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。

“Tell me, Wally,” my amazed friend asked the driver, “have you always served customers like this?”

Wally smiled into the back-view mirror.

“No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the taxi drivers do. Then I heard the personal growth of Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day. He had just written a book called You’ll See It When You Believe It. Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining! Distinguish yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles fly high above the crowd.’”

“That hit me right between the eyes. Dyer was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other taxis and their drivers. The taxis were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.”

“I take it that has paid off for you,” I said.

“It sure has,” Wally replied. “My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple(增四倍) it. You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at taxi-stands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a trustworthy friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.”

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a first-class service out of a Yellow Taxi.

I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty taxi drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally, the Taxi Driver, made a different choice.

51.   The underlined word “phenomenal” means ______.

A．easy-going           B．warm-hearted      C．flexible              D．remarkable

52.   Wally doesn’t park his taxi at taxi-stands just because _______.

A．his income doubles.

B．his taxi is usually fully booked

C．he has a company of his own.

D．he has a look of a disgusting eagle

53.   Wally’s income doubled when he improved his service about ______.

A．one year ago                                        B．two years ago

C．five years ago                                       D．seven years ago

54.   After reading the passage we may draw a safe conclusion that ______.

A．kindness must be rewarded

B．it’s easy to say but hard to do

C．good service pays off in the end

D．the early bird catches the worm

The young woman seated next to us at the sushi(寿司) bar gave off an alien air; her looks and style, we thought, made it likely that she was not American born.

But then she spoke in perfect American English, with the typical characteristic of many young Californians.

As it turns out, however, she wasn’t from these parts after all; she was born in Iran and spoke only Farsi(波斯语) until her arrival here two years ago. What classes, we wondered, had she attended to learn the language so well?

“I didn’t,” she said. “I used Rosetta Stone.”

Those yellow boxes sold at shopping-mall and airport newspaper stands may be the most recognizable example of PC-based language learning, but it certainly isn’t the only one.

With the growth of broadband connectivity and social networks, companies have introduced a wide range of Internet-based language learning products, both free and fee-based, that allow students to interact in real time with instructors in other countries, gain access to their lesson plans wherever they are in the world, and communicate with pen pals who are also trying to remember if bambino means baby.

Learning a language sometimes seems as difficult as dieting. The solution is to figure out how to stay interested after the curiosity wears off.

To fight against boredom, online language programs have introduced crossword puzzles, interactive(交互的) videos and other games to reward users for making progress.

Online courses are either fee-based, free or a combination. Starter kits(入门套件) of fee-based programs may cost just a few hundred dollars, but the cost to reach higher levels of comprehension and speaking can easily be $1,000.

While that may sound expensive, language company managers say it isn’t; college courses often cost many thousands of dollars to reach the same level.

So, cost aside, how do you choose which program to use? The answer is that one size doesn’t fit all.

55.   Which of the following is the fact about “Rosetta Stone”?

A.      Rosetta Stone is only a special stone with the name Rosetta on

B.      Rosetta Stone is a free PC-based language learning product.

C.      Rosetta Stone is a reference book for English learners to use.

D.     Rosetta Stone is a language-learning software

56.   The case of the young woman in the passage is meant to tell the reader that ______.

A.      the woman is one of many successful language learners

B.      the woman likes Rosetta Stone very much

C.      many people are benefiting from the Internet language learning products

D.     Rosetta Stone is one of the successful PC-based language instructors

57.   We can learn from the passage that ______.

A.      they offer the English learners all kinds of free courses

B.      learners can communicate with teachers at any time

C.      students can compare notes with their e-pals about language study

D.     advanced online courses usually cost more than the college ones of the same level

58.   What information will be most probably provided following the last paragraph?

A.      An introduction of different online language learning products.

B.      An introduction of different language learning methods.

C.      The strengths and weaknesses of Internet language learning products.

D.     A comparison between online and college language learning.

Despite all the reports of Internet security attacks over the years, including the recent ones on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug（耸肩）.

　　Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it.

　　The list provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

　　Some Web sites try to keep back the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

　　To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

　　Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

　　Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction(拍卖) by freezing the accounts of other potential buyers.

　　But owing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites where security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for less risky places, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

　　Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

　　“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his companions,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.

59.   The underlined sentence “Many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug” shows that many people ______.

don’t take seriously the hacker’s break-ins

are worried and frightened at the hacker’s break-ins

don’t know what to do with the hacker’s attacks

are eager to get helps from the experts

60.   According to the passage, which of the following web sites needs a more complex password?

A social web site.

An entertainment web site.

A commercial web site.

A government web site.

61.   The Internet users are advised to______ in order to keep back the hackers.

mix letters, numbers and symbols as well

choose passwords with at least 12 characters

choose passwords with 5 or 6 characters

choose at least two different passwords

62.   Which would be the best title for the passage?

Password, Simple or Complex?

Popular Passwords, High Risk!

Clever Hackers, Stupid Netizens.

Hacker, the Enemy of Internet Security.

The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in California decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.

Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhythm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music.

Thanks to Snowball, that scientific opinion is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band.

Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. After seeing Snowball's dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he's called home for two years. The scientist played "Everybody" for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.

Patel isn't the only scientist who has studied Snowball's moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner's team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.

Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music.

63.   The underlined words “that scientific opinion” in the third paragraph refers to the theory that ______.

A.birds like Snowball have the ability to keep the beat

B.humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music

C.the brain and the nervous system contribute to some mental abilities

D.bird pets can have their special rhythm under human’s instruction

64.   From the fourth paragraph we may know that ______.

A.Patel is the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves.

B.Snowball is able to adjust his dancing to match the rhythm.

C.Snowball cannot dance to the versions of the song Everybody.

D.it is the brain and the nervous system that control the mental abilities.

65.   The idea of studying animals’ ability to keep the beat comes from ______.

A.bird lovers’ discovery

B.humans musical sense

C.the same abilities in children

D.videos of dancing birds

66.   According to the scientists, Snowball’s ability to dance to music is probably related to the fact that ______.

A.it is the only bird member of the Backstreet Boys band

B.it has the ability to imitate sounds

C.it is a kind of dancing parrot

D.it has the same abilities as preschool children

Just how far does the euro(欧元) have to fall before Europe actually becomes reasonable?

Anyone traveling to the old continent from the U.S. in recent years has learned the hard way how expensive it is. The situation has improved in the last couple of months, thanks to the Greek financial crisis. But it still has a way to go.

Alarm about Greece—and other financially unstable countries in Europe—has dragged down the euro sharply. In November, before the crisis struck, you needed about $1.49 to buy one euro. Today you need only about $1.36. That's a 9% cut.

What does that mean for you, the would-be traveler? It's a big sale.

As recently as November, when the euro was flying high, the OECD estimated that countries like France, Italy and Germany were about a third more expensive than the U.S. Not all European countries were quite as expensive for the American visitor: Greece only cost about 17% more than the US, while the Czech Republic (which is not part of the eurozone) was actually about 15% cheaper than back home.

Fast-forward two months, and the situation looks somewhat better.

At current exchange rates, places like France will still cost you about 23% more than the U.S., but cheaper countries such as Spain and Greece are now only about 6% more expensive. The Czech Republic's a fifth cheaper than the U.S.

European prices will only break even(持平) with the U.S. if the euro falls to about $1.10, says the OECD. But is it going to get there?

Greece's financial crisis may or may not be over. Members of a labor union just occupied part of the finance ministry to protest against the planned austerity(紧缩) measures. No, it doesn't inspire confidence!

Julian Jessop, chief international economist at the Capital Economics consultancy in London, sees the euro falling to $1.25 by year-end. “We still think the euro should be a lot lower,” he says. “We think the outlook for the European economy is a lot worse than for the U.S. And Greece is only a symptom of a wider problem: Does the eurozone make sense as a currency union?” If he's right, you may want to wait to change your money or book a trip.

67.   In the passage the writer offers some suggestions to the travellers from______.

A．USA           B．Europe             C．Greece             D．China

68.   The underlined word “it” in the passage refers to ______.

A.the planned austerity measures

B.Greece’s financial crisis

C.the protest from a labor union

D.the decline of the euro in value

69.   Julian Jessop has a negative attitude toward the euro because he thinks ______.

A.Greece’s financial crisis may not be over

B.the euro will drop to $ 1.25 by the end of the year

C.the European economy is a lot worse than the US’

D.the other European countries have a similar problem like Greece

70.   The purpose of the author writing the passage is to tell the readers that ______.

A.the euro shall be further reasonably lowered

B.travelers to Europe will save less in the future

C.the economic situation in Europe is worsening

D.the Greek financial crisis influences the whole Europe

第四部分：书面表达(共两节，满分40分)

第一节：完成句子(共10小题；每小题1.5分，满分15分)

阅读下列各小题，根据括号内的汉语提示，用句末括号内的英语单词完成句子，并将答案写在答题卡上的相应题号后。

71.   Not only____ (我尊重) my parents, but I also try to live up to their expectations. (respect)

72.   I’m not surprised that she has______ (一样甜美的声音)as her mother. (sweet)

73.   She has the right to manage all money matters. The reason is                  (我信任) her. (faith)

74.   I _____ (本来会参加) the party but I was engaged in something very important. (attend)

75. _____ (很多人没有意识到的) of is that providing the best education possible is very important for their children’s future . (aware)

76.  _____ (直到) a month later that I received the manager's reply.(until)

77.   He hurried to the booking office only_____  (却被告知)that all the tickets had been sold out. (tell)

78.   The World Bank says _____ (应对气候变化) will require hundreds of billions a year. (deal)

79.   The drought _____ (预计会持续) in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi until next month. (forecast)

80.   Medical researchers have painfully realized that there are many problems to_____ (他们没有找到) any solution so far. (find)

第二节：短文写作(共1题；满分25分)

请你针对当前电视剧中插播太多广告的现象，用英文向《中国日报》写一封120词左右的信，反映观众的呼声，指出其弊端，如：浪费观众时间、破坏故事完整性、影响观众看电视的乐趣等，并呼吁相关部门给予解决。

注意： 1. 可以适当增减内容，使全文连贯

2. 开头和结束语已写好，不计入总词数

参考词汇：观众 audience n. 插入 insert vt.  相关部门 relevant department

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to give you my opinions about the problem of too many advertisements being inserted in TV plays, …

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours  Sincerely，

Li Hua      

21．The moment we heard the news of the earthquake, we began to ________ the work to rescue those who were trapped in the building.

22．I’m terribly sorry to turn you down this time, but I promise I will ________ to you next time.

23．—Hey, dear! Guess what? I’ve got a pay rise!

—This ________ a celebration! Let’s go to sing karaoke tonight.