Although being famous might sound like a dream come true，today’s stars，feeling like zoo animals，face pressures that few of us can imagine.They are at the center of much of the world’s attention.Paparazzi (狗仔队) camp outside their homes，cameras ready.Tabloids (小报) publish thrilling stories about their personal lives.Just imagine not being able to do anything without being photographed or interrupted for a signature!
According to psychologist Christina Villarreal，celebrities－famous people－worry constantly about their public appearance.Eventually，they start to lose track of who they really are，seeing themselves the way their fans imagine them，not as the people they were before everyone knew their names.“Over time，”Villarreal says，“they feel separated and alone.”
The phenomenon of tracking celebrities has been around for ages.In the 4th century B．C.，painters followed Alexander the Great into battle，hoping to picture his victories for his admirers.When Charles Dickens visited America in the 19th century，his soldout readings attracted thousands of fans，leading him to complain (抱怨) about his lack of privacy.Tabloids of the 1920s and 1930s ran articles about filmstars in much the same way that modern tabloids and websites do.
Being a public figure today，however，is a lot more difficult than it used to be.Superstars cannot move about without worrying about photographers with modern cameras.When they say something silly or do something ridiculous，there is always the Internet to spread the news in minutes and keep their “story” alive forever.
If fame is so troublesome，why aren’t all celebrities running away from it? The answer is there are still ways to deal with it.Some stars stay calm by surrounding themselves with trusted friends and family or by escaping to remote places away from big cities.They focus not on how famous they are but on what they love to do or whatever made them famous in the first place.
Sometimes a few celebrities can get a little justice.Still，even stars who enjoy full justice often complain about how hard their lives are.They are tired of being famous already.It can be learned from the passage that stars today________.
| A．are often misunderstood by the public |
| B．can no longer have their privacy protected |
| C．spend too much on their public appearance |
| D．care little about how they have come into fame |
What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?
| A．Great heroes of the past were generally admired. |
| B．The problem faced by celebrities has a long history. |
| C．Wellknown actors are usually targets of tabloids. |
| D．Works of popular writers often have a lot of readers. |
What makes it much harder to be a celebrity today?
| A．Availability of modern media. |
| B．Inadequate social recognition. |
| C．Lack of favorable chances. |
| D．Huge population of fans. |
What is the author’s attitude toward modern celebrity?
| A．Sincere. | B．Sceptical. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Sympathetic. |
GUANGZHOU：Young migrant workers(民工)left home alone are more likely to commit crimes，according to a recent survey． Up to 90 percent of migrant workers serving sentences in southern Guangdong province are younger than 26,according to the survey conducted by the human rights research center of Guangzhou University．
“Most young migrant workers who commit crimes were left alone in their hometowns during their childhood，”said Xie Jianshe，deputy director of the research center． The survey polled 72 criminals of the so-called young generation of migrant workers in prisons and found about 80 percent experienced a “lonely childhood,” without parental care.
Xie attributed their crimes to inadequate education from families in their chil- dhood．“They usually don’t receive higher education．Inadequate education and less care from parents greatly harmed them，”Xie said．
Among those polled，up to 76 percent said they went to cities for “better life” right. After quitting school．“Their parents，also working in cities，don’t know how to care for and educate their children，”Xie said． Young migrant workers are usually involved in robbery，gang-related crime，according to the survey．
Up to 81 percent of young criminals are involved in property crimes．The new generation of migrant workers usually refers to those born after 1980 who work In cities．
“Unlike their older counterparts，the flew generation of migrant workers begin working in cities fight after quitting school，without qualified technical training or higher education，”said Wang Chunguang，a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences．
Commonly，they have a hard-time integrating into the urban lifestyle and work environment， but ale unwilling to return home，Wang said．
“In terms of work and lifestyle，they should be treated the way young，urban workers are usually treated，”Wang said．
A fair policy for employment，living education and social security will play a key role to help younger migrant workers integrate(融入) better, Wang said．
1．The best title for the paragraph would be________.
A．Young migrant workers B．Crimes out of lonely childhood
C．Leftover children D．A key role of policy
2．What is the message conveyed in the paragraph？
A．The young are more likely to commit crimes．
B．Most young migrant workers live alone．
C．Inadequate education and less parental care do great harm to the young migrant workers．
D．The young migrant workers are hard to integrate with the urban inhabitants．
3．Which section of the newspaper is this paragraph taken from?
A．Social Culture and Arts． B．Science and Nature．
C．Business and Money D．Sports and Entertainment
4．According to the passage，most young migrant workers committing crimes________．
A．had a difficult time
B．were disappointed with their lifestyle
C．were satisfied with their life in the city
D．were lacking in care from their parents
5．In this paragraph the author’s attitude towards the young migrant workers is________.
A．critical B. favorable C．objective D．cold
第四节阅读理解（共20小题。每小题2分，满分40分）
It is well-known that fatigue driving(疲劳驾驶)is very dangerous．A device that stops drivers from falling asleep at the wheel is about to undergo testing at Department of Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months．
The device is a kind of system, which is called Driver Alert，and it aims to reduce deadly road accidents by 20％—40％that are caused by tiredness．Airline pilots can also use it to reduce the 30％ of all pilot-error accidents that are related to fatigue．
Driver Alert is based on a computerized wristband．The device，worn by drivers or pilots，gives out a sound about every four minutes during a car journey．After each sound the driver must respond by squeezing the steering wheel．A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and measures the time between the sound and the driver’s response．
Driver’s response time is directly related to tiredness．Usually, a watchful driver would take about 400 milliseconds to respond，but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds, it suggests that the driver is getting sleepy．
In such cases the device gives out more regular and louder sounds，showing that the driver should open a window or stop for a rest．If the driver’s response continues to slow down，the sounds become more frequent until a nonstop alarm warns that the driver must stop as soon as possible．
The device has been delivered to the department’s laboratories for testing．If these tests, scheduled for six months’ time，are successful，the makers will bring the product to market within about a year．
1．According to the text，Driver Alert ________
A．aims to reduce tiredness-related accidents B．has been on sale for12 months
C．has gone through testing at laboratories D．aims to prevent drivers from sleeping
2．How should a driver respond to the sounds from Driver Alert?
A．By sounding a warning． B．By checking the driving time．
C．By touching the wrist band． D．By pressing the steering wheel．
3．We Can learn from the text that the driver needs to stop for a break when his response time is ________.
A．about 400 milliseconds B．over 4 seconds
C．below 500 milliseconds D．about 4 minutes
4．What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
A．The device is expected to be marketed in about one year．
B．The device will go through the tests soon．
C．The tests have been scheduled for six months．
D．All the drivers will soon use the Driver Alert．
Say you meet with difficulty, what’s the first thing you do? Call your best friend and ask for help? It turns out that doing this may be better for you than you think. Researchers find that friendship has a big influence on your health, well-being and business.
One study from scientists recently found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22% less likely to die during a 10-year period than those with fewer friends. Other researchers discovered that having a strong social network could improve brain health as we age.
Even more interesting, feeling close to your friends may give you a different view on things. Researchers gathered 34 college students out side and asked them to estimate the steepness(估计陡峭程度) of a hill after climbing it. Those standing with friends gave lower estimates, and the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.
What is the reason that friends can make obstacles seem less difficult? “People with stronger friendship networks feel that there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center of the hospital at Virginia Tech. “Friendship is a valued resource (宝贵的资源).”
It is truly the fact. Friends make your life better. They provide support in hard times. They inspire you to make changes in your life, encourage you to set goals and cheer you on every step of the way until you reach them.
Want to find out more about the power of friendship? Read “Be a Better Friend”, “Make New Friends” and “Keep the Old”.
1. According to the author, if you’ve lost your job you should .
A. turn to your best friend B. ask for advice from your teacher
C. face it bravely by yourself D. ask your parents for help
2. We can learn from the study in Paragraph 2 that .
A. people with a lot of friends can stay away from illnesses
B. people with many friends may enjoy a longer life
C. 22% of the people who have fewer friends have a short life
D. those who have fewer friends may die 10 years earlier.
3. The underlined word “obstacles” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to some thing___________
A. that you are hoping to achieve by a plan
B. that happens to you when you are working
C. that makes it difficult for us to achieve something
D. that you have been trying to do
4. The fifth paragraph was written to tell us that .
A. we should make many friends B. true friendship lives long
C. friend ship has changed us D. friendship should be valued
Last week when I was sitting in my office, I heard an elderly lady talking on the phone about her husband. Her husband’s name was Ed. He dropped her off for her doctor’s appointment and was going to park the car and wait for her. She was so upset that she started to cry. I knew I should take action.
The lady told me her name was Helen and she called the restaurant she and her husband were going to have lunch at after her appointment to see if he was waiting for her there. She explained that she thought her husband parked the car in the parking lot and waited for her in the car but she didn’t find him there so she returned to see if he entered the medical building, but Ed was not there either. She regretted making her husband park the car alone since some signs of Alzheimer’ (早老性痴呆症)had appeared in his behavior. I asked a few nurses to help look for Ed inside and out side the medical building according to Helen’s description. Then I offered to drive Helen to the restaurant to see if Ed was waiting for her there.
On arriving at the parking lot of the restaurant, Helen began to search for Ed’s car but she failed, which suggested Ed wasn’t there. We decided to have a talk with the manager before we returned to the hospital. On our way to the manager’s office, I received a call from a nurse, who said they had found Ed. What a relief(安慰)! But we still needed to go on searching since he forgot where he parked his car! Fortunately, we didn’t have much difficulty finding it.
As I waved goodbye to the couple, I thought, “This is true love in life. The love is not romantic but it stays with us all the time.”
1. What did Helen do after she found Ed was missing?
A. She called the police. B. She turned to the author.
C. She called the restaurant. D. She searched for him everywhere.
2. We learn from this passage that Ed .
A. went to the restaurant himself B. might have developed Alzheimer’s
C. visited his friend in the hospital D. worried about his wife very much
3. When did the author know that Ed was found?
A. After the author and Helen returned from the restaurant.
B. While the author and Helen were on their way to the restaurant.
C. Before the author and Helen found the manager of the restaurant.
D. When the author and Helen arrived at the parking lot of the restaurant.
4. What can we infer from the passage?
A. The author was Helen’s friend. B. The author had seen Ed before.
C. The author went to see his doctor. D. The author worked in the hospital.
We know almost half the world is urban(都市的) now – but what will our world look like in the year 2100?
It took about a million years for the global human population to come up to 1 billion in 1800. In the next 200 years, it came up to 6 billion, and it will take only about 20 more years to add another billion. By 2100, the United Nations estimates that the global population will attain more than 10 billion.
By the end of 2008, slightly less than 50 percent of the global population lived in cities. If economic development proceeds at today’s pace, over the next century or so it is highly likely that 8 billion people will live in urban centers, up from today’s roughly 3.3 billion. Yes, the world will indeed be able to hold so many people. The major reason is urbanization(城市化). There will be many more new cities in the year 2100, and some of today’s large cities will become super cities, including Beijing, Delhi, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and so on. At the same time, recent advances in agriculture, energy, and water technologies suggest that human creations will keep up with population growth. Rural areas will return to an agrarian (农业的)centre to feed the growing cities. Languages will drop from the current 7,000 across the globe to less than a few hundred. English will be the primary language of the world.
As we compress(压缩) people into the urban center, and as we leave behind the rural areas to feed us – will we really live a happy life at that time? We will have to live together in large buildings in cities and save on energy and services delivery cost. There will be few chances for us to get close to nature. We really need to think about the effect of the things we have done and are doing now!
1. The underlined word “attain” in the second paragraph probably has the same meaning as “________”
A. increase B. gain C. reach D. limit
2. With the development of urbanization, people in 2100 will have to .
A. stay in urban areas and have no chance to get close to nature
B. develop industry rather than agriculture to create job opportunities
C. live a poor and unhappy life because there will be less energy to use.
D. make more creations in agriculture, energy, and water technologies
3. What is the author’s attitude towards urbanization?
A. supportive B. disappointed C. surprised D. worried
4. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Global urbanization in the year 2100
B. The primary language in the future
C. Reasons for the rapid increase of population
D. The development of agriculture in 2100