C
At present, in many American cities expecially, many teachers in the public schools say they are underpaid. They point to jobs such as secretary or truck driver, which often pay more to start than that of a teacher. In many other fields, such as law, medicine, computer science, a beginning worker may make more than a teacher who has taught for several years.
Teaching has never been a profession that attracted people interested in high salaries. It is by history a profession that has provided rewards in addition to money—the satisfaction of sharing knowledge, of influencing others, of guiding young people. But in the past several years, there are more difficulties in teaching, for many, than there are rewards.
Unruly students, especially in big cities, large classes and a lack of support from the public in terms of money and understanding have led many public school teachers to leave the profession.
As a result, many of the best students, who would have chosen teaching as their life career in the past, are going into other fields.
Another reason for this change in teacher candidates is the changing status of women in the United States. Until the late 1960s and 1970s, one of the most popular choices for women was teaching. But as other professions, such as law and medicine opened up to women, women stopped pouring into teacher training programs. Thus, a major pool of excellent candidates for the teaching profession dwindled.
Bit by bit government officials and others realized that the status of the teacher had suffered. They talked about change. But the change in a vast society like the United States is not easy. People’s attitudes have formed over many years, and sometimes change takes many years.
63．The underlined word “that” in Paragraph 1 refers to “      ”.
A．money             B．job
C．secretary          D．truck driver
64．What is the present situation of the teaching?
A．Teachers work harder and get underpaid.
B．Teahcers have no opportunities to work in other fields.
C．Teaching can attract best students to work as a teacher.
D．Teaching can provide rewards as well as high salaries.
65．Many public school teachers turn to other professions because        .
A．the government doesn’t finacially support them
B．they have to work longer hours than a lawyer
C．their students refuse to listen to them
D．they are not fairly treated
66．The author believes that change in teachers’ status in the United States       .
A．is not great     
B．is impossible
C．influences people’s attitude
D．needs time

B

For a song to become popular, people need to bear it.  In order for people　to hear it, the program directors at radio stations have to play it on the air. A song’s popularity is directly related to how often it is played. That is a big responsibility for program directors. How do they decide what gets played and what doesn’t?

In the past, disc jockeys(音乐节目主持人) decided what music was played on the radio. These DJs had an ear for music and an understanding of what their audience wanted to hear. Today, that is all changing. Most major radio stations are owned by a few large national businesses. The decision of what gets played on the radio is made by executives(主管) who have little or no interest in music. They do, however, know how to run a business, and they know what sells. So, the music industry designs and creates pop entertainers, and executives in the radio industry make sure that their music is played on the radio. This explains why you do not often hear anything new and fresh on the radio. The executives do not want to give air time to music that has not been tested on the market. It is too risky. They prefer to go with music that they already know will sell. They know it will sell because it sold last week and last month and last year. They just have to change it a little.

One of the most criticized(批评) practices in the music industry is the practice of “payola”. This is when record companies pay radio stations to play the music of a given artist. This practice makes many people lose trust in the music industry and is therefore against the law. A radio station can accept money in exchange for air time of a song, but they have to make it clear that the song is being played because its air time was paid for. They cannot present the song as if it were part of the normal play schedule(时刻表).

Payola affects both artists and audiences. The artists who work with small record companies that cannot pay a lot of money to radio stations have a much harder time getting exposure. It creates an unfair playing field. Music lovers suffer because they are not able to hear all the music that is available.

60. According to the passage, most major radio stations belong to       .

A. national businesses                      B. program directors   

C. pop entertainers                         D. record companies

61. “Payola” is the practice of        .

A. artists paying radio stations to play their songs

B. record companies buying air time for certain music

C. radio station paying record company for new songs

D. program directors deciding what music gets played

62. Who can make the largest profits from payola?

A. Disc Jockeys.                               B. The given artists.

C.  Business executives.                        D. Program directors.

63. It can be concluded from the passage that the author        .

A. has a positive attitude towards the practice of “payola”

B. is dissatisfied with the present situation in music industry

C. is calling for a change in the normal play schedule

D. thinks that the radio stations are doing the right thing

B

For almost two months Dominic York, a 23-year-old hairdresser, wandered about hospitals all night, wearing a white coat and pretending he was a doctor. Yesterday he proudly claimed in court that despite his complete lack of medical experience or qualifications, he had saved several people’s lives. He had even been allowed to assist a surgeon during an emergency operation on a patient who was about to die on something she had swallowed.

“I watched one of those TV dramas about a hospital and suddenly I felt like playing one of the roles myself. So I put on a white jacket and a stethoscope(听诊器)and walked around one of the biggest hospital in London. At first I just watched. Once you learn how doctors talk to patients, nurses and others doctors, it’s easy to take people in,” he said.

One of the patients he treated was Laura Kennan. She had been knocked down by a car and fainted. When she came to in hospital, York was standing over her.

“He looked very professional. He told me his name was Doctor Simon. Then he gave me some sort of injection,” she said. And then he suddenly cleared off when a nurse asked who he was. She didn’t think there was anything wrong. “I would never have realized he was a fake if a policewoman hadn’t showed me his photograph a week later. When the policewoman told me who he really was, I could hardly believe my ears.”

Judge Raymond Adams told York that he was. “ shocked and horrified” that he got away with his deceiving for so long, and then sentenced him to eighteen months in a special prison for criminal with mental disorders.

“I can only hope that this will not lead to further problems. After all, you will have considerable opportunity to study the behaviour of the psychiatrists(精神科医生)who will look after you while you are there. If you try to persuade people that you yourself are a psychiatrist after you are set free, I shall make sure that you are given a much longer sentence.” Judge Adams warned York.

5. York was proud of the fact that ___________.

A. a surgeon let him watch an operation.

B. he could perform some duties of a doctor.

C. he had cheated doctors for so long

D. people thought he could become a real doctor

6. York learned how to behave like a doctor by __________.

A. watching other doctors work             B. talking to doctors and nurses

C. getting some training and experience         D. observing doctors while he was a patient

7. Why was Laura Kennan in hospital?

A. She had swallowed something and almost died.

B. She had to have and emergency operation.

C. She had been injured in a road accident.

D. She had lost consciousness while driving.

8. The judge’s remark implied that York would be more severely punished if he _________.

A. pretended to be a psychiatrist            B. tried to get away from prison

C. was proud of what he had done     D. studied the behaviour of the psychiatrist

C

At one time it was the dream of many little girls to become a nurse. Today, however, America is facing its worst nurse shortage since World War I. Recently about 2,000,000 nurses are needed and 60 percent of all hospitals in the US have shortages large enough to threaten(="say" that you will hurt somebody if they don’t do what you want) the quality of care provided. The demand for nurses spreads widely throughout the nursing field.

What has become of these women in white? The answer lies in not one but several causes. One possibility is the fact that women have greater career options(职业选择). In the past, women who chose to work outside the home had two basic choices: nursing or teaching. Today, more women than ever are in the work force, but their choices have greatly increased. There are women doctors, lawyers, firefighters and police officers. In fact, women today are found in nearly every field of work. Nursing has been left behind, as women move on to jobs with higher pay and greater status(地位). A woman or man in the nursing field is often looked down upon as “just a nurse”. Teachers may be also at fault. Many high school students are actually being steered(劝导) away from nursing, told by teachers that they are “too bright to be a nurse”.

Americans are living longer than ever and requiring more medical attention. In fact, the number of elderly patients has almost doubled in the past twenty years. Obviously a larger population requires more nurses. AIDS and other diseases have caused more and more people to need nursing care. Usually fatal diseases mean long hospital stay, that is to say, more nurses are needed to care for these patients. It is estimated that the demand for nurses will be doubled the supply in the coming ten years.

63. Why is America facing its worst nurse shortage?

A. Because American health conditions are becoming worse and worse.

B. Because more and more women prefer to be teachers and doctors.

C. Because women have been provided with many different jobs.

D. Because women no longer choose to be nurses.

64. The passage tells us that high school teachers are at fault for ___________.

A. not mentioning the worst nurse shortage in the US

B. introducing jobs with higher pay and greater status to their students

C. not asking the government to raise the nurses’ payment

D. persuading the students not to be nurses

65. The author wrote this passage in order to __________.

A. describe the unequal treatment of women in the US

B. warn people to pay more attention to the nursing problem

C. tell us women’s free choice of jobs today

D. call on women not to be nurses

66. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. High school students think themselves too bright to be nurses.

B. Women in the US have greater career choice than those in other countries.

C. Of all the hospitals in the world 60 percent more nurses are badly needed.

D. Nursing used to be a popular job among women.

B

For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   

45．Which is the main idea of this passage?

       A．Opera is famous for its long history.          

       B．Opera is only performed for rich people.

       C．Young people are not interested in opera.     

       D．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.

46．The underlined phrase “loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes” (paragraph 2) means ______.

       A．breaking up the old rules B．changing the formal suits

       C．making the audience at ease    D．advertising themselves

47．The San Francisco Opera Company employs student actors in order to ______.

       A．celebrate its 75th anniversary  B．reduce the cost

       C．attract young people D．make Cinderella popular

48．From the passage we can infer that ______.

       A．the tickets for operas are very expensive      

       B．operas are performed in a difficult language

       C．operas are not so popular an art form today  

       D．students enjoy performing operas very much