The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.?

When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country's rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.?

With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.

When movies began to be popular in the 1920s,the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.

Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade's “Cowboy Craze”.While this didn't last long, it made modern country/western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.?

In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing—somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar?room fighter—there's one thing for sure, you can't keep the cowboy down.?

The purpose of this story is to _______.

A. introduce cowboy movies and novels?

B. introduce various productions associated with cowboys?

C. show the cowboy's everlasting charm　?

D. inform us about the cowboy's spirit?

Before they became cowboys, they _______.

A. served in the army    B. worked as bar-room fighters?

C. owned ranches      D. were adventurous explorers?

During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, _______.?

A. the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales?

B. the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East?

C. cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen?

D. country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country

By saying “you can't keep the cowboy down”,the writer means that _______.

A. cowboys are real people in history   B. cowboys still fascinate people?

C. you can't make cowboys unhappy     D. you can't grasp the cowboy spirit?

Lee Humberg, district manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, is the man in charge of figuring out how to remove the flocks (群) of 15,000 to 20,000 Canada geese(大雁) that could strike planes flying in and out of the New York area. The Port Authority, the agency that manages airport in New York and New Jersey, estimates that there have been as many as 315 bird strikes annually in the past 30 years.

    Bird strikes have been a hot topic since a US Airways jet suffered a “double strike” and made an emergency landing on the Hudson River in January 2009. All 155 passengers were rescued safely and the flight was called “Miracle on the Hudson”. The plane finally ended up at the Carolinas Aviation Museum. The next major bird strike may not have such a happy ending.

    To thin the flocks, Humberg and his team have tracked down goose nests and killed eggs with corn oil. They’ve also terrified the birds with dogs, remote-controlled boats and kites that look like eagles. But the only method that effectively decreases the goose population is the one that angers animal lovers the most: gassing hundreds at a time.

    “If all you are doing is goose harassment (骚扰) every day, it’s very frustrating, because you are just playing Ping-Pong with the birds,” Humberg told New York magazine. “It’s basically an arms race to come up with the tools to deal with them.”

    Now New York City plans to send the geese captured to Pennsylvania to be cooked and distributed at food banks as meals for the poor. That might just be a fate better than flying into a 747 engine.

1.What can we learn form Humberg?

    A. He does research on geese’s living conditions.

    B. He makes efforts to protect wild birds.

    C. He deals with the danger of birds at airports.

    D. He tries to find newer and safer airlines.

2.Why was the flight called “Miracle on the Hudson”?

    A. It suffered a “double strike”.         B. It arrived at a plane museum.

    C. It only caused a few deaths.         D. It succeeded in landing on a river.

3.By saying “you are just playing Ping-Pong with the birds”, Humberg means ______.

A. It’s interesting to fight with the birds

B. It’s a skill-needed race against the birds

C. you can’t defeat the bird in the end           

D. you should live with birds peacefully

4.It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

    A. Canada geese can fly as high as planes

    B. New York airlines are in poor management

    C. bird strikes happen once a week on average

    D. the poor may also benefit from Humberg’s work

It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech.At some point in every speech,every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned.Fortunately,such moments are usually not obvious(明显的) to the listeners.Why?Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say.They hear only what the speaker does say.If you lose your place for a moment,wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences,or forget to pause at a certain point,no one will be any the wiser.When such moments occur,don’t worry about them.Just continue as if nothing happened.

Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech,that doesn’t really matter.If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech—“I Have a Dream”,you may notice that he stumbles(结巴) over his words twice during the speech.Most likely,however,you don’t remember.Why?Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.

People care a lot about making a mistake in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication(交流).They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition.But,in fact,the listeners are not looking for a perfect performance.They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly.Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.

As you work on your speech,don’t worry about being perfect.Once you free your mind of this,you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.

The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will _______.

A.be smarter than you                                       B.notice your mistakes

C.do better than you                                         D.know what you are talking about

You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because _______.

A.your attention is on the content

B.you don’t fully understand the speech

C.you don’t know what the speaker plans to say

D.you find the way of speech-making more important

It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A.giving a speech is like giving a performance

B.one or two mistakes in a speech may not be bad

C.the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made

D.the more mistakes a speaker makes,the more attractive he will be

What would be the best title for the passage?

A.How to Be a Perfect Speaker

B.How to Make a Perfect Speech

C.Don’t Expect a Perfect Speech

D.Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech

Second Life is a 3D, online world in which computer users can create a new self and live a different life. Second Life is one of the most popular new online games. 

But unlike other games, Second Life is not about winning or losing. Second Life is technically a computer game. But people involved in it do not consider it a game because the players create everything. Second Life is more for socializing and creating communities.

Users of Second Life are called residents. To take part, they must create an avatar, or an electronic image of themselves. Some avatars look like humans, while others look like animals or imaginary creatures. 

Inside the Second Life world, residents live in different versions of themselves. They build homes, run businesses, buy and sell things, work, play, and attend school. They even have relationships and get married.

Second Life was created in 2003 by Linden Lab in San Francisco, California.  Linden Lab controls the Website where the ever-changing world is being created. There are now about one million people around the world who are active in Second Life. The number has grown quickly since the beginning of the year when there were about one hundred thousand users.

The average age of people involved with Second Life is about thirty. However, Linden Lab recently created Teen Second Life for younger users. Second Life has its own economy and its own money, called Linden dollars.

Millions of dollars are made and spent each month in Second Life. Users can enter Second Life for free. But they must pay for a membership if they want to own land or buy and sell goods and services.  

Recently, several major companies have become involved with Second Life. They wanted to be part of the growing business world that exists within the made-up reality.

1. What’s special about the game “Second Life”?

A. It’s a game about losing and winning.

B. It creates everything in life.        

C. It benefits one’s abilities to socialize and create.

D. It is simply a popular game to kill time.

2. What does the underlined word “avatar” mean?

A. An instrument someone uses.             B. A picture someone takes.

C. An imaginary identity of someone.    D. A weapon used in Second Life.

3. Which is NOT true about the game “Second Life”?

A. A resident in Second Life lives a life somewhat like that of real life.

B. The number of users of Second Life is about ten times as large as that of 2003.

C. You can’t enter Second Life until you pay for the entrance fee.

D. To own possessions, a resident has to pay to be a member of Second Life.

4. Why do some big companies want to join in Second Life?

A. They want to experience life in the made-up reality.

B. They want to promote their products more widely.

C. The want to be a member of Second Life.

D. They want to build agencies in Second Life.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A,B,C,D）中，选出最佳选项。
A
One day, when we had been riding in the burning sun for five hours, we came to a narrow, shaky bridge where a railways crossed a stagnant pond (发臭的池塘)。 For 30 feet there was nothing but the widely-spaced wooden sleepers（枕木）under ore wheels, and nothing to stop us from falling into the steaming bog (沼泽) below if we overbalanced. Right under the bridge lay the bridge and rode straight over, without even slowing down. I stopped.
“What’s up?” he shouted, from the other side.
“I’m not riding over that thing. If I fall, I’ll be there with that cow!”
“There’s nothing to it. I just did it, didn’t I?”
“You’re stronger and taller. My feet can’t touch the ground. You do it for me!”
Mat said strength didn’t come into it and rode off, leaving me staring down into the sickly brown soup. He would be waiting for me around the next corner, but I knew he would give me at least an hour before coming to help. The sun burned my face; sweat ran off my forehead into my eyes and stuck my shirt to my body; mosquitoes flew into my mouth when I breathed. To stand still in this place was to kill myself; anyway, to sit around waiting for Mat to help was more than my feminist (女权主义) pride could take. I rode back along the track a few hundred yards to get a good run-up, and over I went. Mat was right. All the obstacles were in my mind.
The author stopped near the bridge because ______.
She was tired and wanted to have a rest
She found a dead cow under the bridge
She was afraid of falling off the bridge
She didn’t know how to cross the bridge
Why did Mat refuse to help the author?
A. He wanted to finish the journey as soon as possible
B. He felt she should overcome her fear by herself
C. He didn’t believe she was really afraid
D. He knew she was too proud to accept his help
What does the underlined part “sickly brown soup” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. The body of a dead cow        B. The mud on the wheals
C. The dirty water in the pond      D. The author’s food for the journey
59. According to the last paragraph, the author seems to believe that ______.
A. nothing is difficult to the man who will try
B. a friend in need is a friend indeed
C. you can’t make something out of nothing
D. well begun is half done