Recently, one of my best friends, whom I’ve shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me. Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we’ve both always looked forward to the few times a year when we can see each other.
Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with. She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how he experimented with drugs and was into other self-destructive behavior. I was blown away! She told me how she had been lying to her parents about where she was going and even stealing out to see this guy because they didn’t want her around him. No matter how hard I tried to tell her that she deserved better, she didn’t believe me. Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared.
I tried to convince her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting nowhere. I just couldn’t believe that she really thought it was acceptable to hang with a bunch of losers, especially her boyfriend.
By the time she left, I was really worried about her and exhausted by the experience. It had been so frustrating, I had come close to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to continue our friendship，but I didn’t. I put the power of friendship to the final test. We’d been friends for far too long. I had to hope that she valued me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted to believe that our friendship could conquer anything.
A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our conversation, and then she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend. I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had I been so proud of a friend.
56. In the writer’s opinion, her friend ________.
A. was a girl with no self-respect
B. could find a better boyfriend
C. was brave enough to stick to her own choice
D. didn’t value the writer’s suggestion
57. What did the writer worry about?
A. She would lose the friendship with her.
B. Her friend’s parents would be worried about their daughter.
C. Her friend would get into great trouble with the boy.
D. Her friend’s boyfriend would be in great trouble.
58. We may leam from Paragraph 3 that the writer ________.
A. didn’t want to go anywhere else
B. hated her friend’s hanging with her boyfriend
C. couldn’t believe that her friend’s choice was acceptable
D. doubted that she could in any way help her friend
59. What can be concluded from the passage?
A. Friendship starting from childhood is not reliable.
B. Friendship is a cure for any injury in life.
C. Friendship should be everlasting once begun.
D. Friendship can have magical power in life.

   
D
When a storm is coming, most people leave the area as quickly as possible and head for safety…But there are a few people who will get into their cars and go straight for the center of the storm．These people are willing to risk (冒…危险) being killed by floods or 100-Kilometer- an-hour winds for the excitement of watching the storm close up．
“Storm chasing (追逐)”is becoming an increasingly popular hobby (喜好) ，especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frequent storms between March and July．A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to l,000 kilometers to where the storm will be and waits for it to develop．
Although anyone can do it，storm chasing is extremely dangerous．The power of a big storm  can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds．Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain．If you are a beginner, it is much safer to join a group for storm - chasing vacations during the storm season．
Even then，storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement．“Storm chasing is 95％driving，”says Daniel Lynch，who spends most of his summer storm-chasing．“Sometimes you
Can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen，and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers.”
However，for storm chasers，it is all worth it. “When you get close to a storm，it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life，”says Jasper Morley．“Every storm is an example of the power of nature．It is the greatest show on Earth．”
57．For storm chasing，the first thing storm chasers do is to       ．
A．head straight for the center of the storm   
B．get into the car for safety
C．wait patiently for the storm to develop
D．collect information about a coming storm
58．Beginners of storm chasing are advised_______
A．not to drive in a heavy rain   
B．to do it in an organized way
C．not to get too close to a storm
D．to spend more time on it in summer
59．By saying“it is all worth it”in the last paragraph，the author means that______
A．storm chasing costs a lot of money
B．storm chasing is worth hours of waiting
C．efforts in storm chasing are well paid
D．a storm presents the greatest show on Earth
60．What can we learn from the text?
A．Sometimes storm chasers get nothing but disappointment． 
B．Many storm chasers get killed in the storms．
C．Storm chasing is becoming popular around the world．
D．Storm chasing is only fit for young people

C
Sitting in a dark movie theater with your friends. and a tub of popcorn (H^) sounds like a perfect way to spend a Saturday night, and it could be, if you are willing to share your popcorn with the entire row of moviegoers around you.
A review of movie-theater popcorn reveals an alarming amount of fat, salt and calories in even the smallest sizes. A large tub of popcorn at Regal Cinemas, for example, holds 20 cups of popcorn and has 1,200 calories, 980 milligrams of sodium (钠) and 60 grams of saturated (饱和的) fat. Adding just a tablespoon of butter adds 130 calories. And do not forget that it comes with free refills.
Not so hungry? The medium size popcorn, even the small, at 11 cups, delivers 670 calories, 550 milligrams of sodium .and 24 grams of saturated fat. The findings may surprise those who believe it is a relatively healthy snack. In fact, plain air-popped popcorn is low in calories and free of saturated fat. Movie theater popcorn, however, is popped in oil, often coconut oil, which is 90 percent saturated fat. Add salt to it, and your once-healthy snack turns into a health offender.
One way to make your popcorn healthier? Ask the theater to pop the corn without salt. The best way to make your movie snack healthier, however, would be to skip the popcorn.
"You could share a tub of popcorn with 10 friends," Dr. Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, said. "Or, what a concept, watch the movie without eating anything."
64. The review finds that movie theatre popcorn may contain all the following EXCEPT ______.
A. butter           B. sodium                 C. saturated fat         D. pepper
65. What does the author think of popcorn prepared in coconut oil?
A. It is a healthy snack.                        B. It does harm to our health.               C. It looks like a perfect choice.                 D. It is very nutritious.
66. Which kind of popcorn causes the least health concern?
A. Movie theatre popcorn.                                 B. Popcorn sold at Regal Cinemas.          C. Large size popcorn.                                      D. Plain air-popped popcorn.
67. What is Dr. Nestle's suggestion to moviegoers?
A. Avoid eating popcorn.                                  B. Share popcorn with friends.              C. Not eating anything in the movie theatre.          D. Try eating other kind of food.

 
D
In the computer age, most of us take a broadband Internet connection for granted. Whether cable or mobile broadband, today’s connections are many times faster than those in the early days. Videos play smoothly, complex websites load quickly, and files download much faster than ten years ago. And the files are much bigger too.
There’s a catch, of course: You have to live near enough to a major city to get broadband Internet. If you don’t, it’s slow dial-up access for you. And for those living really far out, there may be no Internet access at all.
Technology experts often talk about the “last mile” problem, which refers to the difficulty of bringing Internet access to remote locations. In cities and suburbs, it’s relatively easy to provide access for everyone. It is much more difficult to deliver access to those living far from cities, especially in developing countries. Internet service providers, for their part, have been reluctant to provide access to sparsely (稀疏地) populated areas. The handful of Internet users they would reach wouldn’t cover the expense.
But every year, technological advancements allow of more and more Internet users. Most broadband connections today run over existing cable TV and telephone lines although these technologies aren’t available everywhere.
Some companies have delivered the Internet over standard power lines. Advancements in cheaper, more efficient fiber optics cables (光纤电缆) promise to bring extremely fast Internet connections to more users.
Still, the “last mile” problem remains hard to deal with. There will always be somewhere that doesn’t have an affordable broadband connection. But someday that might not matter. If the rapid progress in cell phone technology is any indication (迹象), it may not be too long before an Internet connection simply follows you wherever you go.
68. The underlined part “a catch” (in Paragraph 2) probably means “_____”.
A. a rare challenge                                           B. a desirable plan       
C. an efficient device                                D. a hidden problem
69. What can we know from the third paragraph?
A. Internet connection has not been popular in most cities.
B. Internet service providers care about rural customers.
C. Computer is popular in developing countries.
D. It is hard to bring Internet access to users in remote areas.
70. Paragraph 4 mainly tells us that technological advancements _____.
A. make TV and telephone available everywhere
B. bring great change to people’s everyday life
C. make it possible for more people to use the Internet
D. bring faster Internet connections to users
71. What may eventually settle the “last mile” problem?
A. The broadband connection’s getting faster.
B. More and more Internet users.
C. more and more Internet connections.
D The rapid progress in cell phone technology.

How old was I? I can’t recall. Maybe I was only 10, about to turn 11, making it the first Christmas after my father left, and left me to fill that sad, shattered place in my mother’s heart. Whenever it was, it was the Christmas the magic changed: the year I stopped being a wide-eyed child and tried eagerly to play Father Christmas myself. It was the Christmas of the coat.
Mom first saw the coat at Tobias, one of the nicer women’s stores in our town’s little mall. It was a deep forest green. A long, heavy, wool dress coat with side pockets. Mom pulled it out from the rack（架） and held it up. “Long enough,”she murmured and slipped it on.
“I need a new coat,” Mom smiled before the three-way mirror. She made any clothing look good, and this coat hugged her just right. She glanced at the price tag, then hung the coat back on the rack, pausing once more to feel the smooth brush of wool.
Eighty-seven dollars. But I didn’t think twice. As we moved on through the mall, I found some excuse to come back and ask one of the Tobias ladies to hold the coat.
At last I had the coat. The store ladies wrapped it in their biggest box with bright blue paper and a thick silver ribbon. I don’t remember how I got it home, but I can still feel the bursting excitement and pride that filled me each time I glimpsed at the beautifully wrapped gift hiding under my sweater. I would occasionally dig it out just to hold the box, to imagine the big space it would take up under our tree. Here it was ─ joy, peace, and love ─ all wrapped up, waiting for Mom’s loving gratitude.
36. That the writer’s mother felt the coat before they left the store showed that ____.
A. the coat was of good quality                 B. the coat was too expensive
C. she liked the coat very much                D. she’d get it in the end
37. The writer tried to act as Father Christmas in order to ____.
A. show he grew up                                               B. show he missed his father
C. bring his mother a surprise                            D. enjoy himself
38. The writer hid the coat under his sweater in order to ____.
A. imagine the space taken up under the Christmas tree
B. feel the strong feeling to his mother on Christmas
C. give his mother a big surprise on Christmas Day
D. keep the new coat tidy and orderly in the box
39. What can be the best title of this passage?
A. A Merry Christmas                                  B. Christmas of the Coat
C. A Deep Green Coat                                 D. Mother’s Merry Christmas

C
When asked to point out one or two things that are most important to themselves, many put friends ahead of homes, jobs, clothes and cars.
A true friendship carries a long history of experience that determines who we are and keeps us connected. It is a treasure we should protect. Unfortunately, the better friends you are, the more probably you’ll have disagreements. And the result can be what you don’t want an end to the relationship.
The good news is that most troubled friendships can be mended First, don’t’ let your pride get in your way. Most of us can forgive each other when differences are brought out in the open. Second, apologize when you’re wrong – even if you’ve been wronged. Over the course of a friendship, even the best people make mistakes. Sometimes, it may be best if the wronged person takes the lead and apologizes. When you apologize, give your friend a chance to admit that he has been wrong. Third, see things from your friend’s point of view. And finally, accept that friendships change as our needs and lifestyles change. Making friends can sometimes seem easy. The hard part is keeping the connections strong during the natural ups and downs that have an effect on all relationships. My suggestion: Consider friendship an honor and a gift, and worth the effort to treasure and nurture.
64. What would be the best title for the text?
A. Easy Ways to Make Friends            B. Ups and Downs in Friendship
C. How to Mend a Troubled Friendship      D. How to Take the Lead in Making Friends
65. The “wronged person” underlined in the text refers to a person _______.
A. who has been mistaken for another        B. who has been blamed unfairly
C. who has treated friends badly             D. who has admitted his mistakes
66. According to the text a friendship can last long only if _______.
A. we have much in common              B. we know our friends’ mistakes
C. we treat our disagreements wisely      D. we have know one another for long
67. What should we do if we follow the author’s second suggestion?
A. Stick to our own prints of view           B. Avoid making mistakes
C. Make an apology first               D. Change our lifestyles

B
Piercings（穿洞）have moved up on the trend list in recent Tattoos（纹身）and body years. Around Western schools lots of teens are sporting new holes and flesh ink. Like all other subjects, we’ll surely be faced with such situation. To get a better view of what has happened in the West, let’s sit down and hear what they say.
Kerstin Otto from Washington:
The hotter it gets and the more layers of clothing disappear, the more tattoos and piercings appear on various places of the human body, I wouldn’t be caught dead with a snake tattooed on my ankle or with a piece of metal stuck in my belly button.
Tiara from Indiana:
I personally think body piercing is sickening. If there were supposed to be holes in your body, you would have been born with them. I do, however, think that ear piercing, is not wrong.  There is a difference between ear piercing and belly button piercing. Ear piercing is not nearly as dangerous. I would be sick if someone stuck a needle in my belly button.
Lee from Illinois:
Hi! I live in Illinois. I am 23. I have 12 tattoos and three piercings. I love my tattoos
and consider myself an art collector. You would be surprised at who has given me the thumbs-up on my art work. People on the street stop me to look at that on my leg. Most of them don’t know what it is. They just think the work itself is great.
Nagib from Washington:
I wanted an earring. My friends had them and it looked like a cool thing. I wanted to get a nose ring, but my mum wouldn’t let me. Now I’m glad I didn’t get it. I just wanted a little stud, but I wouldn’t have looked good with it.
Jackson from Ohio:
I don’t think it’s wrong, but when people do it all over the place like their face and everything —I think that’s ridiculous. People who get the big dragons that cover your whole body—I don’t think that’s necessary. When I see naked chicks on guys, I think. “You have no respect for women.”
Brittney from New York:
You don’t want to do stuff to your body. You don t need to do that because you were made perfect. You don’t need to add piercings. If it will make you feel beautiful and you really feel like you need to do it for yourself, then okay. If it really makes a big difference impacting your self-esteem and how you are towards others, then do it. But otherwise, don’t mess with what you got. Maybe you should try something more substantial（充实的）to find beauty in yourself.
60. Who is wholeheartedly lost in tattoos and piercing?
A. Tiara           B. Kerstin           C. Nagib.           D. Lee.
61. Who doesn’t think tattoos and piercing are beautiful?
A. Jackson.          B. Brittney.           C. Tiara.           D. Nagib.
62. We can conclude that ________.
A. tattoos and piercing are a new kind of elegant art
B. all the teachers in the West are in favor of tattoos and piercing
C. everything is changeable with time going on
D. it is necessary to live with all different views of beauty
63. The best title for this passage is probably _________.
A. Body Art or Damage                    B. Damage to the Youth’s Body
C. Young People’s Different Curiosities       D. A Great Anxiety About Young People

It is impossible to think about “growing up” in modern America without considering “youth culture” which every young person—even those who do not attend public schools—is confronted by and must deal with. It is impossible to be so isolated that we are untouched by the surrounding culture. Nor should we wish to be—as we are called to be—salt and light in a very confused and broken world. Popular culture deserves neither uncritical acceptance nor knee-jerk rejection, but thoughtful critique（批评）.
On the contrary, China paid too little attention to youth culture in the past. However, with society developing, more and more people have realized the importance of analyzing, understanding and promoting youth culture.
About 100,000 young Chinese people from all over the world will attend the first China Youth Culture Week scheduled to open Saturday in Shenzhen’s China Folk Culture Villages, a press conference was told Thursday.
A series of cultural activities will be staged from Saturday to Wednesday, including a huge performance expected to challenge for a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records.
About 10,000 young people will attend the opening ceremony Saturday. A final list of the Chinese Youth Idol Award to five outstanding young Chinese was announced at the conference. They are the country’s first astronaut, Yang Liwei, Chinese NBA star, Yao Ming, IT entrepreneur, Ding Lei, anchorperson, Wu Xiaoli, and Olympic Games gold medalist, Deng Yaping. The youth idols were selected by
Chinese teenagers with 380,000 votes cast nationwide.
During the past two months, the organizers received more than 3,000 applications from young people in Hong Kong and Macao who wanted to take part in the performance.
52. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “confronted by”?
A. Concerned about.        B. Thought of.  C. Confused with.    D. Faced with.
53. Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 1?
A. People can be isolated from the surrounding culture.
B. The American youth accept popular culture without any thought.
C. People shouldn’t refuse popular culture totally.
D. Americans ignore cultures at all while growing up.
54. The list of the five Chinese youth idols indicates that ____.
A. success is considered the most important factor in the Chinese youth’s values
B. the Chinese youth don’t care about their idols’ personalities
C. there are only five people admired by the Chinese youth
D. the parents want to set those people as examples
55. What can we infer from this passage?
A. America paid too much attention to youth culture.
B. China pays more attention to youth culture nowadays.
C. Chinese youth admire movie stars and regard them as their idols.
D. America thinks their youth are more important than the Chinese youth.

You may have never heard of Ladislao Biro, but you have certainly heard of the pen he invented—the ballpoint pen, or biro. Before Biro invented his pen, people wrote with fountain pens. The ink smudged(弄脏) and blotted and the pens sometimes leaked. In the 1930s Biro was a magazine editor in Budapest in Hungary. He noticed that the inks which the magazine’s printers used dried very quickly. Biro wondered if quick-drying inks could be used in pens. He came up with the idea of a tube of ink with a free-moving ball on the end. As a person wrote, the ball collected ink from the tube and rolled it on to the paper. The pen would be cheap and could be thrown away when the ink ran out.
Biro began to work on his invention, but before he could patent it the Second World War broke out. Biro left war-torn Europe and fled to Buenos Aires in Argentina. There, he and his brother Georg, who was a chemist, began to improve the pen. In the early 1940s Biro began to manufacture his new pen, the biro. In 1944, he sold his invention to another company, who began to mass-produce the pen for the British and American armed forces.
Biro was pleased that his pen was popular, but he did not gain much from his invention. The biro was later sold to the French firm, Bic, who now sell twelve million pens a day. Biro sank into obscurity in South America. His name, however, has become a household word.
48. The reasons for the popularity of ballpoint pens are these EXCEPT that_______.
A. the inks dried very quickly                      B. they were cheap
C. they were easy to carry around           D. they were mass-produced
49. Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Biro?
a. applied for patent for first ballpoint pen
b. began to manufacture pens
c. fled from Hungary to escape Nazis
d. sold his invention
A. a c d b                    B. c d a b           C. a c b d           D. c a b d
50. The underlined part “sank into obscurity”(last paragraph) is closest in meaning to“_______”.
A. became unknown to many people       B. became popular with people
C. lost interest in business                         D. lost a lot of money
51. What does the passage mainly tell us about Biro?
A. He is successful in business.                 B. He is an important inventor.
C. He is a famous magazine editor.         D. He is a popular writer.

We’d been flying for hours, deeper and deeper into the desert of southeastern Niger. The mission: to find what is probably the last wild population of the great Saharan antelope called the addax (旋角羚)—the most endangered animal of its size in Africa.
Pilot Peter Ragg flew our bright red helicopter low over two parallel dunes (沙丘). The pale sand below us was dotted by the black bushes, the plants that are favorite food for the addax. Then, almost as if the dune extruded (使突出) them, two perfect addaxes appeared. Their long tails swung from side to side as they ran, heads held high on thick necks, horns reaching for the sky. We made a few turns in the plane, then let them be. In just a few seconds they were swallowed again by the Sahara. Soon they could just as easily disappear from the planet.
In September 2004 the government of Niger and a small NGO called SOS Faune du Niger surveyed this last known pocket of wild addaxes. They counted 128 individuals. Since then, the number has dropped as hunters have taken more for meat. How many addaxes remain in the Sahara is anybody’s guess, but those that do survive could be considered the living dead: There may not be a viable (能生存的) population left to reproduce.
I’m now helping to make an emergency plan for the last wild addaxes. With a few hundred thousand dollars, some trucks, and a strong group with the local Toubou guides, we may just be able to save these guys from extinction.
36. What do the addaxes in the passage usually eat?
A. Vegetables. B. Black bushes.       C. Grass.                    D. Fruits.
37. All of the following descriptions of the addax are true EXCEPT that ____.
A. its tail is long                                    B. its neck is thick   
C. its legs are short                             D. its horns are long
38. What does the writer probably mean by saying that “There may not be a viable population left to reproduce”?
A. Wild addaxes will die out soon unless effective measures are taken.
B. The number of wild addaxes will increase if they are not hunted.
C. Wild addaxes cannot support themselves any longer.
D. Humans cannot survive without enough addaxes.
39. It can be inferred that the writer of the passage might be ____.
A. a journalist  B. an official    C. an engineer                D. a zoologist