C

　　The curtain on the 2008 US presidential election finally rose last month as Requblican Senator(参议员) John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama were formally selected as candidates of the two major parties.This may be one of the hardest decisions voters have to make between two appealing candidates.The big question for voters,as they face both an economic downturn and international threats,is :who will they elect? A young first - term senator promising change and new ideas,or a longtime senator with strong military experience and a reputation as a maverick(特立独行的人)？

　　American voters have never seen a candidate quite like Obama.He has a white mother from the US and a black fater from Kenya who left the family when Obama was very young.He spent part of his youth in Indonesia.

　　However,McCain has a very different life story.

　　He grew up in a Navy family and was a daring pilot during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. When Obama was in kindergarten in Indonesia,McCain's plane was shot down over Ietenam and he became a prisoner of war.McCain could have been set free if he disowned America but he refused and so was held for five years.

　　"We need a president who is very,very old,"McCain joked at his age as many others do.If elected,he would be 72 when he takes office and the oldest man to step in.

　　So in the end,the election may depend on several factors that are hard to judge:Will Obama's race matter to a significant number of voters ? Will workingclass whites who tended to support his primary (党内初选) oponent,Hillary Clinton,vote for Obama? And perhaps most important of all,will uncertain voters be more attracted to Obama's vision or to McCain's experience?

　　Whatever happens,one thing is clear,however:Whoever walks into the White House on January 20,2009,will find huge challenges waiting for him in the Oval Office,both at home and abroad.

　　64.______makes the result of the election hard to predict.

　　　A.Whether working class whites care about Obama's inexperience

　　　B.The economic trouble the country now faces

　　　C.Who uncertain voters will finally decide to vote for

　　　D.McCain being too old to govern the country

　　65.The appeal in Obama as a presidential candidate lies in _________

　　　A.his multi - cultural background

　　　B.his belife in tradition

　　　C.his inexperience in politics

　　　D.his fantastic promises

　　66.The word "disown" in Paragraph 6 means closest to ______.

　　　A.flee from

　　　B.turn his back on

　　　C.not keep it private

　　　D.expose secrets about

　　67.The challenges that will face the new preident______.

　　　A.are not mentioned in the text

　　　B.include buklding a strong party and a friendly image

　　　C.refer to the problems of immigrants and economy

　　　D.refer to the problems of economy amd international relations

She took up skating at age 85, made her first movie appearance at age 114, and held a concert in the neighborhood on her 121st birthday.

　　    When it comes to long life, Jeanne Calment is the world’s recordholder. She lived to the ripe old age of 122. So is 122 the upper limit to the human life span（寿命）? If scientists come up with some sort of pill or diet that would slow aging, could we possibly make it to 150－or beyond?

　　    Researchers don’t entirely agree on the answers. “Calment lived to 122, so it wouldn’t surprise me if someone alive today reaches 130 or 135, ”says Jerry Shay at the University of Texas.

　　    Steve Austad at the University of Texas agrees. “People can live much longer than we think, ”he says. “Experts used to say that humans couldn’t live past 110. When Calment blew past that age, they raised the number to 120. So why can’t we go higher? ”

　　    The trouble with guessing how old people can live to be is that it’s all just guessing. “Anyone can make up a number, ”says Rich Miller at the University of Michigan. “Usually the scientist who picks the highest number gets his name in Time magazine. ”

　　    Won’t new anti-aging techniques keep us alive for centuries? Any cure, says Miller, for aging would probably keep most of us kicking until about 120. Researchers are working on treatments that lengthen the life span of mice by 50 percent at most. So, if the average human life span is about 80 years, says Miller, “adding another 50 percent would get you to 120. ”

　　    So what can we conclude from this little disagreement among the researchers? That life span is flexible（有弹性的）, but there is a limit, says George Martin of the University of Washington. “We can get flies to live 50 percent longer, ”he says. “But a fly’s never going to live 150 years. ”Of course, if you became a new species （物种）, one that ages at a slower speed, that would be a different story, he adds.

　　    Does Martin really believe that humans could evolve （进化）their way to longer life? “It’s pretty cool to think about, ”he says with a smile.

1. What does the story of Jeanne Calment prove to us?

A．People can live to 122.

B．Old people are creative.

C．Women are sporty at 85.

D．Women live longer than men.

2. According to Steve Austad at the University of Texas, ______.

A．the average human life span could be 110

B．scientists cannot find ways to slow aging

C．few people can expect to live to over 150

D．researchers are not sure how long people can live

3. Who would agree that a scientist will become famous if he makes the wildest guess at longevity?

A．Jerry Shay.　                           B．Steve Austad

C．Rich Miller　                           D．George Martin

4. What can we infer from the last three paragraphs?

A．Most of us could be good at sports even at 120.

B．The average human life span cannot be doubled

C．Scientists believe mice are aging at a slower speed than before.

D．New techniques could be used to change flies into a new species

第三部分阅读理解（共两节，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

　　Soon it may be harder to stop and smell the roses.

　　Growing levels of air pollution from power plants and automobiles have reduced flower fragrances (芬芳) by up to 90 percent in the US.That is compared with pre-industrial levels,a new study has found.

　　The trend is unpleasant for human noses,but may be life - threatening for bees and butterflies.

　　"Many insects find flowers by folowing the scent(香味) produced by those flowers," said the studies lead author Jose D.Fuentes,an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia.

　　"The increasing pollution makes it difficult for them to locate the flowers and feed on their nectar(花蜜)."

　　Scientists have alrady known that flowers produce scent molecules(分子) that bond with pollutants.The process breaks down the plants' sweet smell.

　　With more pollution in the air,the scent molecules don't remain effective as long and travel shorter distances on the wind.

　　The new study suggests that in the mid - 19th century,when pollution levels were first recorded,scent molecules would have been able to travel some 1,000 to 1,200 meters.

　　Today,in the polluted air found downwind of large cities,scentst may only make it some 200 to 300 meters.

　　The report was recently published in the journal,Atmospheric Environment.

　　Bee farmers have reported that bee populations are dropping dramatically in many parts of the world in recent years. Could these missing scents be a factor?

　　Scientists trying to hind the cause of bee population declines have blamed bacteria,pesticides,and even cellphone radiation.

　　Jay Evans,an entomologist(昆虫学者) at the US Department of Agriculture's bee research laboratory,was interested in the new study.But he says he hasn't seen bee behavior that suggests trouble with scents.

　　"Over the last couple of summers I don't think the bees in this area were bringing in much less food,"he said.

　　"It might be that they had to work harder,but it seems like as long as there were bees to collect food they were finding flowers somewhere."

　　But Fuentes fears that the fading smell of flowers may stress insects that are already faced with other threats.

　　"The effects shown in these studies will simply exacerbate whatever the bees are going through right now,"he said.

　　"It's something that is really worthwhile paying attention to."

　　56.What's the passage mainly about?

　　　A.How greatly air plooution affects our lives.

　　　B.Effects of air pollution on bee populations.

　　　C.Measures to fight air pollution.

　　　D.The rapid decline of bee populations in the world.

　　57.According to the passage,Jay Evans probably agrees that ______ .

　　　A.bees are the insect that suffers most from air pollution

　　　B.bees are at risk of dying out owing to air pollution

　　　C.the fading smell of flowers doesn't affect bees so greatly as was thought

　　　D.as is often the case,bees fail to locate the flowers because of the missing scents

　　58.The word"exacerbate" in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.

　　　A.worsen B.improve C.get rid of D.decrease

　　59.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

　　　A.The more air pollution there is in a region,the greater the destruction of the flower scents.

　　　B.Bacteria,pesticides,and cellphone radiation are blamed for causing the decline of bees.

　　　C.The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment oculd travel longer and farther.

　　　D.Air pollution does more harm to insects such as bees and butterflies than human beings.

31^st October —— A team of British explorers has announced they are going to the North Pole to measure the ice cap’s thickness. The exploration will take ground-based readings (仪表的读数) of an ice formation which most scientists agree is shrinking at an alarming rate.

    Explorer Pen Hadow’s three-member team will pull a sled-fixed radar device, which measures ice density every eight centimeters, 2,000 kilometers across the Arctic and will produce millions of readings.

    They will leave in February, 2008 and will face temperatures of -50℃ on a journey that will take up to 120 days. They have been testing their equipment in Britain and Canada.

    Hadow is excited about the prospects (前景), “For the first time we will be able to transmit video images — webcam film of the expedition — as it unfolds so people can track us, and the whole idea is to engage as many people as we can in what we’re doing.”

    New fallen snow on top of the ice makes ground-based measurements more accurate than satellite data.

    “It has been in the planning stage for a while,” said Hadow. “We spent the last two years developing impulse radar (冲击雷达), which normally is about 100 kilograms and hangs under an aircraft and so on. We’ve managed to get it down to about 4 kilograms. It’s the size of a briefcase and we are dragging it behind the sled as we go.”

　　　　The ice cap shrank enough in 2007 so that a pathway through the cap known as the Northwest Passage opened up during the melting of the Arctic summer.

    Cambridge University’s Joao Rodrigues explains, “Thickness of the ice cap will determine how much solar radiation will be reflected and the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere and it is thus a vital component (成分) of climate models.”

    If warming trends continue, some experts predict that the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free during the summer within a few decades.

１ What would be the best title for the text?

A. Exploration to the North Pole.

B. Arctic ice cap shrinking.

C. Arctic ice survey announced.

D. Ground-based measurements of ice.

２. What is special about the exploration?

A. It will be broadcast live on the Internet.

B. Explorers will use a sled-fixed radar device.

C. Explorers will travel in extremely cold conditions.

D. Ground-based measurements are more accurate.

３. What is the purpose of the exploration?

A. To measure the ice cap’s thickness.

B. To study whether ice will disappear in the Arctic.

C. To make a film about the Arctic exploration.

D. To make people interested in what they are doing.

４. It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

A. ice in the Arctic will disappear in ten years

B. the exploration will last for half a year

C. Hadow spent two years developing a kind of radar, which is about 100 kilograms

D. if there is snow on ice, satellites can’t measure the ice thickness accurately enough

５. From the passage, we learn that ________.

A. the explorers will measure ice density every other centimeter

B. people will be able to follow the explorers and see what they are doing  

C. people could go through the Northwest Passage in the 2007 Arctic summer

D. the equipment that Hadow’s team use will be tested in the United States