阅读理解

　　CBC is a famous air company which has over twenty planes carrying passengers and goods, flying along 12 fixed lines all over the world. Its service is very good but some passengers are still not satisfied with it and that is why in 1996 and 1997 the company received letters of complaints from consumers or passengers who pointed out over a dozen kinds of problems which are divided in groups in the following table. This division is called Category. Problems that appear when the plane is flying are Flight problems. Those about passengers' things carried by the plane are Baggage problems. Customer service refers to service work which passengers are not satisfied with. Oversales of seats are about the fact that more seats are sold and as a result the plane is too crowded to be safe. Refund problems appear when passengers fail to receive the money paid to them because of what they have lost. Fares are problems about the price of tickets. Reservations are problems that appear when passengers could not get the tickets they have already booked. Tours are problems about the passengers' traveling by air or hotel problems. Advertising is what the passengers think about advertisement on the plane. Credit problems are about the use of credit cards.

CONSUMER COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY THE CBC

1．About how many complaints concerning Credit were received by the CBC in 1998?

[　　]

2．By about what percent did the total number of complaints decrease from 1998 to 1999?

[　　]

3．Which of the following statements can be inferred from the table?

Ⅰ．In 1998 and in 1999, complaints about Flight problems, Baggage problems, and Customer service together took more than 50 percent of all consumer complaints received by the CBC Company.

Ⅱ．The number of complaints of Special passengers was unchanged from 1998 to 1999.

Ⅲ．From 1998 to 1999 the number of complaints of Flight problems increased by two percent.

[　　]

阅读理解

　　In the early days of America, the family held together for economic reasons. Father, mother and children all worked together to build the pioneer family or family business. But today, about one out of three marriages ends in divorce, and more and more of them involve children. The divorce rate in America is still the highest in the world, but 75% of the women and 83% of the men who divorce remarry within 3 years. The children from the broken families join up to produce a new kind of unit called the blended family. But 18 million children are now living with their stepbrothers and stepsisters in such an arrangement.

　　Perhaps the most significant trend today is toward the single-parent household. Of all children under 18, 17% are now living with only one parent. More divorced men feel that they are capable of bringing up their children and are fighting for custody rights. John Wilcox, who has recently won custody of his two little girls, believes he's doing a good job in raising his kids in spite of the rising cost of it.

　　Business and government officials are looking for new ways to help parents meet their family responsibilities as well as to increase their income. One of them is to increase government support for nationwide day-care centers which allow single parents to find full-time jobs. Clearly enough, this hardly seems enough.

1．How many marriages end in divorce in the USA?

[　　]

2．If you have a stepbrother, one of your parents must have ________.

[　　]

3．By “custody rights” (Para. 2), the author means the rights to ________.

[　　]

4．It can be inferred from what John Wilcox believes that ________.

[　　]

A．he is not sure of bringing up his children all by himself

B．he is not sure of taking good care of his children because of the rising cost

C．he is sure that he is able to raise his children as most mothers do

D．he is sure that he can get a good job and take good care of his children

阅读理解

　　How to protect children web fans from unsuitable material on-line while encouraging them to use the Internet has long been discussed in the US.

　　For some parents, the Internet can seem like a jungle, filled with danger for their children. But jungles contain wonders as well as hazards (危险) and with good guides, some education, and a few precautions (警告), the wilds of the Internet can be safely navigated (航行). “Kids have to be on-line. If we tell our kids they can't have access to the Internet, we are cutting them off from their future,” said an expert.

　　Most kids have started to use search engines. Many of them are great for finding tons of interesting Internet sites, and they can also locate places where you might not want your kids to go. There are search engines designed just for kids. A certain software contains only sites that have been selected as safe. The most popular way to limit access would be to use what is known as a “content screener (过滤器)”. But this can't be wholly reliable, and the best thing parents can do is to talk to their kids and let them know what is OK or not OK to see or do on the Internet. Another way is that mum or dad is nearby when the child is surfing (浏览) the Internet.

　　A few tips:

　　 Don't put the PC in a child's room but keep it in an area where mum or dad keep an eye on things. That also makes the Internet more of a family activity.

　　 Ask your children what they have been doing and about any friends they make on-line.

　　 Tell your child or children not to give on-line strangers personal information, especially like address and phone number.

　　 And tell your children never to talk to anyone they meet over the phone, send them anything, accept anything from them or agree to meet them unless you go along.

1．The passage is mainly about the subject of ________.

[　　]

A．American children going on-line

B．the Internet in America

C．appreciating (欣赏) the Internet

D．opposing (反对) children's on-line

2．The best way to protect children from improper material is ________.

[　　]

A．to install a content screener on the computer

B．to buy some search engines for children

C．to be nearby when they are surfing the Internet

D．to talk to children and persuade them to tell right from wrong

3．Which of the following is right according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Surfing the Internet is the best method of educating children.

B．Children's not having access to the Internet may have an effect on their progress.

C．Using a content screener is most reliable for keeping children having access to the Internet.

D．Searching engines can help children to select materials fit for them.

阅读理解

　　Doctors in the Netherlands (荷兰) are allowed to help patients who choose to die. Ending a person's life in this way is called “euthanasia”.

　　However, a new law places strict controls on that. Both the patient and the doctor take part in the making of the decision.

　　Patients must have a terrible illness with no chance of cure. They must choose to die on their own. They must be suffering from “unbearable pains”.

　　Doctors must talk with at least one doctor who has dealt with euthanasia before. They must report the death to proper officials.

　　Some people refer to euthanasia as “mercy killing”. But not everybody views it that way. Some simply call it murder.

　　The lawmakers voted 90 to 45 in favor of (支持) “euthanasia”. Dr Herbert was pleased with the vote. He has already helped some patients kill themselves to get rid of their pains once for all. “A good-bye is painful, but it gives them a chance to say ‘I'm leaving,’” he said. “It can create moments of great closeness between people.”

　　Dr Karel Gunning said the practice went against his training as a doctor. “Killing is not part of medicine,” he said.

　　Gunning argues that the doctor's job is to make the person's pain bearable. He also has other fears. “Our society is moving very quickly from birth control to death control,” he said.

1．According to the new law, the practice of “euthanasia” should be decided by ________.

[　　]

A．the doctor and the patient

B．doctors and proper officials

C．the patient and his/her family

D．the doctor and the patient's family

2．The new law requires a doctor to discuss the matter with another doctor ________.

[　　]

A．who has practised “euthanasia” before

B．who has been trained for euthanasia

C．who knows the patient very well

D．who is in favour of euthanasia

3．The best title for the passage should be ________.

[　　]

A．Law Permits Death by Choice

B．Doctors in Favor of Mercy Killing

C．Ending a Person's Life in This Way

D．From Death Control to Birth Control

阅读下列短文，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　Technology is the application (应用) of knowledge to production. Thanks to modern technology, we have been able to increase greatly the efficiency of our work force. New machines and new methods have helped cut down time and expense while increasing overall output. This has meant more production and a higher standard of living. For most of us in America, modern technology is thought of as the reason why we can have cars and television sets. However, technology has also increased the amount of food available(有用的)to us, by means of modern farming machinery and animal breeding techniques, and has extended our life span via(通过) medical technology.

　　Will mankind continue to live longer and have a higher quality of life? In large measure the answer depends on technology and our ability to use it widely. If we keep making progress as we have over the past fifty years, the answer is definitely yes. The advancement of technology depends upon research and development, and the latest statistics (统计) show that the United States is continuing to pump billions of dollars annually (每年)into such efforts. So while we are running out of some scarce resources(少的资源)we may well find technological substitutes(代用品) for many of them through our research programs.

　　Therefore, in the final analysis the three major factors of production (land, labor and capital) are all influenced by technology. When we need new skills on techniques in medicine , people will start developing new technology to meet those needs. As equipment proves to be slow or inefficient, new machines will be invented. Technology responds to our needs in helping us maintain our standard of living.

1．What is the best title for the passage?

[　　]

A．The definition of technology

B．Modern technology

C．The application of technology

D．The development of technology

2．From the passage, we can infer that this article is probably ________.

[　　]

A．a part of the introduction to American business

B．followed by the passage talking about factors of production

C．taken from a learned journal

D．Both A and B

3．Which is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．Modern technology is the key to the improvement of standard of living.

B．The three major factors of production-land, labor and capital are all influenced by technology.

C．Technology is the response to our needs.

D．The United States is making great efforts to advance its technology.

4．According to the passage, people can live a long life with the help of ________.

[　　]

阅读下列短文，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　The volcano is one of the most surprising frightening forces of nature. Maybe you have seen pictures of these “fireworks” of nature. Sometimes when a volcano erupts, a very large wall of melted rock moves down the side of a mountain. It looks like a “river of fire.” Sometimes volcanoes explode, throwing the melted rock and ashes (灰) high into the air. But where does this melted rock come from?

　　The earth is made up of many layers (层). The top layer that we see is called the crust. Under the crust are many layers of hard rock. But far, far beneath the crust whose rock is so hot, that it is soft. In some places it even melts. The melted rock is called magma. Sometimes the magma breaks out to the surface through cracks(爆裂声) in the crust. These cracks are volcanoes.

　　Most people think of mountains when they think of volcanoes. But not every mountain is a volcano. A volcano is simply the opening in the earth from which the magma escapes. The hot magma, or lava as it is called, cools and builds up on the surface of the earth. Over thousands of years, this pile of cooled lava can grow to be very, very big. For example, the highest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro, is a volcano. It towers more than 16,000 feet above the ground around it.

1．The underlined word “erupts” means ________.

[　　]

2．Which words in the passage have the same meaning as “melted rock”?

[　　]

3．Which is the correct order of the layers of the earth(beginning with the top layer)?

[　　]

A．crust-hard rock-magma-soft rock

B．crust-hard rock-soft rock-magma

C．magma-soft rock-hard rock-crust

D．volcano-cracks-magma-crust

4．The best title (标题) of the passage should be ________.

[　　]

阅读下列短文，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

1．The number of the rooms in the best hotels in Boswell is ________.

[　　]

2．If a Japanese traveler likes to eat in French restaurant, ________ is the right place for him to go to.

[　　]

3．Which hotel faces the Orchard Hotel?

[　　]

阅读下列短文，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

　　“It hurts me more than you”, and “This is for your own good”-these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.

　　That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television,. left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.

　　Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we've made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who says of her students -“so passive”- and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children's passivity. “We're talking about a generation of kids who've never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying‘go and look it up’, you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.”

　　Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It's time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It's time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it's for their own good. It's time to start telling them no again.

1．Children are becoming more inactive in study because ________.

[　　]

A．they watch TV too often

B．they have done too much homework

C．they have to fulfil too many duties

D．teachers are too strict with them

2．We learn from the passage that the author's mother used to lay emphasis on ________.

[　　]

3．By “permissive period in education”(L. 1,Para. 2) the author means a time ________.

[　　]

A．when children are allowed to do what they wish to

B．when everything can be taught at school

C．when every child can be educated

D．when children are permitted to receive education

4．The main idea of the passage is that ________.

[　　]

A．parents should leave their children alone

B．kids should have more activities at school

C．it's time to be more strict with our kids

D．parents should always set a good example to their kids

阅读理解

　　You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes (撞击) through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!

　　Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars of even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks.

　　There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on the empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫).Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar!

　　But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman's success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is “blown up” in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.

　　Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed.

　　In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too！

1．Stuntmen are those who __________.

[　　]

A．often dress up as actors

B． prefer to lead dangerous lives

C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions

D．often fight each other for their lives

2．Stuntmen earn their living by __________.

[　　]

A．playing their dirty tricks

B．selling their special skills

C．jumping out of high windows

D．jumping from fast moving trains

3．When a stuntman falls from a high building, __________.

[　　]

A．he needs little protection

B． he will be covered with a mattress

C．his life is endangered

D．his safety is generally all right

4．Which of the following is the main factor (因素) of a successful performance?

[　　]

A．Strength.

B．Exactness.

C．Speed.

D．Carefulness.

5．What can be inferred from the author's example of the Norwegian stuntman?

[　　]

A．Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.

B．The percentage of serious accidents is high.

C．Parachutes must be of good quality.

D．The cliff is too high.

阅读理解

　　Reading to oneself is a modern activity which was almost unknown to the learned in the early days of the history, while during the fifteenth century the term “reading” undoubtedly meant reading aloud. Only during the nineteenth century did silent reading become popular.

　　One should be careful, however, of supposing that silent reading came about simply because reading aloud is distraction(分散注意力) to others. Examination of reasons connected with the historical development of silent reading shows that it became the usual mode of reading for most adult reading tasks mainly because the tasks themselves changed in character.

　　The last century saw a gradual increase in literacy (读写能力) and thus in the number of readers. As readers increased, so the number of listeners dropped, and thus there was some reduction in the need to read aloud. As reading for the benefit of listeners grew less common, so came the popularity of reading as a private activity in such public places as libraries, trains and offices, where reading aloud would disturb other readers in a way.

　　Towards the end of the century there was still heated argument over whether books should be used for information or treated respectfully, and over whether the reading of material such as newspapers was in some way mentally weakening. Indeed this argument remains with us still in education. However, whatever its advantages, the old shared literacy culture had gone and was replaced by the printed mass media (媒介) on the one hand and by books and magazines for a specialized readership on the other.

　　By the end of the century students were being advised to have some new ideas of books and to use skills in reading them which were not proper, if not impossible, for the oral reader. The social, cultural, and technological developments in the century had greatly changed what the term “reading” referred to.

1．Why was reading aloud common before the nineteenth century?

[　　]

A．Because silent reading had not been discovered.

B．Because there were few places for private reading.

C．Because few people could read for themselves.

D．Because people depended on reading for enjoyment.

2．The development of silent reading during the nineteenth century showed __________.

[　　]

A．a change in the position of literate people

B．a change in the nature of reading

C．an increase in the number of books

D．an increase in the average age of readers

3．Educationalists are still arguing about __________.

[　　]

A．the importance of silent reading

B．the amount of information provided by books and newspapers

C．the effects of reading on health

D．the value of different types of reading material

4．What is the writer of this passage attempting to do?

[　　]

A．To explain how present day reading habits developed.

B．To change people's way to read.

C．To show how reading methods have improved.

D．To encourage the growth of reading.