To most people, noise pollution is a jet flying over their head. For one Spanish woman, it is a neighbor playing the piano. The woman has taken her neighbor to court. Now she wants to send her neighbor to prison for over seven years on the charges of psychological damage and noise pollution.
In a country known for its noisiness, the case has raised eyebrows. Neighbors often complain about street noise in Spain, but people seeking prison time for someone practicing the piano is unheard of. At the trial, Sonia Bosom says she has been suffering noise pollution up to now due to the practice sessions of Laia Martin, who lives below her. Martin, 27, didn’t admit that she played at home that often, saying she took regular classes in other towns and mostly practiced at home on the weekends.
On the first day of the trial, the newspaper reported that Bosom told the court she now hated pianos so much that she couldn’t even stand seeing them in a film.
Bosom says years of hearing constant playing has caused her “psychological injury”. Medical reports show she has suffered from a variety of problems, including insomnia (失眠), anxiety, and panic attacks.
She says tests by local authorities have found that the sound levels made by the piano are up to 10 decibels (分贝) higher than the limit. City authorities have asked the family several times to either stop the piano playing or soundproof (隔音) the room. The family told the court they carried out soundproofing work twice but the complaints continued.
The court hasn’t made a final decision. A spokeswoman says the trial will end before May.Bosom wants to send Martin to prison because _______.
A.Martin’s playing the piano damaged her health |
B.Bosom suffered from heart attack |
C.Martin refused to take regular classes in other towns |
D.Martin flew a jet over her head |
How did Laia Martin respond to the complaints?
A.She stopped playing the piano. |
B.She soundproofed the room. |
C.She didn’t admit she played at home. |
D.She took her neighbor to court. |
Which of the following may probably be the best title for the passage?
A.A 7-year Sentence Caused by the Piano |
B.Pianist Charged with Noise Pollution |
C.Health Problems of a Spanish Woman |
D.Actions Against Noise by Local Authority |
When I was growing up in America, I was ashamed of my mother’s Chinese English. Because of her English, she was often treated unfairly. People in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
My mother has realized the limitations of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on phone to pretend I was she. I was forced to ask for information or even to yell at people who had been rude to her. One time I had to call her stockbroker (股票经纪人). I said in an adolescent voice that was not very convincing, “This is Mrs. Tan...”
And my mother was standing beside me, whispering loudly, “Why he don’t send me cheek already two week lone.”
And then, in perfect English I said, “I’m getting rather concerned .You agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.”
Then she talked more loudly. “What he want? I come to New York tell him front of his boss.” And so I turned to the stockbroker again, “I can’t tolerate any more excuse. If I don’t receive the check immediately, I am going to have to speak to your manager when I am in New York next week.”
The next week we ended up in New York. While I was sitting there red-faced, my mother, the real Mrs. Tan, was shouting to his boss in her broken English.
When I was a teenager, my mother’s broken English embarrassed me. But now, I see it differently. To me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It is my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, and full of observation and wisdom. It was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed ideas, and made sense of the world.
61. Why was the author’s mother poorly served?
A. She was unable to speak good English.
B. She was often misunderstood.
C. She was not clearly heard.
D .She was not very polite.
62. From Paragraph 2, we know that the author was .
A. good at pretending
B. rude to the stockbroker
C. ready to help her mother
D. unwilling to phone for her mother
63. After the author made the phone call, ___________.
A. they forgave the stockbroker
B. they failed to get the check
C. they went to New York immediately
D. they spoke to their boss at once
64. What does the author think of her mother’s English now?
A. It confuses her.
B. It embarrasses her.
C. It helps her understand the world.
D. It helps her tolerate (容忍) rude people.
65. We can infer from the passage that Chinese English .
A. is clear and natural to non-native speakers
B. is vivid and direct to non-native speakers
C. has a very bad reputation in America
D. may bring inconvenience in America
第三部分:阅读理解
第一节(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 man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspaper. “Last week,” he said, “my umbrella was stolen from a London church. As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising, but didn’t get it back.”
“How did you write your advertisement?” asked one of the listeners, a merchant.
“Here it is,” said the man, taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper. The other man took it and read, “Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening, a black silk umbrella. The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No. 10 Broad Street.”
“Now,” said the merchant, “I often advertise, and find that it pays me well. But the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance. Let us try for your umbrella again, and if it fails, I'll buy you a new one.”
The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote: “If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn’t wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No.10 Broad Street. He is well known.”
This appeared in the newspaper, and on the following morning, the man was astonished when he opened the front door. In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colors, and his own was among them. Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter.
56. What is an advertisement? _______________.
A. A news item.
B. Public opinions.
C. One way to voice one’s view.
D. A public announcement on papers, TV, etc.
57. The result of the first advertisement was that ______________.
A. the man got his umbrella back
B. the man wasted some money advertising
C. nobody found the missing umbrella
D. the umbrella was found somewhere near the church
58. The merchant suggested that the man should _______________.
A. buy a new umbrella
B. go on looking for his umbrella
C. write another and better advertisement
D. report the police
59. “If it fails, I’ll buy you a new one,” suggested that the merchant_______________.
A. was quite sure of success
B. wanted to buy him a new umbrella
C. didn’t know what to do
D. was rich enough to buy one
60. The story is mainly about _________________.
A. a useless advertisement
B. how to make an effective advertisement
C. how the man lost and found his umbrella
D. what the merchant did for the umbrella owner
WELCOME TO YOUR FREE ISH MEMBERSHIP
Your Membership
International Students House is a unique, cultural and recreational centre providing a wide programme of events for students 310 days a year.
Located in a fashionable and safe neighborhood, close to Regent's Park, ISH is a central place to meet students from Britain and around the world.
ISH provides all its members with the opportunity to enjoy a wide variety of sports and hobbies in a friendly and fun environment. Many of the activities are free of charge as part of membership, while some charge a small fee.
Membership is open to all full-time students, professional trainees and student nurses.
LEARN
Lecture Series:
ISH organizes a number of lively, topical lectures of political and contemporary(同时代的) interest by famous speakers.
Language Classes
A variety of weekly language classes which in the past have included English, Spanish, Japanese and Italian.
ISH tries to offer as many development and educational programmes as possible for its members. Look out for additional workshops and leadership programmes. E--mail: learn @ish.org.uk.
CREATE
Sunday Cinema:
Films are shown every Sunday evening at 19∶30 including recent blockbusters(大片), theme nights and classics.
Classes:
Show your talents or learn from the beginning with our various classes and workshops which include Life Drawing, Photography, and Drama.
Throughout the year ISH holds numerous exhibitions, recitals(公演) and performances put on by the students. To get more information, e-mail: create @ish.org.uk.
TRAVEL
Travel Club:
The Travel Club runs a comprehensive (广泛的)schedule of day and weekend trips to British and European destinations. Students get the chance to explore new parts of the UK and meet people from all over the world. Sightseeing, canoeing, hiking, eating out, socializing and meeting local people are what you can expect to experience during the trips. E-mail: travel @ish.org.uk.
ACTIVE
Classes:
Try out our Martial Arts and Fitness Classes every week night including Kick Boxing, Tai Chi, Kung Fu and Shaolin as well as Yoga, and Aerobics classes. All our classes are run by qualified and professional instructors.
Sports:
Join in our recreational and team sports such as football, volleyball, running, table tennis, and chess.
ISH Dangerous Sports Club:
We also organize such activities as go-karting, pain-balling and adventure weekends. E--mail: active @ish.org.uk.
48. If you are a member of ISH, you can do all the following except ______.
A. traveling to some European countries
B. attending all kinds of interesting lectures
C. attending French classes
D. meeting students from all around the world
49. If you want to learn to take photos, which of the following e-mail addresses is useful to you?
A. learn @ish.org.uk. B. travel @ish.org.uk.
C. active @ish.org.uk. D. create @ish.org.uk.
50. If you like some adventure on weekends, you'd better _______.
A. join ISH Dangerous Sports Club B. join the Travel Club
C. go to Sunday Cinema D. take some Fitness Classes
Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary materials are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.
44. What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?
A. Using too much packaging. B. Recycling too many wastes.
C. Making more products than necessary. D. Having more material than is needed.
45. The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.
A. the tendency of cutting household waste B. the increase of packaging recycling
C. the rapid growth of super markets D. the fact of packaging overuse
46. According to the text, recycling ______.
A. helps control the greenhouse effect
B. means burning packaging for energy
C. is the solution to gas shortage
D. leads to a waste of land
47. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Fighting wastefulness is difficult.
B. Needless material is mostly recycled.
C. People like collecting recyclable waste.
D. The author is proud of their consumer culture.
Life will probably be very different in 2050. First of all, it looks as though TV channels will have disappeared by 2050. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programmers, newspapers and books will come to us in this way.
In many places, agriculture is developing quickly and people are growing fruit and vegetables for export. This uses a lot of water. Therefore, there could be serious shortages. Some futurologists (未来学家) predict that water could be the cause of wars if we don’t act now.
In future, cars will run on new,clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are.By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Also, by 2050, space planes will fly people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just two hours.
A number of large companies now use robots instead of people who ask for pay rises, or go on strike, and can not work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere—in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people see and hear again. In the last few years, scientists have discovered how to control genes and have already produced clones of animals. By 2050,scientists will be able to produce clones of people and decide how they look, how they behave and how much intelligence they have. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?
40. By 2050, people will get information mainly by _______.
A. watching TV B. reading newspapers
C. listening to the radioD. turning to a website
41. From the second paragraph, we learn that _______.
A. the demand for water will increase a lot in the future
B. future wars will lead to an increasing need for water
C. there can be no agriculture without enough water
D. the population will decrease for lack of water
42. Which of the following is NOT a reality at the present time?
A. Scientists have found out how to control some genes.
B. Cars have computers which tell drivers their positions.
C. People can learn about what has happened anywhere on the Internet.
D. Robots have completely replaced humans in some factories.
43. What will play the biggest part in the quality of life in the future?
A. Medicine. B. Technology. C. Education. D. Agriculture.