It is hard to say that a telephone is just a telephone anymore. Not only does it let you hear Grandma's voice from miles away clearer than ever before, but it is providing even more important information services to its users. By the year 2000, American householders will rely on the telephone system for shopping, computing, playing the stock market, making airline reservations, and watching television. The lives of heart patients may depend on telephones with on line electronic systems altering their doctors to emergencies. This is in addition to American business managers who currently rely on their telephones for sales orders, inventory control, banking, video image transmission, and many other tasks.

New technologies, such as advanced computing and fiber optics, make telecommunications services cheap and quick. In addition, since the breakup of AT&T, the competition spawned (引起) among many phone companies has emphasized price changes and introduced innovative services.

But despite the stimulus to provide commercial benefits during normal operation, one essential ingredient is missing—the incentive to design for emergency preparedness in the event of disaster. The telephone system is improving its ability to respond to some emergencies such as wartime attack, but is not prepared to handle terrorism, natural disasters, fires or accidents.

Before divestiture (解体) AT&T operated a national emergency center that coordinated all procedures during a disaster. Today, in lieu of the previous AT&T center, a government agency—the National Communications System (NCS) —operates the National Coordinating Center to address disasters related to telecommunications. In addition, the numerous phone companies and large communications suppliers have developed mechanisms of their own to respond to limited emergency situations, but massive emergencies are beyond their capabilities.

　　 1. What does “anymore” in the first sentence of Paragraph 1 mean?

　　　　 A. in any case　　　　　　  B. at no time

　　　　 C. not longer　　　　　　   D. nowadays

　　 2. “In Lieu of” in Paragraph 4 is used to mean

　　　　 A. instead of　　　　　　　　 B. because of

　　　　 C. In spite of　　　　　　    D. due to

　　 3. The writer's main purpose is to

　　　　 A. describe phenomena

　　　　 B. propose a motion of the modem telecommunications sciences

　　　　 C. amuse attention to the limited uses of telephone in the event of disaster

　　　　 D. argue a belief of telephone

　　 4. What would the following paragraph after Paragraph 4 more probably deal with?

　　　　 A. the examples of emergencies that telephone system can not deal with

　　　　 B. different opinions towards the telephone services

　　　　 C. the writer's conclusion of the passage

　　　　 D. the disadvantages of the National Communications System

One day a mime(哑剧演员)is visiting the zoo and attempts to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he starts to draw a crowd，a zookeeper drags him into his office．The zookeeper explains that the zoo's most popular attraction，a gorilla(大猩猩)，has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance（出席人数） at the zoo will fall off．He offers the mime a job to dress up as the gorilla. The mime accepts．

  The next morning the mime puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes．He soon discovers he can sleep all he wants，play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mime—the job he likes but loses．

    However, with days going by，he begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his．Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbs to the top of his cage，crawls across a partition(隔墙)，and dangles(悬挂)from the top to the lion’s cage. The lion gets angry at this. The scene is a fuel to the crowd．

    At the end of the day he is given a raise for being such a good attraction—Well，this continues for some time．The crowds grow larger，and the mime’s pay keeps going up.

　　Then one day when he is dangling over the lion he slips and falls．The mime is terrified. He starts screaming，  “Help me!”，but the lion is quick．The mime soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says, “Shut

up you fool! Do you want to get us both fired?”

The mime accepts the zookeeper’s offer because______________·

  A．he has been out of work

  B．he doesn’t like being a mime

  C．he likes performing at the zoo

  D．he is offered a higher pay there

How does the mime find the job dressing up as the gorilla?

  A．Hard and tiring．        B．Dangerous.

  C．Easy and funny．        D. Boring.

The mime’s first contact with the lion is to_________·

  A. find pleasure for himself          B. get the lion’s attention

  C．get his pay raised               D．win back his audience

The underlined words “a fuel” in Paragraph 3 can be replaced by __________.

  A. frightening    B common   C．exciting   D. familiar

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横线上填入最恰当的单词。 

注意：每空只填一个单词。

Maybe you are an average student. You probably think you will never be a top student. This is not necessary so, however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here is how.　　

1). Plan your time carefully. When you plan your week, you should make a list of things that you can have to do. After making the list, you should make a schedule of your time. First time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. Then decide a good, regular time for studying. Don’t forget to set aside enough time fro entertainment. A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.　　

2). Find a good place to study. Look around the house for a good study area. Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room. Free from everything but study materials. No games, radios, or television. When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject. 　　

3). Make good use of your time in class. Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teachers say. Really listening in class means less work later. Taking notes will help you remember what your teachers say.　　

4). Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes. Review the important points that your teachers mentioned in class. If you want to know what your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read the material in advance. This will help you understand the next class. If you do these things regularly, the material will become more meaningful, and you will remember it longer.　　

5). Develop a good attitude about tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t be overly worried.　

There are other methods that might help you with your studying. You will probably discover many others after you have tried these.　　

How to Become a Better Student?