III. 阅读 (共两节，满分40分)

第一节：阅读理解（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。

As goods and services improved, people were persuaded to spend their money on changing from old to new, and found the change worth the expense. When an airline equipped itself with jets, for example, its costs (and therefore air fare) would go up, but the new planes meant such an improvement that the higher cost was justified. A new car (or wireless, washing machine, electric kettle) made life so much more comfortable than the old one that the high cost of replacement was fully repaid. Manufacturers still cry their goods as persuasively as ever, but are the improvements really worth paying for? In many fields, things have now reached such a high standard of performance that further progress is very limited and very, very expensive. Airlines, for example, go to enormous expense in buying the latest prestige jets, in which vast research costs have been spent on relatively small improvements. If we abandon these vast costs we might lose the chance of cutting minutes away from flying times; but wouldn’t it be better to see airfares drop dramatically, as capital costs become relatively insignificant? Again, in the context of a 70 m. p. h. Limit, with lines of cars traveling so close as to control each other’s speeds, improvements in performance are actually irrelevant; improvements in handling are unnecessary, as most production cars grip（抓牢） the road perfectly, and comfort has now reached a very high level. Small improvements here are unlikely to be worth the thousands that anybody replacing an ordinary family car every two years may have spent on them. Let us instead have cars — or wireless, electric kettles, washing machines, television sets — which are made to last, and not to be replaced. Significant progress is obviously a good thing, but the insignificant progression from model-change to model-change is not.

1. The author is obviously challenging the social norm (社会规范) that ________________.

A. it is important to improve goods and services

B. development of technology makes our life more comfortable

C. it is reasonable that prices are going up all the time

D. slightly improved new products are worth buying

2. According to this passage, airfares may rise because ______________.

A. the airplane has been improved

B. people tend to travel by new airplanes

C. the change is found to be reasonable

D. the service on the airplane is better than before

3. According to the author, passengers would be happier if they ____________.

A. could fly in the latest model of good planes

B. could get tickets at much lower prices

C. see the airlines make vital changes in their services

D. could spend less time flying in the air

4. When manufactures have improved the performance of their products to a certain level, then it would be _______________.

A. justified for them to cut the price

B. unnecessary for them to make any new changes

C. difficult and costly to further better them

D. insignificant for them to cut down the research costs

5. In the case of cars, the author advises that we _____________.

A. cancel the speed limit                       B. further improve their performance

C. change models every two years          D. improve their durability (耐久性)

One silly question I simply can’t stand is “How do you feel?” Usually the question is asked of a man in action — a man on the go, walking along the street, or busily working at his desk. So what do you expect him to say? He’ll probably say, “Fine, I’m all right,” but “you’ve put a bug in his ear” — maybe now he’s not sure. If you’re a good friend, you may have seen something in his face, or his walk, that he overlooked that morning. It starts him worrying a little. First thing you know, he looks in a mirror to see if everything is all right, while you go merrily on your way asking someone else, “How do you feel?”
Every question has its time and place. It’s perfectly acceptable, for instance, to asked “How do you feel?” if you’re visiting a close friend in the hospital. But if the fellow is walking on both legs, hurrying to catch a train, or sitting at his desk working, it’s no time to ask him that silly question.
When George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer of plays, was in his eighties, someone asked him, “How do you feel?” Shaw put him in his place. “When you reach my age,” Shaw said, “either you feel all right or you’re dead.”
26. The passage tells us that some greetings such as “How do you feel?” __________.
A. show one’s consideration for others     
B. are a good way to make friends
C. are proper to ask a man in action       
D. generally make one feel uneasy
27. The question “How do you feel?” seems to be correct and suitable when asked of _________________________.
A. a man working at his work                 B. a person having lost a close friend
C. a stranger who looks somewhat worried   D. a friend who is ill
28. The writer seems to feel that a busy man should _________________.
A. be praised for his efforts             
B. never be asked any questions
C. not be troubled                    
D. be discouraged from working so hard
29. “You’ve put a bug in his ear” means that you’ve _________________.
A. made him laugh merrily              
B. given him some kind of warning
C. shown much concern for him          
D. played a joke on him
30. George Bernard Shaw’s reply in the passage shows his __________.
A. cleverness         B. cheerfulness              C. power and skills        D. politeness                          

One silly question I simply can’t stand is “How do you feel?”  Usually the question is asked of a man in action—a man on the go, walking along the streets, or busily working at his desk. So what do you expect him to say? He’ll probably say, “Fine, I’m all right,” but you have put a bug in his ear —maybe now he’s not sure. If you are a good friend, you may have seen something in his face, or his walk that he overlooked that morning. It starts worrying him a little. First thing you know, he looks in a mirror to see if everything is all right, while you go merrily on your way asking someone else, “How do you feel?”
Every question has its time and place. It’s perfectly acceptable, for instance, to ask “How do you feel?” if you’re visiting a close friend in the hospital. But if the fellow is walking on both legs, hurrying to make a train, or sitting at his desk working, it’s no time to ask him that silly question.
When George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer of plays was in his eighties, someone asked him “How do you feel?” Shaw put him in his place. “When you reach my age,” he said, “either you feel all right or you’re dead.”
【小题1】The question “How do you feel?” seems to be correct and suitable when asked of_________.

A．a friend who is ill	B．a man working at his desk
C．a person having lost a close friend	D．a stranger who looks somewhat worried

It was a cold winter’s night when I stopped for gas on my way home from work. I was tired and had a slight   36 .
I worked in a   37  doctor’s office and this was one of those days when the unexpected happened, making the schedule run   38  than usual. It seemed I was going to be late   39  home and my husband, being the   40  person, would be ready to pronounce me late once again. Maybe   41  I hurried, I could still make it home.
I was heading inside to   42  for my gas when I noticed an older couple at the counter. I heard them asking for   43  to the local hospital. It was the same hospital that I had just   44  a few minutes ago.
The young man at the counter was trying to be   45  in explaining how to get there, with two other people making   46 . One of them was   47  trying to give them a whole different route back. It was then that I walked over to the couple and said, “Would you like to follow me to the   48 ?”
A look of   49  crossed the woman’s face.
“I’m going right by there,” I said, which wasn’t a(an)   50  since I had just made up my mind to do   51  that.
I got in my car and began the journey back. I was trying to watch to be sure they were right   52  me. It took only fifteen minutes to get there as rush hour traffic was beginning to   53 . I felt better than I had all day and my headache was nearly gone.
Later, as I arrived home, my husband   54 , “So you aren’t ever late any more.”
I said, “Sometimes it’s   55  to be late.”

In the kitchen of my mother’s houses there has always been a wooden stand（木架）with a small notepad（记事本）and a hole for a pencil.

I’m looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can’t be the same pencil? The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one.

“I’m just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these year.” I say to her, walking bank into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. “You still use a pencil. Can’t you afford a pen?”

My mother replies a little sharply. “It works perfectly well. I’ve always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in these days.”

Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, “One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on.”

This story—which happened before I was born—reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is, as a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible（看不到的）exhibits at every meal.

1．Why has the author’s mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?

A．To leave messages.                      B．To list her everyday tasks.

C．To note down maths problems.             D．To write down a flash of inspiration.

2. What is the author’s original opinion about the wooden stand?

A. It has great value for the family.

B. It needs to be replaced by a better one.

C. It brings her back to her lonely childhood.

D .It should be passed on to the next generation.

3. The author feels embarrassed for_______.

A. blaming her mother wrongly.

B. giving her mother a lot of trouble.

C. not making good use of time as her mother did.

D. not making any breakthrough in her field.

4. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A .The mother is successful in her career.

B. The family members like traveling.

C. The author had little time to play when young.

D. The marks on the breadboard have disappeared.

5. In the author’s mind ,her mother is_________.

A. strange in behavior.             B. keen on her research.

C. fond of collecting old things.      D. careless about her appearance.