Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality (理性), but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that’s not what I did.
I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn’t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by communicating with people who weren’t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.
I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn’t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.
Now I’m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.
The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult. Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university?
| A．He intended to become an engineer and humanist. |
| B．He intended to be a reasonable student with noble ideals. |
| C．He wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality. |
| D．He wanted to communicate with liberal-arts students. |
According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ___________.
| A．become noble idealists |
| B．broaden their knowledge |
| C．find a better job in the future |
| D．balance engineering and liberal arts |
Which word below can replace the underlined word “reconcile”?
| A．confuse | B．compare | C．combine | D．compete |
The underlined sentence in 1st paragraph means ___________.
| A．he has failed to achieve his ideal aims |
| B．he is not a practical and rational student |
| C．his choice of attending to a small liberal-arts university is reasonable |
| D．his idea of combining engineering with liberal - arts is noble and wise |
The author suggests in this passage that ___________.
| A．liberal-arts students are supported to take engineering courses |
| B．technical experts with a wide vision are expected in the society |
| C．successful engineering students are more welcomed in the society |
| D．engineering universities with liberal-arts courses are needed |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology. With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and different colors t(遥远的) memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, wouldn’t last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(器官).The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up (澄清) on the way to this wonderful future.
1.According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by _______.
A.diseases and aging B.accidents and war
C.accidents and aging D.heart disease and war
2.In the author’s opinion, today’s most important advance in technology lies in ______.
A.medicine B.the Internet C.brain cells D.human organ
3.Humans may live longer in the future because ________.
A.heart disease will be far away from us
B.human brain can decide the final death
C.the basic materials of cells will last forever
D.human organs can be repaired by new medicine
4. We can learn from the passage that ______.
A.human life will not last more than 120 years in the future
B.humans have to take medicine to build new skin cells now
C.much need to be done before humans can have a longer life
D.we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells
The Mona Lisa, one of the world’s most famous paintings, has been recreated with 3,604 cups of coffee—and 564 pints of milk. The different colors were created by adding no, little or lots of milk to each cup of black coffee.
The recreated Mona Lisa measured 20 feet long and 13 feet wide. It took a team of eight people three hours to complete the work. It was created for The Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia, and seen by 130,000 people who attended the one-day coffee-lovers event.
Elaine Kelly, one of the organizers from the Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority, was delighted with the result. She said, “Each coffee cup was filled with varying amounts of milk to create the different shades(色度) of the painting. We wanted to create an element of surprise and a sense of fun in the way we communicated with the public.”
“Once we had the idea of creating an image(像) out of coffee cups we searched for something iconic（有代表性的）to reproduce(复制).And after some time we chose the most iconic painting in history. The Mona Lisa has been reproduced so many times in so many different mediums but, as far as we know, never out of coffee,” Kelly continued. “Besides, the idea is practical.”
“It was fantastic. It really looked like the famous painting—the Mona Lisa. It was wonderful,” said one visitor.
After much planning it was great to see it coming together so well and the 130,000 people who attended the event certainly enjoyed it and were deeply attracted by it,” said Kelly.
1.How were the different colors of the recreated Moma Lisa created?
A.By adding different amounts of black coffee to each cup of milk.
B.By adding different amounts of milk to each cup of black coffee.
C.By using paints of different colors
D.By using different kinds of coffee
2.How large is the recreated Mona Lisa?
A. 20 square feet B. 260 square feet
C. 564 square feet D. 3,604 square feet
3.The people who saw the recreated Mona Lisa are all_______ lovers.
A.Mona Lisa B.milk C.coffee D.painting
4.The event organizers chose to recreate the Mona Lisa for the following reasons EXCEPT that _________ .
A. the Mona Lisa is a very iconic painting in history
B. the Mona Lisa has never been reproduced out of coffee
C. the idea can be actually carried out
D. it is very easy to do so
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）
This weekly four-day physical activity schedule will get your kids excited about being active.
Tuesday
When the kids get home from school, don’t let them go straight to the TV and get settled in. Encourage them to get moving and get off the couch(长椅) by giving them a pedometer(计步器). Pedometers are the most fun when parents also use one because that turns stepping, walking and running into a game to see who can get the most steps.
Thursday
The kids have done a great job so far this week, but now they are aching for （渴望） a little more TV time. Instead of turning on cartoons, let them watch fitness movies made just for kids. These movies encourage watchers to get up and dance along to kid-friendly music.
Saturday
Get the whole family out of the house together and over to a park. Bring lots of sports equipment, pack a healthy picnic and have a family competitive sports day. Kids and adults get into groups and play against each other in tennis, basketball or soccer. After everyone has played hard for a couple of hours, stop for a picnic and then if your family isn’t too tired, go back and play some more.
Sunday
Every child loves to play video games and there is no better time to allow kids to play them than on Sunday when no homework is due（应交的）.But don’t let them play a game that forces them to sit down for hours. Dance games with a floor mat(垫子) to help kids follow the dance moves are popular to kids.
1.What can be the best title for this text?
A.How to make children like activities.
B.A weekly four-day physical activity plan for kids.
C.Physical activities are important to kids.
D.A plan that will do much good to kids.
2.Parents are advised to use a pedometer together with their kids because _______.
A.they can give their kids some advice about walking
B.it can prevent them from watching TV too much
C.this will allow them and their kids to have a fun competition
D.their kids will not use it if they don’t
3.On Thursday when a kid wants to watch TV, his parents should ______.
A.let him watch it for a short time
B.watch cartoons with him
C.take him out for a walk instead
D.show fitness movies to him
4.The author advises a family to have a meal on Saturday ______.
A. in a park B. in a mountain C. in a restaurant D. at home
Juanito Estrella has been a housekeeping manager on the US-based large passenger ship Carnival Spirit for 18 months and feels he has found the suitable position in his career(职业).He has always wanted to travel.“ I guess I am a really restless spirit. I Iike traveling, so when the chance came, I jumped at it,” he says.
The chance came in the form of a newspaper advertisement for work on cruise ships（游船）. At the time Estrella was the housekeeping manager at a Melbourne hotel. He applied and, after two interviews, a medical check and police clearance, the job was his.
Estrella is responsible(负责的)for the cleanliness of the ship, making sure that 160 crew work properly. “I enjoy it because there is no other work-you wake up each day in a different place and a different culture. It’s exciting when you go to the next country and you don’t understand the language, ”he says.
Estrella likes being busy and getting to know people from all over the world. The 1,000 crew come from 94 countries, and Estrella has learnt Spanish and a little Croatian.
But there is a downside .“You cannot get really drunk...because you have safety responsibilities to yourself and others, ”he says.“ You don’t really think about home. You start to think about home only when you get closer to your vacation and wonder what you’ll be doing.”
Life on the ship is anything but cruising. Estrella and his fellows work at least 10 hours a day, seven days a week. He warns the job is not for everybody. “You have to love being busy and be prepared to work every day-and to give up drinking too much alcohol. ”In his spare time, if the ship sails into a port, Estrella explores it, otherwise he works out in the crew’s gym, goes on the internet or calls home.
1.What do we know about Estrella?
A. He is very fond of traveling.
B. He doesn’t drink wine now.
C. He cannot speak a foreign language.
D. He used to be a housekeeping manager in a ship.
3.The underlined word “downside” in paragraph 5 probably means____________.
A. disappointment B. disadvantage C. failure D. loss
3.Which of the following is true?
A. Estrella doesn’t often feel homesick because of his work.
B. The work on the ship is not suitable for a married person.
C. Estrella can find no other job except the one on the ship.
D. The people on the ship are from 94 countries.
4. In the last paragraph the writer thinks that life on the ship is____________.
A. not a tiring journey at allB. just an interesting voyage
C. far from a voyage for pleasure D. more than a pleasant travel by sea
A ferry carrying more than 900 people sank in the southern Philippines on Sunday. Most of the passengers have been rescued, but some people are still missing and at least nine have died.
The Philippine Coast Guard says it received a call for help from Superferry 9 early Sunday morning local time, when the ship started listing(倾斜) to its starboard side. The captain ordered passengers and crew to abandon ship about an hour later. The ship sank around 10 am local time, off Siocon Bay in Zamboanga del Norte province. The ship left General Santos City in the southern island of Mindanao Saturday morning heading for Iloilo City in the central Philippines. It was carrying 847 passengers and 117 crew members.
The Philippine Coast Guard said passing ships and the Philippine Navy rescued more than 800 people. Philippines Navy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo said, "Most of them when rescued from the water were having difficulty breathing and most of them were weak. There was an immediate need for doctors and nurses to attend to their needs, as well as for drinking water."
Coast guard officials said it is still not clear what caused the ferry to list and said an investigation will be done as soon as rescue operations are over. The weather in the area was reported as being clear at that time, although a storm was attacking the northern Philippines.
Many Filipinos rely on ferries to travel between islands in the Philippines, but accidents are common especially during the rainy season. Last year, some 800 people died when a ferry sank
1. What does the underlined word “abandon” in paragraph 2 mean ?
A. Watch B. Leave C. Protect D. Keep
2. Which of the following statements about the accident is TRUE ?
A. It took the ferry an hour to sink.
B. The ship was going to General Santos City when it sank.
C. Most passengers got immediate nursing care after they were rescued
D. So far, only a few passengers have found dead in the accident.
3. We can infer from the passage that_____
A. the reason why the ferry sank will be found out soon.
B. ferries are important in many people’s lives in the Philippines
C. people in the Philippines seldom take a ferry during the rainy season
D. a worse accident has never happened on the seas in the Philippines before