Susan Sontag (1933 -- 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of  literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything -- to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American cultural life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.

Seriousness was one of Sontag's lifelong watchwords (格言), but at a time when the  barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In "Notes on Camp", the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. "Notes on Camp", she wrote, represents "a victory of 'form' over 'content', 'beauty' over 'morals'".

     By conviction (信念) she was a sensualist (感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist (伦理学者), and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor -- published in 1978, after she suffered cancer -- she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities (被压抑的个性), a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.

     In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. "Sometimes," she once said, "I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending ... is the idea of seriousness, of tree seriousness." And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.

71. The underlined sentence in Paragraph I means Sontag _______.

    A. was a symbol of American cultural life   B. developed world literature, film and art

    C. published many essays about world culture

    D. kept pace with the newest development of world culture

72. She first won her name through_______.

    A. her story of a Polish actress            B. her book Illness as Metaphor

    C. publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review

    D. her explanation of a set of difficult understandings

73. According to the passage, Susan Sontag____.

    A. was a sensualist as well as a moralist     B. looked down upon the pop culture

    C. thought content was more important than form

    D. blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed

74. As for Susan Sontag's lifelong habit, she______.

    A. misunderstood the idea of seriousness    B. re-examined old positions

    C. argued for an openness to pop culture    D. preferred morals to beauty

75. Susan Sontag's lasting fame was made upon _____ .

    A. a tireless, all-purpose cultural view      B. her lifelong watchword: seriousness

    C. publishing books on morals

    D. enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing

     The discovery of a dwarfed (矮个的) "human being" who lived in Flores, Indonesia, up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family. This "Flores Human" was three foot tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp (黑猩猩), yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives. They seem to have made tools, worked together to find food and cook it, and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.

     It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member. The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils (化石) from our own species, Homo sapiens (智人), and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago, much too late to be responsible for the tools. If this tiny human made the tools, then the inside structure (结构) of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp's, despite being just a third the size of ours.

     This "'new human" was suspected to be a dwarfed branch of Homo erectus (直立人). When creatures are separated in regions with rare resources but few enemies, being big is a disadvantage, and evolution tends to shrink them, a process known as island dwarfing. Could natural selection make a human smaller while keeping -- even improving mental ability? Quite possibly, believes Christopher Wills of the University of California.

     Has the "Flores Human" even shown the ability of language? "I find it difficult to imagine that people ，could make tools, use fire, and kill large animals without fairly

advanced communication." Wills says. Did "Flores Human" possess the basic components

of human culture -- such as the burying of the dead with ceremony? Emiliano Bruner of the

Italian Institute points out that Indonesia's hot, wet environment is bad for fossilization. It is

reasonable to assume, he says, that the 18,000-year-old bones of the most complete Flores

woman were well-preserved because she was buried with special care.   

67. According to the passage, "Flores Human"_____.

    A. lived a partly human life          B. was a branch of Homo sapiens

    C. used tools before Homo sapiens arrived

    D. had a brain as large as a common chimp's

68. The underlined part "this tiny human" in Paragraph 2 refers to

    A. a chimp   B. Flores Human    C. Homo sapiens     D. Homo erectus

69. This passage mainly talks about______.

    A. the tools made by "Flores Human"   B. the language used by "Flores Human"

    C. the evolution of "Flores Human"

    D. the major surprising findings about "Flores Human"

70. According to the passage, it is believed that "Flores Human"______.

    A. was dwarfed by its enemies         B. could use language

    C. left a lot of fossils in the hot and wet environment

    D. reached Flores 40,000 years ago

     The coyote (丛林狼), that clever animal of wide-open spaces, has come to the nation's capital. In fact, coyotes have spread to every comer of the United States, changing their behaviors to fit new environments and causing researchers to deal with a troublesome new kind of creature: the city coyote.

     The coyote originally lived in the middle of the continent. One of its most obvious characters is its smartness, which has made the animal a notorious (臭名昭著的) pest. Hunters trapped, shot and poisoned more than a million coyotes in the 1900s. It's still one of America's most hunted animals. Yet the coyote has survived. How has the coyote shown this extraordinary ability? "I guess if you wanted to use one word, it'd be 'plasticity'," says Eric Gese, an expert at Utah State University. Coyotes can live alone, in pairs, or in large packs like wolves; hunt at night or during the day; occupy a small region or an area up to 40 square miles; and live on all sorts of food, from lizards and shoes, to ants and melons.

      Unbelievably people helped coyotes increase when they killed most of the wolves in the United States. The spreading of coyotes into city areas, though, is recent. They travel at night, crossing sidewalks and bridges, running along roads and ducking into culverts (钻入 涵洞) and underpasses. No one knows why coyotes are moving into cities., but experts explain that cleverer, more human-tolerant (不怕人的) coyotes are teaching urban survival skills to new generations.

      Occasionally, coyotes might attack human beings. There have been about 160 attacks on people in recent years. Therefore, people have been consistently told not to feed coyotes or leave pet food unsecured. That, plus a large trapping program in the neighborhood, has cut down on the coyote population.

63. The underlined word "plasticity" in Paragraph 2 refers to______

    A. the ability to fit the environment         B. notorious smartness

    C. hunting ability                      D. being human-tolerant

64. The aim of the passage is to______

    A. tell people how to fight against coyotes

    B. tell us why the coyote is the most hunted animal

    C. supply the reason why the coyote is a kind of notorious pest

    D. explain how the coyote has spread to and survived in cities

65. According to the passage, coyotes_______

    A. originally lived in the west of the continent

    B. sleep during the day but look for food at night

    C. are teaching survival skills to their younger generations

    D. suffered a population decrease because people killed wolves

66. According to the passage, to cut down on the coyote population, people are advised to_______

    A. leave pet food secured                 B. keep coyotes in small regions

    C. force coyotes to live alone              D. avoid using trapping programs

     For the first time in modem history, less than half of the U.S. adult population now reads literature, according to a recent survey. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America presents a detailed review of the decline of reading's role in the nation's culture.

     Reading at Risk is a survey of national fashion in adult literary reading. The data source for Reading at Risk is as reliable and objective (客观的) as any such survey can be. The key results of the survey are presented in the "Summary", but the report can be further explained as: literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has been speeded up, especially among the young. Reading at Risk merely shows a great cultural change that most Americans have already noted our society's great turn to electronic media for entertainment and information.    

Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and devotion. Indeed, reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. On the contrary, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and indeed often require no more than passive participation. While oral culture has a rich reality and electronic media offer the considerable advantages of variety, print culture affords irreplaceable forms of focused attention and thought that make various communications and views possible. The decline in reading, therefore, equals a larger retreat (减少) from participation in public and cultural life.

     What is to be done? There is surely no single solution to the present problem, just as there is no single cause. The important thing now is to understand that America can no longer take active and devoted reading for granted.

     Reading is not a timeless, common ability. As more Americans lose this ability, our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent minded. These are not qualities that a free, inventive, or productive society can afford to lose.

59. The main purpose of the survey is to_______.

    A. focus on the role of electronic media and reading

    B. show that American young people read less and less

    C. give a report of the national fashion of literary reading

    D. review that less than half of the population now reads literature

60. According to the passage, reading_______ .

A. requires less attention and devotion  

B. demands no more than passive participation

    C. limits various communications and views

    D. means active participation in public and cultural life

61. The underlined phrase "cultural change" in Paragraph 2 refers to the change________.

   A. from oral culture to electronic media   B. from print culture to electronic media

   C. from electronic media to oral culture   D. from electronic media to print culture

62. The author of the passage_______ .

    A. misunderstands oral culture

    B. doubts the results of the survey

    C. encourages the Americans to read more

    D. agrees to the solution to the present problem in reading

                  A NATIONWIDE BESTSELLER

It's likely that everything you learned about America's ancient history is wrong.

   The new book, 1491, completely changes our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

                DID YOU KNOW?

   When Columbus landed there were probably more people in the Americas than there were in Europe.

   The peoples of North America had such healthy life-styles that as late as the 19th century they continued to be the tallest people on earth.

   Facts have shown that the Americas were populated as long as 33,000 years ago.

     4,000 years ago Mesoamerican farmers developed corn in a feat (技艺) of genetic engineering that still isn't completely understood.

                        COMMENTS ON 1491

     "In the tradition of Jared Diamond & John McPhee, a totally new view of pie-Columbian America"                                                               

--Richard Rhodes

     "Attractively written and really absorbing ... Charles C. Mann has produced a book that's part detective story, part epic (史诗) and part tragedy (悲剧). He has taken on a vast topic: thousands of years, two huge continents, and cultures."

                                          -- Charles Matthews, San Jose Mercury News

     "Powerful and challenging"

                                                     --Alan Taylor, Washington Post

     "A pleasure to read as well as a wonderful education"                     

-- Howard Zinn

56. On the whole, 1491 is a book mainly about America's_______ .

    A. life-styles       B. population       C. history         D. agriculture

57. Which of the following is NOT TRUE about the comments on the book 1491 ?

   A. It is interesting and instructive.        B. It is attractive and culturally related

   C. It is challenging and revolutionary.     D. It is humorous and persuasive.

58. From this passage, we can learn______ .

   A. people settled in the Americas a little earlier than 1492

   B. North Americans were the tallest in the 18th century in the world

   C. Mesoamerican farmers knew genetic engineering 5,000 years ago

   D. the population in the Americas was smaller than that in Europe in 1492

I returned to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, after college graduation. I had been there before my mother became a minister.

Two weeks later, 1 told my mother I was bored. She said, "Here're the car keys. Go and buy some fruit.    36   , I jumped into the car and speeded off.

Seeing me or rather my  37 , a boy sprang up (跳起来）， 38   to sell his bananas and peanuts. "Banana 300 naira. Peanut 200 naira!"

Looking at his black-striped bananas, I   39   to 200 total for the fruit and nuts. He   40   . I handed him a 500 naira note. He didn't have   41   , so I told him not to worry. He was    42    and smiled a row of perfect teeth.

When, two weeks later, I    43    this same boy, I was more aware of my position in Nigerian society. I should   44   this country as the son of a  45   . But it was hard to find pleasure in a place where it was so    46    to see a little boy who should have been in school selling fruit.

"What's up?" I asked. He answered in   47    English, "I ... I no get money to buy book." I took out two 500 naira notes. He looked around    48    before sticking his hand into the car   49    the bills, One thousand naira means a lot to a family that    50   only 50,000 each year.

    The next morning, security officers told me, "In this place, when you give a little, people think you're a fountain of Opportunity (机会)."

     51    it's right, but this happens everywhere in the world. I wondered if my little friend had actually used the money for    52   .

 After six months' work in northern Nigeria, I returned and saw him again standing on the road.

    "Are you in school now?"

    He nodded.              

    A silence fell as we looked at each other, then I    53    what he wanted. I held out a 500 naira note. "Take this."

   He shook his head fiercely and stepped back    54  hurt.

   "It's a gift." I said.

    Shaking his head again, he handed me a basket of bananas and peanuts. "I've been waiting to    55    these to you."

 In a room above the store, where a party_______ , some workers were busily setting the table.

     A. was to beheld    B. has been held     C. will be held    D. is being held.

With his work completed, the businessman stepped back to his seat, feeling pleased ______ he was a man of action.

     A. which          B. that            C. what          D. whether   

 As the twentieth century, come to a close, the raw .materials for a great national literature were at hand, waiting_______ .

     A. to use          B. to be used       C. to have used     D. to be using  

Some aspects of a pilot's job        be boring, and pilots often       work at inconvenient hours.

     A. can; have to     B. may; can    C. have to; may     D. ought to; must