4、The English language is changing, and fast, thanks to the rapid progress of technology. We all have a choice: We can either bury our heads in the sand and spend the rest of our lives wishing Shakespeare were alive and well. Or we can embrace the new English, enter into the spirit of the Internet age and call it Weblish.

“You can' t avoid it , for the simple reason that whenever a new variety of lan?guage comes along , it inevitably impacts (冲击) on the language as a whole .” says Dr. David Crystal , honorary professor  of linguistics ( 语言学家 ) at the University of Wales in Bangor , whose book “Language and the Internet ” has just been published .

The trouble with keeping up with the new English is not so much that there are so many new words but that the old words no longer mean what we thought they did. In the past, if someone said they did not have Windows, you would have to suppose they lived in a cave .These days, it is probably because they use a Mac (which is a computer, not a raincoat). Spam is as disliked as it ever was, but whereas it once meant an unappetizing（引不起食欲的）canned meat , it now stands for unwanted “junk” e-mail. Spellings are changing, too. Not only is text-messaging playing “hvc wth vrbs”(havoc (混乱) with verbs) , but the conventions of e-mail communication place little emphasis on “perfect spelling .”

Weblish loves to see nouns happily become verbs (“Please bookmark this site”) , and verbs become nouns ( “Send me the download ”) . Verbs and prepositions are regularly thrown together to become new nouns or adjectives (dial-up, logon, print-out, pull- down ,upload ) ,while others are created from simply pairing nouns: cyberspace, Ethernet, Internet , hyperlink , metatag, netspeak.

1．The best title of this passage would be__________.

    A．Keep up with the latest weblish

   B．Keep up with the latest development in English      

   C．Newly-invented English words

   D．Technology and English

2．We can infer from the first paragraph that__________.

    A．some people wish Shakespeare were still alive

   B．people may have different attitudes towards weblish          

    C．all the people welcome weblish

    D．weblish causes fear among people

3．The third paragraph is mainly about__________.

    A．different meanings of English words

    B．the rapid changes of English words

    C．the difficulty in understanding words related to computer and the Internet

    D．the common words used on the Internet

4．Dr. David Crystal would probably agree that__________.

    A．people should not accept weblish

    B．weblish can cause misunderstandings among people

    C．weblish will destroy the English language

       D．people should know something about weblish

3、Women work harder than men at university and get better degrees as a result, according to a study carried out at Burnel University.

The research , which tracked 200 students over four years, found that women con sistently outperformed men  in further education  even though they  had started their courses with almost the same A—level results.

An analysis of the department's results showed that while 65 per cent of female graduates were awarded, only 35 per cent of males did that well.

Girls are known to outperform boys at school, but this research shows the trend continues at university.

Fiona Smith, the senior lecturer at Brunel who led the study, said , “The survey proved a previously held opinion wrong that the educational sex gap is purely a middle school phenomenon . "

It also makes the unfairness for working women in terms of pay .Women work harder at school, harder at university and do better in both, yet still receive less pay.      

The survey found that female students were harder working, less likely to miss lectures and more likely to believe their marks reflected their ability than their male competitors. Female students were also more likely to seek and receive support from teachers.

On the contrary , men were more likely than women to miss lectures due to “ la?ziness " and to believe that playing sport was an important part of university life.

Different from the popular argument that women's success is due to the in?creased emphasis on coursework, female geographers at Brunel did better in exams than in coursework, the research found.

The study, based on 180 questionnaires and interviews with more than 70 students, concluded that males underachieved because they felt working hard was not “macho”.

Dr Smith said, “Most women feel that getting good grades is the most important

part of university life .They believe they need to work harder in order to be able to compete in the male-controlled environment they will face at work : good grades are viewed as an “ insurance policy " for success .Men ,on the other hand , feel that it's not "macho" to work hard . They tend to put going out and playing sport higher than coursework.

1．The underlined word “It” in the sixth paragraph probably refers to________.

    A．the previously held opinion                   B．a middle school phenomenon

    C．the survey                                           D．the educational sex gap

2．The cause of women performing better at university than men is that ______ .

A．female students did better at school before entering university

    B．women will not find jobs unless working harder at university

    C．women get more help and support from the teachers

   D．most female students think good grades at university will benefit them in the future

3．The underlined word "macho" might have the same meaning as _______.

    A．proud            B．manly         C．brave              D．strong

4．Which of the following might be the best title of this passage?

    A．Women Outperform Men at University.

    B．Women Should Receive the Same Pay as Men.

    C．Males at University Perform too Badly.

       D．Females Do Better at School as Well as at University.

2、When the world was a simpler place, the rich were fat, the poor were thin, and right-thinking people worried about how to feed the hungry .Now, in much of the world, the rich are thin, the poor are fat, and right-thinking people are worrying about fatness.

Evolution (进化) is mostly to blame . It has designed mankind to deal with lack, not plenty. People are perfectly fit to store energy in good years to see them through lean ones. But when bad times  never come , they are stuck  with that energy , stored around their expanding bellies (腹部).

Thanks to rising agricultural productivity, lean years are rarer all over the globe. According to the UN , the number of people  short of food fell from 920m in 1980 to 799m 20 years later , even though the world 's population increased by 1.6 billion over the period . This is mostly a cause for celebration. Mankind has won what was, for most of his time  on this planet , his biggest battle: to ensure that he and his offspring（后代） had enough to eat . But every silver lining has a cloud , and the result of prosperity (繁荣) is a new trouble.

Fatness is the world 's biggest public-health topic today —the main cause of heart disease, which kills more people these days than AIDS, malaria, war, the major risk factor in diabetes (糖尿病) ; heavily connected with cancer and other diseases . Since the World Health Organization labeled fatness an "epidemic (流行病)" in 2000, re?ports on its fearful results have come thick and fast .

Will public-health warnings, combined with media pressure, persuade people to get thinner, just as they finally put them off tobacco? Possibly. In the rich world, sales of healthier foods are booming and new figures suggest that over the past year Americans got very slightly thinner for the first time in recorded history. But even if Americans are losing a few ounces, it will be many years before the country solves the health problems caused by half a century ' s dining to overload . And, everywhere else in the world, people are still piling on the pounds. That's why there is now an agree?ment among doctors that governments should do something to stop them.

1．What's the main idea the writer intends to tell us in this passage?

    A．It's harmful to have enough to eat.

    B．It's better to be thin than fat.

    C．Fatness is the greatest danger in the world.

    D．Fatness has become a great health problem.

2．It can be inferred from the passage that the biggest problem in history is _______ .

    A．people were thin                        B．people smoked heavily

    C．there was not enough food to eat           D．people stored energy in good years

3．Why does the author compare smoking with the fatness problem in this passage?

    A．They are both problems difficult to settle.

    B．They both lead to the same diseases.

    C．They are both bad habits.

    D．They are both harmful to health.

4．Which of the following is true according to this passage?

    A．Man has got rid of lean years by raising agricultural productivity.

    B．Though difficult, man may break away from the fatness problem.

    C．Fatness may cause many diseases such as heart disease, AIDS and cancer.

       D．The doctors feel that they can do nothing about the fatness problem.

1、此题要求改正所给短文中的错误，对标有题号的每一行做出判断：如无错误, 在该行右边横线上划一个勾(√)，如有错误(每行只有一个错误)，则按下列情况改正： 该行多一个词：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉，在该行右边横线上写出该词，并也用斜线划掉。该行缺一个词：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(^)，在该行右边横线上写出该加的词。该行错一个词：在错的词下划一横线，在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。注意：原行没有错的不要改。

When teenagers have a free day in America, many of them take on       1.________

their school uniform and like to wear a pair of denim jean .They never   2.________

go completely out of the fashion .The word " jeans " was first used      3.________

to describing the blue clothes the sailors in Italy wore in the sixteenth    4.________

century. Now many schools in the USA don’t approve of students        5.________

wearing jeans to school because they forbid them, which make           6.________

jeans even very popular in the evenings and at weekends . Jeans are      7.________

constant changing . Old people as well as young people are fond of       8.________

it. Denim jeans have become a symbol of the young, active, informal,   9.________

American way of life. It seems likely they will remain popular.      10.________

28、Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A – F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

1．

    European television had the idea of taking ordinary people and turning them into “stars” by putting them in unusual situations. “Big Brother” (created in Holland) was one of the first. A group of people were locked in a small house with cameras running 24 hours a day. It was called a “watch and dial” show because viewers vote by telephone to decide who should leave or stay.

2．

    “Big Brother” was probably the first of the new reality shows, bus such a programme has developed. Many have found appeal by having a theme to them, but most are based on the principle of “survival of the fittest” by eliminating participants as the series progresses. So we have the dating shows where winners either pair off or stay true to their partners outside the TV studio. Then there are those that test people’s abilities for specific jobs like running a kitchen, becoming an interior designer or a top model.

3．

    Critics say these programmes are basically bad television, but people watch them. So why are there so many of them? For the viewer it’s an opportunity to “people watch”. It’s natural to like watching other people. They’re interesting. We can imagine what we would do in that situation. We get to know the characters and see them grow and develop week after week. And of course, television is the perfect place to watch people. Like the theatre or cinema we can look at other people and they can’t look back. But with television, we can watch in the privacy of our own homes. We watch, but we don’t have to admit it to anyone.

4．

    The TV companies like reality shows because they are cheap to produce and attract younger viewers, which advertisers like. The last “Big Brother” in Britain attracted enormous advertising revenue. They aren’t dependent on “star” actors with enormous salaries. And your actors won’t go on strike. And why do people participate in them? Well, for fame and money of course. In the past, appearing on television wasn’t for ordinary people. You had to be good at something, like sport, or reading the news, or acting. But not any more.

5．

It seems that most shows do well at the beginning but then the viewing figures begin to fall. And it varies from country to country too. For example, one show had an adopted child try to guess the identity of her real father, and another had a family arguing over an inheritance. Both were cancelled after one episode. Perhaps the novelty has worn off. Certainly, reality TV seems to appeal much more to the younger audience. And now there are so many shows around even the young have become more critical. Reality shows will probably survive – it’s just no longer so easy to make a successful one.

26、Many fast-growing countries are less concerned with protecting       against climate change.

A．one          B．oneself      C．them        D．themselves