第二部分:阅读理解(共20小题；每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下面短文,从A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。
A
How Americans Began to Eat Tomatoes
People have strange ideas about food. For example, the tomato is a kind of very delicious vegetable. It is one of useful plants that can be prepared in many ways. It has rich nutrition and vitamin in it. But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous (有毒的). They called tomatoes “poison apples.”
President Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup. This beautiful pink soup was served at the President’s party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his honored (忠实的) guests about the fact.
36. After you read the passage, which of the following do you think is true?
A. Americans never ate tomatoes after they began to plant them.
B. Americans didn’t eat tomatoes before 19th century.
C. Even now Americans don’t eat tomatoes.
D. In the 18th century Americans ate a lot of tomatoes.
37. The passage tells us that Jefferson was a President who learned to love the taste of tomatoes___.
A. while he was in Paris              B. when he was a little boy
C. because his parents told him so       D. from books
38. According to the text, _______ made the beautiful pink soup served at the President’s party?
A. the President himself       B. a French cook
C. the President’s cook       D. the President’s wife
39. From the passage we know all the honored guests invited by Jefferson were       .
A. people from other countries       B. from France
C. people of his own country        D. men only
40. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
A. All of the guests knew the soup that was served at the President’s party was made of tomatoes.
B. All of the guests thought the soup which was prepared by the President’s cook was nice.
C. All of the guests thought the taste of the beautiful pink soup was nice.
D. None of the guests knew that their president would serve his honored guests poison apples.

Have you heard of the story of the four-minute miles? Many years ago, people believed that it was impossible for a human being to run a mile in less than four minutes until Roger Banister proves it wrong in 1954.
What happens if you put an animal in a pond? Any animal, big or small, will swim its way through. What happens when people, who do not know how to swim, fall in deep waters? They drown. If an animal who has not learned swimming could escape by swimming, why not you? Because you believe you will drown while the animal does not.
Have you ever wondered why the letters are organized in a particular order on your keyboard? You might have thought it is to increase the typing speed. But the fact is that this system was developed to reduce the typing speed at a time when typewriter parts would jam (堵塞) if the operator typed too fast.
These three cases show the power of our beliefs. There is no other more powerful directing force in human behavior than belief. Your beliefs have the power to create and to destroy. A belief delivers command to your nervous system.
I used a snake in my workshops of children to learn how unrealistic some of their beliefs are. Students of a school in India, said snakes were slippery, slimy(黏糊糊的)  and poisonous. After doing an exercise for changing beliefs, they handled my snake and found it to be dry and clean. They also remembered that only three types of poisonous snakes exist in India.
Did this story end the way you thought? Review your beliefs now and find out which ones you need to change.
【小题1】From the first paragraph, we know that _________.

The day my fiancé fell to his death, it started to snow, just like the bottom hadn’t fallen out of my world when he fell off the roof. His body, when I found it, was lightly covered with snow. It snowed almost every day for the next four months, while I sat on the couch and watched it pile up.
One morning, I shuffled(拖着脚步走) downstairs and was surprised to see a snowplow(扫雪机) clearing my driveway and the bent back of a woman shoveling my walk. I dropped to my knees, crawled through the living room, and back upstairs so those good Samaritans would not see me. I was mortified. My first thought was, how would I ever repay them? I didn’t have the strength to brush my hair, let alone shovel someone’s walk.
Before Jon’s death, I took pride in the fact that I rarely asked for help or favors. I defined myself by my competence and independence. How could I respect myself if all I did was sit on the couch everyday and watch the snow fall?
Learning how to receive the love and support that came my way wasn’t easy. Friends cooked for me and I cried because I couldn’t even help them set the table. “I’m not usually this lazy,” I swept. Finally, my friend Kathy sat down with me and said, “Mary, cooking for you is not a burden. It makes me feel good to be able to do something for you.”
Over and over, I heard similar words of comfort from the people who supported me during those dark days. One very wise man told me, “You are not doing nothing. Being fully open to your grief may be the hardest work you will ever do.”
In many ways I have changed for the better. I have been surprised to learn that there is incredible freedom that comes from facing one’s worst fear and walking away whole.
【小题1】What made the author feel sad?

B
Brazil is a federation that consists of twenty-six states and one federal district. The biggest majority of Brazil’s population belongs to the Christian religion and almost all of them are Catholics. This is something Brazil inherited(继承) being Portugal’s colony(殖民地).
Historically, the country was a colony claimed by people from Portugal and this made Portuguese the official language. The Portuguese reached Brazil in 1500 and until that moment it was inhabited by semi-nomadic(半游牧的) people. The Portuguese changed Brazil into a country of slaves until 1800, when Maria I of Portugal came to live to Brazil. The Queen did not stay long in Brazil, but during the 20 years of royal presence a lot of changes occurred: commercial ports to United Kingdom were opened; Brazil stopped being isolated(孤立) from other countries. So at the moment of getting the independence on the 7th of September, 1822, Brazil already had the potential to develop. The Brazilian Empire, Pedro I, abolished slavery in 1888 in the face of Princess Isabel. A lot of European people started coming to Brazil and the industry of the country started working. In the 19th and the 20th century as it has been said above foreign people immigrated(移民) to Brazil and basically 5 million European and Japanese people became the residents of Brazil. The beginning of the 20th century was especially marked by the immigration of a lot of Asian people: Japanese, Korean and Chinese immigrants. As a matter of fact Japanese people do not immigrate a lot, and the fact that the Brazilian-Japanese people are the largest Japanese minority in the world does astonish greatly.
The majority of the cultural inherits of Brazil are actually Portuguese, due to the fact that Brazil was Portugal’s colony for a very long time. The southern states mainly consist of European population and the north and the northeast consist of a mixed population including Africans, Amerindians and Europeans. Most of this population is Roman Catholic. No other country in the world has the same amount of Catholics. The modern tendency of Brazil is the growing number of people calling themselves Protestants. Around 7.4% of the population don’t believe any god. Some Brazilians, especially in the northern states are mixed Africans who prefer following the traditional African religions. Only 1.8% of the population chose Buddhism, Islam or Judaism.
Though Brazil always tried to maintain democracy, it was failed several times by the dictatorship（独裁） of Getulo Vargas. This fact could not affect the political situation in the country.
61. Brazil was ruled by Portuguese about ______.
A. 22 years        B. 300 years      C. 322 years       D. 328 years
62.Who might block the development of Brazil?
A. Maria I     B. Pedro I     C. immigrants    D. Getulo Vargas
63. The writer mainly tells us the ______ of Brazil in the passage.
A. religion     B. history     C. culture    D. political situation
64．Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. Brazil was isolated from other countries when Maria I stayed there.
B. The industry of the country started working in 1888.
C. Brazil has the largest population of Catholics in the world.
D. Some people in Brazil don’t believe any god.
65. It can be inferred that Brazil is a country with ________.
A. western culture B. modern culture   C. traditional culture   D. mixed culture

Despite the fact that it has never been seen almost everyone is familiar with the legendary unicorn(独角兽). Descriptions of unicorns have been found dating from ancient times. The great philosopher Aristotle theorized that there were two types of unicorn--- the so-called Indian Ass and the Oryx, a kind of antelope. Unicorns are often used in the logo of a noble family, town council or university as their special sign. Even Scotland is represented by a unicorn.
According to the legend, anyone attempting to catch a unicorn had to be extremely careful as it was very fierce and dangerous. A clever trick suggested by unicorn-trappers, in order to catch this amazing animal without being hurt by its horn, was for the hunter to stand in front of a tree and then to move quickly behind it as the unicorn dashed angrily. Hopefully, the creature could then be caught when its horn was stuck in the tree.
When hollowed out and used as a drinking-cup, the unicorn’s horn was said to have the power to offer protection against person. It was believed that nobody could be harmed-by drinking the contents of a unicorn’s horn. Right up until the French Revolution in 1789, the French court was said to have used cups made of “unicorn” horn in order to protect the king. In addition, the horn was said to have medicinal value, so much so that it could be sold for more than ten times the price of the same weight of gold. What, then, was “unicorn” horn? We know at times the rhino(犀牛) was confused with this legendary creature. A drinking-cup supposedly made of “unicorn” horn was discovered to be made of the horn of a rhino.
【小题1】Which of the following is TRUE of the unicorn?