians bring some joy and excitement into my life. We all need that, don’t we?”In Paragraph 1, what the manager said means_______.
A, he is respected by newspapers B,. he will probably be killed by fans
C. he is judged on his team’s results D. it’s difficult for him to get good scoresAll the following statements about the Brazilians and football are true EXCEPT _______.
| A．all the Brazilians know all about football |
| B．football has an influence on politics in Brazil |
| C．the Brazilians spend a lot of money on football |
| D．Corinthians’ fans are always supporting their team |
Some people danced and sang in the streets for four days in Sap Paulo because_______.
| A．production in the Sao Paulo car factories increased | |
| B．Corinthians won a national football championship | |
| C．Corinthians won the World Cup | D．the newspapers put a team manager in heaven |
People are loyal to their football team mainly because _______.
| A．it brings joy and excitement to their life | B．they could always count on it |
| C．it can increase the car production | D．they could see hope in it |