第二部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

Alice always wanted to be a singer. Music was the most important thing in her life and, to tell you the truth, she took lessons for years, and practised every day, but in spite of all this, her voice didn’t improve. Honestly, it didn’t get better, it just got louder.

Her teacher finally gave up and stopped the lessons, but Alice refused（拒绝）to give in, and one day she decided to give a concert and invited her teacher to attend.

The teacher was very worried about what to say after the concert. She knew it would be terrible and it was. She didn’t want to tell a lie, but she didn’t want to hurt Alice’s feelings, either. Finally, she got an idea and went backstage (后台) to greet her pupil.

“Well,” said Alice, “what did you think of my singing?”

“My dear,” said the teacher, “you’ll never be better than you were tonight.”

46. Alice wanted to be a singer because she       .

  A. was good at singing

B. could do nothing but sing

  C. had a good teacher

D. was most interested in music

47. Alice’s teacher stopped the lessons because     .

  A. Alice didn’t make any improvement in singing

  B. Alice’s voice became louder and louder

  C. Alice didn’t work hard enough

  D. Alice was so proud and wouldn’t listen to her

48. What made Alice decide to give a concert?

  A. She wanted to prove that her teacher was wrong.

  B. She wanted to please her teacher.

  C. She was sure that she could sing beautifully.

  D. Somebody else wanted her to do so.

49. What is really meant by saying “You’ll never be better than you were tonight.”?

  A. You gave a wonderful concert tonight.

  B. You won’t make any improvement in future.

  C. You have never sung so well before.

  D. You did much better before than tonight.

How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know? Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease? These days that’s more than an academic question, as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.

There are now more than a thousand genetic（基因的）tests, for everything from baldness to breast cancer, and the list is growing. Question is, do you really want to know what might eventually kill you? For instance, Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’（老年痴呆症）.

“If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease, that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious, through which you see the rest of your life as you wait for that disease to hit you. It could really mess you up.” Said Dr. Robert Green, a Harvard geneticist.

“Every ache and pain,” Smith suggested, could be understood as “the beginning of the end.”“That ’s right. If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, then every time you can’t find your car in the parking lot, you think the disease has started.”

Dr. Green has been thinking about this issue for years. He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s. It was thought that people who got bad news would, for lack of a better medical term, freak out. But Green and his team found that there was“no significant difference”between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives. In fact, most people think they can handle it. People who ask for the information usually can handle the information, good or bad, said Green.

71.The first paragraph is meant to__________.

A. ask some questions                        B. introduce the topic

C. satisfy readers’ curiosity                 D. describe an academic fact

【答案】B

【解析】通过两个问题引出话题。

72.Which of the following is true of James Watson？

A. He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.

B. He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.

C. He believes genetic mapping can help cure any disease.

D. He doesn’t want to know his chance of getting a disease.

【答案】D

【解析】根据第二段Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson, one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for Alzheimer’。“James Watson要求如果他的基因表明他有很高的老年痴呆症的可能不要告诉他。”

73.According to Paragraphs 3 and 4, if a person is at a higher genetic risk, it is__________.

A. advisable not to let him know          B. impossible to hide his disease

C. better to inform him immediately      D. necessary to remove his anxiety

【答案】A

【解析】根据这两个自然段可知，如果你提前被告知你将来可能患某种可怕的疾病会mess you up。

74.The underlined part“freak out”in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to“_________”.

A. break down                     B. drop out            C. leave off            D. turn away

【答案】A

【解析】根据下文But的转折，以及no significant difference可知，freak out的意思是A（精神垮掉）。

75.The study led by Dr. Green indicates that people__________.

A. prefer to hear good news         B. tend to find out the truth

C. can accept some bad news              D. have the right to be informed

【答案】C

【解析】根据第五段内容 In fact, most people think they can handle it可知答案选C.

II 语言知识及应用(共两节，满分35分)

第一节  完形填空(共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分)

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从21—30各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Flying like a bird has been the dream of humans since ancient times. Last week a group of modern birdmen put their courage on their wings and __21__ gravity in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

“Yes, you can buy a ticket and fly to another city. But running with your own wings and feeling your feet ready to __22__ is totally different,” Dong Fang, a middle school student in Hangzhou who __23__ a home-made aircraft competition, said in an excited voice. __24__ by the International Bognor Birdman Competition in the UK, the competition in Hangzhou was a similar event. The Bognor Birdman competition started in 1971 in the England coastal city Bognor. People ran off the end of a pier (码头) with their own aircraft in a(n) __25__ to “fly” the farthest distance.

In the competition, a teacher called Ni was amazed to see how imaginative the students were.  He was surprised to see his students create 10 different aircrafts with all kinds of material __ 26__ in the past month. “We’d rather call ourselves dreamers __27__ pilots because whether our wings really leave the ground, our dream really flies,” said Dong Fang.

Jing Yuchen and his team named their plane “Weiming E”, which __28__ an unknown goose. The 17-year-old boy deeply believes their goose of steel pipe and sailcloth will honour its name by successfully making it fly.

“Our work is much more imaginative than others. With several colourful balloons on its back and a pair of light plastic wings, it is __29__ the most eye-catching work, if not the best,” said Yu Liang, another student.

“Although most of those home-made aircrafts cannot really take the boys flying, the boys’ braveness and __30__ in this project will encourage every one of them to fly high in the future,” Ni said.

21. A. challenged              B. struggled                        C. abandoned               D. observed

22. A. take on               B. take up                            C. take off                           D. take in

23. A. joined                     B. participated                       C. took part in                   D. attended

24. A. Promoted                B. Inspired                          C. Advocated                D. Blamed

25. A. range                        B. group                         C. attempt                          D. way

26. A. available                  B. unique                        C. visible                         D. responsible

27. A. as well as                B. other than                      C. but for                        D. instead of

28. A. declares                       B. means                        C. reflects                           D. causes

29. A. accidentally       B. surely                         C. barely                         D. simply

30. A. exploration        B. perseverance                C. creativity                        D. determination