It is not only experts in China who are arguing over whether women should work after marriage or not. Worldwide this question is being discussed as an interestingly large number of married women enter the workplace. Take the United States for example. Since 1960, the percentage of married women in the work force has jumped from 31.9 per cent to 59.4 per cent.
American women first moved into the paid labour force during the World War II, when men left their jobs to fight. In the last fifty years, more and more women have worked outside the home. And over these years of developing, Americans have changed their social values as a result. In 1975, women aged 35 and above made up half of all working women. And by 1980, 60 per cent were women at the age of 45 and above.
Now in Japan, women’s work group is M-shaped with middle-aged women and those aged 20-25 at the two peaks. According to statistics(统计)， 37.7 per cent of Japanese women at childbearing age(25-29) still engaged themselves in work in 1980. and the number reached 50 per cent the next year.
Being a housewife has always been regarded as a “graceful occupation” in Japan. Some young Japanese women believe it is good to be a “ professional housewife”. However, old attitudes have been changing everywhere, and sometimes just out of economic necessary. In recent years, a great number of city housewives have poured out of homes to take part time jobs. Even the UN has given its support.. The 34^th Congress of the United Nations in 1979 put forward the decision for formal agreement on the getting rid of discrimination(歧视) against women.
So far, most UN members have agreed on it, but some still haven’t,  including the United States.
【小题1】From the first passage, we can learn that ________________.

The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over．

A US Coast Guard cutter poured cannon fire into an abandoned Japanese ghost ship that had been drifting since last year’s tsunami, sinking the vessel into waters more than 305 meters deep in the Gulf of Alaska and removing the danger it posed to shipping and the coastline on Thursday．
The cutter’s guns tore holes in the 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru, and then it began to take on water and lean to one side． In about four hours, the ship disappeared into the sea, said Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow．
The ship had no lights or communications system, and its tank was able to carry more than 7,570 liters of diesel fuel． Officials, however, didn’t know exactly how much fuel was aboard．
“It’s less risky than it would be running into shore or running into other ships,” coast guard spokesman Paul Webb said．
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship than let the fuel evaporate and pollute the sea environment．
Ryou-Un Maru was probably among the first wave of the 1．5 million tons of garbage of refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets heading toward North America since last March when a magnitude-9．0 earthquake struck Japan．
As the coast guard was ready to fire on the vessel, a Canadian fishing vessel, the 19-meter Bernice C, claimed the rights to save the ghost ship in international waters．
Plans to sink it were paused so the Canadian crew could have a chance to take the stricken ship． A Canadian official with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that the Bernice C was unable to drag it．
Then the Canadian boat left, and once it was about 10 kilometers from the Japanese vessel, the Coast Guard began to fire, first with 25 mm shells, then a few hours later with ammunition twice that size．
State officials have been working to test the danger of garbage including materials affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild animals could be affected．
【小题1】Which of the following is NOT the reason for sinking the Japanese ship?

As you climb into the hill country, the roads get dustier and rougher, and fewer cars can be seen. Phonxay is one of the poorest districts of Laos, and many of its villages are only accessible by footpath. Our destination this hot morning is a concrete water tank that can be found just off the road. A UK organization helped to build it six years ago, and in the nearby village of Thapho, where clean drinking water is scarce, it has made a big difference. The tank feeds six taps which in turn give water to over 800 people---it has improved things for almost every family, from schoolchildren to grannies.

        But lately, we were told, the clean water supply has come under pressure from new arrivals, people who have come down from the hill areas, and there are concerns that there will not be enough clean water to go round.

There are also serious worries about resources in Laos. The Chinese are building a 400km railway link, which could transform the landlocked country. About 150,000 Chinese workers will be involved. What will this do to local clean water supplies? How will the workers be fed?

The vast majority of Laotians live on farms. But with foreign investors wanting to buy up land, local people will have to be moved to make room for them. Heavily dependent on both foreign aid and foreign investment, Laos still falls well behind its neighbours, although its economy has grown at about 6% a year in the last decade. Its biggest economic problem is the lack of locally trained skilled workforce.

But there are reasons to be hopeful for the future. Laos is beautiful, and foreign tourism continues to grow: fortunately so far the fast-food chains and coffee bars common elsewhere are nowhere to be seen. Although all local media are government-run, the Internet is not controlled and the BBC and CNN are available to those with satellite dishes.

The government has also achieved impressive results in rural development, with communities benefiting not just from cleaner water but the construction of new schools and regular visits from medical teams. Poverty will not be history in Laos within the next decade, but with small steps forward and a bit of outside help, the country could find itself out of the UN’s least-developed category by 2020.

1.What is putting pressure on the local supply of clean water?

A. Dust from the road is making the water dirtier.

B. There are too many taps accessing the water.

C. The population of the area is growing fast.

D. The coming summer will dry up rivers and lakes.

2.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a reason for Laos to be hopeful?

A. There are no fast-food restaurants in the country.

B. Laos has a variety of tourist attractions.

C. Information on the Internet is freely accessible.

D. The government owns all local media.

3.What is the most serious limitation on Laos’ economic growth?

A. The lack of local skilled workers.

B. A poor transportation system.

C. Too much foreign aid.

D. Too many foreign workers.

4.What is the best title for the passage?

A. Laos: slow-developing nations

B. Laos: small steps forward

C. Laos: least-developed land

D. Laos: landlocked country

第二卷 （ 共25分 ）

第四部分：书面表达

A. 课文填空（共10 小题；每小题 0.5 分，满分5分）

根据所学课文在68-77的空格里填上所缺的单词，并将答案转写到答题卡上。                                                    

As you know, the UN    68   the lives of people everywhere. The organization is involved in peacekeeping    69    to help end some of the world’s horrible conflicts. Watch any TV report  70    places where there is a war, and you    71    see soldiers wearing berets…

I have visited many countries in Africa. Recently, I was fortunate enough to travel to South Africa, where I met some women who have   72   themselves into a group. They    73     one rand (approximately 1.35 yuan) per day from each other and add it to a    74     of money the government gives them. With this, the women have enough money to buy    75     materials to make basket. They then sell these at the market. With luck their group will be able to expand and maybe set up a shop. This group was set up by UNIFEM, the United Nations    76     Fund for Women. There are lots of such programmes and funds under the    77    of the UN, and these have helped millions of people across the world.

The UN passed a rule in the year 2004 to improve the quality of drink water and reduce deaths caused by drinking unhealthy water each year. The UN has already worked out the specific plan to reduce half of the number, that is, five thousand. The UN announced in the world there are about 1/6 of the world population can't meet the sanitation regulation of drinking water.

The water we drink and use is running short in the world. We all have to learn to stop wasting our quite limited water. One of the steps we should take is to find ways of reusing it. Experiments have already been done on this field. Today in most large cities, fresh water is used only once, then it runs into waste system. But it is possible to pipe the used water to a purifying(净化)factory. There it can be filtered(过滤) and treated with chemicals so that it can be used again , just as it were fresh from a spring. But even large cities purified and reused its water, we still would not have enough. Then we could turn to the oceans. All we would have to do to make use of seawater on earth is to get the salt out of it. This method has already been used in many parts of the world.

47. The way to stop wasting water is to ________ .

A. do experiments with water

B. purify the used water and reuse it

C. use fresh water once again

D. make use of seawater

48. The passage tells us how to reuse the used water. Which is the right order of the process?

a. to have the used water filtered b. to put chemical in it

c. to pipe it to the user

d. to pipe the used water to be purified in a factory.

A. dabc B. bcda C. bdca D. dcba

49. There wouldn't be enough water for us if we didn't ________ .

A. turn to the ocean for more water

B. reuse used water and make use of seawater

C. make fresh water from the seawater

D. take steps to reuse all water on earth

50. The word "it" underlined in the last paragraph refers to ________ .

A. the process of collecting salt from the ocean

B. the process of getting rid of the salt in seawater

C. purified water

D. seawater