In recent years, especially during the l960s, there was much discussion about “the brain drain (排干, 流失),” which dealt with the problem of students and learned people who left their own countries for other countries that offered better chances for study, research, and employment．For example, according to a report from U．N., between 1962 and l966 more than 50 percent of all engineering graduates of Iran and 14 percent of Iranian scientists left their country for work abroad．Over 30 percent of Chilean engineers and 15 percent of Turkish physicians also went to work in other countries．Probably the greatest brain drain occurred among young scientists who had gone abroad to study．Many of them had planned to return to their countries to teach but chose to remain in more industrialized nations where they were able to continue their work and their research in fields in which there were no job possibilities at home．The countries that attracted most of these scientists were the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.
　　Recent studies show that the brain drain to the United States may be decreasing．Many foreign scientists are going home again, and in some cases American scientists are leaving the United States for employment in other countries．The main reasons are that good jobs are becoming fewer here, money for national research has been sharply cut, and university fellowships reduced too．However, in the field of medicine the drain to the United States still goes on．Today more than one of every five American doctors is foreign - born, and several thousand foreign doctors immigrate to the United States each year．Over eighty countries have asked the State Department to send students who are skilled in important fields such as medicine back home when their study programs are over.
【小题1】Which of the following is not the reason for “the brain drain”?

In modern society, receiving systematic college education seems a necessary way for success as a graduate from first-class university may always get more opportunities than others. However, if it is gold, it will shine one day. In this article, we will get to know three most successful people in U.S. who never finished their college education. Following experiences of these successful dropouts may give you some inspiration.
1. Bill Gates
Harvard’s campus paper “Harvard Crimson” called Bill Gates “Harvard’s most successful dropout,” while the rest of the world preferred to name him “the world’s richest man” for more than a decade. Now, even not on the top, he is still among the list of the world’s wealthiest people.Gates entered Harvard in the fall of 1973. Two years later, he dropped out to found Microsoft with friend Paul Allen. And in 2007, he finally received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
2. Steve Jobs
The iPad, even Buzz Lightyear probably wouldn’t have existed if Steve Jobs stayed in school. Because his family couldn’t afford his college education, Jobs had to drop out of Reed College just after entering for 6 months. Then he found Apple, NeXT Computer and Pixar, which had made great influences on development of modern technique and culture. However, this wizard thought that his brief college education was not worthless.
3. Frank Lloyd Wright
As the America’s most celebrated architect, Wright spent more time on designing colleges rather than attending classes in them. Once spent one year in the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then he left for Chicago and started to learn from Louis Sullivan, the “father of modernism." Wright’ s splendid resume included more than 500 works, most famous of which are Fallingwater and New York City's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
【小题1】 What does“dropouts”in Paragraph One mean?

第三部分　阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分, 满分40分）
阅读下列短文, 从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中, 选出最佳选项。
A
While researchers have long shown that tall people earn more than their shorter counterparts, it's not only social discrimination that accounts for this inequality -- tall people are just smarter than their height-challenged peers, a new study finds.
"As early as age three -- before schooling has had a chance to play a role -- and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests," wrote Anne Case and Christina Paxson of Princeton University in a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The findings were based primarily on two British studies that followed children born in 1958 and 1970, respectively, through adulthood and a U.S. study on height and occupational choice.
Other studies have pointed to low self-esteem, better health that accompanies greater height, and social discrimination as culprits(罪犯) for lower pay for shorter people.
But researchers Case and Paxson believe the height advantage in the job world is more than just a question of image.
"As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns," they wrote.
For both men and women in the United States and the United Kingdom, a height advantage of four inches equated with a 10 percent increase in wages on average.
But the researchers said the differences in performance crop up long before the tall people enter the job force. Prenatal care(产前护理) and the time between birth and the age of 3 are critical periods for determining future cognitive ability and height.
"Prenatal care and prenatal nutrition are just incredibly important, even more so than we already knew," Case said in an interview.
Since the study's data only included populations in the United Kingdom and the United States, the findings could not be applied to other regions, Case said.
And how tall are the researchers?
They are both about 5 feet 8 inches tall, well above the average height of 5 feet 4 inches for American women.
51. What can be learnt from the study of Anne Case and Christina Paxson is that ______.
A. the reason for lower pay for shorter people is social discrimination
B. taller children perform significantly better on cognitive test
C. tall people earn more than shorter counterparts
D. prenatal care and prenatal nutrition are less important than we already knew
52. Which period is the most important for determining future cognitive ability and height?
A. between age 3 and schooling         B. between birth and the age of 3
C. the whole childhood                   D. between 1958 and 1970
53. The underlined phrase “crop up” in the Eighth Paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.
A. get in       B. rise up        C. come up       D. stand up
54. The best title for this passage would be _______.
A. Tall people earn more than shorter counterparts 
B. A study on height and occupational choice
C. The difference between tall people and short people 
D. Taller people are smarter

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中选出最佳选项
My father was driving us to our grandparents’ house for our annual Christmas dinner. The closer we got to the turnoff (岔道) for my grandparents’ house, the slower the car went. Suddenly, my father U-turned in the middle of the road and said: “I can’t stand it!”
“What?” asked my mother.
“It’s those people back there at the Pan Am, standing in the rain. They’ve got children. It’s Christmas. I can’t stand it.”
When my father pulled into the service station, I saw that there were five of them: the parents and three children – two girls and a small boy.
My father rolled down his window. “Merry Christmas,” he said.
“Howdy (您好),” the man replied. He was very tall and had to stoop (弯腰) slightly to peer into the car.
My sisters Jill, Sharon, and I stared at the children, and they stared back at us.
“You’re getting wet standing here. Just a couple miles up the road there’s a shed (小棚) with a cover there, and some benches,” my father said. “Why don’t you all get in the car?”
The man thought about it for a moment, and then he waved to his family. They climbed into the car.
Once they settled in, my father looked back over his shoulder and asked the children if Santa had found them yet. Three unhappy faces gave him the answer.
“Well, I didn’t think so,” my father said, winking at my mother, “because when I saw Santa this morning, he told me that he was having trouble finding all, and he asked me if he could leave your toys at my house. We’ll just go to get them before I take you to the bus stop.”
All at once, the three children’s faces lit up, and they began to bounce around in the back seat, laughing and chattering.
When we got out of the car at our house, the three children ran through the front door and straight to the toys that were spread out under our Christmas tree. One of the girls spied Jill’s doll and hugged it to her breast. The little boy grabbed Sharon’s ball. And the other girl picked up something of mine.
We left them there at the bus stop in Winborn. As we drove away, I watched out the window as long as I could, looking back at the little girl hugging her new doll.
That was the Christmas when my sisters and I learned the joy of making others happy.
56. The writer’s father U-turned in the middle of the road because ______.
A. he could not stand the people at the service station
B. he could not bear the thought of leaving the people behind
C. he wanted to do something special for his parents
D. he wanted to help the family standing in the rain
57. The reason the father asked the kids if Santa had found them was probably that _____.
A. he knew the mention of Santa would lift their spirits
B. he once promised to receive them as guests in his house
C. he wanted to avoid embarrassing the family
D. he had met Santa and got the presents for the kids
58. How did the author feel at the end of the story?
A. She was pleased that they had been able to give the kids presents and make them happy.
B. She was unhappy remembering that they had been late for the Christmas dinner.
C. She was angry because she realized that she didn’t receive a Christmas gift that year.
D. She was puzzled by why her father had done this on Christmas.
59. What is the article mainly about?
A. How my family found the lost Santa.
B. The people at the service station.
C. The art of celebrating Christmas.
D. The joy of making others happy.

阅读下面短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填人一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答题卡标号为16～25的相应位置上。
If you struggle against figures, maybe you were born that way, research has suggested. Being good at mathematics may be entirely pre-destined—you either have it   16  you don’t.
And those who find   17  difficult to add up the number shouldn’t feel too hopeless—mathematical talent does not appear to be linked to all-round intelligence. Previous research has indicated that "number sense" is    18   (base) to humans. We use it to estimate such things as    19   number of seats in a cinema or crowd sizes.
U.S. psychologists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore made their finding after testing children too young to have been taught mathematics. During the study, 200 four-year-olds   20  (study) in terms of number senses, calculation skills and vocabulary. The verbal test was done for the reason   21  language and maths abilities are thought to be   22  (close) linked through general intelligence.
"Unlike    23   previous studies proved, this one shows that the link   24  number sense and maths ability is already present before the beginning of formal maths instruction. One of the most important questions is whether we can train a child’s number sense   25  
(improve) his future maths ability."