Her frozen fingers touched the flame trying to feel alive. She could feel the warmth but it was a cold heat, as if the candle was rejecting her.
Her arms turned red because of the cold, her short sleeved shirt not giving her enough warmth. The winter air grabbed(抓住) at her arms, causing her pain, but she didn’t mind. She knew she should put her jacket on, it was winter in Connecticut, but that would be giving up. Up here, in this tree she felt safe.
She looked at the candle, surrounded by hardening wax(蜡). She placed her fingers gently on the warm green wax. This candle was a reminder of her life inside that house, a life she would have to return to eventually.
As a child, she had gotten this candle. She spent all she had on it. The beautiful crystal box （水晶盒）had caught her eye. Five whole nickels（五分币） had brought her that candle.
She gave it to her mother for Mother’s Day. Her mother had managed a smile and put it on a shelf. “It’s very pretty, honey! I will put it right here.” Since then that candle had never been moved, never been lighted, sitting dusty on a cluttered shelf that no one could see. Later on, her parents got divorced.
By now the candle was colder than the air and the darkness was complete. The snow on the ground made the night lighter and less satisfying than it had been before the first snowfall. She liked the darkness because she felt safe in it. From the glances of her friends who liked the girl she used to be. From the boys who could never figure out who she was. From her guidance counselor(顾问) whose endless worried looks never made her feel any better.
No one was outside at this time of night. She was alone in the world, just how she liked it. Just as she was about to lean back against the branch, she heard a sound.
She heard footsteps breaking the ice in the snow, heading toward her. He was making his way toward the white fence at the edge of the building, right against the road. Normally she would have ignored this person and stayed on her branch faraway from human contact, but this figure had something with him. He trudged(吃力地走) toward the white fence carrying a case. The figure reached the fence, opened the case and took out a shiny object.
She took her eyes off this figure only long enough to climb down the tree to get a better view of him. She reached the bottom and saw that the person had turned to face the street, sitting on the white fence that she and her friends once sat on. She stepped carefully on the ice, making her way toward him.
And then a beautiful sound of music came from the shiny object. She stopped and listened to it. She started walking towards the guy again. Just as she was about to step onto the snow banks, she slipped on the ice crashing to the ground. The figure turned around in surprise and a sudden recognition fell upon them both.The girl was hiding in the tree at deep night to ______.
| A．keep herself from the cold | B．wait for the boy to come |
| C．want to be left alone | D．seek safety from any hurt |
From the story, we can learn that ______.
| A．the girl suffered a lot in her life |
| B．the girl’s parents divorced because of her |
| C．teachers and friends treated the girl badly |
| D．the girl used to stay in the tree when feeling sad |
The underlined word “it” in the story refers to ______.
| A．leaning back against the branch | B．being alone in the world |
| C．not being disturbed at night | D．it being dark with snow around |
From the end of the story, it can be known that the girl _______.
| A．knew the person | B．knew what the object was |
| C．realized her wishes | D．would never feel alone any more |
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The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken, mainly by banning tiger-shooting to protect those animals which still survive.
Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely our earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.
I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.
The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives. One of them wrote.
“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal’s own territory(领地)。You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day.This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals. Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing – not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people.”
I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger—shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used. The so—called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits.
63．Theere is no more hunting in India now partly because___.
A．it is dangerous to hunt there
B．hunting is already out of date
C．hunters want to protect animals
D．there are few animals left to hunt
64．The author thinks modern hunters kill mainly .
A．to make the countryside safe B．to earn people’s admiration
C．to gain power and influence D．to improve their thelth
65．What do we learn about the big-game hunters?
A．They hunt old animals B．They mistreat animals
C．They hunt for food D．They hunt for money
66．What is the author’s view on the tiger-shoots he has seen?
A．Modern hunters lack the courage to hunt face-to-face
B．Modern hunters should use more advanced weapons
C．Modern hunters like to hunt rabbits instead of tigers
D．Modern hunters should put their safety first
.
Warning: reading too much Cinderella to your daughter may damage her emotional health in later life. A paper to be developed at the international congress of cognitive psychotherapy in Gothenburg suggests a link between the attitudes of women abused by their parents and early exposure to the wrong sort of fairy tales. It says girls who identified with Cinderella, Rapunzel and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast were more likely to say in destructive relationships as adults.
The theory was developed by Susan Darker Smith, a psychotherapist at the University of Derby. She interviewed 67 female abuse survivors and found that 61 put up with serial abuse because they believed they could change their partners and with patience, composition and love. Hardly any of the women in a control group, who had not experienced abuse, thought they could change their partners in this way.
These women and men said they would leave a relationship rather than put up with abuse from a partner. Ms Darker Smith found the abused women were much more likely to identify with Cinderella and other submissive female characters in fairytales, who were later rescued by a stranger prince or hero.
Although most girls heard the stories, damage appeared to be done to those who adopted the submissive characters as role models. “They believe if their love is strong enough they can change their parents’ behaviors, she said.” Overexposure in children to stories that emphasize the transformational qualities of love may make women believe they can damage their partners.” For example, they might never have understood the obvious flaw(缺点) in the story of Rapunzel, who remained locked in a high tower until rescued by a knight on a white horse, who broke the door down. “The question,” said Ms Darker Smith, “is why she did not break the door down herself.”
59．The passage is especially intended for _________.
A．parents with young daughters
B．girls who like reading fairy stories
C．girls who think they can change their partners
D．parents with grown-up daughters
60．Cinderella, Rapunzel and Beauty in Beauty and the Beast are similar in that _________.
A．they all married some princes
B．they all changed their partners with love
C．they were all abused by their partners
D．they all put up with abuse
61．Which of the following statements is true of the women in a control group?
A．They don’t believe in fairy tales.
B．They don’t believe in the transformational qualities of love.
C．They have also experienced abuse.
D．They survived abuse.
62．What does the underlined word “submissive” in the 3rd paragraph probably mean?
A．kind-hearted B．obedient C．gentle D．easy-going
.
STEVE Wayne, 16, who worked this summer as a lifeguard and swim teacher in Idaho Falls, was thrilled to see an extra $20 in his paycheck when the federal minimum wage increased in July.
“When you’re getting paid minimum wage, anything helps, ” Wayne said.Wayne is one of several hundred thousand American teenagers who earn the minimum wage. The last of three recent increases that took the minimum from $5.15 an hour in 2007 to $7.25.U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis says the minimum-wage increase will pump an extra $5.5 billion into the economy over the next year, which is helpful at a time when the economy is hurting.
"You're giving people who spend money a raise," says Kai Filion of the Economic Policy Institute. "Those people will go out and spend that money, and it will circulate through the economy."
But other economists say raising the minimum wage actually hurts the very people it's designed to help. A higher hourly minimum, they say, could force businesses to cut workers' hours, or even lay people off.
"What matters for people earning minimum wage is how much money they take home, in total, in their paycheck," explains Rajeev of Georgia State University's Economic Forecasting Center. "Their hourly rate may go up, but their number of hours may come down, so it's not an overall increase."
Business owners also say that raising the minimum wage exerts（施加）upward pressure on other wages. "If the minimum wage is $7 and I have to pay $8 or $9 to hire a dishwasher, then the cooks are going to say they want more," sayd Cleveland restaurant owner Rick. "How much can I charge for that hamburger?"
Another argument is that it makes it more expensive for businesses to hire new workers. For many businesses already struggling to make ends meet in these tough times, it will be simply too expensive to keep or to hire new people.
55．Steve Wayne was excited that_____________ .
A．his hard work had paid off
B．he had received a big wage increase
C．he has more money due to an increase in minimum wage
D．the wages of American teenage workers have been increased
56．According to the text, the US federal government has increased minimum wage with the aim of__________
A．decreasing unemployment
B．promoting economic recovery
C．increasing American teenagers’ wage
D．narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor
57．What matters most to people in need of help is_____________.
A．a higher hourly minimum B．more working hours
C．a minimum-wage increase D．an increase in total income
58．Some are against the increase in minimum wage because they say_____________.
A．only very few workers will be helped
B．they have to cut down working hours
C．many business owners can’t afford to employ new workers
D．minimum wage workers will expect more pay rises in the future
.
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题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。
When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah，he happened to live near a copper smelter（炼铜厂），and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to he a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on，something happened inside him.
Years later Paul was back in the area，and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was“No”.
Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately，his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that，he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected，he wouldn’t get his idea accepted．
Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote，“It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges.”Under the cover of darkness，he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.
And every week，he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later，as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment，the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.
Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes，and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white，but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.
51．When Paul was a boy，______________.
A．he had decided never to leave his hometown
B．the economy of Utah depended wholly on the copper smelter
C．no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution
D．he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the area
52．Why did Paul go to college to study the science of plants?
A．He wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself.
B．He was interested in planting trees since he was young.
C．He wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him.
D．He thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive.
53．The underlined phrase “the plain common sense” probable means that .
A．It was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland
B．His normal work and life would be greatly affected
C．No once would like to join him in the efforts
D．He had to keep everything he did decret
54．The message of the passage is that _____________.
A．action speaks louder than words
B．perseverance will work wonders
C．God helps those who help themselves
D．many hands make light work
.
Scientists have not come close to understanding all the different kinds of life on the planet, but US researcher Craig Venter is already working on creating the first artificial（人造的）life.
Venter and his researchers made a breakthrough late last month, They successfully moved the DNA of one type of bacteria(细菌) to a yeast cell（酵母）, changed it, then put it into another bacterial cell.
“Bacteria have systems that protect them from foreign DNA” Venter explained to the BBC, In the experiment, the team managed to block this system.
The experiment was performed on a simple type of bacteria celled mycoplasma mycoides. The team took the bacteria’s genes and put them into a yeast cell.
Putting a DNA in a yeast cell allowed the team to change the genes in this case, taking out a gene that was not necessary for the bacteria to live.
They then put the gene into a host bacteria cell. The cell went on to divide normally, producing new healthy bacteria.
In January, the team created artificial genes of a new type of bacteria. Their next goal is to put the artificial DNA into a host cell to create a new species, according to a report in Science magazine.
“lf we don’t make any errors, I think it should work and we should have the first artificial species by the end of the year.” Venter said in the report.
The first artificial life form is likely to be a simple man-made bacteria, to prove that the technology can work.. But that form will be followed by more complex bacteria that turn coal into cleaner natural gas, or algae that can take in carbon dioxide and change it into fuel.
Many scientists think it’s good news to have this artificial life, but others are worried that the technology to create new organisms might end up in the wrong hands, with dangerous result.
57．Which of the following is true according to the text ?
A Bacteria have systems that protect them from yeast cell.
B If we put a gene into a host bacteria cell,the cell will not go on to divide as usual.
C Venter and his researchers completely achieved all their goals.
D All the scientists didn’t agree to this artificial life.
58. What can we learn from the underlined sentences?
A. Venter and his researchers had succeeded in this project.
B. Venter predicted that they would make errors in the future,so he decided to give it up.
C. Venter would go on the study and he was full of confidence.
D. Venter was a clearer man but a little shy.
59. Which of the following shows the order of the passage ?
1.change the genes
2. put the gene into a host bacteria cell
3. moved the DNA of one type of bacteria to a yeast cell
4. The cell went on to divide normally
5. put it into another bacteria cell
A. 3-5-1-4-2 . B. 3-5-1-2-4 C. 4-2-5-1-3 D. 2-3-5-1-4
60.What will be mentioned in the next paragraph?
A. The wrong hands that created by the artificial life.
B. The advantages and disadvantages about the artificial life.
C. The future about this project.
D. The author’s attitude.