Background music may seem harmless, but it can have a powerful effect on those who hear it. Recorded background music first found its way into factories, shops and restaurants in the USA. Very soon it spread to other parts of the world. Now it is becoming difficult to go shopping or eat a meal without listening to background music.
To begin with, background music was intended simply to create a soothing (舒适的) atmosphere. Recently, however, it's becoming a big business. An American marketing expert has shown that music can boost(提升) sales or increase factory production by as much as a third.
But it has to be the light music. Lively music has no effect at all on sales. Slow music can increase receipts(收入) by 34%. This is probably because shoppers slow down and have more opportunity to spot items they would like to buy. Yet, slow music isn't always the answer. The expert found that in restaurants slow music meant customers took longer to eat their meals, which reduced overall sales. So restaurant owners might be well advised to play faster music to keep the customers moving-unless, of course, the resulting indigestion(消化不良) leads to complaints.Background music was first used ________.
| A．in the cinemas and theatres in the USA |
| B．in the offices and hospitals in the USA |
| C．in the schools and churches in the USA |
| D．in the factories, shops and restaurants in the USA |
An American marketing expert has found background music can __________.
| A．increase sales or factory production |
| B．create a soothing atmosphere |
| C．make people slow down |
| D．make people forget their worries |
Restaurant owners are advised to play ____ to increase overall sales.
| A．lively music | B．loud music |
| C．faster music | D．slower music |
C
They wear the latest fashions with the most up-to-date accessories (配饰). Yet these are not girls in their teens or twenties but women in their sixties and seventies. A generation which would once only wear old-fashioned clothes is now favouring the same high street looks worn by those half their age.
Professor Julia Twigg, a social policy expert, said, “Women over 75 are now shopping for clothes more frequently than they did when they were young in the 1960s. In the 1960s buying a coat for a woman was a serious matter. It was an expensive item that they would purchase only every three or four years—now you can pick one up at the supermarket whenever you wish to. Fashion is a lot cheaper and people get tired of things more quickly.”
Professor Twigg analysed family expenditure (支出)data and found that while the percentage of spending on clothes and shoes by women
had stayed around the same — at 5 or 6 per cent of spending — the amount of clothes bought had risen sharply.
The professor said, “Clothes are now 70 per cent cheaper than they were in the 1960s because of the huge expansion of production in the Far East. In the 1960s Leeds was the heart of the British fashion industry and that was where most of the clothes came from, but now almost all of our clothes are sourced elsewhere. Everyone is buying more clothes but in general we are not spending more money on them.”
Fashion designer Angela Barnard, who runs her own fashion business in London, said older women were much more affected by celebrity (名流) style than in previous years.
She said, “When people see stars such as Judi Dench and Helen Mirren looking attractive and fashionable in their sixties, they want to follow them. Older women are much more aware of celebrities. There’s also the boom in TV programmes showing people how they can change their look, and many of my older customers do yoga to stay in shape well in their fifties. When I started my business a few years ago, my older customers tended to be very rich, but now they are what I would call ordinary women. My own mother is 61 and she wears the latest fashions in a way she would never have done ten years ago.”
59. Professor Twigg found that, compared with the 1960s, _________________.
A. the price of clothes has generally fallen by 70%
B. the spending on clothes has increased by 5% or 6%
C. people spend 30% less than they did on clothes
D. the amount of clothes bought has risen by 5% or 6%
60. What can we learn about old women in temps of fashion’?
A. They are often ignored by fashion designers.
B. They are now more easily influenced by stars.
C. They are regarded as pioneers in the latest fashion.
D. They are more interested in clothes because of their old age.
61. It can be concluded that old women tend to wear the latest fashions today mainly because _______________.
A. they get tired of things more quickly
B. TV shows teach them how to change their look
C. they are in much better shape now
D. clothes are much cheaper than before
62. Which is the best possible title of the passage?
A. Age Is No Barrier for Fashion Fans
B. The More Fashionable, the Less Expensive
C. Unexpected Changes in Fashion
D. Boom of the British Fashion Industry
B
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do？
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibili
ty for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends.
Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is— politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority — someone who actually knows something —and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
55. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
A. Both can continue for generations.
B. Both are about where to draw the line.
C. Neither has any clear winner.
D. Neither can be put to an end.
56. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.
B. The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict.
C. The teens accuse their parents of misleading them.
D. The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents.
57. Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ____
A. give orders to the other
B. know more than the other
C. gain respect from the other
D. get the other to behave properly
58. What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A. Causes for the parent-teen conflicts.
B. Examples of the parent-teen war.
C. Solutions for the parent-teen problems.
D. Future of the parent-teen relationship.
第三部分：阅读理解(共20小题每小题2分，满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每篇短文后所给各题的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，
并存答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
It was a Sunday and the heavy storm had lasted all night. The morning after the storm, though, was beautiful: blue skies, warm air and a calm, inviting sea touching the shore gently.
My father realised it was a good day for fishing and invited my sister and me to go with him. I was only 14 and fishing had never been my thing, but I decided to go all the same. I’m so glad I did.
On the road to the harbour we could see the terrible destruction on the coast, but the harbour itself was in fairly good shape. After all, it was protected by the arms of a bay that had only one tiny channel to the sea. As we got on board, we noticed two big humps (脊背) in the distance.
On approaching them, we saw it was a mother whale with her baby. We couldn’t believe it -- there aren’t any whales along the coast here. The storm must have driven them across the ocean into the bay, in which the still water was so badly polluted that nothing could survive.
The little baby whale —actually as big as our boat — was obviously stuck and could not move. The mother dived under the water and came up suddenly, making big whirlpools (漩涡) and waves. "She’s trying to help her baby, but on the wrong side," my father said. At this point, my father moved our
boat in a semicircle to the other side and, heading the boat towards the baby whale, pushed it gent
ly. With our several gentle pushes the big hump turned over and disappeared under water. Then it swam up right beside its mum. They struggled in their desperate attempts to escape but missed the exit and started heading in the wrong direction. We hurried up to the whales and tried to lead them towards the bay channel. Slowly, they let us lead them, sometimes rising from the water right beside us to breathe -- and to give us a trusting look with those huge eyes. Once they hit their first part of clean water flowing straight from the sea, the mum gave us a wave with her tail and off they swam into the distance.
In the excitement it had felt like only a few minutes, but we had been with those wonderful animals for almost an hour and a half. That was the simple and lasting beauty of the day. Nearly four decades later, I still look back fondly to that golden day at sea.
51. The author says “I’m so glad I did.” (in Para. 2) because ____________.
A. he witnessed the whole process of fishing
B. he enjoyed the beauty of the calm sea
C. he experienced the rescue of the whales
D. he spent the weekend with his family
52. The harbour survived the storm owing to __________.
A. the shape of the harbour
B. the arms of the bay
C. the still water in the channel
D. the long coast line
53. The mother whale failed to help her baby because ___________.
A. she had stayed in the polluted water for too long
B. the whirlpools she had made were not big enough
C. she had no other whales around to turn to for help
D. the waves pushed her baby in the wrong direction
54. What is the theme of the story?
A. Saving lives brings people a sense of happiness.
B. Fishing provides excitement for children.
C. It’s necessary to live in harmony with animals.
D. It’s vital to protect the environment.
The huge explosion at Krakatau was the result of two different factors. One was that the volcano had not broken out for some time and so at the very center of the volcano there was an huge plug of lava, this acted like a cork(塞子) in a bottle, stopping the pressure below from being released(释放). The second factor was that ocean water entered the very centre of the volcano as the explosions became more violent. This caused superheated steam to build up enormous pressure and this was finally released in the largest explosion of all on August 27, 1883. The sudden release of the pressure sent huge amounts of ash, rock and dust into the sky. Some of the ash rose 80km into the air and traveled around the Earth causing brightly coloured sunsets for several years.
Krakatau almost disappeared; for many years after this explosion, it remained very quiet. However, there was still activity going on under the sea and on 25 January, 1925, a small volcanic cone appeared above the surface of the water. This new volcano was named Anak Kmkatau, or Child of Krakatau. Over the following years, the size of the island grew larger, by 1959, the island was 300 metres above the surface of the sea. The volcanic activity has continued and the latest eruptions were in 1995.
There is no doubt Krakatar will continue to grow and there is also strong evidence that at some point in the future there will be another violent explosion. Krakatau is in a part of the world where the surface of the Earth is unstable and is always moving and cracking. If, in the future, another “cork” becomes fixed in the centre of the volcano, the pressure will build up. A series of a smaller explosions will allow sea-water into the centre of the volcano and once again the result will a terribly destructive explosion.
66. The latest eruptions were in_______.
A.1925B. 1959 C. 1995D. 1983
67. The pressure under the volcano can not be released because _______
the plug looks like a cork in a bottle
the volcano hasn’t broken out for some time
the center of the volcano is blocked(堵塞) by lava
the temperature of the steam is not high enough.
68. We can infer from the article that Krakatau volcano________
A. has broken out three times B. never dies but continues to be active
C. will kill many people again in the future D. is always moving and growing above sea.
69. All of the following results are caused by the explosion at Krakatau EXCEPT that_____
A. ash, rock and dust was thrown high into the air
B. others small volcanoes were soon produced.
C. The island of Kratau was destroyed
D. People saw beautiful sunsets for some years
70. The article is mainly about________
A. the cause of the Krakatau volcano B. the danger of the Krakatau volcano
C. the history of the Krakatau volcano D. the future of the Krakatau volcano
If you’re looking for the place that has everything, there’s only one place to visit, and that’s New York. It’s a whole world in a city.
The World of Theatre: All of New York is a stage. And it begins with Broadway. Where else can you find so many hit shows in one place? Only in New York!
The Worm of Music: Spend an evening with Beethoven at Lincoln Center. Swing to the great jazz of Greenwich Village. Or rock yourself silly at the hottest dance sports found anywhere.
The World of Art: From Rembrandt to Picasso. From Egyptian tombs to Indian teepees. Whatever kind of art you like, you’ll find it in New York.
The World of Fine Dining: Whether it’s a roast Beijing duck (北京烤鸭) in Chinatown, lasagna in Little Italy, or the finest French coq au vin found anywhere, there’s a world of great taste waiting for you in New York.
The World of Sights: What other city has a Statue of Liberty (自由女神像)? A Rockefeller Center? Or a Bronx Zoo? Where else can you take a horse-drawn carriage through Central Park? Only in New York!
61. Why does the author think New York is a whole world in a city.
A. Because of The World Of Theatre. B. Because there is a roast Beijing duck
C. Because you can find this place has everything.
D. Because of the Statue of Liberty
62. New York is a stage means_________.
A. There are a lot of hit shows in New York B. There are many actors in New York
C. The world of art. D. The great jazz of Greenwich Village.
63. Which of the following programmes can a visitor have only in New York?
To enjoy roast Beijing duck.
To taste the finest French coq au vin.
To spend an evening with Beethoven.
To see the Statue of Liberty.
64. From the text we know that “Rembrandt” is most likely the name of a famous_____.
A. singer B. painting C. play D. painter
65. What the writer really wanted to do is to ______.
try to persuade readers to pay a visit to New York.
give readers some information about New York.
supply readers with some wonderful programmes in New York.
help readers to get a better understanding of New York.