A Charlotte, N.C., man was charged with first-degree murder of a 79-year-old woman whom police said he scared to death. In an attempt to evade policemen after a bank robbery, the Associated Press reports that 20-year-old Larry Whitfield broke into the home of Mary Parnell. Police say he didn’t touch Parnell but that she died after suffering a heart attack that was caused by terror. Can the guy be held responsible for the woman’s death? Prosecutors(公诉人) said that he can under the state’s murder rule, which allows someone to be charged with murder if he or she causes another person’s death while committing or fleeing from a severe crime like robbery—even if he or she doesn’t kill someone on purpose.

But, medically speaking, can someone actually be frightened to death? We asked Martin Samuels, chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Absolutely, no question about it.

The body has a natural protective method called the fight-or-flight response(战或逃反应), which was originally described by Walter Cannon，the chairman of Harvard University’s physiology department from 1906 to 1942. If, in the wild, an animal is faced with a life-threatening situation, the autonomic nervous system responds by increasing heart rate, increasing blood flow to the muscles, and slowing digestion, among other things. All of this increases the chances of succeeding in a fight or running away from an aggressive beast. This process certainly would be of help to primitive humans. However, in the modern world there is obvious decline of the fight-or-flight response.

The autonomic nervous system uses the chemical messenger to send signals to various parts of the body to activate the fight-or-flight response. This chemical is toxic in large amounts; it damages the organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. It is believed that almost all sudden deaths are caused by damage to the heart. There is almost no other organ that would fail so fast as to cause sudden death. Kidney failure, liver failure, those things don’t kill you suddenly.

By the way, any strong positive or negative emotions such as happiness or sadness can cause the same result. There are people who have died in intercourse or in religious passion. There was a case of a golfer who hit a hole in one, turned to his partner and said, “I can die now”, and then he dropped dead. For about seven days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon there was an increase of sudden cardiac death among New Yorkers.

1.Why the Charlotte, N.C., man was charged?

A. Because he threatened the policemen to kill an old woman.

B. Because he caused an old woman’s terror and she died.

C. Because he beat an old woman and caused her heart attack

D. Because he murdered an old woman while robbing a bank.

2. What is Martin Samuels’ attitude to the possibility of being frightened to death?

A. Approval.              B. Disapproval.                  C. Doubtful.          D. Indifferent.

3.Which of the following about the fight-or-flight response is true?

A. The fight-or-flight response was raised and proved by Martin A. Samuels.

B. It is a natural protective method that can’t be found in all creatures but humans.

C. The ancient humans had a superior fight-or-flight response than modern ones.

D. The fight-or-flight response is beneficial to both our actions and organs.

4. What activity can we infer is less likely to damage the organs?

A. Winning a big lottery.                               B. Missing a dead family.

C. Watching a horror movie.                            D. Listening to a sweet song.

5.The purpose of the passage is_________.

A. to explain why people will die of a heart attack

B. to offer some advice on protecting us from heart failure

C. to compare different kinds of feelings to cause a death

D. to show strong emotions can cause a sudden death

下面是美国著名游记作家Bill Bryson的几本作品，首先请阅读它们的封面信息：

下面是对这几本书的简要介绍，请把它们对应的封面信息找出来：

1. In this collection, Bill Bryson is writing from home. We find he assesses life both in New England and in the contemporary United States. With the telescopic perspective(远望视角) of one who has stepped out of the American mainstream and come back after 20 years, Bryson holds the mirror up to U.S. culture and feel strange to his motherland.

2.This book is a guide to the world’s unspoilt sights and experiences. It presents one thousand fresh and fascinating alternatives to hundreds of well-known tourist destinations and sights, including alternatives to the Carnival in Rio and the beaches of Thailand, the most-visited national parks, over-rated restaurants and holiday sites.

3.Returning to the U.S. after 20 years in England, Bill Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he still goes into the wilderness and learns hard lessons about self-reliance.

4. A travelogue by Bill Bryson is as close to a sure thing as funny books get. This book is no exception. Following an urge to rediscover his youth, the author leaves his native Des Moines, Iowa, in a journey that takes him to across 38 states in the country, which is like a small town in his opinion.

5.Born in Iowa, Bryson backpacked through Europe as a young man. While living in England some 20 years later, he revisited many of the same places from arctic Norway’s northern lights to romantic Capri in Italy. Here he jumps back and forth between old memories and new experiences.

你是李华。最近，很多杂志和报刊都在探讨“低碳生活”的理念，你对此很感兴趣。

【写作内容】

   请根据以下中文提纲，向《未来生活》报社专栏“Dear Ann”写一封信，表达自己对节约能源的理解。

1．我们需要适当改变我们的行为习惯

2．我们需要购买节能产品，减少使用时间

3、我们要多种树，降低温室气体对大气的影响

4．树木能吸收二氧化碳，有助抵消汽车尾气

5．我们要养成随手关灯的习惯；降低能源浪费

【写作要求】

       1．只能使用5个句子表达全部的内容

       2．开头和结尾已给出，不计算在5个句子之内

       3．参考词汇：carbon dioxide二氧化碳  atmosphere大气

【评分标准】

    句子结构准确，信息内容完整，篇章结构连贯。

Dear Ann,

I’m writing to tell you about my opinion on what we can do to save energy for a better future.

In short, if everyone cares about our earth, our efforts will make a difference.

   Best wishes

                                                    Li Hua(请在答题纸上作答)

阅读下面的短文，然后按照要求写一篇150词左右的英语短文。

The Nigerian postal service has witnessed a reduction in the number of letters sent, especially by individuals, due to the alternatives of email and text.

“People prefer these over letters, because of the speed, although letters serve many purposes, other than conveying of messages", said Barry Varley Tipton, principal of Cherry Field College.

But some people think that the vanishing(逐渐消失的) art of letter writing has grave (严重的) consequences for students, teachers, the economy, society and the beauty of reading from loved ones, because letters in those days usually had a variety of styles .

A lover of letters writing, Hajiya Aisha refers to the occasions she has seen people enraged, because their connections at a cyber cafe took 56 seconds rather than the usual 36 hours. She says, “Although letters are slow, waiting for something good is not wholly a bad thing. Nothing beats a hand written letter.”

"When I was a graduate studying overseas twenty five years ago, my mother wrote to me daily. It was wonderful to receive those letters. They often said nothing more than everyone was thinking of me. I continue this tradition with several friends who are scattered worldwide. Hand written letters show the love that we have for family and friends. Email cannot replace the smile of actually getting the letter. The warm, sincere thank- you note, or the sweetly scented love letter we usually received and sent in those days is irreplaceable" she said.

Will electronic age stamps replace letters? Hopefully not, since it takes with it a culture rich in colour, history, and communication. Letters, like bits of ourselves, deserve to be stored away for future readers, giving them insight into details as small as the price and pattern of stamps, and as great as personal insights exchanged long ago.

【写作内容】

       1. 以约30词概括以上短文的主要内容：

       2. 然后以约120个词以“Will written letters die out ?”为主题写一篇短文，并包括如下要点：

       (1)有些人认为用手机收发短信和用因特网收发邮件更加方便快捷，写信很费时间

       (2)有些人喜欢和朋友或家人写信

       (3)你的观点

【写作要求】

       1. 你可以使用实例或其他论述方法支持你的论点，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用阅读材料中的句子

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称

【评分标准】

       概括准确、语言规范、内容合适，篇章连贯。  (请在答题纸上作答)

完形填空(共15小题；每小题2分．满分30分)

    阅读下面短文，掌握其大意．然后从1—15各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Shopping habits in the United States have changed greatly in the last quarter of the 20th century. Early in the 1900s most American towns and cities had a Main Street. Main Street was always in the heart of a town. This street was 1      on both sides with many 2      businesses. Here, shoppers walked into stores to look at all sorts of merchandise: clothing, furniture, hardware, groceries. 3      , some shops offered 4         .These shops included drugstores, restaurants, shoe-repair stores, and barber or hairdressing shops. 5          in the 1950s, a change began to 6        .Too many automobiles had crowded into Main Street while too few parking places were 7      shoppers. Because the streets were crowded, merchants began to look with interest at the open spaces 8      the city limits. Open space is what their car-driving customers needed.

And open space is what they got when the first shopping centre was built. Shopping centres, or rather malls, 9    as a collection of small new stores 10     crowded city centres. 11     by hundreds of free parking space, customers were drawn away from 11 areas to outlying malls. And the growing 12     of shopping centres led 13     to the building of bigger and better stocked stores. By the late 1970s, many shopping malls had almost developed into small cities themselves. In addition to providing the 15     of one stop shopping, malls were transformed into landscaped parks, with benches, fountains, and outdoor entertainment.

 1. A. built      B. designed    C. intended      D. lined

 2. A. varied     B. various     C. sorted        D. mixed up

 3. A. Apart from B. However     C. In addition   D. As well

 4. A. medical care              B. food          C. cosmetics  D. services

 5. A. suddenly   B. Abruptly    C. Contrarily    D. But

 6. A. be taking place B. take place              C. be taken place D. have taken place

 7. A. available for             B. available to  C. used by    D. ready for

 8. A. over       B. from        C. out of        D. outside

 9. A. started    B. founded     C. set up        D. organized

10. A. out of     B. away from   C. next to       D. near

11. A. Attracted  B. Surprised   C. Delighted     D. Enjoyed

12. A. inner      B .central     C. shopping      D. downtown

13. A. distinction               B. fame          C. popularity D. liking

14. A. on         B. in turn     C. by turns      D. further

15. A. cheapness  B. readiness   C. convenience   D. handiness

语法填空(共10小题；每小题l 5分．满分l5分)

    阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡标号为16—25的相应位置上。

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival _1.________ (mark) by eating zong zi and racing dragon boats in honour of Qu Yuan, who is said to have committed suicide(自杀) by drowning himself.

Qu was a minister of the State of Chu ____2.___ (situate) in the present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces, during the Warring States Period（战国时期）. He was upright, loyal and highly respected. ____3.__, he was dismissed from office. __4.____ (realize) that the country was in the hands of evil officials, Qu leapt into River Miluo on the fifth day of the fifth month. Nearby fishermen rushed over to save him but were ___5.____ (able) to recover his body.

The people of Chu __6.___ mourned Qu’s death threw rice into the river to feed his ghost ___7.___ year on the day of his death. But one year, the spirit of Qu appeared and told the mourners that a huge reptile（爬行动物）in the river had stolen the rice. The spirit then advised __8._____ to wrap the rice and bind it _9.____ throwing it into the river.

During the Duanwu Festival, zong zi is eaten to symbolize（象征，表示） the rice offerings to Qu. And the dragon-boat races symbolize __10._____ many attempts to rescue and recover Qu's body.

Microwaves may be great at warming up food, but what about warming people?

    Using microwaves to directly heat owners of a room would save much of the energy wasted by heating walls and furniture. And despite popular ideas about microwaves, this technique would be safe, according to Charles R. Burlier of the Microwave Research Center in Marlborough, New Hampshire. Low-power microwaves only penetrate (贯穿) the skin (low-power microwave penetration in a ham is about 0.2 inches, for example) and with no negative effects.

    To test this idea, Buffler subjected himself to microwaves in a special room using a standard 500-watt, 2459 MHz magnetron (磁控管). He found that a person will start to feel warmth at about 20 kilowatts per square centimeter (mw. / sq. cm. ) ; a satisfactory feeling of warmth occurs between 35 and 50 mw. / sq. cm. By comparison, a person standing in noonday summer sun feels the amount of 85 mw. / sq. cm. And a frozen meat pie in your microwave oven receives about 1000 mw. / sq. cm.

    In houses of the future, each room could be provided with its own magnetron, says Buffler. When you stepped into the living room, for example, a motion detector (运动感应器)would turn on the magnetron, filling the room with low-power microwaves. In the same way that a microwave oven heats up a hamburger, but not the plate it’s on, you would feel warmth from the microwaves without changing the temperature of your coffee table. (You could, however, make your favorite easy chair even more comfortable by treating it with a radiation-absorbing chemical.)

    While it might be some time before homeowners are comfortable enough with the idea to set up whole-body microwave heaters in houses, Buffler says microwaves may attract livestock(家畜) farmers. Lambs that are born outdoors in winter, for example, are frequently lost to cold. Microwaves could warm the lambs safely and quickly.

1. Which of the following can tell the main idea of the passage?

A. A new heating system.              

B. A new microwave oven.

C. A popular technique.               

D. The magnetron.

2. According to Paragraph 2, which of the following does not describe the characteristics of a microwave heater?

A. It directly heats people in a room.       

B. It heats walls and furniture in a room.

C. It is safe.                            

D. It saves energy．

3. The test conducted by Buffler shows that when a person feels comfortable warmth, he receives about ________________.

A. 20 mw. / sq. cm.                   B. 40 mw. / sq. cm. 

C. 60 mw. / sq. cm.                   D. 85 mw. / sq. cm.

4. According to Paragraph 4, which of the following fills the room with low-power microwaves?

A. The magnetron.                      

B. The motion detector.

C. The microwave oven.                 

D. The radiation-absorbing chemical.

5. Which of the following statements about microwave heaters would Buffler most probably agree with?

    A. Microwave heaters will soon be widely used by homeowners.

    B. Microwave heaters sometimes make people feel uncomfortable.

    C. Perhaps microwave heaters will be first used by livestock farmers, who wish to protect their lambs in winter.

D. Microwave heaters cannot be accepted by the public because they are somewhat unsafe.                                   

Everywhere man is altering the balance of nature．He is facilitating the spread of plants and animals into new regions, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously．He is covering huge areas with new kinds of plants, or with houses, factories, slag-heaps and other products of his civilization．He exterminates some species on a large scale, but favors the multiplication of others．In brief, he has done more in five thousand years to alter the biological aspect of the planet than has nature in five million．

    Many of these changes which he has brought about have had unforeseen consequences．Who would have thought that the throwing away of a piece of Canadian waterweed would have caused half the waterways of Britain to be blocked for a decade, or that the provision of pot cacti for lonely settlers’ wives would have led to Eastern Australian being overrun with forests of Prickly Pear? Who would have prophesied that the cutting down of forests on the Adriatic coasts, or in parts of Central Africa, could have reduced the land to a semi desert, with the very soil washed away from the bare rock? Who would have thought that improved communications would have changed history by the spreading of disease-sleeping sickness into East Africa, measles into Oceania, very possibly malaria into ancient Greece?

These are spectacular examples; but examples on a smaller scale are everywhere to be found．We make a nature sanctuary for rare birds, prescribing absolute security for all species; and we may find that some common and hardy kind of bird multiplies beyond measure and ousts the rare kinds in which we were particularly interested．We see, owing to some little change brought about by civilization, the starling spread over the English country-side in hordes．We improve the yielding capacities of our cattle; and find that now they exhaust the pastures which sufficed for less exigent stock．

1.The following examples except _______________ reflect man altering the balance of nature．

    A．man is covering huge areas with new kinds of plants

    B．man is facilitating the spread of animals into new regions．

    C．man is killing some species on a large scale

    D．man is getting to know the importance of keeping the balance of nature．

2.What had a piece of Canadian waterweed cause?

    A．Eastern Australian was overrun with forests．

    B．Half the waterways of Britain blocked for a decade．

    C．In parts of central Africa, the land reduced to a semi desert．

    D．Disease-sleeping has been caused．

3.What have spread diseases?

    A．Disease-sleeping sickness．                        B．Measles．

    C．Improved communications．        D．Malaria．

4.We make a nature sanctuary for rare birds but _______________.

A．some common and hardy kind of bird multiplies   

B．rare kinds multiply

C．all bird multiply                             

D．no bird multiply

5.The main idea of the passage is ______________．

    A．that man is deliberately destroying the balance of nature

B．that man has foreseen the consequences of altering the balance old nature

    C．that improved communications have changed history

D．that man is altering the balance of nature

The way people hold to the belief that a fun-filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

　　As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment（承担的义务）, self - improvement.

　　Ask a bachelor（单身汉） why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.

　　Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.

　　Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

1.According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because ____________ .

　　A. he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities

　　B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

　　C. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

　　D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

2.Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ____________ .

A. a moral duty                         

B. a thankless job

C. a rewarding task                      

D. a source of inevitable pain

3.From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ____________ .

A. hatred　　                              

B. misunderstanding　　　　

C. prejudice　　　　                       

D. ignorance

4.To understand what true happiness is one must ____________ .

　　A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime

　　B. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

　　C. put up with pain under all circumstances

　　D. be able to distinguish happiness from fun

5.What is the author trying to tell us?

A. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain．

B. One must know how to attain happiness.

C. It is important to make commitments.    　　

D. It is pain that leads to happiness.

In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, and English

— and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel, a computer science professor at US's Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe, announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.?

One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.?

Another prototype(雏形机) can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what language they speak. “It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,” Waibel said.?

Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal(液晶) display(LCD) screen.?

Then there’s the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face, according to researchers.?

During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student named Stan Jou had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then he mouthed — without speaking aloud — a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”?

This particular gadget(器械),when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number of languages or, as Waibel put it, “to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the university's prototypes is to create ‘good enough’ bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,” Waibel said.?

With spontaneous(自发的) translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.?

1. Which of the following statements is not TRUE?

A. A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily.?

B. There is no Muscle Translator in the world now.?

C. Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth.?

D. The spontaneous translators will help us a lot.

2. What kind of equipment is NOT mentioned in this passage?

A. Lecture Translation.                       

B. Muscle Translator.?

C. Multiple Translator.                       

D. Translation Prototype.

3. What’s the final destination of inventing the language translators??

A. To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier.?

B. To help students learn foreign languages more easily.?

C. To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably.?

D. To help people learn more foreign languages in the future.

4.What can be inferred from the seventh paragraph?

A. The translator is so good that it can translate any language into the very language you need.?

B. The translator is becoming more and more common in the world as a bridge.?

C. With the help of the translator, you only need to open your mouth when you want to say something without saying the exact words at all.?

D. The translator needs to be improved before being put into market.

5. Where can this passage probably be excerpted from?

A. A newspaper.                     

B. A magazine on science.?

C. A fairy tale.                             

D. A scientific fantasy book.