PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION（30 points）

Directions: Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage．

Next time you find yourself drenched (湿透) in an unexpected heavy rain, look on the bright side – it will be a memorable experience. While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall. But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried by Australian researchers.

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: “It seems strange but a little bit of sadness is a good thing. People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they wee in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy, the flunked it.”

The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small objects on the check – out counter. On rainy days, sad music was played in the store. When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music. This was done to further influence them towards negative or positive moods. After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember. Their scores were three times higher when the weather was had and they were feeling angry, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in Journal of Experimental Psychology. A report on the findings said: “They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.”

Professor Forgas said, “We found that weather – inducted negative mood improved memory accuracy. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.”

A worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.

Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are less likely to make more snap (匆忙的) judgments about people we meet. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.

Accurately remembering everyday scenes is a difficult task, yet such memories can be on importance in everyday life. Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.

56．What’s the major function of Paragraph 1?

A．To attract readers’ interest.     

B．To introduce the theme of the whole passage.

C．To generalize the whole passage.   

D．To describe a memorable experience.

57．The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph2 may mean “       ”.

A．conducted B．failed       C．passed      D．understood

58．In the research, researchers play different music to         .

A．make customers become sadder or happier

B．help customers choose what they want

C．promote customers to buy more goods

D．get customers to make a quick choice

59．According to Joe Forgas, on sunny days, people         .

A．will make careful judgments on others

B．tend to pay more attention to their surroundings

C．will have more confidence

D．will have a better recall

60．What can we know from the research?

A．Forgetfulness is rather troublesome.

B．It’s important to feel in a good mood.

C．It’s memorable to experience a rainy day.

D．Gloomy days are good for memorizing things.

PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION（30 points）
Directions: Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage．
Next time you find yourself drenched (湿透) in an unexpected heavy rain, look on the bright side – it will be a memorable experience. While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall. But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried by Australian researchers.
Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: “It seems strange but a little bit of sadness is a good thing. People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they wee in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy, the flunked it.”
The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small objects on the check – out counter. On rainy days, sad music was played in the store. When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music. This was done to further influence them towards negative or positive moods. After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember. Their scores were three times higher when the weather was had and they were feeling angry, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in Journal of Experimental Psychology. A report on the findings said: “They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.”
Professor Forgas said, “We found that weather – inducted negative mood improved memory accuracy. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.”
A worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.
Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are less likely to make more snap (匆忙的) judgments about people we meet. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.
Accurately remembering everyday scenes is a difficult task, yet such memories can be on importance in everyday life. Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.
56．What’s the major function of Paragraph 1?
A．To attract readers’ interest.     
B．To introduce the theme of the whole passage.
C．To generalize the whole passage.   
D．To describe a memorable experience.
57．The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph2 may mean “       ”.
A．conducted B．failed       C．passed      D．understood
58．In the research, researchers play different music to         .
A．make customers become sadder or happier
B．help customers choose what they want
C．promote customers to buy more goods
D．get customers to make a quick choice
59．According to Joe Forgas, on sunny days, people         .
A．will make careful judgments on others
B．tend to pay more attention to their surroundings
C．will have more confidence
D．will have a better recall
60．What can we know from the research?
A．Forgetfulness is rather troublesome.
B．It’s important to feel in a good mood.
C．It’s memorable to experience a rainy day.
D．Gloomy days are good for memorizing things.

PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION（30 points）

Directions: Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage．

Next time you find yourself drenched (湿透) in an unexpected heavy rain, look on the bright side – it will be a memorable experience. While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall. But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried by Australian researchers.

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: “It seems strange but a little bit of sadness is a good thing. People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they wee in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy, the flunked it.”

The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small objects on the check – out counter. On rainy days, sad music was played in the store. When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music. This was done to further influence them towards negative or positive moods. After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember. Their scores were three times higher when the weather was had and they were feeling angry, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in Journal of Experimental Psychology. A report on the findings said: “They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.”

Professor Forgas said, “We found that weather – inducted negative mood improved memory accuracy. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.”

A worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.

Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are less likely to make more snap (匆忙的) judgments about people we meet. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.

Accurately remembering everyday scenes is a difficult task, yet such memories can be on importance in everyday life. Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.

56．What’s the major function of Paragraph 1?

      A．To attract readers’ interest.     

       B．To introduce the theme of the whole passage.

       C．To generalize the whole passage.   

       D．To describe a memorable experience.

57．The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph2 may mean “       ”.

       A．conducted B．failed       C．passed      D．understood

58．In the research, researchers play different music to         .

       A．make customers become sadder or happier

       B．help customers choose what they want

       C．promote customers to buy more goods

       D．get customers to make a quick choice

59．According to Joe Forgas, on sunny days, people         .

      A．will make careful judgments on others

       B．tend to pay more attention to their surroundings

       C．will have more confidence

       D．will have a better recall

60．What can we know from the research?

       A．Forgetfulness is rather troublesome.

       B．It’s important to feel in a good mood.

       C．It’s memorable to experience a rainy day.

       D．Gloomy days are good for memorizing things.

I was waiting for a phone call from my agent. He had left a message the night before, telling me that my show was to be cancelled. I called him several times, but each time his secretary told me that he was in a meeting and that he would call me later. So I waited and waited, but there was still no call. Three hours passing by, I became more and more impatient. I was certain that my agent didn’t care about my work, and he didn’t care about me. I was overcome with that thought. I started to shout at the phone, “Let me wait, will you? Who do you think you are?”

    At that time I didn’t realize my wife was looking on. Without showing her surprise, she rushed in, seized the phone, tore off the wires, and shouted at the phone, “Yeah! Who do you think you are? Bad telephone! Bad telephone!” And she swept it into the wastebasket．

    I stood watching her, speechless. What on earth… ?

    She stepped to the doorway and shouted at the rest of the house, “Now hear this! All objects in this room – if you do anything to upset my husband, out you go!”

    Then she turned to me, kissed me and said calmly, “Honey, you just have to learn how to take control. ” With that, she left the room．

    After watching a crazy woman rushing in and out, shouting at everything in sight, I noticed that something in my mood had changed. I was laughing. How could I have trouble with that phone? Her antics helped me realize I had been driven crazy by small things. Twenty minutes later my agent did call. I was able to listen to him and talk to him calmly．

We can infer from the passage that ________．

       A. the secretary didn’t care about the writer 

       B. the writer was bad-tempered

       C. the agent was not responsible for his own work

       D. the wife of the writer was not sensible

Why did the author shout at the telephone?

       A. He was angry with his agent．          

       B. He was mad at the telephone．

       C. He was impatient with the secretary．  

       D. He was anxious about his wife．

What did the author’s wife do after she heard his shouting?

       A. She was speechless．         

       B. She threw the phone away．  

       C. She shouted at him．         

       D. She called the agent in person and scolded him．

What made the author laugh?

A． His changeable feelings． B. His wife’s suggestion．

   C． His own behavior．      D. His wife’s sweet kiss．

What does the underlined word “antics” refer to?

   A． Smart words      B. Anxious feelings

   C． Surprising looks   D． Unusual actions

　    Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.

       Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact and build relationship. These are a few of recently recognized features of email, say experts, that should cause individual and organizations to rethink the way they use email.

       “Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits, ”says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect a growing unconcern to the way we write.

       Baron argues that we should not forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in emails. “ The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.

       Others say that despite its poor prose(文字), email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.

       “Email is a critical new communication technology,” says Ian Lancashire, a University of Toronto professor of English.“It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”

       Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech.“ It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says.

  Still, he accepts that this new?found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble.“Almost everyday I get emails that apologies of previous emails,” he reports.

       In the US, the number of emails sent in a day exceeds(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.

5.The passages mainly shows us that .

A? people should stop using email to communicate

B? experts hold different opinions about email

C? Americans only use email to communicate

D? email makes people lose interest in English

6. In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because_____.

A. it can be used all over the world

B. it is the fastest way to communicate

C. we can express ourselves in a free way

       D. we can save a lot of paper

7. Which of the following is NOT true about email?

A. It is changing the way of communication.

B. It is used more than letters in the US.

C. It helps us write better.

       D. It causes us to write more.