One day, Mr. Arnold was teaching a lesson, and things were going as normally as ever. He was explaining the story of mankind to his pupils. He told them that, in the beginning, men were nomads; they never stayed in the same place for very long. Instead, they would travel about, here and there, in search of food, wherever it was to be found. And when the food ran out, they would move off somewhere else.
He taught them about the invention of farming and keeping animals. This was an important discovery, because by learning to cultivate(耕作)the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have food steadily available. It also meant that people could remain living in one place, and this made it easier to set about tasks that would take a long while to complete, like building towns, cities, and all that were in them. All the children were listening attracted by this story, until Lucy jumped up:
“And if that was so important and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mr. Arnold?”
Mr. Arnold didn’t know what to say. Lucy was a very intelligent girl. He knew that she lived with her parents in a house, so she must know that her family were not nomads; so what did she mean?
“We have all become nomads again,” continued Lucy, “The other day, outside the city, they were cutting the forest down. A while ago a fisherman told me how they fish. It’s the same with everyone: when there’s no more forest left the foresters go elsewhere, and when the fish run out the fishermen move on. That’s what the nomads did, isn’t it ?
The teacher nodded, thoughtfully. Really, Lucy was right Mankind had turned into nomads. Instead of looking after the land in a way that we could be sure it would keep supplying our needs, we kept developing it until the land was bare. And then off we would go to the next place! The class spent the rest of the afternoon talking about what they could do to show how to be more civilized.
The next day everyone attended class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said “I am not a nomad!”
And , from then on, they set about showing that indeed they were not. Every time they knew they needed something, they made sure that they would get it using care and control. If they needed wood or paper, they would make sure that they got the recycled kind. They ordered their fish from fish farms, making sure that the fish they received were not too young and too small. They only used animals that were well cared for, and brought up on farms.
And so, from their little town, those children managed to give up being nomads again, just as prehistoric men had done, so many thousands of years ago.From Paragraph 2, we can know that______ .
| A．people got tired of living in the same place |
| B．people gradually got used to living in cities |
| C．people tended to settle down after learning farming |
| D．people spent a long time in learning to keep animals |
In the teacher’s opinion, Lucy’s argument was______
| A．shocking | B．ridiculous | C．puzzling | D．reasonable |
Which of the following agrees with the message “I am not a nomad” (Paragraph 7)?
| A．People eat young fish for its delicious taste. |
| B．Foresters leave the place where wood is not available. |
| C．Fishermen move elsewhere when there is no fish left. |
| D．People use recycled materials as much as possible. |
The writer tries to make us believe that ______.
| A．mankind has been progressing mainly through traveling about |
| B．it’s unwise for mankind to use the land in an uncontrolled way |
| C．it’s quite good for students to learn more about the history of mankind |
| D．in the beginning men were nomads. |
Dear Cassy,
Thanks for reminding me by e-mail that you want to baby-sit our children. In spite of the fact that you are only 15 years old, my wife and I would be willing to consider your application if you can meet a few modest requirements:
1. Submit（提交）three letters from teachers who will prove that you have never failed to follow directions perfectly in class and never failed to hand in a homework assignment（任务）on time.
2. Submit a note from two doctors which says that you are in perfect health, have never been sick, and never will be sick.
3. Submit a document（文件）from your physical education teacher or team coach that proves that you can do each of the following: Run two miles in less than nine minutes, climb an oily rope to a height of twenty feet in thirty seconds while balancing（平衡）a glass of water on your nose, and walk in bare feet over hot coals and broken glass without complaint or injury.
4. Submit letters from at least two mental health experts saying that you have never had a bad thought towards any living being or not living object.
5. Play and defeat five expert chess players with your eyes covered after going without sleep for 48 hours.
6. Wait patiently for two years while we make sure that all your documents are true.
Your loving and trusting friends,
The Smiths
60. From the letter we can know that ________.
A. Cassy wrote to the Smiths twice B. Cassy loves children very much
C. Cassy will be in perfect health D. Cassy does very well in her studies
61. What can we infer from the letter?
A. Their children are hard to baby-sit. B. Their children are well educated.
C. Cassy is good at doing many things. D. Cassy won’t get the job as a baby-sitter.
62. Which of the following can be the best title for this text?
A. Rules for baby-sitting B. Modest requirements
C. A job application letter D. Private investigations
63. Which of the following words can best describe the Smiths?
A. Humorous. B. Patient.C. Honest. D. Kind-hearted.
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 flock of hungry pigeons were flying across the sky in search of food. Having traveled a long distance, they felt tired and settled down on a tree. Just below the tree, they saw grains strewn（抛洒）all over the ground. The pigeons were happy to have found enough food to eat. All the pigeons came down from the tree and started eating the grains. As they were doing so, a huge net fell on them and trapped them all.
The pigeons were taken aback. They noticed a hunter sitting at a distance from the tree, a bow and arrow in hand. The pigeons realized it was the hunter who had trapped them in the net. The hunter got up and began to move towards the pigeons.
The leader of the pigeons spoke,“ Friends, we are in great trouble. The hunter will catch us if we do not act swiftly in a few seconds. There is only one option available at this moment. Let all of us use our force together and fly up along with the net. If all of us use our force and fly together, we can fly carrying the net along with us. Let us start now.”
All the pigeons agreed with him and flew high carrying the net along with them, After traveling enough distance away from the hunter, the pigeons settled on a tree and carefully came out of the net one by one and thus escaped the evil design of the hunter.
56. Who strewed the grains over the ground?
A. A villager. B. The hunter. C. The pigeon owner. D. The writer.
57. The word “_________” has the closest meaning to the underlined word “option“.
A. reason B. choice C. action D. opinion
58. How did the pigeons react when they got trapped?
A. They didn’t know what to do. B. They tried to fly in all directions.
C. They remained rather calm. D. They decided to fight for their lives.
59. This story wants to tell us that ________.
A. two heads are better than one B. confidence will save everyone
C. teamwork can work wonders D. actions speaker louder than words
A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent，increasing the brainpower they had at birth.
Until now，it has been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience—what psychologists call fluid intelligence—is innate and cannot be taught（though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing）.
But in the new study，researchers describe a method for improving this skill，along with experiments to prove it works.
The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memory—the kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it. This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence，so the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence.
First they measured fluid intelligence of volunteers using standard tests. Then they trained each in a complicated memory task—the child’s card game，in which they had to recall a card they saw and heard. During the course, they needed to ignore irrelevant items，monitor ongoing performance，manage two tasks at the same time and connect related items to one another in space and time.
The four groups experienced a half-hour of training daily for 8，12，17 and 19 days，respectively. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills，the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training.
The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，were striking. Improvement in the trained groups was a lot greater. Moreover，the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers，from the weakest to the strongest，showed significant improvement.
“Our results show you can increase your intelligence with proper training.”said Dr Jaeggi, a co-author of the paper.“No one knows how long the gains will last after training stops，”he added，“and the experiment’s design did not allow the researchers to determine whether more training would continue to produce further gains.”
67．The researchers thought the key to improving the intelligence was ______________.
A．memorizing telephone numbers
B．improving working memory
C．training in concentration
D．recalling a card
68．The following aspects of the training help increase intelligence EXCEPT___________.
A．ignoring irrelevant items
B．monitoring ongoing performance
C．managing two tasks at the same time
D．using previous experience
69．When the experiment was conducted，the researchers______________.
A．trained the four groups for the same period of time
B．only made comparisons between the four groups
C．compared the four groups with control groups
D．trained the four groups together
70．By writing the article，the writer intends to ______________.
A．inform the readers of a new study
B．call on people to be trained to increase intelligence
C．prove one’s born brainpower can be improved
D．tell people the improved intelligence will last forever
A train sped up through the countryside at 60 mph as a“traveller”relaxes with his newspaper. But this is no businessman taking it easy—the driver of the passenger express（快车）is doing the reading.
A Sunday Express reader caught this Virgin employee on film as the train sped through Derbyshire on its way to Plymouth from Newcastle.
Virgin，which has come under repeated criticism over their rail service, yesterday fired the driver after being shown the photograph. A spokesman said an inquiry（调查）was under way to make sure exactly what he was doing and why he appeared to have taken his eyes off the track ahead.
The picture comes in the week that the public inquiry into the Southall rail disaster, which claimed seven lives, heard that the driver at the centre of that case had earlier been spotted with his feet on the control button of his cab.
Larry Harrison，who worked for Great Western Trains，drove through two warning signals before crashing at 60 mph into a waiting train.
The reader who took this picture was standing on a bridge outside Chesterfield early one summer’s evening. He said，“I only realized what I’d got when I had the pictures developed. I couldn’t believe it.”
“As far as I could see，there was no one else in the cab with the drive，unless they were hiding, The person with the paper open was certainly sitting in the driver’s normal seat.”
The photographer works on the railways and does not want to be named，but he added，“I’ve seen many drivers with their feet on the control panel but I’ve never seen them reading papers like this. There is an automatic warning system and driver’s safety device which reminds him when he passes yellow and red signals. But you should never take your eyes off the track and rely only on sounds because you could have unexpected objects on the line or suddenly have speed limits given.”
63．Who is the“traveller”mentioned in the first paragraph？
A．A train driver. B．A businessman.
C．A passenger. D．A newspaper reader.
64．The train ______________when the picture was taken.
A．was driving to Plymouth
B．was ready for a picture
C．had seven people on it
D．crashed into another train
65．Who took the picture of the driver of the passenger express？
A．A professional photographer.
B．A newspaper reporter.
C．Another train driver.
D．A member of the railway staff.
66．According to what we have read，we may find this passage most probably______________.
A．at a train station
B．from a news report
C．from a driver’s safety guide
D．from the police inquiry
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures of signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.
The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days，we can write down a story，or record information，without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds：drawing，photographs，signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere：in books and newspapers，in the street，and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily，and they can make a story much more interesting.
59．Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because_________.
A．the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B．the painters were animal lovers
C．the painters wanted to show imagination
D．the pictures were thought to be helpful
60．The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that ______________.
A．the former was easy to write
B．there were fewer signs in the former
C．the former was easy to pronounce
D．each sign stood for only one sound
61．Which of the following statements is TRUE？
A．The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B．The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories.
C．The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D．The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
62．In the last paragraph，the author thinks that pictures ______________.
A．should be made comprehensible
B．should be made interesting
C．are of much use in our life
D．have disappeared from our life