Betty and Harold have been married for years .But one thing still puzzles (困扰) old Harold .How is it that he can leave Betty and her friend Joan sitting on the sofa ,talking ,go out to a ballgame ,come back three and a half hours later ,and they’re still sitting on the sofa ? Talking ?

What in the world ,Harold wonders ,do they have to talk about ?

Betty shrugs .Talk ? We’re friends .

Researching this matter called friendship ,psychologist Lillian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men .No matter what their age ,their job ,their sex ,the results were completely clear :women have more friendships than men ,and the difference in the content and the quality of those friendships is “marked and unmistakable .”

More than two –thirds of the single men Rubin interviewed could not name a best friend. Those who could were likely to name a woman .Yet three-quarters of the single women had no problem naming a best friend ,and almost always it was a woman .More married men than women named their wife/husband as a best friend ,most trusted person ,or the one they would turn to in time of emotional distress （感情危机）.“Most women ,”says Rubin ,“identified （认定） at least one ,usually more ,trusted friends to whom they could turn in a troubled moment ,and they spoke openly about the importance of these relationships in their lives .”

“In general,”writes Rubin in her new book ,“women’s friendships with each other rest on shared emotions and support ,but men’s relationships are marked by shared activities.” For the most part ,Rubin says ,interactions （交往）between men are emotionally controlled –a good fit with the social requirements of “manly behavior .”

“Even when a man is said to be a best friend ,”Rubin writes ,“the two share little about their innermost feelings .Whereas a woman’s closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage ,it wasn’t unusual to hear a man say he didn’t know his friend’s marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa .”

1.What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that     .

2.Rubin’s study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to     .

3.Which of the following statements is best supported by the last paragraph ?

4.The research done by psychologist Rubin centers around________ .

C
Centuries ago, man discovered that removing moisture（湿气） from food helps to store it, and that the easiest way to do this is to expose the food to sun and wind.
All foods including water — cabbage and other leaf vegetables contains as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean (瘦的) meat 75% and fish, anything from 80% to 60%, depending on how fatty it is. If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria which cause food to go bad is controlled.
Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically. The conventional method of such dehydration (脱水) is to put food in chambers (室) through which hot air is blown at temperature of about ll0'C at entry to about 43'C at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced meat, and fish.
Liquids such as milk, coffee, tea, soups and eggs may be dried by pouring them over a heated steel cylinder (圆筒), then put them into a chamber through which a current of hot air passes. In the first process, the dried material comes off the roller (滚筒) as a thin film which is then broken up into small, though still relatively flakes (薄片). In the second process it falls to the bottom of the chamber as small powder. Where recognizable pieces of meat and vegetables are required, as in soup, the ingredients (成分) are dried separately and then mixed.
Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans orfrozen, and they do not need to be stored in special conditions. For these reasons theyare invaluable to the climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storagespace. They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them.
54．It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A．the fattier fish contain as much water as the lean one
B．the fattier the fish is, the more water it may contain
C．a fatty fish holds less water than a lean one
D．the water content of fish has nothing to do with the content of their fat
55．The underlined word "conventional" in Paragraph 3 can most probably be replaced by ______.
A．traditional       B．scientific       C.particular         D.special
56．Which of the following statements is NOT true about drying food?     
A．The removal of water in food helps prevent it from going rotten.
B．The open-air method of drying food has been known for hundreds of years.
C．In the course of dehydration, the temperature of hot current coming from entry to exit is
gradually going up.
D．The process of drying liquids is much more complex than that of drying solid food.
57．The last paragraph mainly talks about __________.
A．the reason why housewives like dried food
B．the general convenience of dried food
C．the methods of storing food
D．the advantages of dried, canned and frozen food

根据文章内容,从下面A．B．C．D．E．F六个选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项, 选

项中有一项是多余选项．

    Effective reading should adopt a correct way, and then you can get more by paying less．Here are some hints for reading effectively．

___________

Don’t choose a rather difficult book or a too easy one for yourself to read．A book full of new words will make you feel discouraged quickly．To understand those new words, you have to turn to the dictionary quite often．It seems that you are not reading the book but the dictionary．It has no fun at all! On the contrary, a too easy one will only waste your time and cannot do any help．The two extremes may at last make you give up reading．So it’s better for you to find a proper book with no more than five new words on each page．

_____________

If you come across a new word, do not look it up in a dictionary as quickly as possible．Leave it alone and guess the meaning of it based on the content of the text．        This ability is quite necessary in reading．If you know your guess is right later, you will be highly excited at your “success”, and your interest in reading is well stimulated．If a word really hinders you from understanding the whole passage, turn to the dictionary by then．I am sure you can remember this word very well, as it has left you such a deep impression for its “troublesome image．”

___________

To comprehend what you are reading, you should think while you are reading, then from your own ideas on some special issues．Try to scribble some lines-a very short journal, to express your ideas．Your writing does not need to be quite formal but expressive．This practice can make you communicate with the original English authors．Day by day, your way of thinking in English will turn into a native way, which is quite important for English writing．

_____________

Language has its own beauty, no matter Chinese or English．Don’t merely take English as a “test”．Take it as an “entertainment” instead and you will enjoy it through learning．

Maybe you should find some beautiful literary works such as a prose or a poem to read, if you like．Try top read them as loudly and impassionedly as you can．During this process, not only you can enjoy yourself by the great emotions of the writers, but also your pronunciation and your manner of speaking English will be improved．

______________

The last but not the least, keep on reading．If you cannot keep it as a habit, you will suffer from paying without gaining．

Only three local students won Chinese Blog（博客） Competition. And 15 of the 18 awards want to students from China. 

170 students’ task: to get a fully-designed blog up and running, complete with many posting based on a theme of choice—all written in Chinese. 

Themes ranged from local opinions－such as the usage of Singlish, education and whether Singapore can be a cultural centre－to food blogs. 

The entries were judged on Language proficiency（ 熟练程度）and the quality of writing, as well as the design and level of exchanging ideas with readers. 

Academics from the National University of Singapore and the SIM University IT experts, and a journalist from Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore made up the judges. 

In the end, only three Singaporean students made it to the award list—the rest of the awards were swept up by students from China. 

“No surprise.” said Mr. Chow Yaw Long, 37 , teachers in charge from Ianova Junior Collage, which organized the event. “Although the topics were local subjects, the foreign students were generally better in terms of the content of the posts and their grasp of the Chinese language.”

One of the three local students winning the first prize in the Best Language Award was blogger Christina Gao 19, from the Saint Andrew’s Junior Collage, who spared no effort in researching for and writing her blog. Each entry took her between five and seven days to produce, complete with pictures and even podcasts （播客）

Her advice for bloggers is: Be responsible

“Some bloggers out there only seek to blame the authorities and other bloggers.” Said Miss Gao. “I think they lack responsibilities and there is no value to their posts.”

The competition was organized by

A. the National University of Singapore     B. Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao

C. Innova Junior College        D. the Saint Andrew’s Junior College

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Chinese students won most of the awards. 

B. Not all the themes were about local subjects

C. The blogs could be written in Chinese or Singlish. 

D. The judges were from university in Singapore and China. 

What Miss Gao said suggests that

A. she likes to blame the authorities       B. she has a sense of responsibility

C. she thinks highly of the others’ blogs      D. she loves to read valuable posts

The passage in mainly about

A. how Chinese students won the awards in the competition

B. why bloggers should take responsibility for their blogs

C. how Miss Gao won the first prize in the competition

D. what the result of the competition was