D

For many of us, printed books are satisfying in ways beyond the words they contain. Billions of printed books have been published, read and saved in the 600 years since movable type was invented, so why mess with a good things?

       Sony Electronics is doing just that, betting that readers will be won over by the convenience of readability of its new electronic book devices. Sony's reader, the PRS-505, can hold 160 books in its fixed memory, enough to line the shelves on a good-sized wall in the average American home. The $299 device is about the size of a paperback book, but a half-inch thick and weighs less than a pound.

The Sony book reader is revolutionary not only in its storage capacity. The font（字体） is highly readable and adjustable by size. Unlike laptop computers, you can put the Sony in your purse, read it in direct sunlight and even bookmark the pages. And you can connect it to your PC to download books.

Surprisingly, though the reader has liberated the book from paper, electronic books aren't always a bargain. For example, David Baldacci's "Stone Cold" download retails（零售） for $15.19 at the Sony site, while Amazon（卓越网） will deliver a hard copy to your mailbox for $16.19.

The Sony reader also lets you store and play or display music. So what's not to like about the Sony? Well, for many bibliophiles, they like to have, hold and keep their volumes, which don't need charging. You can write notes in the margins, and enjoy the ambience they provide on your book shelves.

The need for electronic reading devices is likely to grow as more people worried about the billions of tons of paper used for printed material. Many believe the time will come when devices like the Sony reader are as common as printed newspapers and magazines today.

68．What would be the best title for the passage?

A. The age of the electronic book reader is coming

B. Printed books are out of date

C. The Sony reader meets many readers’ needs

D. The revolution in book readers

69．According to the passage, the Sony book reader _________.

A. is as light as a laptop computer               B. can hold more than 200 books

C. is convenient to carry around                  D. cannot be connected to a PC

70．What is the author’s point when he mentions “Stone Cold”?

A. Amazon’s printed books are very cheap

B. “Stone Cold” can be got from the Sony site and Amazon

C. The Sony book reader is not very cheap to use

D. The Sony book reader can benefit its buyers a lot

71．According to the author, what’s the future for the electronic reading devices?

A. They’ll replace printed newspapers and magazines

B. They’ll still be more expensive than printed newspapers

C. They’ll become a must in people’s daily life

D. They’ll become more popular as time goes on

A mum saved her daughter’s life with her newly learned first aid skills. Sonya Hall, 33, of Denny Avenue, Lancaster, had only just attended one first aid class the day before when she found herself needing to use the skills on her three year old daughter Tilly.
Sonya, who also has son Emmen, six, attended the first aid course at Lune Park Children’s Centre in Lancaster. Then she was faced with every parent’s worst nightmare when Tilly went blue in the face and stopped breathing. But thanks to her newly acquired skills, Sonya saved Tilly’s life.
Sonya said: “Tilly was playing with her brother and they were fighting over a toy. Emmen won the fight. Tilly fell backwards and her head was hit. She was face down and shaking and at first I thought she was upset. But then I saw she was blue in the face and had stopped breathing. I reacted without thinking and immediately started using the first aid skills I had learned the day before which were so fresh in my mind. I began doing mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions (胸外按压). It probably took about a minute before Tilly started breathing again, but to me it felt like a lifetime.”
After getting Tilly breathing again, Sonya called an ambulance and the doctors came. Since then, Tilly has been diagnosed (诊断) with Reflex Anoxic Seizure (反射缺氧发作). Sonya said: “The seizure can happen when there’s any unexpected pain, fear or fright. It is just so lucky that the day before it happened, I had been practising first aid.”
The Empowering Parents First Aid course is run by Lancashire Adult Learning. Sonya said: “I am just so glad I did the course and learnt the first aid skills. I always feared I would not know what to do in a crisis situation, but luckily I had the knowledge and skills to deal with it.” 

1. 1.

   What happened to Tilly?

   1. A.
      She was knocked down by her brother.
   2. B.
      She fell on the floor and hit her head.
   3. C.
      She was hit by a toy on the head and felt upset.
   4. D.
      She was hit by her brother and stopped breathing.
2. 2.

   When Sonya found Tilly’s shaking, she thought her daughter must ______.

   1. A.
      be crying
   2. B.
      be very angry
   3. C.
      pretend to be hurt
   4. D.
      recognize her failure
3. 3.

   When Sonya goes to the first aid class next time, she will feel ______.

   1. A.
      enjoyable
   2. B.
      excited
   3. C.
      grateful
   4. D.
      confident
4. 4.

   What would be the best title for the text?  

   1. A.
      The importance of first aid
   2. B.
      How to practise first aid
   3. C.
      Mum saves girl with first aid
   4. D.
      Mums should attend first aid courses

A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces (熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

The death of a star is not a quiet event. First there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

After the explosion gravity pulls in what’s left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so dense that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billion of pounds.

The more the star shrinks, the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can go out. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

That’s what we know about black holes. What we don’t know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

But if the black hole doesn’t keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words a black hole in our universe could turn into a “white hole” in a different universe. As the black hole swallows light, the white hole shines brightly—somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time — many years in the past or future.

Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed. So far the time being, black hole must remain a mystery.

Black holes are a mystery—but that hasn’t stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make use of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth’s energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could some day be used to swallow earthly waste—a sort of huge waste disposal(处理) in the sky!

When the star begins to die ______.

A. there is no fuel left in it                                B. its outer layer goes into space first

C. a huge explosion will happen                         D. it doesn’t give off light any longer

Which of the following doesn’t help produce a black hole?

A. The gravity inside the star is very strong.        B. The light can’t go out of the star.

C. The star becomes smaller and smaller             D. The dying star shines very brightly.

The black hole ______.

A. continues becoming smaller and smaller all the time

B. goes into another universe and becomes a white hole

C. can pull in everything we know of in the world

D. will appear at another place at a different time

What’s the best title for this passage?

A. A New Scientific Discovery: Black Holes

B. How Do Black Holes Come Into Being?

C. What Are Black Holes?

D. Travel Through A Black Hole

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  1  a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend  2   can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are   3   readers. Most of us develop poor reading  4    at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency   5  in the actual stuff of language itself ——words. Taken individually, words have  6   meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs.    7  , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing（退回） to  8    words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over   9  you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which  10   down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as  11    reads.

　　To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an  12  , 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  13   the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast,    14  word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization（默读）practically impossible. At first  15  is sacrificed for speeD．But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster,   16    your comprehension will improve. Many people have found  17   reading skill drastically improved after some training. 18  Charlce Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute  19   the training, now it is an excellent 1,28 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can   20  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．some       B．a lot        C．little        D．dull

7．  A．Fortunately     B．In fact      C．Logically        D．Unfortunately

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

9．  A．what        B．which      C．that D．if

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

11．A．some one        B．one   C．he    D．reader

12．A．accelerator      B．actor        C．amplifier D．observer

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

14．A．enabling B．leading    C．making    D．indicating

15．A．meaning B．comprehensionC．gist    D．regression

16．A．but   B．nor   C．or     D．for

17．A．our   B．your        C．their        D．such a

18．A．Look at    B．Take        C．Make       D．Consider

19．A．for   B．in     C．after        D．before

20．A．master     B．go over     C．present     D．get through

A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective (客观的) information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its abuse of power over people.

In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art had been almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that described people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand the Bible stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast (对比), one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are not holy.

Which of the following statements has the closest meaning to the underlined sentence?

A. General history only focuses on politics.

B. Art history shows us nothing but the political values.

C. General history concerns only religious beliefs, emotions and psychology.

D. Art history gives us an insight (洞察力) into the essential qualities of a time and a place.

Art is subjective in that __________. 

A. it can easily arouse people’s anger about their government

B. it only reflects people’s anger or sadness about social problems.

C. a personal and emotional view of history is presented through it.

D. artists were or are religious, who reflect only the religious aspect of the society.

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage? 

A. Francisco Goya expressed his religious belief in his painting.

B. In history books political views of people are entirely presented.

C. For centuries in Europe, painters had only painted on walls of churches.

D. In the Middle East, you can hardly find animal or human figures on church walls.

What’s the main topic of the passage?   

A. The development of art history.   

B. What we can learn from art.

C. The influence of artists on art history.

D. The difference between general history and art history.