When Babbage was working at Cambridge, a new idea occurred to him. He wanted to construct a calculating machine to work out the solutions（解法）to maths problems not only with correctness but also with a speed beyond the power of any human mind. His machine could solve problems involving（涉及）long rows of figures in one continuous operation（运算）.

       In 1822 Babbage exhibited his invention and won a prize from the government. After that, he immediately started to work on a larger machine designed to solve more difficult problems. Although he received some money left by his father, the money was not enough to support his design. He wrote to the government about his plan and was given ￡2500 to start with, a sum worth much more in those days than it is now.

       Babbage continued his work in London for four years. Then his health broke down, and he had to take a long holiday abroad. When he returned to London in 1828, he was at the end of his resources. Many bills remained unpaid. His chief assistant and co-workers quarreled with him and left with many expensive tools. For one year no work was done. During this period, Babbage, whose mind was always active, suddenly thought of a completely new idea for the machine. He rushed to meet the government officials to explain his new idea. But this time, they were unwilling to help him. For eight years, they refused to say whether they wanted the machine or not, and their final answer was “No.”

       From 1828 to 1839, Babbage held the position of professor at Cambridge very successfully. But his greatest work was the unfinished calculating machine which stood covered in dust in his house. It was the beginning of the modern computer.

60．The machine Babbage designed would solve difficult maths problems _________.

      A．in one operation with few mistakes

       B．in more than one operation without any mistakes

       C．in more than one operation with slight mistakes

       D．in one operation without any mistakes

61．Babbage failed to continue his research work in 1828 mainly because _______.

      A．he was in poor health    B．he almost ran out of money

       C．his co-workers argued with him         D．he spent all his money on his bills

62．Babage explained his new idea to the government officials, expecting that _________.

      A．they would agree to his plan    B．they would pay for his new idea

       C．they would support him with money   D．they would exhibit his new design

63．From the passage, we can infer that __________.

      A．Babbage failed to be a famous scientist at Cambridge

       B．Babbage always had new ideas but gave them up easily

       C．Babbage always needed support from the government officials

       D．Babbage was the first designer of the modern computer

I grew up poor---living in the housing projects (住房) with six brothers, three sisters, a varying assortment (各式各样东西的混合) of foster kids (养子), my father, and a wonderful mother, Scarlette Hunley. We had little money and few worldly goods, but plenty of love and attention. I was  36  and energetic. I understood that no matter how poor a person was, he could still  37  a dream.
My dream was  38 . By the time I was sixteen, I could crush a baseball, and hit anything that moved on the baseball field. I was also  39 : My high school coach Jarvis, who not only believed in me, but taught me how to believe in myself. He  40  me the difference between having a dream and showing conviction (信念). One particular incident with Coach Jarvis changed my life forever.
It was the summer between my junior and senior years, and a friend  41  me for a summer job. This meant a chance for money in my pocket—cash for dates with girls, certainly, money for a new bike and new clothes, and the start of savings for a  42  for my mother. The prospect of a summer job was attractive and interesting, and I wanted to jump at the opportunity. Then I realized I would have to  43  summer baseball to handle the work schedule, and that meant I would have to tell Coach Jarvis I wouldn’t be playing.
When I told Coach Jarvis, he was  44  as I expected him to be. “You have your whole life to work，” he said. “Your  45  days are limited. You can’t afford to waste them.”
I stood before him with my head hanging, trying to think of the words that would explain to him why my dream of buying my mom a house and having money in my pocket was worth facing his  46  to me.
“How much are you going to make at this job, son?” He demanded. “3.5 dollars an hour.” I replied. “Well,” he asked, “Is $3.5 an hour the price of a dream?”
That question, the plainness of it, laid bare for me the difference between wanting something right now and having a goal. I dedicated myself to sports that summer and with the year I was hired by the Pittsburgh Pirates to play baseball, and was  47  a $20,000 contract. I signed with the Denver Broncos in 1998 for $1.7 million, and bought my mother the house of my dreams.

阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中的语法的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡标号为16—25的相应位置上。

    Last summer, I went to Hanwang, an area severely damaged during the Wenchuan earthquake. I visited some of the ____________(survive) and helped the local volunteers.

    At Hanwang, there were no tall buildings and the air was very dirty and people were crowded. I lived with volunteers _______all around China in makeshift (临时的) accommodation. They had been working there for more than six months, some giving up jobs to help with educating the kids. They never complained ________the poor conditions that I couldn’t bear at first. Rather, they were thankful to have the chance ______(rebuild) the damaged areas. I respected their work.

   My main task was to visit some of the children_____ charity organization was supporting. One of them was disabled, having broken a leg during the earthquake. A ________(poison) spider had bitten another girl while she __________(live)in a tent after the earthquake. She had had to endure (忍受) the transplant of a piece of skin from one leg to the other. These children had had terrible bad luck,____ ____ they were still full of hope despite the situation. Their grades were amazingly good, _______was one reason the charity group chose to help them. All the people I visited were grateful, not only for surviving but to the country for helping_________.

When building houses, people used to think about not only the climate of the areas but also the building materials and the fashions for their houses. However, since electricity became more and more expensive, people began to pay much more attention to the energy they could get for their houses and the new ways they could find to protect their houses from both cold and heat.

Now, houses of an old yet new type have been widely built. In some parts of the world, people share their houses with their livestock（家畜）.During cold weather, they gather their cows, goats, or other animals and keep them on the first floor of their houses. The reasons are that the animals can be protected from the cold and that they can help to heat the houses as well. The body heat given off by the animals rises to the second floor of the houses, where people live. By sharing their houses with their livestock, people gain a source of heat.

People who live in or near cities do not usually keep livestock. However, home builders use the fact that heat rises. This natural law can be used in building houses in these areas. Instead of keeping livestock on the first floor, builders fill it with large rocks. As they are open to the sun’s rays during cold weather, these rocks take in heat. They also give off the heat, and, of course, the warm air rises into the living areas of the houses. So these houses are energy-saving.

House-building becomes a great challenge（挑战）to building designers and energy engineers. They try to meet this challenge by learning from old traditions and by using modern technology. And someday in the future, people will be able to live in more energy-saving houses.

56．What did people begin to consider as electricity was no longer cheap?

      A．The climate of their areas.        B．The energy for their houses.

      C．The fashions for their houses.   D．The building materials for their houses.

57．People in some areas gain a source of heat by _________.

      A．keeping their livestock downstairs     

       B．protecting their livestock from the cold

       C．sharing their houses only with their cows       

       D．living on the second floor with their livestock

58．The underlined words “natural law” in the third paragraph refer to the fact that ________.

      A．heat raises the temperature in the houses

       B．heat goes in the upward direction

       C．heat goes up if temperature is raised

       D．heat increases the temperature of rocks

59．From the passage, we can conclude that __________.

      A．people will no longer consider building materials in the future

       B．energy-saving buildings will become more popular in the future

       C．almost all people will move into the houses heated by large rocks

       D．energy engineers will devote themselves only to modern technology

People of Burlington are being disturbed by the sound of bells. Four students from Burlington College of Higher Education are in the bell tower of the  1  and have made up their minds to  2  the bells nonstop for two weeks as a protest against heavy trucks which run   3  through the narrow High Street. “They not only make it  4  to sleep at night, but they are doing damage to our houses and shops of historical  5  , ”said John Norris, one of the protestors.

“If we must have these noisy trucks on the roads, ” said Jean Lacey, a biology student, “why don’t they build a new road that goes round the town?  Burlington isn’t much more than a  6  village. Its streets were never  7  for heavy traffic. ”

Harry Fields also studying  8  said they wanted to make as much  9  as possible to force the government officials to realize what everybody was having to  10  . “Most of them don’t  11  here anyway, ” he said, “they come for meetings and the Town Hall is soundproof, so they probably don’t  12  . It is high time they realized the problem. ” The fourth student, Liza Vernum, said she thought the public were mostly on their side, and even if they weren’t, they soon would be.

 I asked if they were  13  that the police might come to stop them.

“Not really, ” she said, “actually we are  14  bell ringers. I mean we are assistant bell ringers for the church. There is no law against practising. ”

I  15   the church with the sound of the bells ringing in my ears.

1. A. college       B. village      C. town     D. church

2. A. change        B. repair       C. ring        D. shake

3. A. now and then              B. day and night

C. up and down                  D. over and over

4. A. terrible                      B. difficult

C. uncomfortable                    D. unpleasant

5. A. scene                        B. period

C. interest                         D. sense

6. A. pretty                           B. quite

C. large                            D. modern

7. A. tested            B. meant        C. kept        D. used

8. A. chemistry                 B. geography

C. biology                          D. education

9. A. effort            B. time        C. trouble       D. noise

10. A. stand   B. accept       C. know     D. share

11. A. shop     B. live         C. come     D. study

12. A. notice                       B. mention

C. fear                             D. control

13. A. surprised                    B. afraid

C. pleased                          D. determined

14. A. proper                       B. experienced

C. hopeful                          D. serious

15. A. left         B. found        C. reached      D. passed