A

A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much more rapidly than a physics or economics textbook-but you can raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with.

The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim (浏览) through a newspaper at perhaps 650-700, while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds are common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speeds of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

According to the passage, the purpose of effective reading with higher speed is most likely to help you ________.

A. only in your reading of a physics textbook

B. improve your understanding of an economics textbook

C. not only in your language study but also in other subjects

D. choose the suitable materials to read

Which of the following does not describe the types of reading materials mentioned in the second paragraph?

A. Those beyond one's reading comprehension.

B. Those concerned with common knowledge.

C. Those without much demand for specialized knowledge.

D. Those with the length of about five hundred words.

The average speed of untrained native speakers in the University of Minnesota is ________.

A. about 300 words per minute

B. about 245 words per minute

C. about 650-700 words per minute

D. about 500 words per minute

According to the passage, how fast can you expect to read after you have attended twelve half-hour lessons in the University of Minnesota?

A. You can increase your reading speed by three times.

B. No real increase in reading speed can be achieved.

C. Yon can increase your reading speed by four times.

D. You can double your reading speed.

The ______ a teacher has on children is usually greater than that of their parents.

　　A. use          B. effort       C. effect          D. energy

A

A rock group called the Rocket Crew is on tour. Their agent (经纪人) has asked the town officials about Wilbour City on the tour. The stadium in the town is large enough to hold the expected crowd. Ticket sales in the area would be good because several towns are around Wilbour City. However, many people in the town don't want a rock concert because they fear the damage the crowd might cause. To settle the problem about whether or not to invite the group to appear, the mayor took a poll(民意测验). The results are:

Would buy tickets Would not buy tickets Undecided 6180 (41.2％) 5914 (39.4％) 2920 (19.4％) Fear the damage Not fear the damage Undecided 3043 (20.3％) 8746 (58.3％) 3225 (21.4％) Thought it would help the city Didn't think it would help the city Undecided 9412 (62.7％) 2085 (13.9％) 3517 (23.4％)

56. The mayor took the poll among _____ people.

A. 15,014 B. 6,180 C. 9,412 D. 8,746

57. From the results of the poll, we know that half of the people or more _____.

A. would buy the tickets for the concert

B. haven't yet given their own opinions

C. are against the invitation to the group

D. are for the invitation to the group

58. The concert is probably to be held in _____.

A. a cinema B. a stadium C. a theatre D. a concert hall

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

A. A Poll B. The City of Wilbour C. Rocket Crew D. A Rock Concert

C
A light emitting diode （发光二极管）, or L．E．D．, is a device that shines when electricity passes through it．But it works differently than traditional kinds of light bulbs．Light emitting diodes use less energy and last much longer than bulbs with a filament （灯丝） inside．L．E．                               D．’s are also cooler to the touch, and shine a lot brighter than they used to．  
Red L．E．D．’s have long been used as signal lights on electronic equipment．But now light emitting diodes also come in blue and other colors．Colored L．E．D．’s are used to show images on everything from wireless phones to huge video signs．And white L．E．D．’s are being used increasingly to replace traditional lighting systems．  
But all these require electricity．In poor countries, people often burn fuel to produce light．But the smoke can make people sick．So an electrical engineering professor from Canada started a project to produce L．E．       D．lighting systems for the developing world．These lights are powered by batteries that can be recharged with energy from the sun．The batteries can also be charged through other ways, such as wind power and water power．
Professor David Irvine-Halliday tells the story of how he got the idea．In 1997, while climbing in the Annapurna mountains in Nepal, he saw a small school．All the children were outside．He looked through a window and saw that inside the school was dark．The school had a sign that read: "We have no teachers．If you want to stay and teach for a few days, we would be very pleased．" Professor Irvine-Halliday says that experience had a big effect on him．Back at the University of Calgary, he was on the Internet one day．He saw a company in Japan selling bright white L．E．                           D．’s．So he built a light with some．This is how he began the Light Up the World Foundation．
48．Compared with traditional kinds of light bulbs, L．E．D．’S________．
A．waste a lot of energy                    B．need shorter time to make
C．shine much brighter                 D．are warmer to touch
49．According to the passage, we know that L．E．D．’s________．
A．will replace all the lights            B．will be more and more popular
C．will be only colored ones               D．will be only used in developing countries
50．According to the passage, we can infer that the purpose of the Light Up the World Foundation is to________．
A．develop L．E．D．lighting system for the developing world                   
B．sell bright white L．E．D．’s
C．collect money for developing countries                                        
D．earn money by selling L．E．D．’s