Topreventthedesertscomingnear,-优题课

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。
When Charles Stratton was five, he stopped growing．His mother took him to see the famous showman, P．T．Barnum．Mr．Barnum thought a small person would be the perfect addition to his show．He hired Charles’ parents along with him, and they traveled the world together．
He gave the two-foot-tall Charles a name, General Tom Thumb．He taught Tom how to sing, dance, act and tell jokes．When he felt Tom was ready to perform on stage, he made up ads．To stir up great interest, he said that Tom was eleven years old and had come from England．
During the show, Tom fought battles pretendedly with tall people．He also danced upon a wooden plate held by a person who was eight feet tall．Tom’s act was very popular and brought in a lot of money．By the time Tom was an adult, he had grown very rich．He had become a billionaire at the age of twenty five．
Fortunately for Tom, Mr．Barnum added more little people to his show, and Tom became lucky in love as well．One of the little people was Lavinia Warren, a schoolteacher．Tom was able to win her love, and they married．
The ceremony and reception were the talk of the town．They were attended by many rich and famous people and by about 2000 guests．Crowds filled the streets of New York to have a look at their tiny wedding marriage．The couple even met with President Abraham Lincoln on their honeymoon just before going to live in Tom’s house in Connecticut．
Their wedding, which took place during the Civil War, provided a welcome escape from the sad problems of war．Not willing to let this bit of sunshine fade, communities throughout the country sponsored（发起） “Tom Thumb” weddings．In these weddings, small boys and girls, all dressed up, went through marriage ceremony for fun．
1．“Talk of the town” means_________．
A．it was in the newspaper B．people spread bad rumors about it
C．it was the most popular happenings D．it was discussed in a city meeting
2．What does the author think about Tom’s wedding?
A．It helped people cheer up in a dark time．B．People gave it too much of their attention．
C．It was funny and ridiculous．D．Tom and Lavinia were stupid．
3．Tom would dance on a wooden plate held by a person who was eight feet tall because______．
A．the wooden plate would make it sound as if Tom was dancing
B．it made Tom look taller
C．the eight–foot–tall man was the only tall person Tom trusted
D．the difference between them would make Tom look even smaller
4．What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A．Weddings always make people feel full of sunshine．
B．People are always disappointed during war time．
C．Entertainment can serve an important purpose．
D．People should be married when they are small children．

Students throughout the world spend their money in different ways. A detailed study on student spending indicated that young people's spending habits have changed greatly over the past few years. The study also says that the change is about the same around the world, however. Here are some examples of popular student spending habits---both healthy and also unhealthy---around the world today.
Students these days have too much brand awareness, so their spending on clothes is now quite high. On average, students buy one or two complete sets of new clothes each month, and this makes their total spending higher.
Student spending shows quite an up-and-down pattern as they get older. Students spend a lot more money in high school than before their high school years because when they enter high school, their exposure (接触到) to branded goods increases. As the students get close to graduation, their expenses start to go down. This is the time when they have to become more responsible about money and start to understand its importance.
Students also spend a lot more on entertainment than their parents did when they were young, because of the easy access to entertainment these days. Shopping is considered to be quite entertaining because of all the different forms of amusement presented by shopping malls. These attract students to buy things.
Student spending on food hasn't increased much, but there has been a marked increase in the use of alcohol. There are several more places in which students can drink now. The culture of having parties has also grown a lot among students too, and students usually end up spending a lot on alcohol in such places.
This is not such a bad situation, actually. The study indicates that although student spending has shot through the roof, at the same time, they are financially much stronger today than they were in the past. This is compensation (补偿，回报), and probably it is just another branch of the life that we are living in this speedily advancing world.
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Unhealthy student spending habits. B. Why student spending is changing.
C. How a student should spend money. D. A study on student spending.
2. Why do students spend less money just before graduation?
A. They see fewer products.
B. They are more conscious of the value of money.
C. They have no time to entertain themselves or go shopping.
D. Their spending on clothing goes down.
3. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Student spending habits are becoming worse and worse.
B. Today's students spend more money on entertainment than on clothing.
C. Today's students are better at earning money than their parents.
D. Student spending on food has increased the least.
4. Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
①Paragraph 1; ②="Paragraph" 2; ③="Paragraph" 3; ④="Paragraph" 4;
⑤="Paragraph" 5; ⑥="Paragraph" 6;

This is a dangerous world we live in. The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, ect. You know this because you’ve heard all the statistics（数据） on the news and in the paper. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little.
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous. For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors（肿瘤）, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statement is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made a mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background.
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave our information that is different from his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightening strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think more about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people in danger of a lightning strike. When you think about it again, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at the statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s. To be warned is just to be prepared.
1What’s the author’s attitude towards the growing trend of reporting only part of the information?
A.Disapproving B. Positive C. Indifferent D. Dangerous
2.In the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest?
A.We are now living in a dangerous world.
B.We get a lot of false statistics from the media.
C.There are around us more and more murders diseases, ect.
D.Statistics alone without full background don’t give us an accurate picture of things.
3.What’s the purpose of the writer’s using the two examples in the second paragraph?
A.To argue that high school students are easily persuaded.
B.To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous.
C.To show the danger of reporting only part of the information.
D.To warn us of the harmful substance around us.
4.Relative information is often left out because ___________________.
A.it is not important
B.the author is trying to show what he or she says is true
C.readers will consider other important information
D.readers are able to form an opinion with half-truths
5.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world.
B.The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control.
C.Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong.
D.We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides.

People tend to think of computers as isolated machines, working away all by themselves. Some personal computers do without an outside link, like someone's secret cabin in the woods. But just as most of homes are tied to a community by streets, bus routes and electric lines, computers that exchange intelligence are part of a community local, national and even global network joined by telephone connections.
The computer network is a creation of the electric age, but it is based on old-fashioned trust. It cannot work without trust. A rogue (流氓) loose in a computer system called hacker is worse than a thief entering your house. He could go through anyone's electronic mail or add to, change or get rid of anything in the information stored in the computer's memory. He could even take control of the entire system by inserting his own instructions in the software that runs it. He could shut the computer down whenever he wished, and no one could stop him. Then he could program the computer to erase any sign of his ever having been there.
Hacking, our electronic-age term for computer break-in is more and more in the news, intelligent kids vandalizing（破坏）university records, even pranking (恶作剧) about in supposedly safeguarded systems. To those who understand how computer networks are increasingly regulating life in the late 20th century, these are not laughing matters. A potential for disaster is building: A dissatisfied former insurance-company employee wipes out information from some files; A student sends out a "virus", a secret and destructive command, over a national network. The virus copies itself at lightning speed, jamming the entire network thousands of academic, commercial and government computer systems. Such disastrous cases have already occurred. Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer. Destroying a system responsible for air-traffic control at a busy airport, or knocking out the telephones of a major city, is a relatively easy way to spread panic. Yet neither business nor government has done enough to strengthen its defenses against attack. For one thing, such defenses are expensive; for another, they may interrupt communication, the main reason for using computers in the first place.
1. People usually regard computers as __________.
A. part of a network B. means of exchanging intelligence
C. personal machines disconnected from outside
D. a small cabin at the end of a street .
2. The writer mentions “ a thief ”in the second paragraph most probably to .
A. show that a hacker is more dangerous than a thief
B. tell people that thieves like to steal computers nowadays
C. demand that a computer network should be set up against thieves
D. look into the case where hackers and thieves are the same people
3. According to the passage , a hacker may do all the damages below EXCEPT .
A. attacking people’s e-mails . B. destroying computer systems .
C. creating many electronic-age terms .
D. entering into computer systems without being discovered
4. By saying “ Now exists the possibility of terrorism by computer ”(the underlined ) the writer means that _______.
A. some employees may erase information from some files
B. students who send out a “ virus ”may do disastrous damages to thousands of computers
C. some people may spread fear in public by destroying computer systems
D. some terrorists are trying to contact each other using electronic mails

Section One
The city is an accumulation of human civilization. Just as the American social philosopher (哲学家) Lewis Mumford put it, it is a special system which, fine and compact, has been designed to preserve the fruits of human civilization. Many Western languages have developed their versions of the term “civilization” from the same Latin (拉丁语的) word “civitas”(meaning “city” ), and it is by no means a coincidence. The city has played a significant role in the perfection of order in human society.
Section Two
The emblem, showing the image of three people ― you, me, him/her holding hands together, symbolizes the big family of mankind. Inspired by the shape of the Chinese character “世” (meaning the world), the design conveys the organizers' wish to host an Expo which is of global scale and which showcases the various urban cultures of the world.
Section Three
Created from the inspiration of Chinese character “人”, the design roots deeply in Chinese culture. It tells the world the eternal core (永恒的核心) and theme of Shanghai World Expo will be always human. The mascot “Haibao” will become the messenger for the theme of World Expo 2010 Shanghai China “Better City, Better Life”.
The basic structure of the Chinese character “人” in which each stroke supports each other also shows the concept that the beautiful life should depends on mutual-help. If the human are willing to support one another, the harmony among human, nature, and society will be available. Such an urban life will be nice.
Haibao’s confident smile is expressing his sincere greeting from China ― “World Expo 2010 Shanghai China welcomes you!”
1. Which correctly matches the sections with the pictures they describe?

Pictures
A.	Section One	Section Two	Section Three
B.	Section Two	Section Three	Section One
C.	Section Three	Section Two	Section One
D.	Section Three	Section One	Section Two

2. In Section Three, the second paragraph explains how the creation is connected with the _____ of the Chinese word “人”.
A. story B. meaning C. shape D. usage
3. The underlined word “stroke” in the second paragraph of Section Three means ______.
A. one of the ideas a word has B. a line made by a writing tool
C. a member of a family or the society D. a person who has met with trouble