Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves, and that it strains our nerves when we try to get things done perfectly. In building bridges, American engineers calculate so finely and exactly as to make the two ends come together within one-tenth of an inch. But when two Chinese begin to dig a tunnel from both sides of a mountain both come out on the other side. --The Chinese’s firm belief is that it doesn’t matter so long as a tunnel is dug through, and if we have two instead of one, why, we have a double track to boot.

　　The pace of modern industrial life forbids this kind of glorious and magnificent idling. But, worse than that, it imposes upon us a different conception of time as measured by the clock and eventually turns the human being into a clock himself. (This sort of thing is bound to come to China, as is evident, for instance, in the case of a factory of twenty thousand workers. The luxurious prospect of twenty thousand workers coming in at their own sweet pleasure at all hours is, of course, somewhat terrifying.)Nevertheless, such efficiency is what makes life so hard and full of excitement. A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already. Every American adult is arranging his time on the pattern of the schoolboy - three o’clock for this, five o’clock for that, six-thirty for change of dress, six-fifty for entering the taxi, and seven o’clock for arriving at the destination. It just makes life not worth living.

1.The writer objects to efficiency mainly on the grounds that it ____.

　　 A. gives us rights to have too much leisure time

　　 B. urges us to get things done punctually

　　 C. robs us of leisure time

　　 D. imposes on us a perfect concept of time

2. In the eyes of the author, the introduction of industrial life gives rise to ____.

　　 A. the excitement of life

　　 B. magnificent idling of time

　　 C. more emphasis on efficiency

　　 D. terrifying schoolboy

3.The passage tells us ____.

　　 A. Chinese workers come to work when it is convenient

　　 B. all Americans are forced to be efficient against their will

　　 C. Chinese engineers are on better terms with the management

　　 D. Americans ought not to work so hard for efficiency

4. The author believes that relaxing the rule of punctuality in factories would lead to ____.

　　 A. great trouble                       B. increased production

　　 C. a hard and exciting life                D. successful completion of a tunnel

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
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Researchers who helped discover a new species of Mexican butterfly are offering to sell the naming rights to raise money to fund more research. Co-discoverer Andrew Warren is hoping to raise at least $50,000 by auctioning(拍卖) off the rights to name the 4-inch “owl eye” butterfly, which lives in Sonora, a Mexican state bordering Arizona.
“That would support at least two years of research for our team down in Mexico,” Warren said. “Money goes a long way down here in Mexico.”
According to the scientific tradition, discoverers of a new species have the say in naming it. In recent years, some discoverers have auctioned off their naming rights to raise money.
Warren said the amount being sought for the butterfly is not out of the question, noting that naming rights for a new monkey species brought in $650,000 two years ago. A group of 10 new fish species that went on the naming auction block at the same time earlier this year brought in a total of $2 million.
The butterfly discovered by Warren and researcher George Austin ranges as far north as Mexico.
The butterfly was actually in a collection, misidentified as an example of another new species, at the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of National History in Gainesville, said Warren. They soon began the hard process of determining that it was indeed a “new” model of butterfly.
After checking photos and comparing it with other known species, they determined it was a separate species.
【小题1】Where did the researchers discover the new species of butterflies?

According to an old story, a farmer once found that a bag of corn had been stolen from his house. He went to the judge and told him about his loss. The judge ordered all the people of the farm to come before him. He took a number of sticks of equal length and gave one stick to each man.

　 He then said, “Come before me again tomorrow. I shall then know which of you is the thief because the stick given to the thief will be one inch longer than the others.”

　 The thief was afraid of being found out, and so he cut an inch off his stick. The next day the thief’s stick was found to be one inch shorter than any of the others. In this way the thief was found out, and was at once taken away to prison.

1.The judge gave each man a stick _______.

A. to change back the farmer’s corn

B. to beat the thief

C. as a tool to find out the thief

D. so as to play a game together

2.Since the thief cut the stick short, ________.

A. he was found out

B. the judge couldn’t catch him

C. his stick had an equal length with the others’

D. his stick wouldn’t be any longer

3.The wise way the judge found out the thief in the end was to make ______.

A. the thief cut the stick off

B. the thief cut an inch off the stick

C. the stick grow an inch longer

D. the other’s sticks would become one inch shorter

It was 4 o'clock in the morning, when I received the phone call.

“This is the emergency room calling and your son was just   36  in with severe burns on his face, neck and arms. We have called for a(n)  37  and are going to fly him to the burn unit in Seattle.” Seattle was 350 miles from his college, so we knew immediately this was  38  . The doctor described the  39 , which caused the burns. At 6 am, our son and his friends decided to barbecue hamburgers in the courtyard of their apartment. When they   40  the charcoal(木炭),it burst into flames because they had sprayed too much gasoline(petrol).The flames  41  my son’s shirt tail and shot from his waist to well over his head.

  42 , one of the boys was quick-minded, grasped my son, and  43  him on the grass. While it saved his life, it was not in  44   to save him from severe burns and the terrible scars(伤疤).

After he  45  from the treatments, the doctors told him they would not do plastic surgery(整容)for 6 months  46  it takes that long for the skin to stop shrinking and wrinkling. So, he had to return to college with scars typical of severe burns.

When I was a child, my mother told my sister, who had a 10-inch very  47  scar on her arm, “Nancy, if you ignore the scar, other people will ignore it. It does not mean they will not   48  it, but it means it will not matter to them if it doesn’t matter to you.”

I   49   this wisdom on to my son. He took my advice to  50   and returned to school with his head held high--glad he was alive.

By the end of the six-month waiting period, he decided that the scars did not  51 . So he made the  52   to give up any plastic surgery. We all have “scars” that we believe  53  people to keep away from us. And we spend a lot of time thinking that if only we looked differently, or dressed differently, people would like us better.  

But you see, people will only judge you by your looks, or your clothes, if you are judging yourself by these same  54  standards. Put your imperfections out of your mind and concentrate on what you value  55   yourself, and your beauty will shine through.

1.                A．brought        B．given           C．turned   D．showed

2.                A．doctor         B．hospital         C．aircraft   D．ambulance

3.                A．serious         B．terrible         C．dangerous D．important

4.                A．event          B．process         C．reason   D．accident

5.                A．got            B．lit             C．burned　　   D．moved

6.                A．took           B．held　　        C．caught 　　   D．attracted

7.                A．Fortunately      B．Surprisingly      C．Happily   D．Slowly

8.                A．Pushed         B．threw          C．dropped  D．rolled

9.                A．shape          B．place           C．fact  D．time

10.               A．benefited       B．recovered      C．suffered   D．relaxed

11.               A．if             B．while          C．because   D．although

12.               A．normal         B．violent         C．obvious   D．popular

13.               A．mention        B．notice          C．laugh D．hide

14.               A．sent           B．kept           C．handed   D．passed

15.               A．heart          B．life            C．practice   D．considerate

16.               A．grow          B．matter         C．exist  D．appeal

17.               A．mistake        B．effort          C．decision   D．request

18.               A．invite          B．cause          C．allow D．Remind

19.               A．false           B．strict           C．moral D．general

20.               A．by            B．over           C．beyond   D．within

　　The experiment needs fifty people divided into two groups of the same size． Group A is to take part in a 7-week exercise, while Group B is not allowed to do any exercise during those seven weeks． On the day before the experiment began, all fifty men took part in a step-test． They were told to step up and down on a 16-inch-long bench at 30 steps a minute for five minutes． After the test each man’s heart-beating was taken and recorded． Then during the seven weeks men in Group A rode a sort of bike-like exercise machine for 15 minutes a day． During the first day ride they were asked to ride very slowly． For the next three days, they were permitted to ride a bit more quickly． And the speed of riding was increased every few days until the end of the experiment, when both Group A and Group B were given the step-test again and the heart-beating was taken again, too． Heart-beating of Group A members was to have dropped to an average of 30 heart beats per minute while that of Group B members remained the same or almost unchanged．

1． How many people were in each group?

A． 100 B． 50 C．25 D． 15

2． The step-test was given ______．

A． after each exercise period

B． only once, at the beginning of the seven-week period

C． at the beginning and at the end of the seven-week period

D． twice to the men in Group A and once to the men in Group B

3． The exercise was planned so that the amount of quick riding _________．

A． increased every few days　　 B． changed every other day

C． increased every other day　　 D． increased every exercise period

4． What did Group A do in their experiment? They ______ ．

A． stepped up and down on a bench each day

B． pushed and pulled the bikes every day

C． were prevented from doing any exercise

D． rode on an exercise machine

5． It seemed that _______ during the whole experiment．

A． Group A did less exercise than Group B

B． Group B did less exercise than Group A　　

C． Group A did everything

D． Group B did nothing