55. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Attitude and Gratitude. B. The Girl and I.
C. Be Happy. D. The Earring.
第Ⅱ卷 （非机读卷 共50分）
请根据所听到的独白内容和表格中的提示词语，将所缺的关键信息填写在下面的表格中。（独白读三遍）
54. Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A. The writer made a list of 75 things he was thankful to.
B. The writer’s wife has been his best friend for 15 years.
C. The writer has lived in Seattle since 20 years ago.
D. The writer did the training for 200 hospital workers.
53. The word gratitude means being ________.
A. thankful B. open C. careful D. kind
52. What does the underlined word it mean?
A. To make a list of things he was thankful to
B. The words “BE HAPPY”
C. To forget that his life became so hard
D. The special earring the girl gave to the writer
At first it was hard, then it got easier. One day I decided to up it to 75. That night there was a phone call for me, asking if I would do a one-day training for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the job.
My day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing welcome and many more days of work. To this day I KNOW that it was because I changed my attitude (态度) to gratitude.
By chance, the day after I found the earring the girl asked me if anyone had looked for it. I told her no and she said “I guess it was meant for you then.”
I spent the next year doing training workshops all around the Seattle area and then decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived before. I closed my one man business and bought a plane ticket. One month later I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now. We live in a small beautiful house in Scotland.
‘THE ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE’ has been my motto (座右铭) for years now and yes, it completely changed my life.
51. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Europe’s farmers will become much richer because of higher prices.
B. The higher food prices may harm the world’s growth and safety.
C. The food supply problem will disappear soon in the poorest countries.
D. We need buy and store much food for the future at the moment.
C
Around twenty years ago I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could not find a satisfying job and I found this especially difficult as I had a lot of experience and a Master’s degree.
To my shame I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends. I had been through five interviews with a company and one day between bus runs they called to say I did not get the job.
Later that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet neighborhood I had an internal (inside) wave ― like a scream (尖叫) ― come up from deep inside me and I thought “Why has my life become so hard?”
Immediately after this internal scream I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl and as she passed she handed me an earring saying I should keep it in case somebody looked for it. The earring was stamped with words ‘BE HAPPY’.
At first I got angry. Then it hit me. I had been putting all of my energies into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I decided then and there to make a list of 50 things I was thankful to.
50. In most Chinese families, ______ percent of the home spending is on food.
A. 10 B. 20 C. 30 D. 70
49. Which is NOT the cause of food price rises?
A. Developed countries need crops for biofuels.
B. Urbanization uses more farming land.
C. Bad weather makes less food production.
D. The farmers don’t like to grow rice.
48. What worldwide problem is the passage talking about?
A. There’re food riots in nine countries.
B. 24 people have been killed since February.
C. There’s no enough food for millions of people.
D. Industrialization make people give up rice growing
47. The number of people who download music files to their computers is about ______ million.
A. 5 B. 10 C. 20 D. 25
B
A worldwide food shortage is getting more and more serious for the lives of millions.
The period of cheap food is over. In Cameroon, 24 people have been killed in food riots (暴乱) since February. In the past month, there have been food riots in eight other countries.
Ban Ki-Moon said that higher food prices risked (冒险) sweeping away progress towards solving poverty (being poor) problems and could harm the world’s growth and safety.
WHAT CAUSED THE PRICE RISES?
The rise in the price of crops may result from many things. For example, the sudden need of food crops for use in biofuels (生物燃料), in both Europe and the United States. The rice-growing land in countries such as the Philippines is being lost to industrialization and urbanization (城市化), while the growing need for meat and dairy products is leading farmers to give up rice growing. Flooding and cold weather in rice-producing countries have also hit production.
WHO IS WORST INFLUENCED?
The food price rise hits the poor hardest. Food makes up about 10 to 20 percent of home spending in developed countries, but as much as 60 to 80 per cent in developing countries.
The World Food Programme has warned that we could be living in a world of food supply imbalances (不平衡) until 2010 at least.
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
In the short term, farmers in the developed world are likely to be attracted (吸引) by high prices and try to grow more crops. The signs are that Europe’s farmers will grow 13 per cent more crops this year.
In the developing world, things are less certain, because the poorest in Africa and India have been selling their tools and their animals just to buy food.
For the poorest, recovery (恢复) is more difficult and help will be needed. The balance will finally be repaired --- nearly half of the world’s possible farming land is unused.