Hilary Smith belonged to a good family. But by the age of twenty, he had spent all the money the good old family had. He then had some trouble with the bank and was put in prison. He escaped from the prison and ran to Australia without delay.
Hilary did not like Australia and Australia did not like Hilary. What he could do seemed to be one of two things: die or work. Then he remembered that he was not alone in the world. He had an aunt.
She was his father's only sister, but his father used to say she brought no glory to the family. Hilary, of course, tried to discover what she had done. It seemed that she had failed to marry a nobleman. Instead, she had chosen a husband who was connected with "trade". Of course as soon as she became "Mrs. Parks", her brother considered her dead. Later on, Mr. Parks died and left her a lot of money; but that did not bring her back to life in her brother's opinion.
Hilary discovered his aunt's address. Fortunately she remained faithful and honest to him even after she fell ill. So Hilary's star shone again, and soon he moved into her house and lived as comfortably as a sailor who had just reached harbor. He had only about a sixpence in his pocket.
One thing was soon clear: his aunt was seriously ill, and nothing could cure her illness. Hilary was very worried. Fate had found a home for him, and was now going to throw him out of it. There was only one thing that could save him: her will.
"Will?" she said, "yes, I have made one. That was when I was a girl and had not much money. I left all my money to some religious people."
"Didn't you make another will when you were married?" Hilary asked.
His aunt shook her head. "No," she said in a low voice, "There was no need. When I finally had a lot of money I found 1 had no relations."
On the next day he went to the public library and examined a book of law. It told him what he already believed. When a woman is married, an earlier will loses its value. A new will must be made. If no new will is made, the money goes to the nearest relation. Hilary knew that he was his aunt's only relation. His future was safe.
After a few months had passed, Hilary's problems became serious. He badly needed money. He had expensive tastes, and owed a lot of money to shopkeepers. They trusted him because his aunt was rich; but the debt was terrible.
Unfortunately his aunt did not want to discuss money matters at all. In the end they had a quarrel about the small amount of ten pounds. Hilary was not very angry. He began to wonder about a new problem. Was it kind to want his aunt to live any longer? Was it not better for her to die now? While he was considering what to do, his aunt told him that she was going to send for her lawyer. So she was going to make a new will, Hilary thought. She might leave all her money to someone else. Soon he reached a clear decision. He must do a great kindness to the poor old woman.
One night when the old servant who had been nursing his aunt went off, he doubled the amount of some medicine. The total amount was too great and it could just put her to sleep forever.
"Thank you," his aunt took the glass from his hand with a grateful look." I want, more than anything, to sleep, and never to wake up again. Is that what you wish, Hilary? Don't blame me if I have some doubts about what you intended to do. Sick people get these ideas, you know. One thing I ought to explain to you. Mr. Parks never married me. He already had a wife and couldn't marry again. That made your foolish father very angry with me...Well, if I am alive tomorrow I shall make another will in your favor. If I die tonight, you'll get nothing...No, Hilary, don't try to take the glass away. If you do that, I shall know; and I don't want to know. Good night, Hilary."
Then, very carefully, she raised the glass to her mouth and drank.From the story ,we learn that Hilary's aunt was ______.
| A．bad-tempered and lonely | B．kind-hearted and wise |
| C．careless about money | D．cruel to her niece |
The underlined sentence "He must do a great kindness to the poor old woman" in paragraph 11 suggests that Hilary Smith ______.
| A．was determined to put his aunt's life to an end |
| B．decided to do his aunt a favor to call in a lawyer |
| C．made up his mind to take good care of his aunt |
| D．would help his aunt to donate all her money to religious people |
Which detail from the story is the climax of the story?
| A．Hilary escaped from the prison. |
| B．Hilary quarreled with is aunt about ten pounds. |
| C．Hilary's aunt drank the medicine her nephew prepared for her. |
| D．Hilary's aunt made a will to leave all her money to someone else. |
B
People have always had to find ways to keep food safe to eat. Methods to dry, smoke and salt food were invented thousands of years ago. The process of canning is much more recent. This storage method keeps food safe to eat for long periods of time. Today, canning is one of the most popular methods of storing food.
Canning uses heat to kill bacteria and other micro-organisms that cause poisons to form in food. Canning also takes away the air that these organisms need to live. One popular method of canning uses a water bath.
Clean fruits or vegetables are placed in glass bottles. The food can be put into the bottles either hot or cold. The cold method is used for soft fruits and vegetables that could lose their shape or taste. Firmer fruits and most vegetables are usually cooked. They take up less space in the bottles. After the food has been placed in glass bottles, boiling water is poured into the bottles to about three centimeters below the top. Then covers are placed on the bottles, but are not turned all the way. The bottles are placed in a large container filled with warm water that is then brought to a boil. The water must completely cover the bottles, from three to five centimeters over the top. When the water boils, any air in the bottles will be expelled. The boiling continues for several minutes. Then the bottles are allowed to cool. Finally, they are placed briefly into cold water. This makes a strong barrier to keep the air out. In other words, a vacuum is created. When the bottles are completely cool, notes can be placed on them to identify what is inside. The bottles can then be stored in a cool, dark place at a temperature of between four and twenty-one degrees Celsius.
Canning allows your family to enjoy foods that might not come fresh throughout the year. It is also a good way to store food for six months to a year, or even several years, in case of an emergency. It does not cost much to continue canning every year once the equipment has been purchased.
You can get more information about canning food from the group, Volunteers in Technical Assistance. VITA is on the Internet at vita.org.
55. Which of the following is the right order of canning food?
a. put bottles in warm water. b. place notes on the bottles.
c. place bottles briefly into cold water d. pour boiling water into bottles
A. d a c b B. a b c d C. b d c a D. a d c b
56. According to the text, which of the following is right?
A. The way to can food has been found by ancient Chinese.
B. Canning uses water to kill bacteria.
C. Hard fruits are suitable for cold method.
D. The boiling water will take away the air in the bottle.
57. What does the word “vacuum” mean in the – paragraph?
A. a missing situation B. a gap C. an enclosed space without air D. a hole
58. what’s the best title of the text?
A. The advantages of canning food.
B. Canning food and health.
C. Put fruits and vegetables into cans.
D. How to make canning food.
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，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Events took place around the world last week to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The March eighth observance came as thousands of delegates from one hundred thirty countries met at the United Nations in New York. They discussed progress on a plan of action for women's equality. The document was approved ten years ago at a conference in Beijing.
It calls for improved health care for women, along with economic and political gains. It also calls for efforts to reduce human rights violations against women.
In Asia last Tuesday, there were demonstrations against unfair treatment of women.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a Conference of Women Leaders. Laura Bush, the president's wife, spoke at the event which had representatives from fifteen Muslim nations. The first lady praised recent political gains for Muslim women.
In Afghanistan, for example, President Hamid Karzai has appointed the first female governor of a province. In Iraq, women hold almost one-third of the 249 seats in the newly elected National Assembly. And Missus Bush noted that nearly half the voters in the Palestinian presidential election were women.
International Women’s Day began in nineteen ten in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was designed to build support for voting rights for women worldwide. Missus Bush noted that it took American women many years to be recognized as full citizens with the right to vote.
Last week, just before International Women Day's, hundreds of women and men demonstrated in Kuwait to demand the right for women to vote. The government urged parliament to act quickly to debate such reforms.
Also last Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report on sexual violence by soldiers and members of armed groups in eastern Congo. The New York-based group says tens of thousands of women and young girls have been raped and beaten. Yet it says almost all the crimes have gone without punishment.
51．According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. The document on women’s equality has not been approved yet.
B. Muslim women’s rights have been improved.
C. Palestinian women are totally equal now.
D. Kuwait women urged government to reform.
52. About how many women have been elected into National Assembly?
A. 166 B. 83 C. 249 D. 124
53. You can most probably read the text in ________.
A. a textbook B. a magazine C. a newspaper D. a biology book
54. What’s the best title of the text?
A. International Women’s Day
B. Women’s equal rights
C. How to ensure women’s equal rights
D. How do people celebrate International Women’s Day
E
Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers urged, "Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience." How right they were! Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and strangers into friends.
"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang in there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, "I can do it!" when others shout, "No, you can't!" It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist（遗传学家）who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn't let up on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach（巴赫）. As the music flowed through his fingers, his bent shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. As author and poet Samuel once wrote, "Years wrinkle（使生皱纹）the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."
Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money, title or power. Patricia Mallrath, retired director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, "My father, a lawyer, long ago told me, I never made a penny until I stopped working for money."
If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can do it as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended her depression（抑郁）that had troubled her for at least 30 years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, "I am persuaded to call Layton a genius."
We can't afford to waste tears on "might-have-beens". We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after "what-can-be." We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses-finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.
67. Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?
A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.
B. If you don't have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.
C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.
D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honor.
68. The author mentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that ________.
A. music can arouse people's enthusiasm
B. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed
C. enthusiasm can make people feel young
D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy
69. How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?
A. Two. B. Three. C. Four. D. Five.
70. The author holds the view that ________.
A. enthusiastic people will never get old
B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life
C. enthusiasm is more important than experience
D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame
D
A peer is a person who is about the same age as you. Peers affect your life, whether you know it or not, just by spending time with you.
Peers can have a good effect on one another. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in solar system. Maybe you got others excited about your new favorite book and now everyone's reading it.
However, sometimes peers affect one another in another way. For example, one kid in school might try to get another to cut class with him, your soccer friend might try to persuade you to be mean to another player and never pass her the ball, or a kid in the neighborhood might want you to shoplift with him. Some kids give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, to fit in, or because they worry that other kids may make fun of them if they don't go along with the group. Others may go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that "everyone's doing it" may influence some kids to leave their better judgments or their common senses behind.
Peer pressure can be extremely strong and hard to get rid of. Experiments have shown how peer pressure can influence someone to change her/ his mind from what she/ he knows for sure is a correct answer to the incorrect answer－just because everyone else gives the incorrect answer! That holds true for people of any age in peer pressure situations.
It can be hard to walk away from peer pressure, but it can be done. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do. Inner strength and self-confidence can help you stand firm, walk away and resist doing something when you know better.
63. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Peers have a good effect B. Children give in to peer pressure
C. Peer pressure is hard to resist D. Peer pressure
64. The underlined word "shoplift" in Paragraph 3 probably means "________".
A. do some shopping B. carry goods for shops
C. steal in shops D. take the lift upstairs in shops
65. The writer will NOT agree that ________.
A. only children change their correct answers to incorrect ones because of peer pressure
B. peers have an effect on one another
C. Peer pressure can be got rid of
D. Peers will believe in themselves if there are other peers who agree with them
66. By writing the passage the writer intends to ________.
A. tell people to follow other's opinions
B. warn people to stay away from their peers
C. tell it is hard to walk away from pressure
D. persuade people to do the right thing regardless of peer pressure
C
Educating girls quite possibly brings in a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Women education may be an unusual field for economists, but increasing women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived（被剥夺） of an education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school-the prophecy （预言） becomes self-fulfilling, trapping women in a bad circle of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The bad circle is thus transformed into a good one.
Few will question that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 percent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant effect on health practices, including family planning.
59. By saying "the prophecy becomes self-fulfilling..." in Paragraph 2, the author means that ________.
A. girls will turn out to be less valuable than boys
B. girls will be capable of realizing their own dreams
C. girls will eventually find their goals in life beyond reach
D. girls will be increasingly discontented with their life at home
60. The author believes that a bad circle can turn into a good circle when ________.
A. women care more about education
B. girls can gain equal access to education
C. a family has fewer but healthier children
D. parents can afford their daughters' education
61. What does the author say about women' s education?
A. It deserves greater attention than other social issues.
B. It is now given attention before anything else in many developing countries.
C. It will bring in greater returns than other known investments
D. It has aroused the interest of a growing number of economists.
62. The passage mainly discusses________.
A. unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries
B. the potential earning power of well-educated women
C. the major contributions of educated women to society
D. the economic and social benefits of educating women