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

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue.
—William Bennett
Thanksgiving Day was near. The first grade teacher gave her class a fun __36__ to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful.
Most of the class might be considered economically __37__, but still many would __38__ the holidays with turkeys and other traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought, would be the __39__ of most of her students’ art. And they were.
__40__, Douglas made a different kind of picture. Douglas was a special kind of boy. He was the teacher’s true child of misery, __41__ and unhappy. As other children played at break, Douglas was likely to stand close by her side. One could only guess the pain Douglas felt __42__ those sad eyes.
Yes, his picture was different. When __43__ to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand. Nothing else. Just a(n) __44__ hand.
His abstract image captured the __45__ of his classmates, whose hand could it be? One child guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers __46__ turkeys. Another suggested a police officer, because the police protect and __47__ people. And so the discussion went ---- until the teacher __48__ forgot the young artist himself.
When the children had gone on to other tasks, she __49__ at Douglas’ desk, bent down, and asked him whose hand it was. The little boy looked away and __50__, “It’s yours, teacher.”
She __51__ the times she had taken his hand and walked with him here and there, __52__ she had other student. How often had she said, “Take your hand, Douglas, we’ll go outside.” Or, “Let me show you how to hold your pencil.” Or, “Let’s do this together.” Douglas was most thankful for his teacher’s hand.
Brushing __53__ a tear, she went on with her work.　　
The story speaks of __54__ thankfulness. It says something about teachers teaching and parents parenting and friends showing friendship, and how much it means to the Douglases of the world. They might not always say thanks, but they’ll remember the hand that __55__.

A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what’s happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons(神经元) are responsible for this processing.
　　The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging功能性磁共振造影) brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
　　Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize which parts of the brain receive more oxygen- rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
　　An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
　　The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly, related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
　　 51. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
　　A A small region of the brain.
　　B The central part of the brain.
　　C Neurons in the brain.
　　D Oxygen-rich blood.
　　52. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
　　A Cells in your brain are called neurons.
　　B The more oxygen a neuron consumes, the more blood it needs.
　　C fMRI helps scientists to discover which parts of the brain process information.
　　D fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
53. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
　　A "marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　B "giving light to the parts of the brain that are processing information"
　　C "putting the parts of the brain to work"
　　D "stopping the parts of the brain from working"
　　54. What did the researchers experiment on?
　　A Animals, objects, and fruits.
　　B Two volunteers.
　　C fMRI machines.
　　D Thousands of pictures.
55.What is the best title for the passage?
A Mind-reading Machine
B A Technological Dream
C Device that can Help You Calculate
D The Recent Development in Science and Technology

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

A Lesson in Caring

It was a cold evening. My daughter and I were walking up Broadway. I didn’t notice a guy sitting inside a cardboard box. But Nora . She wasn’t even four, but she ? at my coat and said, “That man’s cold. Daddy, can we take him home?”

??? I don’t remember my . But I do remember a sudden feeling inside me. I had always been delighted at how much my daughter noticed in her , whether it was birds flying or children playing. But now she was noticing and beggary.

??? A few days later, I saw an article in the newspaper about volunteers who picked up a food package from a nearby school on a Sunday morning and it to an elderly person. I signed us up. Nora was about it. She could understand the importance of food, so she could easily see how our job was. When Sunday came, she was ready, but I had to myself to leave the house to fetch the food package. On my way to the school, I fought a(n) to turn back. The Sunday paper and coffee were waiting for me at home. Why do this? , we phoned the elderly person we’d been appointed. She us right over.

??? The building was in a bad state. A silver-haired woman in an old dress received us. Nora ran inside. I followed. However, when we talked, I was moved by her struggle against the hard life and realized what our little help meant to her. When the time came to say goodbye, we three hugged. I walked home , touched.

Professionals call such a “a volunteer opportunity”. They are opportunities and I’ve come to see. else but as volunteers do you have the opportunity to do something that’s good for others as well as for yourself? Nora and I regularly serve meals to needy people and clothes for the homeless. Yet, as I’ve her grow over these past four years, I still wonder – which of us has benefited more?

1.A. did????????????? ????????????? ????????????? B. was????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. has????????????? ??? ????????????? ????????????? D. had

2. A. pulled　　　 B. stared???? ????????????? C. pointed??? ????????????? ??? D. aimed

3.A. debate????????????? ????????????? B. reply????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. explanation????????????? ??? ????????????? D. expression

4.A. light???????? B. funny????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. heavy????????????? ????????????? ??? ????????????? D. magical

5.A. image?? 　　????????????? B. dream　　　????????????? C. memory??? ????????????? ??? D. world

6.A. coldness 　　B. kindness?? ????????????? C. suffering?????? ????????????? D. sharing

7.A. sent????????????? 　　????????????? B. applied??? ????????????? C. devoted?? 　　 ????????????? D. posted

8.A. concerned????????????? B. curious??? ????????????? C. satisfied????????????? ???? ????????????? D. excited

9.A. attractive??? ????????????? B. valuable　　????????????? C. creative????????????? ????????????? ????????????? D. lucky

10.A. encourage????????????? B. expect????????????? ??? 　　C. allow??? 　　　????????????? D. push

11.A. urge??????? B. effort????? ????????????? C. hurry????????? ????????????? D. must???

12.A. Therefore　　B. But????????????? 　　 ????????????? C. Anyhow?? 　　????????????? D. Instead

13.A. requested? ????????????? B. promised　　????????????? C. invited??? 　　 ????????????? D. thanked

14.A. happily? ????????????? B. cautiously? ????????????? C. eagerly??????? ????????????? D. unwillingly

15.A. in tears????????????? ??? B. in disappointment C. with tiredness??? D. with anxiety

16.A. stay????????????? ????????????? B. visit 　　　????????????? C. reception?? 　　????????????? D. challenge

17.A. How????????????? ????????????? B. Where????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. When????????????? ????????????? ??? ????????????? D. What

18.A. reliable? ????????????? B. fair????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. difficult ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? D. enjoyable

19.A. collect????????????? ????????????? B. order????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. make????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? D. design

20.A. had??? ????????????? ????????????? B. felt????????????? ????????????? ????????????? C. watched??? 　　????????????? D. noticed