【原创】Today, the bicycle is the primary method of transportation for the human race. About 1.6 billion bicycles are in use around the world --- in big cities, along remote country lanes, and in the smallest villages ---and hundreds of millions of bikes are produced every year to meet the continuing demand for cheap wheeled transport.
Yet the bicycle is hardly a new vision of how humans move around. Historians speculate(猜测) about Leonardo da Vinci’s 1940s drawings and a 1580s stained glass window in England that appear to describe a two-wheeler. The first widely recognized two-wheeler in actual use, however, was the pedal-less Celerifere, a toy of the French upper class in the 1970s. The more famous Draisienne followed that toy in 1816, still without pedals. The front wheel could be steered, and this two-wheeler was eventually mass-produced in Europe, particularly in England. Ernest Michaux added cranks(曲轴) to the two-wheeler in 1855, which started a revolution in human transportation --- the Velocipede.
By 1870, complicated metal Velocipede were in production in Europe and the United States. Over time, they gave way to the “Ordinary” or high-wheeler. The Ordinary was the beginning of the heyday(全盛期) of bicycling. It was speedy and capable of long trips on poor roads, so it was soon in widespread use. At that time a skilled person might earn 25 cents an hour in wages, but a good Ordinary sold for $75 to $125, making it more expensive than building a house. Nevertheless, they sold at a furious pace.
Ordinaries had a big problem, however. When the front wheel came up against any obstacle that it could not roll over, the bike simply threw the rider headfirst onto the ground. Called a “header”, this characteristic problem inspired the “safety bicycle” in the 1980s. With two wheels of equal size, plus a roller chain(齿轮) transmission, the safety bicycle was with a slight adaptation, they attracted thousands of women to cycling. Many historians point to the safety bicycle as the beginning of women’s rights.
In England, in 1909, the Raleigh bicycle, equipped with a 3-speed hub, started to be produced. In the 1930s, British-built “lightweight” bicycles, suitable for the packed earth of country roads, were being imported into the United States. The early 1980s saw the creation of the “Freestyle” or trick bicycle. And in the late 1990s, the road bike and the mountain bike proved to be the dominant machines of the decade.
Today, the bicycle continues to be the most energy and cost-efficient transportation device in the world.What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．The places suited to the use of bicycles. |
| B．The way bicycles are used in the world. |
| C．The importance and popularity of bicycles. |
| D．The number of bikes produced every year. |
We can learn from the second paragraph that____________.
| A．the Celerifere was actually the first bicycle in history. |
| B．the Draisienne had two pedals and its wheels could be steered. |
| C．Ernest Michaux created the Velocipede in 1885. |
| D．the bicycle idea might have come from one of da Vinci’s drawings. |
What does the underlined word “furious” in the third paragraph mean?
| A．Rapid | B．Gentle | C．Steady | D．Smooth |
How has the author developed the text?
| A．In order of space | B．In order of time |
| C．In order of importance | D．In order of frequency |
B
Lions are opportunists. They prefer to eat without having to do too much work. When resting in the shade, they are also watching the sky to see what is flying by, and even in the heat of the day they will suddenly start up and run a mile across the plains to find out what is going on. If another animal has made a kill, they will drive it off and take the dill for themselves. A grown lion can easily eat 60 pounds of meat at a single feeding. Often they eat until it seems painful for them to lie down.
The lioneases (母狮) , being thinner and faster, are better hunters (猎手) than the males (雄狮). But the males don’t mind. After the kill they move in and take the test share.
Most kills are made at night or just before daybreak. We have seen many, many daylight attempts but only ten kills. Roughly, It’s about twenty daytime attempts for one kill.
When lions are hiding for an attack by a water hole, they wait patiently and can charge at any second. The kill is the exciting moment in the day-to-day life of the lion, since these great animals spend most of their time, about 20 hours a day, sleeping and resting.
Lions are social cats, and when they are having a rest, they love to touch each other. After drinking at a water hole, a lioness rests her head on another’s back. When walking, young lions often touch faces with older ones, an act of close ties imong members of the group.
60. By describing lions as “opportunists” in the first paragraph, the author means to say that lions_____.
A. are cruel animals B. are clever animals
C. like to take advantage of other animals D. like to take every chance to eat
61. According to the text, which of the following is true?
A. Lions make most kills in the daytime.
B. Males care more about eating than active killing.
C. Lions are curious about things happening around them.
D. It doesn’t take lions too much time to make a kill.
62. How can we know that lions are social animals?
A. They depend on each other. B. They look after each other well.
C. They readily share what they have. D. They enjoy each other’s company.
63. What would be the best tiltle for the text?
A. Powerful Lions B. Lions at Work and Play
C. Lions, Social Cats D. Lions, Skilled Hunters
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题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。
A
Reading poems is not exactly an everyday activity for most people. In fact, many people never read a poem once they get out of high school.
It is worth reminding ourselves that this has not always been the case in America. In the nineteenth century, a usual American activity was to sit around the fireside in the evening and read poems aloud. It is true that there was no television at the time, nor movie theaters, nor World Wide Web, to provide diversion. However, poems were a source of pleasure, of self-education, of connection to other people or to the world beyond one’s own community. Reading them was a social act as well as an individual one, and perhaps even more social than individual. Writing poems to share with friends and relations was, like reading poems by the fireside, another way in which poetry has a place in everyday life.
How did things change? Why are most Americans no longer comfortable with poetry, and why do most people today think that a poem has nothing to tell them and that they can do well without poems?
There are, I believe, three culprits(肇事者)：poets, teachers, and we ourselves. Of these, the least important is the third: the world surrounding the poem has betrayed us more than we have betrayed the poem. Early in the twentieth century, poetry in English headed into directions unfavorable to the reading of poetry. Readers decided that poems were not for the fireside or the easy chair at night, that they belonged where other difficult-to-read things belonged.
Poets failed the readers, so did teachers. They want their students to know something about the skills of a poem, they want their students to see that poems mean something. Yet what usually occurs when teachers push these concerns on their high school students is that young people decide poems are unpleasant crossword puzzles.
56．Reading poems is thought to be a social act in the nineteenth century because___________.
A．it built a link among people B．it helped unite a community
C．it was a source of self-educationD．it was a source of pleasure
57． The underlined word “diversion”(in Paragraph 2) most probably means “________”.
A．concentration B．change C．amusements D．stories
58．According to the passage, what is the main cause of the great gap between readers and poetry?
A．Students are becoming less interested in poetry.
B．Students are poorly educated in high school.
C．TV and the Internet are more attractive than poetry.
D．Poems have become difficult to understand.
59．In the last paragraph, the writer questions_______.
A．the difficulty in studying poems B．the way poems are taught in school
C．students’ wrong ideas about poetry D．the techniques used in writing poems
（D）
Between ten and midnight the United States is politically leaderless——there is no center of information anywhere in the nation except in the New York headquarters of the great broadcasting companies and the two great wire services．No candidate and no party can afford the investment on election night to match the news-gathering resources of the mass media; and so, as every citizen sits in his home watching his TV set or listening to his radio, he is the equal of any other in knowledge．There is nothing that can be done in these hours, for on one can any longer direct the great strike for America’s power; the polls have closed．Good or bad, whatever the decision．America will accept the decision——and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes．The general vote is an expression of national will, the only substitute for violence and blood．Its decision is to be defended as one defends civilization itself．
There is nothing like this American expression of will in England or France, India or Russia or China．Only one other major nation in modern history has ever tried to elect its leader directly by mass, free, popular vote．This was the Weimar Republic of Germany, which modeled its unitary vote for national leaders on the American practice．Out of its experiment with the system it got Hitler．Americans have had Lincoln, Wilson and two Roosevelts．Nothing can be done when the voting returns are flooding in; the White House and its power will move to one or another of the two candidates, and all will know about it in the morning．But for these hours history stops．
76．Between ten p．m．and midnight, the United States has no leader because________．
A．the President has resigned
B．the strike for power has ended
C．the polls have closed and the results are not in
D．there has been a revolution
77．“The great strike for America’s power” in paragraph 1 refers to_________．
A．the strike of the mass media B．the great coal strike
C．striking while the iron is hot D．the election campaign
78．According to the author only one other major modern nation ever tried to elect its leader by mass, free, popular vote．That nation was___________．
A．India B．Germany C．Russia D．England
79．The author believes the decision at the polls will．
A．lead to anarchy B．result in men being cut down
C．cause violence and blood D．be defended by all Americans
（C）
Texas——US President George W．Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to bridge their differences over a key arms control treaty last week, but that didn’t stop them from backslapping（喧闹的狂欢） as they ended a summit．
The two leaders also offered differing interpretations of the fate of nuclear warheads to be removed from missiles under arms reductions they each announced last week．Bush said he intended to destroy the warheads, but Putin said their fate should be negotiated．
The two men untied on the need for Northern Alliance forces——to allow for a broad based government that respects all parties there．
Bush and Putin had spent the night at Bush’s ranch．Despite the rain, the rural environment and friendly company appeared to have worked its magic．They slapped on the back and joked, at one point teasing each other about whether it is better to visit Texas in the heat of August or Siberia in winter．
Analysts say the dramatic warming in US-Russian relation could herald（预示） an era of pragmatism（务实的想法或做法） in global affairs as the two old rivals finally end decades of hostility and become friends．
“Washington and Moscow are no longer playing the ‘big game’ against each other, but with each other,” said Karl Heniz Kamp, an analyst at the Konrad Adenanaer Foundation，a German think tank．
72．It can be concluded that President Bush and President Putin__________．
A．didn’t agree on key arms control treaty
B．offered different explanations of the future of nuclear warheads under arms reductions
C．neither A or B
D．both A and B
73．The reason why the two men joined together is that．
A．they were needed by the Northern Alliance forces
B．they had taken the advice given by Karl Heniz Kamp, an analyst of German think tank．
C．they had already been partners
D．they had no different opinions on everything
74 The warming of US-Russian relations indicates that_______．
A．the two persons end hostility and become friends
B．US can benefit a lot from global affairs
C．there will be an end to all the armies of the world
D．it is a turning point to words being practical in global affairs
75．What the two men teased about shows that___________．
A．they appeared friendly but in fact they didn’t
B．they just made fun of each other
C．they are friendly and humorous
D．they invited each other to their countries in the bad weather
（B）
People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed．It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is cooperative and another is competitive．
Social scientists are, of course, extremely interested in these types of questions．They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behaviors．There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed．As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from one another, and there is a great deal of debate between proponents of each theory．The controversy is often referred to as “nature/nurture”．
Those who support the “nature” side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological and genetic factors．That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics, and behavior is central to this theory．Taken to an extreme, this theory maintains that our behavior is predetermined to such a degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts．
Proponents of the “nurture” theory, or, as they are often called, behaviorists, claimed that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act．A behaviorist, B．F．Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings．The behaviorists’ view of the human being is quite mechanistic; they maintain that, like machines, humans’ respond to environmental stimuli as the basis of their behavior．
Either of these theories cannot yet fully explain human behavior．In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes．That the controversy will continue for a long time is certain．
69．Which of the following statements would the supporters of the “nature” theory agree with?
A．A person’s instincts have little effect on his actions．
B．Environment is important in determining a person’s behavior and personality．
C．Biological reasons have a strong influence on how we act．
D．The behaviorists’ view correctly explains how we act．
70．Concerning the nature/nurture controversy, the writer of this article____________．
A．supports the nature theory
B．supports the nurture theory
C．believes both are completely wrong
D．thinks that the correct explanation of human behavior will take ideas from both theories．
71．In the United States, Black people often score below White people on intelligence tests．With this in mind, which of the following statements is NOT true?
A．Nature proponents would say that Whites are genetically superior to Blacks．
B．Supporters of the nature theory would say that Whites score well because they have a superior environment．
C．Behaviorists would say that Blacks often lack the educational and environmental advantages that Whites enjoy．
D．Nurture proponents would disagree that Blacks are biologically inferior to Whites．