If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate(价钱). From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly(相应地).
With so many loopholes(漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.
In a society of such high moral practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?While taking a taxi in Finland, _____.
A.a passenger can go anywhere without having to pay the driver |
B.a passenger pays two US dollars for a taxi ride |
C.a passenger can never be turned down by the taxi driver wherever he wants to go |
D.a passenger needs to provide good faith demonstration (证明) before leaving without paying |
We know from the passage that big hotels in Finland ________.
A.are mostly poorly managed |
B.provide meals for any diners |
C.provide free wine and charge for food |
D.provide meal for only those who live in the hotels |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.The workers in Finland are paid by the hour. |
B.The workers are always honest with their working hours. |
C.The workers and their bosses will make an agreement in advance about the pay. |
D.The bosses in Finland are too busy to check the working hours of their employees. |
The word “those” in the last but one paragraph probably refers to _____.
A.people who are dishonest |
B.people who often have meals in big hotels |
C.people who often take taxis |
D.people who are worthy of trust |
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,从每题所给的A、B、C或D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Until quite recently, I knew only three things about my father: I knew his name, David S. Johnson, Jr. I knew he was an only child, and I’d been told he was killed on April 12, 1945, somewhere in Germany.
I used to come to visit my Granny. “Daddy David and his two friends were out in the fields, making sure the way was safe for the others to follow,” she told me. “All of a sudden there was an explosion. All three of them were killed.” Granny was looking down, stroking (抚摸)one thin hand with the other. Then there were no words but silence.
I began my search and collection for information about my father as my 50th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his death drew near. I was told that the explosion had blown him to bits and I had great difficulty collecting anything I could find about him bit by bit. Bits of information about his began falling into my hands, my mind and my heart. Longing to know my father kept me connected to him. It was time to transform my longing into knowledge.
Once upon a time he was alive, and my mother and father were deeply in love. They were married, and they had a child, my brother David. Then my father left for the war.
I was born in January 1945. On February 15 my father wrote me a letter of welcome. The letter is kept in my baby book, “Dear Susan, you have a very good family. Your dad is sort of a less able person. Your mother is the most wonderful person I’ve ever known. I’ve always marveled at my great good fortune to have her and been loved by her. If you follow her words and examples, you may expect to meet life in the best possible way, and your path will always be the right one. Your father, Dave.”
Black on white paper, the words are from my father. From them I grow into a person of loyalty and love. How I long for stories that will bring him to life!
1. The writer got to know her father’s story of death from ______.
A. her father’s friends B. someone in Germany
C. her grandmother D. a little child
2. The author met difficulty finding information about her father because ______.
A. it was too late for her to start the search
B. the explosion left little about her father
C. she only found pieces of hands and legs
D. she didn’t have enough knowledge to do it
3. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Her parents had only one child B. Her father died before her birth
C. Her father was a disabled man D. The writer never saw her father
4. We know from the last paragraph that the author ______.
A. still hates her father for having left B. is curious about her father’s death
C. shows much respect for her father D. is sure that her father may survive
The United States is on the verge of losing its leading place in the world’s technology. So says more than one study in recent years. One of the reasons for this decline is the parallel decline in the number of U.S. scientists and engineers.
Since 1976, employment of scientists and engineers is up 85 percent. This trend is expected to continue. However, the trend shows that the number of 22-year-old the near term source of future PhDs is declining. Further adding to the problem is the increased competition for these candidates from other fields law,medicine,business,etc. While the number of U.S. PhDs in science and engineering declines,the award of PhDs to foreign nationals is increasing rapidly.
Our inability to motivate students to pursue science and engineering careers at the graduate level is compounded because of the intense demand industry has for bright Bachelor‘s and Master‘s degree holders. Too often,promising PH.D.candidates, confronting(面临) the cost and financial sacrifice of pursuing their education, find the attraction of industry irresistible.
1. The U.S.will come to lose its leading place in technology probably because ________.
A. scientists and engineers are not employed
B. the number of PH.D. degree holders is declining
C. the number of scientists and engineers is decreasing
D. the number of 22-year-ilds is declining
2. The field of science and engineering is facing a competition from ________ .
A. postgraduates
B. technology
C. such fields as law,medicine and business
D. foreign nationals
3. Large-scale enterprises now need _______.
A. new inventions B. engineers
C. advanced technology D. bright graduates and postgraduates
4. PH.D. candidates "find the attraction of industry irresistible" means that _________.
A. they cannot work for industry any longer
B. they find industry is attracting more and more college students
C. they don’t think they can prevent themselves from working for industry
D. they cannot resist any attraction from all sides
More than 2 million US teenagers have suffered a serious bout(发作) of depression in the past year, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday.
On average, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.
But there were "striking differences" by sex, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.
Depression is the leading cause of suicide, which in turn is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States.
"Combined 2004 to 2006 data show that rates of past year major depressive experience among youths aged 12 to 17 generally increased with increasing age," the researchers wrote.
Researchers at SAMHSA and RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, prepared the report using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
More than 67,700 youths aged 12 to 17 answered questions about mood and depression. They were also asked to rate how depression affected them using the Sheehan Disability Scale, which measures impact on family, friends, chores at home, work and school.
Researchersdefined a major depressive episode as two weeks or longer of depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure, and at least four other symptoms(症状) such as problems with sleep, energy, concentration or self-image.
Nearly half of the teenagers who had major depression said it severely damaged their ability to function in at least one of the areas on the disability scale.
"Fortunately, depression responds very well to early intervention and treatment," SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a statement.
1. The underlined word “ episode ”in paragraph 2 has the similar meaning as the given word____________
A. experiment B. feeling C. expression D. experience
2. The main reasons which lead to serious depressive symptoms include____________
A. no family or friends or jobs or interests at all
B. low spirits , unhappiness , lack of sleep and poor concentration
C. poor health , sex discrimination , less energy and loss of interest
D. suicide , sandness , lack of confidence and depression
3. What can be implied , but is not stated directly ?
A. depression is the third-leading cause of suicide
B. There were more girl students suffering depression than boys
C. There were over 2 million American teens suffering depression in the past two years
D. The students surveyed were aged between `12 and 17
4. What will the following paragraph probably talk about according to the passage ?
A. How to recover from stress B. How to prevent and treat depression
C. How to live a comfortable life D. How to have a happy feeling
People tend to think of computers as isolated machines, working away all by themselves. Some personal computers do without an outside link, like someone's secret cabin in the woods. But just as most of homes are tied to a community by streets, bus routes and electric lines, computers that exchange intelligence are part of a community local, national and even global network joined by telephone connections.
The computer network is a creation of the electric age, but it is based on old-fashioned trust. It cannot work without trust. A rogue (流氓) loose in a computer system called hacker is worse than a thief entering your house. He could go through anyone's electronic mail or add to, change or delete anything in the information stored in the computer's memory. He could even take control of the entire system by inserting his own instructions in the software that runs it. He could shut the computer down whenever he wished, and no one could stop him. Then he could program the computer to erase any sign of his ever having been there.
Hacking, our electronic-age term for computer break-in is more and more in the news, intelligent kids vandalizing(破坏)university records, even pranking (恶作剧) about in supposedly safeguarded systems. To those who understand how computer networks are increasingly regulating life in the late 20th century, these are not laughing matters. A potential for disaster is building: A dissatisfied former insurance-company employee wipes out information from some files; A student sends out a "virus", a secret and destructive command, over a national network. The virus copies itself at lightning speed, jamming the entire network thousands of academic, commercial and government computer systems. Such disastrous cases have already occurred. Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer. Destroging a system responsible for air-traffic control at a busy airport, or knocking out the telephones of a major city, is a relatively easy way to spread panic. Yet neither business nor government has done enough to strengthen its defenses against attack. For one thing, such defenses are expensive; for another, they may interrupt communication, the main reason for using computers in the first place.
1. People usually regard computers as____________.
A. a small cabin at the end of a street
B. part of a network
C. means of exchanging intelligence
D. personal machines disconnected from outside
2. The writer mentions “ a thief ”in the second paragraph most probably to____________.
A. look into the case where hackers and thieves are the same people
B. demand that a computer network should be set up against thieves
C. tell people that thieves like to steal computers nowadays
D. show that a hacker is more dangerous than a thief
3. According to the passage , a hacker may do all the damages below EXCEPT____________
A. destroying computer systems .
B. creating many electronic-age terms .
C.. entering into computer systems without being discovered
D. attacking people’s e-mails
4. By saying “ Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer ”(the underlined ) the writer means that____________.
A. students who send out a “ virus ”may do disastrous damages to thousands of computers
B. some people may spread fear in public by destroying computer systems
C. some employees may erase information from some files
D. some terrorists are trying to contact each other using electronic mails
The old idea that child prodigies (神童) “burn themselves” or “overtax their brains” in the early years, and therefore are prey to failure and (at worst) mental illness is just a myth. As a matter of fact, the outstanding thing that happens to bright children is that they are very likely to grow into bright adults.
To find this out, 1, 500 gifted persons were followed up to thirty or fifty year with these results:
On adult intelligence tests, they scored as high as they did as children. They were, as a group, in good health, physically and mentally. Eighty-four percent of their group were married and seemed content with their life.
About 70 percent had graduated from colleges, though only 30 percent had graduated with honors. A few had even flunked out(退学), but nearly half of these had returned to graduate.
Of the men, 80 percent were in one of the professions or in business, managers or semi-professional jobs. The women who had remained single had offices, business, or professional occupations.
The group had published 90 books and 1, 500 articles in scientific, scholarly, and literary magazines and had collected more than 100 patents.
In a material way they didn’t do badly, either. Average income was considerably higher among the gifted people, especially the men, than for the country as a whole, despite their comparative youth when last surveyed.
In fact, far from being strange, maladjusted (难以适应) people locked in an ivory tower, most of the gifted were turning their early promises into practical reality.
1. The main idea of the passage is _____.
A. that gifted children were most likely to become bright grown-ups
B. that when the bright children grew up, they would become ordinary
C. that bright children were unlikely to be physically and mentally healthy
D. how many gifted children turned successful when they grew up
2. From the passage, we can conclude that _____.
A. half of the gifted followed up graduated from colleges
B. bright men got higher income than bright women
C. most of the gifted children became white collars when they grew up
D. each of the talented published at least one article
3. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage ?
A. Most of the gifted appeared satisfied with their life .
B. Most of the bright and successful women kept single
C. The gifted could not be fit for their social positions
D. The gifted men got full marks in intelligence tests
4. The explanation of the underlined phrase “turning their early promises into practical reality” is _____.
A. doing practical jobs and facing reality
B. realizing what they were expected
C. earning their living and keeping promises
D. doing what they have promised