D

The cost of rice is expected to go up in the coming moths, as an improving global economy raises demand, and drought(旱灾) cuts production in countries such as India. Some economists say prices for rice, the main food for the world’s population, could be returning to levels that caused inflation(通货膨胀)fears in much of Asia last year.

Charuk Singhapreecha is dean of the faculty(系)of economics at Thailand’s Kasetsart University, Hesays prices-especially for Thai nice-are being pushed higher by new customers coming into the market after the economic slowdown of the past year. “They expect that the world demand will increase and we expect that the price of rice will increase next year,” Charuk said. “There are many new markets fro the Thai rice and also we still have for our old customers-China, some Arab countries-they will increase the demand.”

Prices on the global market could again near the record of $1,000 a ton set in the middle of 2008. This month, export prices for Southeast Asian rice have jumped from about $550 a ton to more than $650.

Vichai sriprasert, president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, says further weakness in the US dollar and concerns over drought add to pressure on prices. Market experts say next year India is likely to try to import three million tons of rice-entering the world market for the first time in 21 years-because of a drought.

Vichai also warns that increasing demand for bio-fuels(生物燃料)from grain could reduce food crops, forcing the price of grains higher. “this is very serious. That’s why the price of rice will not go back to the level that we used to see,” Vichai said. “It will have to be raised at a higher level, but I don’t know where.”

The Philippines this week said it is cutting rice imports due to high prices, even though the country lost more than a million tons of grain to typhoons this year. officials from veetnam, a leading export competitor with Thailand, predict prices will reach about $800 a ton by the middle of 2010. This week the Philippines’ National Food Authority offered almost $665 a ton for 600,000 tons of Vietnamese rice.

Economists say higher food prices will only increase the problems faced by the region’s poor, who are highly dependent on rice as a staple food.

63.   Which of the following is NOT true according to Paragraph 1?

A. Drought reduces production of rice in India.

B. Prices for rice were lower all the time in 2008.

C. Rice is a major food for the world’s population.

D. the improving global economy increases the need for rice.

64.   How many reasons did Vichai mention about rice price’s going up?

A.1.                  B.2.                 C.3.           D.4.

65.Why does the Philippines plan to cut rice imports?

A. Because of high prices.                      B. Because of typhoons.

C. Because of civil war.                        D. Because of drought.

66.What’s the best title of the passage?

A. Higher food prices will increase problems

B. There are many new markets for the Thai rice

C. The global economy is improving

D. Prices for rice are expected to rise

 

Welcome to the future. It’s year 2050 and Scotland is now powered completely by“clean”energy.
Homes have entire roofs made of solar materials, rooms are kept warm by wallpaper, and people go to and from work in electric and hydrogen( 氢) cars.
Oil is still being found in the North Sea, but it’s not now only used to keep aircraft flying. And a new 500---mile underwater link with Iceland has been built to catch heat from the hot springs. There’s still a role for king coal—but the black diamonds are now environment---friendly. 
People will be able to import the electricity they need and export any excess(超过的量) they make through rooftop windmills(风车). New technology will store electricity better and provide it on demand. Heat exchangers will provide heating and hot water.
Harmful carbon dioxide waste is being piped offshore to St Fergus and from there into some of the remaining oil—producing fields to be stored safely without entering the atmosphere. Gas remains the preferred energy source of industry and is now shipped in liquid form. But hydrogen is imported through pipelines from France and from a geothermal (地热的) plant in Iceland.
Hydrogen—fuelled cars have become popular. Electric bikes are common in cities using the new urban two—wheel network. Electric vehicles have become common, and their performances have been improved because of the developments in electrical drive technology like high—temperature super conducting motors. Many people leave their vehicles in a giant park where they can be recharged from the national electrical system . Oilseed rape (油菜) is widely grown to fuel some motors .
【小题1】What does the underlined phrase in paragraph 2 mean ?

A．The hot springs

B．Oil

C．Coal

D．Oil and coal

【小题2】Which sources of energy play a more important role in people’s daily life in the future ?

A．Oil and coal

B．Hydrogen and gas

C．Electricity and gas

D．Solar energy and wind

【小题3】The means of transport people use in 2050 do not include__________.

A．windmills	B．electric bikes
C．hydrogen—fuelled cars	D．aircraft

【小题4】The passage is written to tell us in the future_____________.

A．life will be better and better

B．the energy will become cleaner and cleaner

C．people will use some new sources of energy

D．people will pay more attention to the environment

The market investigation is indispensable to sales promotion. They are as closely related as the lips and teeth, so to speak. What you produce is for sale on the market. It would be impossible to succeed in selling a product without first investigating the market.

    In the international market, goods on sale coming from different countries and suppliers are always facing keen competition. Under such circumstances, they will try everything possible to familiarize themselves with the market conditions. In making investigations, we ought to get information about what similar items the competitors are offering on the market, what prices they are quoting（报价）, what features their products have, who are their regular customers, etc. Then, how can we obtain such information? There are many channels that we can make use of in doing this sort of work. The commercial counselor's offices of our embassies stationed abroad can help us in making market investigations. Nowadays, our import and export corporations send their trade groups abroad every now and then. One of their purposes is to make market surveys on the spot.

     Certainly, face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen are also important channels to get market information. The Chinese Export Commodities Fairs and some other fairs of similar nature as well as visits of foreign businessmen provide us with such opportunities. Of course, there are some other ways of making market investigations.

In making market investigations, one should ______.

   A. get enough information concerned             B. advertise his products

   C. produce high quality goods                   D. none of the above

The word "indispensable" in the first line means ______.

   A. impossible                                B. necessary

   C. advisable                                 D. available

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

   A. The relationship between market investigation and sales promotion is just as that of the lips and   

      teeth.

   B. It is impossible to succeed in selling a product without market investigation.

   C. There are various ways of making market investigation.

   D. Production goes before market investigation.

All the following are channels to get market information except ________.

  A. to have commercial counsellor' s office of our embassies stationed abroad

  B. to promote the quality of our own products

  C. to send trade groups abroad every now and then

  D. to have face-to-face talks with foreign businessmen

Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更换）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."

Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.

At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (处理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (过滤) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more."

1.What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?

A．look into

B．take apart

C．get back

D．throw away

2.What of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A．The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste.

B．Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to make money.

C．The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health.

D．More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of people's bad habits.

3. What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A．To attract more people's attention to e-waste.

B．To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere.

C．To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well.

D．To warn people to break away from the electronic industry.

4.The next paragraph probably concerns ___.

A．how to deal with e-waste properly

B．how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste

C．How to slow down the development in the electronic industry

D．how to make full use of e-waste

 

四、阅读理解。（共20小题：每小题2分，满分40分）

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

GUANGZHOU: The successful Guangdong International Tourism and Culture Festival has become a perfect stage to showcase the popularity of Guangdong and Pan Pearl River Delta (PPRD) region as a tourism destination, said Tang Bingquan, vice-governor of Guangdong Province.

According to the provincial tourism administration of Guangdong, more than 40,000 people attended the opening ceremony of the festival. More than 1, 000 high-ranking officials from the central government and Guangdong provincial government, World Tourism Organization, consulates (领事馆) of various countries in Guangzhou, and other provinces of China, also showed up in the ceremony. The activities in the past few days attracted a large number of visitors from home and abroad.

In the past 30 years, Guangdong Province has been one of the leaders in the nation in terms of economic development. Its average annual economic growth maintained a rate of 13.8 percent, according to Tang.

Last year, Guangdong’s gross domestic product (GDP) hit 330 billion, accounting for one-eighth of the total of the country. The province’s import and export volume hit 527.2 billion, accounting for one-third of the country’s total foreign trade volume.

Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua earlier predicted that the province’s GDP will surpass that of Taiwan by the end of this year.

“Guangdong is also leading the development of the whole country’s tourism industry,” Tang said.

Last year, Guangdong’s tourism revenue (年收入) hit 212.5 billion, occupying one-fourth of the country’s total tourism income. The net profit of the province’s tourism industry was 7.5 billion, which was one fifth of the nation’s total.

Tang noted that the tourism festival will give a further boost (促进) to the tourism development of Guangdong and the entire PPRD region.

The closing ceremony of the festival will take place tonight in Foshan, a city in Guangdong Province.                                          （China Daily Nov. 30, 2007）

56. What would be the best title for the passage?

A. Event to boost Guangdong’s tourism industry.

B. Guangdong -- China’s leading city in economy.

C. The increase in Guangdong’s tourism revenue.

D. The development of Guangdong’s tourism industry.

57. Which of the following is NOT true?

A. The past 30 years have seen Guangdong’s fast development in economy.

B. Guangdong is one of the leading provinces in national tourism industry.

C. Guangdong’s GDP makes up almost 13% of the total country last year.

D. Guangzhou will be the host city for the closing ceremony of the festival.

58. Which of the following word is the closest to the underlined word in the text?

A. replace       B. survive       C. overtake     D. succeed

59. What is the writer’s attitude towards the event?

A. indifferent  B. neutral            C. opposed          D. supportive