第三部分 阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Jordan Makes Basketball Hall of Fame
Last Monday, the former Chicago Bulls great was elected to the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame class, adding another honor to his long list of accomplishments. With incredible acrobatic (特技的) moves and slam dunks(灌篮), Jordan was a 14-time NBA All-Star, a five-time NBA finals Most Valuable Player and the key figure on the 1992 US Olympic gold medal “Dream” Team.
Jordan retired twice during his 15-year career, and finished with 32,392 points, the third-highest total in NBA history behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. His career average of 30.12 points per game is the best in the league’s history.
Although his career boasts(拥有)many glories, Jordan said entering the hall was what he never imagined. “I don’t like being up here for the Hall of Fame, because at that time, your basketball career is completely over.” Jordan said during a news conference. “I was hoping this day was coming in 20 more years, or that I’d actually go in when I’m dead and done.”
According to the Chicago Tribune, as Jordan accepted a Hall of Fame Jersey(运动衣), he turned to his former competitors David Robinson and John Stockton, who were also among the class of 2009, and threatened another comeback.
“Every time I see these guys, I want to put my shorts on,” said Jordan, 46, whose age has decreased everything but his desire.
His father once said that passion was what made his son special. From the moment he started playing games, Michael had to win. Once, Jordan traveled everywhere and anywhere to feed that competitive urge.
“He doesn’t have a gambling problem.” His father said, “What he does have is a competition problem. He was born with that. The person he tries to outdo(超过)most of the time is himself.”
56．This passage is mainly about__________.
A．everything Jordan has achieved in his life
B．the contribution Jordan has made to basketball
C．how Jordan grew to be a popular basketball player
D．why Jordan deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and his reaction
57．From what Jordan said during the news conference, we know that he_______.
A．dislikes the honor because it makes him feel old
B．hates the new honor because it’s not worth much
C．thinks the honor has been given to him too early
D．is planning a comeback to show his basketball career is not over
58．Paragraphs 1 and 2 are written to__________.
A．analyze what basketball skills Jordan is famous for
B．show how popular Jordan used to be in America
C．introduce what contributions Jordan made to Chicago Bulls
D．explain why Jordan is considered a great basketball player
59．What can we conclude from the passage?
A．Michael Jordan’s continuous efforts to outdo himself made him great.
B．Michael Jordan thinks playing basketball is like gambling.
C．Michael Jordan has gradually lost his desire to play, as he has grown older.
D．However great a player is, there is an end to his best time.

About 1966 or so, a NASA(美国航空航天局) team doing work for the Apollo moon mission took the astronauts near Tuba City. There the landscape of the Navajo Reservation looks very much like the lunar surface. Among all the trucks and large vehicles were two large figures that were dressed in full lunar space suits.

Nearby a Navajo shepherd (牧羊人) and his son were watching the strange creatures walk about, occasionally being watched over by other NASA workers. The two Navajo people were noticed and ap??proached by the NASA people. Since the shepherd and his son did not know English, they asked the NASA people who the strange creatures were. The NASA people told them that they were just men that were getting ready to go to the moon. The shepherd became very excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the astronauts.

The NASA officials thought this was a great idea so they provided a tape recorder. After the man gave them his message, they asked his son to translate. His son would not.

Later, they tried a few more people on the reservation to translate and every person they asked would chuckle (偷偷地笑) and then refuse to translate. Finally, with cash in hand someone translated the message, "Watch out for these guys, they have come to take your land! "

9. The appearance of the Navajo Reservation is very similar to that of ________.

A. the Tuba City

 B. the moon

C. the NASA research center

 D. the Apollo moon mission

10. When the older Navajo heard that the men in front of him were going to the moon, he ______.

A. felt frightened and ran away quickly

B. chatted excitedly with the NASA workers

C. got on the modern trucks and large vehicles for fun

D. tried to say something to the moon creatures

11. The son did not translate the words his father said because ________.

A. he had trouble in understanding his father

B. the words his father used were too difficult to be translated

C. his father was sending a warning against the NASA people

D. he believed that the NASA workers could understand their language

12. According to this passage, we can know that the shepherd was ________.

A. patient and brave       B. foolish and impolite

C. humorous and intelligent   D. knowledgeable and talkative

                                       D
You may picture firefighters holding a hose (水管) outside of a burning building, but the Golden Eagles Hotshots don’t fight fires quite that way. When they go into action, you may not even see a fire truck.
The Hotshots are firefighters who battle fires in wildness areas. But don’t think you’ll only find them in their home state California. Wherever there is a national wildfire emergency, the Golden Eagles Hotshots could be there.
But these firefighters don’t work the same way as firefighters in a big city. They work in areas where there are a large number of trees, bushes, and grass. They climb up and down steep hills to clear brush and burnable debris（残骸）. They sometimes use water, but they often fight fire with fire!
They do that by lighting what are called “backfires,” which are small, controlled fires that burn up fuel in the path of large wildfires. That way, when the wildfire gets there, it has nothing to burn and nowhere to go, because all the burnable fuel has already gone up in smoke.
The Hotshots also clear away fuel using old-fashioned hard work. For example, they use a saw to cut away trees and heavy brush that could catch fire.
Of course there are times when the Golden Eagles Hotshots do have trucks to supply water to the fires. But the water is limited, and these guys have to rely on hard work more than anything. Physical fitness is very important. They have to be in great physical shape to handle steep hills and difficult terrain(地形) while carrying a 60-pound pack.
The Golden Eagles Hotshots definitely work hard for their pay. But thanks to their efforts, many lives have been saved, many houses have not burned, and countless trees are still standing.
【小题1】67. The firefighters mentioned in the passenger. 

We’d been flying for hours, deeper and deeper into the desert of southeastern Niger. The mission: to find what is probably the last wild population of the great Saharan antelope called the addax (旋角羚)—the most endangered animal of its size in Africa.

Pilot Peter Ragg flew our bright red helicopter low over two parallel dunes (沙丘). The pale sand below us was dotted by the black bushes, the plants that are favorite food for the addax. Then, almost as if the dune extruded (使突出) them, two perfect addaxes appeared. Their long tails swung from side to side as they ran, heads held high on thick necks, horns reaching for the sky. We made a few turns in the plane, then let them be. In just a few seconds they were swallowed again by the Sahara. Soon they could just as easily disappear from the planet.

In September 2004 the government of Niger and a small NGO called SOS Faune du Niger surveyed this last known pocket of wild addaxes. They counted 128 individuals. Since then, the number has dropped as hunters have taken more for meat. How many addaxes remain in the Sahara is anybody’s guess, but those that do survive could be considered the living dead: There may not be a viable (能生存的) population left to reproduce.

I’m now helping to make an emergency plan for the last wild addaxes. With a few hundred thousand dollars, some trucks, and a strong group with the local Toubou guides, we may just be able to save these guys from extinction.

36. What do the addaxes in the passage usually eat?

A. Vegetables. B. Black bushes.       C. Grass.                    D. Fruits.

37. All of the following descriptions of the addax are true EXCEPT that ____.

A. its tail is long                                    B. its neck is thick   

C. its legs are short                             D. its horns are long

38. What does the writer probably mean by saying that “There may not be a viable population left to reproduce”?

A. Wild addaxes will die out soon unless effective measures are taken.

B. The number of wild addaxes will increase if they are not hunted.

C. Wild addaxes cannot support themselves any longer.

D. Humans cannot survive without enough addaxes.

39. It can be inferred that the writer of the passage might be ____.

A. a journalist  B. an official    C. an engineer                D. a zoologist

Easter(复活节    ) is still a great day for worship, randy in baskets and running around the yard finding eggs, but every year it gets quite a bit worse for bunnies.

And no, not because the kids like to pull their ears. The culprit is climate change, and some researchers found that rising temperatures are having harmful effects on at least five species of rabbit in the US.

Take the Lower Keys March rabbit, for instance. An endangered species that lives in the Lower Florida Keys, this species of cottontail is a great swimmer — it lives on the islands! — but it is already severely affected by development and now by rising levels. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, an ocean level rise of only 0. 6 meters will send these guys jumping to higher ground and a 0.9-meter rise would wipe out their habitat (栖息地) completely.

The snowshoe hare, on the other hand, has a color issue. Most of these rabbits change their fur color from white in the wintertime to brown in the summer, each designed to give them better cover from predators（捕食者）.As the number of days with snow decreases all across the country, however, more and more bunnies arc being left in white fur during brown dirt days of both fall and spring, making them an easier mark for predators. Researchers know that the color change is controlled by the number of hours of sunlight, but whether the rabbit will be able to adapt quick enough to survive is a big question. The National Wildlife Federation has reported that hunters have noticed their numbers are already markedly down.

American pikas or rock rabbits, a relative of rabbits and hares, might be the firs' of these species to go extinct due to climate change. About 7-8 inches long, pikas live high in the cool, damp mountains west of the Rocky Mountains. As global temperatures rise, they would naturally migrate (迁徙) to higher ground — but they already occupy the mountaintops. They can't go any higher. The National Wildlife Federation reports that they might not be able to stand the new temperatures as their habitat beats up.

The volcano rabbit has the same problem. These rabbits live on the slopes of volcanoes in Mexico, and recent studies have shown that the lower range of their habitat has already shifted upward about 700 meters, but there are not suitable plants for them to move higher, so they are stuck in the middle. Scientists are concerned about their populations.

Native to the US, pygmy rabbits weigh less than 1 pound and live in the American West. They are believed to be the smallest rabbits in the world. Their habitats have been destroyed by development. Several populations, such as the Columbia Basin pygmy, almost went extinct and were saved by zoo breeding programs. Pygmy rabbits also rely on winter cover by digging tunnels through the snow to escape predators, but lesser snowfall is leaving them exposed.

All of this gives new meaning to dressing up in a giant bunny costume this Easter.

1.The writer mentions Easter at the beginning of the passage in order to_______.

2.The word “culprit” ( Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to______.

3.According to the passage, some rabbits can now be easily discovered by predators because they_______

4.The problem faced by volcano rabbets and rock rabbits is that________.

A. both are affected by 1ess snow          

B. both are affected by rising sea levels

C neither can find enough food     

D. neither can migrate to higher places