Terraforming (Earth-forming) other planets, also known as planetary engineering (行星工程), seems like a task still centuries away for mankind to accomplish. However, it is a vigorous topic that attracts both popular and scientific interest. Why should the possibility of terraforming other planets be studied when it may be centuries before we know enough to even decide if it’s a good idea?
Mankind is getting more and more hard facts about other planets. The atmosphere of Venus has been explored; robots have surveyed the surface of Mars; Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn have been studied by spacecraft. Speculations have been answered; new questions have been raised, and enough hard data is right now becoming available to allow us to make the first attempt of planetary engineering.
In the past, people with excellent ideas about terraforming have kept them to themselves, or buried them in a desk drawer because they did not realize that anyone else was interested. But now, a wide circle of people has begun to do this kind of work. For instance, NASA funded a project on transforming Mars.
There are several strong reasons which demand that the possibilities of terraforming be studied carefully. First, it’s an exciting idea of a possible future for human beings. Such thinking has a valuable role in providing options for our future directions. Secondly, the techniques of terraforming will also help contemporary technologies in weather and climate control. Thirdly, such study may assist us in detecting any possible existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 地外文明搜索) and alien (异己的) civilizations on other planets.
Though the mission is far beyond our reach at the moment, we should at least keep our options open. Through debate and study on this subject, the possibility of rebuilding other planets to make them suitable homes for people may come true some day in the future..
. According to the context, what’s the meaning of the word “speculation” in paragraph 2?
| A．The act of discussing something with a group of people. |
| B．The act of studying and researching. |
| C．The act of guessing without knowing all the facts about something. |
| D．The acting of writing letters to a certain organization. |
.
Why did people keep the idea of terraforming to themselves in the past?
| A．They thought no one else would show interest in the idea. |
| B．They gradually came to find the idea crazy. |
| C．They thought the idea would never come true. |
| D．They had few resources for further study on this topic. |
.
. Which is NOT the reason to support the study of terraforming?
| A．Even if we don’t succeed in terraforming, such study may help us to better understand technologies such as climate and weather control. |
| B．Such study may explore a new direction of development for human beings. |
| C．Such study may enable us to find the lives on other planets. |
| D．As the resources on Earth are being drained, it’s very urgent to study how to migrate (迁移) to other planets。 |
.
What’s the main idea of the article?
| A．It’s highly possible that terraforming other planets will come true so we should increase investing in this program. |
| B．Even if the idea of terraforming other planets may take centuries to realize, we have many reasons to support such studies. |
| C．Terraforming other planets is the best option for human being’s future. |
| D．More and more people are taking planetary engineering as their occupation. |
第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑．
A
Amiya Olden could have been a poster child for a reading crisis that affects nearly 2 million Michigan residents older than 1 6：They read below a sixth-grade level，which makes it difficult to find jobs and to improve their lives．Among them，Amiya is one．
Amiya Olden remembers well the day she graduated from Denby High school．She handed her diploma to her mother，who read it to her．“Then when someone asked me to read it，I could remember the things she read，and I knew what I had to say，”recalled Amiya Olden．“When we would go out to restaurants with my aunts，and that is when I really would get upset．1 would see words on the menu but I couldn’t read! ”
But don‘t feel sorry for her. She changed her life by reaching a point where she’d read enough．Two summers ago，she took charge of her life when she walked into Pro Literacy Detroit to improve her reading．Nineteen months ago，she was reading at a second-grade level；now at a fifth-grade level．
Olden now splits her days between her classes at Pro Literacy and the library，where she checks out books and reads them．She says she hopes her improved reading skills will help her find a good job．
And she has advice for others，who have trouble reading．
“Don’t give up on it，”she said．“Even though it can be challenging and you might get frustrated sometimes，practice does help．If you really want to be able to go somewhere，go out to a restaurant and you have to read signs and things like that，you want to know what you want to eat and where you want to go．．．If you want to succeed in life and grow，you have to read．More important，you have to feel confident that you can．”
56．Amiya' mother read the diploma to her so that_________．
A．she could encourage her daughter to improve her reading
B．her daughter could remember the content of the diploma
C．they both could remember the particular moment
D．she could show off before her daughter
57．Amiya attends Pro Literacy Detroit to __________．
A．get another diploma B．improve her reading level
C．find a good job in the training center D．be a poster child for the reading crisis
58．From the passage we can see in Michigan__________．
A．many people can’t find good jobs due to poor reading
B．the job market pays too much attention to reading
C．most students can’t graduate from high school
D．the reading crisis affects only poor people
59．Which of the following is true of Amiya?
A．She is 16 years old now．
B．A good job has been offered to her．
C．She is an adviser for those with reading difficulty．
D．Most of her time is divided between her classes and the library．
60．With the study at Pro Literacy，Amiya is now．
A．puzzled B．discouraged C．confident D．1earned
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The manager expects to meet and talk with successful applicants in Paris in June and July.What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To introduce a language school in Japan. |
| B．To hire language teachers to work in Japan. |
| C．To describe working conditions in Japan. |
| D．To make clear the requirements for Japanese teachers. |
Before going to Japan, you need _______.
| A．to see the manager of NOVA France |
| B．to take some computer courses |
| C．to write a letter to Japan |
| D．to find a place to live |
If you want to work in Japan you should _______.
| A．have some working experience |
| B．know how to use computers |
| C．present good teaching plans |
| D．speak several languages |
I love charity(慈善) shops and so do lots of other people in Britain because you find quite a few of them on every high street. The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won't find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.
The first charity shop was opened in 1947 by Oxfam. The famous charity's appeal to aid postwar Greece had been so successful it had been flooded with donations(捐赠物). They decided to set up a shop to sell some of these donations to raise money for that appeal. Now there are over 7,000 charity shops in the UK. My 
favourite charity shop in my hometown is the Red Cross shop, where I always find children's books, all 10 or 20 pence each.
Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who
gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public. Every morning you
see bags of unwanted items outside the front of shops, although they don't encourage this, rather ask people to bring things in when the shop is open.
The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding（资助）medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more. What better place to spend your money? You get something special for a very good price and a good moral sense. You provide funds to a good cause and tread lightly on the environment.The author loves the charity shop mainly because of _______.
| A．its convenient location |
| B．its great variety of goods |
| C．its spirit of goodwill |
| D．its nice shopping environment |
The first charity shop in the UK was set up to ____.
| A．sell cheap products |
| B．deal with unwanted things |
| C．raise money for patients |
| D．help a foreign country |
Which of the following is TRUE about charity shops?
| A．The operating costs are very low. |
| B．The staff are usually well paid. |
| C．90% of the donations are second-hand. |
| D．They are open twenty-four hours a day. |
Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?
| A．What to Buy a Charity Shops. |
| B．Charity Shop: Its Origin & Development. |
| C．Charity Shop: Where You Buy to Donate. |
| D．The Public's Concern about Charity Shops. |
The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society －a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.
“My grandmothers didn’t do anything but keep house and serve everybody. They were programmed to do that,” said Emils Comette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.
While men have long spent their time fishing and playing golf, women have sometimes seemed to become unnoticed as they age. But the generation now turning 50 is the baby boomers (
生育高峰期出生的人), and the same people who refused their parents’ way of being young are now trying a new way of growing old.
If you take into consideration feminism (女权主义), a bit of spare money, and better health for most elderly, the Red Hat Society looks almost inevitable(必然的). In this society, women over 50
wear red hats and purple (紫色的) clothes, while the women under 50 wear pink hats and light purple clothing.
“The organization took the idea from a poem by Jenny Joseph that begins: “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn’t go,” said Ellen Cooper, who founded the Red Hat Society in 1998. When the ladies started to wear the red hats, they attracted lots of attention.
“The point of this is that we need a rest from always doing something for someone else,” Cooper said. “Women feel so ashamed and sorry when they do something for themselves.” This is why chapters are discouraged from raising money or doing anything useful. “We’re a ladies’ play group. It couldn’t be more simple,” added Cooper’s assistant Joe Heywood.The underlined word “chapter” in paragraph 2 means __________.
| A．one branch of an organization | B．a written agreement of a club |
| C．one part of a collection of poems | D．a period in a society’s history |
From the text, we know that the “baby boomers” are a group of people who
| A．have gradually become more noticeable |
| B．are worried about getting old too quickly |
| C．are enjoying a good life with plenty of money to spend |
| D．tried living a different life from their parents when they were young |
DIt could be inferred from the text that members of the Red Hat Society are .
| A．interested in raising money for social work |
| B．programmers who can plan well for their future |
| C．believers in equality between men and women |
| D．good at cooking big meals and taking care of others |
Who set up the Red Hat Society ?
| A．Emily Cornette . | B．Ellen Cooper . |
| C．Jenny Joseph . | D．Joe Heywood . |
Women join the Red Hat Society because .
| A．they want to stay young |
| B．they would like to appear more attractive |
| C．they would like to have fun and live for themselves |
| D．they want to be more like their parents[来 |
It was Monday. Mrs Smith's dog was hungry, but there was not any meat in the house.
Considering that there was no better way, Mrs Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it:“Give my dog half a pound of meat.”Then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently:“Take this to the butcher(*person whose job is selling meat). and he's going to give you your lunch today.”
Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher's. It gave the paper to the butcher. The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady's handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to. The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once.
At noon, the dog came to the shop again. It gave the butcher a piece of paper again. After reading it， he gave it half a pound of meat once more.
The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon. And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth. This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers (*people who buy sth. from a shop).
But, the dog came again at four o'clock. And the same thing happened once again. To the butcher's more surprise, it came for the third time at six o'clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper. The butcher felt a bit puzzled. He said to himself, “This is a small dog. Why does Mrs Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!Mrs Smith treated her little dog quite_________.
| A．cruelly | B．fairly | C．kindly | D．politely |
It seemed that the dog knew well that the paper Mrs Smith gave it_______.
| A．might do it much harm |
| B．could do it much good |
| C．would help the butcher |
| D．was worth many pounds |
The butcher did not give any meat to the dog __________.
| A．before he felt sure that the words were really written by Mrs Smith |
| B．when he found that the words on the paper were not clear |
| C．because he had sold out all the meat in his shop |
| D．until he was paid enough by Mrs Smith |
From its experience, the dog found that ________.
| A．only the paper with Mrs Smith's words in it could bring it meat |
| B．the butcher would give the meat to it whenever he saw it |
| C．Mrs Smith would pay for the meat it got from the butcher |
| D．a piece of paper could bring it half a pound of meat |
At the end of the story, you'll find that _______.
| A．the dog was clever enough to write on the paper |
| B．the dog dared not go to the butcher's any more |
| C．the butcher was told not to give any meat to the dog |
| D．the butcher found himself cheated(*act in a way that is not honest)by the clever animal |