“Old wives tales” are beliefs passed down from one generation to another, For example, most of us remember our parents’ telling us to eat more of certain foods or not to do certain things. Is there any truth in these teachings? Some of them agree with present medical thinking, but others have not passed the test of time
Did your mother ever tell you to eat your carrots because they are good for your eyes? Scientists now report that eating carrots can help prevent a serious eye disease called macular degeneration. Eating just one carrot a day can reduce the possibility of getting this disease by 40%. Garlic(蒜)is good for you, too. It can kill the type of virus that causes colds.
Unfortunately, not all of Mom’s advice passed the test of medical studies. For example, generations of children have been told not to go swimming within an hour after eating. But research suggests that there is no danger in doing so. Do sweets cause tooth problems? Well, yes and no. Sticky sweets made with grains tend to cause more problems than sweets made with simple sugars.
Even though science can tell us that some of our traditional beliefs don’t hold water, there is still a lot of truth in the old wives’ tales , After all, much of this knowledge has been accumulated (积累) from thousands of years of experience in family health care. We should respect this body of knowledge even as we search for clear scientific support to prove it true or false.
73. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A. Eating garlic is good for our eyes   
B. Sticky sweets are damaging to our teeth.
C. Swimming after a meal is dangerous
D. Carrots prevent people from catching colds
74. The author develops the third paragraph mainly_______.
A. by cause and effect      B. by order in space 
C. by order in time           D. by examples
75. The phrase “ hold water” in the last paragraph most probably means “_______”.
A. to be believable       B. to be valuable  
C. to be admirable       D. to be suitable
76. What is the author’s attitude toward “ old wives’ tale” in the text?
A. Subjective(主观的)  B. Objective（客观的） C. Dissatisfied   D. Curious

 Teaching year after year, he gradually_______much experience.

A. calculated        B. accumulated

C. abandoned       D. appointed

Lead（铅） deposits, which accumulated（增加） in soil and snow during the 1960's and 70's, were primarily the result of leaded gasoline emissions originating in the United States. In the twenty years that the Clean Air Act has mandated（托管） unleaded gas use in the United States, the lead accumulation world-wide has decreased greatly.
A study published recently in the journal Nature shows that air-borne leaded gas emissions from the United States were the leading contributor to the high concentration of lead in the snow in Greenland. The new study is a result of the continued research led by Dr. Charles Boutron, an expert on the impact of heavy metals on the environment at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. A study by Dr. Boutron published in 1991 showed that lead levels in arctic (北极的) snow were declining（减少）.
In his new study, Dr. Boutron found the ratios of the different forms of lead in the leaded gasoline used in the United States were different from the ratios of European, Asian and Canadian gasoline and thus enabled scientists to differentiate (分区) the lead sources. The dominant lead ratio found in Greenland snow matched that found in gasoline from the United States.
In a study published in the journal Ambio, scientists found that lead levels in soil in the North-eastern United States had decreased markedly since the introduction of unleaded gasoline. Many scientists had believed that the lead would stay in soil and snow for a longer period.
The authors of the Ambio study examined samples of the upper layers of soil taken from the same sites of 30 forest floors in New England, New York and Pennsylvania in 1980 and in 1990. The forest environment processed and redistributed (再分配)the lead faster than the scientists had expected. Scientists say both studies show that certain parts of the ecosystem (生态系统 ) respond rapidly to reductions in atmospheric pollution, but that these findings should not be used as a license to pollute.
1. The study published in the journal Nature indicates that ________.
A. the Clean Air Act has not produced the desired results
B. lead deposits in arctic snow are on the increase
C. lead will stay in soil and snow longer than expected
D. the US is the major source of lead pollution in arctic snow
2. Lead accumulation worldwide decreased significantly after the use of unleaded gas in the US ________.
A. was discouraged               B. was carried out by law
C. was forbidden by law           D. was introduced
3. How did scientists discover the source of lead pollution in Greenland?
A. By analyzing the data published in journals like Nature and Ambio.
B. By observing the lead accumulations in different parts of the arctic area.
C. By studying the chemical elements of soil and snow in Northeastern America.
D. By comparing the chemical compositions of leaded gasoline used in various countries.
4. The authors of the Ambio study have found that ________.
A forests get rid of lead pollution faster than expected
B. lead accumulations in forests are more difficult to deal with
C. lead deposits are widely distributed in the forests of the US
D. the upper layers of soil in forests are easily polluted by lead emissions
5. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that scientists ________.
A. are puzzled by the mystery of forest pollution
B. feel ease by the use of unleaded gasoline
C. still consider lead pollution a problem
D. lack enough means to combat lead pollution

Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists (语言学家) say, nearly half are likely to disappear this century. In fact, one falls out of use about every two weeks.
Some languages die out in an instant, at the death of the only surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual (双语的) cultures, as local tongues are edged out by the dominant (占主导地位的) language at school, in the marketplace and on television.
New research, supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, has found the five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly. They are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States.
K. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, US, said that more than half the languages had no written form and were vulnerable to loss and being forgotten." Their loss leaves no dictionary, no text, or no record of the accumulated knowledge and history of a disappeared culture.
Harrison and other researchers started their rescue project last year. They have been trying to identify and record endangered languages. They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involve hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammar and preparing children's readers in the obscure (逐渐没落的) language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families.
"These are probably languages that cannot be brought back, but at least we made records of them," said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, in Oregon, US.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly tell us?          

第二节完型填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上涂黑。
Every April, Tim Reilly writes a birthday card for his son Matthew and leaves it on the kitchen table. And every year, after a few days, he reluctantly （不情愿地） removes it   36   and puts it on top of the   37   that have accumulated since Matthew' s disappearance.
His bedroom   38   as it was when Matthew, aged 30, walked   39   of the family home. On top of the cupboard is a yellowing copy of the Radio Times pitifully  40   the day when he disappeared.
Matthew was living at his parents' house when he left to  41   his daily walk. He was a good - looking artist who,   42   from feeling the pressure that came with his unsteady, highly competitive career, had no  43   to walk out on his life, family and friends and  44   return.
"The day he left was the same as any other,"   45   Tim, speaking quietly. "He didn't say goodbye but that wasn't  46  . He went for a walk every day. " The police started an investigation seeking for him or, worse, his body, but nothing   47   up. At first Tim   48  . Matthew to return after a couple of days, but as the weeks turned into months, and then years, Tim' s optimism has sometimes become weaker although his  49   to find his son has not.
Last Sunday, Matthew would have turned 40. After his disappearance Tim used to buy  50
for Matthew' s birthday each year but  51   he decided to just write a card. Each one   52   a loving message that Tim, 86, hopes Matthew will one day read.
Tim went into Matthew' s bedroom every day to let in some air and just think about him. When his wife became ill, it was terrible. She   53   a horrible death with her last   54 ：Where is Matthew?
"If I could  55   to Matthew," said Tim, "I'd just tell him to come home. It doesn't matter that he’s been away so long, I just want him to come back and I always will. "
36．A．covered    B．wrapped   C．unopened  D．untouched
37．A．flowers     B．cakes C．letters       D．others
38．A．puts  B．keeps C．appears     D．remains
39．A．out    B．away C．off    D．over
40．A．mentioned       B．marked     C．dated D．printed
41．A．go     B．take   C．spend       D．cost
42．A．except      B．besides     C．apart D．but
43．A．way  B．method     C．interest     D．reason
44．A．seldom     B．hardly      C．never D．neither
45．A．remembers       B．recites      C．reminds    D．thinks
46．A．reasonable       B．unusual     C．responsible       D．necessary
47．A．showed     B．caught      C．started      D．turned
48．A．imagined  B．expected   C．desired     D．hoped
49．A．determinationB．assumption  C．consideration    D．identification
50．A．cards B．gifts  C．clothes      D．shoes
51．A．eventually B．occasionally     C．temporarily      D．especially
52．A．reads B．says   C．consists     D．contains
53．A．escaped    B．abolished  C．suffered    D．performed
54．A．question   B．sentence    C．intention   D．problem
55．A．turn  B．speak C．shout D．write