Abby Subark is a mother of two from Boston. “For my kids, I’m nervous. I don’t know if they’ll be able to achieve their American dream.” She may be right. More than hard work or education, the best way to get rich in America is to be born rich.
It is the case that somebody who is in the upper third of income, poor scores, in the bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college and finish college than a poor kid with the top scores. That’s what the working persons’ children are faced with.
The Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9 or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That’s about 200 years. The typical feature of American opportunity has always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for so-called intergenerational mobility (变动).
If you look at the mechanisms (机制) for upward mobility that were so readily available 50 years ago, they are becoming out of reach, like plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health care.
White families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people in America today, where you end up depends on where you start.
If you started in the middle-income class, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle-income class. The rest is up to you.
But for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line and the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class.
71. The main idea of the passage is _______.
A. How the middle class comes about in the U.S.
B. It’s hard to realize the American dream for the poor.
C. Wealth and social status depend on family background.
D. Upward mobility in America is never easy.
Which of the statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A. People used to have job opportunities and welfare for upward mobility.
B. A great many poor people can hardly realize their American dream.
C. You can make all your dreams come true in America if born rich.
D. Rich kids are more likely to go to college than poor kids.
73. The underlined sentence “where you end up depends on where you start” most probably means _______.
A. Your starting point cannot determine your destination.
B. Only a high goal can ensure success.
C. One’s birth has nothing to do with his fate.
D. One’s family lays solid foundation for his future achievements.
Why is Abby Subark nervous?
A. Her kids don’t want to compare with other rich kids in achievements.
B. Her kids don’t want to achieve success at all.
C. Her kids can achieve success through hard work and education.
D. Her kids can’t reach their goal without a rich family.
What can we infer after reading the passage?
A. Poverty causes people much pain.
B. People below the poverty line can never be in the middle class.
C. Lower starting point makes it hard for people to realize their dream.
D. Poor people’s starting point is too low.

His mother could do nothing but _______ for the doctor to arrive.

   A. to wait                     B. waiting                            C. waited                             D. wait

第三部分：阅读理解.(共15小题：每小题2分，30分)
阅读下列短文，然后从各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出最佳选项，并将该答案写在答卷上。
A
To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to a three-year-old, ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!” says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day… they will lose all taste of learning.” At Sudbury Valley School, you will find children talking, reading, painting, cooking, working on computers, studying French, playing the piano, climbing trees, or just running around.Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote each—even the four-year-olds. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school budget (预算，经费), and even which staff they want and do not want anymore.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.
56. What is the main idea of the article?
A. An unusual school.           B. Children’s hobbies.   
C. A school without teachers  D. Education in the US.
57. What does the school believe?
A. Teachers cannot teach children well.
B. Children learn best when they do what they want to do.
C. Learning is for adults—children should only play.
D. Children should only learn about one thing at a time.
58 What does Daniel Greenberg say about three-year-olds?
A. They love learning.         
B. They are very naughty.
C. They want to be outside all the time.      
D. They are too young to learn anything.
59. Who has the most power in the school meeting?
A. The older children have more power than the younger children.
B.A child has more power than an adult.
C. The younger children have more power than the older children.
D. Everybody has equal power.

She couldn’t but_______for the PLA men to find and rescue her.