The cash machine is 47 years old, but where was the birthplace of this world-beating invention? New York? Tokyo? No. The first ever cash machine was born in Enfield Town, north London. It was a Scottish inventor, John shepherd Barron, who realized the concept of a self-service machine that could be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to withdraw cash from one’s own bank account. It struck the inventor while he was in the bath. He hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, replacing chocolate with cash.
On September 2 in 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) appeared in public, giving out cash to customers at Chemical Bank, New York. It was only able to give out cash, but in 1971, an ATM that could handle many functions, including depositing(存款) money, was introduced. Today there are over one million ATMs around the world, with a new one added every five minutes. It is reported that Americans over the age of 18 use their ATM card six to eight times a mouth. Not surprisingly, ATMs get their busiest workouts on Fridays. In the 1990s, banks began charging fees to use ATMs, a profitable move for them and an annoying one for consumers.
Consumers were also faced with an increase in ATM crimes. Robbers preyed(抢夺) on people using money machines in poorly lit or otherwise unsafe locations, and criminals also thought up ways to steal customers’ PINs (personal identification numbers), even setting up fake money machines to capture the information. In response, city and state governments passed laws such as New York’s ATM Safety Act in 1996, which required banks to install such things as surveillance cameras (监控摄像头), reflective mirrors and locked entryways for their ATMs. What does the underlined word, “It”, in the first paragraph, probably refer to?
| A．The opening time of the bank. |
| B．The concept of an ATM. |
| C．Ordinary banking service. |
| D．The act of withdrawing cash. |
Which of the following is true about ATM?
| A．It appeared earlier than the chocolate bar dispenser. |
| B．It was invented by a Scottish man in 1971. |
| C．It was at first free of charge for its consumers. |
| D．It was originally designed to deposit money. |
What can we learn from the text? "
| A． Americans under the age of 18 are not allowed to have an ATM card. |
| B． People are more likely to turn to ATMs for banking service on Fridays. |
| C． Criminals usually choose unsafe locations to steal customers' PINs. |
| D． The ATM crime rate in New York is much lower than that in other state |
Which of the following might be the best title for the text?
| A． How to Operate on an ATM |
| B． What is Waiting for ATMs in the Future? |
| C． The First ATM Opened for Business |
| D．The Unknown Truth about ATM |
Section B
Directions: Read the following four passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
E-BAE STORES
A one-stop shopping place for ALL
We sell used clothes, games, books, CDs and DVDs. This is also a place for buyers to buy your second-hand goods. E-BAE is the best platform to market or purchase your dream items. It is noise-free, complaint-free and no shopping crowd. Goods are going at the lowest prices you can find in the town.
I am selling a computer. It is a well-maintained second hand computer with a LCD monitor and a rechargeable battery. It is at an affordable price. E-mail Fred at frogprince@hotmail.com
Selling: Hiking shoes. Worn only once. In tip-top condition. Dark brown leather material with black laces. Branded.
Original Price: $198
Sale Price: $120
Please drop an e-mail to Daniel at damiao@gmail.com
For sale: branded PEAR iPod with a thin black and silver body. 1 year old.
Storage size: 2GB
Original Price: $159
Sale Price: $100
Interested? Please contact Jace at moveit@pacific.net.sg
Looking for the right bag for the right occasion? We have a collection of big-name bags to suit your needs. All on rent or going at amazingly low prices. Drop an e-mail message to Chanel at quirkyfinds@yahoo.com or visit chanel.blogspot.com to answer your needs.
65. According to the advertisement, which of the following is the benefit of E-BAE Shop?
A. Crowding with customers. B. Paying original prices.
C. Shopping with ease and comfort. D. Shopping with free shipping.
66. Which of the following items is not sold on the webpage?
A. Second-hand shoes. B. Designer bags.
C. Electronic goods. D. Computer batteries.
67. If Anne needs a bag for a dinner party, which email address can she use to contact the person in charge?
A. frogprince@hotmail.com B. damiao@gmail.com
C. moveit@pacific.net.sg D. quirkyfinds@yahoo.com
There was a time in my life when beauty meant something special to me. I guess that would have been when I was about six or seven years old, just several weeks or maybe a month before the orphanage turned me into an old man.
I would get up every morning at the orphanage, make my bed just like the little soldier that I had become and then I would get into one of the two straight lines and march to breakfast with the other twenty or thirty boys who also lived in my dormitory.
After breakfast one Saturday morning I returned to the dormitory and saw the house parent chasing the beautiful monarch butterflies who lived by the hundreds in the azalea (杜鹃花) bushes strewn around the orphanage.
I carefully watched as he caught these beautiful creatures, one after the other, and then took them from the net and then stuck straight pins through their head and wings, pinning them onto a heavy cardboard sheet.
How cruel it was to kill something of such beauty. I had walked many times out into the bushes, all by myself, just so the butterflies could land on my head, face and hands so I could look at them up close.
Every year when the butterflies would return to the orphanage and try to land on me I would try and shoo (用"嘘"声赶走,吓走)them away because they did not know that the orphanage was a bad place to live and a very bad place to die.
68. How did the people go to their meals?
A. By car. B. On foot. C. Queuing in two ways. D. Any way they wanted.
69. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs?
A. I love beauty when I was about six or seven years old.
B. I became old very soon in the orphanage.
C. I had a very pleasant time in the orphanage.
D. I was tired with the life way I lived in the orphanage.
70. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
A. I love everything of beauty when I was old.
B. The people in the orphanage stand in line doing everything.
C. The house parent was kind and lovable.
D. I shooed the butterflies away because I didn’t want them to be killed.
More and more American parents, students, educators, political and business leaders have come to see the importance of Chinese on the world stage. As a result, Americans hoping to learn Chinese are growing in number though they face a lot of difficulties.
Liu Chuansheng, chairperson of the University Council at Beijing Normal University, talked about this situation. “There have been 300 million Chinese learning English, and I know that there are more and more Americans beginning to learn Chinese. I remember when I came to the U. S. there were only 250 schools offering Chinese classes; when I left in 2005, there were already 2,400 schools hoping to offer Chinese classes. Today more than 700 schools are offering Chinese classes, and 4,500 are planning to do so.”
“This is an important time in America. We have suffered from an economic crisis; there is swine flu(猪流感) ---- all part of our lives. We need to be competitive to deal with the world and make an effort to understand each other,” said Shuhan Wang, head of Chinese Language Initiatives at Asia Society. “The number of Chinese language teachers remains the key bottleneck,” she said. “And the need for specialized teachers becomes greater, as there is increasing popularity of early language learning ---- kindergarten through 8th grades.”
Jon M. Huntsman Jr., governor(州长) of Utah, has led his state to the front in teaching Chinese. “While math and science remain main studies,” he said, “language is going to be an important drive in education. Next year 82 schools will offer Chinese to 6,000 students.”
64. It is implied in the passage that the number of Americans learning Chinese is growing mainly because _______.
A. more and more Americans face a lot of difficulties
B. the number of Chinese learning English is growing
C. Chinese is widely used by actors all over the world
D. China is playing a more important role in the world
65. Liu Chuansheng’s talk mainly shows us _______.
A. how Americans are learning Chinese B. why Americans are learning Chinese
C. that Chinese becomes popular in America D. that China offers more Chinese classes there
66. The biggest problem with Americans learning Chinese is that _____.
A. the Chinese language is too difficult for them to learn
B. they don’t have enough teachers of Chinese in the USA
C. American children are not good at learning languages
D. teachers won’t work in kindergartens or primary schools
67. The proper title for the passage is _______.
A. Americans show great interest in learning Chinese
B. Americans show less interest in math and science
C. Chinese teachers get new chance to work in America
D. Chinese is widely used in some states of America
四、阅读理解（10小题，每题2分，共20分）
The largest earthquake (magnitude 里氏9.5) of the 20th century happened on May 22, 1960 off the coast of South Central Chile.
It generated(生成) one of the most destructive Pacific—wide tsunamis(海啸). Near the generating area, both the earthquake and the tsunami were very much destructive, particularly in the coastal area from Concepcion to the south end of Isla Chiloe. The largest tsunami damage occurred at Isla Chiloe--- the coastal area closest to the epicenter(震中). Huge tsunami waves measuring as high as 25 meters arrived within 10 to 15 minutes after the earthquake, killing at least two hundred people, sinking all the boats, and flooding half a kilometer inland.
There was large damage and loss of life at Concepcion, Chile’s top industrial city. Near the city of Valdivia, the earthquake and following aftershocks generated landslides which killed 18 people. At the port city of Valparaiso, a city of 200,000, many buildings collapsed. A total of 130,000 houses were destroyed---one in every three in the earthquake zone and nearly 2,000,000 people were left homeless.
Total damage losses, including to agriculture and to industry, were estimated(估计) to be over a half billion dollars. The total number of deaths related with both the tsunami and the earthquake was never found accurately for the region. Estimates of deaths reached between 490 to 5,7002 with no distinction(差别) as to how many deaths were caused by the earthquake and how many were caused by the tsunami. However, it is believed that most of the deaths in Chile were caused by the tsunami.
61. What is generally thought the main cause of deaths in Chile?
A. landslides B. the tsunami
C. aftershocks D. the magnitude 9.5 earthquake
62. What is the total number of deaths in the earthquake?
A. 2,000,000 B. between 490 to 5,7002 C. 200,000 D. it was hard to know
63. What does the underlined word “collapsed” probably mean?
A. was destroyed B. caught fire C. was flooded D. sank
Until the 1980s, the American homeless population was made up of mainly older males. Today, homelessness strikes much younger part of society. In fact, a 25-city survey by the U. S. Conference of Mayors in 1987 found that families with children make up the fastest growing part of the homeless population. Many homeless children gather in inner cities; this transient(变化无常的) and frequently frightened student population creates additional problems, both legal and educational, for already overburdened urban school administrators and teachers.
Estimates of the number of homeless Americans range from 350,000 to three million. Likewise, estimates of the number of homeless school children vary radically. A U.S. Department of Education report, based on state estimates, states that there are 220,000 homeless school-age children, about a third of whom do not attend school on a regular basis, But the National Coalition for the Homeless estimates that there are at least two times as many homeless children, and that less than half of them attend school regularly.
One part of the homeless population that is particularly difficult to count consists of the “throwaway” youths who have been cast of their homes. The Elementary School Center in New York City estimates that there are 1.5 million of them, many of whom are not counted as children because they do not stay in family shelters and tend to live by themselves on the streets.
Federal law, the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, includes a section that addresses the educational needs of homeless children. The educational provisions(规定) of the McKinney Act are based on the belief that all homeless children have the right to a free, appropriate education.
64. What can be implied from the first paragraph?
A. Before the 1980s, the homeless population mainly consists of children.
B. Urban schools are seriously short of academic facilities.
C. Many homeless children gather in inner cities.
D. Homeless children are deprived of the opportunity to receive free education
65. The National Coalition for the Homeless believes that the number of homeless children is ___
A. 350,000 B. 440,000 C. 3,000,000 D. 220,000
66. The reason why one part of the homeless population is difficult to estimate might be that ___
A. the homeless children are usually making a living by themselves
B. the homeless population is growing very fast.
C. some homeless children are abandoned by their families
D. the homeless children usually don’t attend school regularly
67. The McKinney Act is mentioned in this passage in order to show that ____________.
A. all homeless people are allowed to receive a good education
B. there is an increasing number of homeless children in America
C. it is necessary for homeless children to be counted as children
D. the educational problems of homeless children are being recognized