E

“How’s the basketball coming on?”

I put down my drink and looked across at the next table. I was curious about that because both the man and the woman were at least 65.

“Oh, I’m not playing much basketball these days,” the woman replied. “But I’m getting much better at golf.”

What’s this, I thought. I opened my packet of crisps, thoughtfully. “I’m still pretty hopeless at chess, I’m afraid,” the man said. “It beat me on level one this morning.”

The penny dropped. These two were the proud owners of computer games.

It’s very likely that one of the results of the development of the silicon chip(硅片) will be that a lot of people will have more exciting ways to spend their leisure time. It already has. Space invader machines are now a familiar sight everywhere. A lot of people play them, and some, particularly school children, get remarkably high scores. How, one wonders, do they find the time (and money) to become so good?

If you have your own computers, the possibilities are endless. You can play any active sports without stepping out of your living room.

You can become an expert at chess or backgammon without ever playing with another human being. Indeed, human beings aren’t needed at all.

So, what of the future? Will we see school children stealing or even robbing to feed space invader machines? Will football grounds lie empty as families sit at home playing video football, or watching the national video football championship? Perhaps, it won’t go that far. But we won’t have to wait long for the Video Olympics. I’m sure of that.

Back in the pub, I stood up, took out 20 pence, and went over to the space invader machine. I may not be much good at beating computers at backgammon, but any space invaders who arrive on Earth anywhere near me had better watch out.

72. The reason why the writer felt curious about the talk between the couple was that ____.

A. he thought they were too old to play basketball

B. they looked young for their age

C. the old seldom went to the bar

D. he didn’t believe they played basketball so well

73. The underlined sentence “The penny dropped.” in the fifth paragraph probably means ____.

A. his wallet was stolen

B. he dropped a penny into the space invader machine

C. he asked for another drink for a penny

D. he’s come to see what they meant

74. The text is mainly written to tell us that ____.

A. computers will make people have a better time in their leisure time

B. the writer was worried about the side effect of computers

C. the old couple were excellent at playing golf

D. school children shouldn’t play space invader machines so much

75. We can infer form the passage that ____.

A. we can do everything without leaving our home in the future

B. the writer was good at playing the space invader game

C. school children will certainly steal or rob to feed the space invader machines

D. the woman is better at playing chess than the man

Sports medicine experts have observed for  years that athletes such as long distance runners, especially women athletes, often display a lack of iron. Now a new study by a team of Purdue University researchers suggests that even moderate exercise may lead to reduced iron in the blood of women.   
"We found that women who were normally inactive and then started a program of moderate exercise of middle degree showed sings of iron loss," says Roseanne M. Lyle, associate professor at Purdue. Her study of 62 formerly inactive women who began exercising three times a week for six months was published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Iron deficiency is very common among women in general, affecting one in four female teenagers and one in five women aged 18 to 45, respectively. But the ratio is even greater among active women, affecting up to 80 percent of female endurance athletes. This means, Lyle says, that "too many women ignore the amount of iron they take in". Women of child-bearing age are at greatest risk, since their monthly bleeding is a major source of iron loss. Plus, many health-conscious women increase their risk by rejecting red meat, which contains the most easily absorbed form of iron. And because women often restrict their diet in an effort to control weight, they may not consume enough iron-rich food, and are liable to experience a deficiency.
Exercise can result in iron loss through a variety of mechanisms. Some iron is lost in sweat, and, for unknown reasons, intense endurance exercise is sometimes associated with bleeding of the digestive system. Athletes in high-impact sports such as running may also lose iron through a phenomenon where small blood vessels in the feet leak blood.
There are three stages of iron deficiency. The first and most common is having low iron reserves, a condition that typically has no symptoms. Fatigue and poor performance may begin to appear in the second stage of deficiency, when not enough iron is present to form the molecules(分子) of blood protein that transport oxygen to the working muscles. In the third and final stage, people often feel weak, tired, and out of breath - and exercise performance is severely compromised.
"People think that if they're not at the third stage, nothing is wrong, but that's not true," says John L. Beard, who helped design the Purdue study. "You're not stage 3 until your iron reserves go to zero, and if you wait until that point, you're in trouble."
Beard and other experts say it’s advisable for people to have a yearly blood test. If iron levels are low, talk with a physician to see if the deficiency should be corrected by changing your diet and taking iron-rich foods or by taking iron-added pills.
“Select breads and cereals with the words ‘iron-added’ on the label,” writes sports diet expert Nancy Clark. “This added iron supplements the small amount that naturally occurs in grains.” Clark also recommends cooking in iron pans, as food can obtain iron from the pan during the cooking process.
64．Which of the following may be the title for the passage?
A．Science, sports and exercise
B．Correct iron deficiency
C．Women, Iron and exercise
D．Women, health and exercise
65．The third paragraph is developed mainly by________ .
A．organizing the details according to the order of time
B．presenting the result followed by specific causes
C．beginnign with details followed by a general statement
D．making comparisons ad contrasts
66．What does it mean when you are in the third stage of iron defieiency?
A．Nothing serious though you don’t have much iron stored in the body.
B．There is not enough iron to form the molecules of blood protein to transport oxygen.
C．The small blood vessels in your reet are beginnig to leak blood.
D．No iron is left in your body and you would be in trouble without urgent measures.
67．What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
A．Defensive.       B．Persuasive.      C．Supportive.      D．Objective.

       A device that stops drivers form falling asleep at the wheel is about to undergo testing at Department of Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months.

       The system, called Driver Alert, aims to reduce deadly road accidents by 20% - 40% that are caused by tiredness. Airline pilots can also use it to reduce the 30% of all pilot-error accidents that are related to fatigue.

       Driver Alert is based on a computerized wristband. The device, worn by drivers or pilots, gives out a sound about every four minutes during a car journey. After each sound the driver must respond by squeezing the steering wheel (方向盘). A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and measures the time between the sound and the driver’s response.

       Tiredness is directly related to a driver’s response time. Usually, a watchful driver would take about 400 milliseconds to respond, but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds, it suggests that the driver is getting sleepy.

       In such cases the device gives out more regular and louder sounds, showing that the driver should open a window or stop for a rest. If the driver’s response continues to slow down, the sounds become more frequent until a nonstop alarm warns that the driver must stop as soon as possible.

       The device has been delivered to the department’s laboratories for testing. If these tests, scheduled for six months’ time, are successful, the makers will bring the product to market within about a year.

According to the text, Driver Alert ______.

A. aims to reduce tiredness-related accidents

B. has gone through testing at laboratories

C. aims to prevent drivers form sleeping

D. has been on sale for 12 months

73.   How should a driver respond to the sounds from Driver Alert?

       A. By sounding a warning.                                B. By touching the wristband.

C. By checking the driving time.                        D. By pressing the steering wheel.

74.   We can learn form the text that the driver needs to stop for a break when his response time is ______.

       A. about 400 milliseconds                                 B. below 500 milliseconds

       C. over 500 milliseconds                                          D. about 4 minutes

75.   When the driver gets sleepy while driving, Driver Alert ______.

       A. moves more regularly                                          B. stops working properly

       C. opens the window for the driver                           D. sounds more frequently and loudly

    The sandstorm has a bad effect on human beings, but it also brings some good results. There wouldn’t have been our Chinese nation if there had been no sandstorms. Sandstorms have existed for millions of years, while the written history of human beings has lasted only 5,000 years. The Loess Plateau(黄土高原) was formed by sandstorms over millions of years. The Yellow River, while moving through the Loess Plateau, carries a great deal of sand and has formed the North China Plain. The Loess Plateau is regarded as the place where Chinese civilization(文明) began. If there had been no Loess Plateau, the North China Plain wouldn’t have existed, nor would have the Chinese civilization.

Sandstorms don’t bring only loess to human beings. When sandstorms move from central Asia to the Pacific regions, they carry some minerals into the air, which will later fall into the ocean in the form of rain. The minerals will help some planktons(浮游生物) to survive. The planktons are eaten by small shellfish, and fish live on these small shellfish, and fish are eaten by humans. This forms a biological chain which shows a relation between humans and nature.

So it is unrealistic to say we should stop sandstorms. What we can possibly do is to reduce their bad influence as much as we can.

59. The underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably means _________.

A. there are many sandstorms in China

B. the land of China was made by sandstorms

C. sandstorms helped to form Chinese civilization

D. the history of sandstorms was longer than that of Chinese nation

60. How does the sandstorm help to form the biological chain?

A. The sandstorm carries lots of rain into the ocean.

B. The sandstorm helps some minerals fall into the ocean.

C. Some minerals directly fall into the ocean in the form of rain.

D. The sandstorm moves from central Asia to the Pacific regions.

61. The writer thinks that _______.

A. the sandstorm only has a bad effect on human beings

B. sandstorms bring about lots of trouble, but we can still make use of them

C. without sandstorms, there would be no Chinese civilization and human beings

D. sandstorms play an active role in the Chinese civilization, so we should protect them

62. The text mainly talks about _______.

A. the history of sandstorms        B. what the biological chain is

C. how the Loess Plateau formed    D. the good effects of sandstorms

In the UK, students’ residence halls are run as profit-making business, but this can occasionally be to students’ disadvantage.

As many universities choose to contract out their hall’s management to private companies, room rents are rising and student rights are suffering.

In 2006, 55 percent of student rooms were managed by private companies — only 27 percent by universities and colleges, the National Union of Students (NUS) has reported.

These private companies are improving the hall’s facilities in return for higher room rents. The most noticeable example of this trend is the growth in luxury halls. These are halls for students willing to pay more for larger rooms with better services.

Chancellors Court, at Edinburgh University in Scotland, is one such luxury hall. Rooms are divided between standard and large, with larger rooms costing 173 pounds each week, 40 pounds more than smaller rooms. They come with a scenic view, color TV, fast Internet connection and a modern bathroom.

Other luxury halls have private gyms for their residents. Private companies capitalize (用…以牟利) on their investment by renting out the students rooms to travelers over the summer vacation period.

But the NUS is concerned that luxury halls are affecting room rents at standard un-privatized halls. Most students in the UK pay on average 126 pounds a week for a private room in catered (提供餐饮的) halls of residence, the International Students Advice and Welfare organization has reported. According to the NUS, rent in UK halls of residence has risen by almost a quarter from 2005 to 2007.

Veronica King, NUS vice-president of welfare, wants the privatization of university accommodation to stop.

“For the students for whom luxury is not affordable, there is a significant risk that accommodation costs, coupled with the burden of complete fees, may reduce the choice of where to go to university,” she said.

Legal quarrels with privatized halls may also account for some of the 10 percent per year rise in student complaints to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA). The OIA is an independent student complaints scheme that has authority over all higher education institutions in England and Wales.

Rob Behrens, chief executive of the OIA, said he was unsurprised by the rise in complaints. “The bottom line is that students are today more self-confident in thinking about what their rights are and what are the things they can get form the commitments they make.”

1.Why are room rents rising in British universities?

A.Because the world is facing a financial crisis.

B.Because most universities are getting bored about students’ complaints.

C.Because many universities let private companies run students’ halls.

D.Because not all universities can meet the demands of the students.

2. Which of the following is not mentioned about a luxury hall?

A.Students have to pay more for a luxury hall.

B.Students can have a good view in a luxury hall.

C.Students can enjoy their own gym in a luxury hall.

D.Students can have an Internet connection free of charge.

3.Why do some students want to pay more for a luxury hall?

A.Because they just want to show that they are rich. 

B.Because they are better served in a luxury hall.

C.Because there are too much complaints about small rooms.

D.Because there are no other choices.