In the past ten years, America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) has grown increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to supply players.

    When Michael Jordan and Larry Bird won gold in Barcelona in 1992, the Americans were praised for teaching the world how to play basketball. This season, however, 20 percent of NBA rosters（花名册） will be filled by non-Americans. NBA commissioner David Stem happily embraces the trend. On a visit to Paris in October, Stern outlined his vision for the future, which is likely to see Europe hosting NBA games by 2010.

    The NBA is now planning to take China by storm.

    “Our experience in China has been that it is going to be explosive in its growth,” said Stern. The strategy（战略，策略） in China is television. “We’ve made 14 deals in China with local and national networks on cable and satellite.” The success of Chinese centre Yao Ming has paved the way for the NBA marketing blitz in China. The NBA, which is broadcasted in more than 200 countries in 42 languages, will put that to the test in October 2004 when the Houston Rockets play two pre-season games against the Sacramento Kings in Beijing and Shanghai. The NBA knows that it needs a global market to compensate for tough times on home soil.

“It doesn’t matter where the players come from, all the NBA teams now know that they have to scout（寻找，觅得） internationally,” said Terry Lyons, the NBA’s vice-president of international public relations. “It has increased the level of competition here.” As Frenchman Tony Parker and Argentine Emanuel Ginobili showed in winning championship rings with the San Antonio Spurs last season, many people can earn the respect of their American peers. Others, such as the Houston Rockets’ Chinese centre Yao Ming — number one draft pick in 2002 — and the Detroit Pistons’ 18-year-old Serb Darko Milicic — number two overall in this year’s draft — are icons（偶像）in-waiting. It is the ultimate（最后的，根本的） revolution — the rest of the world teaching the US how to play basketball.

According to the report,                 .

A. Michael Jordan is still playing a very important role in NBA

B. the part played by the foreign players in NBA will be great

C. Yao Ming is to play two pre-season games in NBA

D. European countries will host the 2004 NBA games

The underlined phrase “take China by storm” has the meaning of      _______ ___.

A. NBA intends to make China its “marketing center”

B. NBA is planning to set up some training centers in China

C. there’ll be a big storm when NBA comes to China to play against the Sacramento Kings

D. the NBA’s live basket games will be broadcasted on all the TVs in China

What seems to be the biggest change that is happening to NBA?

A. NBA is expecting more foreign players to join the league.

B. China’s rapid development in sports affects NBA.

C. Yao Ming has taken the place of Michael Jordan.

D. The NBA will stop teaching the world how to play basketball.

When the writer talked of “home soil”, he was referring to        _        _.

A. farms in the States                    B. native Americans 

C. the NBA training center                D. the USA

Which of the following can be used as the best title for the passage?

A. The Non-American Basketball Players      B. NBA Is Coming to China

C. The Foreign Ties That Bind the NBA        D. NBA Is Making Big Progress

BEIJING – Alarmed by the overreaching ambitions of many Chinese provinces to grow at all cost, China’s top economic chief is calling on officials to calm down and spare a thought for the environment.
Zhang Ping, who heads China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the central economic planning agency, said only five or six of China’s 30 provinces are targeting annual economic growth of 8 percent or 9 percent.
The remaining provinces are aiming for growth rates of more than 10 percent this year, with some wanting to double economic output in the coming five years.
“China has a planned energy supply of about 4 billion cubic tons of coal equivalent (等量的) for the next five years, and this is not enough to meet demands for economic growth to double,” he was quoted as saying on the news portal Sina. com.
Beijing is increasingly concerned with the ambitions of Chinese provinces across the country to chase high growth despite the central government’s urgent request for a more moderate and sustainable (可持续的) pace of expansion.
Years of rapid economic growth have taken a toll on China’s environment, with Beijing trying to remove some of the damage now. It has an annual growth target of 7 percent for the next five years, well down from last year’s 10 percent.
Zhang said Beijing has asked local governments to take into account the supply of “energy, environment, water and land” to set more reasonable growth target.
【小题1】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

BEIJING, Feb 13 — Never has China's economic growth attracted so much global attention. The shock waves from the financial crisis (危机) that started in the United States have spread across the entire world, sending developed nations, including Japan and those of Europe, into serious recession(衰退). The world is now holding out hope that China, with its massive potential, will serve as the engine to fuel global economic growth.

But China's real economic growth slowed sharply to 6.8 percent in the October-December quarter. For China, this rate of economic expansion must be as disappointing as negative growth is for Japan. Beijing has set an official goal of achieving a minimum annual growth rate of 8 percent -- a pace it regards as important to ensuring job security.

The Chinese government is apparently confident the nation will achieve the minimum growth target of 8 percent in 2009. At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the Chinese economy began to show signs of recovery late last year.

Last week, however, the International Monetary Fund predicted that China's economic growth in 2009 will be 6.7 percent. China's economic outlook is likely to keep both hope and anxiety for the time being.

China's impressive economic growth has been fueled by swelling exports and massive investment (投资)in equipment to produce goods for overseas. But the US, Japanese and European economies, which have absorbed the bulk(数量) of China's exports, are expected to shrink simultaneous（同时）in 2009, for the first time since the end of World War II. For the first time since it started serious efforts to turn itself into a market economy in the 1990s, China is facing the challenge of maintaining healthy economic growth without depending on external demand.

Expansion of domestic (国内的) demand holds a key to China's success in tackling this challenge. Consumer spending accounts for only 35 percent of China's gross (总的)) domestic product. The ratio(比率) is considerably lower than the 70 percent for the United States and the nearly 60 percent for Japan. That is because the middle class - the group that should lead consumer spending - is still relatively small in China, where the benefits of the nation's strong economic growth in recent years have mostly eluded rural villages and low-income earners.

According to the report, in the last quarter of 2008, China's real economic growth was at least ______less than planned annual growth rate.

A. 6.7%       .     B.6.8%         C.1.3%           D. 1.2%

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. The financial crisis has had bad effects on many countries including China.

B. China's economic growth has been depending on exports.

C. If China intends to keep the same economic growth, it must increase goods for overseas.

D. Consumer spending in China is much lower than that of the US.

The underlined word in the last paragraph probably means____.

A. benefited           B. avoided       C. influenced        D. missed

What's the best title of the passage?

A. Economic change, the only hope for china.

B. China has attracted much global attention.

C. China, the engine to fuel global economic growth.

D. The financial crisis has influenced China's economy.

单词拼写(满分10分)
【小题1】 __________(暴露) of the body to strong sunlight can be harmful.
【小题2】Graduates have to fight for jobs in a highly __________(竞争的) market.
【小题3】I made my husband stay with the __________(行李) while I went to find a taxi.
【小题4】Under the new__________(规章), spending on office equipment will be strictly controlled.
【小题5】On no account can we__________(忽视) the value of knowledge.
【小题6】Much hard work has been done to ____(促进) an understanding of the politics and culture of Arab world.
【小题7】Dinner is served at seven; please try to be _________(准时的).
【小题8】China has US$7200 per _________(居民) , which is low compared to some western economies.
【小题9】Giant pandas are among the world’s most ____________ (濒危的) animals.
【小题10】To our ___________(安慰) , Geoffrey’s illness proved not to be as serious as we had feared.

If you thought sports stars Yao Ming and Liu Xiang or Internet entrepreneurs Zhang Chaoyang and Ding Lei would automatically be on the list of the” Men of Our Time”，then you could be behind the times．

       The surprise in the list of 10 men released by the All-China Women’s Federation yesterday is that it contains no celebrities- and the guiding factors seem to be care and sympathy for the opposite sex．

       In fact，Liu and Yao，as well as actor Pu Cunxin—the image ambassador for China’s anti-HIV，AIDS campaign—appeared in a booklet given out at the contest’s launch ceremony in January．The federation wouldn’t say why they are not in the final list．

       The winners，with an average age of 47．5，were selected by women officials and journalists of the nine women’s newspapers in China，whose standard was men promoting equality between the sexes．

       Li Zhong hua, a 46-year—old air force officer who test-flies planes，said he thought he was chosen because” he takes good care of his family，and is a gentleman”．

       ”Gentlemen get more respect in our society．They should be like those in the movie Titanic，who let women and children lave first in life rafts。”he told China Daily．

       Shi Hua shan，a 48-year-old policeman in Gui xi of Jiangxi Province，said that he became a”man in the eyes of women” because” women love stories of heroes saving beauties"．

       His team has rescued more than 180 women who were taken away by force and sold as wives in the mountain regions of Fujian Province．

       Some other” Men of Our Time” are：

       Lang Jinghe，67，gynecologist at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing，who has made breakthroughs in ovarian cancer；

       Ma Li，33，official in Xuzhou of Jiangsu Province，whose shelter has helped 196 victims of domestic violence；Li Mingshull，43，lawyer in Beijing，who is active in campaigns against family violence；Liu Ri，51，a mine worker in Lu’an of Shanxi Province，who took care of his paralyzed

parents·in-law for 23 years with his wife．

1.Which of the following statements is right?

       A．Liu Xiang, a sports star, was on the list of the “Men of Our Time”．

       B．LiZhonghua was a man in the eyes of women because he was an excellent air force officer．

       C．Shi Huashan rescued women from forced marriages

       D．The honor was given to Pu Cunxin at the launch ceremony in January．

2.Who is among the“Men of Our Time”?

       A．Yao Ming    B．Ma Li           C．Pu Cunxin       D．Liu Xiang

3.The underlined word “celebrities” in the second paragraph most probably means______．

       A．famous scientists         B．famous actors

       C．well-known people       D．well．known sports stars

4.This passage is most probably taken from——．

       A．a science magazine      B．an advertising booklet

       C．a travel brochure        D．a newspaper