Plagiarism(剽窃)istheactoftaking-优题课

Section B
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
From snow-clogged mountain roads to desert highways, freeways to crowded city streets, Californians face a variety of tough driving conditions. But thanks to savvy driving, they consume proportionately less gasoline the rest of the nation. Here, some tips from the Golden State that will help drivers all over the country to get up to 25% more miles per gallon! By SUSAN NESTOR
FREEWAY FRENZY
● Try to maintain a steady speed — especially on freeways and expressways. Never exceed a steady 55 mph. Varying speed by as little as 5mph can reduce mileage by 1.5 miles per gallon. Avoid constant lane changes to “get ahead.”
● Buy radial tyres. If you do a lot of expressway driving, they can increase mileage by as much as 10%. Your fuel savings will pay for the higher tyre price.
ON CITY STREETS
● Plan your route. City driving consumes about 50% more fuel than highway driving (100% more in crowed traffic). Always choose a route with synchronized traffic signals to get the best run for your money.
● Avoid unnecessary braking. Anticipate（预期）traffic light changes; it takes a lot of extra gas to get the car up to speed again.
COLD
● In winter, keep the car in a garage. It will start up easier, and start-up time is when you use the most gasoline. No garage? Cover the engine compartment with an old blanket or rug to shield it from cold winds; remove before starting up.
● Remove all ice and snow. Driving in snow consumes more gas anyway; no sense hauling around extra weight.
65. All these above are ______ for drivers.
A. notices B. tips C. lessons D. advertisements
66. Highway driving can use about ______ fuel than city driving.
A. 20% more B. 20% less C. 50% more D. 50% less
67. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. In winter, you will have difficulty starting up a car if it is kept in a garage.
B. Drivers should avoid necessary breaking and constant lane changes.
C. A steady 65 mph is the ideal speed to save gasoline.
D. Radial tyres can help increase mileage in expressway driving.

D
A wallet that looks like a piece of newspaper, an atlas, or an express parcel receipt? Or a business card that looks like a notepad? No kidding．
Bai Minghui, a Beijing-based designer, creates his artwork using Tyvek, a synthetic paper material which is difficult to tear, waterproof and, more importantly, totally recyclable．
Born to a worker family in 1983 in Tangshan, Hebei Province, Bai worked as a graphic designer at a financial magazine in Beijing after graduating from Minzu University of China．
In the spring of 2008, Bai visited an exhibition about Tyvek in Beijing's 798 art zone, and then worked with the material, trying to bring his designs to life．The first thing that came into his mind was the paper wallet, a must-try handicraft assignment（手工作业）that most Chinese students do in elementary school．
"A paper wallet is definitely more useful than a paper crane or frog," Bai told Beijing Review, smiling．"At first, many people have no idea what it is, because it looks like a piece of newspaper or an express parcel receipt, and feels like real paper．But it's hard to tear．
"The completed, folded wallet is seamless, which creates so much fun for a designer．To be honest, I didn't think about profits at all," he said．
After months of research and development on printing and designing, the first generation of his paper wallet made a stunning debut（上市） in May 2008．The second generation, which offers a greater range of pattern options, was put on the market at the beginning of 2009．
"You can have graffiti（涂鸦） or write down phone numbers on it, or paint whatever you like．I would like people to be able to use it easily," he said．"I don't want to do things without creative ideas．Now my focus is on how to create better design rather than the wallet itself．"
51．In which order did Bai do the following things?
a．create the paper wallet
b．study in Minzu University
c．work as a graphic designer
d．visit an exhibition about Tyvek in Beijing
A．cbad B．bcda C．cbda D．bcad
52．Which of the following words can best describe the designer?
A．diligent B．creative C．friendly D．honest
53．Tyvek, a synthetic paper material, has the following characters EXCEPT ____．
A．recyclable B．waterproof C．foldable D．profitable
54．What can people do with this kind of wallet?
A．They can use it as a handkerchief．
B．They can make it into a dictionary．
C．They can write their friend’s phone number on it．
D．They can buy a paper frog or paper crane with it．
55．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．Most of the Chinese students have tried to make some kind of paper work．
B．Many Chinese are fond of painting different things on their wallets．
C．Most of the wallets that people use nowadays can be recycled．
D．Most of the designers based in Beijing have tried Tyvek to create their own work of art．

C
If you were to come up with a list of organizations whose failures had done the most damage to the American economy in recent years, you would probably have to start with the Wall Street firms that brought us the financial crisis．From there, you might move on to the automakers in Detroit．
But I would suggest that the list should also include a less obvious nominee: public education．
At its top level, the American system of higher education may be the best in the world．Yet in terms of its core mission---turning teenagers into educated college graduates--- much of the system is failing．
The United States does a good job enrolling （招生） teenagers in college, but only half of the students who enroll end up with a bachelor’s degree．
So identifying the causes of the college dropout crisis in the world’s largest economy matters enormously, and a new book called “Crossing the Finish Line” tries to do precisely that．Its authors are economists William Bowen and Michael McPherson, and a doctoral candidate Matthew Chingos．The first problem they diagnose is something they call under-matching．It refers to students who choose not to attend the best college they can get into．They instead go to a less selective one, perhaps one that is closer to home or less expensive．About half of the low-income students with a grade-point average of at least 3．5 in high school and an SAT score of at least 1,200 do not attend the best college they could have．“I was really astonished by the degree to which well-qualified students from poor families under-matched,” said Mr．Bowen．
In fact, well-off students attend the colleges that do the best job of producing graduates．Meanwhile, lower-income students -–even when they are better qualified—often go to colleges that excel（擅长）in producing drop-outs．“It’s really a waste,” Mr．Bowen said, “and a big problem for the country．” As the authors point out, the only way to lift the college graduation rate significantly is to lift it among poor and working-class students．Instead, it appears to have fallen．
What can be done? Money is clearly part of the answer．
46. Which of the following would people first think of as a factor responsible for the American financial crisis according to this passage?
A．The government． B．Public education
C．The Detroit automakers． D．The Wall Street firms．
47．What is a big problem with American higher education?
A．It is hard to enroll enough students into college．
B．Many colleges are experiencing low rate of graduation．
C．Many college students stay away from classes．
D．It is hard for many colleges to get financial aid from the government．
48．The title of the book Crossing the Finish Line probably means______．
A．running to the end of the line B．going to college
C．finishing college education D．working hard in college
49．Why do some students under--match ?
A．Because they have financial difficulty． B．Because they face ambition crisis．
C．Because they lack confidence． D．Because they can’t get guidance．
50．The passage is mainly about _______．
A．problems with secondary American education and possible solutions
B．America’s financial crisis, its cause and influence
C．low rate of American college graduation, its cause and its influence
D．relationship between American education and its economy

B
Taste is such a subjective matter that we don’t usually conduct preference tests for food．The most you can say about anyone’s preference is that it’s one person’s opinion．But because the two big cola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola-are marketed so aggressively, we’ve wondered how big a role taste preference actually plays in brand loyalty．We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting．
We invited staff volunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke, or Diet Pepsi．These were people who thought they’d have no trouble telling their brand from the other brand．
We eventually located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers．Then we fed them with four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other．We asked them to tell us whether each sample was Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants’ choices with what mere guesswork could have accomplished．
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, but not too tough, we thought, for people who believed they could recognize their brand．In the end, only 7 out of 19 regular cola drinkers correctly identified their brand of choice in all four trials．The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 out of 27 identified all four samples correctly．
Both groups did better than chance would predict, but nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times．Two people got all four samples wrong．Overall, half the participants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burnout, was not a factor．Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price．
41．According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to ________．
A．show that a person’s opinion about taste is mere guesswork
B．compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks
C．find out the role taste preference plays in a person’s drinking
D．reveal which cola is more to the liking of the drinkers
42．The statistics recorded in the preference tests show that________．
A．there is not much difference in taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi
B．few people had trouble telling Coca-Cola from Pepsi
C．people’s tastes differ from one another
D．Coca-Cola and Pepsi are people’s two most favorite drinks
43．It is implied in the first paragraph that________．
A．the competition between the two colas is very strong
B．blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans
C．the purpose of taste test is to promote the sale of colas
D．the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies
44．The underlined word “burnout” here refers to the state of________．
A．being seriously burnt in the skin
B．being badly damaged by fire
C．being unable to burn for lack of fuel
D．being unable to function because of too much use
45．The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to________．
A．emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other
B．recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control of colas
C．show that taste preference is highly subjective
D．argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy

第二部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2．5分，满分50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。
A
The key to happiness is how quickly you can get back your focus on what’s important．
-----Anonymous
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson in the back of a New York City taxi cab．Here's what happened．I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station．We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us．My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, who almost caused a big accident, started yelling bad words at us．My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy．And I mean, he was friendly．So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call "The Law of the Garbage Truck．"
Many people are like garbage （rubbish） trucks．They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment．As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it．And if you let them, they'll dump it on you．When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally．You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on．You'll be happy you did．
I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do anymore．"
Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting．Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses．Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about．The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day．What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by? Here's my bet．You'll be happier．Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets．So, Love the people who treat you right．Forget about the ones who don't．
36．What happened one day when the author was taking a taxi?
A．The taxi almost hit another car．
B．The taxi driver was injured．
C．The author scolded the driver of the other car．
D．The author learned a lesson from the driver of the garbage truck．
37．How did the taxi driver respond to the behaviour of the driver of the black car?
A．He yelled back at the driver． B．He sent the driver to the hospital．
C．He was friendly towards the driver． D．He dumped some garbage in front of his car．
38．What does the taxi driver think of people according to Paragraph 3?
A．Many people like to drive garbage trucks．
B．Many people dump garbage wherever they like．
C．Many people are warm-hearted to make others happy．
D．Many people tend to be very much depressed．
39．What can we infer from Paragraph 4?
A．The author used to have a lot of garbage trucks．
B．The author used to complain a lot．
C．The author used to have a lot of money．
D．The author used to be a good manager．
40．According to the passage, what should you do if people “dump garbage” on you?
A．Ignore them and go on with our own work．
B．Try our best to persuade them not to do that again．
C．Tell them to dump the garbage in the right place．
D．Take over their work and carry the garbage to somewhere else．