Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts（工作班次） are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”
So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just ￡90, before tax and insurance. “It’s better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”
The hours she’s chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn’t think that puts any pressure on their relationship.
Her work isn’t physically very hard, but it’s not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they’d be a bit more careful.”
The fact that she’s working all night doesn’t worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I’ve got to be here, I try to enjoy myself——and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you’re a cleaner because you don’t know how to read and write,” said Margaret. “I used to think what my parents would say if they knew what I’d been doing, but I don’t think that way any more. I don’t dislike the work though I can’t say I’m mad about it.”
41. Margaret quit her job as a nurse because _______
A. she wanted to earn more money to support her family
B. she had suffered a lot of mental pressure
C. she needed the right time to look after her children
D. she felt tired of taking care of patients
42. Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because _______.
A. they never clean their offices              B. they look down upon cleaners
C. they never do their work carefully          D. they always make a mess in their offices
43. When at work, Margaret feels _______.
A. light-hearted because of her fellow workers     B. happy because the building is fully lit
C. tired because of the heavy workload           D. bored because time passed slowly
44. The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret’s parents would _______．
A. help care for her children             B. regret what they had said
C. show sympathy for her               D. feel disappointed in her

There is an old saying in English： "Laughter is the best medicine". Until recently, few people took the saying very seriously. Now, however, doctors have begun to investigate laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found evidence that laughter really can improve people's health.
Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films, while doctors checked their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, the heart rate and the rate of breathing； it also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.
Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be capable of reducing the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group which tolerated the pain for the longest time was 'the group which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce endorphins （内啡肽） in the brain. These are natural chemicals which diminish both stress and pain.
There is also some evidence to suggest that laughter helps the body's immune(免疫的)system, that is, the system which fights infection. In an experiment, one group of students watched a funny video while another group served as the control group - in other words, a group with which to compare the first group. Doctors checked the blood of the students in both groups and found that the people in the group that watched the video had an increase in the activity of their white blood cells, that is, the cells which fight infection.
As a result of these discoveries, some doctors and psychiatrists （精神病学家） in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they try to improve their patients' condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial effects similar to those caused by laughter.
【小题1】 We learn from the first paragraph that laughter____________________.

While scientists are worried that humans are causing higher temperatures on the Earth, a Maryland man, Ace, thinks we can save the world by spraying（喷射）huge amounts of water into the air.
Ace told the McClatchy News Service that at least 1,000 places should be chosen to spray water. The water would be sprayed between 20 and 200 feet into the air. Thousands of tons of seawater would be sprayed for years at a time.
The 1,000 sites would be picked after more studies. They would be mostly in the Northern Hemisphere(北半球). Ace says he would avoid tropical（热带的）areas of the globe. He says water turns to rain too quickly in these areas for his plan to work.
The water would be changed into vapor. That process requires heat. The water vapor would rise above the Earth. The water vapor would form clouds. The clouds would help in several ways. They would cool the Earth by reflecting sunlight. They would later turn into rains. The rains would provide another way of cooling the Earth.
Ace’s plan has gotten some support from a limited scientific study. Kenneth Caldeira is a climate scientist. He works at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University in California. Caldeira tested some of the Ace’s figures on a computer program. The computer model is used by top scientists to study global climate change. The model showed that the plan might work.
“More tests are planned in 2009. Ideas like Ace’s should be considered carefully and with an open mind,” Calderira said. “Every brilliant（卓越的）invention in the history of technology looked a little bit mad when first put forward.”
65．What’s the purpose of Ace’s plan?
A. To reduce air pollution.                      
B. To make summer cooler.
C. To offer dry areas more rain.                  
D. To solve the problem of global warming. 
66．According to Ace’s plan,___________.
A. planes would be used to spray water.       
B. it would be best to spray water on rainy days.
C. seawater would be sprayed high into the sky
D.1,000 sites in the Southern Hemisphere would be chosen.
67．Why wouldn’t Ace spray water in tropical areas?
A. Water is changed into vapor too quickly.      
B. Water turns to rain too quickly.
C. It is hard for vapor to form clouds.           
D. It is bad for local plants to have too much rain.
68. It seems that Caldeira ____________.
A. takes Ace’s plan seriously                 
B. thinks Ace’s idea too crazy
C. doesn’t believe the computer’s result        
D. agrees to carry out Ace’s plan right away

About 70 scientists were working on a very busy project. All of them felt really desperate due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting their job.
One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him, “Sir, I’ve promised to take my children to the exhibition going on in our township so I want to leave at 5:30 p. m.” His boss replied, “OK. You’re permitted to leave the office early today.”
The scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual, he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch only when he \felt he was close to completion. The time was 8:30 p. m. suddenly he remembered his promise to the children. He looked for his boss but he was not there. Having told him in the morning himself, he closed everything and left for home. Deep within himself, hw was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children. He reached home. The children were not there. His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive; any talk would boomerang on him. His wife asked him, “Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry?” The man replied, “If you would like to have coffee, I too will have but what about the children?” His wife replied, “You don’t know? Your boss came here at 5:15 p. m. and has taken them to the exhibition.”
What had really happened was the boss who gave him permission was observing him working seriously at 5:00 p. m. He thought to himself: this person will not leave the work, but he’s promised to take his children to the exhibition. So he took the lead in taking them there. The boss does not have to do it every time. But once it’s done, loyalty is established.
That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss even though the stress was extraordinarily huge. By the way ,can you boldly guess who the boss was? He was none other that the mastermind behind India’s successful nuclear weapons program, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, former president of India.
63．The scientist asked for an early leave because_____________.
A．he felt increasingly desperate about his work
B．he meant to accompany his wife at dinner
C．the task at hand was close to completion
D．he’d promised to take his kids to a show
64．The underlined sentence implies that the scientist thought his wife was___________.
A．dissatisfied with his coming home late
B．ready to serve dinner for him
C．grateful to his kind-hearted boss
D．delighted to see him back home
65．The boss took children to the exhibition__________.
A．when it was too late for the scientist to do so
B．because the scientist was absorbed in his work
C．because he also wanted to see what was on show
D．when the man’s wife asked him to do so
66．All the scientists stayed loyal to their boss____________ .
A．out of gratefulness for his thoughtfulness
B．because he had power over them
C．to learn how to live under pressure
D．every time he took the children to the show

That cold January night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco. There I was, walking home at one in the morning after a tiring practice at the theatre. With opening night only a week ago, I was still learning my lines. I was having trouble dealing with my part-time job at the bank and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about giving up both acting and San Francisco. City life had become too much for me.
As I walked down empty streets under tall buildings, I felt very small and cold. I began running, both to keep warm and to keep away from any possible robbers (抢劫犯). Very few people were still out except a few sad-looking homeless people under blankets.
About a block from my apartment (公寓房间), I heard a sound behind me. I turned quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me nervous, so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It had been my wallet falling to the sidewalk.
Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to where I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to give up the search, I heard the garbage truck (垃圾车) pull up to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice called from the inside, “ Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? the door opened, and out jumped a small red-haired man with an amused look in his eye. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked, holding up a small square shape.
It was nearly 3 A.M. by the time I got into bed. I wouldn’t get much sleep that night, but I had gotten my wallet back. I also had gotten back some enjoyment of city life. I realized that the city couldn’t be a bad place as long as people were wiling to help each other.
【小题1】How did the write feel when she was walking home after work?