Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn't exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin's work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.
　　One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.
　　Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.
　　On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin's grand entrance for a long time!
【小题1】The text is mainly about_________.

阅读理解

　　Americans are always in a hurry, they seem to be under permanent pressure to think that there is something more to do the next moment. This fast pace is reflected in the popularity of fast-food restaurants, one-stop stations and micro-ovens. They hate to waste their time and would frown if their time is wasted by interruptions or by poor service. They appreciate the practice of doing things as quickly as possible, as in their eyes,“patience is the virtue of asses.”

　　In contract, people in Indonesia believe in“rubber time”, to the extent that time can stretch or shrink. In Africa, people who do something in a rush are actually asking for trouble; they'd be suspected of trying to cheat! In their culture, a slow unusual, worth doubt.

　　Here is a contract between the slow pace people (SPP) and the fast pace people(FPP);

　　◇SPP－Consider an appointment as a target to achieve, if possible.

　　　FPP－take a promise seriously and try to keep it by all means.

　　◇SPP－are dedicated to people and human relationship.

　　　FPP－are devoted to work rather than to human relationship.

　　　SPP－change plans easily.

　　　FPP－follow and stick to the plans.

　　◇SPP－decide to be punctual or not based on human relationship.

　　　FPP－stress punctuality.

　　◇SPP－show strong tendency to build lifetime friendship.

　　　FPP-are used to short-term relationship.

(1)Which of the following statements indicates that Americans are leading a fast-pace life?

[　　]

A．Americans have modern kitchen equipment.

B．Fast-food restaurants are popular with Americans.

C．Almost every American family owns a car.

D．There are a lot of railway stations in the United States.

(2)The underlined phrase“one-stop stations”probably means ________.

[　　]

A．A bus stop is not far from one another

B．There are a number of police stations in the United States

C．There are a lot of gas stations here and there, and it is one-stop distance between them.

D．It is a long way from a gas station to the next one

(3)In which country people who do something in a rush are suspected of trying to cheat?

[　　]

A．Venezuela　　　　　　B．Italy

C．Vietnam　　　　　　　D．Zambia

(4)If a person cares more for human relationship than his job, he must belong to ________.

[　　]

A．the fast pace people

B．the slow pace people

C．the lazy people

D．the clever people

阅读下列短文，根据所读内容在短文后的表格中填入恰当的单词。注意：表格的每个空格只填一个单词。
Educating girls quite possibly yields a higher rate of return than any other investment （投资）available in the developing world. Women's education may be unusual territory for economists（经济学家）, but enhancing women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics（经济因素）, with its emphasis on incentives, provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived（剥夺）of an education.
　　Parents in low-income countries fail to invest（投资）in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and art kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school - the prophecy （预言) becomes self- fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
　　An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy.
Few will dispute that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.
Topic: The significance of female【小题1】       in developing countries

We’ve reached a strange—some would say unusual—point. While fighting world hunger continues to be the matter of vital importance according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), more people now die from being overweight, or say, from being extremely fat, than from being underweight. It’s the good life that’s more likely to kill us these days.

　　Worse, nearly l8 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What’s going on?

　　We really don’t have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public-health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through—up to a point.

　　In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public-health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades.

　　Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world’s most body-conscious country.

　　We know what we should be doing to lose weight—but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower.

　　Others blame good food. They say: it’s just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American-style fast food.

　　Some also blame their parents—their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they’re normal in shape, or rather slim.

　　It’s a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say—not as I do.

　　59. What is the “strange” point mentioned in the first sentence?  A

　　A. The good life is a greater risk than the bad life.

　　B. Starvation is taking more people’s lives in the world.

　　C. WHO report shows people’s unawareness of food safety.

　　D. Overweight issue remains unresolved despite WHO’s efforts.

　　60. Why does the author think that people have no excuse for being overweight?

　　A. A lot of effective diet pills are available.

　　B. Body image has nothing to do with good food.

　　C. They have been made fully aware of its dangers. C

　　D. There are too many overweight people in the world.

　　61. The example of Finland is used to illustrate ______. C

　　A. the cause of heart disease

　　B. the fashion of body shaping

　　C. the effectiveness of a campaign

　　D. the history of a body-conscious country

　　62. Which would be the best title for the passage? A

　　A. Actions or Excuses?

　　B. Overweight or Underweight?

　　C. WHO in a Dilemma

　　D. No Longer Dying of Hunger

The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
　　Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
　　Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
　　It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs and toes trained to escape ankle chins. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.
　　Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? World-wild fame, and a name remembered today.
【小题1】According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.