Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today, because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events --love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It tells real-life stories and sounds the way people really talk. As life becomes more complicated, it is good to hear music about ordinary people.

　　Country music comes from two kinds of music. One is the traditional music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. The other is traditional cowboy music from the west. The singers usually play guitars, and in the 1920s they started using electric guitars. At first city people said country music was of low class. It was popular mostly in the South. But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the Northeast and Midwest to work in the factories. They took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became popular all over the country.

　　Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada--in small towns and in New York City, among black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. About 1200 radio stations broadcast country music twenty-four hours a day. English stars sing it in British English, and people in other countries sing in their own languages. The music that started with cowboys and poor Southerners is now popular all over the world.

(1)It can be learned from the passage that country music comes from ________.

[　　]

A．the Northeast and Midwest

B．factories and army camps in the South

C．the Appalachian Mountains and the West

D．real-life stories in small towns

(2)Before World War II country music was popular mainly in ________.

[　　]

A．the South

B．the West

C．the Midwest

D．the Northeast

(3)The underlined word “complicated”probably means ________.

[　　]

A．hard

B．difficult

C．complex

D．beautiful

(4)Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the world today because ________.

[　　]

A．city people said it was low class

B．people could sing it in many different languages

C．it started with cowboys and poor Southerners

D．it is loved by different kinds of people in the world

(5)Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Country music is about human feelings and events.

B．Country music is sung by stars all in English.

C．Country music is popular among city people today.

D．City people didn't like country music at first.

　　Pop music is the name for various popular, commercial music. It originated in the USA and spread through the whole world during the 1950s and 1960s. It is widely liked by the young people. The best-known early form of pop music was “rock 'n' roll”; another was “blues”. A more recent development is “folk rock”. Pop music has taken the place of native music in many parts of the world. It has caused the number of people for “jazz”music to become much smaller than in the 1950s and earlier, and it now began to rule music stage productions. It is a big industry. Much pop music is without artistic value, but the works of some pop singers for example：the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the groups like Pink Floyd and Crosby, Stills and Nash, are on a higher musical level. And there is still great interest in it today. Pop music concerts and festivals are held all over the world.

(1)All of the following forms belong to pop music except ________.

[　　]

(2)According to the text, the number of people for jazz in the 1950s and earlier was ________ it is today.

[　　]

A．much greater than

B．much smaller than

C．as great as

D．as small as

(3)In this text the underlined word “originated” means ________.

[　　]

(4)Which of the following is TRUE?

[　　]

A．No pop music is on a high musical level.

B．Much pop music is on a high musical level.

C．Pop music is high artistic.

D．Not all the pop music is without artistic value.

(5)The text says that ________ has now begun to rule musical stage productions.

[　　]

　　I'm afraid we have to accept the fact that criminals are getting younger all the time, but unfortunately the offences they commit are becoming proportionately more serious. I only wish we didn't have to admit this but, in doing so we must first ask ourselves what's wrong with our society that our children apparently couldn't care less about law and order. The days of the sneak thief who stole a couple of apples off a barrel or nicked a packet of sweets from a chain store are virtually over. I had occasion to say this to a young offender the other day. “Sweets from a chain store?” be said, “You must be joking. That's kid's stuff.” I may add that he was aged eleven. In other words, today's young criminals would find it laughable to risk being caught for petty theft of this description. They've got enough money in their pockets to buy the sweets they want, anyway. I think we have come to the point where it's all too easy to put the blame on anyone but ourselves. Faced as they are with a society that frequently rejects them on the grounds of colour, race or low academic ability, these children turn to crime as a means of boosting their self-esteem. Nurtured on films and TV glamorising the role of the criminal, they are quick to identify with these anti-heroes. It is a matter of increasing concern to the police and magistrates that the Children and Young Persons Act, 1969, is becoming inadequate to deal with the rise in juvenile delinquency. Because the emphasis has been placed on the cause and treatment of their delinquency, rather than on old-fashioned methods of punishment, the children themselves are well aware that there is very little that can be done to prevent them continuing to mug, vandalise and in some case even cause the death of those they choose to terrorise. I don't like the look of this situation any more than you do. In our own interests and in those of our children and grandchildren, we cannot continue to take the “it's nothing to do with me” attitude we have adopted for so long. We must unite in a common demand for harsher and more disciplined methods against these young offenders.

(1) The question“Sweets from a chain store?”mean whether ________.

[　　]

A．he wanted some sweets from a chain store

B．he was caught while stealing sweets from a chain store

C．the days of stealing sweets from a chain store were over

D．stealing sweets form a chain store was illegal

(2) Today's young criminals wouldn't commit such offences as stealing some fruit because ________.

[　　]

A．they are afraid of being caught on the spot

B．people will laugh at them

C．they have enough money to buy them

D．it is not worth the risk

(3) According to the author, the reason why some youngsters tend to commit crimes is, psychologically speaking, that ________.

[　　]

A．they are often rejected on the grounds of race, colour or education

B．they don't know what they are doing is against the law

C．they think it the only way of showing their self-respect

D．both A and C

(4) In dealing with juvenile delinquency, the author is apparently in favor of ________.

[　　]

A．severe punishment once used in the past

B．showing great concern about our children

C．more patient methods in reforming young offenders

D．treating every young offender as our own child

　　Alex Harley was born in the northeast of New York in 1921, but he spent most of his early life with his mother's family in southern Tennessee. His grandmother told him stories about their family. Their history, she said, began with Toby. He was a slave from Africa and his name was Kunta.

　　Alex Harley went to school and then to college. In 1939, he joined the US coastguard. As he was a black his job was to wait on table and wash dishes. In his spare time, be learned to write stories. He served in the coastguard for 20 years. After he retired（退休）, he put all his time into writing.

　　Alex Harley remembered the stories his grandmother had told him. He began to study his family history. After a lot of research, Harley decided that Toby was probably Kunta Kinte of the West African Mandingo people, who was caught near the village of Juffure on the Gambia River. He was sold as a slave in Annapolis, Maryland in 1767. Then Harley made a trip to Gambia and talked with a history expert in Juffure. The African historian made his conclusion stronger.

　　Alex Harley wanted to tell the experiences of the black people in 18th-and-19th-century America. He spent 10 years researching and writing his family story for the book Roots. It was published in 1976. It won a special Pulitzer Prize. A few years later, a film series（连续剧）based on Harley's book was shown on American television.

(1) Choose the right order of the events given in the passage.

(2) When did Harley learn to write stories?

[　　]

(3) Which conclusion did he draw after doing a lot of research?

[　　]

A．Toby was a history expert.

B．Toby's hometown was near the Gambia River.

C．Toby was an African historian.

D．Toby's hometown was Annapolis.

(4) Which of the following might have happened after watching Roots on TV?

[　　]

A．Every American began to talk about their family history.

B．None of Americans began to talk about their family history.

C．Many Americans became interested in researching their family History.

D．Only the black people became interested in researching their Family history.

　　The dictionary is often used merely to determine the correct spelling of words, or to find out the accepted pronunciation. But such use is perhaps not the most important from an intellectual point of view. Dictionaries may, however, have social importance. It is often a matter of some concern to the person using the dictionary that he should not suggest to others, by misspelling a word in a letter, or mispronouncing it in conversation, that he is not educated.

　　Yet, despite familiarity with the dictionary, the average person is likely to have many wrong ideas about it, and no real concept of how to use it profitably, or interpret it correctly. For example, it is often believed that the mere presence of a word in a dictionary is evidence that it is acceptable in good writing. Though most dictionaries have a system of marking words as obsolete （废弃的）, or in use only as slang（俚语）, many people, more especially if their use of a particular word has been challenged, are likely to conclude, if they find it in a dictionary, that it is accepted as being used by writers of established reputation. This would certainly have been true of dictionaries a hundred years ago. For a long time after they were first firmly established in the eighteenth century, their aim was to include only what was used by the best writers, and all else was suppressed, and the compiler frequently claimed that his dictionary contained no “low” words. Apparently this aspect of the dictionary achieved such importance in the mind of the aver age person that most people today are unaware of the great change which has taken place in the compilation of present-day dictionaries.

(1) Dictionaries may have social importance in that ________.

[　　]

A．they are often a matter of some concern to a person

B．their users do not want others to know the dictionaries

C．misspellings often appear in letters

D．misspellings would mean that the person is not educated

(2) One of the wrong ideas the average person has about the dictionary is that ________.

[　　]

A．no one is actually familiar with dictionaries

B．words in a dictionary are taken from good writings

C．he has little idea of how to use it profitably

D．people know little about how dictionaries interpret words

(3) From an intellectual point of view, ________.

[　　]

A．the dictionary should not be used to determine correct spelling

B．to determine correct spelling is not the most important use of a dictionary

C．dictionaries have social importance

D．the accepted pronunciation is not as important as the correct spelling

(4) We can infer from this passage that present day dictionaries ________.

[　　]

　　The wedding took place in a Birmingham hotel. The bride and her father arrived in a new black American sports car. Her father looked nervous and uncomfortable in front of the cameras. The bride wore a silk wedding dress. She smiled nervously at the waiting photographers and went to a room on the first floor where she met her future husband for the very first time.

　　Carla Germaine and Greg Cordell were the winners of a radio station's competition. The aim of the competition was to find two strangers prepared to marry without having met each other. Miss Germaine, 23, is a model. Mr Cordell, 27, is a TV salesman. They were among the two hundred people who entered for a peculiar “experiment” or gazed by BMRB radio in Birmingham, England. Greg and Carla were among eight finalists who were interviewed live on radio. They took a lie detector（测谎仪）test and the station also spoke to their friends and family about their personalities. The competition judges included an astrologer（占星家）who declared that they were suited.

　　The couple celebrated their wedding with a wedding breakfast and a party for 100 guests in the evening, but not everyone shared their joy, Miss Germaine's parents are reported to be less than delighted.

　　Organizations, including the marriage guidance service related, have criticized the marriage. As one person put it, “We have enough problems getting young people to take marriage seriously without this. Marriage should always be about love.”

　　The couple are now on a Caribbean honeymoon followed by journalists, Their other prizes include a year's free use of a wonderful apartment in the centre of Birmingham, and a car. But will it last?

(1) What did the couple's parents react to the wedding?

[　　]

A．The bride's mother shared their joy.

B．The bride's father felt uncomfortable about the wedding.

C．The bridegroom's parents were quite delighted.

D．The bride's parents were not that joyful.

(2) Some experts believe that ________.

[　　]

A．marriage without the couple's meeting each other first ends up in divorce

B．young people nowadays are too careless about marriage

C．taking a lie detector test can not solve all the marriage problems

D．most young people take marriage seriously except this couple

(3) One of the prizes for the couple is ________.

[　　]

A．to spend their honeymoon wherever they like

B．to use an apartment free for some time

C．to have a wedding dress free

D．to own an American sports car

(4) Which of the following is the best title of the passage?

[　　]

　　WASHINGTON--Almost 13 per cent of Americans still live in poverty in spite of a slight decrease in their number last year and a rise in average household income, the Census Bureau（统计局）reported last week.

　　Last year, the poverty rate dropped to 12.7 per cent of the population from 13.3 per cent the year before, and the common household income rose for the fourth year running.

　　According to the US government, poverty is described exactly as people who earn US $13,003 a year for a family of three, and US $ 16,600 a year for a family of four.

　　The number of those living in poverty fell from 35.6 million in 1997 to 34. 5 million in 1998--but that number is still high in the light of（考虑……的因素）the growing economy, which has seen the largest peacetime growing in history since US President Bill Clinton took office over six years ago.

　　One reason for the continued high poverty rate is immigration, according to Steve Camarota with the Centre for Immigration Studies.

　　His figures show the total number of immigrants living in poverty has tripled over the last 19 years from 2.5 million to 7.5 million in 1998.

　　Clinton took the chance to declare the country's strong financial health, saying it has “helped lift millions of hardworking families out of poverty.”

　　“The best news is that these gains finally are being shared with all groups in America, from the wealthiest to the poorest,” he told reporters at the White House.

　　But the Census report showed that while white households saw their incomes rise 3 per cent from 1997--1998 to a record US $424,000, African-American families held steady at an average US $ 254,000 annually.

　　Hispanic households had a 4.8 per cent increase to US $ 28,300 a year for the period.

(1) From the first paragraph, we get to know that in the last few years ________.

[　　]

A．American families have become richer

B．American families have become poorer

C．most American families have enjoyed a better life

D．most American families have suffered a lot

(2) In America, poor families ________.

[　　]

A．have more people than others

B．live in the countryside with more children

C．live in big cities with more children

D．get money below a certain specified（规定）“amount”

(3) The word “tripled” in the sixth paragraph means “________”.

[　　]

(4) What Clinton said means that ________.

[　　]

A．he would support the poor over the world

B．he would be president forever

C．he had done well as a president

D．he would make the poor richer

　　The Norwegian Government is doing its best to keep the oil industry under control. A new law limits exploration to an area south of the southern end of the long coastline; production limits have been laid down (though these have already been raised); and oil companies have not been allowed to employ more than a limited number of foreign workers. But the oil industry has a way of getting over such problems, and few people believe that the Government will be able to hold things back for long.

　　Ever since the war, the Government has been carrying out a programme me of development in the area north of the Arctic Circle. For the past few years this programme me has had a great deal of success; Tromso has been built up into a local capital with a university, a large hospital and a healthy industry. But the oil industry has already started to draw people south, and within a few years the whole northern city could be in ruins.

　　The effects of the oil industry would not be limited to the north, however. With nearly 100 percent employment, everyone can see a developing situation in which the service industries and the tourist industry will lose more of their workers to the oil industry. Some smaller industries might even disappear altogether when it becomes cheaper to buy goods from abroad.

　　The real argument over oil industry is its effects on the Norwegian way of life. Farmers and fishermen do not make up most of the population, but they are an important part of it because Norwegians see in them many of he qualities that they regard with pride as real Norwegian. And it is the farmers and the fishermen who are most against the oil industry because of the damage that it might cause to the sea and to the countryside and to the whole country.

　　One Norwegian politician said:“We will soon be changed beyond all recognition.”

(1) “We will soon be changed beyond all recognition” in the last paragraph most exactly means ________.

[　　]

A．Norway will be changed so much that it can hardly be recognized

B．The Norwegian way of life will change greatly, as we recognize

C．We cannot recognize the Norwegian oil industry as it develops so quickly

D．The Norwegian government cannot carry out the law against the changing oil industry

(2) The Norwegian Government has tried to ________.

[　　]

A．encourage the oil companies to discover new oil resources

B．prevent oil companies from employing more people from northern Norway

C．help the oil companies solve many of their problems

D．keep the oil industry to something near its present size

(3) According to the passage, the oil industry might lead to ________ in northern Norway.

[　　]

A．the development of industry

B．a growth in population

C．the failure of the development programme

D．the development of new towns

(4) Norwegian farmers and fishermen have an important effect because ________.

[　　]

A．they form such a large part of Norwegian society

B．their views of life and value agree with the Norwegian government's

C．Norwegians respect them as representatives（代表）of Norwegian culture

D．they regard oil as harm to the Norwegian way of life

　　The world changed on Aug. 9, 1995. That was the day the initial pubilc-stock-offering for Netscape Communications, a company that had yet to turn a profit, instantly garnered $ 2 billion on the strength of one idea. The ideal was the World-Wide Web, and its gatekeeper, for the foreseeable future, is Jim Clark whose Silicon Graphics, with 7,200 employees and $ 2.2 billion in annual revenues in 1994, rules its own lucrative roost. By that time, the desktop generation was yielding to the networked, interactive generation. But while his peers were debating how to build the Infobarn Clark decided it already existed. He'd met Marc Andreessen, who as an undergraduate programmer had helped create the then obscure browsing software Mosaic, which made it easy to navigate the World-Wide Web. Navigating the infant Web, which transforms the Internet's isolated, text-based sites in one vast, hyperlinked, multimedia-capable network, got Clark thinking--and acting, He set up Mosaic Communications (soon renamed Netscape) which built a business around an improved Web browser. The result was one of history's headiest corporate ascents, as the ubiquitous Netscape Navigator browser helped spawn the world's startling on-line stampede.“The Internet was the information highway everyone was looking for,” says Clark.“They just hadn't recognized it.”

　　Clark and Andreessen did, and today they find themselves riding the decade's surging economic waves, counting their stock options and cutting deals with everyone from telephone companies to Hollywood. Virtually the entire date-intensive world has concluded that the Web is the future of communications, and is now retooling to stay in lockstep with Netscape (and vice versa: Netscape perpetually updates its browser to accommodate new Web applications). “The list of business being transformed,” says Clark, “includes broadcasting, publishing, software, finance, shopping, entertainment services, consumer electronics...it's a massive, massive change. We just happened to see it first and set the commercial agenda.”

　　And to the agenda setters belong the spoils. His peers were skeptical when Jim Clark decided to colonize the Web. Well, today Netscape's value has jumped to $ 5 billion, Clark's own net worth stands at $1.3 billion, and he escapes often to enjoy a lush life while sailing to sun-drenched paradises like Tahiti. He has left his impact on the development of the Internet, even though others share the high-tech glory. After all, Columbus may have discovered the new world, but it was Isabella and Ferdinand who represented he royal court to put up the money.

(1) What is the main idea of this passage?

[　　]

A．Jim Clark's contribution to the future of communications.

B．Jim Clark's pioneering impact on the Internet.

C．Jim Clark's share in the high-tech glory.

D．Jim Clark's role in creating the Mosaic.

(2) Which of tile following conclusions about Jim Clark is supported by the passage?

[　　]

A．He explores the cyberspace together with Bill Gates.

B．He is the most powerful business leader in the computer industry.

C．He is one visionary on the light-speed development of the Internet.

D．He is the one who initiated the Internet.

(3) What was the key in Jim Clark's successful operation?

[　　]

A．He yielded the desktop generation to the networked generation.

B．He counted his stock options and lured enough investors.

C．He cut deals with telephone companies as well as Hollywood.

D．He built a business around an improved Web browser.

(4) What is the underlying parallel in the analogy between Jim Clark and Isabella/Ferdinand?

[　　]

A．They trusted the talent and emulated the genius in a technical drive.

B．They knew the value of science and technology.

C．They had the same business acumen of a historical initiative.

D．They helped spawn the world's startling stampede

阅读理解

　　In America Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. On that day we send our mothers a special Mother's Day card, and perhaps some flowers or candy, to show our love and appreciation for all they have done for us. Although Mother's Day is a relatively new holiday in America, more and more other countries are also setting aside a day to honor their mothers.

　　I want to tell you today how the idea of having a special day for mothers began.

　　It all started over a hundred years ago with a woman named Anna May Jarvis.

　　Anna was born on May 1,1864, just before the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. She was the daughter of a“minister”, which in American English means a church leader. She was a quiet girl who liked to study in school, but she liked everyone and was liked by everyone as well.

　　After she became an adult, Anna worked for life insurance company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania--a city about halfway between New York City and Washington D.C. Then, in 1906, just two weeks after Anna's 42nd birthday, her mother died. It was the second Sunday in May.

　　In the months that followed, Anna began to change. No longer was she so gentle, so relaxed and easy-going. Instead she now had just one goal for her life--to have her mother and all other honored throughout the whole world on the second Sunday of May.

　　After more than a year of careful planning, Anna arranged the first Mother's Daychurch service, on May10, 1908, in Crafton, West Virginia. The next year Anna was able to get the city of Philadelphia, where she lived and worked, to proclaim the second Sunday of May as an official Mother's Day -- the first city to do so. After three more years, the state of West Virginia, where Anna's mother had lived, made Mother's Day a statewide observance--for a holiday in the normal sense, but still a day to remember what mothers have done for their children and society.

(1)Which answer is right about Mother's Day?

[　　]

A. In America, Mother's Day is a new holiday.

B. More and more countries are put aside their tradition of celebrating Mother's Day.

C. In America, Mother's Day is on the second Sunday in May.

D. Throughout the world, Mother's Day is celebrated on the same day.

(2)Choose the right explanation of the word“observance”in the last paragraph.

[　　]

A. remark made by people

B. action in accordance with custom

C. performance of certain tradition

D. notice paid widely

(3)How long in all had Anna spent to establish Mother's Day in West Virginia?

[　　]

A. From May 10, 1908 to May 10, 1911.

B. For more than four years.

C. For more than three years.

D. For about three years.

(4)Choose the right understanding of this passage.

[　　]

A. Anna was born just before the assassination of President Lincoln which ended the Civil War.

B. Anna was a daughter of a minister which in English means a church worker.

C. Anna's mother's death had done a little damage to her easy life.

D. The mother's day celebrated in West Virginia is not a normal holiday, but a day with special meaning.

(5)According to the passage, what most probably happened in the paragraph following it?

[　　]

A. The United States Congress proclaimed the Second Sunday in May as Mother's Day forever in the United States.

B. Mother's Day gradually became a commercial celebration.

C. Anna retired from her job with a fortune of over a hundred thousand dollars.

D. People stopped buying candy to their mothers.