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

What is the tallest gift received by the United States? Located in New York Harbor, the 152-foot Statue of Liberty was a gift of international friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States．An inspiration to millions of immigrants, this statue is a universal symbol of freedom, democracy （民主） and diplomacy （外交） ．

The relationship between the United States and France began during America's quest for independence from Great Britain in 1776．Benjamin Franklin was among those who served on the diplomatic front during the Revolutionary War．By living in Paris as the American ambassador, Benjamin cultivated a relationship with the French government and the French people．As a result, French soldiers fought alongside the American colonists （拓殖者） ．Paris was the site for peace negotiations between the United States and Great Britain at the end of the war．

In 1865, Edourd de Laboulaye of France developed the idea of creating a giant statue to honor the friendship and the commitment to liberty between France and the United States． He formed the French-American Union to raise money for this project．Joseph Pulitzer used the editorial pages of his newspaper to raise support in the United States for the fund．French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi and structural engineer Gustave Eiffel finished the project in Paris, and the French people presented it to the people of America on July 4,1884．The statue was then shipped across the Atlantic in 214 boxes broken into 350 individual separate pieces． The Statue of Liberty was dedicated（奉献） on October 28,1886, and President Grover Cleveland accepted the statue on behalf of the American people．

　　　 Ellis Island, which was the arrival point for European immigrants, is part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument．Between 1892 and 1924, more than 22 million passengers saw the Statue of Liberty as they passed through Ellis Island and the Port of New York．This landmark of freedom became a National Monument in 1924 and a major tourist attraction in the 20th Century．

56．From the passage, we can know the relationship between France and the USA from 1776 to 1865 is_____．

　　　 A．very cold 　　　　 B．just so-so C．quite close　　 　 D．quite tense

57．Why did Edourd de Laboulaye put forward the project of building the Statue of Liberty?

　　　 A．To show respect to the USA．

　　　 B．To show the strong image of France．

　　　 C．To raise a lot of money．

　　　 D．To show the friendship and the commitment to liberty between the two countries．

58．The underlined word "landmark" in the last paragraph means_____ ．

　　　 A．road　　　　　 　 B．success　　 C．sign　　 　　　　 D．wonder

59．The best title for this passage is_____．

　　　 A．The Statue of Liberty　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　 B．A Great Project

　　　 C．Great Relationship　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　　　 D．Peace Negotiations

Half of the world’s population is affected by Asian monsoons（季风）, but monsoons are difficult to predict. American researchers have put together a 700-year record of the rainy seasons, which is expected to provide guidance for experts making weather predictions.

Every year, damp air masses，known as monsoon，produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.

According to Edward Cook , a weather expert at Columbia University in New York., the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings, or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.

Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.

Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.” With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.

“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science.”

1.What’s the passage mainly about？

A. The effects of Asian monsoons.

B. The necessity of weather forecast.

C. The achievements of Edward cook.

D. A breakthrough in monsoon prediction.

2.It is difficult for experts to predict Asian monsoons because _______.

A. it is hard to keep long-term climate records.

B. they are formed under complex climate systems.

C. they influence many nations.

D. there is heavy rainfall in Asia.

3.What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research.

B. The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years.

C. The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak.

D. The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas.

4.According to Professor Cook, the rings of the trees _______.

A. determine the regional climate.             

B. have a great influence on the regional climate.

C. offer people information about the regional climate.

D. reflect all kinds of regional climate information.

5.Which of the following best describes the tone of this passage?

A. Matter-of –fact       B. Pessimistic          C. Humorous        D. Friendly.

  Language is always changing. In a society where life continues year after year with few changes, the language does not change, either. The earliest known languages had difficult grammar but a small, limited vocabulary. Over the century, the grammar changed, and the vocabulary grew. For example, the English and Spanish people who came to America during the sixteenth century gave names to all new plants and animals they found. In this way, hundreds of new words were introduced into English and Spanish vocabularies. Today life is changing very fast, and language is changing fast too.
 There are several major language families in the world. Some scientists say there are nine main families, but other scientists divide them differently. The languages in each family are connected, and scientists think that they came from the same parent language About 3 percent of the people in the world speak languages that are not in these major families.
60. The early language had ______.
A. a lot of problems                                      B. words and easy grammar
C. words but no grammar                                    D. grammar but not many words
61. In the next few hundred years we can expect language to ______.
A. stay exactly the same                             B. change a great deal
C. change only a little                                  D. add more words and drop some grammar
62. What this article shows is that ______.
A. languages change fast             B. languages really don’t want to change
C. language changes with changes of society     D. Spanish and English change
63. From this article we can see that ______.
A. language can change very slowly or very quickly
B. if we don’t change, then our language won’t change, either
C. we should give our plants new names
D. English and Spanish are the only languages that have changes

____ the students in our school go to college in their teens.   

A．A good many       B．A great many of     C．A great deal of      D．A lot of

根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填放空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
A great life doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of allocating (分配) your time, energy ,thoughts ,and hard work towards what you want your life to be . Stop setting yourself up for stress and failure, and start setting up your life to support success and ease. It is the result of using what you get in a creative and thoughtful way, instead of just what comes next .___76___.
S---Simplify. A great life is the result of simplifying your life. People often misinterpret what simplify means. It’s not a way to remove work from your life .__77__ . In order to create a great life , you will have to make room for it in yours first.
E---Effort. A great life is the result of your best effort. Creating it requires that you make some adjustments. It may mean re-evaluating how you spend your time ,or choosing to spend your money in a different way. Life will reward your best effort.
C---Create priorities.(首要事情).A great life is the result of creating priorities .It’s easy to spend your days just responding to the next thing that gets your attention, instead of intentionally using the time ,energy and money you have in a way that’s important to you .__78__.
R---Remove distractions. A great life is the result of removing distractions. __79__. Removing distractions can be a difficult concept to many people ,since they haven’t really considered that there is another way to live. Find ways to free up your mental energy for things that are more important to you.
T---Thoughts. __80___.Your belief in the outcome will directly determine how successful you are. Motivated people have specific goals and look for ways to achieve them. Believing there is a solution to the same old problems you encounter year after year is vitally important to creating a life that you love.