Johann Gutenberg, who worked as a goldsmith (金匠), took what had already been discovered, and created a small invention that changed history. He created a machine that allowed him to move small blocks of letters in such a way that written material could be printed and mass-produced. Few people could read before Guttenberg made the invention, but once books became less expensive, more Europeans could read and write.

Block printing existed long before Gutenberg. The Chinese had been using wood blocks to print books as early as 868, but a new set of woodcuts (木刻印版) had to be made for each book. Producing one book was not easy; producing all kinds of books was more difficult.

Writing ink dates from about 2500 BC in Egypt and China. Gutenberg used an oil-based printing ink that would last longer than other inks used in his time. We don’t know much about Gutenberg because he was not famous during his lifetime. He was born in Germany about 1400. In 1448, Gutenberg developed signatures for each number, letter, and punctuation mark (标点符号). He then built the molds (模型) to hold the signatures in place. Gutenberg published the first mass-produced book: a 1,282 page Bible. To this day, more copies of the Bible have been printed than any other book.

Copies of Gutenberg’s invention spread throughout Europe, but the German goldsmith did not get rich from his invention. Some officials denounced the invention of printing because they feared that it would spread bad ideas. By 1500 there were 1,700 printing presses in Europe. The presses had already produced about 20 million volumes (册) of 40,000 different books.

1.What happened after Johann Gutenberg’s invention?

A．People could afford to read books.

B．People became interested in inventing.

C．It was still difficult to print all kinds of books.

D．Punctuation mark began to be used in printing.

2. Compared with block printing in China, Johann Gutenberg’s method _____.

A．was difficult to run

B．needed harder paper

C．used a new kind of ink

D．was put into use earlier

3.The underlined word “denounced” in the last paragraph means _____.

A．fought against                          B．accepted

C．laughed at                             D．supported

4.What is the best title for the text?

A．A famous 1,282 page Bible

B．The life of a famous inventor

C．An invention that changed history

D．The development of printing

第二部分：阅读理解（共20小题;每小题2.5分，满分50分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Do you know about a series of books that say they are "for dummies"? These American self-help books have been translated into more than thirty-nine languages, including Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French, German, Greek and Spanish.
"Dummy" is a word for a stupid person. The dummies books are not really for stupid people. They are designed to show people how to do something they may never have tried before, like painting a house or learning a language. The books all say in a funny way that they are for dummies, such as World History for Dummies, Rabbits for Dummies, Chinese Cooking for Dummies, and Wedding Planning for Dummies. The first such book, DOS for Dummies, was published in 1991. it helped people learn how to use the DOS operating system for computers. Since then, more than one hundred fifty million dummies books have been sold.
The dummies.com website explains the idea behind the books. It says that they show that people can be taught to do anything. First they can make fun of ideas that are difficult to understand. Then they show how the information can be interesting and easy. The publishers say that the books do not provide more information than necessary. They give readers just enough information to do what they want. They say that the dummies books give the best and easiest way to do something. And the books use simple and easy language.
There are more than one thousand different dummies books. A report in New York Times says that the top-selling dummies books are those that explain technology and personal finance.
The publishers say that the best-selling dummies books are those providing information many people need —like information about diseases, education and cooking. People interested in opera, car repair and wine can also find dummies books to help them. And there are even more dummies books to come. The publishers say that they publish about two hundred new dummies books every year.
1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. Books for “Dummies”   
B. The Easiest, the Best
C. Self-Help Books            
D. New Ideas behind the Books
2. According to the dummies.com website, people can ______ with the help of dummies books.
A. simplify some personal things         
B. do anything they want
C. become expert in any field            
D. learn any foreign language
3. The dummies books have been popular because ______.
A. they provide just what is needed and are easy to understand
B. they provide abundant information on the concerning subject
C. people can learn to do anything with just one copy
D. people can save lots of money through self-teaching
4. According to New York Times, we know that books on ______ sell best.
A. technology and personal finance       
B. opera and car repairing
C. diseases and education               
D. cooking and world history
5. What can we learn from the passage?
A. The first dummies book was on Chinese cooking.
B. The dummies books will continue to be popular.
C. Fifty million different dummies books have been published.
D. The simple language was intended for child readers.

I entered high school having read hundreds of books.But I was not a good reader.Merely bookish,I lacked a point of view when I read.Rather,I read in order to get a point of view.I searched books for good expressions and sayings,pieces of information,ideas,themes—anything to enrich my thought and make me feel educated.When one of my teachers suggested to his sleepy tenth-grade English class that a person could not have a “complicated(复杂的) idea” until he had read at least two thousand books,I heard the words without recognizing either its irony(嘲讽) or its very complicated truth.I merely determined to make a list of all the books I had ever read.Strict with myself,I included only once a title I might have read several times.(How,after all,could one read a book more than once?)And I included only those books over a hundred pages in length.(Could anything shorter be a book?)

There was yet another high school list I made.One day I came across a newspaper article about an English professor at a nearby state college.The article had a list of the “hundred most important books of Western Civilization.”“More than anything else in my life,”the professor told the reporter with finality,“these books have made me all that I am.”That was the kind of words I couldn’t ignore(忽视).I kept the list for the several months it took me to read all of the titles.Most books,of course,I hardly understood.While reading Plato’s The Republic,for example,I needed to keep looking at the introduction of the book to remind myself what the text was about.However,with the special patience and superstition(迷信) of a schoolboy,I looked at every word of the text.And by me time I reached the last word,pleased,I persuaded myself that I had read The Republic,and seriously crossed Plato off my list.

On heating the teacher’s suggestion of reading,the writer thought ______.

A.one must read as many books as possible

B.a student should not have a complicated idea

C.it was impossible for one to read two thousand books

D.students ought to make a list of the books they had read

While at high school,the writer ______.

A.had plans for reading

B.learned to educate himself

C.only read books over 100 pages

D.read only one book several times

The underlined phrase “with finality” probably means ______.

A.firmly                                                                 B.clearly

C.proudly                                                               D.pleasantly

The writer’s purpose in mentioning The Republic is to ______.

A.explain why it was included in the list

B.describe why he seriously crossed it off the list

C.show that he read the books blindly though they were hard to understand

D.prove that he understood most of it because he had looked at every word

The writer provides two book lists to ______.

A.show how he developed his point of view

B.tell his reading experience at high school

C.introduce the two persons’ reading methods

D.explain that he read many books at high school

Mini  Book  Excerpts（节选）

Biography

When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land, the middle-aged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it. The townspeople never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.

J.D. Salinger A Life by Kenneth Slawenski（Random House,$27）

Mystery（疑案小说）

“You’re a smart boy. Benny’s death was no accident, and you’re the only who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it ? ”The boy was starting stubbornly at his lap again.

A thought suddenly occurred to Annika, “Did you …You recognized the man in the car, didn’t you?”

The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers, “Maybe,” he said quietly.

Red Wolf by Liza Marklund（Atria Books, $25. 99）

Short Stories

She wants to say to him what she has learned, none of it in class. Some women are born stupid, and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give, and some women only know how to take. Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers, some who they don’t want to be. Some mothers suffer so their daughters won’t. Some mothers love so their daughters won’t.

You Are Free by Danzy Senna （Riverhead Books,$15）

Humor

Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times! “amusement cycling” is the most fun you can have, legally, in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half to that within a day’s drive of most cities?

Happy And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle（Ecco,$14. 99）

1.If the readers want to know about the life of Salinger , they should buy the book published by         

A．Random House                         B．Atria Books

C．Riverhead Books                        D．Ecco

2.The book Happy And Other Bad Thoughts is intended for       .

A．young children                         B．Disney World workers

C．middle school teachers                   D．parents with young children

3.Which book describes women with characters of their own?

A. Happy And Other Bad Thoughts      B. You Are Free

C. J. D. Salinger :A Life                D. Red Wolf

4.After finishing the book Red Wolf, the readers would learn that        .

A．the murderer got away with the crime

B．Benny died of an accident

C．the boy helped arrest the murderer

D．Annika carried out the crime

Some people think as more and more people have televisions in their homes, fewer and fewer people will buy books and newspapers. Why read an article in the newspaper, when the TV news can bring you the information in a few minutes and with pictures? Why read the life story of a famous man, when a short television program can tell you all that you want to know?

Television has not killed reading, however. Today, newspapers sell in very large numbers. And books of every kind are sold more than ever before. Books are still a cheap way to get information and enjoyment. Although some books with hard covers are expensive, many books are printed today as paperbacks (平装本), which are quite cheap. A paperback collection of short stories, for example, is always cheaper than an evening at the cinema or the theater, and you can keep a book for ever and read it many times.

Books are a wonderful provider of knowledge and pleasure and some types of books should be in every home. Every home should have a good dictionary. A good encyclopedia (百科全书), though expensive, is useful, too, because you can find information on any subject. Besides, you can have such books as history books, science textbooks, cookbooks, and collections of stories and poems. Then from time to time you can take a book of poems off your shelves and read the thoughts and feelings of your favorite poets.

63. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.

A. TV programs are a chief provider of knowledge

B. cinemas are the best choice in getting information

 reading is a cheap way of learning and having fun

D. newspapers are an expensive way to enjoy oneself

64. What does the sentence “Television has not killed reading, however” underlined in the second paragraph suggest?

A. People only need reading, though.   B. Reading is still necessary today.

 Reading is more fun than television.        D. Watching television doesn’t help reading.

65. Which of the following is mainly discussed in the last paragraph?

A. Types of books                      B. Kinds of dictionaries

 Lists of history books.            D. Collections of stories and poems.

66. What can we learn from the passage?

A. Fewer and fewer people will buy books.

B. A good dictionary should be kept in every home.

 Books with hard covers sell better than paperbacks.

D. More people like TV programs about famous men.