Age has its special advantage in America. And one of the more impressive of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age—in some cases as low as 55－is automatically entitled to plenty of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility（资格）is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses-as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them；yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent（有支付能力的）. Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous（同义的）. Perhaps that once was true, but today, to be sure, there is economic variety within the elderly, and most of them aren’t poor.
It is impossible to determine the effect of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to income. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they directly annoy some politicians and scholars who consider it a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involves a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are refusing the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job-thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers. Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a powerful economic privilege（特权）to a group with millions of members who don’t need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enrich the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment；and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly ale ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the heart of the very thing older Americans are fighting against－discrimination by age.
【小题1】We learn from the first paragraph that   .

第Ⅱ卷 (非选择题共35分)
第四部分写作 (共两节，满分35分)
第一节任务型阅读(共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分)
认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡相应题号的横线上。
Attention deficit (不足) hyperactivity (活动过度) disorder is known by the letters A. D. H. D. with A. D. H. D. might have trouble paying attention. They might not seem to listen and might forget things. They might not be able to stay seated or play quietly. They might talk too much and act and speak without thinking about the results of their behavior. These are among the signs named on the web site of America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Doctors usually identify the disorder in children. But experts say the behaviors often last into adulthood. Researchers have been looking for the cause or causes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Now, a brain-imaging study offers more evidence that could lead to new ways to treat it. Researchers say they observed shortages in the brain's reward system in patients with A. D. H. D. The study found that levels of some proteins were lower than normal. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says the lack of attention and self-control that mark A. D. H. D. could be caused by problem in the flow of dopamine (多巴胺) . She says people might have difficulty completing an activity if they cannot expect some kind of reward in return. Researchers studied the pathways on which dopamine travels in 53 adults with A. D. H. D. Doctor Volkow says the researchers then compared the pathways to those of 44 adults without the disorder. "There was a lower concentration of dopamine markers in the brain of individuals with A. D. H. D., specifically in the areas of the brain that are involved with reward and motivation. And the dopamine levels were directly linked to the severity, of the patient's inattention" she says.
The study used brain images taken at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State. Gene -Jack Wing is chairman of the Brookhaven medical department. He says the finding might also help explain why people with A. D. H. D. are mere likely to abuse drugs or overeat. He says they might be attempting to increase their dopamine levels to make up for the deficits in their reward system.

Even as Americans have been gaining weight, they have cut their average fat intake from 36 to 34 percent of their total diets in the past 15 years.  And indeed,  cutting fat  to control or lose weight makes sense. Fat has nine calories per gram. Protein and carbohydrates（碳水化合物） have just four. Moreover, the body uses fewer calories to metabolize fat than it does to metabolize other foods. Compared with protein and carbohydrates — which break down into amino acids and simple sugars, respectively, and can be used to strengthen and energize the body —— dietary fat is more easily converted to body fat. Therefore, it’s more likely to stay on buttocks, thighs and bellies.? 

But cutting fat from your diet doesn’t necessarily mean your body won’t store fat. For example, between nonfat and regular cookies, there’s trivial difference in calories because manufacturers make up for the loss of fat by adding sugar. Low-fat crackers, soups and dressings can also be just as high in calories as richer versions. No matter where the calories come from, overeating will still cause weight again. The calories from fat just do it a little quicker. A Wisconsin computer programmer who decided with a diet coach to eat only 40 grams of fat a day learned the lesson firsthand. He wasn’t losing weight. Then he showed his food diary to his coach and revealed he’d been eating half a pound of jelly beans a day. “They don’t have any fat,” he explains. But they had enough sugar to keep him from shedding an ounce. ? 

Nonfat foods become add-on foods. When we add them to our diet, we actually increase the number of calories we eat per day and gain weight. That was borne out in a Pennsylvania State University study. For breakfast, Prof. Barbara Rolls gave two groups of women yogurt（酵母乳） that contained exactly the same amount of calories. One group’s yogurt label said “high fat”—the other, “low fat.” The “low fat” yogurt group ate significantly more calories later in the day than the other group. “People think they’ve saved fat and can indulge themselves later in the day with no adverse consequences,” says Richard Mattes, a nutrition researcher at Purdue University. “But when they do that, they don’t compensate very precisely, and they often end up overdoing it.”

What lessons did the computer programme learn ?

A. Overeating will cause weight gain

B. He can eat half a pound of jellybeans a day

C. He can’t didn’t eat any fat

D. His coach gave him a lecture

Prof. Barbara’s ecperiement proved that _______________.

A. two groups ate the same amount of calories

B. two groups ate the same wmount of yogurt

C. the “ low fat” yogurt group ate more calories later in the day than the other group

D. people increase the number of calories they eat per day and gain group

According to the author ,________has less calories.

A. fat                      

B. protein and carbohydrates

C. low-fat soups             

D. sugar

What can you infer from the text ?

A. To keep from being overweight, people have to eat nofat food

B. The calories from fat just do it a little quicker than from protein and carbohydrates

C. People should avoid temptation

D. Americans realize that it is necessary to count calories before eating the food

If Confucius（孔子）were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought.  It’s nothing personal.  Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius.  In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities.  More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries.  These schools teach both Chinese language and culture.  The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy（哲学）.  Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantages of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Westerners philosophy.  Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese.  So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States.  Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers. 
So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.
【小题1】The opening paragraph is mainly intended to ________

If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day ,few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It’s nothing personal. Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art, history and philosophy(哲学).Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Western philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.
【小题1】The opening paragraph is mainly intended to　　　.