第三部分：阅读理解（共20题；每小题2分，共40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题中所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
You have heard the expression “horse sense”. As you may imagine, it came from the time when the majority of people traveled in vehicles drawn by horses. A horse does have a lot of common sense, and there are many true stories about horses having saved their drivers from danger of death.
Today for the most part, people travel by train, ship, airplane, and car, but very little by the use of horses. Modern vehicles are propelled by engines, and an engine does not have any sense. In case of danger, many horses could be depended on to help. Not so with the engine; the driver must do all the things.
In recent years, the speed of travel has increased greatly. With the increased speed comes greatly increased danger. The driver of a powerful engine needs to be careful. A moment of being careless may cost a life. In order to drive today, a person must be able to see clearly, and he must learn and follow carefully the rules for safety on the road. Greater attention is the price we pay for using a machine instead of a horse.
56. The passage mainly talks about ______.
A. engines    B. safe driving    C. using horses    D. modern machines
57. The underlined word “propel” in the second paragraph means ______.
A. repair    B. raise    C. push forward    D. made
58. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. a driver must know the rules of safety
B. a driver needs to be able only to tell red from green
C. an eye test is an important part of a driver’s examination
D. greater attention is needed for a driver while driving a machine
59. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. A driver must be able to see and hear well.
B. The driver of a car must follow the rules of safety.
C. Horses are known to have saved their drivers from injury.
D. It is better for vehicles to be pulled by horse than to be pushed by engine.

The necktie looks set to follow the top hat in being handed over to the fashion museum by office workers within the next 50 years, according to research.
Nearly three quarters (74%) think the tie will not survive within British firms beyond the next half a century with the popularity of the open-collared shirt. Its demise is being blamed on the boom in creative businesses, such as Facebook and Google, and online trading companies where formal dress codes tend to be avoided in favour of a more casual approach.
Once considered an important part of business dress, the tie has become a victim of the spread of "casual Fridays" into other weekdays, according to researchers.
The poll, by Deal Jungle. com, which helps small and medium enterprises, found more than half (51% ) thought the tie would die out in offices within the next 20 years and almost a quarter (22%) believed it would last less than 10 years.
A spokesman for the site, which has 20, 000 registered members, said: "Ties have been around seemingly forever but increasing numbers of office workers are telling them to get away."

"The success of businesses such as Facebook and Google, where even the CEO turns up wearing jeans and a hoodie, also seems to have had a corrosive (侵蚀性) effect on the idea of dressing formally for work."
"Many of our members keep their expenses to a minimum by working from home so they feel no need to dress up to go to work. We know that when they meet with clients, they still put on a business suit, but a tie is no longer seen as an essential part of the suited-and-booted look."
"Instead, many businessmen and increasing numbers of executives choose a suit and shirt with an open collar. The tie-less suit creates an impression of a more approachable deal maker, someone who is still business-minded, yet creative and technology-sensible, too. "
【小题1】Why are ties expected to disappear in offices?

The first people who gave names to hurricanes were those who knew them best — the people of Puerto Rico. The small island of Puerto Rico is in the West Indies, off the coast of Florida. This is where all the hurricanes begin that strike the east coast of the United States. Often they pass near Puerto Rico or cross it on their way north. The people of Puerto Rico expect some of these unwelcome visitors every year. Each one is named after the Saint’s Day on which it arrives. Two of the most destructive storms were the Santo Ana in 1840 and the San Ciriaco in 1899.

Giving girls’ names to hurricanes is a fairly new idea. It all began with a story called “Storm”, written by George Stewart in 1941. In it a weatherman amused himself by naming storms after girls he knew. He named one Maria. The story describes how she Maria grew and developed, and how she changed the lives of people when she struck the United States.

Weathermen of the U.S. Army and Navy used the same system during World WarⅡ. They were studying weather conditions over the Pacific Ocean. One of their duties was to warn American ships and planes when a storm was coming. Whenever they spotted one, they gave it a girl’s name. The first one of the year was given a name beginning with [A]. The second one got a name beginning with [B]. They used all the letters from A to W, and still the storms kept coming. They had to use three lists from A to W to have enough names to go around. This was the first list of hurricane names that followed the alphabet. It served as a model for the system the Weather Bureau (局) introduced in 1942.

　　Before 1950 the Weather Bureau had no special system for naming hurricanes. When a hurricane was born down in the West Indies, the Weather Bureau simply collected information about it. It reported how fast the storm was moving and where it would go next. Weather reports warned people in the path of the hurricane, so that they could do whatever was necessary to protect themselves.

　　This system worked out fine as long as weather reports talked about only one hurricane at a time. But one week in September 1950 there were three hurricanes at the same time. The things began to get confused. Some people got the hurricanes mixed up and didn’t know which was which. This convinced the Weather Bureau that it needed a code for naming the storms in order to avoid confusion in the future.

Hurricanes were first named after the _________.

       A. date on which they occurred　 B. place where they began

　    C. amount of destruction they did　     D. particular feature they have

The practice of giving girls’ names to hurricanes was started by _________.

　    A. a radio operator       B. an author                 C. a sailor              D. local people

The purpose for which weathermen of the army and navy began using girls’ names for hurricanes was ________.

　    A. to keep information from the enemy      B. to follow the standard method of the United States

　    C. not given in the article　  D. to remember a certain girl

The Weather Bureau began naming hurricanes because it would help them _________.

　    A. collect information more rapidly　  B. warn people more efficiently

　    C. make use of military (军事的) records　 D. remember them

 How can school ban mobile phones completely __________ some of the parents simply don’t follow the rule?

A．unless            B．when             C．until             D．before

In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child's acquisition (学会) of each new skill -- the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.

Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are severe over time of coming home at night or punctuality（准时）for meals. In general, the controls represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child's own happiness.

As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency（前后一致） is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality (道德). Also, parents should realize that "example is better than precept". If they are not sincere and do not practice what they preach (说教), their children may grow confused when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.

A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents' principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

1.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills, _________________.

A．should be avoided

B．is universal among parents

C．sets up dangerous states of worry in the child

D．will make the child lose interest in learning new things

2.In the process of children’s learning new skills, parents _________________.

A．should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read

B．should expect a lot of the children

C．should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own

D．should create as many learning opportunities as possible

3.The second paragraph mainly tells us that _________________.

A．parents should be strict with their children

B．parental controls reflect only the values of the community

C．parental restrictions vary, and are not always for the benefit of the children alone

D．it’s parents’ and society’s duty to control the children

4.The word“precept” in Paragraph 3 probably means “_________________”.

A．opinion           B．punishment        C．behavior          D．instruction

5.In terms of moral matters, parents should _____________________.

A．follow the rules themselves

B．be aware of the huge difference between adults and children

C．forbid things which have no foundation in morality

D．always ensure the security of their children