Abby Subark is a mother of two from Boston. “For my kids, I’m nervous. I don’t know if they’ll be able to achieve their American dream.” She may be right. More than hard work or education, the best way to get rich in America is to be born rich.
It is the case that somebody who is in the upper third of income, poor scores, in the bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college and finish college than a poor kid with the top scores. That’s what the working persons’  children are up against.
The Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9 or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That’s about 200 years. The hallmark (特征) of American opportunity has always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for so-called intergenerational mobility (变动).
If you look at the mechanisms (机制) for upward mobility that were so readily available 50 years ago, they are becoming out of reach, like plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health care.
White families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people in America today, where you end up depends on where you start.
If you started in the middle-income class, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle-income class. The rest is up to you.
But for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line and the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class.
【小题1】The main idea of the passage is _______.

As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease—especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can be pursued further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.

   The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely “not ill” and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body's special needs. Both types have simply been called “well.” In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms “well” and “wellness” only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body's condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap may be “well,” in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. “Wellness” may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for. People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life.

1.In the first paragraph, people are reminded that ____.

A. good health is more than not being ill

B. drinking, even if not to excess, could be harmful

C. regular health checks are essential to keeping fit

D. prevention is more difficult than cure

2.The underlined word “handicap” in the second paragraph probably means.

A. disability                B. advantage    C. difficulty                 D. benefit

3.According to the author, the true meaning of “wellness” is for people ____.

A. to best satisfy their body's special needs

B. to strive to maintain the best possible health

C. to meet the strictest standards of bodily health

D. to keep a proper balance between work and leisure

4.According to what the author, which of the following groups of people would be inferred healthy?

A. People who have strong muscles as well as slim figures.

B. People who are not presently experiencing any symptoms of disease.

C. People who try to be as healthy as possible, regardless of their limitations.

D. People who can recover from illness even without seeking medical care.

    News (March 6, 2008) that Microsoft was making a $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo was greeted with heated discussion by many Internet users on Friday. Here are some responses:

    Mark Galeassi of Kansas City, Missouri

    This is the best move for both parties. Yahoo has the ideas and Microsoft has the money to finally market these ideas correctly. Microsoft and Yahoo are a perfect fit and the deal will be good for consumers.

    Scott G. of New Jersey  

    I was a Yahoo user for years along with Hotmail from Microsoft. Then Google came along... Google Earth, Google Toolbar and Gmail. Google is so innovative (创新的) with everything they do. Yahoo and Microsoft... same old story... I don’t think the merger(合并) will do anything for either company except improve the Yahoo shareholders’ bank accounts:

    Michael Glosser of Estero, Florida

Right now, Yahoo offers a lot of features and tools at no cost for all different levels of Intemet users. Microsoft seeks nothing but profit. Undoubtedly, they’ll do nothing other than find ways to start removing Yahoo’s formerly non-priced features. Microsoft’s greed will ruin the great thing that Yahoo currently is.

    Toni Suarez of Hacienda Heights, California

    Perhaps it would bring better high technology innovations to e-mail and help in researching and developing a better Internet!

    Antonio Simmons of Parkville, Maryland

    Microsoft purchasing Yahoo would be nothing more than an attempt from Microsoft to further impose upon the users their poor-quality software and obtain more wealth for the company. In my opinion, they will never be able to compete with Google because Yahoo and Microsoft’s current search engines are too inferior (差的) to compete. Even if combined, they still lack.

77. Who is in favor of the merger of Microsoft and Yahoo?

 A. Antonio Simmons.  B. Michael Grosser.    C. Scott G.      D. Mark Galeassi.

78. In the opinion of Scott G.,   

 A. the merger will contribute to Microsoft

 B. Yahoo and Microsoft are lacking in innovation

 C. Google is getting short of management experience

 D. the merger will allow Microsoft to overtake Google

79. Michael Grosser is afraid that

 A. the merger will cost Yahoo’s free features

 B. the merger will lead to Microsoft’s monopoly (垄断) of the market

 C. the increased competition will force Google out of the game

 D. Intemet users will have to buy Microsoft’s costly software

80. What is Antonio Simmons’ attitude towards Google?

 A. Doubtful.          B. Disapproval.    C. Positive.       D. Negative.

As a teenager in 1972, Bill Gates boasted that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 20. While he did not quite achieve that goal, only 15 years later, he was a millionaire. And by 1992, as head of the Microsoft company, he became the richest man in America with assets（资产）of nearly US $ 6.3 billion.
Born in Seattle, Washington on 28, October, 1956, Gates was named William Henry after his father and grandfather. From the beginning, he was an extremely energetic and intelligent child. He had read the entire world book encyclopedia（百科全书）by the age of nine. His favorite subjects at school were science and math and his favorite pastime was "thinking".
Gates first started to play with computers at the age of 13. Before long he became an expert at working the school's computer. After his graduation from secondary school, Gates was accepted by the three top universities in the USA-Princeton, Harvard and Yale. He chose Harvard and began classes there the next autunm, majoring maths. But he was still obsessed（占据心里）with computers and spent as much time in the computer laboratories as he did in the lecture halls.
By 1975, Gates and a partner, Paul Allen, had developed a software program called BASIC. This was not the first program ever created, but its inventors were the first to decide that people who wanted to use it should pay for it.
BASIC was a success because until it came along, there had been no efficient way of getting computers to carry out instructions. Although he had not completed his degree, Gates left university and went to work full time for the new company he had formed called Microsoft.
His next project was the software program that made him famous and very rich. It was called DOS, short for Disk Operating System, and it was purchased by IBM in 1980. Today it is the operating system used in more than 14 million personal computers around the world.
As chief executive officer（首席行政长官）of Microsoft, Gates is known as a bright man, but one who is not easily satisfied. He is quick to criticize his staff and hates to be questioned about decisions he has made. He was regarded as a loner and unfashionable boring computer nut until his marriage to Microsoft manager Melinda French on New Year's Day 1994. Yet to many people now, Gates, is a person who is, in spite of his great wealth, humble（谦恭）and ordinary. He spends his money carefully. He eats in fast food restaurants and flies economy class. And when praised for Microsoft's great success, he has been heard to say, "All we do is put software in a box and if people see it in the stores and like it, they buy it."
【小题1】When he was a teenager, Bill Gates wanted to be a ______.

 The poor woman goes to ______prison once a year to see her husband who is in______prison.