After too long on the Net, even a phone call can be a shock. My boyfriend’s Liverpudlian accent suddenly becomes too difficult to understand after his clear words on screen; a secretary’s tone seems more rejecting than I’d imagined it would be. Time itself becomes fluid—hours become minutes, and alternately seconds stretch into days. Weekends, once a highlight of my week, are now just two ordinary days.

For the last three years, since I stopped working as a producer for Charlie Rose, I have done much of my work as a tele-commuter. I submit（提交） articles and edit them by E-mail and communicate with colleagues on Internet mailing lists. My boyfriend lives in England; so much of our relationship is computer-mediated.

If I desired, I could stay inside for weeks without wanting anything. I can order food, and manage my money, love and work. In fact, at times I have spent as long as three weeks alone at home, going out only to get mail and buy newspapers and groceries. I watched most of the blizzard(暴风雪) of ’96 on TV.

But after a while, life itself begins to feel unreal. I start to feel as though I’ve merged（融合） with my machines, taking data in, spitting them back out, just another node（波节） on the Net. Others on line report the same symptoms. We start to strongly dislike the outside forms of socializing. It’s like attending an A. A. meeting in a bar with everyone holding a half-sipped drink. We have become the Net opponents’ worst nightmare.

What first seemed like a luxury, crawling from bed to computer, not worrying about hair, and clothes and face, has become an avoidance（逃避），a lack of discipline. And once you start replacing real human contact with cyber interaction, coming back out of the cave can be quite difficult.

At times, I turn on the television and just leave it to chatter in the background, something that I’d never done previously. The voices of the programs relax me, but then I’m jarred by the commercials. I find myself sucked in by soap operas, or needing to keep up with the latest news and the weather.　“Dateline”, “Frontline” , “Nightline,” CNN, every possible angle of every story over and over and over, even when they are of no possible use to me. Work moves from foreground to background.

1.Compared to the clear words of her boyfriend on screen, his accent becomes______.

A. unreal       B. unbearable

C. misleading       D. not understandable

2.The passage implies that the author and her boyfriend live in______.

A. the same city                  B. the same country

C. different countries              D. different cities in England

3.What does the last paragraph mean?

A. Having worked on the computer for too long, she became a bit strange.

B. Sometimes TV programs give her comfort and even makes her forget her work.

C. She watches TV a lot in order to keep up with the latest news and the weather.

D. She turns on TV now and then in order to get some valuable information.

4.What is the author’s attitude to the computer?

A. At first she likes it but later becomes tired of it.

B. She likes it because it is very convenient.

C. She dislikes it because TV is more attractive.

D. She likes it because it provides an imaginary world.

5.The underlined phrase “coming back out of the cave” probably means______.

A. going back to the dreaming world

B. coming back home from the outside world

C. bringing back direct human contact

D. getting away from living a strange life

If you enjoyed the spring-like sunshine over the weekend and thought the weather has finally turned a corner, you’re sadly mistaken.
Chilly (寒冷的) days and grey clouds are forecast for the week—making it far too early to pack away the winter woollies.
Temperatures will struggle to rise above zero at night and fail to make double figures during the day.
People enjoy the spring sunshine in Sefton Park, Aigburth, Liverpool. Forecasters have predicted a return to chilly weather this week.
Met Office forecaster Charlie said, “It was a nice, dry, bright weekend in many parts and Monday is going to be a similar affair for many.”
“Temperatures will be between 5℃and 8℃, which is below average for the start of spring.”
The sun will disappear from the south of the country after today, with dry but cloudy conditions forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday. 
Wednesday will be warmest of the three, with temperatures peaking at 9℃. But this is still two degrees below the March average for the district.
Overnight, temperatures will drop sharply, with lows of minus 3℃for the next three nights.
“It will generally stay on the cold side of average,” said Mr. Powell.
The March misery comes at the end of the coldest winter for more than 30 years.
Temperatures in December, January and February struggled to stay above zero, with the UK’s average 1.5℃, making it the deepest freeze since 1978—79.
It claimed there was just a one-in-seven chance of a cold December to February.
The agency also sadly predicted a “barbecue summer”, saying it was “quite optimistic” that it would be warmer and drier than average.
Following the two mistakes, the Met Office has dropped its long-range seasonal forecasts and will instead publish a monthly prediction for Britain, updated once a week.
In its defense, it says that while short-term forecasts are extremely accurate, Britain’s size and geographical position makes long-term predictions much more challenging.
It also points out that it gave warning of any heavy falls of snow this winter.
60. According to the passage, the weather on Tuesday in the south might be _______.
A. dry but cloudy  B. sunny but chilly  C. sunny and warm  D. cloudy and chilly
61. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. British people can put away their winter clothes now.
B. The Met Office has shortened its forecast range.
C. The weather forecast becomes more and more accurate.
D. The agency was quite confident of long-term predictions.
62. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. The big chill isn’t over yet                     B. A warm spring finally arrives
C. A heavy snow is on the way                 D. The Met Office drops forecasts
63. From the passage, we can conclude ________.
A. the weather report is more and more important
B. British people become worried about bad weather
C. Britain has just experienced a very freezing winter
D. The Met Office can always predict any heavy snow falls accurately

根据所给汉语提示，完成下列句子。

82．多亏了袁博士的研究，联合国在消除世界饥饿的战役中又多了些方法。

                       ,the UN has more tools in the battle to rid the world of hunger.

83．在感到沮丧的时候，卓别林可以使他们开怀大笑，于是人们就对自己的生活感到比较满足。

       Charlie Chaplin made people laugh at a time when they feel depressed, so they could

                                         .

84．但总的来说，在当今文化交融的世界，学习不同国家的习俗肯定能帮助我们避免交往中的困难。

       In general, though, ___________________ can certainly help avoid difficulties in today's world of cultural crossroads!

85．这些让人惊讶的最新的消息加上大量动手实中学习的机会，让世界以一种全新的方式展现在游人面前。

       The amazing, up-to-date information together with many opportunities for hands-on learning        ___________________ in a completely new way for visitors．

阅读下列句子，从方框中选择适当的词或词组,用其适当的形式填空，使句子意思通顺、完整。每空限填一个单词或词组，每词或词组限用一次。方框中有四个词或词组是多余的。

91.I looked carefully at the text and realized that it _________ women in the countryside.

92.I discovered that she had ________ her whole life to her patients and had chosen not to have a family of her own.

93.You may find it ________ that Charlie was taught to sing as soon as he could speak and dance as soon as he could walk.

94.He made people laugh at a time when they felt _____, so they could feel more content with their lives.

95.Tony _________Julia, touched her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek.

96.The amazing, up-to-date information together with many opportunities for hands-on learning ______ the world come to life in a completely new way for visitors.

97.Every area of the park ______  life in the days of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

98.All cultures don’t greet each other the same way, ______ are they comfortable in the same way with touching or distance between people.

99.Like so many others, the little tramp and his friend have rushed there _______ gold, but without success

100.He_______ to stay alone rather than gossip with his co-workers in his spare time.

For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words.

In   16  a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend  17  can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are  18__  readers. Most of us develop poor reading    19  at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency（缺乏）  20  in the actual stuff of language itself — words. Taken individually, words have little meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs.   21 , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing（退回） to  22 words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over what you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading.

Another habit which   23  down the speed of reading is vocalization — sounding each word either orally or mentally as one reads.

To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an   24 , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined（预先确定的） speed．The bar is set at a slightly faster rate   25   the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The device forces the reader to read fast,   26  word-by-word reading, regression and sub-vocalization（默读）practically impossible.

At first   27  is sacrificed for speed．But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but your understanding will   28 . Many people have found their reading skill greatly improved after some training.  29  Charlie Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute before the training, now it is an excellent 182 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can    30  through a lot more reading material in a short period of time.

1.                A．applying        B．doing           C．offering   D．getting

2.                A．quickly         B．easily           C．roughly   D．decidedly

3.                A．good           B．curious         C．poor     D．urgent

4.                A．training         B．habits          C．situations D．custom

5.                A．lies            B．combines       C．touches   D．involves

6.                A．Hopefully       B．Actually         C．Logically D．Unfortunately

7.                A．reuse          B．reread          C．rewrite   D．recite

8.                A．scales          B．cuts            C．slows     D．measures

9.                A．accelerator      B．actor           C．loudspeaker   D．observer

10.               A．then           B．as             C．beyond    D．than

11.               A．having         B．leading         C．making    D．indicating

12.               A．meaning        B．comprehension  C．vocalization D．regression

13.               A．arise           B．reduce         C．improve   D．worsen

14.               A．Like           B．Take           C．Make     D．Consider

15.               A．master         B．make          C．finish D．get