High school graduation—the bittersweet feelings are as much a part of me now as they were twenty-one years ago.
As graduation day approached, excitement increased. Being out of high school meant I was finally coming of age. Soon I would be on my own, making my own decisions, doing what I wanted without someone looking over my shoulder and it meant going to school with boys—a welcome change coming from an all-girl high school. There was never any question in my mind that I would go to a college away from home. My mother’s idea, on the other hand, was just the opposite. Trying her best not to force her preferences on me, she would subtly ask whether I had considered particular schools—all of which happened to be located in or near my hometown of Chicago. Once it was established that, as long as the expenses would not be too heavy a burden on the family budget, I would be going away anyway, my family’s perspective changed. Their concern shifted from whether I was going away to how far. The schools I was considering on the East Coast suddenly looked much more attractive than those in California. But which college I would attend was just one of what seemed like a never-ending list of unknowns: What would college be like? Would I be unbearably lonely not knowing anyone else who was going to the same school? Would the other students like me? Would I make friends easily? Would I miss my family so much that I wouldn’t be able to stand it? And what about the work—would I be able to keep up? (Being an A student in high school seemed to offer little assurance I would be able to survive college.) What if the college I selected turned out to be a horrible mistake? Would I be able to transfer to another school?
Then panic set in. My feelings took a 180-degree turn. I really didn’t want to leave high school at all, and it was questionable whether I wanted to grow up after all. It had been nice being respected as a senior by the underclass students for the past year; I didn’t enjoy the idea of being on the bottom rung of the ladder again.
Despite months of expectation, nothing could have prepared me for the impact of the actual day. As the familiar melody of “Pomp and Circumstance” echoed in the background, I looked around at the other figures in white caps and gowns as we seriously lined into the hall. Tears welled up uncontrollably in my eyes, and I was consumed by a rush of sadness. As if in a daze（恍惚）, I rose from my seat when I heard my name called and slowly crossed the stage to receive my diploma. As I reached out my hand, I knew that I was reaching not just for a piece of paper but for a brand-new life. Exciting as the future of a new life seemed, it wasn’t easy saying good-bye to the old one—the familiar faces, the familiar routine. I would even miss that chemistry class I wasn’t particularly fond of and the long travel each day between home and school that I hated. Good or bad, it was what I knew.
That September, I was fortunate to attend a wonderful university in Providence, Rhode Island. I needn’t have worried about liking it. My years there turned out to be some of the best years of my life. And as for friends, some of the friendships I formed there I still treasure today. Years later, financial difficulties forced my high school to close its doors for good. Although going back is impossible, it’s comforting to know I can revisit my special memories any time. In this article the author mainly describes ________.
| A．the great excitement during the months leading up to the big event—the graduation ceremony |
| B．her mixed feelings during the months leading towards graduation and on the actual graduation day |
| C．her happiness to be admitted to a wonderful university |
| D．her eagerness to go to a wonderful university far away from home |
The author’s mother ________.
| A．did not care very much which college her daughter went to |
| B．was greatly disappointed at her decision to go to a college on the East Coast |
| C．willingly allowed her to go to a college of her own choice |
| D．wished that she would study at a college or university close to home |
Expectation and excitement suddenly changed into anxiety and fear. Which of the following did the author NOT include as a reason for that change?
| A．Growing homesick might seriously affect her academic performance at college. |
| B．She might make a wrong choice and enter a university she did not like at all. |
| C．Her being a top student at high school did not mean a successful academic career for her. |
| D．It might be hard for her to make friends under new circumstances. |
On the actual graduation day, ________.
| A．the familiar tune “Pomp and Circumstance” brought tears to her eyes |
| B．she went through the whole ceremony in a daze |
| C．she came to realize that she had a passion for her old school |
| D．reaching out for diploma, she was aware of a new stage in life ahead of her |
The author adopts a(n)________ tone in writing this article.
| A．matter-of-fact | B．serious |
| C．emotional | D．indifferent |
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Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all — one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degree; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
59. The writer of the passage thinks that _______.
A. education can settle most of the world’s problems
B. free education for all probably leads to a perfect world
C. free education won’t help to solve problems
D. all the social problems can’t be solved by education
60. The writer wants to prove that _______.
A. our society needs all kinds of jobs
B. our society needs free education for all
C. a farmer is more important than a professor
D. work with hands is the most important
61. The purpose of education is _______.
A. to choose officials for the country
B. to prepare children mainly for their future work
C. to let everyone receive education fit for him
D. to build a perfect world
62. The passage tells us about _______ of the education.
A. the means B. the system C. the value D. the type
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第三部分：阅读理解（共四篇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中选出最佳选项。
For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming home to an empty house. Some deal with the situation by watching TV. Some may hide. But all of them have something in common. They spend part of each day alone. They are called latchkey children. They’re children who look after themselves while their parents work. And their bad condition has become a subject of concern.
Lynette Long was once the headmaster of an elementary school. She said, “We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. I was constantly telling them to put them inside shirts. There were so many keys, it never came to my mind what they meant.” Slowly, she learned they were house keys.
She and her husband began talking to the children who had them. They learned of the impact(影响) working couples and single parents were having on their children. Fear is the biggest problem faced by children at home alone. One in each three latchkey children the Longs talked to reported being scared. Many had nightmares and were worried about their own safety.
The most common way latchkey children deal with their fears is by hiding. It might be in a shower stall, under a bed in a closet. The second is TV. They’ll often play it at high volume. It’s hard to get statistics on latchkey children, the Longs learned. Most parents are slow to admit they leave their children alone.
56. The main idea about “latchkey children” is that they _______.
A. are growing in numbers
B. are also found in middle-class neighborhoods
C. watch too much television during the day
D. suffer problems from being left alone
57. The main feeling these children have when they are at home by themselves is _______.
A. tiredness B. freedom C. loneliness D. fear
58. We may draw a conclusion that _______.
A. latchkey children enjoy having such a large amount of time alone
B. latchkey children try to hide their feeling
C. latchkey children often watch TV with their parents
D. it’s difficult to find out how many latchkey children there are
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Newspapers are not nearly as popular today as they were in the past．There are not very many people who seriously read a newspaper every day. Most people read only the sports pages，the advice or the gossip columns，the comics, and perhaps the classified advertisements．Most people don’t take the time to read the real news. Newspapers attempt to catch the reader’s interest with pictures and exciting headlines. These techniques are used on the front page because it is the first thing you see when you pick up the paper．The first page attracts attention and encourages the reader to look through the rest of the paper. This is why editors always look for a good first page story and headline to make them stop and look．If the headline is horrible enough or frightening enough or wild enough，perhaps they will go on to read the front page．However，they may just read the headlines，but that is all，then they turn to the sports page，or comics，or advertisements. It seems that people do not want the news from a newspaper anymore. They say they get the news on the television now．
More people watch television news because it is easier and more interesting than reading a newspaper．What about you? Do you read news from a newspaper? Do you think it is easier to get
the news from television? Or do you care about news at all? Would you mind if there were no news?
50．According to the passage，newspaper are________．
A．inure popular today B．less popular today
C．as popular as before D．getting more and more popular
51．We can know from the passage that the newspaper editors think the important part of the newspaper is___________．
A．the front page B． the sports page
C．the headlines D．the classified advertisements
52．According to the author，which of the following newspapers will most probably attract the reader’s attention?
A．The ones with interesting pictures and exciting headlines on the front page．
B．The ones with sports news on the front page．
C．The ones with classified ads on the front page．
D．The ones with gossip columns on the front p
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Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.
“I would never have said to my mom, ‘Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’ ” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”
Music was not the only gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.
Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent-child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue into adulthood.
No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”
But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents. “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”
Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourages everyone to have a say.
“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”
46. Which of the following shows that the generation gap is disappearing?
A. Parents help their children develop interests in more activities.
B. Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities.
C. Parents and children talk more about sex and drugs.
D. Parents share more interests with their children.
47. The change in today’s parent-child relationship is _________.
A. more confusion among parents
B. new equality between parents and children
C.1ess respect for parents from children
D. more strictness and authority on the part of parents
48. By saying “today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side.” the author means that today’s parents _________.
A. follow the trend of the change B. can set a limit to the change
C. fail to take the change seriously D. have little difficulty adjusting to the change
49. The purpose of the passage is to _________.
A. describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with
B. discuss the development of the parent—child relationship
C. suggest the ways to handle the parent—child relationship
D. compare today’s parent—child relationship with that in the past
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Few laws are so effective that you can see results just days after they take effect. But in the nine days since the federal cigarette tax more than doubled---to $1.01 per pack---smokers have jammed telephone “quit lines” across the country seeking to kick the habit.
This is not a surprise to public health advocates. They’ve studied the effect of state tax increases for years, finding that smokers, especially teens, are price sensitive. Nor is it a shock to the industry, which fiercely fights every tax increase.
The only wonder is that so many states insist on closing their ears to the message. Tobacco taxes improve public health, they raise money and most particularly, they deter people from taking up the habit as teens, which is when nearly all smokers are addicted. Yet the rate of taxation varies widely.
In Manhattan, for instance, which has the highest tax in the nation, a pack of Marlboro Light Kings cost $10.06 at one drugstore Wednesday. In Charleston, S.C., where the 7-bent-a-pack tax is the lowest in the nation. The price was $4.78.
The influence is obvious.
In New York, high school smoking hit a new low in the latest surveys----13.8%,far below the national average. By comparison, 26% of high school students smoke in Kentucky, Other low-tax states have similarly depressing teen-smoking records.
Hal Rogers, Representative from Kentucky, like those who are against high tobacco taxes, argues that the burden of the tax falls on low-income Americans “who choose to smoke.”
That’s true, But there is more reason in keeping future generations of low-income workers from getting hooked in the first place. As for today’s adults, if the new tax drives them to quit, they will have more to spend on their families, cut their risk of cancer and heart disease and feel better.
41. The text is mainly about___________.
A. the price of cigarettes B. the rate of teen smoking
C. the effect of tobacco tax increase D. the differences in tobacco tax rate
42. What does the author think is a surprise?
A. Teen smokers are price sensitive.B. Some states still keep the tobacco tax low.
C. Tobacco taxes improve public health. D. Tobacco industry fiercely fights the tax rise.
43. The underlined word "deter" in Paragraph 3 most probably means___________.
A. discourage B. remove C. benefit D. free
44. Rogers’ attitude towards the low-income smokers might be that of________.
A. tolerance B. unconcern C. doubt D. sympathy
45. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. The new tax will be beneficial in the long run.
B. Low-income Americans are more likely to fall ill.
C. Future generations will be hooked on smoking.
D. Adults will depend more on their families.