With fears of a possible nuclear meltdown(核反应堆堆芯的熔毁) in Japan building up, evidence has come to light that the nation received warnings over the stability of its power plants from an international watchdog more than two years ago.

　　As the Telegraph is reporting, an official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date, and strong earthquakes would cause a “serious problem” for the power stations.

　　A U.S. embassy document, by quoting（引用）an unnamed expert, states: “He (the IAEA official) explained that safety guides for earthquakes have only been updated three times in the last 35 years and that the IAEA is now re-examining them. Also, the presenter noted recent earthquakes in some cases have gone beyond the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving earthquake safety work.”

　　The Telegraph also reports that the government responded to the warnings by building an emergency response center at the Fukushima Daiichi plant designed to resist magnitude-7.0 earthquakes. Friday's earthquake, originally named a magnitude-8.9 shock, has since been upgraded to magnitude-9.0.

　　Other nuclear experts state IAEA officials had willingly ignored lessons from the Chernobyl disaster to protect the nuclear industry's expansion, reports Bloomberg. “After Chernobyl, all the force of the nuclear industry was directed to hide this event, for not creating damage to their reputation,”Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreyev tells Reuters, before noting that radiation from spent fuel rods（棒）stored close to reactors at Fukushima looked like an example of putting profit before safety. “The Japanese were very greedy, and they used every square inch of the space. But when you have a dense(密集的) placing of spent fuel in the basin, you have a high possibility of fire if the water is removed from the basin.”

1. From the passage, we know that ____________.

A. people fear that the nuclear meltdown will possibly become more and more serious in Japan

B. people are becoming more and more afraid of a possible nuclear meltdown in Japan

C. Japan made no response to the warnings over the safety of its power plants

D. Iouli Andreyev warned Japan not to store spent fuel rods close to reactors

2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Japan was warned of the stability of its power plants when they were built over 2 years ago.

B. Safety guides for earthquakes should be updated three times in 35 years.

C. The emergency response centre at the Fukushima Daiichi plant can not resist Friday’s  

     earthquake.

D. IAEA officials advised Japan to ignore lessons from the Chernobyl disaster.

3. IAEA officials were willing to ignore lessons from the Chernobyl disaster because they want ________.

A. to put profit before safety.         B. the nuclear industry to develop

   C. to protect the reputation of Japan        D. every inch of land to be made good use of

4.The writer develops this passage mainly by__________.

A. making comments              B. providing facts

C. quoting what experts say             D. analysing what happened

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive (欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

　　For example, some might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery (彩票). It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”

　　This guy’s a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $200 worth of tickets, and only one was a winner. He’s really a big loser!

　　He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

　　Some politicians often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents(对手) says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” that’s true. However, and honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

　　Advertisers(广告商) will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

This kind of deception happens too of often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

How much did the lottery winner lose?

　A. One hundred dollars.        B. Two hundred dollars.

　C. Three hundred dollars.       D. Four hundred dollars.

We may infer that the author believes people should _______.

　A. buy lottery tickets        B. make use of half-truths

　C. not take anything at face value   D. not trust the Yucky Company

What do the underline words “net gain” in Paragraph 5 mean?

　A. final increase              B. big advantage

　C. large share                 D. total saving

What can we know from the example of the Yucky Pill advertisement?

　A. False statements are easy to see through.  B. Half-truths are often used to mislead people.

　C. Doctors like to act in advertisements.     D. Advertisements are based on facts.

阅读理解

　　Have you ever asked yourself why children go to school? You will probably say that they go to school to learn both their native and some foreign languages, maths, history, but what do they learn these things for? And are these things all that they learn at school?

　　We send our children to school to prepare them for a bright future. Many of the things they study at school have some practical use in their life. But is that the only reason why they go to school?

　　There is more in education than just memorizing facts. We go to school above all to learn how to learn independently(独立的)or teach ourselves, so that when we finish our schooling, we can continue to learn. A man who really knows how to learn will always be more likely to succeed in his life than those who are not good at self-taught. The educated person, whenever he has to do something new, will rapidly teach himself how to do it in the best way. The uneducated person, on the other hand, is either unable to do something new or does it badly. Modern education, therefore, should emphasize (强调)both knowledge transferring and general ability cultivating(能力培养).

1．Children go to school to ________.

[　　]

A．learn languages only

B．learn science only

C．get strong and tall

D．learn many kinds of knowledge

2．Parents hope ________ .

[　　]

A．their children will be successful when they grow up

B．their children master a certain skill

C．they can teach their children themselves

D．they can do all for their children's future

3．Most probably, the person ________ will be a great success in his/her life.

[　　]

A．who's good at all the lessons

B．who keeps healthy

C．who's learned how to learn on his own

D．who does as they say

4．Which of the following is TRUE?

[　　]

A．The uneducated person can't get much money .

B．Pupils should learn how to find the best way to deal with problems they meet.

C．The uneducated person lives a hard life.

D．Teachers and parents should tell the children everything they will meet.

Now let us look at how we read．When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, rough movement．We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate(凝视)．Each time they fixate, we see a group of words．This is known as the recognition span or the visual span．The length of time of which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person．It also varies within one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text．Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness．

Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page．As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation．For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second．One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side．Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation．All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently．Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words．Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text．

59．The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts EXCEPT________ ．

　   A．one’s familiarity with the text   B．one’s purpose in reading

　   C．the length of a group of words D．lighting and tiredness

60．The author may believe that reading ______．

　   A．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation     

         B．requires a reader to see words more quickly

　   C．demands a deeply-participating mind                      

         D．demands more mind than eyes

61．What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?

　   A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted．

　   B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to

comprehend words．

　 C．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading．

　 D．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job to improve one’s ability to see

words．

62．What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?

　   A．critical     B．neutral    C．pessimistic      D．optimistic

Now let us look at how we read．When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, rough movement．We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate(凝视)．Each time they fixate, we see a group of words．This is known as the recognition span or the visual span．The length of time of which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person．It also varies within one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text．Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness．
Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page．As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation．For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second．One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side．Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation．All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently．Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words．Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text．
59．The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts EXCEPT________ ．
　  A．one’s familiarity with the text B．one’s purpose in reading
　  C．the length of a group of words       D．lighting and tiredness
60．The author may believe that reading ______．
　  A．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation   
B．requires a reader to see words more quickly
　  C．demands a deeply-participating mind                   
D．demands more mind than eyes
61．What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?
　  A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted．
　  B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to
comprehend words．
　 C．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading．
　 D．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job to improve one’s ability to see
words．
62．What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
　  A．critical   B．neutral   C．pessimistic     D．optimistic