Britain has recently had a high level of unemployment—but the same is true ________ many other countries.

A. at           B. from  C. of      D. to

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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

WHAT can help you make a fortune in the future? Graduating from a top university might not be enough．A new study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more friends you have in school, the more money you'll earn later．

The idea that popularity could have a serious influence on one's earning potential shouldn't come as too much of a surprise．The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills and networking are easily as powerful as talent and hard work．

"If a person has lots of friends, it means that he or she has the ability to get along with others in all kinds of different situations," said Xu Yanchun, 17, from Nantou High School in Shenzhen, who totally agreed with the recent finding．" Also, friends always help each other．They not only create wider social circles for you but lift your mood when you are occasionally in low spirits," said Xu．She believed that all this helps you “earn a higher salary”．

Maybe that's why some people think the younger generations are in the age of Friendalholism （交友狂症）?A woman even complained that the networking website Facebook's 5,000-friend limit was too low for her large reserve of social contacts．

But what does a friend mean? Should friends be regarded as a form of currency?

" Call me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing．It seems, however, ．that this is no longer the definition of ' friend'," said Meghan Daum, who works with The Los Angeles Times in the US．

Daum dislikes the idea that quantity trumps quality in the age of friendaholism．She thought the idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social networkers, was to get as many of not-really -friends as possible．For example, a friend might be someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know．Although she agreed that social ties grease （润滑） the wheels of life, she also warned, "Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend．"

56．What can friends do in the eyes of Xu Yanchun?

         A．They can help you with your schoolwork．

         B．They teach you how to make more money．

         C．They introduce their friends to you．

         D．They help you to get rid of sadness and cheer up．

57．What will be needed if you are to achieve success according to the researchers?

         A．Social skills, friends, good mood and fortune．

         B．Social skills, talent, hard work and the facebook．

         C．Social skills, networking, potential and fortune．

         D．Social skills, networking, talent and hard work．

58．We learn that Meghan Daum's attitude towards friends-is somewhat____．

         A．up-to-date             B．traditional        C．confused    D．optimistic

59．What does the word "trumps" in the last paragragh mean?

         A．is worse than          B．is equal to C．is better than        D．is similar to

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项多余选项。

Dear Boris,

     ___1____

After I had spent a week with my English family, I slowly began to understand their English a little better. ___2____ Students in my group are from different cities of Britain and their dialects (方言) are different too! Some of their accents are quite strong and they also have their own words and expressions.

__3____ Before I came to England I had thought that fish and chips were eaten every day. That’s quite wrong! I get rather annoyed now when I hear all the foolish words about typical English food.

I had expected to see “London fog”. Do you remember our texts about it? We had no idea that most of this “thick fog” disappeared many years ago when people stopped using coal in their homes. But the idea to speak about weather was very helpful. ___4____ On the other hand, habits are different. People tell me what is typical British here in London is not always typical in Wales or Scotland. ___5____

But what is ordinary for all British is that they follow traditions(传统). Probably Britain has more living signs of its past than many other countries. And people have always been proud of having ancient (古老) buildings in capitals, big cities and the countryside.

I will tell you more about Britain in my other letters.

Love from Britain.

                                                           Peter

A. The weather in London is really changeable.

B. I have difficulty in understanding my classmates.

C. Thanks for your nice letter.

D. The family I live with are friendly.

E. It’s very different from what I learned at school.

F. Local habits and traditions are not the same as what we knew.

G. But it’s not the language that’s different and surprising.

Olympic building projects are at risk because skilled Polish workers are going back home and there are not enough skilled British workers to replace _1.__ . A quick training plan is being put in place to teach British people basic construction __2.__ specifically for Olympic projects. As the Polish builders are beginning to go back home, migrant workers from other parts of Eastern Europe are taking their places; __3.__, they don’t seem to be as well trained or have the same work ethics as the Polish workers. The Olympic Delivery Authority, the London Development Agency (LDA) and other partner organizations are going to spend ￡20 million —23 per cent of  4.    training budget for London 2012 —in increasing the skills of the British workforce to _5._ the construction needs of the Olympics. They are also training electricians. A total of 1,500 workers nationwide will become fully skilled electricians _6.__ attending the program. These workers will then work on building the Olympic Village. Iain MacDonald, head of a training program, told TheTimes, "All the way along we have been holding the view   7. we can’t rely on migrant labour. We have to put in plans for the long term. We can’t rely on migrant labour all the time. Britain has become too dependent on the migrant labour force. It is better to develop the skills of the 8. population."

English teenagers are to receive compulsory (必修的) cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to fight the country’s increasing obesity (肥胖 )rate. It’s feared that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost as parents turn to pre-prepared convenience foods.

Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England---even if it was mainly aimed at girls. In recent decades cooking has progressively become a minor activity in schools. In many cases the schools themselves have given up cooking meals in kitchens in the schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to a rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught.

“What I want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce, a bolognaise, a simple curry, a stir-fry---which they can use now at home and then in their later life”, said Ed Balls, the minister responsible for schools.

The new lessons are due to start in September, but some schools without kitchens will be given longer to adapt. There is also likely to be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since the trend has been to teach food technology rather than practical cooking. Also the compulsory lessons for hands on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believes it will be worth it.

“If we’d done this thirty years ago we might not have the crisis we’ve got now about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they’ll be healthy, but because it’s a life skill which is a real pleasure”.

The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to the level of obesity in Britain which is among the highest in Europe, and according to government figures half of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not stopped.

1.The passage mainly talks about        .

A．the reason for obesity                    B．the lost cooking skills

C．the healthy eating                       D．the compulsory cooking classes

2.Which of the following is NOT the purpose for English teenagers to receive cooking lessons?

A．To encourage teenagers to eat healthy food.

B．To reduce the country’s increasing obesity rate.

C．To stop parents from turning to pre-prepared convenience foods.

D．To prevent basic cooking and food preparation skills from being lost.

3.In what way will cooking lessons benefit the students?

A．They will be healthy and enjoy the pleasure of such a life skill as well.

B．They will be able to do some basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce.

C．They will be able to make food experiments with the knowledge and skills.

D．They will be able to control the level of obesity in the whole country.

4.The well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, thinks it        to offer compulsory cooking lessons in schools.

A．difficult           B．necessary         C．funny            D．timely

5.It can be inferred from the passage that       .

A．cooking has always been an important part of school education in England

B．the obesity rate in Britain has been rapidly growing in recent decades

C．English teenagers will have their cooking lessons twice a week for one year

D．the students will pay a lot of money to the school for the