阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

Certain dustmen prefer to be known as “Refuse Collection and Disposal Office”. You may think that this is rather silly and that it is better to call a spade a spade. But dustmen can be as sensitive as people of any other occupation, though we must admit that their job is not the most romantic one in the world. We often take dustmen for granted. Perhaps because they usually come very early in the morning, before most people are up, we are inclined to forget that they exist. Our dustbins are emptied regularly, but we rarely stop to think about the men who do this. However it is one of the most important jobs in the world, and when there are no dustmen to take away the rubbish the general public soon becomes aware that something is wrong.

    Recently the dustmen of England went on strike for higher wages. During the first few days it was regarded as a joke. For some reason, jokes have always been made about dustmen, and some people thought this strike was very amusing. But when the first two weeks had passed, and the dustbins were overflowing in nearly every, backyard in the country, the joke did not seem so funny any more. As the strike continued, people could not bear the accumulation of rubbish around their dustbins, and they looked for other places in which to get rid of it. Even Leicester Square, in the heat of the west end of London, was piled high with the plastic sacks full of smelly rubbish. This was a tourist attraction that the people of London were not at all happy to see. Even when the strike was over, and the wages dispute had been settled, it took several weeks for the country to get cleaned up immediately, as so much rubbish had accumulated. Perhaps now the English people appreciate the work of their dustmen rather more highly, and won't take them for granted any more.

1．Why are dustmen often taken for granted?

    A. Because they are very sensitive people.

    B. Because the dustbins are always emptied at regular intervals.

    C. Because their job is a very important one.

    D. Because this job is not the most romantic one in the world.

2．When do ordinary people stop to think about dustmen and their work?

    A. Very early in the morning before other people are up.

    B. During a strike, when the dustbins were not emptied.

    C. Never.

    D. At regular intervals.

3．Why did people at first think that the strike started by the dustmen was funny?

    A. Because they predicted the strike would end soon.

    B. Because the purpose of the dustmen was to amuse the Londoners.

    C. Because funny stories had been created about dustmen.

    D. Because a city couldn't go on for quite a long while without the rubbish being collected.

4．Why do the English people appreciate the work of their dustmen rather more highly, and won't take them for granted any more now?

    A. Because the dustmen have done their work well.

    B. Because they have realized the dustmen's job is very important.

    C. Because the dustmen often go on strike for higher wages.

D. Because the dustmen usually come early in the morning, before most people are up.

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

Early one morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: it seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.

    Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream. He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into the rage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with their spears raised.

    But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor woke up from the dream, realizing he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the renter of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and built the first really practical sewing machine. Elias Howe was nut the only one in finding the answers to his problem in this way.

    Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

    To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then a part of your mind is still working. The unconscious (无意识) , but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problem you have had during the day. It stores all information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you are asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images (图像) which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves”.

1．According to the passage, Elias Howe was ________.

    A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep

    B. much more hard-working than other inventors

    C. the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked

    D. the only person at the time who knew the value of dreams

2．The problem Howe was trying to solve was ________.

    A. what kind of thread to use

    B. how to design a needle which would not break

    C. where to put the needle

    D. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle

3．Dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves” because ________.

    A. strange images are used to communicate ideas

    B. images which have no meaning are used

    C. we can never understand the real meaning

    D. only special trained people can understand them

4．From the passage we know that ________.

    A. when we sleep, our mind is sleeping too

    B. when we sleep, not all our mind is sleeping

    C. all great inventors once got their ideas in their dreams

D. if we run into a problem in the day. we'll always have a strange dream at night

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

London---Lazy students can now give up on work altogether as two Oxford University students have made scores of A-grade essays (论文) on the website for students to copy. The essays are on the new website “revise it”. The website includes an “Essay Lab” designed to make cheating (舞弊) as effective and effortless as possible.

    Its homepage announces to surfers (网上冲浪者) ; “Its Essay Lab is a bank of hundreds of A-level essays covering popular topics.”

    “Next time you are asked to write an essay， why not see what we have on the subject-if you are in a lazy state of mind you can even use our guide to writing the essays and then just hand them in.”

    Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo, both 19 and first from Manchester, spent much of their first year as students at the university setting up the website. There is no charge for downloading the essays.

    “I have never been very good at essay writing,” Rose admitted. “We don't see essay bank as a cheating way. It's a surprising valuable resource. You can learn a lot by reading other people's work on the subject.”

    Among other tips , the website suggests inventing important speeches to give essays extra weight: “Popular people to quote (引用) are Douglas Hurd or Disraeli.”

    Hurd was a foreign secretary in the 1980s and Disraeli was a 19th century prime minister. Teachers are expressing their opinions by e-mail that they are angry about the website that “encourages students to cheat”, but students disagree. According to Rose: “Exams are a fight. It's us against them.”

1．It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

    A. the students who visit the website “revise it” are all lazy

    B. students dislike exams

    C. Nick Rose is poor at writing

    D. writing essays is not a pleasant job

2．Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo set up their website for the purpose of ________.

    A. helping the students to cheat in exams

    B. helping students to improve their writing

    C. making money to pay for their schooling

    D. surprising their teachers

3．Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

    A. Essay Lab is one part of the website.

    B. Teachers and students have different opinions about the website.

    C. Students are not satisfied with the education system

    D. Douglas Hurd often copied essays from the website.

4．Which is the best title for this passage?

    A. Homework Website

    B. Against Exams

    C. Surfers on the Internet

D. A-level Essays

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don't go.

    But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don't fit the pattern are becoming more and more, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students get in the way of each other's experiments and write false letters of recommendation (推荐) in the competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no interest in their studies and drop out—often encouraged by college administrators (教导主任).

    Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves-they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that is a condemnation (谴责) of the students as a whole, and does not explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We've been told that young people have to go to college because our economy cannot take in an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer take in an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.

    Some adventuresome educators and campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys (调查) upside down,  it seems, and thinking of the rosy glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college does not make people intelligent (clever) , ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things-maybe it is just the other way round, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are only the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But opposite evidence is beginning to mount up.

1．According to the passage all the following statements are true EXCEPT that ________.

    A. about half of the high school graduates continue their studies in colleges

    B. college graduates are believed to be able to earn more money

    C. administrators often encourage college students to drop out

    D. more and more young people are found unfit for college

2．Which of the following is one of some observers' opinions?

    A. The students expect so much that they are not satisfied with the hard college life.

    B. The economic situation is so discouraging that the youth have to attend college.

    C. Colleges should improve because of so much campus unhappiness.

    D. Colleges provide more chances of good jobs than anywhere else.

3．What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 mean?

    A. Our college experiences prove that those surveys are incorrect.

    B. The surveys may remind us of our beautiful college experiences.

    C. The surveys should all be reexamined according to our college experiences.

    D. Our college experiences may make us misunderstand the results of the surveys.

4．What is the main purpose of this passage?

    A. To value young people's further education in colleges.

    B. To put forward an idea that college should not be the first choice.

    C. To argue against the idea that college is the best place for all young people.

D. To persuade young people into working after the completion of high school.

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

Amos Grundy and Sam Spangler had been playing checkers (棋子) together for about twenty-five years. They kept their scores of wins and losses carefully on yellow lined paper. You might call it sort of life time checker tournament (比赛). Sam was leading 5000 games to 0. He liked it that way because he liked to win. Amos kept trying and his motto was “Don't give up. You can't lose them all.”

    Now Game 5001 began pretty much like any other game. Sam and Amos sat in their regular chairs—Sam looking confident and unbeatable-Amos nervously rubbing his white rabbit's foot. Rain was banging(猛击) loudly on the windows and there was the rumble(隆隆)of thunder shaking overhead.

    Sam was playing the blacks. Amos was playing the reds. Neither man smoke. Sam moved. Amos moved. Sam moved. Amos moved. But Amos for once was making all the right moves.

    He double-jumped Sam.

    He triple()-jumped Sam.

    He made one king and another king.

    Amos played the game of his life and he won it! “Rats!” said Sam. He wasn't used to losing. After winning 5000 straight games a loss was pretty hard to take. He grumbled (三倍的) . “But I'm still 4999 games ahead of you, Amos.” “Maybe so.” said Amos, “but we've got 5000 games to go, I'm going to win this tournament!”

1．Amos has Lost 5000 games, ________.

    A. so he would give up

    B. so he wouldn't go on playing

    C. but he wouldn't be disappointed

    D. because he was so old

2．The reason why Amos won Game 5001 was ________.

    A. that it had begun pretty much like any other game

    B. that he happened to play the reds

    C. that Sam had thought to lose it

    D. that he had trade all the right moves

3．The final score was ________.

A. 5000 to 1　　　　　　　　    B. 5001 to 1

C. 4999 to 1　　　　　　　　    D. 5000 to 0

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

For some time past it has been widely accepted that babies and other creatures learn to do things because certain acts lead to “rewards”, and there is no reason to doubt that this is true. But it used also to be widely believed that effective rewards, at least in the early stages. had to be directly related to such basic physiological “drives” (生理动力) as thirst or hunger. In other words, a baby would learn if he got food or drink or some sort of physical comfort, not otherwise.

    It is now clear that this is not so. Babies will learn to behave in ways that produce results in the world with no reward except the successful outcome (result).

    Papousek began his studies by using milk in the normal way to “reward” the babies and so teach them to carry out some simple movements, such as turning the head to one side or the other. Then he noticed that a baby who had had enough to drink would refuse the milk but would still go on making the learned response (反应) with clear signs of pleasure. So he began to study the children's responses in situations where no milk was provided. He quickly found that children as young as four months would learn to turn their heads to right or left if the movement “switched on”, a display (显示) of lights. and indeed that they were capable of learning ( were able to learn) quite complex (复杂的) turns to bring about this result, for instance, two left or two right, or even to make as many as three turns to one side.

    Papousek's light display was placed directly in front of the babies and he made the interesting observation that sometimes they would not turn back to watch the lights closely although they would smile or bubble (格格地笑) when the display came on. Papousek concluded that it was not primarily (mainly) the sight of the lights which pleased them, it was the success they were achieving in solving the problem, in mastering the skill, and that there exists a fundamental ( basic) human urge (强烈欲望) to make sense of ( understand ) the world and bring it under intentional(有识的) control.

1．According to the author, babies learn to do things which ________.

    A. will satisfy their curiosity

    B. will meet their physical needs

    C. are directly related to pleasure (are connected with pleasure)

    D. will bring them a feeling of success

2．Papousek noticed that in his studies that a baby ________.

    A. would make learned responses when it saw the milk

    B. would continue the simple movements without being given milk

    C. would turn its head to right or left when it had enough to drink

    D. would carry out learned movements when it had drunk enough milk

3．In Papousek's experiment babies make learned movements of the head in order to ________.

    A. be praised

    B. please their parents

    C. be rewarded with milk

    D. have the lights turned on

4．The babies would “smile and bubble” because ________.

    A. they succeeded in “switching on” the lights

    B. the sight of the lights was interesting

    C. they need not turn back to watch the lights

    D. the lights were directly rented to some basic “drive”

5．According to Papousek, the pleasure babies get in achieving something is a reflection of ________.

    A. the satisfaction of certain physiological needs

    B. their strong desire to solve complex problems

    C. a basic human desire to understand and control the world

D. a fundamental human urge to show off their learned skills

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

There were two interesting news items in the paper a few years ago. One was about a man who received a bill from the telephone company for $ 999 990—for three months. The other was about a man who received $ 2000 a month-for doing nothing.

    The connection between the two news items is simple: computers—the best inventions of the twentieth century. The telephone bill came from a computer which made a terrifying mistake; that man's bill was only $ 23.36. The other item was not so amusing. A man walked into the unguarded computer room of a large packaged food company and expertly programmed the computer (给计算机编程序) to pay him $ 2 000 a month for raw meat which he “supplied” to the company. Of course he never sent the meat, but he certainly received the money. The computer wrote out a bill, and even “signed” it. It was only a random (随便的) check that uncovered the trick. It could be happening in thousands of other companies all over the world.

    Computers are not the magic workers that some people say they are. They make mistakes; they are sometimes slower than human beings and they are easily fooled. The US used to conscript (征兵) people with the help of a computer. The army sent out a card, which had to be filled in and sent back. It was easy to avoid being called up simply by spreading candle-wax on the card. The computer couldn't read the card, and did nothing with it.

    It's our everyday life that computers cause many problems. Let's get back to using people instead of computers, before a mistake that we can't put right.

1．In the first paragraph we know ________.

    A. the paper is telling a lie

    B. the first sentence is the topic sentence

    C. the two news items made people surprised

    D. if a man did nothing at all for the telephone company, he would still get $ 2 000 a month

2．The man was given $ 999 999 because  ________.

    A. the computer made a big mistake

    B. he worked very hard

    C. he programmed the computer to pay him so much money for raw meat

    D. his work was very difficult to do and the pay was certainly high

3．The main idea of the second paragraph is that  ________.

    A. the computers are magic workers

    B. the computers can do anything as man

    C. the computers can write out a bill and even sign it

    D. the computers sometimes also make big mistakes

4．Computers ________.

    A. were used to conscript people

    B. are usually faster than human beings

    C. are not so miracle (神奇的) as people expect

    D. were not easily controlled and always fooled human beings

5．The writer's main idea is __________________.

    A. we'd better use people instead of computers in our everyday life

    B. we should not use computers because they always make mistakes

    C. computers are widely used in our everyday life

D. if we want to work well, don’t use the computers

阅读下列文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳答案。

Holidaymakers who are bored with baking beaches and overheated hotel rooms head for a big igloo. Swedish businessman Nile Bergqvist is delighted with his new hotel, the world's first igloo hotel. Built in a small town in Lapland, it has been attracting lots of visitors, but soon the fun will be over.

    In two weeks' time Bergqvist's ice creation(作品) will be nothing more than a pool of water, “We don't see it as a big problem,” he says. “We just look forward to replacing it.”

    Bergqvist built his first igloo in 1991 for exhibition. It was so successful that he designed the present one, which measures roughly 200 square meters. Six workmen spent more than eight weeks piling 1, 000 tons of snow onto a wooden base; when the snow froze, the base was removed. “The only wooden thing we have left in the igloo is the front door,” he says.

    After their stay, all visitors receive a survival certificate recording their success. With no windows, nowhere to hang clothes and temperatures below 0℃, it may seem more like a survival test than a relaxing hotel break. “It's great fun.” Bergqvist explains, “as well as a good start in survival training.”

    The popularity of the igloo is beyond doubt; it is now attracting tourists from all over the world. At least 800 people have stayed at the igloo this season even though there are only 10 rooms. “You can get a lot of people in,” explains Bergqvist. “The beds are three meters wide by two meters long, and can fit at least four at one time.”

1．Bergqvist designed and built the world's first igloo hotel because ________.

    A. he believed people would enjoy trying something new

    B. he wanted to mice a name for the small town

    C. an art exhibition was about to open

    D. more hotel rooms were needed

2．When the writer says “the fun will be over”, he refers to the fact that ________.

    A. hotel guests will be frightened at the thought of the hard test

    B. Bergqvist's hotel will soon become a pool of water

    C. holiday makers will soon get tired of the big igloo

    D. a bigger igloo will replace the present one

3．According to the text, the first thing to do in building an igloo is ________.

    A. to gather a pool of water

    B. to prepare a wooden base

    C. to cover the ground with ice

    D. to pile a large amount of snow

4．When guests leave the igloo hotel they will receive a paper stating that ________.

    A. they have visited Lapland

    B. they have had an ice-snow holiday

    C. they have had great fun sleeping on ice

D. they have had a taste of adventure

When I opened my e-mail the other day, a blond woman named Rachel appeared on my computer screen. She greeted me by name and started talking with great enthusiasm. Every now and then she stopped to smile and blow a kiss. I guess that the e-mail she was reading to me came from my brother, and that a lot of it was about the trouble he was having getting the phone company to set up his high-speed Internet hookup. Still, it was pretty cool.

    Rachel was there thanks to a new technology called Facemail. Facemail lets you send e-mail that gets read to the recipient (接收者) by an attractive male or female form or by a devil or clown (小丑). The software, which is free, can be downloaded at www.facemail.com. And you can choose the face from an array (列表). If Facemail catches on—yes, I’d have to say that's still as if—it could change e-mail as we know it.

    Facemail is about to get a lot more interesting. In a few weeks you will be able to speak into a microphone in your computer and have your own voice read thee-mail you send. The company has signed a deal with Kodak so that sometimes next year you will be able to submit a photo and your own face will be the one reading your e-mail.

    The main thing Facemail has for it right now is that it's fun. That's no surprise, since the company's chief executive is Lucie Salhany, founder of UPN and former head of Fox Broadcasting. As its new capabilities kick in, Facemail could become a lot more popular. After all, what grandparent wouldn't prefer e-mail with the voice and picture of a grandchild instead of coldly impersonal text?

1．We can see from this passage the Rachel  ________.

    A. is a friend of the writer's brother

    B. is working at a computer company

    C. is an attractive woman hired to read e-mail for others

    D. is not a real person

2．How can you get Facemail if you are interested in it?

    A. You can get it at a very low price.

    B. You can send e-mail at www.facemail.com.

    C. You can get it through Internet for nothing.

    D. You can place an order at www.facemail.com.

3．Sometime next year, you will _________________.

    A. hear your own voice reading your e-mail

    B. see your own picture while reading your e-mail

    C. have your own face reading e-mail you send others

    D. hear your own e-mil read together with your picture

4．We can infer from the second paragraph that the writer ________.

    A. doesn't believe that the Facemail would become popular

    B. doubts whether Facemail will be hot soon

    C. is sure that Facemail will work wonders for e-mail

    D. believes that Facemail has a good market ahead of it

5．The writer believes that Facemail could become a lot more popular mainly because ________.

    A. it is convenient and fun

    B. more and more advanced technology will be used in it

    C. Lucie Salhany is in charge of it

    D. it can make communications by computer more personal

Blameless

    I was a freshman in college when I met the Whites. They were completely different from my own family, yet I felt at home with them immediately. Jane White and I became friends at school, and her family welcomed me like a long-lost cousin.

    In my family, it was always important to place blame when anything bad happened.

    “Who did this?” my mother would scream about a dirty kitchen.

    “This is all your fault, Katharine,” my father would insist when the cat got out or the dishwasher broke.

    From the time we were little, my sister, brothers and I told on each other. We set a place for blame at the dinner table.

    But the Whites didn't worry about who had done what. They picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives. The beauty of this was driven home to me the summer Jane died.

    In July, the White sisters and I decided to take a car trip from their home in Florida to New York. The two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were college students, and the youngest. Amy was excited about practicing her driving on the trip. She showed off her license to everyone she met.

    The big sisters shared the driving of Sarah's new car during the first part of the trip, but when they reached less crowded areas, they let Amy take over. Somewhere in South Carolina, we pulled off the highway to eat. After lunch, Amy got behind the wheel. She came to a crossroads with a stop sign. Whether she was nervous or just didn't see the sign no one would ever know, but Amy continued into the crossroads without stopping. The driver of a large truck, unable to stop in time, ran into our car.

    Jane was killed immediately.

    I was slightly injured. The most difficult thing that I've ever done was to call the Whites to tell them about the accident and that Jane had died. Painful as it was for me to lose a good friend, I knew that it was far worse for them to lose a child.

    When Mr. and Mrs. White arrived at the hospital, they found their two daughters sharing a room. Sarah had a few cuts on the head; Amy's leg was broken. They hugged (拥抱) us all and cried tears of sadness and of joy at seeing their daughters. They wiped away the girls' tears and made a few jokes at Amy as she learned to use her crutches (拐杖).

    To both of their daughters, and especially to Amy, over they simply said, “We're so glad that you're alive. “

    I was astonished. No blame. No accusations. Later, I asked the Whites why they never talked about the fact that Amy was driving and had run a stop sign.

    Mrs. White said. “Jane's gone, and we miss her terribly. Nothing we say or do will ever bring her back. But Amy has her whole life ahead of her. How can she lead a full and happy life if she feels we blame her for her sister's death?”

    They were right. Amy graduated from the University of California and got married several years ago. She works as a teacher of learning-disabled students. She's also a mother of two little girls of her own, the oldest named Jane.

1．The author of the passage is  ________.

    A. Mrs. White's niece

    B. Jane's school friend

    C. The Whites' cousin

    D. Sarah's friend from college

2．How did the author's parents differ from the Whites?

    A. The author's parents were less caring.

    B. The author's parents were less loving.

    C. The author's parents were less friendly.

    D. The author's parents were less understanding.

3．How did the accident occur?

    A. Amy didn't stop at a crossroads and a truck hit their car.

    B. Amy didn't know what to do when she saw the stop sign.

    C. Amy didn't slow down so their car ran into a truck.

    D. Amy didn't get off the highway at a crossroads.

4．The accident took place in ________.

    A. Florida

    B. California

    C. South Carolina

    D. New York

5．The Whites did not blame Amy for Jane's death because ________.

    A. they didn't want Amy to feel ashamed and sorry for the rest of her life

    B. Amy was badly injured herself and they didn't want to add to her pain

    C. they didn't want to blame their children in front of others

    D. Amy was their youngest daughter and they loved her best

6．From the passage we can learn that ________.

    A. Amy has never recovered from the shock

    B. Amy changed her job after the accident

    C. Amy lost her memory after the accident

    D. Amy has lived quite a normal life