When our son, Alex, was young, he hated to travel. We endured refusals to visit one more museum, even if it was the Louvre. We coped with a child who resisted even a taste of onion soup in Paris and who insisted he would like nothing more than ordering room service at the hotel and watching TV.

Over the years, we have come up with several hard-earned but realistic strategies to help kids cope on long-distance trips.

First, we recognize that some children have trouble adjusting to new environments, food, time zones and schedules. So, in advance of a trip to England, we gave our son a taste of the new culture by making shepherd’s pie for supper. He loved the mashed potatoes, chopped meat and brown gravy（肉汁）. For Italy, we sampled homemade pesto（香蒜沙司） served over linguine（扁面条）. For Amsterdam, I cooked up a pot of comforting pea soup and baked a delicious apple pancake called pannekoeken. Then, when we traveled to these places, he ate these foods and they seemed like a taste of home.

In addition to food, we always sample the culture beforehand by reading books and renting movies from the countries we will be visiting. For Italy, the book Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino and the films Johnny Stecchino, Cinema Paradiso, and Il Postino gave our son a glimpse of the Italian way of life. For Britain, we rented Mr. Bean and Billy Elliot, and enjoyed stories by J.R.R. Tolkien and E. Nesbit. For Amsterdam, he finished The Diary of Anne Frank.

Before we leave home, we also ask Alex to go through our tour books and pick out activities that appeal to him. He was excited about visiting the London Dungeon and the Imperial War Museum, and taking a ride in the London Eye. They turned out to be big hits. Because Alex’s preferences were given equal attention, he was more tolerant of his parents’ selections, such as visiting Charters Cathedral and the Van Gogh Museum.

We’ve also learned the hard way that dragging our son out of bed early in the morning ,thus making him grumpy all day. Now that he is a teenager, we let him sleep in while we sip coffee at a café, work out at the hotel gym, or take a long walk. This makes our time together much more enjoyable

1．According to the writer, parents are advised to _______.

A. cook children’s favorite food           

B. postpone traveling until the kids are in college

C. allow their kids a ride in the London Eye

D. take children’s interest and preferences into account

2．Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino are mentioned as _______.

A. particular desires of children       B. an approach to interest the future possible visit

C. highly appreciated films for tourists  D. comfortable activities children could pick out

3．The underlined word “grumpy” in the last paragraph is similar in meaning to _______.

A. bad-tempered         B. tolerant           C. energetic            D. nervous

4．Which of the following might serve as a possible title for this passage?

A. Kids and Parents.                          B. Joys of Traveling.

C. Whether You Go or Not.                   D. How to motivate Kids to travel

第三部分:阅读理解（共20小题;每小题2分, 满分40分）

阅读下列短文，从每篇短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

       HOUSTON (Reuters) — Houston tops a U.S. magazine’s annual fattest cities list for the fourth time in five years, with four other Texas cities in the top 25.

       Fast food restaurants — Houston has twice the national average number — are partly to blame for the dishonor, Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton said.

       “Americans work long hours, don’t take vacations, and when they’re faced with the worst food choices, they indulge (沉溺于) in those,” he said.

       High humidity, poor air quality and some of the nation’s longest commute (每天去上班的路程) times also helped Texas’ most populous city unseat Detroit, the 2003 heavy weight champion, the magazine said.

       Houston Mayor Bill White, who has worked with a major food company to develop healthy food products and the city’s public schools to improve lunch menus, called the report “mostly ungrounded and nonsense.”

       “On the other hand, it calls attention to real issues the mayor is trying to deal with,” his spokesman, Frank Michel, said.

       The magazine said it looked at factors such as the number and types of restaurants, park space, air quality, weather and the number of health clubs.

       Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago followed Houston on the seventh edition of the fat list. Texas cities Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso were in the top 14, which Boulton said was no surprise.

       “It’s pure big indulgence, just living big, and that’s part of the culture,” said Boulton.

       Seattle ranked as the fittest city. Austin and Arlington, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, were the only Texas cities on the fit list. Austin was 19th and Arlington 22nd out of 25.

1．What decides the magazine’s annual fattest list?

       A. The size of fat population.                                   B. The number of fast food restaurants.

C. The economic growth rate of the state.           D. Things related to unhealthy ways of life.

2．Which city topped 2003 fattest cities list?

       A. Houston.                         B. Dallas.                     C. Detroit.                    D. Philadelphia.

3．By saying “living big” (in Paragraph 9), Boulton means people _________.

       A. are growing fatter                                        B. are living wastefully

C. eat too many fatty foods                               D. are spending too much time working

4．Which of the following is best supported by the text?

       A. Texas has the most fat cities in the U.S.

B. Bill White is happy with the newspaper report.

C. People in Texas are the most hardworking in the U.S.

D. Most school children in Houston have weight problems.

第二部分  阅读理解 （共25小题。第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45分）

第一节  阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

When a consumer (消费者) finds that something he or she bought is faulty or in some other way does not live up to what the producer says for it, the first step is to present the warranty（保单），or any other records that might help, at the store of buying. In most cases, this action will produce results. However, if it does not, there are various means the consumer may use to gain satisfaction.

A simple and common method used by many consumers is to complain（投诉）directly to the store manager. In general, the“higher up” the consumer takes his or her complaint, the faster he or she can expect it to be settled. In such a case, it is usually settled in the consumer’s favour taking it as true that he or she has a just right.

Consumers should complain in person whenever possible, but if they cannot get to the place of buying, it is acceptable to phone or write the complaint in a letter.

Complaining is usually most effective when it is done politely but firmly and especially when the consumer can show clearly what is wrong with what was bought in question. If this cannot be done, the consumer will succeed best by presenting specific information as to what is wrong, rather than by making general statements. For example, “The left speaker does not work at all and the sound coming out of  the right one is unclear” is better than “This stereo（立体音响）does not work.”

The store manager may advise the consumer to write to the producer, if so, the consumer should do this, stating the complaint as politely and as firmly as possible. But if a polite complaint does not achieve the expected result, the consumer can go a step further. He or she can threaten (恐吓) to take the seller to court or report the seller to a public organization responsible for protecting consumers’ rights.

1. When a consumer finds what he bought has a fault in it , he should first          .

A. complain personally to the manager

B. show something provable in written form to the store

C. threaten to take the matter to court

D. write a firm letter of complaint to the store

2. If a consumer wants a quick settlement of his problem, it’s better to complain to           .

A. a shop assistant                                     B. the producer

C. a public or ganization                                   D. a store manager

3. The most effective complaint about what was bought can be made by         .

A. showing the fault of it to the producer

B. saying firmly it is of poor quality

C. asking politely to change it

D. explaining exactly what is wrong with it

4. The passage tells us          .

A. how to make the complaint have a good effect

B. how to settle a consumer’s complaint

C. how to avoid buying something wrong

D. how to deal with complaints from consumers

5. According to the passage, the last way a consumer has to use is          .

A. to write to the producer

B. to quarrel with the manager

C. to warn the seller that he or she will turn to the court or a consumers’ organization for help

D. to collect several fighters to threaten the seller

--- You seemed to be deeply struck by his skill.

   --- Not exactly. It was his courage ________ his skill that really struck me most.

A. other than         B. as well as           C. but also         D. apart from

Strangely enough, some books ________ for children have become popular among adults!

A. intended      B. to intend     C. intending         D. intend

Do come here on Monday,______ we, as planned, will take part in the gathering of AIDS prevention volunteers.

 A．then B．and C．therefore D．or

Our English teacher devoted herself    _____   to her teaching, which earned her a good   reputation in our school.

   A. strongly  B. entirely   C. extremely   D. freely

The road ______ for vehicles is under repair. Drivers are required to take some other routes.

A. meaning            B. meant                C. to mean             D. being meant

This young man is very clever；he may be  ______   Edison。

  A．the one    B．the other    C．another D．one

Our attitude towards life is   _____    makes the difference between our being happy and successful or not.

 A．that B．what C．which D．whether