In today's world of cell phones, mini laptops and MP3 players, most people have at least one time-telling tool with them. Since these devices are so common, is time running out for the 500-year-old watch? According to some consumers, yes. New Jersey teenager Charlie Wollman says a watch is "an extra piece of equipment with no necessary function." Many young adults agree ─ and use their cell phones to tell time. Louis Galie, a senior vice president at Timex, said that fewer young people wear watches today than five years ago. As a result, some people claim that the watch industry is at a crossroads.
However, watchmakers optimistically say that watches regain popularity when consumers reach their 20s and 30s. By then, they are willing to spend money on a quality timepiece that doesn't just keep good time. Fifty years ago, watchmakers boasted(自夸) about their products' accuracy. But in recent years, the watch industry has transformed itself into an accessory(附件，配件) business. And for many today, the image(外形) a watch communicates has become more important than the time it tells.
"Complications" ─ features that go beyond simple timekeeping ─ are an important part of a watch's image. Today's watches offer a host of features that suit almost any personality. These features include altitude trackers(追踪器), compasses(指南针), lunar calendars, USB drives, and even devices that measure the effectiveness of golf swings!
Creativity is also a key element in today's watches. For example, Japanese watchmaker Tokyoflash makes watches that don't even look like watches. The company's popular Shinshoku model uses different color lights to tell the time. It looks more like a futuristic bracelet(手镯) than a watch. Another Japanese watchmaker, EleeNo, makes a "handless" watch. Using a ring of circles to keep time, this watch makes an excellent conversation piece.
Whether a watch communicates fashion sense, creative flair or a love of sports, consumers want their timepieces to stand out. Nowadays, everyone has the same kind of gadget in their bags, so people want to make a statement with what's on their wrists(手腕). Will this interest in wrist fashion last? Only time will tell!Why aren’t watches popular with young people as before?
| A．Because watches cannot keep good time as cell phones, mini laptops and MP3 players. |
| B．Because watches are featured by the disadvantages of simple function |
| C．Because watches are too expensive to afford. |
| D．Because watches don’t have beautiful appearance as other modern time telling tools. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．Watching-making is facing a survival crisis challenge. |
| B．Watching-making is faced with the developing opportunity. |
| C．Watching-making becomes the sun rising industry. |
| D．Watching-making has a specific development target. |
It can be implied that ____________________.
| A．people will gradually lose interest in watches as they grow older |
| B．watchmakers hardly change the development strategy for watches |
| C．today’s watches are better than those in the past in quality |
D．customers used t o be more concerned with the quality of a watch than with its image. |
The following qualities can make a watch popular EXCEPT _________.
| A．multifunction | B．accuracy | C．nice design | D．low price |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Watches and Teenagers | B．The History of Watches |
| C．The Accuracy of Watches | D．Watches Tell More Than Time |
New York, September 15. During a heavy rainfall last night a bus carrying 42 passengers slipped off the road on Highway 28, killing 36 of the passengers and the driver.
A spokesman for the Highway Patrol (巡逻队) which arrived at the scene shortly after 11:30 p. m. estimated (估计) that the accident had happened about half an hour before. The injured and the dead were sent to the nearest town of Valley View.
At the point where the accident happened the road has a three-lane (三条行车线) highway with many curves (弯道). Cause of the accident has not been fully found out.
50．In consideration of what caused the accident, one should pay attention to ________.
A．the careless driver
B．the nearest town of Valley View
C．Highway 28
D．the road with many curves
51．It was very likely that the accident happened ________.
A．after 11: 30 p. m.
B．in the city of New York
C．at or about 11: 00 p. m.
D．in the town of Valley View
52．How many people died in the accident?
A．37 B．36 C．43 D．42
NOT all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad experiences. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they relive these experiences in nightmares.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might reduce,or possibly erase(抹去), the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.
Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers' troubling memories after war. They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories. {007}
"Some memories can ruin people's lives . They come back to you when you don't want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions," said Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatry（精神病学）at Harvard Medical School. "This could relieve a lot of that suffering."
But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because memories give us our identity (特质). They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.
"All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are. I'm not sure we want to wipe those memories out, "said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist（伦理学家）.
46. The passage is mainly about .
A. a new medical invention B. a new research on the pill
C. a way of erasing painful memories D. an argument about the research on the pill
47. The drug tested on people can .
A. cause the brain to fix memories
B. stop people remembering bad experiences
C. prevent body producing certain chemicals
D. Wipe out the emotional effects of memories
48. We can infer from the passage that .
A. people doubt the effects of the pills
B. the pill will stop people's bad experiences
C. taking the pill will do harm to people's health
D. the pill has probably been produced in America
49. Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with?
A. Some memories can ruin people's lives.
B. People want to get rid of bad memories.
C. Experiencing bad events makes us different from others.
D. The pill will reduce people's sufferings from bad memories.
第三部分阅读技能(共三节，满分35分)
第一节阅读理解(共12小题，每小题2分，满分24分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Violent（暴力的） computer games have been strongly connected with aggression(好斗) in teenager boys in a study that shows the machines are increasingly becoming substitutes(替代品)for friendship.
The research provides powerful support to the doubt that actual violence could be one of the factors behind the crimes of aggression including young people. John Colwell, a lecturer at Middlesex University, who carried out the research, said aggression in boys seemed to increase with the amount of playing such games. “There are many facts to suggest there is a connection between playing computer games and aggression,” he said.
Previous studies have shown only a certain relation between such games and aggression. This conclusion was uncertain because it could mean that children who played the games did so because they had shown a sign to violence. Colwell's work shows, however, that there is a strong link, meaning that playing such games makes children more aggressive. He reached his conclusions after studying the behavior of 204 pupils aged 12-14 from a school in north London.
Children became obviously more aggressive the longer they had been playing violent games. They shouted, pushed and hit other children. Those who played in occasional bursts showed little effect. All the children spent many hours playing such games. Nearly 97％ of boys and 88％ of girls were regular users. Almost the boys, the heaviest computer users tended to have the fewest friends and reported seeing their machine as a friend.
41. Why did most of the computer users have few friends?
A. Because they felt very proud and lonely
B. Because they seldom left their homes
C. Because they regarded the computer as their only friend
D. Because they spent more time working in the computer
42. In fact, one of the factors connected with crimes is that _______.
A. children spend many hours on the computer studies
B. many boys are interested in violence{007}
C. children always play violent games in the computer
D. many girls become more dishonest up to now
43. How did Colwell prove his own views from the passage?
A. He studied nearly 97％ of boys' actions.
B. He studied the behavior of over two hundred children in a school.
C. He studied almost 80％of girls' actions.
D. He often talked to those little computer users in his home.
44. Which of the following words can best replace the underlined word “heaviest” in the last paragraph?
A. fattest B. slowestC. most dangerous D. greatest number
45. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. aggression in girls and boys seemed to come from the computer
B. playing computer games is no good to all the children
C. Colwell's studies showed the computer is connected with violence
D. the computer games can have a connection with violence
Most of us are used to seasons. Each year, spring follows winter, which follows autumn, which follows summer, which follows spring. And winter is colder than summer. But the earth goes through temperature cycles over much longer periods than those that we experience. Between 65,000 and 35,000 years, the planet was much colder than it is now .During that time the temperature also changed a lot, with periods of warming and cooling. Ice melted during the warm periods, which made sea levels rise. Water froze again during the cold periods.
A new study from 
Switzerland throws light on where ice sheets（冰川）inched during the ice age. It now seems that the ice melted at both ends of the earth, rather than just in either northern or southern regions.
This surprised the researchers from the University of Bern. Scientists have long assumed（假设）that
most of the ice that melted 
was in the Northern hemisphere（半球）during the 30,000-year long ice age. That belief was held because the North Pole is surrounded by land, while the South Pole is surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean. It is easier for ice sheets to grow on land .If surrendered by sea the ice can easily just slip into the ocean instead of building up.
The researchers used a computer model to look at ways the ice could melt and how it might affect sea levels. They compared these results to evidence of how temperatures and currents actually changed during that time. The model showed that if it was only in the Northern hemisphere that ice melted, there would have been a bigger impact（影响）on ocean currents （洋流）and sea temperatures than what actually happened. Studies suggest that melting just in the Southern hemisphere would have been impossible, too. The only reasonable conclusion, the scientists could make, was that ice melted equally in the North and the South.
It is still a mystery as to what caused the temperature changes that caused the ice to melt.
57.The North Pole is surrounded by land ,while the South Pole is surrounded by the Antarctic Ocean. So scientists thought that ______ .
A．most of the ice melted in the Northern hemisphere
B．most of the ice melted in the Southern hemisphere
C．The North Pole is colder than South Pole
D．The South Pole is colder than North Pole
58.We can learn from the passage ______ .
A．the ice can easily just slip into the ocean
B．volcanoes caused the ice to melt
C．melting just in the Northern hemisphere would have been impossible
D．researchers often use the computer models to help their research work
59.The scientists are not sure ______ .
A．how long the ice age lasted
B．where ice sheets melted during the ice age .
C．what caused the temperature changes
D．what the earth is made up of
60.Which of the following is NOT right ?
A．The researchers want to know how the melting of ice might affect sea levels by the
computer model.
B．Studies show ice melted equally in the North and the South during the ice age.
C．Most of the ice melted in the Northern hemisphere（半球）during the 30,000-year long
Ice age.
D．The temperature changes caused the ice to melt.
May : Happenings from the Past
May 5 , 1884
Isaac Murphy , son of a slave and perhaps the greatest h
orse rider in American history, rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby. He becomes the first rider ever to win the race three times.
May 9 , 1754
Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette produces perhaps the first American political cartoon , showing a snake cut in pieces , with the words “Join or Die” printed under the picture.
May 11 , 1934
The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl, the result of years of drought (干旱) , blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington , D. C.
May 19, 1994
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, former first lady and one of the most famous people of the 1960s, died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64.
May 24, 1844
Samuel F. B. Morse taps (轻敲) out the first message, “What hath God wrought,” over the experimental long-distance telegraph line which runs from Washington, D. C, to Baltimore, Md.
53. We know from the text that Buchanan is _______________.
A. Isaac’s father
B. a winning horse
C. a slave taking care of horses
D. the first racing horse in Kentucky
54. What is the title of the first American political cartoon?
A. Join or Die
B. Pennsylvania Gazette
C. What Hath God Wrought
D. Kentucky Derby
55. In which year did the former first lady Jacqueline die?
A. 1934B. 1960 C. 1964 D. 1994
56. Which of the following places has to do with (与...有关)the first telegram in history?
A. Washington, D. C.
B. New York City
C. Kentucky
D. Pennsylvania