After too long on the Net，even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend‘s Liverpudlian accent suddenly becomes too difficult to understand after his clear words on screen; a secretary‘s tone seems more rejecting than I’d imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid- hours becomes minutes， and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends， once a highlight of my week，are now just two ordinary days.

For the last three years，since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose，I have done much of my work as a telecommuter. I submit (提交) articles and edit them by E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England, so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.

If I desired，I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food，and manage my money，love and work. In fact，at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home，going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries.  I watched most of the blizzard of 96 on TV.

 But after a while，life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I’ve merged (融合) with my machines，taking data in spitting them back out， just another node （波节）on the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It’s like attending an A. A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponents’ worst nightmare.

What first seemed like a luxury，crawling from bed to computer，not worrying about hair，and clothes and face，has become an avoidance，a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber-interaction，coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.

At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I'd never done previously. The voices of the programs soothe (安慰) me, but then I'm jarred (使感不快) by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or compulsively (强制性能地) needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather. "Dateline," "Frontline," "Nightline," CNN, every possible angle of every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves from foreground to background.

1．Compared to the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent becomes____

    A．unreal       B．unbearable       C．misleading       D．not understandable

2．What does the last paragraph mean

    A．Having worked on the computer for too long, she became a bit strange.

B．She is so interested in TV programs that she often forgets her work

    C．She watches TV a lot in order to keep up with the latest news and the weather.

    D．She turns on TV now and then in order to get some comfort from TV program.

3．What is the author’s attitude to the computer?

    A．She has become bored with it.

    B．She dislikes it because TV is more attractive.

    C．She dislikes it because it cuts off her relation with the outside world.

    D．She likes it because it is very convenient.

4．The underlined phrase “coming back out of the cave ”probably means_______.         

A．going back to the dreaming world         B．coming back home from the outside world

C．restoring direct human contact            D．getting away from living a strange life

I took the bus to work for many years. No one knew each other; the passengers all sat there sleepily in the morning. The bus was cheerless and silent.

One of the passengers was a small grey man who took the bus to the center for senior citizens every morning. No one ever paid very much attention to him. One July morning he said good morning to the driver and smiled. The driver nodded guardedly. The rest of us were silent.

The next day, the old man boarded with a big smile and said in a loud voice, “A very good morning to you all!” Some of us looked up, amazed, and murmured “ good morning” in reply.

The following weeks, our friend was dressed in a nice old suit and tie. The thin hair had been carefully combed. He said good morning to us every day and we gradually began to nod and talk to each other.

One morning he even had a bunch of wild flowers in his hand. The driver turned around smilingly and asked, “Have you got yourself a girlfriend, Charlie?” We never got to know if his name really was “Charlie”, but he nodded shyly and said yes. The other passengers whistled and clapped at him. Charlie waved the flowers before he sat down on his seat.

Every morning after that Charlie always brought flowers. Some passengers also brought flowers for him. The bus became a happy place.

Then, one morning, as autumn was closing in, Charlie wasn’t waiting at his usual stop. When he wasn’t there the next day and the day after that, we started wondering if he was sick or hopefully---on holiday somewhere. When we came nearer to the center for senior citizens, one of the passengers even asked the driver to wait.

We all held our breaths when he went to the door. The old gentleman was fine, but one of his close friends had died over the weekend. How silent we were the rest of the way to work.

The next Monday Charlie was waiting at the stop, and without a tie. Inside the bus was silent.

The story is mainly developed by ______.

A. time   B. logic    C. comparison    D. cause and result 

Greeted with “good morning” from the old man, people aboard the bus at first _____.

A. felt tired and sleepy and didn’t want to talk   B. greeted him back loudly and politely

C. guarded against the conversation from strangers D. felt surprised and became angry with him.

When the passengers found the old man was not waiting at the bus stop as usual, they did NOT _____.

A. buy flowers and wait for him to come   B. feel anxious and worried about him 

C. miss him and expect to see him    D. hope he was going on holiday rather than falling ill

It can be inferred from the text that _____.

A. the driver didn’t like the old man at first  B. people usually wear a tie when they are happy

C. passengers brought flowers to express gratitude（感激） to the old man 

D. the old man had a great influence on the passengers’ emotion

The purpose of the passage is to _____.

A. introduce the old gentleman and praise his good deeds

B. persuade us to become friendly and considerate to people around

C. tell us to keep silent when somebody passes away

D. criticize those who remain silent when they are greeted

What’s A Real Friend?

You can have the same neighbors for years．You love them or you think you love them．And you hope that they love you．But do you ever really understand them?

    Charlie Kemp and his family lived next door to me for 15 years．We were good friends all the time．I enjoy friendship．I think it's the best thing in the world．And friendship with the Kemps was easy because they seemed to welcome it．

    They were interesting and clever people．Their house caught fire twice, and twice the whole family slept in mine．They are always losing things like money, keys and watches．Pictures fell off the walls, the children fell out of bed …

    I was their neighbor and their friend．Life was always interesting, never dull．Best of all, I liked the whole family．

    One day, I lit a fire in the garden to burn some rubbish．After some time Charlie Kemp came out of his house and walked up the road．

    “Morning, Charlie,” I said, “lovely day, isn’t it?” He smiled at me and nodded．I went on with my work．

Twenty minutes later, a policeman arrived．He walked into my garden and said, “You’ll have to put out that fire．Your neighbor has complained (抱怨) to us．He doesn't like the smell．”

“My neighbor …?” I asked．

    “Yes,” the policeman took out his notebook and read, “Charlie Kemp．He lives next door, doesn’t he?”

How many years did Charlie kemp and his family live next door to the writer?

A.5 years       B.10 years        C.15 years       D.20 years

What things do the Charlie kemp’s family lose?

    A.pen        B.book       C.money and keys      D.clothes

According to the passage, ________．

A．Charlie Kemp is the author's neighbor and his real good friend

B．Charlie Kemp is the author's neighbor but not his real good friend

C．Charlie Kemp treats the author as his real good friend

D．the author doesn't treat Charlie Kemp as his real good friend

The author was blamed by the policeman because ________．

A．he was found burning the rubbish by the policeman

B．he was found polluting the environment by burning the rubbish

C．his neighbor Charlie Kemp complained(抱怨) about his action and called the policeman

D．he burnt something of his neighbors

The author's experience tells us that ________．

A．a friend in need is a friend indeed

B．it is difficult to understand a person, even your friend

C．anyone is sure to be friendly to you if you are friendly to him

D．friendship is the best thing in the world

For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words.

In   16  a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend  17  can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are  18__  readers. Most of us develop poor reading    19  at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency（缺乏）  20  in the actual stuff of language itself — words. Taken individually, words have little meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs.   21 , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing（退回） to  22 words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over what you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading.

Another habit which   23  down the speed of reading is vocalization — sounding each word either orally or mentally as one reads.

To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an   24 , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined（预先确定的） speed．The bar is set at a slightly faster rate   25   the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The device forces the reader to read fast,   26  word-by-word reading, regression and sub-vocalization（默读）practically impossible.

At first   27  is sacrificed for speed．But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but your understanding will   28 . Many people have found their reading skill greatly improved after some training.  29  Charlie Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute before the training, now it is an excellent 182 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can    30  through a lot more reading material in a short period of time.

1.                A．applying        B．doing           C．offering   D．getting

2.                A．quickly         B．easily           C．roughly   D．decidedly

3.                A．good           B．curious         C．poor     D．urgent

4.                A．training         B．habits          C．situations D．custom

5.                A．lies            B．combines       C．touches   D．involves

6.                A．Hopefully       B．Actually         C．Logically D．Unfortunately

7.                A．reuse          B．reread          C．rewrite   D．recite

8.                A．scales          B．cuts            C．slows     D．measures

9.                A．accelerator      B．actor           C．loudspeaker   D．observer

10.               A．then           B．as             C．beyond    D．than

11.               A．having         B．leading         C．making    D．indicating

12.               A．meaning        B．comprehension  C．vocalization D．regression

13.               A．arise           B．reduce         C．improve   D．worsen

14.               A．Like           B．Take           C．Make     D．Consider

15.               A．master         B．make          C．finish D．get

The people below are going to make a trip in Australia. After the description of these people, there is information about six advertisements of organized tours A-F. Decide which tours would be most suitable for the person mentioned in descriptions 1-5 and then mark the correct letter (A-F) on your answer sheet. There is one extra paragraph about one tour which you do not need to use.

____ 1. Victor is fond of nature and adventure and he is making a study tour into geology in Australia. So he wants to make a whole day trip, enjoy the natural beauty and study geological phenomena as well.

____ 2. Vanessa is planning a short city tour of Sydney so that she can enjoy the highlights of the city and attend an important lecture given by Professor Brown Smith at 2:00 pm at the University of Sydney.

____ 3. Charlie and his friends are making their first journey in Australia. Having traveled around the city of Sydney, they plan to visit Canberra, the capital and political center of the country.

____ 4. Jenny, a European woman with her children is visiting her relatives in Australia. They want to relax themselves by enjoying the sunshine on the sandy beaches along the coast and have fun with dolphins.

____ 5. Mike and Susan are from Brazil. They have been traveling in Australia for a couple of days. This weekend, they would like to have a change and travel to the countryside to have some idea of Australia grape farming and wine producing instead of making city tours around.

A. City Highlights, Manly Beach, Northern Beaches

B. New Parliament House, National Museum, Australian War Memorial

C. Cuddle a Koala, Kangaroos, Harbour Luncheon Cruise

D. Hunter Valley Wineries, Wine Tasting, Traditional Aussie Towns

E. Port Stephens, Central Coast Beaches, North Coast, Dolphin Watching

F. Jenolan Caves, Blue Mountains, Adventure Caves