I was 18 when Tim and I began to date. Shy and quiet, I’d met his parents once before but hadn’t ventured to say more than “ Hello”. This particular evening, however, we were taking them out to dinner for their anniversary and I wanted to make a good impression.
Tim and his parents arrived and I was out the door in a flash. My good impression began with “ punctual”. I sat in the backseat beside Tim nervously watching his father’s eyes glance into the rearview mirror to examine me.
Tim and his parents had already decided on their favorite Mexican restaurant and that was fine with me; the dim lighting would hide the rising flush of my cheeks, and if anyone noticed, I could blame it on the peppers. With proper table manners I managed to survive halfway through dinner without making any unforgivable mistakes. However, in the midst of conversation I reached for my iced tea, raised the glass to my lips and very quickly discovered I had picked up the wrong glass.
I quickly lowered the glass and set it back but it was too late; I had burnt my eyebrows, the hair in my nose, and curl over my forehead! I looked up slowly, praying no one had seen me, but all eyes at the table had seen and each face stared at me in shocked silence. Excusing myself, I ran to the restroom.
I would have hidden there forever but I’d barely gotten in the door when Tim’s mother arrived. “ Ah, honey,” she said, holding out her arms to me. “ Everything will be just fine.”
Tim and I eventually married. We had a small ceremony and a family reception afterwards held at the very restaurant where this incident occurred. This time, however, I didn’t drink any candles… only a Margarita(一种鸡尾酒名); they were served in different glasses.It can be inferred from the passage that___________.
A.the author had never met her parents-in-law before dinning together |
B.Tim and the author took the bus to get to the restaurant |
C.Tim’s father was curious to know about the author |
D.Tim’s mother was not satisfied with the author’s behavior |
According to the passage, the author______________.
A.felt very sorry for being late meeting Tim’s parents |
B.mistook wine for drinks and got drunk |
C.had her eyebrows burnt because of her nervousness |
D.left a bad impression on Tim’s parents |
What would be the best title of the passage?
A.Please Don’t Drink the Candles |
B.Please Don’t Light the Candles |
C.Please Behave Yourself |
D.You Can Never Make a First Impression for a Second Time |
第三部分阅读理解(共两节,满分40分)
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
Soon it may be harder to stop and smell the roses.
Growing levels of air pollution from power plants and automobiles have reduced flower fragrances (芬芳) by up to 90 percent in the US.That is compared with pre-industrial levels,a new study has found.
The trend is unpleasant for human noses,but may be life - threatening for bees and butterflies.
"Many insects find flowers by folowing the scent(香味) produced by those flowers," said the studies lead author Jose D.Fuentes,an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia.
"The increasing pollution makes it difficult for them to locate the flowers and feed on their nectar(花蜜)."
Scientists have alrady known that flowers produce scent molecules(分子) that bond with pollutants.The process breaks down the plants' sweet smell.
With more pollution in the air,the scent molecules don't remain effective as long and travel shorter distances on the wind.
The new study suggests that in the mid - 19th century,when pollution levels were first recorded,scent molecules would have been able to travel some 1,000 to 1,200 meters.
Today,in the polluted air found downwind of large cities,scentst may only make it some 200 to 300 meters.
The report was recently published in the journal,Atmospheric Environment.
Bee farmers have reported that bee populations are dropping dramatically in many parts of the world in recent years. Could these missing scents be a factor?
Scientists trying to hind the cause of bee population declines have blamed bacteria,pesticides,and even cellphone radiation.
Jay Evans,an entomologist(昆虫学者) at the US Department of Agriculture's bee research laboratory,was interested in the new study.But he says he hasn't seen bee behavior that suggests trouble with scents.
"Over the last couple of summers I don't think the bees in this area were bringing in much less food,"he said.
"It might be that they had to work harder,but it seems like as long as there were bees to collect food they were finding flowers somewhere."
But Fuentes fears that the fading smell of flowers may stress insects that are already faced with other threats.
"The effects shown in these studies will simply exacerbate whatever the bees are going through right now,"he said.
"It's something that is really worthwhile paying attention to."
56.What's the passage mainly about?
A.How greatly air plooution affects our lives.
B.Effects of air pollution on bee populations.
C.Measures to fight air pollution.
D.The rapid decline of bee populations in the world.
57.According to the passage,Jay Evans probably agrees that ______ .
A.bees are the insect that suffers most from air pollution
B.bees are at risk of dying out owing to air pollution
C.the fading smell of flowers doesn't affect bees so greatly as was thought
D.as is often the case,bees fail to locate the flowers because of the missing scents
58.The word"exacerbate" in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.
A.worsen B.improve C.get rid of D.decrease
59.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.The more air pollution there is in a region,the greater the destruction of the flower scents.
B.Bacteria,pesticides,and cellphone radiation are blamed for causing the decline of bees.
C.The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment oculd travel longer and farther.
D.Air pollution does more harm to insects such as bees and butterflies than human beings.
D
Build the highway and watch the town grow.At first a few shops appear and maybe a restaurant.Then a hotel opens. Eventually new house are built. A village is born.
This is also how the virtual world has developed. Think of the Internet as the road carrying information between two computers.Think of the World Wide Web as the village. At first it is just a place on the virtual road where travelers meet. More travelers come bringing new kinds of information. New travelers come bringing new kinds of information.New villages are started.
Every willage has a founder.Tim Berners-Lee is the man who wrote the software programme that led to the foundation of the Word Wide Web.How did he get the idea? He tells us on his own web site. "One of the things computers were not able to do was store in formation from different sources. The dream behind the Web is of a common space in which we communicate by sharing information."
In 1991 his programmmes were placed on to the Internet.Everyone was welcome to use them.
Tim Berners-Lee could have followed the Microsoft route by forming a company to sell the programmes he invented. Or he could have joined another company. But in his view the Web is a language,not a pproduct. Charging a gee for using his programmes would have slowed the growth of the Web.And other companies would make similar products to compete. Instead of one World Wide Web there would be several smaller Webs. Each would use incompatible (不相容的) software. They Web is valuable because it uses a common computer language to reach people and share information. Competing webs would lose this value.Imagine if somebody sent you a bill every time you spoke a world of English.
In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee formed the World Wide Web Consortium,or W3C.More than 200 leading companies and laboratories are represented by W3C. Together they make sure that everyone, no matter what their equipment or solftware,can work equally on the Web.
"The Web can help people to understand the way that others live and love. It helps us understand the humanity of people," he says.
68.The writer's purpose in writing the first two paragraphs is to ______.
A.give us some idea of the Internet
B.give us some idea of the Web
C.tell us how the idea of Web started
D.tell us the idea of the Web is wonderful
69.Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in order to _____
A.place his programmers on the Internet
B.stop smaller webs appearing
C.help people to form a web site
D.let people share all kinds of information
70.According to the text,the disadvantage of competing webs is that they would ______.
A.slow the development of the Web
B.destroy the whole web system
C.lose the value of information
D.waste a lot of money
C
The villagers of Yaluma in Southern Mexico are some of the poorest people in the country. But now they have an extra source of income.They are being paid to grow and develop forests by the organization in charge of Formula One racing (一级方程式赛车),which pumps 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air every year.The idea is that the forests being planted around Yaluma will absorb this amount. It will also provide people there with money while wiping out motor racing's environmental debt.
Projects like this go under the name of "carbon trading". The basic idea is that governments and companies can buy the right to pump CO2 into the air by investing in green projrvyd. They can buy so-called "carbon credits" from countries which have succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions(排放物).
Supporters of carbon trading say that it brings money and green technology to poorer countries.It also provides a new way of doing busingess and spreading prosperity. They point out that the process of globalization will give people everywhere the most possible choice of products and services. Carbon trading is just another way of bringing that about. It is a "win - win" situation.
Opponents argue that nature comes before lifestyle. CO2 emissions need to be reduced, not bought and sold. And they believe that the rich world should lead the way.People might be willing to change the way they live to help save the world, but not to help the rich countries keep a lifestyle that depends on pollution.
Supporters of carbon trading believe in unlimited growth.Opponents believe that nature sets limits to the choices we make on how to live.It is "don't do " against "can do". It is life against lifestyle.
It is believed that modern lives are about choice.For example,the world can choose to take the danger of global warming seriously.And the sooner we choose to do it, the more choices we have about what to do next and the more time we have to do it in. We can also choose to pay no attention to the danger of global warming to keep our lifestyles. Then one day nature may give us no choice at all,and maybe not much of a life,either.
64.Carbon trading is discussed in the text in order to show the importance of ______ .
A.reducing pollution B.taking care of forests
C.spreading prosperity D.choosing lifestyle or nature
65."Carbon credits" may be used to ______.
A.get the right to pump CO2 into the air
B.get the right to pump CO2 into poor countries
C.learn about the way to reduce CO2 emissions
D.improve the way to reduce CO2 emissions
66.We can infer from the text that in the "win - win" situation _____.
A.rich countries perform their duty to help poor countries
B.poor countries get what they need from rich countries
C.both rich countries and poor countries get what they need
D.rich countries learn from poor countries in reducing pollution
67.In the opinion of people who are against carbon trading,the rich countries should ____.
A.guide poor countries in reducing CO2 emissions
B.show by example how to reduce emissions
C.offer more help to save the world
D.improve their lifestyles to keep the world clean
B
Fever has usually been regarded as a threat to health.However,no one has actually proved that fever is dangerous.This fact attracted the attention of Matthew J.Kluger.Imagining that fever might not be as harmful as it had been supposed,Kluger set up a series of experiments with lizards(蜥蜴).
What Kluger and his team did his team did in their first experiment was simple.They put some lizards in a sand-box,one end of which was heated to 44℃,while the other was at a room temperature.It was found that the lizards moved form one part of the box to the other in order to keep a constant temperature of about 38℃.Having shown that normal lizards regulate(调节) their own temperature,Kuger,in a second experiment,then set out to show that lizards,like most other animals,develop fever when infected.This was done by making lizards infected with bacteria (细菌) that were known to cause disease.As the team expected,the infected lizards remained longer in the heated part of the box,until they had raised their body temperatures to two or three degrees above normal.In other words,the sick lizards gave themselves fever.
In a third experiment,the team observed the effect of temperature on the survival of the lizards.One group of infected lizards was given a fever - suppressing(退烧) drug.The other group was given no drug and ran a fever,that is to say,they kept a highter temperature for four or five days before seeking a cooler environment.The results were impressive.Of those which raised their body temperature,all but one remained alive.Of those given the fever - suppressing drug,more than half died.Similar results have since been produced in other animals.For example,infeced fish swim to warmer water,and will die if not allowed to do so.
An important conclusion can be drawn from these experiments.As Kluger points out,lizards have been on earth for hundreds of millions of years.It is reasonable to suppose that a response that is so old has been kept by nature for some purpose.It would appear, therefore, that fever does not make disease worse.Rather it its part of the mechanism(机能) by which infection is controlled.
60.In his experiments,Kluger was hoping to prove that fever ________.
A.is not harmful to lizards
B.is not necessarily bad
C.is necessary for both humans and animals
D.has the same effect on humans and animals
61.The lizards put in the sand - box in the first experiment _____.
A.had a fever B.were not sick C.recovered from disease D.died of heat
62.In the third experiment,the lizards given a fever - suppressing drug died because _____.
A.they had no more fever that they needed
B.they were normal ones and had no fever
C.the drug had no iffect on sick lizards
D.the drug made their body temperature too low
63.How would you understand the underlined words"a response" in the last paragraph?
A.Gause of disease. B.Recovery from disease.
C.Relationship between living D.Natural defense in the body against disease.
第三部分阅读理解(共两节,满分40分)
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
JSC Boggs is an artist who makes money.To be exact,he draws money.In the United States he draws dollars,in Britain pounds and in France francs.Each are almost perfect reproductions,apart from the fact that he writes "Bank of Boggs" or another humorous message on them.
When Boggs goes shopping or for a meal,he offers "Boggs dollars" in the payment for what he wants.He also offers real money.It is up to the people selling the goods to take whichever they prefer.
When a shopkeeper or a restaurant owner takes a "Boggs dollar",he or she gives a receipt in return for the things bought.Boggs then sells the receipt at face value to art collectors.This is how he makes actual money for the times when people will not accept his drawings.
The collector uses the receipt to find the person holding the actual "Boggs dollar" and the two talk over what they think would be a fair price.This gives the shop or restaurant owner the chance to make another profit on the goods he or she sold to Boggs.It means Boggs actually gets paid for buying things.And it means that the collector has a unique work of art---each "Boggs dollar" is separately drawn.
Artists like to make us think.What Boggs wants us to think about is the nature of value and money. What is money really worth? Is value of money the same as personal value? Once "Boggs dollars " have been given away by the artist,they often continuew to circulate and grow on value A "Boggs one dollar bill" may have bought the artist a cup of coffee in New York.Now it may be worth a car or an expensive meal.It all depends on that value a person chooses to give it.
Money used to be worth a certain weight in gold or silver.Now it is just worth whatever the government or the banks.JSC Boggs is trying to start another type of money.People can choose "Boggs dolars" or not.And their value is up to whoever uses them.In a way,"Boggs dollars" are "people's money".
56.How much will Boggs get if he buys a cup of coffee with a "Boggs one dollar bill"?
A.One dollar. B.More than one dollar.
C.Less than one dollar. D.Much more than one dollar.
57.According to the text,the main difference between"value of money "and "personal value" is that ______.
A.they rise or fall separately B.they refer to different people
C.they are decided by different people D.they are decided by different banks
58.What does the writer mean by saying "Boggs dollars are people's money"?
A.They are two different types of money.
B.In fact they are not real money.
C.People can share them and use them among themselves.
D.People are free to use them and deck their value.
59.Choose the girht order in which Boggs gets paid.
a.He buys things with his dollars.
b.He sells the receipt to an art collector.
c.He araws dollars.
d.The art collector finds the shopkeeper to buy his dollars.
e.The shopkeeper gives him a receipt.
A.c - a - e - b - d
B.c - e - b - d - a
C.e - c - b - d - a
D.e - b - c - a - d