Educating girls quite possibly gets a higher rate of return than any other deal available in the developing world.Women's education may be unusual field for economists, but increasing women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social project.And economics, with its emphasis on incentives (激励), provides an explanation for why so many girls lose the chance of education.
Parents in low-income countries don't send their daughters to school because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children.Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school----the prophecy (预言) becomes self-fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环)of abandonment.
An educated mother, on the other hand.has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices.She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance.The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys.will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle (良性循环).
Few will argue that educating women has great social benefits.But it has enormous economic advantages as well.Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers.Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling.Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available deal, but they are just the beginning.Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is _______.
A.expensive | B.troublesome |
C.rewarding | D.labor-saving |
What does the author say about women's education?
A.It has developed the interest of a growing number of economists |
B.It is in the first place in many developing countries |
C.It deserves greater attention than other social project |
D.It will get greater returns than other known deal |
The passage mainly discusses ______.
A.unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries |
B.the economic and social benefits of educating women |
C.the major contributions of educated women to society |
D.the potential earning power of well-educated women |
C
The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as Requblican Senator(参议员) John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama were formally selected as candidates of the two major parties.This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates.The big question for voters,as they face both an economic downturn and international threats,is :who will they elect? A young first - term senator promising change and new ideas,or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick(特立独行的人)?
American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama.He has a white mother from the US and a black fater from Kenya who left the family when Obama was very young.He spent part of his youth in Indonesia.
However,McCain has a very different life story.
He grew up in a Navy family and was a daring pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia,McCain's plane was shot down over Ietenam and he became a prisoner of war.McCain could have been set free if he disowned America but he refused and so was held for five years.
"We need a president who is very,very old,"McCain joked at his age as many others do.If elected,he would be 72 when he takes office and the oldest man to step in.
So in the end,the election may depend on several factors that are hard to judge:Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters ? Will workingclass whites who tended to support his primary (党内初选) oponent,Hillary Clinton,vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all,will uncertain voters be more attracted to Obama's vision or to McCain's experience?
Whatever happens,one thing is clear,however:Whoever walks into the White House on January 20,2009,will find huge challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office,both at home and abroad.
64.______makes the result of the election hard to predict.
A.Whether working class whites care about Obama's inexperience
B.The economic trouble the country now faces
C.Who uncertain voters will finally decide to vote for
D.McCain being too old to govern the country
65.The appeal in Obama as a presidential candidate lies in _________
A.his multi - cultural background
B.his belife in tradition
C.his inexperience in politics
D.his fantastic promises
66.The word "disown" in Paragraph 6 means closest to ______.
A.flee from
B.turn his back on
C.not keep it private
D.expose secrets about
67.The challenges that will face the new preident______.
A.are not mentioned in the text
B.include buklding a strong party and a friendly image
C.refer to the problems of immigrants and economy
D.refer to the problems of economy amd international relations
B
Capturing the Memories
Almost everyone has heard of MySpace.com.It allows friends to connect with each other.But did you ever wonder where the idea for this website came from? It is modeled after high school yearbooks.
A yearbook is a book used to record memories of a specific class.For example,I graduated from Manchester West High School in 2001.My yearbook is dedicated(献给) to my senior class.In this book you will find a picture of all my classmates.
Alongside your picture,you can put a quote that is important to you.Next to the quote and your photo is a list of your school and sports activities.Later in the book are pages dedicated to teams and organizations.For example,the girls football team has a page of pictures and memories.
After you receice the yearbook,you go around and have your friends sign it and write letters to you.This will remind you about the many adventures you had with your friends. Although, 40 years ago,a girl wrote a loving message in my father's yearbook but when he showed me it,he didn't remember who the girl was!
But the yearbook is the final memory for seniors,so it will often be the one reminder of your high school years that you carry with you throughout life.In my mother's yearbook she still has,pressed between the pages,the flower her date gave her at her senior prom. That was in 1967.
High school is a magical time.It is when we experience many of the important moments of your lives.Our first kiss.Driving for the first time.Our first big success.Out first major hearbreak.Unlike MySpace,which can constantly be updated,a yearbook captures these special moments in our lives and holds on to them forever so that we may never forget.Because,honestly , we will never want to.
60.What does the passage mainly focus on?
A.The characteristics of MySpace.com.
B.The members who set up MySpace.com.
C.The differences between MySpace.com and a yearbook.
D.The introduction to yearbooks.
61.All of the following will be included in a school yearbook except ______.
A.some interesting stories of famous actors
B.a picture of classmates
C.an activity of playing table tennis
D.some significant successes
62.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.People keep a yearbook just for fun.
B.The yearbook follows the example of MySpace.com.
C.A yearbook can help you remember the great moments you shared with classmates.
D.The yearbook is more popular than MySpace.com in American high school.
63.The word "captures" in the last paragraph most probably means ______.
A.arrests B.gains C.preserves D.films
第三部分阅读理解(共两节,满分40分)
第一节(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
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
Soon it may be harder to stop and smell the roses.
Growing levels of air pollution from power plants and automobiles have reduced flower fragrances (芬芳) by up to 90 percent in the US.That is compared with pre-industrial levels,a new study has found.
The trend is unpleasant for human noses,but may be life - threatening for bees and butterflies.
"Many insects find flowers by folowing the scent(香味) produced by those flowers," said the studies lead author Jose D.Fuentes,an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia.
"The increasing pollution makes it difficult for them to locate the flowers and feed on their nectar(花蜜)."
Scientists have alrady known that flowers produce scent molecules(分子) that bond with pollutants.The process breaks down the plants' sweet smell.
With more pollution in the air,the scent molecules don't remain effective as long and travel shorter distances on the wind.
The new study suggests that in the mid - 19th century,when pollution levels were first recorded,scent molecules would have been able to travel some 1,000 to 1,200 meters.
Today,in the polluted air found downwind of large cities,scentst may only make it some 200 to 300 meters.
The report was recently published in the journal,Atmospheric Environment.
Bee farmers have reported that bee populations are dropping dramatically in many parts of the world in recent years. Could these missing scents be a factor?
Scientists trying to hind the cause of bee population declines have blamed bacteria,pesticides,and even cellphone radiation.
Jay Evans,an entomologist(昆虫学者) at the US Department of Agriculture's bee research laboratory,was interested in the new study.But he says he hasn't seen bee behavior that suggests trouble with scents.
"Over the last couple of summers I don't think the bees in this area were bringing in much less food,"he said.
"It might be that they had to work harder,but it seems like as long as there were bees to collect food they were finding flowers somewhere."
But Fuentes fears that the fading smell of flowers may stress insects that are already faced with other threats.
"The effects shown in these studies will simply exacerbate whatever the bees are going through right now,"he said.
"It's something that is really worthwhile paying attention to."
56.What's the passage mainly about?
A.How greatly air plooution affects our lives.
B.Effects of air pollution on bee populations.
C.Measures to fight air pollution.
D.The rapid decline of bee populations in the world.
57.According to the passage,Jay Evans probably agrees that ______ .
A.bees are the insect that suffers most from air pollution
B.bees are at risk of dying out owing to air pollution
C.the fading smell of flowers doesn't affect bees so greatly as was thought
D.as is often the case,bees fail to locate the flowers because of the missing scents
58.The word"exacerbate" in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.
A.worsen B.improve C.get rid of D.decrease
59.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.The more air pollution there is in a region,the greater the destruction of the flower scents.
B.Bacteria,pesticides,and cellphone radiation are blamed for causing the decline of bees.
C.The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment oculd travel longer and farther.
D.Air pollution does more harm to insects such as bees and butterflies than human beings.
D
Build the highway and watch the town grow.At first a few shops appear and maybe a restaurant.Then a hotel opens. Eventually new house are built. A village is born.
This is also how the virtual world has developed. Think of the Internet as the road carrying information between two computers.Think of the World Wide Web as the village. At first it is just a place on the virtual road where travelers meet. More travelers come bringing new kinds of information. New travelers come bringing new kinds of information.New villages are started.
Every willage has a founder.Tim Berners-Lee is the man who wrote the software programme that led to the foundation of the Word Wide Web.How did he get the idea? He tells us on his own web site. "One of the things computers were not able to do was store in formation from different sources. The dream behind the Web is of a common space in which we communicate by sharing information."
In 1991 his programmmes were placed on to the Internet.Everyone was welcome to use them.
Tim Berners-Lee could have followed the Microsoft route by forming a company to sell the programmes he invented. Or he could have joined another company. But in his view the Web is a language,not a pproduct. Charging a gee for using his programmes would have slowed the growth of the Web.And other companies would make similar products to compete. Instead of one World Wide Web there would be several smaller Webs. Each would use incompatible (不相容的) software. They Web is valuable because it uses a common computer language to reach people and share information. Competing webs would lose this value.Imagine if somebody sent you a bill every time you spoke a world of English.
In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee formed the World Wide Web Consortium,or W3C.More than 200 leading companies and laboratories are represented by W3C. Together they make sure that everyone, no matter what their equipment or solftware,can work equally on the Web.
"The Web can help people to understand the way that others live and love. It helps us understand the humanity of people," he says.
68.The writer's purpose in writing the first two paragraphs is to ______.
A.give us some idea of the Internet
B.give us some idea of the Web
C.tell us how the idea of Web started
D.tell us the idea of the Web is wonderful
69.Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in order to _____
A.place his programmers on the Internet
B.stop smaller webs appearing
C.help people to form a web site
D.let people share all kinds of information
70.According to the text,the disadvantage of competing webs is that they would ______.
A.slow the development of the Web
B.destroy the whole web system
C.lose the value of information
D.waste a lot of money
C
The villagers of Yaluma in Southern Mexico are some of the poorest people in the country. But now they have an extra source of income.They are being paid to grow and develop forests by the organization in charge of Formula One racing (一级方程式赛车),which pumps 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air every year.The idea is that the forests being planted around Yaluma will absorb this amount. It will also provide people there with money while wiping out motor racing's environmental debt.
Projects like this go under the name of "carbon trading". The basic idea is that governments and companies can buy the right to pump CO2 into the air by investing in green projrvyd. They can buy so-called "carbon credits" from countries which have succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions(排放物).
Supporters of carbon trading say that it brings money and green technology to poorer countries.It also provides a new way of doing busingess and spreading prosperity. They point out that the process of globalization will give people everywhere the most possible choice of products and services. Carbon trading is just another way of bringing that about. It is a "win - win" situation.
Opponents argue that nature comes before lifestyle. CO2 emissions need to be reduced, not bought and sold. And they believe that the rich world should lead the way.People might be willing to change the way they live to help save the world, but not to help the rich countries keep a lifestyle that depends on pollution.
Supporters of carbon trading believe in unlimited growth.Opponents believe that nature sets limits to the choices we make on how to live.It is "don't do " against "can do". It is life against lifestyle.
It is believed that modern lives are about choice.For example,the world can choose to take the danger of global warming seriously.And the sooner we choose to do it, the more choices we have about what to do next and the more time we have to do it in. We can also choose to pay no attention to the danger of global warming to keep our lifestyles. Then one day nature may give us no choice at all,and maybe not much of a life,either.
64.Carbon trading is discussed in the text in order to show the importance of ______ .
A.reducing pollution B.taking care of forests
C.spreading prosperity D.choosing lifestyle or nature
65."Carbon credits" may be used to ______.
A.get the right to pump CO2 into the air
B.get the right to pump CO2 into poor countries
C.learn about the way to reduce CO2 emissions
D.improve the way to reduce CO2 emissions
66.We can infer from the text that in the "win - win" situation _____.
A.rich countries perform their duty to help poor countries
B.poor countries get what they need from rich countries
C.both rich countries and poor countries get what they need
D.rich countries learn from poor countries in reducing pollution
67.In the opinion of people who are against carbon trading,the rich countries should ____.
A.guide poor countries in reducing CO2 emissions
B.show by example how to reduce emissions
C.offer more help to save the world
D.improve their lifestyles to keep the world clean