High childcare costs are putting British mothers off going out to work. It really is that simple. Eurostat figures show that 66 per cent of mothers in the UK work, less than France (72 per cent), Denmark (86 per cent), the Netherlands (78 per cent) or Germany (69 per cent). This not only damages Britain’s economic prosperity—it limits women’s careers and squeezes family incomes. It would be fine if this is the choice parents want to make, but it isn’t. Half of those surveyed want to go to work and the expense of childcare is one of the key reasons they couldn’t.
Despite claims made by Labour (工党) about childcare, a forthcoming (即将到来的) report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) confirms the true legacy of their time in government. They left behind a childcare system with high costs to parents, variable quality and patchy (不均匀的) coverage, despite soaring government spending. British parents now face the highest childcare bills in the world after Switzerland.
In the Eighties and Nineties under Mrs Thatcher and John Major, the picture was very different. Mothers in England were more likely to go out to work than their Dutch or German counterparts. But the position has reversed, despite a huge rise in public spending.
So why does the British Government spend more on childcare than France or Germany, even though the costs given to parents are sky-high? As always, under the previous government, money was frittered away (浪费) without adequate focus on improving quality. Instead of clear and transparent funding, four separate funding streams were created, skewing (偏离) the market and confusing parents and providers alike. The majority of the money was given away in cash benefits; so much of it did not get through to the front line.
The IPPR report points out that continental systems, in countries such as Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands, manage to deliver better value for money. What all of these systems have in common is a focus on quality, with greater flexibility and autonomy given to local providers. They also see a much higher proportion of government money getting to the front line. Which of the following doesn’t belong to the disadvantages caused by the mothers prevented from going to work?
| A．Damaging Britain’s economic development. |
| B．Causing damage to women’s careers. |
| C．Decreasing the family incomes. |
| D．Causing childcare costs to go up. |
According to the second paragraph, we can infer that the former government of the Labour Party _______.
| A．was highly praised by British people |
| B．made British people face the highest childcare bills |
| C．left behind a childcare system full of problems |
| D．managed to decrease the government spending |
We can learn from the passage that _______.
| A．in the Eighties and Nineties, mothers in the UK were likely to work |
| B．there is a prejudice against mothers in the UK employment market |
| C．most of the mothers surveyed in the UK don’t want to work |
| D．the percentage of mothers who work in the UK is the lowest in the world |
Daniel Defoe (about 1660～1731) was an important novelist in the English literature(文学). When he was young, he served as a soldier and had been to Spain, Italy, France and Germany. At the same time, he went in for politics. He cared much about the development of capitalism(资本主义). He had written a lot of articles against it and he was put into prison twice for that. It was not until that he was nearly sixty that he began to write the famous novel “Robinson Crusoe”, which was published in May, 1709. It spread so rapidly that the story was known to every hosehold very soon.
“Robinson Crusoe” can be divided into three parts. The first part is about Crusoe’s three voyages, the second part about his hunting, hiding in caves farming and his hard struggles against nature on a small island, the third about the things which happened after his return from the island. The second part is the body of the novel, in which Robinson’s characters are clearly shown.
Defoe wrote his novel in a simple style and his language is easy to understand. His novel writing set a milestone of the modern English novel. In his later part of life, He was in poor health and lived very poorly. He died on April 24, 1731.
6. Deniel Defoe was ______ and the writer of ______.
A.an Englishman, “A Tale of Two Cities” B.an American, “A Million Pound Note”
C.a French, “The Lost Necklace” D.an English, “Robinson Crusoe”
7. How old was he when he began to write his famous novel Robinson Crusoe?
A.He was in his sixties. B.He was in his fifties.
C.He was over 60. D.He was sixty.
8. Robinson Crusoe can be divided into ______ parts and the first is about _______.
A.two, his lonely life B.three, his characters
C.three, his journeys by sea D.four, his fame
9. “Every household” in this passage means ______.
A.all members of a family B.all people
C.every building D.persons living in the same house
10. What was Defoe’s contribution to the English literature?
A.He wrote a very interesting story.
B.He made people happy while reading his story.
C.He set a milestone of the modern English novel.
D.He was active in politics and was against capitalism.
七．阅读理解 (20分)
Mark Twain tells a boy’s story in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a poor child, without a mother or home. His father drinks too much alcohol and always beats him.
Huck’s situation has freed him from the restriction of society. He explores in the woods and goes fishing. He stays out all night and does not go to school. He smokes.
Huck runs away from home. He meets Jim, a black man who has escaped from slavery(奴隶制). They travel together on a raft(木筏) made of wood down the Mississippi River.
Mark twain started writing “Huckleberry Finn” as a children’s story. But it soon became serious. The story tells about the social evil of slavery, seen through the eyes of an innocent child. Huck’s ideas about people were formed by the white society in which he lived. So, at first, he does not question slavery.Huck knows that important people believe slavery is natural, the law of God. So, he thinks it is his duty to tell Jim’s owners where to find him.
Later, Huck comes to understand that Jim is a good man. He finds he cannot carry out his plan to inform Jim’s owners of his whereabouts(下落). Instead, he decides to help Jim escape. He decides to do this, even if God punished him.
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A. The outline (概要) of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn.
B. The childhood of Huckleberry.
C. The reason why Mark Twain wrote the story.
D. The effect of slavery.
The underlined word “restriction” probably means _________.
A. something that you are expected to do.
B. something that you are not allowed to do.
C. something that you are able to do.
D. something that you look forward to.
3. The underlined expression “he does not question slavery” means that ________.
A. he is sure about everything of slavery.
B. he has no question to ask the owner of the slaves.
C. he thinks that slavery is reasonable.
D. he believes that slavery is wrong.
4. What can he inferred from the text?
A. Huck is a white boy.
B. Huck’s childhood is a reflection(反映) of that of Mark Twain’s.
C. It ’s Huck’s situation that makes him decide to travel with Jim.
D. Huck will be punished by God for what he does.
5. Why does Huck change his mind at last?
A. He has made friends with Jim.
B. He finds out the weakness of slavery.
C. God tells him to do so.
D. He finds that Jim is a good man
But I wonder about my Momma sometimes, and all the other Negro (blacks) mothers who got up at 6 a.m. to go to the white man’s house with sacks (鞋套) over their shoes because it was so wet and cold. I wonder how they managed it. They worked very hard for the man, they made his breakfast and they scrubbed his floors and they took care of his babies. They didn’t have too much time for us.
I wonder about my Momma, who walked out of a white woman’s clean house at midnight and came back to her own where the lights had been out for three months, and the hot-water pipes were frozen and the wind came in through the holes in the wall. She’d have to deal with the mice: leave some food out for them so they wouldn’t bite the doors or the babies. The roaches（蟑螂）？Oh, they were just like part of the family!
I wonder how she felt telling those white kids she took care of to brush their teeth after they ate, to wash their hands after they finished bathroom. She could never tell her own kids because there wasn’t soap or water back home.
I wonder how my Momma felt when we came home from school with a list of vitamins and pills the school nurse said we had to have. Momma would cry all night , and then go out and spend most of the rent (房租) money for pills. A week later, the white man would come for his eighteen dollars’ rent and Momma would beg him to wait until tomorrow. She had to lie to him that she had lost her wallet, or make up some other excuses. Tomorrow I’d be hiding in the closet (橱柜) because there should be only two kids in the flat, and I could hear the rent man shout at my Momma and call her a cheat. And when he finally went away, Momma put the sacks on her shoes and went off to the rich white man’s house to dress the rich white kids so their mother could take them to a special baby doctor.
66. Mother got up at 6 a.m. every day, because _________.
A. she had to cook breakfast for her children
B. she had to catch the first bus to the factory
C. she had to work in the white man’s house
D. she had to go to see a special baby doctor
67. What does the underlined word “scrubbed” mean in the text?
A. mopped B. cleared C. painted D. built
68. Mother never told us to brush our teeth or to wash our hands because ___________ .
A. she thought we didn’t need to B. we didn’t like washing hands
C. we had done everything very well D. there was no soap or water in our home
69. Why did the writer hide in the closet when the owner of the flat came for rent?
A. The closet could only hold two kids.
B. Only two kids were allowed to live in the house.
C. They should pay more rent for two kids.
D. There was only one bedroom for the two kids.
70. What does the writer mainly tell us?
A. Black people lead a hard life.
B. Black people don’t have enough rent money.
C. White people lead an expensive life.
D. White people have special baby doctors.
It is possible to do many simple tricks with numbers. Here is one trick. It has seven steps.
First, write down your house number. For example, if your address is 73 Lemon Street, you would write down 73.
Next, double it. In other words, multiply(乘) it by two. Then, add five to this doubled number. For example, if your address was 73 and you doubled it, you would get 146. Then, if you added five, you’d get 151.
So, to repeat the first three steps, write down your house number, double it, and add five.
Fourth, multiply this number by 50. In our example here, if you multiply 151 by 50, you’ll get 7550.
The fifth step is to add your age to this total. For example, if you’re 26 years old, you should add 26 to this total. In our example here, the result would be 7550 plus 26, you’ll get 7576.
Sixth, you have to add the number of days in a year, which is 365. In our example here, 365 added to 7576 is 7941.
The seventh and final step is this: subtract(减) 615 from the number that you have. In our example, 7941 minus 615 is 7326.
The result here, 7-3-2-6, is the trick. The first part of the number is the address and the last part of the number is the age of the person. That is, 73 is the address that we started with, and 26 is the age that we used.
If you follow these seven steps with any address and the age of any person. You will get the same result.
73 According to the trick, what number can you get if you are 16 years old and your house number is 85？
A. 1685 B. 8516 C. 8165 D. 1658
74. How can your age number appear at the last part of the result?
A. It’s really a trick.
B. By
taking all the steps except Step1 and Step 2.
C. By taking Step 6 and Step 7.
D. By taking all the steps.
75. What’s the secret of the trick?
A. It’s impossible to know.
B. By taking Step 2 and Step 4, we get the formula(公式)：your address number ×2×50.
C. By taking all the steps except 1 and 2, we get the formula: 5×5
0+your age number+365－615="your" age number.
D. Both B and C.
When a new Harry Potter book hits the shelves, kids aren’t the only people who are happy．Doctors are happy, too．
Doctors in England recently reported that when the last two Harry Potter books came out，the number of kids in the hospital emergency room（急诊室）fell．
Dr．Stephen Gwilym studied the number of kids aged from 5 to 15 who were in the hospital emergency room after the latest Harty Potter books came out．They focused on two weekends：after Order of the Phoenix came out in 2003 and after Half-Blood Prince arrived in stores in the end of 2004．
During the non-Harry Potter weekends，an average（平均）of 67.4 children visited the emergency room．On Harry Potter weekends，that number was 36.5．
Kids were so interested in the books that they would not go outside to play those weekends．Once Dr Stephen Gwilym saw a child sitting peacefully for hours while reading Harry Potter．
69．Why were the doctors happy when the Harry Potter books came out?
A．Because they could read the books．
B．Because there would be fewer injuries in hospital．
C．Because they found the children peacefully reading books．
D．Because they could make the study．
70．What is the name of the last Harry Potter book?
A．Harry PotterB．Order of the Phoenix
C．Half-Blood Prince D．Dr.Stephen Gwilym
71．The sentence“…an average of 67.4 children visited the emergency room’’means“…an average
of 67.4 children .”
A．were injured and went to see the doctor
B．read Harry Potter in the emergency room
C．went to see the emergency room
D．stayed at the emergency room to be studied
72．The phrase “hit the shelves” in the passage means .
A．break the shelves B．begin to be sold
C．become very popular D．become ill