Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s biggest carmaker, said on Friday it will recall 1,489 Lexus sedans (高级轿车) sold in China. "It will take us some time to ship the fuel tanks and vent pipes to China to change those in these Lexus sedans for customers free of charge, if problems are found," said Yang Hongjian, a spokes- woman of Toyota’s China representative office.

The expected recall will affect Lexus LS430 sedans made in Japan from July 29, 2003 to January 14, 2004, the repre??sentative office said in a statement. Toyota has not received complaints from Chinese customers, according to the state??ment. The move will be part of Toyota’s global recall of 18,200 Lexus LS430s. It will be the third car recall in China in two weeks. Although automobile recall is a common prac??tice in developed markets, it remains new to Chinese customers. The Chinese government published long-awaited automo??bile recall rules on March 15, which will be officially carried out at the beginning of October.

China’s auto market is forecast to reach 10 million units by 2010. Automakers, especially Chinese producers, will face greater pressure from automobile recalls, which could be very costly sometimes, and should be in full preparations, accord??ing to the expert. The Japanese carmaker sold 1, 549 Lexus vehicles on the Chinese mainland during the first five months of this year, according to Yang. Lexus sales on the mainland reached 4,000 units last year, up from 1,600 units in 2002. (China Daily July 3, 2004)

1. What can we learn from the text?

A. Chinese customers are not satisfied with Toyota Lexus LS430 sedans.

B. Chinese car market has seen car recalls three times so far.

C. Toyota will have a worldwide recall of Lexus LS430 sedans.

D. Toyota Motor start to recall Lexus Sedans due to the problems with fuel tanks.

2. The carmakers were unwilling to recall their cars in the past mainly because ______.

A. they were not fully prepared

B. they couldn’t afford the cost for their car recalls

C. their products could not meet the required standard

D. there were no related rules and little pressure

3. It is implied in the passage that ______.

A. sales of homemade automobiles will grow even faster

B. automobile recalls will take place in China more fre??quently

C. China’s car market is forecast to be the biggest by 2010 in the world

D. Toyota is likely to sell the most Lexus Sedans in China in the future

4. Which of the following is the best tide of this passage?

A. Toyota to Recall Its Lexus Sedans Sold in China

B. China Prepares to Recall Cars

C. The Problems in China’s Car Market

D. Costly Japanese Car Recalls

Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s biggest carmaker, said on Friday it will recall 1,489 Lexus sedans (高级轿车) sold in China. "It will take us some time to ship the fuel tanks and vent pipes to China to change those in these Lexus sedans for customers free of charge, if problems are found," said Yang Hongjian, a spokes- woman of Toyota’s China representative office.
The expected recall will affect Lexus LS430 sedans made in Japan from July 29, 2003 to January 14, 2004, the repre­sentative office said in a statement. Toyota has not received complaints from Chinese customers, according to the state­ment. The move will be part of Toyota’s global recall of 18,200 Lexus LS430s. It will be the third car recall in China in two weeks. Although automobile recall is a common prac­tice in developed markets, it remains new to Chinese customers. The Chinese government published long-awaited automo­bile recall rules on March 15, which will be officially carried out at the beginning of October.
China’s auto market is forecast to reach 10 million units by 2010. Automakers, especially Chinese producers, will face greater pressure from automobile recalls, which could be very costly sometimes, and should be in full preparations, accord­ing to the expert. The Japanese carmaker sold 1, 549 Lexus vehicles on the Chinese mainland during the first five months of this year, according to Yang. Lexus sales on the mainland reached 4,000 units last year, up from 1,600 units in 2002. (China Daily July 3, 2004)

1. 1.

   What can we learn from the text?

   1. A.
      Chinese customers are not satisfied with Toyota Lexus LS430 sedans.
   2. B.
      Chinese car market has seen car recalls three times so far.
   3. C.
      Toyota will have a worldwide recall of Lexus LS430 sedans.
   4. D.
      Toyota Motor start to recall Lexus Sedans due to the problems with fuel tanks.
2. 2.

   The carmakers were unwilling to recall their cars in the past mainly because ______.

   1. A.
      they were not fully prepared
   2. B.
      they couldn’t afford the cost for their car recalls
   3. C.
      their products could not meet the required standard
   4. D.
      there were no related rules and little pressure
3. 3.

   It is implied in the passage that ______.

   1. A.
      sales of homemade automobiles will grow even faster
   2. B.
      automobile recalls will take place in China more fre­quently
   3. C.
      China’s car market is forecast to be the biggest by 2010 in the world
   4. D.
      Toyota is likely to sell the most Lexus Sedans in China in the future
4. 4.

   Which of the following is the best tide of this passage?

   1. A.
      Toyota to Recall Its Lexus Sedans Sold in China
   2. B.
      China Prepares to Recall Cars
   3. C.
      The Problems in China’s Car Market
   4. D.
      Costly Japanese Car Recalls

最近，很多中学生都纷纷开起了自己的博客。一方面，博客可以作为展示自己的窗口，可以释放学习的压力，因此已经被越来越多的中学生所接受。但是，另一方面，很多家长和老师都认为管理个人博客要花相当多的时间和精力，会耽误学习。

请对这一现象在英语博客网上进行简要介绍，并发表自己的看法。

注意：

1．词数：100左右，开头已给出，不计入总词数；

2．参考词汇：开博客open one’s blog

Nowadays, it is a common phenomenon that more and more high school students open their own blogs on the Internet.

Ⅲ. 阅读（共两节，满分40分）

第一节　阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从41—55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Although April did not bring us the rains we all hoped for, and although the Central Valley doesn’t generally experience the sound and lightning that can go with those rains, it’s still important for parents to be able to answer the youthful questions about thunder and lightning.

The reason these two wonders of nature are so difficult for many adults to explain to children is that they are not very well understood by adults themselves. For example, do you know that the lightning we see flashing down to the earth from a cloud is actually flashing up to a cloud from the earth? Our eyes trick us into thinking we see a downward motion when it’s actually the other way round. But then, if we believed only what we think and we see, we’d still insist that the sun rises in the morning and sets at night.

Most lightning flashes take place inside a cloud, and only a relative few can be seen jumping between two clouds or between earth and a cloud. But, with about 2,000 thunderstorms taking place above the earth every minute of the day and night, there’s enough activity to produce about 100 lightning strikes on earth every second.

Parents can use thunder and lightning to help their children learn more about the world around them. When children understand that the light of lightning flashing reaches their eyes almost at the same moment, but the sound of the thunder takes about 5 seconds to travel just one mile, they can begin to time the interval(间隔) between the flash and the crash to learn how close they are to the actual spark(闪光).

1. According to the author, in the area of the Central Valley, ___________.

A. rains usually come without thunder and lightning

B. it is usually dry in April

C. children pay no attention to the two natural wonders

D. parents are not interested in thunder and lightning

2. We believe that lightning is a downward motion because ___________.

A. we were taught so by our parents from our childhood

B. we are taken in by our sense of vision

C. it is a common natural sight

D. it is a truth proved by science

3. What is TRUE about lightning according to the passage?

A. Only a small number of lightning flashes occur on earth.

B. Lightning travels 5 times faster than thunder.

C. Lightning flashes usually jump from one cloud to another.

D. There are far more lightning strikes occurring on earth than we can imagine.

4. The underlined word “activity” is most closely related to the word(s)___________.

A. “cloud”                                       B. “lightning strikes”        

C. “lightning flashes”                              D. “thunderstorms”

5. It can be concluded from the passage that____________.

A. we should not believe what we see or hear

B. things moving downward are more noticeable

C. people often have wrong ideas about ordinary phenomena (现象)

D. adults are not as good as children in observing certain natural phenomena

It is a common fear among users of Facebook and other social media around the world—how to deal with a friend request from your boss or employee.
A survey released on Thursday found that 56 percent of Americans say it is irresponsible to be friends with a boss and 62 percent say it is wrong to be friends with an employee. But 76 percent believe it is acceptable to be friends with a workplace peer，according to the survey of 1，000 people by Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project.
"When the roles change what do you do then? Do you unfriend someone if they have now been promoted to be your boss or if you’re now their boss，”said researcher Kelly Holland. "We get into some really sticky situations there in terms of what people will think is responsible，”she said.
When using social media at work，73 percent say it is not appropriate to update your Facebook status，82 percent say you should not upload photos，72 percent believe tweeting is wrong and 79 percent say it is not acceptable to watch online videos. Yet 66 percent say it is fine to check your personal email while at work.
“When people focus on responsibility，they know what the responsible thing is to do but whether they are doing that in practice or not is a different story,”said Holland.
Americans are split on whether companies should review the social media profiles of job candidates with 52 percent saying it is appropriate and 48 percent saying it is unacceptable. Social media can also lead to some difficult decisions when it comes to family and relationships. Sixty percent of those polled say that it is“completely acceptable" to unfriend an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. More than 40 percent of parents believe it is irresponsible to post photos of children online. Thirty one percent monitor their children's Facebook accounts and almost 70 percent are friends with their children on Facebook or MySpace. But 72 percent limit the time their children spend on social media networks.
The poll was taken between January 12一15．
【小题1】The text is mainly about________