Famous centenarians (百岁老人) still active in arts, science are in no mood to retire. "Those who stand still, die," is one of Oliveira's favorite phrases. He knows from experience what it means, as the Portuguese film director has reached the age of 102 and is still active in his profession. Every year, Oliveira shoots a film and is currently working on his next project. "You have to work, work, work in order to forget that death is not far away," he said. When asked about his age, Oliveira said with some humility: "It's down to mother nature. It gave to me what it took from others."
Being both mentally and physically fit in old age is partly a matter of luck, but it also has something to do with character. Not every white-haired person is wise and social skills, openness and the ability to train the brain are essential for senior citizens.
Along with the architect Oscar Niemeyer (103), Nobel laureate Montalcini (101) and director Kurt Maetzig (100), Oliveira is one of those people of whom it would be very wrong to think as members of a listless elderly generation.
Another master in his profession is the architect Oscar Niemeyer. The 103-year-old Brazilian is best known for his futuristic-looking buildings in Brasilia, but he also speaks out on behalf of the poor. "The role of the architect is to struggle for a better world where we can develop a form of architecture that serves everyone and not just a privileged few," said Niemeyer recently. He spends almost every day working in his office in Copacabana, and even when he falls ill he keeps working on ideas: After a gallbladder (胆囊) operation he composed a samba tune (桑巴舞曲) in the clinic.
Another man who could sing a song about age is 107-year-old Heesters. The Dutch-born opera singer spent most of his life performing in Germany, where he still works. Recently Heesters said: "I want to be at least 108-years-old." He also plans to keep performing. "Should I just sit at home and wait until they come and pick me up?" Heesters has not given up trying to add to his tally of awards and is looking for a "good stage role".
Italian scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who is 101-year-old and is still active in medical science, has described the force that keeps driving her on: "Progress is created through imperfection." In 1986 she and her lab colleague were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work on nerve growth factor. She's convinced that humans grow on challenges.
With so many brilliant examples given, we can see clearly that age is no barrier to some high achievers. From the first two paragraphs, we can see ______.
| A．being active at 102 is achievable for everybody |
| B．Oliveira owes his long life to his mother’s help |
| C．being fit in old age is a matter of luck and character |
| D．social skills and wisdom are difficult for the senior |
How many centenarians are mentioned in this passage?
| A．4 | B．5 | C．6 | D．7 |
By saying "Should I just sit at home and wait until they come and pick me up?” in Paragraph 5, Heesters shows us he ________.
| A．wants to sit or lie in comfort |
| B．is waiting for people to pick him up |
| C．is willing to work till he dies |
| D．prefers to give performance at home |
In the passage so many examples were given to show ________.
| A．old age is a big problem if you want to succeed |
| B．as a senior citizen, you have to be open-minded and optimistic |
| C．old people should never think of themselves as old |
| D．old age cannot prevent a great person from achieving a lot |
In the writer’s opinion, the architect Oscar Niemeyer is not ________.
| A．intelligent | B．pessimistic | C．positive | D．diligent |
I found out one time that doing 
a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed(解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be res
ponsible for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated in the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated in the test.
44. The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____ .
A. she had not brought a pen with her B. she had lost her own on her way to school
C. there was something wrong with her pen D. her own had been taken away by someone
45. The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____ .
A. to go on writing his paper B. to stop whispering
C. to leave the room immediately D. to stay behind after the exam
46. The thing(s) emphasized in her talk was(were) ____ .
A. honesty B. sense of duty C. seriousness D. all of the above
47. The boy knew everything ____ .
A. the moment he was asked to stay behind
B.when the teacher started talking about honesty
C. only some time later
D. when he was walking out of the room
In Denmark, parents are allowed to set up a new school if they are dissatisfied with the school in the area where they are living. Although these schools have to follow the national courses, they are allowed a lot of choice in deciding wha
t to teach. Some of these new schools are called “small schools” because usually the number of pupils in them is only sixty, but a school has to have at least twenty-seven pupils.
Cooleenbridge School in Ireland, is a small school similar to the ones in Denmark, it was set up by parents who came from Holland, 
Germany, Czechoslovakia, England and other parts of Ireland. They came because they wanted to live in the countryside and to grow their own food. In June 1986, they decided to start a school. They managed to get an old, disused primary-school building and started with twenty-four children aged from four to twelve.
The teachers say, “The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” And so the courses includes yoga(瑜伽), cooking, knitting(编织), kite-making, music, fishing, drama(戏剧) and environ
mental river studies, as well as reading, writing, maths and science.
40. What are the rules for setting up a new school in Denmark?
A. Parents are allowed to set up their own school.
B. The school has to follow the national courses.
C. The school has to have at least 27 pupils.
D. All of the above.
41. The writer tells about the Cooleenbridge School in Ireland because___________
A. it was set up by parents who are not people of Denmark
B. it was taken as an example of this kind of “small school”
C. there were only twenty-four children
D. the pupils there were aged from 4 to 12
42. What makes this kind of school special?
A. It is set up by parents not by government.
B. It is free to decide what to teach.
C. The number of pupils in it is only sixty.
D. It has to have at least 27 pupils.
43. “The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” What the teachers say actually means___________.
A. What we should do is teaching in the classroom, not sitting in the office.
B. Children should do more homework at home, not just sit in class to listen to the teachers.
C. Children should learn by themselves not rely on teachers.
D. Children should learn through practice not just from books.
三、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）
Grandma Moses is among the most famous twentieth-century painters of the United States, yet she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself: “I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.” No one could have had a more productive old age.
She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At twelve she left home and was in domestic(家庭的) service until, at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived; her husband died in 1927.
Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery(刺绣) pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff(硬的) to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time.
Her pictures were first sold at a local market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought everything she painted. Three of
the pictures exhibited
in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures: detailed and lively portrayals(描绘) of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of colour and form. “I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it.” she said.
36. Accordi
ng to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to___________
A. make herself beautiful B. keep active
C. earn more money D. become famous
37. The underlined word “survived” means___________.
A. graduated from college B. examined the condition of the house
C. lived longer than the other children D. gave up themselves to the police
38. From Grandma Moses’ description of herself in the first paragraph, it can be inferred that she was______________.
A. independent B. pretty C. rich D. nervous
39. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Grandma Moses: Her Life and Pictures. B. T
he Children of Grandma Moses.
C. Grandma Moses: Her Best Exhibition. D. Grandma Moses and Other Older Artists.
In Egypt, smoke-filled offices are common along with taxi drivers who light one cigarette after another while stuck in Cairo’s heavy traffic. Non-smoking sections in restaurants are unheard of and water pipes which fill cafes often overflow onto sidewalks, leaving the sweet smell of fruit-flavored tobacco lingeringon the streets.
But some doctors and lawmakers here want to change this culture of Egypt’s. The country’s parliament recently passed laws banning smoking in some public places including government buildings, schools and hospitals. It also calls for health warnings to be put on cigarette packs and allows the government to increase the price of tobacco, according to parliament member Hamdiel-Sayyed, who proposed the new laws. If individuals break the law, they could be fined up to $17. Tobacco factories can be forced to pay about $3
,500, if they don’t follow the law and advertise their products.
Egypt’s laws are modest compared to other countries including Britain and some American cities where smoking in all indoor public places is banned. But they are a start, especially for a country where 80 billion cigarettes are smoked a year. “Part of the objective is to keep children and young people from becoming smoking addicts,” said el-Sayyed.
But in a country burdened by poverty and high unemployment, will the laws be able to force people not to smoke?
Mustafa Ahmed, 25, said laws to ban smoking are a good idea in principle but are not realistic. “Smoking is popular in Egypt. There is a lot of pressure on people here, especially because the economy is bad. People smoke because they think it will relax them.”
Sherif Omar, a parliament member, also has his doubts about the new laws. “Laws by themselves don’t work well unless you have education in schools and in the media,” he said.
59. What does the underlined part “this culture” in the second paragraph refer to?
A. Heavy traffic — a big headache for drivers. B. No non-smoking areas in buildings.
C. The wide-spread smoking habit in Egypt.
D. No effective measures taken to stop smoking.
60. Which of the following is NOT a part of the new laws passed by the parliament?
A. Not allowing tobacco advertising. B. Warning people of the danger of smoking.
C. Allowing the government to increase the price of tobacco.
D. People who break the law will be fined up to $3,500.
61. Compared with Britain, Egypt’s laws _______.
A. will be more effective in reducing smoking B. set stricter limits on smoking
C. do not set very strict limits on smoking D. will not be effective
62. According to Sherif Omar, the new laws are hard to carry out because _______.
A. Egyptians face high work pressure B. Egyptians are addicted to smoking
C. many people are strongly against these laws
D. people don’t receive anti-smoking education
63. What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Egypt starts to ban smoking everywhere.
B. Egypt attempts to control smoking in public places.
C. Egypt’s laws increase people’s sense of health.
D. Egypt’s laws aren’t supported by the common people.
A volcanic eruption in Iceland has sent ash across northern Europe. Airlines have stopped or changed the flights across the Atlantic Ocean, leaving hundreds of passengers stuck in airports.
Grimsvotn is one of the largest and most active volcanoes in Europe. What makes Grimsvotn different is that it lies under a huge glacier of ice up to12 meters thick. The hot volcano heats up the ice above it, which then forms a layer of water between the glacier and the volcano. This layer of water puts pressure on the volcano, keeping it stable. As the water flows out from the volcano then comes up to the surface. This is exactly what happened today.
Now, airlines have to make changes to their flights so as not to fly through the clouds of volcanic ash. According to KLM, one of Europe’s biggest airlines, airplanes cannot go under the cloud or over it. Going through the cloud can result in the ash getting stuck in the airplane’s engines, causing damage to the plane.
The eruption has also caused problems for animals in Iceland. The volcano left ash and sharp, glass-like rocks all over the country side. Farmers are keeping their animals inside to stop them from eating ash-covered grass or the sharp objects.
55.What makes Grimsvoth different from other volcanoes?
A. It is below ice. B. It lies under the sea.
C. It is the largest volcano. D. Its lava affects airlines.
56.What keeps Grimsvotn still?
A. The slow flow of water. B. The low water temperature
C. The thick glacier. D. The water pressure.
57.Which of the following is the result of the volcanic eruption?
A. People stop traveling in Europe. B. Airlines suffer from the loss of planes.
C. It becomes dangerous for animals to eat outside.
D. Farmers have lost many of their animals.
58. This text is most probably taken from ______
A. a research paper B. a newspaper report
C. a textbook D. a geography textbook