Credit cards let people buy things now and pay for them over months or even years. But some people get deep into debt: Some banks have terms and charges that can make it harder for people to pay off that debt. In the United States, there are calls for stronger government supervision of the credit card industry. They offer economic power at a price. In 2004, Americans had about $800 billion in credit card debt. Now they own about $ 968 billion.
Critics say banks make it too easy to get credit cards. But that may be changing. The crisis in the housing and credit they call markets is beginning to affect the credit card industry. More payments are late. Charges for late payments are a growing source of profit for banks. But late payments can also signal bad debts.
The central bank, the Federal Reserve, says two-thirds of American banks have recently reported tighter lending requirements. Many people report having their credit limits reduced without warning.
Some lawmakers are concerned that cardholders do not have enough protections from abusive policies. These include actions like raising interest rates because of an unrelated event. Also, banks may raise the chances of a late payment by changing monthly payment dates for credit cards.
According to a survey, 82% of Americans think credit cards provide a valuable service. But a majority, 58%, say they do not trust credit card companies. And three out of four think the government should regulate the industry more closely. Three out of four people feel there is always some condition that makes a card less appealing than the company made in scared. And a little more than half say they have had a card that is not as good as they expect. But close to 80% say no one really reads the terms and conditions when they sign up for a credit card. What does the underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably mean?
| A．We can enjoy more convenience by using credit cards. |
| B．Credit cards can improve your buying power. |
| C．We can buy things at lower prices by using credit cards. |
| D．Credit cards bring more debts as well as convenience. |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Banks are making it harder for people to get credit cards. |
| B．Some people's credit limits have been reduced. |
| C．It is more difficult to borrow money from some banks. |
| D．Banks are receiving more charges from late payments. |
Which of the following can be a case of abusive policies?
| A．Banks make credit cards look more attractive. |
| B．Banks ignore the danger of bad debts. |
| C．Banks raise interest rates with no good reason. |
| D．Banks put off monthly payment dates. |
What can we know from the text?
| A．Banks actually prefer to see more late payments. |
| B．People should be more careful when applying for a credit card. |
| C．The US government provides better protection for cardholders. |
| D．The majority of Americans don't think much of credit cards. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Credit cards are still very well received in America. |
| B．Credit cards don't live up to some people's expectations. |
| C．Many people don't believe in credit card companies. |
| D．The results of a survey about credit cards in America. |
Sports shoes that work out whether their owner has done enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes — named Square Eyes — contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter(传话器) passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （计步器） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.”
51.According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ________.
A.keep a record of the steps of the wearer
B.deal with overweight among teenagers
C.enable children to resist the temptation of TV
D.prevent children from being tricked by TV programs
52.Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
A.They regulate a child’s evening TV viewing time.
B.They determine a child’s daily pocket money.
C.They have raised the hot issue of overweight.
D.They contain information of the receiver.
53.What is stressed（强调）by health experts in their suggestion?
A.The exact number of steps to be taken.
B.The precise number of hours spent on TV.
C.The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time.
D.The way of changing steps into TV watching time.
54.Compared with other similar products, the new design ________.
A.makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat
B.counts the wearer’s steps through shaking
C.records the sudden movement of the wearer
D.sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver
55.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time B.Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise
C.Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise D.Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight
If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Patten J.K Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books ,which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that ,reading is increasingly unpopular among children .According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all . In 2003, 35% did . And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile . Either way , Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report , he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds ,who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher . An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well ,but read less often for fun than those elsewhere .Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success . According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.
46.Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?
A.Many children’s books have been adapted from films.
B.Many high-quality children’s books have been published .
C.The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films.
D.The sales of presents for children have increased.
47.Statistics suggested that _______.
A.the number of top students increased with the use of computers
B.a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading
C.a minority of primacy school children read properly
D.a large percentage of children read regularly
48.What do we know about Reading Recovery?
A.An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year.
B.Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking.
C.It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading.
D.Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading.
49.Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.
A.take greater advantage of the project B.show the potential to enjoy a long life
C.are likely to succeed in their education. D.would make excellent future researchers
50.The aim of this text would probably be _________.
A.to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty.
B.to encourage the publication of more children’s books
C.to remind children of the importance of reading for fun
D.to introduce a way to improve early childhood reading
Ⅲ阅读（共两节。满分40分）
阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image （形象）of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious（叛逆的）and selfish .but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation（商议）and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
41. What is the popular image of teenagers today?
A. They worry about school. B. They dislike living with their parents.
C, They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. D. They quarrel a lot with other family members.
42. The study shows that teenagers don’t want to__________ .
A. share family responsibilityB. cause trouble in their families
C. go boating with their family D. make family decisions
43. Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents__________ .
A. go to clubs more often with their children B. are much stricter with their children
C. care less about their children’s life D. give their children more freedom
44. According to the author, teenage rebellion__________ .
A. may be a false belief B. is common nowadays
C. existed only in the 1960s D. resulted from changes in families
45. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Negotiation in family. B. Education in family.
C. Harmony in family. D.Teenage trouble in family.
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
When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to be point out my shortcomings(缺点). Sometimes she said I was thin. Sometimes she said I was lazy. Sometimes she said I wasn’t a good student. Sometimes she said I talked too much, and so on. I tried to put up with(忍受) her as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, and then he asked, “Are the things she said true or not? Mary, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”
I did as he told me and to my surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true.
I brought the list back to my dad. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be helpful to you. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you think is right.”
Many years have passed. The situation often appears in my mind. In our life we often meet with some trouble and we often go to someone and ask for advice. For some advice you will treasure all your life!
60. What did the writer’s father do after he heard her complaints(抱怨)?
A. He agreed with her “enemy”.
B. he let her continue to put up with her “enemy”.
C. He told her to write down all her “enemy” had said about her.
D. He told her not to pay attention to what her “enemy” had said.
61. The writer felt________ when she did the things as her father had told her.
A. surprised B. angry C. disappointed D. sad
62. Which of the following can we know from the passage?
A. The “enemy” thought the writer was pretty.
B. The “enemy” thought the writer studied hard.
C. The writer and her “enemy” became best friends at last.
D. The writer is grateful to her father.
63. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. My Parents
B. A Serious Criticism(批评)
C. What People Say About You Is Always Right
D. The Best Advice I Ever Had