阅读理解

  Tom Dyson tried to find out what his new machine could do. One day he fixed the small box to a flowering plant that was growing in a pot. He didn't say anything at all, but he began to think some cruel thoughts.

  “I'm going to cut off these flowers. They're getting old and ugly. So I'll cut them off…”

  The needle on the machine climbed quickly from  zero to 8, then 10, 12, 15. It stopped at 17. The plant was in trouble! Something was worrying it. Was it fear or sadness? The thought of being cut? The flowers bent their heads. They suddenly looked old and tired, and Tom felt sorry for them.

  “No, no!” he cried.“I won't cut you. You're my friends. I just want you to grow and be lovely. I'll take you outside, into the sunshine. You'll like that, won't you?”

  The flowers lifted their heads slowly and seemed to smile at him. The needle returned to zero. Tom put away the machine, picked up the plant and walked outside. It was very nice in the garden that morning.

  All plants enjoy their owner's love and care and kindness. They know the sound of their voice. They also seem to understand people's thoughts. So if you have flowers of your own, think about them with love. They will return your kindness in the only way they can: they will grow strong and beautiful.

1.Choose the right order of the events given in the passage.

[  ]

a.The needle pointed to 17.

b.Tom felt sorry for the flowers.

c.Tom thought of cutting off the flowers.

d.The flowers looked old and tired.

e.Tom fixed the machine to a plant.

f.Tom took the plant outside.

g.The needle returned to zero.

h.Tom cried, “I won't cut you.”

[  ]

A.e; a; g; h; d; b; c; f

B.c; e; d; a; b; h; g; f

C.e; c; a; d; h; b; f; g

D.e; c; a; d; b; h; g; f

2.The only way in which plants can show their love is ________.

[  ]

A.enjoying their owner's love

B.bringing up nicely

C.holding up their heads

D.smiling at their owners

3.According to the passage, which of the following is true?

[  ]

A.Tom wanted to cut off the flowers.

B.Tom said nothing, but the flowers could understand him.

C.The machine didn't work properly.

D.The flowers were getting bad - looking

I needed to buy a digital camera, one that was simply good at taking good snaps (快照), maybe occasionally for magazines. Being the cautious type, I fancied a reliable brand. So I went on the net, spent 15 minutes reading product reviews on good websites, wrote down the names of three top recommendations and headed for my nearest big friendly camera store. There in the cupboard was one of the cameras on my list. And it was on special offer. Oh joy. I pointed at it and asked an assistant, “Can I have one of those?” He looked perturbed (不安).“Do you want to try it first?" he said. It didn't quite sound like a question. "Do I need to?" I replied. "There's nothing wrong with it?" This made him look a bit insulted and I started to feel bad. "No, no. But you should try it," he said encouragingly." Compare it with the others. "

     I looked across at the others: shelves of similar cameras placed along the wall, offering a wide range of slightly different prices and discounts, with each company selling a range of models based around the same basic box. With so many models to choose from, it seemed that I would have to spend hours weighing X against Y, always trying to take Z and possibly H into account at the same time. But when I had finished, I would still have only the same two certainties that I had entered the store with: first, soon after I carried my new camera out of the shop, it would be worth half what I paid for it; and second, my wonderful camera would very quickly be replaced by a new model.

     But something in the human soul whispers that you can beat these traps by making the right choice, the clever choice, the wise choice. In the end, I agreed to try the model I had chosen. The assistant seemed a sincere man. So I let him take out my chosen camera from the cupboard, show how it took excellent pictures of my fellow shoppers... and when he started to introduce the special features, I interrupted to ask whether I needed to buy a carry-case and a memory card as well.

      Why do we think that new options (选择) still offer us anything new? Perhaps it is because they offer an opportunity to avoid facing the fact that our real choices in this culture are far more limited than we would like to imagine.

1. The shop assistant insisted that the writer should __ .

     A. try the camera to see if there was anything wrong with it

     B. compare the camera he had chosen with the others

     C. get more information about different companies

     D. trust him and stop asking questions

2. What does the writer mean by "it would be worth half what I paid for it"  (Paragraph 2) ?

     A. He should get a 50% discount.

     B. The price of the camera was unreasonably high.

     C. The quality of the camera was not good.

     D. The camera would soon fall in value.

3. The writer decided to try the model he had chosen because he __ .

     A. knew very little about it

     B. didn't trust the shop assistant

     C. wanted to make sure the one he chose would be the best

     D. had a special interest in taking pictures of his fellow shoppers

4. It can be inferred from the passage that in the writer's opinion, __

     A. people waste too much money on cameras

     B. cameras have become an important part of our daily life

     C. we don't actually need so many choices when buying a product

     D. famous companies care more about profit than quality


D
Taste is suc.h a subjective matter that we dori't usually conduct preference tests for food. The most you can say about anyone's preference is that it's one person's opinion.But because the two bigcola companies-Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola-are marketed so aggressively, we've wondered how big arole taste-preference actually plays in brand loyalty.We set up a taste test that challenged people who identified themselves as either Coca-cola or Pepsi fans: Find your brand in a blind tasting.
we inwited staff wolunteers who had a strong liking for either Coca-Cola Classic or Pepsi, Diet Coke.or Diet Pepsi.These were people who thought they'd have no trouble telling their brand from the oLher brancl.
We eventuallv located 19 regular cola drinkers and 27 diet cola drinkers.Then we fed them with four unidentified samples of cola one at a time, regular colas for the one group, diet versions for the other.rOVe asked them to tell us whether each sample wa.s Coke or Pepsi; then we analyzed the records statistically to compare the participants' choices \~-ith what mere guesswork could have accom-plished.
Getting all four samples right was a tough test, biit not too tough, we thought, for people whobelieved they could recognize their brand. In the end, only 7 0ut of 19 regular cola drinkers correct-ly identified their brand of choice in all four trial.s. The diet-cola drinkers did a little worse-only 7 out of 27 identified all four samples correctly.
Both groups did better than chance would predict, but nearly half the participants in each group made the wrong choice two or more times.Two people got all'four samples vrrong. Overall, hal.f theparticipants did about as well on the last round of tasting as on the first, so tiredness, or taste burn-out, was not a factor. Our preference test results suggest that only a few Pepsi participants and Coke fans may really be able to tell their favorite brand by taste and price.
71.According to the passage the preference test was conducted in order to______
A.show that a person's opinion about taste is mere guesswork
B.compare the ability of the participants in choosing their drinks
C.find out the role taste preference plays in a person's drinking
D.reveal which cola is more to the liking of the dr-inkcrs
72.The statistics recorded in the preference tests show that         
A.there is not much difference in taste between Coca-Cola and Pepsi
B.few people had trouble telling Coca-Cola from Pepsi
C.people's tastes differ from one another
D.Coca-Cola and Pepsi are people's two most favorite drinks
73.It is implied in the first paragraph that______
A.the competition between the two colas is very strong
B.blind tasting is necessary for identifying fans
C.the purpose of taste test is to promote the sale of colas
D.the improvement of quality is the chief concern of the two cola companies
74.The underlined word "bumout" here refers to the state of          .
A.being seriously bumt in the skin
B.being badly damaged by fire
C.being unable to bum for lack of fuel
D.being unable to function because of too much use
75.The author's purpose in writing this passage is to           .
A.emphasize that taste and price are closely related to each other
B.recommend that blind tasting be introduced in the quality control'of colas
C.show that taste preference is highly subjective
D.argue that taste testing is an important marketing strategy

An 8-year-old girl was dragged about 900 feet by a school bus today in Livingston County.
According to State Police, the incident occurred about 2:40 pm on State Route 436 in the town of Ossian after three sisters were dropped off the bus.
As the last sister was leaving the bus, driver John Coley, 62 , of Wayland, Steuben County, told the police that he was not paying attention when he closed the door and trapped her backpack inside. Coley then continued 900 feet before he realized the girl was being dragged, State Police said.
The girl was hurt and was transported to Nicholas H Noyes Memorial Hospital in Dansville,Livingston County, by Dansville Ambulance.
Another 8-year-old child on the bus said he hit his head on the seat in front of him when the bus came to a sudden stop, causing an earache.
●Conservation staff in New Zealand have put down 33 stranded(搁浅的)whales after several attempts to refloat them failed.
The whales were shot on Farewell Spit on the South Island. Department of Conservation area manager John Mason says staff and hundreds of volunteers had tried all week to get the whales refloated.
He says they thought they were successful on Wednesday when they got the whales into deep water——but were saddened on Thursday to find that they had swum back ashore. He says the condition of the whales had significantly become worse.
As well as the 33 whales that were shot,36 had died naturally since Monday and 17 were successfully refloated. 13 remain unknown.
【小题1】The last sister was dragged by the bus because______________.

A.she stood too close to the bus when getting off
B.the bus driver stopped the bus suddenly
C.something was wrong with the bus door
D.her backpack was stuck in the closed door
【小题2】It can be inferred from the first news that______________.
A.three sisters were dragged about 900 feet by a school bus
B.the driver stopped the bus immediately he realized his mistake
C.two children were hurt and sent to hospital
D.a boy was hurt when the bus started suddenly
【小题3】How many whales were trapped ashore in total?
A.33.B.36.C.99.D.13.
【小题4】The 33 refloated whales returned ashore on______________.
A.MondayB.TuesdayC.WednesdayD.Thursday

 

 

第四部分 写作技能 (共两节,满分25)

第一节   双向翻译 (共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)

    请根据上下文内容,将文中划线部分译成汉语或者英语。

In 1901, H.G. Wells, an English writer, wrote a book describing a trip to the moon. When the explorers landed on the moon, 61.他们发现月亮上到处都是地下城市. They expressed their surprise to the “moon people” they met. In turn, the “moon people” expressed their surprise. “Why,” they asked, “are you travelling to outer space when you don’t even use your inner space?”

H.G. Wells could only imagine the travel to the moon. In 1969, human beings did land on the moon. 62. People today know that there are no underground cities on the moon. However, the question that the “moon people”asked is still an interesting one. 63. A growing number of scientists are seriously thinking about it.

Underground systems are already in place. Many cities have underground car parks. In some cities, such as Tokyo, Seoul and Montreal, 64. 有许多地下购物区. The “Chunnel”, a tunnel connecting England and France, is now completed.

But what about underground cities? Japan’s Taisei Corporation is designing a network of

underground systems, called “Alice Cities”. The designers imagine using surface space for public parks and using underground space for flats, offices, shopping, and so on. A solar dome (太阳能穹顶) would cover the whole city.

Supporters of underground development say that building down rather than building up is a good way to use dying Earth’s space. 65. They say the surface can be used for farms, parks, and gardens. H.G. Wells’ “moon people” would agree. Would you?

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