My mother-in-law, Dorothy, is showing me the red notebook that’s almost as precious to her as my husband’s baby pictures. Inside the notebook is a list of the books she has read since 2007. For some people waking up in the middle of the night is a terrible thing. But for my mother-in-law, that time is a gift. At 87, she is getting the education she never had by working her way through great literature. She has now read close to 100 books, including every single novel by Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James and Thomas Mann.
My mother-in-law discusses her passion with the enthusiasm of a young girl, although she can also be a very tough critic, writing “VG’ for “ very good” in the margins next to her favorites. So far, only a handful of books have received the top prize.
Born in Ridgefield, Conn, Dorothy was the youngest daughter of an Italian gardener. She taught herself English by reading The New York Times. Eager to come to Manhattan, she became a nurse, married a dentist and spent the next several decades keeping the house and raising a family. In her later years, she put her nursing skills to good use by taking care of my father-in-law, who had lung cancer. There were many trips to the emergency room in the middle of the night and then a long hospital stay. She stayed awake to watch over him for 15 hours a day. Always a light sleeper, she developed sleeplessness as a result of the stress.
It worsened after he died. Deeply sad and lonely for the first time in her life, she began waking up around 2am. Julian and Sylvia, the elderly couple next door suggest she read literature. And so Julian, a great lover of literature, became her “professor”, providing books from his large library. Suddenly the terrifying hole turned onto a world of amazing characters.
【小题1】Why is Dorothy considered a tough critic?

Perhaps you do not know your school principal (校长) well. But you might be wise to take him or her seriously. Beijing University will enroll (招收) students recommended by high school principals this year. If the students recommended pass a round of interviews by Peking University, they will have an extra 30 extra points added to their national college entrance exam scores if they apply to the university.
Beijing University said the reason behind the move was a desire to give students with comprehensive (综合的) or special abilities a chance to stand out.
However, a survey, showed 10,046 out of 14,227 people are against the measure. Some experts agree with the criticism. Liu Daoyu, former president of Wuhan University is one strong opponent(反对者). “There are so many high schools across the country. But only 39 schools are qualified to recommend students. Is it fair to the rest of the schools? Besides, most of the 39 schools are located in big cities, which is unfair to other regions,”
The reform is also unfair to other students, some say. According to Liu, in the competitive exam, one extra point can put a student ahead of a large numbers of others – never mind 30.
“Principals do not know students well. How can they guarantee the recommendation will be fair?” asked Wang Xuming, former spokesman of the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry of Education said the move is a good experiment in college admission reforms and the public should support it even if it is not yet mature (成熟的). It said Beijing University promised a series of supervision (监督) measures to avoid cheating. For example, the information of schools and principals that recommend students, and the recommended students will be put online for a week for public supervision.
【小题1】The best title of the passage could be         .

Once in a television interview, I was chatting with the host about stay – at – home athers. I made the point that one reason why we’re seeing more stay – at – homw dads may be hat it’s no longer definite that a man makes more money than his wife. Many families now ake earning power into account when deciding which parent will stay home.
At that point, one of the male crew members pointed out, almost to himself but loud nough for my benefit, “It should be the better parent who stays home.” A lot of guys say hings like that. Usually it’s a code for “My wife, or any woman is the better parent.”
I was a stay – at – home father for 8 years, so his words made me excited. It implied that our family’s choice could only have been correct if I was a “better” parent than my wife.
I suppose an argument could have been made that when I began staying home my wife was the “better” parent if she spent more time with Jack. She would be able to read him wetter and calm him more quickly. But as the more employable one, my wife went out to work and I looked after our son.
because of the increased time I spent with Jack. I soon knew him well, understood that he needed and could look after him more or less as well as my wife could. Actually, he experience helped me unlock one of the world’s great secrets; Women are good at booking after children because they do it. It is not because of any innate (先天的) female talent. It is because they put in the time and attention required to become good at the job.
Woman obviously get a biological head starting from giving birth and nursing, but ever the long term experience is more important. When I got the experience myself. I was people are able to look after them as well besides their moms.
【小题1】The first paragraph implies          .

A．A man can take better care of children than his wife.

B．A man with experience can take good care of children.

C．A child prefers to stay with his or her mother.

D．A child prefers to stay with his or her father.

When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek friends whose qualities illuminate（照亮）me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say:“Let’s start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changing into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.
When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend, He was in despair(失望)and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.
For almost four years I have had remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other’s dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think:“Yes, I must tell….”We have never met.
It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist（心理学家），who will only fill up the healing（愈合的）silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.
69. In the eighth grade, what the author did before developing proper social behavior was to ______.
A. become serious about her study
B. go to her friend’s house regularly
C. learn from her classmates at school
D. share poems and stories with her friend
70. In Paragraph 3, “We gave London to each other” probably means ______.
A. our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us
B. we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London
C. our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared
D. we parted with each other in London
71. According to Paragraph 4, the author and her friend _______.
A. call each other regularly
B. have similar personalities
C. enjoy writing to each other
D. dream of meeting each other
72. In the darkest moments, the author would prefer to ______.
A.need professional help       B. be left alone
C. stay with her best friend    D. break the silence

If you thought sports stars Yao Ming and Liu Xiang or Internet entrepreneurs Zhang Chaoyang and Ding Lei would automatically be on the list of the” Men of Our Time”，then you could be behind the times．
The surprise in the list of 10 men released by the All-China Women’s Federation yesterday is that it contains no celebrities- and the guiding factors seem to be care and sympathy for the opposite sex．
In fact，Liu and Yao，as well as actor Pu Cunxin—the image ambassador for China’s anti-HIV，AIDS campaign—appeared in a booklet given out at the contest’s launch ceremony in January．The federation wouldn’t say why they are not in the final list．
The winners，with an average age of 47．5，were selected by women officials and journalists of the nine women’s newspapers in China，whose standard was men promoting equality between the sexes．
Li Zhong hua, a 46-year—old air force officer who test-flies planes，said he thought he was chosen because” he takes good care of his family，and is a gentleman”．
”Gentlemen get more respect in our society．They should be like those in the movie Titanic，who let women and children lave first in life rafts。”he told China Daily．
Shi Hua shan，a 48-year-old policeman in Gui xi of Jiangxi Province，said that he became a”man in the eyes of women” because” women love stories of heroes saving beauties"．
His team has rescued more than 180 women who were taken away by force and sold as wives in the mountain regions of Fujian Province．
Some other” Men of Our Time” are：
Lang Jinghe，67，gynecologist at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing，who has made breakthroughs in ovarian cancer；
Ma Li，33，official in Xuzhou of Jiangsu Province，whose shelter has helped 196 victims of domestic violence；Li Mingshull，43，lawyer in Beijing，who is active in campaigns against family violence；Liu Ri，51，a mine worker in Lu’an of Shanxi Province，who took care of his paralyzed
parents·in-law for 23 years with his wife．
【小题1】Which of the following statements is right?

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It is in the Himalayan Mountains between Nepal and China, and it is 8 900 meters high. Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal were the first people ever to climb Mount Everest. They climbed it in 1953. Men from several different countries climbed it after that.
Jumko Tabei, a Japanese from Hokkaido, was the first woman to make this difficult climb. A Tokyo newspaper television organized the climb in 1975. They chose fifteen women from mountaineering (登山) clubs to go to Nepal. The group climbed for several days. Then there was an avalanche (雪崩). The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women. They had to stop climbing, the other five women continued.
Only Ms. Tabei was able to climbing the last 70 meters. She was standing on the top of the world. She was the first woman there.
Ms. Tabei was 35 years old at the time. She is 1 meter 50 centimeters and weighs 42 kilograms. She says that she is an ordinary housewife. She started climbing mountains in 1960. She climbed every mountain in Japan. Then she climbed Mount Annapurna, another high mountain in the Himalayas. Finally she climbed the world’s highest mountain.
When she reached the top, she thought, “I’m at the top and I’m glad that I’m at the top.” Then she climbed back down the mountain.
1. Ms. Tabei was great because _________.
A. she was the first one ever to climb Mount Everest
B. she had climbed every mountain in Japan
C. she was the first woman that climbed the world’s highest mountain
D. she had climbed many mountains though she was small and young
2. “The heavy ice and snow injured ten of the women.” The word “injured” means ________.
A. killed       B. hurt     C. buried      D. froze
3. Which of the following is true?
A.None of the group reached the top of Mount Everest.
B. Ms. Tabei was one of the other five women who reached the top of Mount Everest.
C. The other five women reached the top of Mount Everest but Ms. Tabei was the first one.
D. Ms. Tabei was the only one of the group who reached the top of Mount Everest.
4. Ms. Tabei had practiced climbing for _________ years.
A. fifteen     B. twenty-two      C. thirteen   D. ten
5.What’s the main idea of the passage ?
A. The highest mountain in  the world.
B. The first woman to set foot on the highest mountain in the world.
C. How to climb the highest mountain in the world.
D. The exploration to the highest mountain in the world.

Many people have to work on the weekend. Some people do not mind. Other people think it is terrible.
One man thinks that working on the weekend can be dangerous. He is Graham Coates. Mr. Coates worked in an office in Brighton, England.
On Saturday, May 24, 1986, he went to the office to do some work. When he got in the elevator to go home, it stopped between floors. Mr. Coates could not get out of the elevator. He was trapped! He started to shout, but no one heard him. Then Mr. Coates remembered that it was a holiday in England. No one was going to come to work until Tuesday!
There was nothing for Mr. Coates to do. He had to wait until one his coworkers came to work and found him. With nothing to eat or drink, Mr. Coates ended up sleeping for most of the time.
Early on Tuesday morning, the vice president of the company came into work and found the elevator was not working. When the elevator was opened, Mr. Coates came out cold, weak, and tired. He had been in the elevator for sixty-two hours!
Now Mr. Coates says, “I only uses elevators if they have telephones in them.”
1. Mr. Coates could not get out of the elevator because ______.
A. it was broken            B. it was a weekend
C. it was a holiday           D. it stopped on a wrong floor
2. How long did he stay in the elevator?
A. Twenty-four hours.        B. From Saturday to Tuesday.
C. More than sixty-four hours.     D. From Thursday to Saturday.
3. What did he do in the elevator most of the time?
A. Shouted and screamed.      B. Slept and waited.
C. Telephoned his boss.        D. Ate and drank.   
4. How did he make his way out in the end?
A. The vice-president found him.
B. Some one opened the elevator.
C. The elevator began to work on Tuesday.
D. He found a door in the elevator.
5. What is the best title for this story?
A. An Interesting Elevator       B. A Busy Weekend
C. Elevator Safety             D. Trapped in an Elevator

Cyberspace,data superhighway,multimedia,for those who have seen the future,and the linking of computers,televisions and telephones will change our lives for ever.Yet for all the talks of a forthcoming technological utopia,little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor.As for all the new high technology,the West concerns itself with the “how”,while the question of “for whom” is put aside once again.
Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communication revolution has affected the world economy.Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries,and transnational corporations take full advantage of it.Terms of trade and exchange,interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods.The electronic economy made by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets — with a destructive impact on the have­nots.
For them the result is unstable.Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine.As “futures” are traded on computer screens,developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.
So what are the options of regaining control？One alternative for developing countries is to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications.Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries’ economies.
Communication technology is generally exported from the US,Europe or Japan；the patents,skills and ability remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries.It is also expensive,therefore imported products and services must be bought on credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.
1. From the passage we know that the development of high technology is in the interests of________.
A．the rich countries                              B．scientific development
C．the local elites                                     D．the world economy
2．It can be inferred from the passage that________.
A．international trade should be expanded
B．the interests of the poor countries have not been given enough consideration
C．the exports of the poor countries should be increased
D．communication technology in developing countries should be modernized
3．Why does the author say that the electronic economy may have a destructive impact on developing countries?
A．Because it enables the developed countries to control the international market.
B．Because it destroys the economic balance of the poor countries.
C．Because it violates the national boundaries of the poor countries.
D．Because it inhibits the industrial growth of developing countries.
4．The development of modern communication technology in developing countries may________.
A．hinder their industrial production
B．cause them to lose control of their trade
C．force them to reduce their share of exports
D．cost them their economic independence
5．The author’s attitude towards the communication revolution is________.
A．positive                                             B．critical
C．indifferent                                        D．tolerant

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I used to believe in the American dream that meant a job, credit, success．I wanted it and worked toward it like everyone else, all of us separately chasing the same thing．
One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell apart．I found myself homeless and alone．I had my truck and $56．I searched the countryside for some place I could rent for the cheapest possible amount．I came upon a deserted cottage in a small remote valley．I hadn't been alone for 25 years．I was scared, but I hoped the hard work would distract and heal me．
I found the owner and rented the place for $50 a month．The locals knew nothing about me．But slowly they started teaching me the art of being a neighbor．They dropped off blankets, tools and canned deer meat and began sticking around to chat．They would ask if I wanted to meet cousin Albie or go fishing．They started to teach me a belief in a different American dream, not the one of individual achievement but of neighborliness．Men would stop by with wild berries, ice cream, truck parts to see if I was up for courting．I wasn't, but they were civil anyway．The women on that mountain worked harder than any I'd ever met．They taught me how to store food in the stream and keep it cold and safe．I learned to keep enough for an extra plate for company．
What I had believed in, all those things I thought were necessary for a civilized life, were non-existent in this place．Up on the mountain, my most valuable possessions were my relationships with my neighbors．
After four years in that valley, I moved back into town．I saw a lot of people were having a really hard time, losing their jobs and homes．With the help of a real estate broker （房地产经纪人） I chatted up at the grocery store, I managed to rent a big enough house to take in a handful of people．It's four of us now, but over time I've had nine come in and move on to other places from here．We'd all be in shelters if we hadn't banded together．
The American dream I believe in now is a shared one．It's not so much about what I can get for myself; it's about how we can all get by together．
56．Before a series of unhappy events happened, the writer ____．
A．had a well-paid job
B．worked hard for his American dream
C．worked hard and liked to share
D．felt hopeless about his American dream
57．What does the underlined word "it" in the second paragraph refer to?
A．The house．              B．The job．
C．The company．            D．The American dream．
58．What does the underlined sentence "I learned to．．．" in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A．The writer learned to run a company．
B．The writer learned to share with others．
C．The writer learned to keep enough plates．
D．The writer learned to save money for his company．
59．Why did the writer rent a big house?
A．To make some money．           B．To show off his wealth．
C．To share with those people in need．     D．To make friends with his neighbors．
60．The writer mainly tells us about ____．
A．his unhappy experiences          B．the friendly people in the valley
C．the change of his living conditions           D．his new idea of the American dream

Most young architects ----particularly those in big cities ----can only dream about working in a building of their own. And marking that dream come true often means finding a building no one else seems to want, which is exactly what happened to David Yocum and his partner, Brain Bell. Their building is a former automobile electrical –parts firm in Atlanta. Form the outside, it looks too old, even something horrible, but open the door and you are in a wide, open courtyard, lined on three sides with rusting(生锈的) walls.
In 2000, Yocum and Bell found this building in the city’s West End. Built in 1947, the structure had been abandoned years earlier and the roof of the main building had fallen down. But the price was right, so Yocum bought it. He spent eight months of his off-hours on demolition(拆除), pulling rubbish out through the roof, because it was too dangerous to go inside the building, The demolition was hard work, but it gave him time to think about what he wanted to do, and “to treasure what was there – the walls, the rust, the light,” Yocum said.” Every season, more paint falls off the walls and more rust develops. It’s like an art installation(装置) in there-a slow-motion show.”
Since the back building had been constructed without windows, an all-glass front was added to the building to give it a view of the courtyard, and skylights were installed in the roof. The back of the building is a working area and a living room for Yocum and his wife. A sort of buffer(缓冲) zone between the front and the back contains a bathroom, a kitchen and a mechanical room, and the walls that separate these zones have openings that allow views through to the front of the studio and the courtyard beyond.
Yocum and Bell, who have just completed an art gallery for the city, feel that the experience from decoration of their building, focusing on the inside rather than the outside, has influenced their work. It has also given these architects a chance to show how they can make more out of less.
【小题1】 According to the passage, it is      for most young architects in big cities to work in a building of their own.