阅读理解

　　In the past two years, millions of Americans have suddenly taken an interest in the bicycle as if it were a new invention. Bike sales doubled every year between 1960 and 1970, and there are nearly 70 million bikes in the United States today. That's more than two for every three automobiles.

　　Of course, the bike has been around for more than 150 years, and this isn't America's first bicycle boom (兴旺). A wave of bike enthusiasm swept the land in the late 1800s and bicycle production hit two million units in 1897. Then with the coming of the auto, bicycling declined, and for years remained popular only with children and a few adults.

　　Now, national concern with air pollution and physical fitness has brought the bike back to the forefront (重要位置) particularly with adults. More than eight million bikes were sold in the United States last year and a third of them went to adults. The year before, only 15 percent of new bike sales were for adults.

(1) In the United States, the bicycle is ________.

[　　]

A．becoming popular again

B．creating traffic problems

C．popular chiefly with children

D．replacing the family car

(2) According to the passage, there are ________.

[　　]

A．more bicycles than automobiles in the United States

B．more automobiles than bicycles in the United States

C．as many bicycles as automobiles in the United States

D．fewer automobiles than bicycles in the United States

(3) We can infer from the passage that Americans are ________.

[　　]

A．interested in comfort and wealth

B．easy to accept new things

C．concerned with the quality of their lives

D．quick to learn from others

(4) Which of the following is not true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．The bicycle has been existing for more than 150 years.

B．More and more adults are beginning to ride bicycles.

C．The automobile once affected bicycle production.

D．Americans have found the bicycle a better means of transportation.

(5) It can be concluded that if people continue to concern themselves with air pollution and physical fitness ________.

[　　]

A．fewer automobiles will be produced

B．bike sales will rise

C．stricter air standard will be enforced (加强)

D．Americans will enjoy better health

阅读理解

　　A study conducted by the Infant (婴儿) Testing Center in San Francisco, California, suggests that babies feel more comfortable around other babies than with strange adults. According to the study, babies benefit by being with their fellow infants daily. As a baby might show fear of an adult stranger, he is likely to smile and reach out for an unfamiliar infant. By the time babies are one year old, they have begun to form friendships of sorts.

　　The above findings, based on observation of 100 babies aged three months to three years, might prove interesting to working parents who must find day care for their babies. Family care in a private (私人的) home, with several babies together, is probably a very good way to care for babies under three.

　　Benjamin Spock, well-known doctor and author of books about babies, support the idea. He says that family day care is better in theory than hiring a housekeeper or a babysitter.

(1) What would be a good title for the passage?

[　　]

(2) A baby is likely to feel more at ease with ________.

[　　]

(3) What does Dr. Benjamin Spock do?

[　　]

A．He trains babysitters.

B．He writes baby books.

C．He conducts studies on infants.

D．He directs a testing center.

(4) According to the passage, how should working parents provide care for their babies?

[　　]

A．Find a private home with other babies.

B．Take their babies with them to work.

C．Hire an adult to come into the home.

D．Search for a large nursery (托儿所) with a good reputation.

(5) The author is talking to ________.

[　　]

阅读理解

　　A long, imaginary prose story about people is usually called a novel.

　　It can be about any kind of man, woman, or child. It can be about kings, or Chicago newsboys, or housewives. The Frenchman, Victor Hugo, wrote his novel Les Miserables about a poor man who stole a loaf of bread to keep from starving. The American, Ernest Heminway, wrote A Farewell to Arms about a young American with the Italian Army in World War I.

　　A novel can tell the story of any kind of action, over any period of time. The modern Irish writer, James Joyce, covers less than twenty-four hours in Ulysses. Yet Joyce takes a thousand pages to tell all that happens from the time one man gets up in the morning until he goes to bed early the next morning. A German writer, Herman Hesse, uses only one hundred and fifty pages in his novel Demian to cover a boy's life from the age of ten until he becomes a young man.

　　A novel does not merely tell the things that people do. It also tells why they do them. The Red Badge of Courage, by the American novelist, Stephen Grane, tells about a young soldier in the War between the States who runs away the first time he is in battle. The book shows why he acted as he did. It describes his mental suffering until he overcomes his fears.

　　People buy novels because they enjoy reading about other people. Alone among the literary forms, the novel satisfies the human desire to know and understand our fellow creatures.

(1) According to the passage, a novel must be about ________.

(2) Demcian is a novel written by ________.

[　　]

(3) The amount of time a novel must cover is ________.

[　　]

(4) According to the passage, a novel should ________.

[　　]

A．experiment with new techniques

B．describe the things that are familiar to the readers

C．have at least one hundred and fifty pages

D．satisfy our desire to understand what motivates other people

(5) Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

[　　]

A．The History of the Novel

B．The Nature of the Novel

C．The World-famous Novelists

D．The Importance of the Novel

阅读理解

　　In English there are a number of phrases about the nose. For example, “to hold up one's nose” expresses a basic human feeling pride. People can hold up their noses at people, things, and places.

　　The phrase,“to be led around by the nose”, shows man's weakness. A person who is led around by the nose lets other people control him. On the other hand, a person who follows his nose lets his instinct guide him.

　　For the human emotion of rejection, the phrase “to have one's nose put out of joint” is very descriptive. The expression applies to persons who have been turned aside because of a competitor. Their pride is hurt and they feel rejected. This expression is not new. It was used by Erasmus in 1542.

　　This is only a touch of expression in English dealing with the nose. There are a number of others. However, it should be “as plain as the nose on your face” that the nose is more than an organ for breathing and smelling!

(1) The nose expresses ________.

[　　]

A．a basic human feeling

B．nothing but human weakness

C．the human emotion of rejection

D．more than one human emotion

(2) “To hold up one's nose” is an expression of ________.

[　　]

(3) A man who is described as “to have one's nose put out of joint” ________.

[　　]

(4) “As plain as the nose on your face” in the last paragraph means ________.

[　　]

A．the nose on your face is very plain

B．it is easy to see your nose

C．a plain-looking nose is very useful

D．it is something quite easy to understand

(5) Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．The nose is the part of the face that smells things.

B．The nose is more important than any other organ.

C．The human nose is an organ for breathing and smelling.

D．The nose has given the languages many interesting expressions.

阅读理解

　　The Romans built great “aqueducts” to carry fresh water from the mountains to the cities. Many of these aqueducts are still standing today. The Romans also built great pipes under the ground to carry away the sewage (污水). In Rome, one of these sewage pipes is still used today; it is 2,000 years old. The Roman Emperors even set up a government health service. They built the first great public hospitals in Europe, and they paid doctors to look after poor people.

　　When the Roman Empire fell to pieces, these civilized (文明的) methods of treatment disappeared from most of Europe, for more than a thousand years. People went back to the old ways. They lived in dirty conditions which helped to cause diseases; and they asked God to cure the diseases. They shut up mentally sick people in prisons. Or they burnt them alive because they were supposed to have magic (魔法的) powers.

　　But the work of Greek and Roman doctors was not lost. Over a thousand years ago, the Arabs moved into many of the Mediterranean countries. They took big parts of the Roman lands. They translated the Greek and Roman medical books into Arabic. Arab doctors themselves made many new discoveries.

　　When civilization at last came back to Europe, men once again translated the Greek and Roman works on medicine into Latin. Slowly, very slowly, European doctors discovered again the things that the Greeks and Romans had known, so long ago. Slowly, they began to make new discoveries. They found out more about the way the body works, the way our blood goes round our bodies, the way our nerves (神经) send messages from our brains to our muscles, the way these muscles move our bodies.

(1) The word “aqueduct” means ________.

[　　]

A．something built to carry away the dirty water

B．something that was built 2, 000 thousand years ago

C．something like a pipe under the ground

D．something built to supply clean water for the citizens

(2) Which of the following is not true?

[　　]

A．A sewage pipe built 2,000 years ago is still being used in Rome.

B．The first public hospitals in Europe were built by the Roman Emperors.

C．The ancient Romans got their drinking water from aqueducts.

D．Mentally sick people were shut up in prisons in the Roman Empire.

(3) “People went back to the old ways”means ________.

[　　]

A．they burnt mentally sick people alive

B．they asked God for help when they were ill

C．they lived in dirty conditions again

D．all of the above

(4) From this passage we've learned that ________.

[　　]

A．the Arabs took big parts of the old Roman lands 2,000 years ago

B．the Greeks discovered more about the way the human body works

C．the Arabs helped to preserve the Roman medical works

D．the Greeks made more discoveries than the Romans

(5) Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．The rise and the fall of the Roman Empire.

B．The Arabs defeated the Romans in many ways.

C．The Romans and the Arabs did a great deal to improve healthy living conditions.

D．The Romans made many great discoveries.

阅读理解

　　An old and very wealthy friend of mine told me he had an unpleasant experience. He went to a famous jeweler shop and asked to be shown some gold necklaces. After examining several, he decided to buy a gold necklace with a precious stone, and asked if he could pay by cheque. The assistant said that was quite in order, but the moment my friend signed his name, he was invited into the manager's office.

　　The manager was very polite, but he explained that someone with exactly the same name had presented them with a worthless cheque not long ago. My friend got very angry when he heard this and said that he would buy a necklace somewhere else. When he got up to go, the manager told him that the police would arrive at any moment and he had better stay unless he wanted to get into serious trouble. Sure enough, the police arrived soon afterwards. They were polite too, but explained that a person who had used the same name as his was responsible for a number of recent robberies (抢劫). Then the police asked my friend to copy out a note which had been used by the thief in a number of stores. The note read, “I have a gun in my pocket. Ask no question and give me all the money in the drawer.” Fortunately, my friend's handwriting was quite unlike the thief's. He was not only allowed to go without further delay, but to take the necklace with him.

(1) When the man asked if he could pay by cheque, the assistant ________.

[　　]

A．refused to take any

B．invited him into the manager's office

C．said that was all right

D．said nothing was wrong with a cheque

(2) The man was invited into the manager's office because ________.

[　　]

A．his handwriting was like a thief's

B．his cheque was worthless

C．a thief had used the same name as his

D．he didn't sign his name correctly

(3) After the man heard what the manager said, he ________.

[　　]

A．got very angry and left at once

B．went out to buy a necklace somewhere else

C．thought that he had nothing to do with the stealing

D．insisted on staying until the police came

(4) The police were polite too because ________.

[　　]

A．they didn't think the man was a thief

B．the man was old and very wealthy

C．they were not sure whether the man was the thief they wanted

D．they doubted that the man was responsible for a number of recent robberies

(5) Which of the following is implied in the passage?

[　　]

A．Though the man had some trouble, he got the necklace without paying cash.

B．Nobody noticed the man take the necklace with him.

C．The manager never thought an old man would be a thief.

D．The thief always stole things in famous jewellery shops.

阅读理解

　　In 1972 the American Council on Education published forty pages of facts about college freshmen in the United States. They had got the facts from thousands of students in their first year of university study by asking such questions as these:

　　1．How old will you be on December 31 of this year?

　　2．How many miles is this college from your parents' home?

　　3．Where did you live while you were growing up?

　　4．Are your parents still living, and are they still married to each other?

　　5．How would you describe your present political views?

　　The answers to these questions showed that seventy-eight percent of the freshmen were eighteen years old, and fourteen percent were nineteen. It is quite unusual for a freshmen to be younger than eighteen or older than nineteen.

　　More than half of the freshmen were studying in colleges far from their parents' homes; only forty percent were within a distance of fifty miles from home.

　　The report showed that most college students had grown up in or near cities. About one-fifth of the freshmen reported that they had been brought up in small towns; only seven percent came from farm families.

　　Rather surprisingly, the report showed that only eight percent of the freshmen had parents who were divorced (离婚) or separated. In most cases, both parents were still alive and still married to each other.

　　Politically, more than a third of the students described their views as “liberal” (自由的).Only sixteen percent considered themselves “conservative” (保守的). The large group, however, were the forty-six percent who described their politics as “middle of the road”. Very few called their political views “far left” or “far right”.

(1) The American Council on Education learned these facts from ________.

[　　]

A．freshmen of a certain university

B．students and their parents

C．students and their teachers

D．first-year students only

(2) At what age do the Americans usually begin their college study?

[　　]

(3) While they were growing up, most of these students lived ________.

[　　]

A．in the countryside

B．in or near large cities

C．within a distance of fifty miles from home

D．in small towns

(4) About fifty percent of the students called their political views ________.

[　　]

(5) Which of the following is not true?

[　　]

A．One fifth of the freshmen grew up in small towns.

B．Most of these students' parents were alive and married to each other.

C．Less than half of these students were studying some distance away from their parents' home.

D．Politically, many college students consider “far left” better than “far right”.

阅读理解

　　Though the horses got off to a good start, it was not long before over half of them were out of the race. As was expected, College Boy and Sweet Seventeen had got well in front with the remaining horses grouped together some way behind. On a sharp corner, three of the horses leading the group fell, throwing the riders behind. As the race went on, the track became full of horses without riders. Towards the end, there were only three horses left: College Boy and Sweet Seventeen were still leading with an unknown horse, Tom Thumb, a very long way behind. The crowd was very disappointed when on the last jump in the race, the riders of both horses which were expected to win failed to keep in the saddle (马鞍). Everyone shouted with delight when College Boy continued by himself and “win” the race without his rider! Tom Thumb now took his time and the crowd cheered as he crossed the finishing line without a rival (对手) in sight.

(1) Half of the horses were out of the race ________.

[　　]

A．as soon as the race began

B．on their leaving the start post

C．when three horses got off to a good start

D．before College Boy and Sweet Seventeen went ahead

(2) On a dangerous bend ________.

[　　]

A．all of the horses going ahead fell

B．few riders were thrown behind

C．most of the horses fell out of the race

D．the remaining horses were grouped together and then fell

(3) People had expected ________ to win the race.

[　　]

A．Tom Thumb

B．College Boy and Sweet Seventeen

C．Tom Thumb, College Boy and Sweet Seventeen

D．None of the above

(4) Towards the end of the race ________.

[　　]

A．Tom Thumb went in front of College Boy and Sweet Seventeen

B．College Boy and Tom Thumb were a very long way behind

C．the riders of Sweet Seventeenth and College Boy fell too

D．there was not any horse left

(5) The real winner was ________.

[　　]

阅读理解

　　A new study shows that a large and rapid drop in the world's birth rate has taken place during the past 10 years. Families generally are smaller now than they were a few years ago. It is happening in both developing and industrial nations.

　　China is one of the developing nations that has made great progress in reducing its population growth. China has already cut its rate of population growth by about one half since 1970.

　　Each Chinese family is now supposed to have no more than one child. And the hope is to reach a zero population growth with the total number of births equaling (相等于) the total number of deaths, by the year 2000.

　　Several nations in Europe already have fewer births than deaths. Researchers said that these nations could hardly have enough workers in the future. And the persons who are working could face much higher taxes to support the growing number of retired (退休的) people.

(1) Which of the following is true?

[　　]

A．Families are as large as before.

B．The world's birth rate is higher than ten years ago.

C．There was a slow population growth in the past ten years.

D．Birth control has been well practised in all nations.

(2) China has reduced its population growth by ________ since 1970.

[　　]

A．around fifty percent

B．far more than fifty percent

C．exactly one half

D．much less than one half

(3) According to the passage, China's population control ________.

[　　]

A．is not very successful

B．is a not-too-big success

C．is far from being successful

D．should be considered a big success

(4) By the year 2000, the number of births and the number of deaths in China will ________.

[　　]

(5) It is said that the people who are working in Europe would have to pay much higher taxes in the future because ________.

[　　]

A．they will be earning much more money

B．they will have more and more children

C．fewer and fewer children will be born

D．the number of retired people will become larger

阅读理解

　　When I was walking down the street the other day, I happened to notice a small brown wallet lying on the ground. I picked it up and opened it to see if I could find out the owner's name. There was nothing inside it except some change and an old photograph a picture of a woman and a young girl about twelve years old, who looked like the woman's daughter. I put the photograph back and took the wallet to the police station, where I handed it to the desk sergeant. Before I left, the sergeant took down my name and address in case the owner might want to write and thank me.

　　That evening I went to have dinner with my aunt and uncle. They also invited a young woman so that there would be four people at the table. Her face was familiar. I was quite sure that we had not met before, but I could not remember where I had seen her. While talking, however, the young woman happened to mention that she had lost her wallet that afternoon. All at once I realized where I had seen her. She was the young girl in the photograph, although she was now much older. She was very surprised, of course, when I was able to describe her wallet to her. Then I explained that I had recognized her from the photograph I had found in the wallet. My uncle insisted on going to the police station immediately to claim the wallet. As the police sergeant handed it over, he said that it was amazing that I had not only found the wallet, but also the person who had lost it.

(1) The wallet which the writer found ________.

[　　]

A．was empty

B．had some money in it

C．had nothing but an old photograph in it

D．had a few coins and a photograph in it

(2) The writer recognized the young woman because ________.

[　　]

A．he had met her somewhere before

B．she was the woman in the photograph

C．she often had dinner with his aunt and uncle

D．she looked like the girl in the photograph

(3) “Her face was familiar.”The underlined word means ________.

[　　]

(4) “…to claim the wallet.”The underlined word means ________.

[　　]

(5) Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

[　　]