(07·全国ⅡB篇)

Some people have the feeling that nothing can be done about their poor reading ability（能力）. They feel hopeless about it. Can you learn to read better, or must you agree that nothing can be done about it?

To be sure, people are different. You cannot to do everything as well as certain other people do. It al the students in a class tried out for basketball, some would be very good players; others would be very poor; and many would be in between. But even the very poor players can become much better players if they are guided in the right way, and with plenty of practice. It is the same with reading. Some seem to enjoy reading and to read well without any special help. Others find reading a slow and tiring job. In between, there are all degrees of reading ability.

Many experiments have shown that just about every poor reader can improve his reading ability. In these experiments, the poor readers were given tests of reading ability. After some of the causes of their poor reading were discovered, they were given special instruction and practice in reading. After a few months, another test of the same kind was given. In nearly all cases, these people had raised their reading scores.

46.With the example of basketball players, the author shows ____.
A. why certain people are poor readers                

B. that there are differences in people’s abilities
C. why some people are good basketball players   

D. that good basketball players can be good readers

47.To improve their reading ability, people should ____.
A. work long and hard                                        B. take different forms of tests
C. have special help and practice                          D. try different reading materials

48.The experiments mentioned in the text show that ____.
A. good readers seem to enjoy reading                 

B. almost all poor readers can make progress
C. causes of poor reading are difficult to find out 

D. tests help people improve their reading ability

 (07·全国ⅠE篇)

Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time (DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.  

In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought（干旱）. The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.

Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals（节日）. For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended（延长）daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major differences, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television.

72. Daylight Saving Time was introduced in Tasmania _______________.

   A. to stop the drought in 1967           B. to support government officials

   C. to pass a special law in the state       D. to save water and electricity

73. According to the text, which state was the last to use DST?

   A. Victoria.                          B. Queensland.

   C. South Australia.                    D. New South Wales.

74. What can we learn about DST in some Australian states?

   A. It doesn’t have fixed dates.            B. It is not used in festivals.

   C. Its plan was changed in 2000.          D. It lasts for two weeks.

75. What do we know about the use of DST from the last paragraph?

   A. There exist some undesirable effects.    B. It helps little to save energy.

   C. It brings about longer working days.     D. Radio and TV programs become different.

 (07·山东B篇)

If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year

there is no new Harry Patten J.K Powling’s wizard is not alone the past decade has been a harvest

for good children’s books ,which has set off a large quantity of films and an increased sales of

classics such as The lard of the Rings.

Yet despite that ,reading is increasingly unpopular among children .According to statistics in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading in all . In 2003, 35% did . And around 6% of children leave

primary school each year unable to read properly.

Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computes games. Maybe the

books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile . Either way , Chancellor Cordon

Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report , he announced

the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.

Reading Recovery is wined at six year olds ,who receive four months of individual daily

half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher . An evaluation either this year reported that

children on the school made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers

without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the

level expected for their age.

International research tends to find that when British children leave primacy school they read well ,but read text often for fun than those elsewhere .Reading for fun matters because children who are been on reading can report lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success . According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.

60．Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?

A．Marry children’s books have been adapted from films.

B．Marry high-quality children’s books have been published .

C．The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films.

D．The sales of presents for children have increased.

61．Statistics suggested that _________.

.   A．the number of top students increased with the use of computers

B．a decreasing number of  children showed interest in reading

C．a minority of primacy school children read properly

D．a huge percentage of children read regularly

62．What do we know about Reading Recovery?

A．An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year.

B．Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking.

C．It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading.

D．Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading.

63．Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.

A．take greater advantage of the project

B．show the potential to enjoy a long life

C．are likely to succeed in their education.

D．would make excellent future researchers

64．The arm of this text would probably be _________.

A．to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty.

B．to encourage the publication of more children’s books

C．to remind children of the importance of reading for fun

D．to introduce a way to improve early children reading

 (08·四川A篇)

The meaning of the word “volunteer” may be a little different in different countries,but it usually means “one who offers his or her services.”There are many different ways in which people can volunteer,such as taking care of sick people,working in homes for homeless children,and picking up garbage(垃圾)from beaches and parks.Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries.They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves.Volunteers don’t expect any kind of pay.

At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people.Tracy,a good friend of mine,however,recently came back from India with a new idea of what being a volunteer means.She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa’s homes in Calcutta.The following is her story.

“I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school,we watched a video(录像)about her work in India and all over the world. I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school,I too wanted to try her kind of work.So with two friends I flew to Calcutta for a few weeks.”

“I was asked to work in a home for sick people.I helped wash clothes and sheets,and pass out lunch.I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer the up.I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them.To be honest,I don’t think I was helping very much.It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help,but to learn about and experience another culture(文化)that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world.”

36.According to the text,a volunteer refers to a person who        .

A.is willing to help those in need without pay

B.can afford to travel to different places

C.has a strong wish to be successful

D.has made a big fortune in life

37.Tracy started her work as a volunteer        .

A.after she met Mother Teresa

B.after she finished high school

C.when she was touring Calcutta

D.when she was working in a hospital

38.Why did Tracy choose to be a volunteer?

A.She liked to work with Mother Teresa.

B.She had already had some experience.

C.She was asked by Mother Teresa to do so.

D.She wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s example.

39.What is Tracy’s “new idea”(Paragraph 2)of being a volunteer?

A.Going abroad to help the sick.

B.Working in Mother Teresa’s home.

C.Doing simple things to help the poor.

D.Improving oneself through helping others.

 (08·湖南D篇)

Celebrity(名人) has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture.Fans used to be crazy about a specific film,but now the public tends to base its consumption(消费) on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product.Besides,fashion magazines have almost abandoned the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces.As a result,celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful market potential,

moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own.

Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon,but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers,and limited to a few TV actresses.Today  they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands.The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style.As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market,they expand their production scale rapidly,covering almost all the poducts of daily life.

However,for every success story,there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal.No matter how famous the product’s origin is,if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble an exercise in self-promotional marketing.And once the initial(最初的) attention dies down,consumer interest might fade,loyalty(忠诚) returning to tried-and-true labels.

Today,celebrities face even more severe embarrassment.The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever,but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well.Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life,and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears.Still,the ego’s(自我的) potential for expansion is limitless.Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition,many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered.As the saying goes,success and failure always go hand in hand.Their success as designers might last only a short time,but fashion—like celebrity—has always been temporary.

69.Fashion magazines today         .

A.seldom put models on the cover

B.no longer put models on the cover

C.need not worry about celebrities’market potential

D.judge the market potential of every celebrity correctly

70.A change in the consumer market can be found today that         .

A.price rather than brand name is more concerned

B.producers prefer models to celebrities for advertisements

C.producers prefer TV actresses to film stars for advertisements

D.quality rather than the outside of products is more concerned

71.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 indicates that any wrong step will possibly         .

A.decrease the popularity of a celebrity and the sales of his products

B.damage the image of a celebrity in the eyes of the general public

C.cut short the artistic career of a celebrity in show business

D.influence the price of a celebrity’s products

72.The passage is mainly about         .

A.celebrity and personal style

B.celebrity and market potential

C.celebrity and fashion design

D.celebrity and clothing industry

 (08·全国ⅡB篇)

The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class,a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found.Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.

Jonathan Harrington,a professor at Germany’s University of Munich,wanted to discover whether accent(口音) changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person.“As far as I know,there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,”he said.

He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels(元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years.“Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago.But these are very,very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”

“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,”he told The Daily Telegraph,a British  newspaper.“In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’.Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’.Similarly,she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and’dutay’,rather than ‘citee’and‘dutee’,and‘hame’rather than‘home’.In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’,but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”

The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries.Each Christmas,the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch(传统火鸡午餐).

The results were published(发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.

45.The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because         .

A.she has been Queen for many years

B.she has a less upper-class accent now

C.her speeches are familiar to many people

D.her speeches have been recorded for 50 years

46.Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?

A.“Dutay”.          B.“Citee”.          C.“Hame”.         D.“Lorst”.

47.We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on         .

A.speech sounds                                         B.Christmas customs

C.TV broadcasting                               D.personal messages

48.What is the text mainly about?

A.The relationship between accents and social classes.

B.The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV.

C.The changes in a person’s accent.

D.The recent development of the English language.

 (08·全国ⅠE篇)

Edward Wilson is America’s，if not the world’s，leading naturalist.In The Future of Life，he takes us on a tour of the world’s natural resources(资源).How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use?Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性) of our earth.

Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment(环境) protection，Henry David Thorean.He compares today’s Walden Pond with that of

Thorean’s day.Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book.The problem is clear:man has done great damage to his home over the years.Can the earth，with human help，be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?

Biodiversity，Wilson argues，is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today.Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it.A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply，of which but twenty carry the load.Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of，which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.

At the end of the book，Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment.If you are to continue to live on the earth，you may well read and act on the ideas in this book.

72.We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about        .

A.the environment for plants                 B.the biodiversity of our earth

C.the waste of natural resources            D.the importance of human values

73.How many species are most important to our present food supply?

A.Twenty.               B.Eighty.        C.One hundred.             D.Ten thousand.

74.Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to        .

A.learn how to farm scientifically    B.build homes for some dying species

C.make it clear what to eat                    D.use more species for food

75.We can infer that the text is        .

A.a description of natural resources

B.a research report

C.a book review

D.an introduction to a scientist

 (08·天津D篇)

We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively(被动地). We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.

We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.

Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor(谣言).

Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.

That’s what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping（打上标记）it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.

This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be restated as a fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.

48. According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______.

   A. doing a medical experiment                   B. solving a math problem

   C. visiting an exhibition                             D. doing scientific reasoning

49. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.

   A. active learning                                        B. knowledge

   C. communication                                       D. passive learning

50. The author mentions the game Rumor to show that _____.

   A. a message may be changed when being passed on

   B. a message should be delivered in different ways

   C. people may have problems with their sense of hearing

   D. people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor

51. What can we infer from the passage?

   A. Active learning is less important.               B. Passive learning may not be reliable.

   C. Active learning occurs more frequently.     D. Passive learning is not found among scholars.

 (08·陕西C篇)

This was no ordinary class. The students who came together were all science or engineering professors at Cornell University. They had interrupted their research to accept an invitation to take part in an unusual experiment: “an interesting week of poetry”. This class was part of a study to answer the questions: Why is science difficult for many nonscience students? What can teachers learn about teaching if they take a class that is not in their field?

The students in the poetry class listened to lectures and took notes. They had reading tasks and had to write three short papers. All students noticed one thing—the importance of spoken words. In science and engineering classes, the instructors put tables and drawings on the blackboard. But in this poetry class, the instructors just talked. They didn’t write anything on the board.

The scientists and engineers noticed one similarity between science and poetry. In both subjects, students need to find layers (层次)　of meaning . Some layers are simple, clear, and on the surface; other layers are deeper and more difficult. This search for different levels of meaning doesn’t happen much in undergraduate(本科)　science classes, but it is important later, in graduate school. And it is always important in humanities(人文科学).

Both the poetry instructors and their students learned something about teaching from this experience. One poetry instructor, for example, now sees the importance of using informative as he teaches. Most of the scientists agreed on several points. First, humanities classes might help science students to see patterns and decide which information is important. Second, the poetry class was fun. One engineer decided, “We need to change the way we teach engineering to make it an enjoyable experience for students.”

But perhaps the most important result of the experience was this:All of the professors began to think about how they teach and how they can teach better.

49. What do we know about this unusual class?

A. The teachers did lots of writing on the board.

B. The teacher were invited to attend several lectures.

C. The students were professors from a university.

D. The students were studying science and humanities.

50. The experiment was designed to find out       .

   A. how to teach the students in the science class

B. whether poetry is difficult for science students

C. what to be taught in the humanities class

D. why many humanities students find science hard

51. Finding levels of meaning is       .

   A. important for graduate students in humanities

B. difficult for graduate students in humanities

C. common for undergraduate students in science

D. easy for undergraduate students in science

52. What did the science professors learn after the experiment?

   A. They should change the way they teach.

B. A poem could be explained in clear definitions.

C. A poetry class could be more informative.

D. Their teaching was an enjoyable experience.

 (08·陕西B篇)

Photographs are everywhere. They decorate (装饰) the walls of homes and are used in stores for sales of different goods. The news is filled with pictures of fires, floods, and special events. Photos record the beauties of nature. They can also bring things close that are far away. Through photos, people can see wild animals, cities in foreign lands, and even the stars in outer space. Photos also tell stories.

Reporting the news through photos is called photojournalism. At times photojournalists tell their stories through a single picture. At other times, they use a group of pictures to tell a story. Each picture is like a chapter in a book, which can do more than record the facts. It can also be a strong force for social change.

Jacob Riis was among the first photojournalists. He took pictures of parts of New York City where the poor lived. Riis believed that poverty(贫穷)　caused crime, and he used photos to help him prove his point. A few years later, the photos of small children working in factories by Lewis Hine shocked the public. Hine’s pictures helped bring about laws to protect such children.

Hundreds of pictures may have to be taken in order to get one or two really good photos. It takes science to have the photo come out clearly and art to make a photo that has a good design and expresses feeling. Photojournalists make an actual record of what they see. A photo, however, can be both a work of art and an actual record. It can record an important event as a beautiful or exciting picture.

As historical and artistic documents(文献) ,photos can become more important over time. Today photojournalists still have their pictures appear in newspapers and magazines. They also publish(发表) them in books and on the Internet.

45. The underlined word “They” in the first paragraph refers to         .

A. beauties                B. photos                 C. goods          D. events

46. The photos of the small children by Hine show us that photos            .

A. are also works of art                               B. are popular ways of reporting news

C. often shock the public                              D. can serve as a force for social change

47. What can we learn from the passage?

A. News with pictures is encouraging.           

B. Photos help people improve their life.

C. News photos mean history in a sense.    

D. People prefer reading news with pictures.

48. The text is mainly about       .

A. telling the story through pictures                B. decorating the walls of homes

C. publishing historical papers                     D. expressing feeling through pictures