第二部分　阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)

Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course," she said.

    "Can we write him a letter?"

    She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes."

    My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked.

    "No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.

    "Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Morn was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.

    She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped(缠绕) the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.

    "Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three."

   The balloon, carrying my letter, darted(猛冲) upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.

   Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, dart up, and finally transcend(超越) this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary(遗传的). I prayed to be a balloon.

56. When the girl asked her mother if they could write to her father, her mother ______.

   A. felt it hard to answer                           B. thought her a creative girl

C. believed it easy to do so                       D. found it easy to lie

57. When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she ______.

   A. jumped with joy                        B. became excited

   C. started writing immediately            D. was worried that it couldn't be delivered

58. In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?

A. An incurable disease.                        B. An unforgettable memory.

   C. The hard time her father had.                    D. The failures her father experienced.

59. What would be the best title for the passage?

    A. The strong red balloon                         B. An unforgettable experience

   C. Fly to paradise                          D. A great father

If you've ever seen a James Bond movie，you'll know that the hero gets around in a smart Aston Martin car. Even if you know full well that you could never afford such an expensive vehicle, you don't forget the name, or the car.

　 Why? You have been affected by product placement.

　 Companies pay a film to place their products in the movie. Product placement took off in the West in the 1980s and is now catching on in China. Two Hunan Satellite TV dramas are recent examples：Ugly Wudi and Let's Go Watch the Meteor Shower (《一起去看流星雨》).

　 Shampoo, mobile phones, cars and fitness centers – anything can be product-placed. Advertisers value the mass appeal of the movies, knowing that a successful film can showcase their goods to hundreds of thousands of viewers. But when product placement takes over, artistic considerations can take a back seat.

　 Cai Zhiyong has been product-placing for years. The Beijing-based advertiser admits there is a conflict between art and business. He explains the way one ad works. In If You are the One (《非诚勿扰》), the actress Shu Qi plays a flight attendant. The movie contains product placement for airline companies.

　 Cash-strapped filmmakers often have to give less consideration to the quality of their work because they need money from advertisers. In the original story for Meteor Shower, the heroine's mother owned an ice cream shop. But no ice cream company wanted to sponsor (赞助) the film. For this reason, the story was changed. In the film the man drinks 20 cups of milk tea instead of eating ice cream.

　 So you may see the power of business over the movies, since the script (剧本) was perhaps written so that a product could be placed-whether it was ice cream or milk tea.

1. James Bond movies are mentioned in the first paragraph to show_________.

  A. how popular James Bond is            B. how great the Aston Martin car is

  C. how to make a movie more artistic      D. how effectively product placement works

2.Product placement can have a bad effect on the_________ of a movie.

  A. atmosphere      B. mass appeal       C. box-office success      D. artistic value

3.What does the underlined word "cash-strapped" in Paragraph 6 probably mean?

  A. Short of money.                B. Wasting a lot of money.

  C. having enough money.           D. Trying to save money.

4.We can learn from the example of Meteor Shower that__________.

  A. business has a big say in the movie

  B. the original story was not suitable for a movie

  C. filmmakers are only concerned about making money

  D. milk tea is more popular than ice cream

If you've ever seen a James Bond movie，you'll know that the hero gets around in a smart Aston Martin car. Even if you know full well that you could never afford such an expensive vehicle, you don't forget the name, or the car.
　 Why? You have been affected by product placement.
　 Companies pay a film to place their products in the movie. Product placement took off in the West in the 1980s and is now catching on in China. Two Hunan Satellite TV dramas are recent examples：Ugly Wudi and Let's Go Watch the Meteor Shower (《一起去看流星雨》).
　 Shampoo, mobile phones, cars and fitness centers–anything can be product-placed. Advertisers value the mass appeal of the movies, knowing that a successful film can showcase their goods to hundreds of thousands of viewers. But when product placement takes over, artistic considerations can take a back seat.
　 Cai Zhiyong has been product-placing for years. The Beijing-based advertiser admits there is a conflict between art and business. He explains the way one ad works. In If You are the One (《非诚勿扰》), the actress Shu Qi plays a flight attendant. The movie contains product placement for airline companies.
　 Cash-strapped filmmakers often have to give less consideration to the quality of their work because they need money from advertisers. In the original story for Meteor Shower, the heroine's mother owned an ice cream shop. But no ice cream company wanted to sponsor (赞助) the film. For this reason, the story was changed. In the film the man drinks 20 cups of milk tea instead of eating ice cream.
　 So you may see the power of business over the movies, since the script (剧本) was perhaps written so that a product could be placed-whether it was ice cream or milk tea.
【小题1】James Bond movies are mentioned in the first paragraph to show_________.

A．how popular James Bond is	B．how great the Aston Martin car is
C．how to make a movie more artistic	D．how effectively product placement works

That predatory population increase to control other animals has long been known. Many years ago, the Hudson’s Bay Company records revealed that the fox population went up and down about a year after rabbit population had gone up and down.

Sometimes a situation occurs in which the predatory population is reduced to a level below which nature can readily replace. On Valcour Island in Lake Champlain, a costly campaign resulted in the elimination（消除）of predatory animals only to have birds and small animals increase for four years afterward. Then, lacking predator control, nature resorted to disease to cut down these populations.

Jamaica had an example of nature’s persistence in providing animals for existing habits. Sugar planters, about 75 years ago, imported mongooses（狐猴）to control rats. The mongooses killed off the rats, kids, puppies, and wildlife. Eventually, food became scarce and the mongoose’s population declines.

1. The fact that the number of predators has much to do with that of other animals 　　  .

A. is not recent knowledge　　　　　　　　　　　　　　    B.has just been learned

C.hasn’t been proved yet　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  D.is not important now

2. When predator control fails, nature brings animal population into balance by       .

A. eliminating the number of predators

B.seeking the help of disease to reduce other animals

C.increasing the number of other animals

D.replacing the number of predators immediately

3. When the mongooses killed off the rats they 　　  .

A. became problems themselves　　　　　　　　　　　　 B.ate the sugar crop

C.attacked humans　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   D.had nothing to eat

4. It is implied in this passage that 　　  .

A. sugar planter imported mongooses to control rats

B.man should never kill animals

C.man has complete control over nature

D.to upset the balance of nature can be troublesome

Washington — The largest ozone (臭氧)hole ever observed has opened up over Antarctica, according to the scientists of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). They believe it is a sign that ozone — destroying gases produced years ago are just now causing the largest quantities of ozone to disappear.

　　This year’s South Pole ozone hole spreads over about 28.5 million square kilometers, an area three times larger than the landmass of the United States.

　　Pictures of the hole have been offered by NASA. The hole appears as a giant blue mass, totally covering Antarctica and stretching to the southern tip of South America.

　　“The last time the ozone hole was close to this size was in 1998, when it spread over about 27.2 million square kilometers,” NASA said.

　　Paul Newman, who works with NASA’s Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument on a NASA satellite, said ozone watchers had expected a big hole this year, but not this big.

　　The Antarctica ozone hole, first observed in 1985, is caused by the depletion (损耗) of Earth protecting ozone by human-made chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons, known as CFCs.

　　“Even though these chemicals were not allowed to use from the beginning of 1987, they remain in the atmosphere and will continue to do so for years,” Newman said.

　　“This year’s large hole may have been caused by a change in a swirling high-level air current over Antarctica, which circles the area and contains the zone hole,” Newman said.

56. The text is mainly about ____ .

　 A. the discovery of the largest ozone hole           B. the discovery of the Antarctica ozone hole

　 C. the history of the Antarctica ozone hole          D. the size of the largest ozone hole

57. The time 1985 was talked about in the text because it was when the Antarctica ozone hole ____ .

　 A. was watched by Newman   B. was first closed   C. disappeared   　 D. was first watched

58. There is a giant ozone hole over Antarctica because ____ over there.

　 A. human-made chemicals have protected ozone     B. ozone has protected the earth

　 C. human-made chemicals have destroyed ozone     D. human-made chemicals have increased ozone