His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System! ” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it. What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?
[A]Praising.
[B]Critical.
[C]Ironical.
[D]Distaste. What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?
[A]By deduction.
[B]By explanation.
[C]By contrast.
[D]By analysis. What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?
[A]Learning what every body learned.
[B]Learning what was useful to you.
[C]Learning whatever you came across.
[D]Learning what was different to you. What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
[B]One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.
Vocabulary
1.Thomas Carlyle 托马斯•卡莱尔 1795-1881美国作家、历史家、哲学家
2.jumble (up) 搞乱，使混乱
3.lay hand on (upon) sth. 抓住，找到
4.at best 最好的情况下
5.elbow out (off) 用胳膊肘挤出，推出
6.deuce =" devil" what the deuce is it to me?
这里表示福尔摩斯的厌恶心理。
义：这倒霉的词儿与我有什么关系？
7.while away the time 消磨/打发时间
8.shrewdness 机敏，敏锐，犀利
9.far-fetched 牵强附会，不自然
10.fathom 看穿/透，推测，探索
11.infallible 一贯正确
12.uninitiated 对某事无知的
13.Euclid 欧几里德（古希腊数学家）
14.necromancer 巫师
B
Chinese are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States and Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes which will give them a head in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.
However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children are very skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills that they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.
Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and lots of self-confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not merely teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
61.Parents in China, according to this passage, ____________.
A.are too strict with their children
B.are too rich to educate their children
C.have some problems in educating their children correctly
D.are too poor to educate their children
62.The writer of this passage does not seem to be satisfied with_______.
A. the parents’ ideas of educating their children
B. the education system
C. children’s skills
D. children’s hobbies
63.Doing some cooking at home helps children_________.
A. learn how to serve their parents
B. learn how to become strong and fat
C. benefit from it and prepare themselves for the future
D. make their parents believe that they are clever
阅读理解（共13 26分）
阅读下面几段文字，理解文章大意，并从A 、B、 C、 D 四个选项中选出最佳选项。
A
People need to relax and enjoy themselves. One way they can have a good time is to watch a baseball game or another sports event. Even thousands of years ago, groups of people gathered to watch skilled athletes.
Over 2000 years ago in Greece, certain days in the year were festival days. These were holidays when people stopped work and enjoyed themselves. They liked to watch athletes take part in races and other games of skill.
The most important festival was held every four years at the town of Olympia. It was held in honor of the Greek god Zeus (Zus). For five days, athletes from all parts of the Greek world took part in the Olympic Games. At the Olympic Games, people could watch them box, run, jump and so on. There was a relay race between two reams of men in which a lighted torch was passed from runner to runner. The Olympic Games were thought to be so important that cities which were at war with one another had to stop fighting. People were allowed to travel to the games safely. Thousands of people came to Olympia from cities in Greece and from her colonies (殖民地)in Africa, Asia and Italy. They met as friends to cheer their favorite athletes and to enjoy themselves.
56.What happened in Greece over 2000 years ago?
A. People stopped work and enjoyed themselves.
B The cities there were often against one another.
C People watched baseball games.
D People didn’t go to any games at all.
57.What were those countries in Africa?
A. Friends. B. Enemies. C. Colonies. . D Other cities.
58.What did people do at the games?
A. They fought.
B They just talked to friends.
C They cheered for good athletes.
D They tried to find friends.
59.Greek cities then were fighting so they ____
A. were weak.
B were strong
C couldn’t go to other cities freely.
D could see each other.
60.The best title for the story is “ _____” .
A. Greece at War
B. Together for the Games
C. Stop Fighting
D. Sport
E
"Opinion" is a word that is used carelessly today. It is used to refer to matters of taste, belief, and judgment. This casual use would probably cause little confusion if people didn’t attach too much importance to opinion. Unfortunately, most do attach great importance to it. "I have as much right to my opinion as you to yours, '' and ''Everyone’s entitled(授予…权利) to his opinion, '' are common expressions. In fact, anyone who would challenge another's opinion is likely to be branded intolerant.
Is that label（标签）accurate? Is it intolerant to challenge another's opinion? It depends on what definition of opinion you have in mind. For example, you may ask a friend ''What do you think of the new Ford cars?" And he may reply, "In my opinion, they're ugly." In this case, it would not only be intolerant to challenge his statement, but foolish. For it's obvious that by opinion he means his personal preference, a matter of taste. And as the old saying goes, ''It's pointless to argue about matters of taste."
But consider this very different use of the term, A newspaper reports that the Supreme Court has delivered its opinion in a controversial case. Obviously the justices did not state their personal preferences, their mere likes and dislikes. They stated their considered judgment, painstakingly arrived at after thorough inquiry and careful consideration.
Most of what is referred to as opinion falls somewhere between these two extremes. It is not an expression of taste. Nor is it careful judgment. Yet it may contain elements of both. It is a view or belief more or less casually arrived at, with or without examining the evidence.
Is everyone entitled to his opinion? Of course, this is not only permitted, but guaranteed. We are free to act on our opinions only so long as, in doing so, we do not harm others.
72. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the author?
A. Everyone has a right to hold his own opinion.
B. Free expression of opinions often leads to confusion.
C. Most people tend to be careless in forming their opinions.
D. Casual use of the word "opinion" often brings about quarrels.
73. According to the author, who of the following would be labelled as intolerant?
A. Someone who turns a deaf ear to others' opinions.
B. Someone who can't put up with others' tastes.
C. Someone who values only their own opinions.
D. Someone whose opinion harms other people.
74. The new Ford cars are mentioned as an example to show that ________.
A. it is foolish to criticize a famous brand
B. one should not always agree to others' opinions
C. personal tastes are not something to be challenged
D. it is unwise to express one's likes and dislikes in public
75. Considered judgment is different from personal preference in that ________.
A. it is stated by judges in the court
B. it reflects public like and dislikes
C. it is a result of a lot of controversy (争论，争议)
D. it is based on careful thought
D
I entered high school having read hundreds of books. But I was not a good reader. Merely bookish, I lacked a point of view when I read. Rather, I read in order to get a point of view. I searched books for good expressions and sayings, pieces of information, ideas, themes—anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated. When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated idea” until he had read at least two thousand books, I heard the words without recognizing either its irony (嘲讽) or its very complicated truth. I merely determined to make a list of all the books I had ever read. Strict with myself, I included only once a title I might have read several times. (How, after all, could one read a book more than once?) And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length. (Could anything shorter be a book?)
There was yet another high school list I made. One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college. The article had a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization.” “More than anything else in my life,” the professor told the reporter with finality(firmly) , “these books have made me all that I am.” That was the kind of words I couldn’t ignore. I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles. Most books, of course, I hardly understood. While reading Plato's The Republic, for example, I needed to keep looking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about. However, with the special patience and superstition (迷信) of a schoolboy, I looked at every word of the text. And by the time I reached the last word, pleased, I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic, and seriously crossed Plato off my list
68. On hearing the teacher's suggestion of reading, the writer thought _______.
A. one must read as many books as possible
B. a student should not have a complicated idea
C. it was impossible for one to read two thousand books
D. students ought to make a list of the books they had read
69. While at high school, the writer _______.
A. had plans for reading B. learned to educate himself
C. only read books over 100 pages D. read only one book several times
70. The writer's purpose in mentioning The Republic is to _______.
A. explain why it was included in the list
B. describe why he seriously crossed it off the list
C. show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand
D. prove that he understood most of it because he had looked at every word
71 The writer provides two book lists to _______.
A. show how he developed his point of view
B. tell his reading experience at high school
C. introduce the two persons' reading methods
D. explain that he read many books at high school
C
Instead of hitting the beach, fourteen high school students traded swimming suits for lab coats last summer and turned their attention to scientific experiments.
The High School Research Program offers high school students guidance with researchers in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Jennifer Funkhouser, academic adviser for the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, directs this four-week summer program designed to increase understanding of research and its career potential(潜能)。
Several considerations go into selecting students, including grades, school involvement and interest in science and agriculture. And many students come from poorer school districts, Funkhouser says, “This is their chance to learn techniques and do experiments they never would have a chance to do in high school.”
Warner Ervin of Houston is interested in animal science and learned how to tell male from female mosquitoes(蚊子).His adviser, Craig Coates, studies the genes of mosquitoes that allow them to fight against malaria and yellow fever. Coates thought this experience would be fun and helpful to the high school students.
The agricultural research at A&M differs from stereotypes. It’s “molecular(分子)science on the cutting edge,” Funkhouser says. The program broadened students’ knowledge. Victor Garcia of Rio Grande City hopes to become a biology teacher and says he learned a lot about chemistry from the program.
At the end of the program, the students presented papers on their research. They’re also paid $600 for their work----another way this program differs from others, which often charge a fee.
Fourteen students got paid to learn that science is fun, that agriculture is a lot more than milking and plowing and that research can open many doors.
63.The research program is chiefly designed for .
A. high school advisers from Houston
B. college students majoring in agriculture
C. high school students from different places
D. researchers at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
64.It can be inferred from the text that the students in poorer areas .
A. had little chance to go to college
B. could often take part in the program
C. found the program useful to their future
D. showed much interest in their high school experiments
65.When the program was over, the students .
A. entered that college B. wrote research reports
C. paid for their research D. found way to make money
66.The underlined expression “on the cutting edge” in paragraph 5 means “on the most________
position”.
A. important B. favourable C. astonishing D. advanced
67.What would be the best title for the text?
A.A Program for Agricultural Science Students
B. A Program for Animal Science Students
C. A Program for Medical Science Lovers
D. A Program for Future Science Lovers