The United States is trying to improve an edueation system that produces millions of citizens who cannot read, write, or add—let alone finding their country on a map.

In his first State of Union message since taking office a year ago, President George Bush promised to wipe out illiteracy(文盲) in the next decade and declared that“by the year 2008, U.S students must be first in the world in math and science achievements. ” They have a long way to go. American students were placed 14th in a recent general science test conducted in 16 countries. In a separate survey of chemistry students, the United States came 12 out of 14. In a mathematics test, they were last. According to Bush, there are 17 million illiterates in this country of 245 million people. Other estimates put the number as high as 23 million. In percentage terms, that ranks the United States alongside Niearague and below Cuba. “This nation,”Bush said in his State of the Union address, “will not accept anything but excellent in education.” Bush, who has declared himself “Education president”, and senior officals of his administration are warning that the United States will be unable to compete in the world without an educated workforce.

How to increase educational standards is a matter of debate in a country whose schools have no uniform national curriculum and are subject to a confusing variety of state and local controls. Most experts think that the problem lies at the elementary and high school'levels rather than with universities-but even their graduates show huge gaps in general knowledge. Among the root causes most frequently mentioned in education debates is the low respect in which U.S. society holds teachers-in contrast to Japan and Germany. In Japan teaching is a profession of high prestige(威望) and high pay. In the United States teachers are near the bottom of the society.

By“the United States came 12 out of 14”(Para. 2), the author means .      

A.the United States ranked 12th not 14th in the chemistry test

B.the United States ranked 12th in the chemistry test conducted by 14 countries

C.the United States progressed from 14th to 12th in the chemistry test

D.the United States ranked 12th in chemistry test and 14th in general science test

The cause of low educational level in America include the following EXCEPT that .      

A.some problems exist in primary and secondary education

B.society keeps teachers in low respect

C.America pays more attention to economy instead of education

D.America has no uniform national courses

Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?

A.President Bush carried out his promise made in his first State of Union message.

B.The education in Japan and Germany is in higher level.

C.According to Bush, the number of illiterates accounts for 9% of the total.

D.Teachers in the United States enjoy good treatment and great respect.

Which of the following is the right order of the least-first of the percent of illiterates?

A.Germany, Cuba, Nicaragua.         B.Germany, Nicaragua, Cuba.

C.Nicaragua, Japan, Cuba.            D.Cuba, Japan, Nicaragua.

阅读下列短文，并做每篇后面的题目，从四个选项中，选出能回答所提问题或完成所给句子的最佳答案。

Early in the 18th century, Captain Cook, a famous explorer of England, unexpectedly caught sight of an unusual animal during his first visit to Australia. The animal had a large mouse like head and jumped along on its large legs. To his great surprise, the unusual animal carried its young in a special pocket of flesh. Captain Cook pointed to the animal which was eating grass in the distance and asked his native guide what the animal was referred to. The guide seemed not to know what he was pointing at and finally said “Kangaroo”, but their requests were met with puzzled looks of the native people. Before long they got to discover that the native guide who made the answer to Cook's question really meant, “I don't know what you are pointing at. ” Funny enough, the name “Kangaroo”, stuck and it is still in use today.

1．Which of the following sentences best expresses the main idea ?

[　　]

A．Captain Cook's guide made a joke.

B．Native Australians could not speak English in Cook's time.

C．Some words have rather funny origings (起源).

D．Captain Cook was a lover of wild animals.

2．When the native guide said “Kang-a-roo”, he really meant “________”

[　　]

A．Ah, it is a special kind of animal.

B．I wonder what you have said

C．What do you mean by pointing at that animal ?

D．I have no idea of what you are referring to.

3．We can infer from this passage _________.

[　　]

A．we should learn many different languages

B．Captain Cook made a mistake in understanding

C．Captain Cook was a foolish explorer

D．the importance of a language in common

 

第Ⅱ卷

注意事项：

1.用黑色墨水的钢笔或签字笔将答案写在答题卡上。

2.本卷共6小题，共35分。

第三部分：写作

第一节：阅读表达（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

阅读下面短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。

When Dan Shaw gets up from the sofa in his home, Cuddles is never far away. When he wants to go outside, he doesn’t take Cuddles out for walk—Cuddles takes him for a walk. Cuddles is clearly no ordinary family pet. It is a two-foot-high miniature horse and serves as the guiding eyes of Shaw, who is blind.

When Shaw lost his sight, his wife suggested he apply for a guide dog. Shaw, an animal lover, said he couldn’t bear to part with a dog (which usually lives about eight to ten years) and get used to a new one, perhaps several times in his life.

Then Shaw heard of a program about the tiny guide horses. He learned that the horse possess many qualities that that make them an excellent choice for guiding people. They are clean friendly, smart and have great memories. They can be trained to remain calm in noisy and crowded places. Best of all, they live for 25-25years, which would enable Shaw to have the same guide companion for most or all of his life.

Shaw immediately applied to be and was accepted as the first person to receive a guide horse. The instant he met Cuddles, he knew he was making the right choice. Then he began his training.

Through training ,Shaw and Cuddles learned to find way on busy streets, step over curbs（便道沿儿）and find elevator buttons. Cuddles even demonstrated（显示）its ability to step in front of Shaw and block him, to prevent him from walking into a dangerous situation. The little horse also expertly led Shaw through busy shopping malls. They got along without any difficulties. Now Shaw is confident that Cuddles will change his life for the better.

56. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “miniature” in Paragraph 1?(No more than 2 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________                                                                            

57. Why didn’t Shaw want to choose a dog as his guide? (No more than 15 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________                                                                            

58. What does Paragraph 3 mainly tell us? (No more than 10 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________59. How does Shaw feel about his future life with the help of Cuddles? (No more than 10 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________                                                                           

60. In your opinion, what is the ideal relationship between man and animals? (No more than 20 words)

_______________________________________________________________________________                                                                           

 

请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后图表中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。注意：每空不超过1个单词。

Whenever we meet with difficulty or failure, teachers, parents or others often say to us or perhaps we say to ourselves, “Never give up.” These can be encouraging words and words of determination. A person who believes in himself will keep trying to reach his goal no matter how many times he fails. In my opinion, the quality of determination to succeed is an important one to have. Therefore, I believe that we should never give up.

One reason is that if we give up too easily, we will rarely achieve anything. It is not unusual for us to fail in our first attempt at something new, so we should not feel disappointed and should try again. Besides, if we always give up when we fail, we will not be able to develop new skills and grow.

Another reason we should never give up is that we can learn from our mistakes so that we can not make the same ones. If we do not try again, the lesson we have learned is wasted.

Finally, we should never give up because as we work to reach our goals, we develop confidence, and this confidence can help us succeed in other areas of our lives. If we never challenge ourselves, we will begin to doubt our abilities.

In short, it is important that we do not give up when working for our goals. Whether we succeed in the end or not, we will learn something, and what we learn will help us to become better and more confident. Furthermore, if we give up, we have no chance of attaining our goals any more , but if we keep making great efforts, there is always a chance that we will succeed one day.

Topic: Never Give Up

Possible meanings and the author’s opinions	? The words “ Never give up” can__1__ others or oneself and express one’s determination. ? A person who wants to ___2___ should have the quality. So we should never give up.
The ______3____	?If we give up too easily, maybe we will achieve ____4___, so when we fail in our first attempt at something new, we should not___5____ ourselves but try again. ?Always giving up means that we will not be able to ___6____ any progress. ? Never giving up will make us learn from the mistakes we’ve made before and learn the ___7____ so as not to make the same mistakes. ? To reach our goals and develop the confidence which can help us ___8____ourselves, we must not give up but challenge ourselves.
Conclusions	If you give up, you will have no__9____of reaching your goals. Never give up and you will attain your goals sooner or ___10____

 

Robby was 11 when his mother dropped him off for his first piano lesson. I prefer students begin at an earlier age. Robby insisted that it had always been his mother’s dream to hear him play the piano, so I took him in as a student.

Robby tried and tried while I listened and encouraged him and gave him more instructions (指导). But he just did not have any inborn ability.

I only saw his mother from a distance. She always waved and smiled but never came in. Then one day Robby stopped coming to our lessons. I thought about calling him but I guessed he had decided to try something else.

I was also glad that he stopped coming for the sake of my career. However, several weeks before the recital (演奏会) of my students, Robby came，telling me that he never stopped practicing and begged me to allow him to take part. I agreed but I made him perform last in the program, so I could always save his poor performance through my “curtain closer”.

I was surprised when he announced that he had chosen one piece of Mozart’s. Never had I heard a piece of Mozart’s played so well by someone at his age. When he finished, everyone was cheering.

I ran up and put my arms around Robby in joy. “I’ve never heard you play like that, Robby!  How’d you do it?”

“Well, Miss Hondorf. Do you remember I told you my mom was sick? Actually she died this morning. She was born deaf so tonight was the first time she could hear me play. I wanted to make it special. I knew I could.”  That night, Robby was the teacher and I was the student. He taught me so many important things about life.

1.Why did Robby stop coming to the piano lessons suddenly?

A．He lost heart and believed that he would never make it.

B．His mother was too sick to send him to the piano lessons.

C．He thought his teacher disliked him.

D．His mother died and he didn’t need to play any longer.

2. Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The writer thought playing the piano shouldn’t start too late.

B．The writer thought that Robby had given up the piano lesson.

C．The writer taught Robby carefully although he hadn’t a gift for music.

D．No one else could play the piece of Mozart’s well.

3. From the underline sentenced we can infer that __________.

A．the writer looked down upon Robby and disliked him

B．the writer thought Robby a bad advertisement for his teaching

C．with Robby present, the other children couldn’t play well

D．the writer couldn’t teach so many students at a time

4. What did the writer learn from Robby?

A．The meaning of true love.

B．The meaning of giving up necessarily.

C．The meaning of being kind to teachers.

D．The meaning of believing in teachers.