IV. 阅读理解(30%)The future is time that is to come. The future is not the present or the past. It is later. We have seen many possible futures in science fiction. They range from the world’s polar ice 题目和参考答案——青夏教育精英家教网—

II.阅读理解( 满分34分)
A couple from Minneapolis decided to go to Florida for a long weekend to warm themselves up during one particularly icy cold winter. They planned to stay at the very same hotel where they spent their honeymoon 20 years ago. They both had jobs, so it was decided that her husband would fly to Florida on a Thursday, and his wife would follow him the next day. Upon arriving as planned, the husband checked into the hotel. There he decided to open his laptop(笔记本电脑) and send his wife an e-mail back in Minneapolis. However, he accidentally left off one letter in her address and sent the e-mail without noticing his error.
In the mean time: In Houston, a woman had just returned from her husband’s burial. He was a minister of many years who had been “called home to glory” following a heart attack. The woman checked her e-mail, expecting message from family and friends. Upon reading the first message, she fainted(昏厥)and fell to the floor. Her son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor and saw the computer screen which read:
To: My Loving Wife
From: Your Departed Husband
Subject: I’ve arrived!
I’ve just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful(平静)as mine was.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.
1. Why did the couple decide to go to Florida for weekend?
A. To visit their family and friends         B. To escape from the cold winter
C. To escape from their busy work         D. To attend a friend’s funeral
2. What mistake did the husband make after checking into the hotel?
A. He checked into a wrong hotel           B. He forget to bring the laptop
C. He misspelled her wife’s address         D. He forgot to mail his letter
3. The expression “called home to glory” probably suggests that the man had______.
A. gone back to his hometown            B. called his family to say hello
C. been awarded an honor               D. died and gone to heaven
4. How did the woman probably feel after reading the e-mail?
A. Pleased       B. Inspired       C. Frightened         D. Moved
5. Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. The woman’s husband died of a heart attack
B. The woman liked to chat with her friends by e-mail
C. The couple held their wedding in Florida 20 years ago.
D. His wife wouldn’t go to Florida for his error.

In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We’re pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve created various justifications（辩解）that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-developed panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. What causes the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite（精英）degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All seems right but mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures—professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance（提高） their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, surprisingly, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life’s only competition. In the next competition—the job market and graduate school—the results may change. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of famous universities didn’t.
So, parents, take it easy（lighten up）. The stakes (利害关系) have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
1. Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A. They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B. They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C. They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D. They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
2. Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A. They want to increase their children’s chances of entering a prestigious college.
B. They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C. Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D. Elite universities now enroll fewer student than they used to.
3. What does the author mean by “kids count more than their colleges” Line1, para.4?
A. Continuing education is more important to a person’s success.
B. A person’s happiness should be valued more than their education.
C. Kids’ actual abilities are more important than their college background.
D. What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
4. What does Krueger’s study tell us?
A. Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B. Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C. Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D. Connections built in prestigious universities may be kept long after graduation.
5. One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A. they earn less than their peers from other institutions　　
B. they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C. they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation　
D. they overemphasize their qualifications in job application

The first people who gave names to hurricanes were those who knew them best — the people of Puerto Rico. The small island of Puerto Rico is in the West Indies, off the coast of Florida. This is where all the hurricanes begin that strike the east coast of the United States. Often they pass near Puerto Rico or cross it on their way north. The people of Puerto Rico expect some of these unwelcome visitors every year. Each one is named after the Saint’s Day on which it arrives. Two of the most destructive storms were the Santo Ana in 1840 and the San Ciriaco in 1899.
Giving girls’ names to hurricanes is a fairly new idea. It all began with a story called “Storm”, written by George Stewart in 1941. In it a weatherman amused himself by naming storms after girls he knew. He named one Maria. The story describes how she Maria grew and developed, and how she changed the lives of people when she struck the United States.
Weathermen of the U.S. Army and Navy used the same system during World WarⅡ. They were studying weather conditions over the Pacific Ocean. One of their duties was to warn American ships and planes when a storm was coming. Whenever they spotted one, they gave it a girl’s name. The first one of the year was given a name beginning with [A]. The second one got a name beginning with [B]. They used all the letters from A to W, and still the storms kept coming. They had to use three lists from A to W to have enough names to go around. This was the first list of hurricane names that followed the alphabet. It served as a model for the system the Weather Bureau (局) introduced in 1942.
Before 1950 the Weather Bureau had no special system for naming hurricanes. When a hurricane was born down in the West Indies, the Weather Bureau simply collected information about it. It reported how fast the storm was moving and where it would go next. Weather reports warned people in the path of the hurricane, so that they could do whatever was necessary to protect themselves.
This system worked out fine as long as weather reports talked about only one hurricane at a time. But one week in September 1950 there were three hurricanes at the same time. The things began to get confused. Some people got the hurricanes mixed up and didn’t know which was which. This convinced the Weather Bureau that it needed a code for naming the storms in order to avoid confusion in the future.
1．Hurricanes were first named after the _________.
A. date on which they occurred
B. place where they began
C. amount of destruction they did
D. particular feature they have
2．The practice of giving girls’ names to hurricanes was started by _________.
A. a radio operator        B. an author                  C. a sailor                     D. local people
3．The purpose for which weathermen of the army and navy began using girls’ names for hurricanes was _________.
A. to keep information from the enemy
B. to follow the standard method of the United States
C. not given in the article
D. to remember a certain girl
4．The Weather Bureau began naming hurricanes because it would help them _________.
A. collect information more rapidly
B. warn people more efficiently
C. make use of military (军事的) records
D. remember them

第二节完型填空(共20小题；每小题l.5分。满分30分)
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
I’ve always had strong opinions of how love should be expressed, but others had their own ways of showing care.
What I   36   most about visiting my boyfriend’s parents is the loud tick of the clock in the dining room as we   37   ate our meal. With so little conversation I was quick to   38 his family as cold. When we got into the   39   to go home, his father suddenly appeared. 40   , he began to wash his son’s windscreen. I could feel he is a caring man through the glass.
I learned another lesson about love a few years later. My father often 41   me early in the morning. “Buy Xerox. It’s a good sharp price,” he might say when I answered the phone. No pleasant 42 or inquiry about my life ,just financial instructions. This manner of his 43 me and we often quarreled. But one day, I thought about my father’s success in business and realized that his concern for my financial security lay behind his 44    morning calls. The next time he called and told me to buy a stock, I 45   him.
When my social style has conflicted with that of my friends, I’ve often felt   46 . For example, I always return phone calls   47   and regularly contact with my friends. I expect the same from them. I had one friend who rarely called, answering my messages with short e-mails. I rushed to the   48   : She wasn’t a good friend! My anger   49    as the holidays approached. But then she came to a gathering I   50 and handed me a beautiful dress I had fallen in love with when we did some window-shopping the previous month. I was   51    at her thoughtfulness, and regretful for how I’d considered her to be   52   . Clearly I needed to change my expectations of friends.
Far too often, I ignored their   53    expressions, eagerly expecting them to do things in my   54   .Over the years, however, I’ve learned to   55    other persons, love signs.
36. A. remember      B. enjoy           C. value          D. admire
37. A. excitedly       B. nervously       C. silently         D. instantly
38. A. regard         B. treat            C. take           D. think
39. A. bus           B. train            C. car             D. plane
40. A. Punctually     B. Carefully        C. Proudly         D. Coldly
41. A. visited        B. interrupted       C. warned          D. telephoned
42. A. greeting       B. meeting          C. apology         D. explanation
43. A. interested      B. angered          C. encouraged      D. surprised
44. A. long

B. short            C. warm           D. polite
45. A. praised       B. remembered       C. blamed         D. thanked
46. A. content       B. guilty            C. curious         D. disappointed
47. A. in order      B. in turn            C. without delay    D. without difficulty
48. A. feeling       B. suggestion        C. judgment        D. belief
49. A. disappeared   B. grew             C. helped          D. declined
50. A. opened       B. refused          C. hosted           D. invited
51. A. depressed    B. upset            C. fascinated         D. shocked
52. A. uncaring     B. dishonest         C. unhappy          D. uncooperative
53. A. unique       B. common         C. pleasant         D. familiar
54. A. opinion      B. way              C. mind           D. life
55. A. send         B. read             C. give            D. express

Babies born in summer are more likely to become short-sighted in late life, a study has shown.

As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.
They are advising all parents to put sunglasses on their babies during the first weeks.
Scientists had already established that over-exposure to sunlight caused short-sightedness in animals.
Researchers who compared the months in which babies were born with whether they needed glasses later on say the principle also applies to humans.
A study of almost 300,000 young adults─the largest of its kind─showed that those born in June and July had a 25 per cent greater chance of becoming severely short-sighted than those born in December or January. Research leader Professor Michael Belkin, of Tel Aviv University, said it was because prolonged illumination(光照) causes the eyeball to lengthen, causing short-sightedness.
Hence the more light a newborn is exposed to, the more the eyeball lengthens and the worse the short-sightedness will be.
The mechanism which lengthens the eyeball is associated with levels of melatonin(褪黑激素), a pigment (色素) which protects the skin against harmful rays of the sun.
In young babies not enough melatonin is released as protection, meaning they are more vulnerable to sunburn and changes to eyeball shape.
Sight expert Professor Daniel O’Leary, of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said “At the moment we don’t know the precise cause of why light exposure affects sight, but the evidence seems to prove that it is one of the reasons for people becoming short-sighted.”
55. Babies born in summer are more likely to be short-sighted ____________.
A. because the summer sun is too strong for babies
B. because babies born in summer have lengthened eyeballs
C. if they are exposed to much sunlight in the first weeks after they are born
D. if parents don’t know a proper way to protect their babies’ eyes
56. Melatonin is a kind of material to ___________.
A. prevent the eyes from becoming near-sighted
B. protect the skin from harmful sun rays
C. make our body strong
D. protect babies’ eyes from summer sun
57.   From what Professor Daniel O’Leary says we can conclude that ___________.
A. there is no evidence that short-sightedness is related to exposure to sunlight
B. whether light exposure affects sight still needs to be further proved
C. he believes that light exposure can cause short-sightedness
D. he tries to give the cause of why light exposure affects sight
58.   The underlined word “vulnerable” in the passage probably means __________.
A. easy to be harmed                          B. resistant
C. protective                                     D. changeable

In “Relax, We’ll Be Fine”, columnist David Brooks writes, “the fact is, despite all the problems, America’s future is extremly bright.”
Mr. Brooks acknowledges that “According to recent survey, 60 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. The same percentage believe that the U.S. is in long-term decline. The political system is not functional. A financial crisis looks unavoidable. There are plenty of reasons to be sad.”
But, he writes:
“Demographers(人口学家) predict that over the next 40 years, the U.S. population will increase by an additional 100 million people, to 400 million over all. The population will be determined, hardworking and relatively young. In 2050, only a quarter will be over 60, compared with 31 percent in China and 41 percent in Japan.”
As the rising generation leads an economic recovery, it will also participate in a communal
(of community) one. We are living in a global age of social entrepreneurship(创业精神).
In sum, the U.S. is on the edge of a demographic, economic and social recovery, built on its historic strengths. The U.S. has always been good at destructive change. And it’s always been good at decentralized community-building, too. Surely a country with this much going for it is not going to wait around passively and let a rotten political culture drag it down.
51．In his article Relax, We’ll Be Fine, David Brooks intends to____________.
A．encourage Americans to be optimistic about their future
B．give Americans courage to face their financial crisis
C．persuade Americans to live happily and generously
D．inspire Americans to lead an economic recovery
52．There are all the reasons for Americans to be unhappy except____________
A．the function-failed political system         B．the increasing population
C．the declining economy                   D．the wrong direction and financial crisis
53．Over the next 40 years, according to David Brooks, Americans will be____________
A．more optimistic and humorous            B．more pessimistic and stronger
C．more energetic and promising             D．more considerate and aggressive
54．In the author’s opinion, America____________.
A．has always benefited from wars            B．has done well by its political system
C．has contributed a lot to human progress     D．has contributed to world’s economy
55．We can learn from the passage that____________
A．American political system and culture are backward
B．Americans are not a nation to give in to difficulties
C．Americans are very destructive and aggressive
D．America has been in an economic and social recovery

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