(福建省厦门双十中学09届高三热身考试A篇)

For millions of people, the American dream of owning a home seems to be slipping out of reach.

    “Maybe young couples can no longer afford to buy a ready-made house as their parents did,’’ says 40-year-old building instructor Pat Hennin. “But they can still have a home. Like their pioneer ancestors, they can build it themselves, and at less than half the cost of a ready-made house.”

    The owner-builders came from every occupational group, although surprisingly few are professional building workers. Many take the plunge with little or no experience. “I learned how to build my house from reading books,” says John Brown, who built a six-room home for $25, 000 in High Falls, New Jersey. “If you have patience and the carpentry（木匠）skill to make a bookcase, you can build a house.” An astonishing 50 percent of these owner builders hammer every nail, 1ay every pipe, and wire every switch with their own hands. The rest contract（承包）for some parts of the task. But even those who just act as contractors and finish the insides of their homes can save from 30 percent to 45 percent of what a ready-made home would cost.

    One survey revealed that 60 percent of owner-builders also design their homes. Many others buy commercial house plans for less than $100 or use plans available from the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

56．What does the passage mainly tell us?

    A．The cost of having a house built.

    B．The American dream of owning a house.

    C．The life of owner-builders in America.

       D．A comparison between young couples and their parents.

57．It can be inferred from the passage that many Americans find it difficult to         .

    A．build a house                                      B．find a ready-made house

    C．have a good job                                   D．buy a house

58．The underlined phrase “take the plunge” in paragraph 3 most probably means “         .”

    A．decide to build a house                             B．decide to pull down a house

    C．decide to buy a house                             D．decide to rent a house

59．From the passage we learn that           .

    A．Many house plans are offered free of charge.

    B．Most of the house plans arc offered by building instructors.

    C．Most of the owner-builders design their homes.

D．Fifty percent of the American young couples build houses.

 (福建省厦门双十中学09届高三热身考试C篇)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The United States federal government had two young men in the state of Tennessee arrested on October 22 on unknown charges.

In court documents published on Monday, it came to light that the men had discussed attacking an African-American school and killing 14 of them.

Another crime was about planning to murder Presidential candidate Barack Obama. According to their affidavits（口供）, the suspects’ “final act of violence” would be when they attacked Obama while wearing white suits and top hats and driving “their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”

The two suspects are Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Arkansas and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee. According to the court papers, they met last month over the Internet through a friend. Schlesselman and Cowart are believed to share “very strong views” about White Power.

Schlesselman listed “being racist” as his occupation on his Myspace page. He further wrote: “I’m white. I’m proud. I get angry. I like guns.”

Cowart also had a Myspace page on which photos of guns were presented under a heading of “My Guns”. On his page he wrote, “Better to die quick fighting on your feet than to live forever begging on your knees.”

Some have questioned the pair’s ability to carry out the charged plan, but authorities have been very concerned about Obama as the first black presidential candidate from a major party.

“We honestly don’t know if they had the ability or the skill to carry out the kind of plan that they talked about,” said Malcolm Wiley, of the United States Secret Service in an interview with The New York Times. “But we take any threat seriously no matter how big or how small it is.”

Cowart and schlesselman are scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursday.

64.   The passage is mainly about _______.

       A. Americans’ attitudes towards Barack Obama

       B. two young men planning to commit violence

       C. the violence in the United States

       D. the disadvantages of the Internet

65. From the passage, we can know that the two young men _______.

       A. shot 14 students in an African-American school

       B. came from the state of Tennessee

       C. were proud of Barack Obama

       D. have not been sentenced yet

66.   Which of the following shows the right order of the events?

       a. The two suspects were arrested.

       b. The two suspects will be tried in the court.

       c. Cowart set up his MySpace page on the Internet.

       d. Malcolm Wiley was interviewed by The New York Times.

       A. a; b; c; d                  B. d; c; b; a                  C. c; a; d; b                  D. c; a; b; d

67.   What can we infer from the news?

       A. The two young men strongly believed that the president should be a white man.

       B. Most of the white people in the United States don’t like Barack Obama.

       C. The two young men planned to shoot President Barack Obama.

       D. The two young men were innocent in fact.

 (福建省厦门双十中学09届高三热身考试B篇)

They have appeared on clothes labels for four decades, each one chosen by international experts for its simplicity and clarity. Yet for most people, washing instructions might as well be written in Martian.

According to a new poll, 9 in 10 people are unable to understand common symbols used on clothes labels. Even those who have mastered the difference between a wool and a synthetics (合成纤维织物) wash admit being puzzled by the boxes, circles and crosses used to give advice about drying and bleaching (漂白).

The findings come from a poll of 2,000 people carried out by YouGov for Morphy Richards. A third of the people surveyed said that they recognized none of the six symbols shown, while the only symbol recognized by more than half of the people was the iron with a single dot. Around 70 per cent knew it meant “iron on a low heat”. Just 10 per cent knew the sign for “do not dry clean”, while only 12 per cent were familiar with “drip dry only”.

Despite the sexual revolution, women are stir more knowledgeable than men. Awareness was highest among 18- to 29-year-old women, for whom taking care of clothes is clearly important.

Chris Lever, from Morphy Richards, said, “Clothes Care symbols are a unique language, clearly a language that few people in the UK have taken the time to learn.”

“Learning the basics such as which icon represents tumble dry (滚动热干) and which represents normal wash would go a long way to getting the best out of clothes.”

The Home Laundering Consultative Council, which promotes symbols, said it was not surprised to learn that people were unfamiliar with them. “It’s disappointing that there is a lack of recognition, but it’s a story that’s repeated time and time again,” said a spokesman, Adam Mansell. “We are a small organization and we don’t have a big budget.”

60．Why are these six washing symbols chosen by international experts?

A．Because people in the UK are interested in them.

B．Because they are simple and clear.

C．Because it’s a long way to getting the best out of clothes.

D．Because they are a unique language.

61．Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?

A．Clothes care symbols have appeared on clothes labels for forty years.

B．Few people in the UK have taken the time to learn about clothes care symbols.

C．A third of the people surveyed said that they recognized the six symbols shown.

D．Women have a better knowledge of the common symbols used on clothes labels than men.

62．Which symbol did most of people recognize according to the survey?

63．By the underlined part in the first paragraph “for most people, washing instructions might as well be written in Martian”, the author means __________.

  A．the washing instructions are written in Martian

B．most people can understand the washing instructions

C．most people can understand the instructions if they are written in Martian

D．most people think it impossible to understand the washing instructions