WILD WEATHERMAN

Name: Sam Champion

Hot job: TV Weatherman

Where: ABC-TV, New York City

When you were a child, did you plan to forecast wind, rain, and snow on TV?

I wanted to be a foreign journalist. I took courses in weather science at Eastern Kentucky University, but I majored in broadcasting news.

How did you finally become a weatherman?

My first job in the early 1980s was at the local TV station in Paducah, Kentucky. I did everything from turning on the lights in the morning to writing and delivering morning news. I put together weather forecasts, and became interested in them.

Back then, how did you forecast weather?

Independent companies collected computer information that showed, for example, how a single weather system might split into snow or snow mixed with rain. The information was often opposite and the job of a weatherman was to study the information and make the best educated guess about the storm.

Has weather forecasting changed much with new technology?

Advanced computers, satellites, and Doppler radar (sound waves used to track storms) have made forecasting more exact. But we still know very little about how weather is shaped. So far, we just have theories.

Any advice for children who'd like to become weather scientists?

To me, weather is the most exciting field in the world. There are still so many more questions about weather than answers. After all, if we can't foresee floods or hurricanes, how safe a society are we? Weather forecasting is wide open for scientists who love to solve puzzling problems. The next generation of meteorologists (weather scientists) will unlock many of Earth's weather secrets. So get a general knowledge of Earth science, and study meteorology in college.

Thanks, Sam.

Judging from the writing style, the text is _________.

A．a diary               B．an interview  

C．a news story           D．an announcement

As a child, ABC-TV's Sam Champion wanted to be a____________.

   A. space scientist          B．weatherman 

C. news reporter           D．meteorologist

Present weather forecasting technology___________.

A．has made weather report more exact than ever

　B．is still not perfect

　C．hasn't changed much in the last 50 years

　D．both A and B

The study of weather science is called____________.

A．meteorology   B．forecasting   C．geography   D．Earth science

It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.

I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!

Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax, which is a shortening of facsimile originally, an exact copy of a book or document. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. So, nouns turn into verbs in two easy stages. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.

Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb is derived from an adjective not a noun. I wasn’t really sure whether people said this, but someone told me recently that they had favorited a site I was looking for and so they could easily give me its address.

In the late 1980s I noticed that lots of my friends had acquired pagers, and kept saying things like “I’ll page you as soon as I know what time we’re meeting”. They couldn't say it to me, though; I refused to have one. So my children bought me a mobile phone, now known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message （either spoken or written）for them on their phone．Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself! 　

60. “I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means              .

A. it was a firm arrangement　　　　　　　    　

B. it was an uncertain arrangement

C. the arrangement should be written as a diary    

D. he prefers a pencil to a pen

61. A website address can be easily found if it has been            .

A. emailed            B. messaged          C. favorited          D. texted

62. Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?

A. message            B. page                 C. email               D. mobile

63. The best title for this passage is           ．

A. New Verbs from Old Nouns　　　　

B. The Development of the English language

C. New Technology and New words     

D. Technology and Language

Every pet owner loves his pet. There is no argument here.
　　But when we asked our readers whether they would clone （克隆， 复制）their beloved animals, the responses（反应） were split almost down the middle. Of the 228 readers who answered it, 108 would clone, 111 would not and nine weighed each side without offering an opinion.
　　Clearly, from readers’ response, this is an issue that reaches deeply into both the joy and final sadness of owning a pet. It speaks, as well, to people’s widely differing expectations over the developing scientific procedure.
　　Most of the respondents who favored the idea strongly believed it would produce at least a close copy of the original; many felt the process would actually return an exact copy. Those on the other side, however, held little hope a clone could never truly recreate a pet, many simply didn’t wish to go against the natural law of life and death.
　　Both sides expressed equal love for their animals. More than a few respondents owned “the best dog/cat in the world”. They thought of their pets as their “best friend”, “a member of the family,”“the light of my life.” They told moving stories of pets’ heroism, intelligence and selfless devotion.
　　Then the loss is so disturbing---and the cloning so attractive. “People become very close to their animals, and the loss can be just as hard to bear as when a friend or family member dies,” says Gary Kowalski, author of Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet. “For me, cloning feels like an attempt to turn death away…It’s understandable. Death is always painful. It’s difficult to deal with. It’s hard to accept.”
　　But would cloning reduce the blow? This question seemed to be at the heart of this problem.
【小题1】So far as the cloning of pets is concerned, a recent survey shows that, of all pet owners, ____.

第三部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）

第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

　　JSC Boggs is an artist who makes money.To be exact,he draws money.In the United States he draws dollars,in Britain pounds and in France francs.Each are almost perfect reproductions,apart from the fact that he writes "Bank of Boggs" or another humorous message on them.

　　When Boggs goes shopping or for a meal,he offers "Boggs dollars" in the payment for what he wants.He also offers real money.It is up to the people selling the goods to take whichever they prefer.

　　When a shopkeeper or a restaurant owner takes a "Boggs dollar",he or she gives a receipt in return for the things bought.Boggs then sells the receipt at face value to art collectors.This is how he makes actual money for the times when people will not accept his drawings.

　　The collector uses the receipt to find the person holding the actual "Boggs dollar" and the two talk over what they think would be a fair price.This gives the shop or restaurant owner the chance to make another profit on the goods he or she sold to Boggs.It means Boggs actually gets paid for buying things.And it means that the collector has a unique work of art---each "Boggs dollar" is separately drawn.

　　Artists like to make us think.What Boggs wants us to think about is the nature of value and money. What is money really worth? Is value of money the same as personal value? Once "Boggs dollars " have been given away by the artist,they often continuew to circulate and grow on value A "Boggs one dollar bill" may have bought the artist a cup of coffee in New York.Now it may be worth a car or an expensive meal.It all depends on that value a person chooses to give it.

　　Money used to be worth a certain weight in gold or silver.Now it is just worth whatever the government or the banks.JSC Boggs is trying to start another type of money.People can choose "Boggs dolars" or not.And their value is up to whoever uses them.In a way,"Boggs dollars" are "people's money".

　　56.How much will Boggs get if he buys a cup of coffee with a "Boggs one dollar bill"?

　　　A.One dollar. B.More than one dollar.

　　　C.Less than one dollar. D.Much more than one dollar.

　　57.According to the text,the main difference between"value of money "and "personal value" is that ______.

　　　A.they rise or fall separately B.they refer to different people

　　　C.they are decided by different people D.they are decided by different banks

　　58.What does the writer mean by saying "Boggs dollars are people's money"?

　　　A.They are two different types of money.

　　　B.In fact they are not real money.

　　　C.People can share them and use them among themselves.

　　　D.People are free to use them and deck their value.

　　59.Choose the girht order in which Boggs gets paid.

　　　　a.He buys things with his dollars.

　　　　b.He sells the receipt to an art collector.

　　　　c.He araws dollars.

　　　　d.The art collector finds the shopkeeper to buy his dollars.

　　　　e.The shopkeeper gives him a receipt.

　　　A.c - a - e - b - d

　　　B.c - e - b - d - a

　　　C.e - c - b - d - a

　　　D.e - b - c - a - d