Shoppers throughout the West, wary(警惕的) of a double-dip recession（经济衰退）, are still pinching their pennies. However, Chinese consumers are opening their wallets—big time. According to McKinsey, shop sales in China have grown by 25 percent annually from 2007 to 2009. Consumer confidence is now at its highest point since 2007 and female shoppers are leading the way.
Chinese women saved just 24 percent of their income, compared with 55 percent in 2006, according to a recent study in Women of China Magazine. What’s more, three quarters of Chinese women say that they’re the ones who control the family purse strings .That means the nation’s 650 million women are an “emerging powerhouse within the powerhouse” of China.
In the 1950s women contributed just 20 percent of household income. That rose to about 40 percent in the 1990s and then reached 50 percent last year.
In a recent study of Chinese consumer behavior, McKinsey found that women tend to shop more frequently than men, and spend more on personal-care products and food. Men, by contrast, tend to spend more of their income on gadgets(小玩意) , drinks and alcohol, dining out, and socializing. They also tend to save for the bigger-ticket items, like cars and houses.
Chinese women make up an ever-growing small part of the market—up from 20 percent a decade ago to 50 percent last year. It’s estimated that in the next five years women will account for 55 percent of the $9 billion market. “The future is female,” concludes a January HSBC(汇丰银行) report on luxury goods(奢侈品) in China.
The Chinese Market Research Group recently found that women younger than 35 are the most optimistic segment(群体) in China. A very large 80 percent of the 3,500 women surveyed saying they’ll spend more in the second half of 2010 than they did in the first half. With trends like these, Chinese women may bring new meaning to the term “the power of the purse.”According to the passage, Chinese women _________.
| A．save more of their income than before |
| B．save less of their income than before |
| C．make as much money as men in the 1990s |
| D．spend half of their income on luxury goods |
The fourth paragraph mainly tells us that _________.
| A．women go shopping more frequently than men |
| B．women spent more on personal care products than men |
| C．men tend to save for the bigger-ticket items than women |
| D．Chinese women and men have different consuming behavior |
The underlined phrase in the first paragraph probably means_________.
| A．making more money in a careful way |
| B．wasting their money without hesitation |
| C．spending their money in a careful way |
| D．recovering the economy at a fast speed |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
| A．Chinese Men Go Socializing | B．Chinese Women Go shopping |
| C．The Future Is Female | D．The Purse Is Powerful |
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously,” I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon（偶像）and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she revealed in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester(学期) we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20 years old.. If I am 87 years old, and stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older. But every minute counts for young men,” she added.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics （歌词） and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
1.Rose made herself known to the author in a ______ manner.
A.serious B.coldC.humorousD.crazy
2.From the information provided in the passage, we know ______.
A.Rose enjoyed her campus life very much
B.Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married
through college education
C.Rose finished the college degree within a year
D.Rose grew so old that she stopped playing
3.Rose delivered（发表） the speech ______.
A.at the graduation
B.which she prepared carefully
C.ended with “The Song of Rose”
D.to challenge all the other speakers
4.According to her speech, ______.
A.whenever you have a dream, you succeed
B.all people don’t grow up while growing older
C.Rose usually regretted having done something
D.a nineteen-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything
第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice. It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.
However, parents often try to choose friends for their children. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. The question of “choice” is an interesting one. Have you ever thought of the following questions?
Who chooses your friends?
Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?
Have you got a good friend your parents don’t like?
1.Many teenagers think their _________ know them better than their parents do.
A.friends B.teachers C.brothers and sistersD.classmates
2.When teenagers stay alone, the usual way of communication is to _________.
A.go to their friends
B.talk with their parents
C.have a discussion with their family
D.talk with their friends on the phone
3．Which of the following sentences is TRUE?
A.Teenagers can only go to their friends for help.
B.Parents should like everything their children enjoy.
C.In all families, children can choose everything they like.
D.Parents should try their best to understand their children better.
4．The main idea of this passage is that _________.
A.Teenagers need good friends
B.Friends can give good advice
C.Parents often choose friends for their children
D.Good friends can communicate with each other
Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will
one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span(寿命).
“ I think we are knocking at the door of immortality (永生),” said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “ I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate(保守估计).”
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. “ There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “ Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who expert in aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Center. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”
1. By saying “we are knocking at the door immortality”, Michael Zey means_____.
A. they believe that there is no limit of living
B. they are sure to find the truth about long living
C. they have got some ideas about living forever
D. they are able to make people live past the present life span
2. Donald Louria’s idea toward long living is that_____.
A. people can hardly live from 120 to 180 years.
B. it is still doubtful how long humans can live
C. the human body is designed to last about 120 years
D. it is possible for humans to live beyond 120 years in the future
3. The underlined “ it” (Para. 4) refers to_____.
A. a great push
B. the idea of living beyond 120 years in the future.
C. the idea of living from 200 to 300
D. the conservative estimate
4. What would be the best title for this text?
A. Living longer or not
B. Science, technology and long living
C. No limit for human life
D. Healthy lifestyle and long living
Believe it or not, optical illusion(视觉错觉)can cut highway accidents.
Japan is a case in point. It has reduced traffic accidents on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. Bent(弯曲的) stripes, called chevrons(人字形),painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.
Now the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan’s success. Starting next year, the Foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns(样式) of stripes on certain roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highway accidents.
Overspeeding plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all fatal(致命的) traffic accidents, according to the Foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the Foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related dangers are the greatest-curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.
Some studies suggest that straight(直的), horizontal(平行的)bars painted across roads can initially cut the average speed of drivers in half. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.
Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane(车道) appear to be narrower(狭窄的). The result is a longer lasting reducing in highway speed and the number of traffic accidents.
1. The passage mainly discusses_____.
A. a new way of highway speed control B. a new method of training drivers
C. a new pattern for painting highwaysD. a new type of optical illusion
2. On roads painted with chevrons, drivers are likely to feel that _________ .
A. they should avoid speed-related dangers
B. they are driving in the wrong lane
C. they should slow down their speed
D. they are reaching the speed limit
3. Compared to horizontal bars, the advantage of chevrons is that _____ .
A. it can keep drivers awake
B. it will have a longer effect on drivers
C. it can cut road accidents in half
D. it will look more attractive
4. The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety plans to .
A. try out the Japanese method in certain areas
B. change the road signs across the country
C. replace straight, horizontal bars with chevrons
D. repeat the Japanese road patterns
5. What does the writer say about straight, horizontal bars painted across roads?
A. The are falling out of use in the United States
B. They are likely to be taken no notice of by drivers in a short time
C. They are suitable only on broad roads.
D. They cannot have a successful effect in traffic circles
Most of the flowers in nature are red, orange and yellow. If we have seen a black flower, it’s a chance in a million.
People have made a census (普查) to colors of mor e than four thousand kinds of flowers and discovered that only eight of them are black.
As we know, sunlight is formed by seven different colored lights.The wave length of each light is different, so the quantity of heat in each light is also different. Flowers, especially their petals, are easy to be harmed by light temperature.
Black flowers can take in all the light waves which cause the flowers to dry up in the high temperature. So black flowers can rarely survive sunlight. But red flowers, yellow flowers and orange flowers can protect themselves from sunlight by reflecting the red light, yellow light and orange light, each of which has a large quantity of heat.
1. It is _____ to see a black flower.
A. impossible B. seldom C. common D. no chance
2. From the passage we know that _______.
A. black flowers are so weak that it is difficult for them to grow up.
B. there are only eight black flowers in nature
C. sunlight is formed by seven different colored lights, so the wave length of each light is different
D. black flowers can take in the light of all the wave length which makes them dry up because of high temperature
3. Which of the following ideas is WRONG?
A. People have found that only a few kinds of flowers are black.
B. Flowers are easy to be harmed by very high temperature.
C. Red, orange and yellow flowers can also take in the light of all wave lengths.
D. The black flowers can’t protect themselves from sunlight.