53. The underlined word “them”(Paragraph 3) most probably refers to _____.

A. heart attacks　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. back problems　

C. famous joggers　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. physical weaknesses

52. From the first paragraph, we learn that in the writer’s neighborhood ______.

A. jogging became very popular　　

B. people jogged only during the daytime

C. Alex organized an army of joggers

D. jogging provided a chance to get together

55. How does the author feel about his childhood?

　 A. Happy but short.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　B. Lonely but memorable.

　 C. Boring and meaningless.　　 　　　　　　　 　　　　D. Long and unforgettable.

答案　 52.A　 53.D　 54.B　 55.A

Passage 23

(08·浙江D篇)

For a while, my neighborhood was taken over by an army of joggers(慢跑者). They were there all the time: early morning, noon, and evening. There were little old ladies in gray sweats, young couples in Adidas shoes, middle-aged men with red faces. “Come on!” My friend Alex encouraged me to join him as he jogged by my house every evening. “You’ll feel great.”

　　 Well, I had nothing against feeling great and if Alex could jog every day, anyone could. So I took up jogging seriously and gave it a good two months of my life, and not a day more. Based on my experience, jogging is the most overvalued form of exercise around, and judging from the number of the people who left our neighborhood jogging army, I’m not alone in my opinion.

　 First of all, jogging is very hard on the body. Your legs and feet take a real pounding(重击)running down a road for two or three miles. I developed foot, leg, and back problems. Then I read about a nationally famous jogger who died of a heart attack while jogging, and I had something else to worry about. Jogging doesn’t kill hundreds of people, but if you have any physical weaknesses, jogging will surely bring them out, as they did with me.

　 Secondly, I got no enjoyment out of jogging. Putting one foot in front of the other for forty-five minutes isn’t my idea of fun. Jogging is also a lonely pastime. Some joggers say, “I love being out there with just my thoughts.” Well, my thoughts began to bore me, and most of them were on how much my legs hurt.

　　 And how could I enjoy something that brought me pain? And that wasn’t just the first week;it was practically every day for two months. I never got past the pain level, and pain isn’t fun. What a cruel way to do it! So many other exercises, including walking, lead to almost the same results painlessly, so why jog?

　 I don’t jog any more, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m walking two miles three times a week at a fast pace, and that feels good. I bicycle to work when the weather is good. I’m getting exercise, and I’m enjoying it at the same time. I could never say the same for jogging, and I’ve found a lot of better ways to stay in shape.

54. The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.

　 A. calm　　　　　　 　 　　　B. doubtful　　　　　　 　　C. serious　　　　　　　 　　 D. optimistic

53. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

　 A. The activities in the woods were well planned.

　 B. Human history is not the result of exploration.

　 C. Exploration should be a systematic activity.

　 D. The author explored in the woods aimlessly.

52. The author and his friends were often out in the woods to _______.

　 A. spend their free time　　　　　　　　　　　　 　 　　　B. play golf and other sports

　 C. avoid doing their schoolwork　　　　　　 　 　　　D. keep away from their parents

44. We can infer from the passage that 　　　　　.

A. experiencing the Canyon on mules would be the best way

B. one needs to dress less when visiting the Grand Canyon

C. the writer was not serious when she made the suggestion

D. the whole family narrowly escaped from the air accident

答案　 41.C　 42.A　 43.A　 44.C

Passage 22

(08·天津E篇)

As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.

We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Indian burial mound.

Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly-tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.

It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us had reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence(青春期). In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that we really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.

43. Which of the following best describes their Canyon trip by air?

A. It proved to be frightening.　　 　　　　　　　　　 B. It was more comfortable.

C. It turned out to be exciting.　　　 　　　　　　　　 D. It made each of them tired.

42. The underlined expression “our legs were like jelly” probably means 　　　　.

A. we were weak　　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. we were unhappy　　

C. we were dissatisfied　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. we were disappointed

41. Which of the following is TRUE according to the second paragraph?

A. They made a careful preparation before the trip.

B. The children were more joyful than their parents.

C. Bright Angel Trail was not as lovely as they expected.

D. The summer heat prevented them from enjoying the view.