阅读理解

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

Holidaymakers who are bored with baking beaches and overheated hotel rooms head for a big igloo. Swedish businessman Nile Bergqvist is delighted with his new hotel, the world's first igloo hotel. Built in a small town in Lapland, it has been attracting lots of visitors, but soon the fun will be over.

    In two weeks' time Bergqvist's ice creation(作品) will be nothing more than a pool of water, “We don't see it as a big problem,” he says. “We just look forward to replacing it.”

    Bergqvist built his first igloo in 1991 for exhibition. It was so successful that he designed the present one, which measures roughly 200 square meters. Six workmen spent more than eight weeks piling 1, 000 tons of snow onto a wooden base; when the snow froze, the base was removed. “The only wooden thing we have left in the igloo is the front door,” he says.

    After their stay, all visitors receive a survival certificate recording their success. With no windows, nowhere to hang clothes and temperatures below 0℃, it may seem more like a survival test than a relaxing hotel break. “It's great fun.” Bergqvist explains, “as well as a good start in survival training.”

    The popularity of the igloo is beyond doubt; it is now attracting tourists from all over the world. At least 800 people have stayed at the igloo this season even though there are only 10 rooms. “You can get a lot of people in,” explains Bergqvist. “The beds are three meters wide by two meters long, and can fit at least four at one time.”

1．Bergqvist designed and built the world's first igloo hotel because ________.

    A. he believed people would enjoy trying something new

    B. he wanted to mice a name for the small town

    C. an art exhibition was about to open

    D. more hotel rooms were needed

2．When the writer says “the fun will be over”, he refers to the fact that ________.

    A. hotel guests will be frightened at the thought of the hard test

    B. Bergqvist's hotel will soon become a pool of water

    C. holiday makers will soon get tired of the big igloo

    D. a bigger igloo will replace the present one

3．According to the text, the first thing to do in building an igloo is ________.

    A. to gather a pool of water

    B. to prepare a wooden base

    C. to cover the ground with ice

    D. to pile a large amount of snow

4．When guests leave the igloo hotel they will receive a paper stating that ________.

    A. they have visited Lapland

    B. they have had an ice-snow holiday

    C. they have had great fun sleeping on ice

D. they have had a taste of adventure

阅读理解

When I opened my e-mail the other day, a blond woman named Rachel appeared on my computer screen. She greeted me by name and started talking with great enthusiasm. Every now and then she stopped to smile and blow a kiss. I guess that the e-mail she was reading to me came from my brother, and that a lot of it was about the trouble he was having getting the phone company to set up his high-speed Internet hookup. Still, it was pretty cool.

    Rachel was there thanks to a new technology called Facemail. Facemail lets you send e-mail that gets read to the recipient (接收者) by an attractive male or female form or by a devil or clown (小丑). The software, which is free, can be downloaded at www.facemail.com. And you can choose the face from an array (列表). If Facemail catches on—yes, I’d have to say that's still as if—it could change e-mail as we know it.

    Facemail is about to get a lot more interesting. In a few weeks you will be able to speak into a microphone in your computer and have your own voice read thee-mail you send. The company has signed a deal with Kodak so that sometimes next year you will be able to submit a photo and your own face will be the one reading your e-mail.

    The main thing Facemail has for it right now is that it's fun. That's no surprise, since the company's chief executive is Lucie Salhany, founder of UPN and former head of Fox Broadcasting. As its new capabilities kick in, Facemail could become a lot more popular. After all, what grandparent wouldn't prefer e-mail with the voice and picture of a grandchild instead of coldly impersonal text?

1．We can see from this passage the Rachel  ________.

    A. is a friend of the writer's brother

    B. is working at a computer company

    C. is an attractive woman hired to read e-mail for others

    D. is not a real person

2．How can you get Facemail if you are interested in it?

    A. You can get it at a very low price.

    B. You can send e-mail at www.facemail.com.

    C. You can get it through Internet for nothing.

    D. You can place an order at www.facemail.com.

3．Sometime next year, you will _________________.

    A. hear your own voice reading your e-mail

    B. see your own picture while reading your e-mail

    C. have your own face reading e-mail you send others

    D. hear your own e-mil read together with your picture

4．We can infer from the second paragraph that the writer ________.

    A. doesn't believe that the Facemail would become popular

    B. doubts whether Facemail will be hot soon

    C. is sure that Facemail will work wonders for e-mail

    D. believes that Facemail has a good market ahead of it

5．The writer believes that Facemail could become a lot more popular mainly because ________.

    A. it is convenient and fun

    B. more and more advanced technology will be used in it

    C. Lucie Salhany is in charge of it

    D. it can make communications by computer more personal

阅读理解

Blameless

    I was a freshman in college when I met the Whites. They were completely different from my own family, yet I felt at home with them immediately. Jane White and I became friends at school, and her family welcomed me like a long-lost cousin.

    In my family, it was always important to place blame when anything bad happened.

    “Who did this?” my mother would scream about a dirty kitchen.

    “This is all your fault, Katharine,” my father would insist when the cat got out or the dishwasher broke.

    From the time we were little, my sister, brothers and I told on each other. We set a place for blame at the dinner table.

    But the Whites didn't worry about who had done what. They picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives. The beauty of this was driven home to me the summer Jane died.

    In July, the White sisters and I decided to take a car trip from their home in Florida to New York. The two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were college students, and the youngest. Amy was excited about practicing her driving on the trip. She showed off her license to everyone she met.

    The big sisters shared the driving of Sarah's new car during the first part of the trip, but when they reached less crowded areas, they let Amy take over. Somewhere in South Carolina, we pulled off the highway to eat. After lunch, Amy got behind the wheel. She came to a crossroads with a stop sign. Whether she was nervous or just didn't see the sign no one would ever know, but Amy continued into the crossroads without stopping. The driver of a large truck, unable to stop in time, ran into our car.

    Jane was killed immediately.

    I was slightly injured. The most difficult thing that I've ever done was to call the Whites to tell them about the accident and that Jane had died. Painful as it was for me to lose a good friend, I knew that it was far worse for them to lose a child.

    When Mr. and Mrs. White arrived at the hospital, they found their two daughters sharing a room. Sarah had a few cuts on the head; Amy's leg was broken. They hugged (拥抱) us all and cried tears of sadness and of joy at seeing their daughters. They wiped away the girls' tears and made a few jokes at Amy as she learned to use her crutches (拐杖).

    To both of their daughters, and especially to Amy, over they simply said, “We're so glad that you're alive. “

    I was astonished. No blame. No accusations. Later, I asked the Whites why they never talked about the fact that Amy was driving and had run a stop sign.

    Mrs. White said. “Jane's gone, and we miss her terribly. Nothing we say or do will ever bring her back. But Amy has her whole life ahead of her. How can she lead a full and happy life if she feels we blame her for her sister's death?”

    They were right. Amy graduated from the University of California and got married several years ago. She works as a teacher of learning-disabled students. She's also a mother of two little girls of her own, the oldest named Jane.

1．The author of the passage is  ________.

    A. Mrs. White's niece

    B. Jane's school friend

    C. The Whites' cousin

    D. Sarah's friend from college

2．How did the author's parents differ from the Whites?

    A. The author's parents were less caring.

    B. The author's parents were less loving.

    C. The author's parents were less friendly.

    D. The author's parents were less understanding.

3．How did the accident occur?

    A. Amy didn't stop at a crossroads and a truck hit their car.

    B. Amy didn't know what to do when she saw the stop sign.

    C. Amy didn't slow down so their car ran into a truck.

    D. Amy didn't get off the highway at a crossroads.

4．The accident took place in ________.

    A. Florida

    B. California

    C. South Carolina

    D. New York

5．The Whites did not blame Amy for Jane's death because ________.

    A. they didn't want Amy to feel ashamed and sorry for the rest of her life

    B. Amy was badly injured herself and they didn't want to add to her pain

    C. they didn't want to blame their children in front of others

    D. Amy was their youngest daughter and they loved her best

6．From the passage we can learn that ________.

    A. Amy has never recovered from the shock

    B. Amy changed her job after the accident

    C. Amy lost her memory after the accident

    D. Amy has lived quite a normal life

阅读理解

As a teenager in 1972, Bill Gates boasted that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 20. While he did not quite achieve that goal, only 15 years later, he was a millionaire. And by 1992, as head of the Microsoft company, he became the richest man in America with assets (资产) of approximately US $ 6. 3 billion.

    Born in Seattle, Washington on 28, October, 1956, Gates was named William Henry after his father and grandfather. From the beginning, he was an extremely energetic and intelligent child. He had read the entire world book encyclopedia (百科全书) by the age of nine. His favorite subjects at school were science and math and his favorite pastime was “thinking”.

    Gates first started to play with computers at the age of 13, when one was installed at his school. At that time, computers were large, awkward (笨重的) machines. Operators were required to learn complex (复杂的) computer languages before the machines could be used. Even then a great deal of time and effort was needed to perform the simplest functions. Before long Gates was an expert at working the school's computer. After his graduation from secondary school, Gates was accepted by the three top universities in the USA Princeton, Harvard and Yale. He chose Harvard and began classes there the next autumn, majoring math. But he was still obsessed (占据心思) with computers and spent as much time in the computer laboratories as he did in the lecture halls.

    By 1975, Gates and a partner, Paul Allen, had developed a software program called BASIC. This was not the first program ever created, but its inventors were the first to decide that people who wanted to use it should pay for it.

    BASIC was a success because until it came along, there had been no efficient way of getting computers to carry out instructions. Although he had not completed his degree, Gates left university and went to work full time for the new company he had formed called Microsoft.

    His next project was the software program that made him famous and very rich. It was called DOS, short for Disk Operating System, and it was purchased (购买) by 113M in 1980. Today it is the operating system used in more than 14 million personal computers around the world.

    As chief executive office of Microsoft, Gates is known as a bright man, but one who is not easily satisfied. He is quick to criticize (批评) his staff and hates to be questioned about decisions he has made. He was regarded as a loner and unfashionable boring computer nut until his marriage to Microsoft manager Melinda French on New Year's Day 1994. Yet to most people now, Gates is a person who is, in spite of his great wealth, humble (谦恭) and ordinary. He spends his money carefully. He eats in fast food restaurants and flies economy class. And when praised for Microsoft's great success, he has been heard to say. “All we do is put software in a box and if people see it in the stores and like it, they buy it. “

1．When he was a teenager, Bill Gates wanted to be a  ________.

    A. teacher

    B. doctor

    C. businessman

    D. professor

2．When Gates went to Harvard, he ________.

    A. was interested only in math

    B. spent most of his time in computer laboratories

    C. developed the first computer software program

    D. divided his time between his math studies and the computer laboratories

3．Before the development of BASIC, ________.

    A. no one was interested in computer software

    B. software programs were not considered commercial projects

    C. software programs were very expensive

    D. no one wanted to pay for computer software

4．When the writer says, “Bill was regarded as an unfashionable boring computer nut”, he means ________.

    A. Bill was so strong-minded that no one could change his mind

    B. the only thing that could interests Bill on his life was computer

    C. Bill was such a boring young man that nobody would like to talk to him

    D. Bill couldn't work out the boring computer problems

5．Most people think Gates is ________.

    A. a crazy person

    B. a person obsessed with making money

    C. someone who spends money freely

    D. a quite common, normal person

阅读理解

PEOPLE

NOBLE SMUGGLER

    This Thursday, Irena Sendler will be honored for her work as a smuggler(偷运者). During World War II, the Polish social worker smuggled nearly 2.500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto (聚居区). She gave them new identities, found them safe places with good-hearted Christians, and kept the children's real names buried in jars in her neighbors' gardens. (The play, Life in a Jar, based on her story, is being performed.) At 93, Sendler lives in a Warsaw nursing home and is too weak to travel to Washington D. C. to receive the 2003 Jan Karski Award for Valor and Compassion from the American Center of Polish Culture. One of the children she saved will accept the award for her.

    You risked your life to save the children.

    I was taught by my father that when someone is drowning, you don't ask if they can swim, you just jump in and help. During the war, everyone was drowning, but mostly the Jewish children.

    How did you persuade parents to give up their children?

    I had to answer honestly that 1 didn't even know if we would get past the guards.

    What was the mast frightening moment?

    When I saw a priest (牧师) in charge of an orphanage for Jewish children in the ghetto walk with them out to be killed. The children were in their best Sunday suits. The priest was killed with them.

    How did you get the children to behave as yon smuggled them out?

    I told the older children to act as if they were sick and sometimes gave the younger ones a sleeping pill. They were told to remember their new names. I also told the children to tell guards they had only been visiting a servant in the ghetto and were going back to their real homes outside.

    Did you tell your own two children what you did?

    I never told them. Only when my daughter went to Israel did she learn all about me. I thought it was only normal to do so. And it was a very painful subject. It was always on my mind that I couldn't do more.

—Samantha Levine

1．We can learn from the passage that Irena Sender ________.

    A. will go to Washington to accept the award with her daughter

    B. was caught a few times while she was rescuing the Jewish children

    C. told those parents that their children's lives would be guaranteed

    D. saved thousands of Jewish children at the risk of her own life

2．The expression “everyone was drowning” can best be replaced by “________”.

    A. everyone was involved in the war

    B. all the people were drowned

    C. people were facing danger and death

    D. Jewish children were being killed

3．Which of the following could NOT be expected when Sendler was smuggling the Jewish children?

    A. Some children were told to pretend to be sick in front of the guards.

    B. Some children pretended to be returning home after visiting servants in the ghetto.

    C. The children were asked to remember and use new names instead of real ones.

    D. The children pretended to be brothers and sisters from one big family.

4．Sendler didn't tell her own children what she did in the war because ________.

    A. she thought it was the most frightening experience

    B. the topic was too painful and heartbreaking to mention

    C. it was already recorded and made known to the public

    D. she planned to bury the secret in her heart until her death

阅读理解

Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer (扫盲志愿者). The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people's lives were like because they could not read, I realize the true importance reading.

    My first student Marie was a 44-year old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn't know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule (时刻表) , she told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn't always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label (标识), she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.

    As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie's self-confidence (自信心), which encouraged her to continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the super-market. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. She sat with him before he went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face, and she began to see how her own hard work in learning to read paid off. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had ever done before.

    As a literacy volunteer, I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.

1．What did the author do last summer?

    A. She worked in the supermarket.

    B. She helped someone to learn to read.

    C. She gave single mothers the help they needed.

    D. She went to a training program to help a literacy volunteer

2．Why didn't Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?

    A. Because she liked to walk to the supermarket.

    B. Because she lived far away from the bus stop.

    C. Because she couldn't afford the bus ticket.

    D. Because she couldn't find the right bus.

3．How did Marie use to find the goods she wanted in the supermarket?

    A. She knew where the goods were in the supermarket.

    B. She asked others to take her to the right place.

    C. She managed to find the goods by their looks.

    D. She remembered the names of the goods.

4．Which of the following statements is true about Marie?

    A. Marie could do things she had not been able to do before.

    B. Marie was able to read stories with the help of her son.

    C. Marie decided to continue her studies in school.

    D. Marie paid for her own lessons.

阅读理解

The United States: Fliers may want to have their tickets in hand before catching their planes, but the airline companies are doing everything they can to bring forward cost-saving ticketless flight—no paper needed, just a ticket number and a photo ID (带照片的身份证).

    Anyone who buys a Northwest E-ticket through the airline's computer service by June 16 will get an award (奖励). Next time you fly, you can buy another ticket for a friend for $ 99, good anywhere in the US or Canada through Feb. 12, 2000, along with the lowest ticket prices. Some airlines offer extra frequent-flier miles for the ticket less crowd. And there are rising punishments for paper lovers. American, Northwest, United, and last week, US Airways have raised the cost for lost ticket replacement (替换) to $ 70 from either $ 60 or $ 50. The airlines insist that the increase in price is not meant to push travelers toward E-tickets but only covers the increasing cost of replacing and tracking a missing ticket.

1．Why is the new ticketless flight introduced?

    A. it is cheaper for air travelers.

    B. It helps reduce the cost for airlines.

    C. It can use computer fliers to plan air traveling.

    D. It helps prevent fliers from losing their tickets.

2．To encourage people to take ticketless flights, the airlines ________.

    A. sell their tickets for $ 99 from June to February the following year

    B. let travelers go to both the US and Canada with the same tickets

    C. allow each other traveler to have an extra $ 99 ticket for a friend of theirs

    D. offer ticketless travelers free miles to fly in the US

3．Who are the paper lovers mentioned in the text?

    A. People who like to have paper airplane tickets.

    B. People who love paper products of various kinds.

    C. People who travel with paper on a plane.

    D. People who have lost their tickets and buy a second one.

4．The airline companies say that they have raised the lost-ticket replacement price in order to ________.

    A. attract travelers to take ticketless flights

    B. punish those who insist on using paper tickets

    C. do better than other airline companies

    D. pay for the work to deal with lost tickets

    The famous Dr. Edward Jenner was busy trying to solve the problems of smallpox. After studying case after case，he still found no possible cure. He had reached an impasse in his thinking. At this point，he changed his tactics (策略). Instead of focusing (集中注意力)on people who had smallpox，he switched his attention to people who did not have smallpox. It turned out that dairymaids(挤奶女工)apparently never got the disease. From the discovery that harmless cowpox gave protection against deadly smallpox came vaccination(种痘)and the end of smallpox as a scourge(灾祸)in the Western world.

    We often reach an impasse in our thinking. We are looking at a problem and trying to solve it and it seems there is a dead-end, and “aporia” (the technical term in logical meaning “no opening”). It is on these occasions that we become tense. we feel pressured, overwhelmed(压倒；不知所措)，in a state of stress(紧张). We struggle vainly(徒劳的), fighting to solve the problem.

    Dr. Jenner, however, did something about this situation. He stopped fighting the problem and simply changed his point of view-from patients to dairymaids, picture the process going something like this：Suppose the brain is a computer. This computer has absorbed into its memory bank all your history, your experiences，your training, your information received，through life, and it is programmed according to all this data. To change your point of view，yon must reprogram your computer，thus freeing yourself to take in new ideas and develop new ways of looking at things. Dr. Jenner，in effect，by reprogramming his computer，erased (清除；忘掉) the old way of looking at his smallpox problem and was free to receive new alternatives (选择的办法).

  1. What does “impasse” (in the second sentence) probably mean?

    A. Dead-end.　　　　　　  　　  B. Depression (压力).

    C. Solution.　　　　　　 　　　　  D. Peak.

  2. How did Dr. Edward Jenner solve the problem of smallpox?

    A. He kept on focusing on people who had smallpox.

    B. He changed his way of thinking by turning to people without smallpox.

    C. Dairymaids advised that he use cowpox to experiment.

    D. He happened to discover cowpox and he experimented with it on dairymaids.

3. What does “reprogramming his computer” mean in the last sentence of the passage?

    A. Change the program of his personal computer.

    B. Fox his personal computer.

    C. look at his problem in a new way.

    D. Wash his brain of old ideas.

  4. We can conclude from the passage that fighting a problem is　　   .

    A. always sensible (明智的；合情理的)　　  B. something useless

    C. annoying　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. rewarding

  5. This passage mainly tells us　　　　 .

    A. the definition of an impasses in thinking

    B. the discovery of vaccination

    C. how to fight a problem

    D. how to change our point of view

If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like “Shakespeare”, “Samuel Johnson” and “Webster,” but none of these men had any effect at all compared with a man who didn't even speak English-William the Conqueror.

    Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived people belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos-Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we call Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.

　　 But this state of affairs did not last. In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating.

When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more “foreign” than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that French influences are all the result of one man's ambition.

1. The two major language spoken in what is now called Great Britain before 1066 were _______.

   A. Welsh and Scottish

 B. Nordic and Germanic

   C. Celtic and Old English

   D. Anglo-Saxon and Germanic

2. Which of the following groups of words are, by inference, rooted in French?

   A. president, lawyer, beef

   B. president, bread, water

   C. bread, field, sheep

   D. folk, field, cow

3. Why does France appear less foreign than Germany to Americans on their first visit to Europe?

   A. Most advertisements in France appear in English.

   B. They know little of the history of the English language.

   C. Many French words are similar to English ones.

   D. They know French better than German.

4. What is the subject discussed in the text?

   A. The history of Great Britain.

   B. The similarity of Great Britain.

   C. The rule of England by William the Conqueror.

   D. The French influences on the English language.

    The opera house in Santa Fe，New Mexico is one of the most beautiful ones in the United States. It is small and open，with one roof over the stage where singers perform and another roof over part of the audience．This opera house in the mountain is one of the best in the country, which may seem surprising because performances are only given during seven weeks in the summer，and because Santa Fe is a very small city．

One reason why the Santa Fe Opera is so good is that it attracts many excellent young singers. They all hope to sing in famous opera houses like Metropolitan in New York someday, and they work hard to become well-known during the summer．The musicians and directors are experts who come from the best orchestras (管弦乐队) and operas in the country during their vacations．They enjoy working there because they like to live in Santa Fe，which is near both the mountains and the desert．It is very beautiful there in the summer.

The state government of New Mexico advertises the Santa Fe Opera in newspapers all over the country, and a great many tourists come to New Mexico because of the opera. Still，most of the audience does come from Santa Fe and other nearby cities, and all the seats in the theater are sold for every show．

    There’s only one thing that some people do not like about the anta Fe Opera, and that is the cold weather. Because the theater is open，performances cannot start before it gets dark at nine o’clock in the evening，and then the mountain air becomes very cool. Sometimes people complain about the cold air，but because the operas are good, these people come back again-wearing warm coats．

1．This passage mainly introduces_________．

  A. a mountain city　　　　 B．young musicians

  C．an opera house　　    D．the tourism in Santa Fe

2．Young singers come to perform in Santa Fe 0pera because_________．

  A．the music quality is high　　    　　  B．they enjoy the climate there

  C．they want to be famous　　　　   D．they like the scenery there

3．It seems surprising that Santa Fe becomes famous because_________．

  A．it is only a very small place

  B．it is between the mountain and desert

  C．all the seats are old for every show

  D．musicians there are from the best orchestras

4．From the passage，we can learn that_________．

  A．the opera house is open without any roofs

  B．musicians always spend vacations in Santa Fe

  C．the government advertises to attract more musicians

  D．performances are held in Santa Fe only after sunset

5．The underlined word “advertise” in Paragraph 3 means_________．

  A．forces others to read    　　   B．makes others know

  C．supports　　　　　　　　   D．praises