The campaign is over. The celebrations have ended. And the work for US president-elect Barack Obama has begun.

The 47-year-old politician rose to the highest post because of his stand against the war in Iraq and his plans to fix a weak economy. But what will the first 47-year-old African-American president do for race relations.

Obama’s victory appears to have given blacks and other minorities a true national role model. For years, many looked to athletes and musicians for inspiration. As Darius Turner, an African-American high school student in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times.“Kobe( the basketball player) doesn’t have to be everybody’s role model anymore.”

Recent polls also suggest that Obama’s victory has given Americans new optimism about race relations. For example, a USA Today poll found that two-thirds of Americans believe relations between blacks and whites“will finally be worked out”. This is the most hopeful response since the question was first asked during the civil rights revolution in 1963.

However, it’s still too early to tell whether Obama’s presidency will begin to solve many of the social problems facing low-income black communities.

Although blacks make up only 13 percent of the US population, 55 percent of all prisoners are African-American. Such numbers can be blamed on any number of factors on America’s racist past, a failure of government policy and the collapse of the family unit in black communities.

It is unlikely that Obama will be able to reverse（扭转）such trends overnight. However, Bill Bank, an expert of African-American Studies, say that eventually young blacks need to find role models in their own communities.“That’s not Martin Luther King, and not Barack Obama,”he told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s actually the people closest to them. Barack only has so much influence.”

In the opinion of black British politician Trevor Phillips, Obama’s rise will contribute more to multiculturalism than to race relations in the US.

52: For years, before Obama was elected president of the US,      .

A. Kobe was the only role model for all the blacks

B. blacks could only find role models on the basketball court

C. minorities in America couldn’t find role models in their real life

D. American blacks had no role model who was successful in political area

53. According to Bill Bank,      .

A. Obama is not the proper role model for African-Americans

B. young blacks should not be so much influenced by Obama

C. blacks should find other role models because Obama is far from their reality

D. it’s better for young blacks to find role models in those who are close to them

54. What do you think the author is probably going to talk about in the next paragraph?

A. In what ways Obama will contribute to racial relations in the US.

B. How Obama will influence Americans as a national role model.

C. How Obama will contribute to multiculturalism in the US.

D. How to choose a role model in his community as a young black.

55.What would be the best title for this passage?

A. The First African-American President

B. America’s New Role Model

C. Obama—a Successful Black

D. Choosing a Right Role Model

Martin Luther King Jr．was _____ the Noble Peace Prize of 1964 for advocating nonviolence policy in the movement for civil rights．

       A．awarded             B．offered             C．rewarded            D．received

阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在相应位置上。

US President Barack Obama sat down for beers with a Harvard professor and a police officer at the White House on July 30. They were not talking about big problems,  1  making small talk.

   A few weeks ago, the white police officer, James Crowley, arrested the black professor, Henry Louis Gates.

   On July 16, police went to Gates’ home   2   a neighbor called the police to say that she had seen two men trying to force open the front door. Gates was coming home from a trip and found his door  3  (stick) , so he and his taxi driver tried to force it open.

   Crowley arrived and asked Gates to prove he was the   4  (own) of the home. But Gates flew into a rage and accused Crowley  5  being racist. Crowley arrested Gates. A hot debate was stirred up. Obama suggested holding a "beer summit" in the hope that the men  6  work out their problem by talking.

   Racism has been  7   major problem in US history. Historically, the country has been dominated by whites. Blacks, American Indians, and some other peoples were discriminated.

   Over the years, much progress has been made in fighting racism. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed. It made discrimination based on race and color illegal. In 1965, President Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act, making   8  easier for blacks to vote.

   In 2008, Obama became US’ first black president. This was a big step forward. However, the Gates incident suggests that US still   9  (have) a long way to go        10  it has fixed its racial problems.

Blind photography sounds strange．But a striking exhibition of photographs in California argues that it develops as a result of the contemporary art．The show "Sight Unseen", at the California Museum of Photography until Aug．29, includes everything: underwater scenes, landscapes, abstracts and everything else you might expect from a "sighted" photographer．
How do the blind take their photographs? Some rely on assistants to set up and then describe the shots （镜头） , and others just point and shoot in the right place．"Just like any good artists," says McCulloh．"They have their unique ways of operating．" One participating photographer is Pete Eckert, an artist with multiple degrees in design and sculpture who only turned to photography after losing his vision in the mid-1990s．He opens the shutter （快门） on his camera and then uses flashlights, lights, and candles to paint his scene on film．A former fashion photographer in Chicago, Weston, lost his vision due to AIDS in 1996 and focuses on images of destruction and disability．His photos are also a star of the show．
What do gallery-goers say? "I was very impressed by it．The technique and experience was amazingly different," says John Hesketh, a printmaker in Anaheim．"You never have a sense of feeling sorry for these people because they've worked very hard to prove their value．"
Beyond the praise, however, the exhibition also makes a great example for disabled people everywhere．That point was explained in early May during a discussion on the TV show．At the very end of the talk, one attendee expressed his opinion．"This exhibition is extraordinary and revolutionary for many reasons．I think that by being an artist with a disability, you are continuing the work of those people who fought for basic civil rights to gain access and to have a voice．In that way, it's so wonderful that your photographs say it all．"
【小题1】From the passage we know that some blind people take photos by     .

JAMES Brown, the legendary US singer known as the “Godfather of Soul”, died Christmas morning, 2006. he was 73.

Brown was one of the major musical influences of the last

50 years. He provided the basis for much of black music and

most of pop music with his early hits like. “Please, Please,

Please”. He essentially created funk（“疯客”音乐）with

mid-1960s songs such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag".

It won him a Grammy Award as best rhythm-and-blues song,

and it was only the beginning of Mr. Brown's rhythmic

breakthroughs. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Michael Jackson and Prince. Rap stars of recent years, such as Fat Boys and Public Enemy, have all borrowed his lyrics and rhythms.

Brown's songs in the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as "Hot Pants" and "Make It Funky", mixed the sophistication(复杂) of jazz-style arrangements with raw funk. With these songs, Brown established himself as the godfather not just of soul, but of all subsequent styles of dance music: funk, disco, hip hop.

"He made soul music a world music," said Al Sharpton, who toured with Brown in the 1970s and imitates his hairstyle to this day. "What Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach(巴赫, 德国作曲家) was to classical music. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music."

Amid the civil rights movement of the 1960s Mr. Brown used his fame and music for social messages. He released "Don't Be a Dropout" in 1966 and met with Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey to promote a stay-in-school initiative. Two years later "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud" insisted, "We won't quit movin' until we get what we deserve."

1.The passage is mainly about _______.

         A．black music in the US

B．James Brown's unique music styles

C．James Brown's contribution to American music

D．great musicians in the US in the last 50 years

2.The author intends to tell us by the last paragraph that ______.

A．James Brown was proud of being a black

B．James Brown was also active in political movements

C．the then Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey was one of Brown's fans

D．no children dropped out of school because of James Brown's social influence

3. Which of the following indicates that Brown's career began to take off?

A．His rapid-footed dancing.

B．His three years in prison.

C．His tour around the country with Al Sharpton.

D．His mid-1960s songs such as "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag".

4.James Brown has influenced all American music types EXCEPT ______.

         A．classical music                                                B．rhythm-and-blues    

         C．Rap                                                                    D．hip hop