A woman renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk’s office was asked to state her occupation．She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself．

“What I mean is,” explained the recorder, “do you have a job, or are you just a …”

“Of course I have a job,” said Emily．“I’m a mother.”

“We don’t list ‘mother’ as an occupation… ‘housewife’ covers it,” said the recorder.

       One day I found myself in the same situation．The clerk was obviously a career woman, confident and possessed of a high sounding title．“What is your occupation?” she asked．

       The words simply popped out．“I’m a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.”

       The clerk paused, ballpoint pen frozen in midair.

       I repeated the title slowly, and then I stared with wonder as my statement was written in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

       “Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “Just what you do in this field?”

       Coolly, without any trace of panic in my voice, I heard myself reply, “I have a continuing program of research (what mother doesn’t）, in the lab and in the field (normally I would have said indoors and out)．Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities (any mother care to disagree?), and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is more like it)．But the job is more challenging than most careers and rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.”

       There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form, stood up, and showed me out．

       As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up (依托) by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants---ages 13, 7, and 3.

       Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6 month old baby), in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern．

       I felt proud! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable (不可缺少的) to mankind than “just another mother.”

       Motherhood…What a glorious career! Especially when there’s a title on the door.

What can we infer from the conversation between the woman and the recorder at the beginning of the passage?

       A．The woman felt ashamed to admit what her job was.

       B．The recorder was impatient and rude.

       C．The author was upset about the situation that mothers faced.

       D．Motherhood was not recognized and respected as a job by society.

How did the female clerk feel at first when the author told her occupation?

       A．curious        B．indifferent    C．puzzled             D．interested

How did the author feel when describing her job to the clerk?

     A．calm     B．panic-stricken      C．confident      D．cool

Why did the woman clerk show more respect for the author?

       A．Because the author cared little about rewards.

       B．Because she admired the author’s research work in the lab.

       C．Because she thought the author did admirable work.

       D．Because the writer did something she had little knowledge of.

What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

       A．To show how you describe your job affects your feelings toward it.

       B．To argue that motherhood is a worthy career and deserves respect.

       C．To show that the author had a grander job than Emily.

       D．To show that being a mother is hard and boring work．                                   

B

From E-mail to online shopping, you may think you’ve heard everything there to know about the electronic frontier （新领域）．But with hundreds of thousands of Web pages being added weekly, there are plenty of surprises out there．Here are some of the most intriguing （有迷惑力的）．

……

Put your kid on a greeting card．Here is how: simply take some pictures with a regular camera, and then ask the photo service to develop them digitally （数字化）．For a small fee, you’ll receive your photos on a desk．Put that into your computer and, with a few clicks of the mouse, you can view your photos on the screen．With a few more keystrokes, you can attach the photos to email and send them to friends and relatives worldwide．

　　Sign on to one or several greeting card’s Websites （http://www．cardcentral．net/ is an index of more than 1200 electronic card sites） and create an electronic birthday or holiday card．Using your digital photos, you can paste your grandchildren onto the cover．

　　If you don’t want to use your own photos, go to cards．amzon．com to browse （浏览） hundreds of images in over 30 categories…all of which you can attach to an electronic greeting card for free．For a nominal fee（很低的费用）you can choose from a library of 75,000 images at http://www．phontodisc．com/．

　　Call Australia for free．To have a telephone conversation over the Internet, the person you want to talk to no longer needs a computer．Now all you need to talk to someone in Sydney is one computer with speakers, a microphone, a sound card and some software （available at http://www．vocaltec．com/ or Mricrosoft．com）．Typically, you’ll pay a monthly fee （usually under $20） to a service provider, but after that, the calls themselves are local．Sound quality is the same as that of a cell phone．

　　Even if you don’t have a computer, you can still use the Web to reduce your long distance phone costs．Some companies offer a service that lets you use an ordinary phone to call another ordinary phone, but charge only a few cents per minute for US calls, because they send them through the Internet．

　　Today 48 percent of American homes have computers…a figure that is expected to climb to 60 percent by 2003．And by the end of the next decade, Americans will likely be spending more time shopping, banking, investing and learning on the Internet than in the real world．If you can’t do or find something on the Net today, you probably can tomorrow．

60．Over the Internet, you ________．

       A．can hear everything there

       B．will meet with plenty of surprises which come out every week．

       C．will hear the things about the electronic frontier

       D．can find some things are very interesting

61．From the passage we can infer that _________．

       A．fewer people will use the Internet in the following ten years

       B．more people will study in the regular school by the end of the next decade

       C．fewer people will go to the regular school in the following ten years

       D．more money will be needed for a long-distance call by the end of the next decade

62．If you want to attach to photo to your e-mail, you have to ________ it．

       A．digitalize　　  B．take　　　　   C．picture　　　　      D．send

63．Which of the following is NOT true?

       A．A telephone conversation over the Internet can be carried out without computers．

       B．Over the Internet, the receiver of the phone conversation doesn’t need a computer．

       C．The phone conversations over the Internet are much cheaper．

       D．The long-distance calls are local themselves．

Without the atmosphere there would be no weather, no wind, rain, snow, or clouds. Air is all around us; we live at the bottom of a great ocean of air. It is invisible, but we can feel it when it moves. There are miles of air above us, pressing down with great weight on the earth and everything on it. Because air presses down on us from all directions at the same time, and because we are able to bear (忍受) this weight, we do not seem to feel it. But scientists have proved that air has this weight, and that anything that has weight creates(产生) a force called pressure. As changes in air pressure take place, they, make air move.

Air is a gas that expands(膨胀) when heated, gets lighter, and moves upward. When air is cooled, it gets heavier, sinks close to the earth's surface, and flows like water in a great river. As warn air rises, cold air rushes in to take its place. 'Thus winds originate (起源). The winds that blow high above us are caused by the warmer air running away from colder air. The wind we feel near the earth's surface is the heavy colder air trying hard to catch the warmer air. Changes in temperature cause the air to move. And of course there are many changes, so air movements are taking place practically all the time.

The first paragraph mainly tells us the causes of

A．why we don't feel air　　　　　　　B．why atmosphere is important to us

C．why there is air surrounding us　　D．why there is air pressure

Air moves under such conditions that

A．there is air pressure              B．the air is heavy

C．air pressure doesn't remain the same all the time  D．air comes up and down

Which of the following pictures best tells the movements of warm air and cold air?

According to the passage, in same areas if farmers who grow grapes (葡萄) light fires in the early morning, that is because the farmers want to________________．

A．drive away warm air  B．prevent cold air from coming to harm their plants

C．cause more windD．stop warm air running away

Without most people realizing it, there has been a revolution in office work over the last ten years．Before that time, large computers were only, used by large, rich companies that could afford the investment．With the advancement of technology, small computers have come onto the market, which are capable of doing the work which used to be done by much larger and expensive computers, so now most smaller companies can use them

The main development in small computers has been in the field of word processors (处理器) , or WPS as they are often called．40% of British offices are now estimated to have a word processor and this percentage is growing fast．

There are many advantages in using a word processor for both secretary and manager．The secretary is freed from a lot of daily work, such as re-typing letters and storing papers．He or she can use this time to do other more interesting work for the boss．From a manager's point of view, secretarial time is being made better use of and money can be saved by doing daily jobs automatically outside office hors．

But is it all good? If a lot of daily secretarial work can be done automatically, surely this will mean that fewer secretaries will be needed．Another worry is the increasing medical problems related to work with visual display units (显示器)．The case of a slow loss of sight among people using word processors seems to have risen greatly．It is also feared that if a woman works at a VDU for long hours, the unborn child in her body might be killed．Safety screens to put over a VDU have been invented but few companies in England bother to buy them．                                                                                 

Whatever the arguments for and against word processor, they are a key feature (特征) of this revolution in office practice．

Then years ago, smaller companies did not use large computers because_________．

A．these companies had not enough money to buy such expensive computers

     B．these computers could not do the work that small computers can do today

     C．these computers did not come onto the market

     D．these companies did not need to use this new technology

According to the writer, the main feature of the revolution in office work

   over the last ten years is __________．

   A．the saving of time and money   B．the use of computers in small companies

   C．the wide use of word processors       D．the decreasing number of secretaries

It is implied but not directly stated in the passage that with the use of word

   processors _________．

   A．some secretaries will lose their jobs

   B．daily jobs can be done automatically outside office hours

   C．medical problems related to work with a VDU have increased

   D．the British companies will make less money

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

   A．There are both advantages and disadvantages in using a word processor

   B．The British companies care much for the health of the people using word processors．

   C．The technology in the field of computers has been greatly advanced over the last ten years．

   D．Using word processors , secretaries can get more time to do more interesting work for their bosses．

It can be concluded from the passage that ________．

   A．safety screens are of poor quality

   B．working at a VDU for a long time is good for one's health

   C．more and more British offices will use word processors

   D．British companies will need fewer and fewer manages

A new study finds that the animal known as man’s best friend can also be a good friend to the heart. Researchers in California say they have found that even just a short visit with a dog helped ease the worries of heart patients.               

The study divided the patients into three groups. In Group A, a dog and a person visited each patient for twelve minutes. Patients in Group B received just a human visitor for twelve minutes. And members of Group C received no visitor, human or canine(犬的).

The dogs would lie on the hospital bed so the heart patients could touch them. The researchers say some patients immediately smiled and talked to the dog and the human visitor. Dogs, in her words, “make people happier, calmer and feel more loved.”

The researchers examined the patients before, during and after the visits. They measured stress levels based on blood flow and heart activity. They say they found a twenty-four percent decrease in the group visited by both a dog and a person. They reported a ten percent decrease in the group visited by a person only. There was no change in the patients without any visit. These patients, however, did have an increase in their production of the hormone epinephrine (epinephrine肾上腺素). The body produces epinephrine during times of stress.

The increase was an average of seven percent. But the study found that patients who spent time with a dog had a seventeen percent drop in their levels of epinephrine. Patients visited by a human but not a dog also had a decrease, but only two percent.

The author believes that _______.  

   A. the dog can take the place of most medicines

   B. the dog is the most popular pet for man

   C. the findings of the research cannot be trusted

   D. visits by a human work better than visits by a dog

Which of the following best shows the stress level changes in the groups of patients? BACC

  

From the research findings we may conclude that _______.

A. the less the body produces epinephrine, the better

B. the longer a visit lasts, the happier the patient should be

C. the patients enjoyed the dogs’ company more than the human visitors’

D. it’s impossible for heart patients to recover without dogs’ visits

Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

  A. Worried Heart Patients               B. Epinephrine and Stress

  C. Good Friend to the Heart             D. Three Groups of Patients