The royal family is a part of British history and cultural identity.
Up until the 17th century, people believed that the British king or queen had a “divine(天赐的)right” to rule. This was the idea that God chose the king or queen and that he or she was therefore above the law. However, this idea was challenged during the English Civil War, when King Charles the First was put in prison and then killed in 1649.
So what role does the British royal family have today?
The Queen is head of the UK and the Commonwealth. She has important formal duties that go with her different titles. As Head of State, for example, she represents the UK on visits abroad and invites other world leaders to visit the UK；as Head of the Armed Forces in name, only she can declare when the UK is at war or when a war is over. She has to sign many government and Commonwealth documents every day.
Although the royal family does the work for the UK, there are British people called“anti-monarchists(反君主制者)”who do not believe there should be a royal family. One criticism(批评意见)is that the British people should not have to pay for the royal family with their taxes(税).
Today, the royal family works hard to be relevant(相关的)in the modern world. The Queen still gives a speech to the nation on television at Christmas, but it gets less and less formal every year；now it is even available as a podcast(播客).
In 2005, after graduating from university, Prince William spent time teaching English in Uruguay, the sort of work many ordinary young British people do in their gap years.
【小题1】What can be concluded from the first two paragraphs?

A team from Krakow, in Poland, used functional magnetic resonance imaging （机能性核共振成像）（FMRI）to assess brain activity when 40 volunteers were shown various images．Men showed activity in areas which dealt with what action they should take in order to avoid or face up to danger．But the study found more activity in the emotional centers of women's brains．The researchers, from another university, carried out scans on 21 men and 19 women．Brain activity was monitored while the volunteers were shown images of objects and images from ordinary life designed to remind different emotional states．
The images were displayed in two runs．For the first run, only negative pictures were shown．For the second run, only positive pictures were shown．
While viewing the negative images, women showed stronger and broader activity in the left thalamus（神经床）．This is an area which passes sense information to the pain and pleasure centres of the brain．Men showed more activity in an area of the brain called the left insula（脑岛）, which plays a key role in controlling natural functions, including breath, heart rate and digestion．Generally, activity in this area tells the body to either run away from danger, or meet it head on - the so-called "fight or flight response"．
While viewing positive images, women showed stronger activity in an area of the brain associated with memory．With men, the stronger activity was recorded in an area associated with visual processing．Dr Urbanik believes these differences suggest women may analyze positive stimuli（刺激）in a broader social context and associate positive images with a particular memory．
For instance, viewing a picture of a smiling child might remind memories of a woman's own child at this age．On the contrary, male responses tend to be less emotional．
1．The research shows that men response differently to__________compared with women．
A．different images    B．ordinary life 
C．different activities        D．medical scan
2．According to the passage, when faced with danger, ____________．
A．women react more slowly than men       B．women usually try to avoid it 
C．men usually have no reaction         D．men react to it more directly
3．What is discussed in the 4 th paragraph?         ．
A．Men and women’s different memories   B．The different responses to the children
C．Different reactions to positive stimuli    D．Negative results of the visual processing
3．The passage mainly develops______．
A．by inferring                   B．by comparing  
C．by listing examples       D．by giving explanations

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.

Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.

We know from the text that      .

A. Jane Eyre was published in 1847    

B. Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all

C. the Bronte sisters received good education     

D. Patrick Bronte helped his daughters with their writing

The underlined words “the other two” in the 5 th paragraph refer to      .

       A. Shirley and Villette   B. The Professor and Agnes Grey

       C. Agnes Grey and Wutheriing Heights   D. The Professor and wuthering Heights

What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?

       A. Their novels interested few publishers.

       B. None of them had more than two books published.

       C. None of them lived longer than 40 years old.

       D. Emily was the least successful of the three.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
The National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010 - 20) was released over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights:
Four – percent effort
The government says spending on education will be 4 percent of GDP by 2012. globally, average spending on education is about 4.5% of GDP. China spend 3,33% in 2008. according to Hu Angang, of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, even if China reaches that goal, it will only rank about 100 th out of 188 countries.
Administrative rank
Administrative rankings for school leaders are to be phased out to tackle the bureaucracy (官僚机构) problem that limits educational development, according to Cheng Fangping, of the national Institute for Educational Research. Areas like teaching programs, scientific research, and technological development will be more independent.
Vocational Education
The system will be free of charge. According to Wu Yan, of Beijing Institute of Educational Sciences, this will be key to developing China’s production capacity and will improve poor people’s lives dramatically.
Entering college
Universities could eventually have the freedom to choose some of their own high school applicants. Normally, students are accepted based on the uniform national exam scores. Also, students who agree to go to a remote area could be admitted to university under special circumstances. The most likely change could come on the college entrance English test, which might be modeled on the IELTS or TOEFL. Students will be able to take it several times and pick their best score.
56．Which of the following is true in the future according to the passage?
A．Applicants could take the IELTS or TOEFL instead of the college entrance English test.
B．Colleges will be given the right to choose all of their own applicants.
C．Vocational education will be party free to make people’s lives better.
D．Applicants could sit for the college entrance English test more than once.
57．Which of the following words is closest in meaning to “uniform” in the last paragraph?
A．formal      B．official     C．same D．united
58．We can learn from the passage even though our country spends 4% of GDP on education in 2012, ________.
A．there will still be 188 countries ahead of China in this aspect
B．China will certainly overtake the global average spending on education
C．there might be nearly 100 countries ahead of China in this aspect
D．China will be the 100 th country to spend over the global average on education
59．From the third paragraph, we can infer that________.
A．school leaders will have more freedom to manage the school
B．schools will have more limits from the government
C．School administrative rankings are to be strengthened to solve the bureaucracy problem
D．schools and research centers will be fully independent from the government

The National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (2010 - 20) was released over the weekend. Here are some of the highlights:

Four – percent effort

The government says spending on education will be 4 percent of GDP by 2012. globally, average spending on education is about 4.5% of GDP. China spend 3,33% in 2008. according to Hu Angang, of Tsinghua University’s Center for China Studies, even if China reaches that goal, it will only rank about 100 th out of 188 countries.

Administrative rank

Administrative rankings for school leaders are to be phased out to tackle the bureaucracy (官僚机构) problem that limits educational development, according to Cheng Fangping, of the national Institute for Educational Research. Areas like teaching programs, scientific research, and technological development will be more independent.

Vocational Education

The system will be free of charge. According to Wu Yan, of Beijing Institute of Educational Sciences, this will be key to developing China’s production capacity and will improve poor people’s lives dramatically.

Entering college

    Universities could eventually have the freedom to choose some of their own high school applicants. Normally, students are accepted based on the uniform national exam scores. Also, students who agree to go to a remote area could be admitted to university under special circumstances. The most likely change could come on the college entrance English test, which might be modeled on the IELTS or TOEFL. Students will be able to take it several times and pick their best score.

56．Which of the following is true in the future according to the passage?

      A．Applicants could take the IELTS or TOEFL instead of the college entrance English test.

       B．Colleges will be given the right to choose all of their own applicants.

       C．Vocational education will be party free to make people’s lives better.

       D．Applicants could sit for the college entrance English test more than once.

57．Which of the following words is closest in meaning to “uniform” in the last paragraph?

       A．formal      B．official     C．same D．united

58．We can learn from the passage even though our country spends 4% of GDP on education in 2012,          .

       A．there will still be 188 countries ahead of China in this aspect

       B．China will certainly overtake the global average spending on education

       C．there might be nearly 100 countries ahead of China in this aspect

       D．China will be the 100 th country to spend over the global average on education

59．From the third paragraph, we can infer that         .

      A．school leaders will have more freedom to manage the school

       B．schools will have more limits from the government

       C．School administrative rankings are to be strengthened to solve the bureaucracy problem

       D．schools and research centers will be fully independent from the government