C

　　The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as Requblican Senator(参议员) John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama were formally selected as candidates of the two major parties.This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates.The big question for voters,as they face both an economic downturn and international threats,is :who will they elect? A young first - term senator promising change and new ideas,or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick(特立独行的人)？

　　American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama.He has a white mother from the US and a black fater from Kenya who left the family when Obama was very young.He spent part of his youth in Indonesia.

　　However,McCain has a very different life story.

　　He grew up in a Navy family and was a daring pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia,McCain's plane was shot down over Ietenam and he became a prisoner of war.McCain could have been set free if he disowned America but he refused and so was held for five years.

　　"We need a president who is very,very old,"McCain joked at his age as many others do.If elected,he would be 72 when he takes office and the oldest man to step in.

　　So in the end,the election may depend on several factors that are hard to judge:Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters ? Will workingclass whites who tended to support his primary (党内初选) oponent,Hillary Clinton,vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all,will uncertain voters be more attracted to Obama's vision or to McCain's experience?

　　Whatever happens,one thing is clear,however:Whoever walks into the White House on January 20,2009,will find huge challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office,both at home and abroad.

　　64.______makes the result of the election hard to predict.

　　　A.Whether working class whites care about Obama's inexperience

　　　B.The economic trouble the country now faces

　　　C.Who uncertain voters will finally decide to vote for

　　　D.McCain being too old to govern the country

　　65.The appeal in Obama as a presidential candidate lies in _________

　　　A.his multi - cultural background

　　　B.his belife in tradition

　　　C.his inexperience in politics

　　　D.his fantastic promises

　　66.The word "disown" in Paragraph 6 means closest to ______.

　　　A.flee from

　　　B.turn his back on

　　　C.not keep it private

　　　D.expose secrets about

　　67.The challenges that will face the new preident______.

　　　A.are not mentioned in the text

　　　B.include buklding a strong party and a friendly image

　　　C.refer to the problems of immigrants and economy

　　　D.refer to the problems of economy amd international relations

　 Sustainable development is applied to just about everything from energy to clean water and economic growth, and as a result it has become difficult to question either the basic assumptions behind it or the way the concept is put to use. This is especially true in agriculture, where sustainable development is often taken as the only measure of progress without a proper appreciation of historical and cultural perspectives.

　 To start with, it is important to remember that the nature of agriculture has changed markedly throughout history, and will continue to do so. Medieval agriculture in northern Europe fed, clothed and sheltered a popularly rural society with a much lower population density than it is today. It had smallest effect on biodiversity, and any pollution it caused was typically localized. In terms of energy use and the nutrients captured in the product it was relatively inefficient.

　 Contrast this with farming since the start of the industrial revolution. Competition from overseas led farmers to specialize and increase yields. Throughout this period food became cheaper, safer and more reliable. However, these changes have also led to habitat loss and to decreasing biodiversity.

　 What’s more, demand for animal products in developing countries is growing so fast that meeting it will require an extra 300 million tons of grain a year by 2050.yet the growth of cities and industry is reducing the amount of water available for agriculture in many regions.

　 All this means that agriculture in the 21^st century will have to be very different from how it was in the 20th. This will require complete thinking. For example, we need to move away from the idea that traditional practices are unavoidably more sustainable than new ones. We also need to abandon the idea that agriculture can be “zero impact”. The key will be to abandon the rather simple and unchangeable measures of sustainability, which centre on the need to maintain production without increasing damage.

　 Instead we need a more dynamic explanation, one that looks at the pros and cons of all the various way land is used. There are many different ways to measure agricultural performance besides food yield: energy use, environmental costs, water purity, carbon footprint and biodiversity. It is clear, for example, that the carbon of transporting tomatoes from Spain to the UK is less than that of producing them in the UK with additional heating and lighting. But we do not know whether lower carbon footprints will always be better for biodiversity.

　 What is critical is recognizing that sustainable agriculture is not just about sustainable food production.

1．How do people often measure progress in agriculture?

A．By its productivity.　　　　　　　　

B．By its impact on the environment.

C．By its sustainability.　　　　　　　

D．By its contribution to economic growth.

2．What does the author think of traditional farming practices?

　　A．They have remained the same over the centuries.

　　B．They have not kept pace with population growth.

　　C．They are not necessarily sustainable.

　　D．They are environmentally friendly.

3．What will agriculture be like in the 21st century?

　　A．It will go through thorough changes.

　　B．It will supply more animal products.

　　C．It will abandon traditional farming practices.

　　D．It will cause zero damage to the environment.

4．What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

　　A．To remind people of the need of sustainable development.

　　B．To suggest ways of ensuring sustainable food production.

　　C．To advance new criteria for measuring farming progress.

　　D．To urge people to rethink what sustainable agriculture is.

阅读理解

　　People often say,“Children can’t do maths problems. It’s because parents can’t do their children’s homework.”Here’s an example to show what I mean.

　　The other day my daughter brought home her maths homework,“I have to subtract(减) 179 from 202,”she said.

　　“It’s quite easy,”I said.“You put the 202 over the 179.”

　　“But we need a 10 here. Where is the 10?”

　　“I don’t know where the 10 is. Let’s just subtract 179 from 202. Nine from two is three. You carry one and add it to seven. Eight from zero is two. The answer is 23.”

　　“We can’t do it that way. We have to use the 10.”

　　“Well, I’m going to call your teacher to see how she subtracts 179 from 202.”

Over the telephone, I said that I was having a bit of trouble with the homework she had given to my daughter. The teacher said,“In the right-hand column we have units of one. The two in that column counts for two ones. The zero in the centre counts for zero tens. The two in the left-hand column counts for hundreds. Are you clear?”But I didn’t think it was clear.

　　I hung up and found my way to the medicine box. My head was now hurting. I started putting pills of medicine into my mouth.“How many did you take?”my wife asked.“I took one and then I took another… I knew one and one was two, but don’t ask me what it is now.”

1．The daughter wanted ________ the other day.

[　　]

A．to give her father a lesson

B．to show how difficult maths was

C．her father to phone her teacher

D．her father to help her with the homework

2．Which of the following sentences is not true?

[　　]

A．The father had a different way to do the maths problem.

B．The father couldn’t do his daughter’s maths homework.

C．The daughter couldn’t understand her father’s way.

D．The daughter had some trouble doing the maths problem.

3．From what the teacher said, we know the word units means ________ here.

[　　]

A．whole numbers less than 10

B．whole things

C．groups of lessons

D．the smallest numbers

4．What the teacher said made the father ________.

[　　]

5．Can you guess what would happen next in the story?

[　　]

A．The father would go to school and begin to learn maths.

B．The father would become very ill and have to take more medicine.

C．The father would never do his daughter’s maths problems again.

D．The father would go to the school and fight against the teacher.

C

　　The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as Requblican Senator(参议员) John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama were formally selected as candidates of the two major parties.This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates.The big question for voters,as they face both an economic downturn and international threats,is :who will they elect? A young first - term senator promising change and new ideas,or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick(特立独行的人)？

　　American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama.He has a white mother from the US and a black fater from Kenya who left the family when Obama was very young.He spent part of his youth in Indonesia.

　　However,McCain has a very different life story.

　　He grew up in a Navy family and was a daring pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia,McCain's plane was shot down over Ietenam and he became a prisoner of war.McCain could have been set free if he disowned America but he refused and so was held for five years.

　　"We need a president who is very,very old,"McCain joked at his age as many others do.If elected,he would be 72 when he takes office and the oldest man to step in.

　　So in the end,the election may depend on several factors that are hard to judge:Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters ? Will workingclass whites who tended to support his primary (党内初选) oponent,Hillary Clinton,vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all,will uncertain voters be more attracted to Obama's vision or to McCain's experience?

　　Whatever happens,one thing is clear,however:Whoever walks into the White House on January 20,2009,will find huge challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office,both at home and abroad.

　　64.______makes the result of the election hard to predict.

　　　A.Whether working class whites care about Obama's inexperience

　　　B.The economic trouble the country now faces

　　　C.Who uncertain voters will finally decide to vote for

　　　D.McCain being too old to govern the country

　　65.The appeal in Obama as a presidential candidate lies in _________

　　　A.his multi - cultural background

　　　B.his belife in tradition

　　　C.his inexperience in politics

　　　D.his fantastic promises

　　66.The word "disown" in Paragraph 6 means closest to ______.

　　　A.flee from

　　　B.turn his back on

　　　C.not keep it private

　　　D.expose secrets about

　　67.The challenges that will face the new preident______.

　　　A.are not mentioned in the text

　　　B.include buklding a strong party and a friendly image

　　　C.refer to the problems of immigrants and economy

　　　D.refer to the problems of economy amd international relations

　 The law says that women should have the chance of doing the same jobs as men and earn the same as them.

　 The reality is very different. Women lose because, 25 years after the Equal Pay Act, many of them still get paid less than men.

　 They lose because they do lower-paid jobs which men just won’t consider. And they lose they are the ones who interrupt a career to have children.

　 All this is reported in an independent study ordered by the Government’s women’s unite.

　 The biggest problem isn’t equal pay in work places such as factories. It is a sort of work women do.

　 Make a list of low-paid of jobs_ then consider who does them.

　 Try nurses, secretaries, cleaner, clerks, teachers in primary schools, dinner ladies, and child care helpers. Not a lot of men among that group, are there?

　 Yet some of those jobs are really important. Surely no one would deny that about nurses and teachers, for a start.

　 So why do we reward the people who do them so poorly? There can be only one answer--- because they are women.

　 This is not going to be put right overnight. But the Government, which employs a lot of them,, and other bosses have to make a start.

　 It is disgraceful(可耻的) that we have gone into the 21st Century still treating women like second-class citizens.

41. Women should have the chance of doing the same jobs and be paid equally as men ____.

　 A. after 25 years　                              B. according to the law

　 C. as a result of the Equal Pay Act　　  D. because women are as strong as men

42. We can learn from the text what the problem really matters is ____.

　 A. that the women interrupt a career to have children

　 B. what sort of work women do

　 C. because they are women

　 D. what an unfair pay women get in workplaces.

43. Which of the following best describes the writer’s idea?

　 A. Women should get equal pay for equal work to that of men.

　 B. Women should strengthen加强 themselves.

　 C. The Government ought to protect women against getting paid less than men.

　 D. Some of the jobs that women do are of great importance.

44. When the writer says “This is not going to be put right overnight”, he means ____.

　 A. we must solve the problem very quickly.

　 B. there is not completely fair thing all over the world.

　 C. we need a long time to change the unfair reality.

　 D. the problem that women lose will be solved soon.

45. Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?

　 A. Work to give women a fair pay deal.

　 B. Time to change the situation.

　 C. Equal work, equal pay.

　 D. Should women be treated like second-class citizens?