67.The winner of the election is usually declared _______.

　　 A. after the electors from each state vote for the president

　　 B. not long after the popular vote

　　 C. before the popular vote

　　 D. at the inaugural (就职)ceremony

66. When Mr. Bill Frist heard Mr. John Edwards' remarks, he was ____.

A. ashamed　　　　 　　　 B. bitter　　　　　 　　 C. angry　　　　　　 　 D. pitiless

D

　　 American voters went to the polls on November 2nd to elect a new president, who is also the chief executive of the US government and commander-in-chief of the US military.

　　 However, Americans do not vote directly for a presidential candidate. Instead, they choose the electors who represent them in choosing the president.

　　 In most states, the names of the electors do not. appear on the ballot (选票) at all. Instead, the ballot says that voters are selecting the "electors for". This is followed by the names of the candidates for office.

　　 The number of electoral votes in a state is equal to the number of senators (参议员) and House representatives (众议员) the state has. Each state has two senators. But, the number of House representatives a state has is based on the size of its population. So the number of electors varies from state to state. California, the largest state by population, has 55 electoral votes, while the sparsely populated Alaska has only 3. A majority of 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538 is needed for victory.

In most states, the winner of the popular vote (the total number of votes cast by people in a given state) gets all of the state's electoral votes. This is a "winner takes all" system.

The electors from each state meet and officially vote for the president and vice president on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of the election year. But, a winner is usually declared not long after the election, based on the popular vote.

This Electoral College system has been operating since 1788. It was established because some of the founding fathers wanted Congress to elect the president, while others wanted the president to be elected by popular vote. The system represents a compromise between these two desires.

65. Mr. John Edwards mentioned Christopher Reeve's death because he____.

A.　　 wanted more people to vote for John Kerry in the coming election

B.　　　 felt very sad and regrettable for the death of the great Superman actor

C.　　　 intended to open the way for stem cell research as soon as possible

D. thought it shameful for Mr. Frist to have misled the American people

64. The underlined word "hype" in the second paragraph means ____.

A. fact　　　　　　 B. truth　　　　　　 　 C. lie　　　　　　　 D. hope

63. According to what Mr. Bill Frist said, he could be a ____.

A. scientist　　　　 B. lawyer　　　　　 　 C. Republican　　　 　 D. doctor

62. From the passage we can conclude that _____ have the most possibility of suffering from a tsunami.

　 A. Hawaii and Paris　　　　　　　　　　　 　　 B. London and New York

　 C. Vancouver and Rome　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　 D. San Francisco and Tokyo

C

Vice( 副)presidential hopeful John'Edwards said that in a government under John Kerry "people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again", a day after the death of the paralysed (瘫痪的) Superman actor was announced. The Kerry team has repeatedly promised that it would allow stem cell (干细胞) research if in power, opening the way for possible cures for diseases. By contrast President George Bush has placed strict limitations on the use of the science.

Speaking in Iowa, Edwards said Reeve, who died on Sunday "was a powerful voice for the need to do stem cell research and change the lives of people like him". He said:

"If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again. " But Mr. Bill Frist, a Republican, called the remarks "shameful". He said "I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve. I think it is shameful-in order to mislead the American people. We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants nor trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype. And it is cruel to people who have disabilities and diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a person who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."

Edwards' campaign spokesman Mark Kornblau replied that under Mr. Bush such breakthroughs may never be possible. But the science could one day help find cures for Parkinson' s disease, juvenile diabetes and Alzheimer ' s disease. Reeve, who was paralysed in a horse riding accident nine years ago, had been central, in the campaign to increase funding stem cell research.

61. Most tsunamis are caused by ________.

　 A. giant slabs of the earth's crust

　 B. tectonic plates

　 C. earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which lift or drop part of the ocean floor

　 D. the movement of the huge body of water

60. What does the underlined word "oddly" mean, according to the article?

　 A. certainly　　 　　　　　　 B. strangely　　　 　　　　　　 C. interestingly　　　　 　　　　　　 D. simply

59. What's the main idea of the passage?

　 A. An introduction of tsunami.

　 B. Relations between a tsunami and a quake.

　 C. Human beings can't tame the tsunami.

　 D. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System was established in Hawaii.

58. According to the passage, the two scientists have been selected as the Nobel Prize winners mainly because

____.

A.　　 their working spirit inspired other scientists in the world

B.　　　 they chose to work on the basic biology of the sense of smell

C.　　　 they were the first to research on how many genes.might be related

D. their contributions helped to produce great benefit on mankind

B

This sea monster is a tsunami (tsoo-NAH-mee).That's Japanese for "great harbor wave." Though sometimes called "tidal waves," tsunamis have nothing to do with tides. Usually an undersea earthquake starts a tsunamis waves rolling across the ocean. If you've ever tossed a pebble into a pond, then watched ripples spread out over the surface, you've seen this principle at work.

About four out of five tsunamis happen within the "Ring of Fire," a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions roughly matching the borders of the Pacific Ocean. Along the ring's edges, giant slabs of the earth's crust, called tectonic plates, grind together. Sometimes the plates get stuck, and pressure builds. Then, the plates can suddenly come apart and slam into a new position. The jolt causes an earthquake. If an earthquake lifts or drops part of the ocean floor, the water above it starts moving too. This causes a tsunami.

　　 A tsunami can race across the ocean at 500 miles (805 kilometers) an hour. Oddly, in deep water its waves are only a few feet high. But when the waves approach shore, they increase in energy and height. Often before a tsunami hits, there is a giant vacuum(真空的) effect, and water is sucked from harbors and beaches. People see the bare sea bottom littered with flopping fish and stranded boats. That is because waves are made up of crests, or high points, and troughs, or dips between crests. When a trough hits land first, the water level drops drastically. Usually another wave blasts ashore about 15 minutes later, then another and another--for two hours or more.

Tsunamis have killed more than 50,000 people in the past century. To save lives, scientists established the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, based in Hawaii, in the U.S.A. Its network of earthquake detectors and tide gauges detects quakes that may cause a tsunami.

We can't tame the tsunami. But we can learn when it's coming and escape the sea monster's fury.