72.What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?

A.The exercise of rights is a luxury.

B.The practice of choice is difficult.

C.The right of choice is given but at a price.

D.Choice and right exist at the same time.

67.The author develops the passage mainly by 　　　　.

A.providing typical examples

B.following the natural time order

paring opinions from different fields

D.presenting a cause and analyzing its effects

答案　 64.C　 65.D　 66.A　 67.D

Passage 47

(08·重庆E篇)

Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another.Choice,we are given to believe,is a right.But for a good many people in the world,in rich and poor countries,choice is a luxury,something wonderful but hard to get,not a right.And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices,the whole system is merely an illusion,a false idea created by companies and advertisers hoping to sell their products.

The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives.Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple.Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people,ending in the shopper giving up and walking away,or just buying an unsuitable item(商品) that is not really wanted.Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed.More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals,lifestyle instructors,or advisors.

It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem,but the speed with which new types of products come on the market.Advances in design and production help quicken the process.Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time.The typical example is computers,which are almost out-of-date once they are bought.This indeed makes selection a problem.Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing;no choice,no anxiety.

66.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A.Multitasking is harmful to young people’s development.

B.Young people benefit a lot from modern gadgets.

C.Multitasking is an important skill to young people.

D.Young people must learn skills for future jobs.

65.In Paragraph 3,the author points out that 　　　　.

A.family members do not eat at the family table

B.family members do not greet each other

C.young people live happily in their families

D.young people seldom talk with their family members

64.What does the underlined word “juggle” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

A.Want to buy.

B.Take the place of.

C.Use at the same time.

D.Seek for information from.

79.In the passage,the author calls on us to 　　　　.

A.slow down but not to stop economic growth

B.develop tree crops,grasses and wood products

C.achieve economic growth and political stability

D.act now so as to relieve the global food shortage

答案　 76.D　 77.A　 78.A　 79.D

Passage 46

(08·重庆C篇)

Being able to multitask-doing several things at the same time-is considered a welcome skill by most people.But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen,we should think again.

What we often see nowadays is that young people juggle an ever larger number of electronic devices(电子产品) as they study.While working,they also surf on the Internet,send out emails,answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods.In a sense,they are spending a significant amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.

Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members.As young people give so much attention to their own worlds,they seem to have no time to spend with the other people around them.They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house,nor can they eat at the family table.

Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace.When asked about their opinion of the effect of modern gadgets(器具) on their performance of tasks,many young people gave a positive response(反应).

However,the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive.Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills.They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills.Similarly,employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again,as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.

78.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A.A rain-collecting pond is a simple safeguard against dry weather.

B.A Climate Adaptation Fund has been established to help poor regions.

C.The world has made a serious promise to build farm ponds.

D.It makes a great difference whether we develop wood products or not.

77.With the second step,the author expresses the idea that 　　　　.

A.it is not wise to change food crops into gas

B.it is misleading to put tree crops into the gas tank

C.we should get alternative forms of fuel in any way

D.biofuels should be developed on a large scale

76.An international fund based on the Malawi model would 　　　　.

A.coat each of the developed countries $10 billion per year

B.aim to double the harvest in southern African countries in a year

C.decrease the food prices as well as the energy prices

D.give poor farmers access to fertilizer and highly productive seeds

75.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Many British teenagers do not know money matters well.

B.Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.

C.Financial planning is a required course at college.

D.Yong people should become responsible adults.

答案　 72.C　 73.C　 74.B　 75.A

Passage 45

(08·上海D篇)

The world economy has run into a brick wall.Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a potential hunger crisis in poor countries and an energy crisis worldwide,world leaders failed to think ahead.The result is a global food crisis.Wheat,corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years.And oil prices have increased more than three times since the start of 2004.These food-price increases,combined with increasing energy costs,will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even affect political stability.Practical solutions to these problems do exist,but we’ll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.

Here are three steps to ease the current food crisis and avoid the potential for a global crisis.The first is to promote the dramatic success of Malawi,a country in southern Africa,which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and seeds with high productivity.Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year.An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world,or $10 billion altogether.

Second,the U.S.and Europe should abandon their policies of paying partly for the change of food into biofuels.The U.S.government gives farmers a taxpayer-

financed payment of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol(乙醇) changed from corn.There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods-tree crops,grasses and wood products-but there’s no case for the government to pay to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank.

Third,we urgently need to weather-proof the world’s crops as soon and as effectively as possible.For a poor farmer,sometimes something as simple as a farm pond-which collects rainwater to be used in dry weather-can make the difference between a good harvest and a bad one.The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.