BEIJING, Feb 13 — Never has China's economic growth attracted so much global attention. The shock waves from the financial crisis (危机) that started in the United States have spread across the entire world, sending developed nations, including Japan and those of Europe, into serious recession(衰退). The world is now holding out hope that China, with its massive potential, will serve as the engine to fuel global economic growth.

But China's real economic growth slowed sharply to 6.8 percent in the October-December quarter. For China, this rate of economic expansion must be as disappointing as negative growth is for Japan. Beijing has set an official goal of achieving a minimum annual growth rate of 8 percent -- a pace it regards as important to ensuring job security.

The Chinese government is apparently confident the nation will achieve the minimum growth target of 8 percent in 2009. At the World Economic Forum's annual meeting of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao stressed the Chinese economy began to show signs of recovery late last year.

Last week, however, the International Monetary Fund predicted that China's economic growth in 2009 will be 6.7 percent. China's economic outlook is likely to keep both hope and anxiety for the time being.

China's impressive economic growth has been fueled by swelling exports and massive investment (投资)in equipment to produce goods for overseas. But the US, Japanese and European economies, which have absorbed the bulk(数量) of China's exports, are expected to shrink simultaneous（同时）in 2009, for the first time since the end of World War II. For the first time since it started serious efforts to turn itself into a market economy in the 1990s, China is facing the challenge of maintaining healthy economic growth without depending on external demand.

Expansion of domestic (国内的) demand holds a key to China's success in tackling this challenge. Consumer spending accounts for only 35 percent of China's gross (总的)) domestic product. The ratio(比率) is considerably lower than the 70 percent for the United States and the nearly 60 percent for Japan. That is because the middle class - the group that should lead consumer spending - is still relatively small in China, where the benefits of the nation's strong economic growth in recent years have mostly eluded rural villages and low-income earners.

1.According to the report, in the last quarter of 2008, China's real economic growth was at least ______less than planned annual growth rate.

A. 6.7%       .     B.6.8%         C.1.3%           D. 1.2%

2.Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. The financial crisis has had bad effects on many countries including China.

B. China's economic growth has been depending on exports.

C. If China intends to keep the same economic growth, it must increase goods for overseas.

D. Consumer spending in China is much lower than that of the US.

3.The underlined word in the last paragraph probably means____.

A. benefited           B. avoided       C. influenced        D. missed

4.What's the best title of the passage?

A. Economic change, the only hope for china.

B. China has attracted much global attention.

C. China, the engine to fuel global economic growth.

D. The financial crisis has influenced China's economy.

 

When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously（同时的）about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’ s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen -- they can’ t do both -- and they don’ t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships -- not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group,  they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond the brain bias of their children. Since a girl’ s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short grunts in reply.
【小题1】While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they       

A．are afraid of awkward silence with their families and friends

B．can both talk and watch the screen at the same time

C．think they can have a good time and develop relationships

D．have to explain the plot and body language to their husbands

【小题2】 After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours in order to              .

A．experience the happy time again	B．keep a close tie with her
C．recommend her a new scenic spot	D．remind her of something forgotten

【小题3】What does the author want to tell us most?

A．Women’ s brains are better organized for language and communication

B．Women love to talk because they are more sociable than men.

C．Men do not like talking because they rely more on facts.

D．Social conditioning is not the reason why women love talking.

【小题4】Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Women Are Socially Trained to Talk

B．Talking Maintains Relationships

C．Women Love to Talk

D．Men Talk Differently from Women.

根据短文内容，从下框A--F选项中选出能概括每段主题的最佳选项，并把答案填涂在答题卡的相应位置上。填涂选项中有一项为多余项。特别提示: 如果选E, 则同时填涂AB; 如果选F, 则同时填涂CD.

【小题1】_______________.
As awareness of the benefits of humour increases, most of us want to get all the laughs we can. It seems that almost every day there is another new discovery about the power of humour to help us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Every system of the body responds to laughter in some important or positive way .
【小题2】________________.
Many people mistakenly believe that we are born with a sense of humour. They think that when it comes to a sense of humour. “either you have got it or you don't .” This is false! What is true, however, is that the ability to laugh and smile is actually something we are born with. For example, we laugh when we are tickled under the arm, even without thinking about how to react.
【小题3】_______________.
The parts of the brain and central nervous system that control laughing and smiling are mature at birth in human infants, but that is not the same thing as having a sense of humour. (After all, when a baby laughs in his small bed we don’t rush over and say, “That kid has a great sense of humour!”) Your sense of humour is something you can develop over a lifetime. Don’t be nervous before others and try to laugh at yourself-then you will make them laugh too.
【小题4】_______________.
Humour includes a lot more than laughing and joke telling. Many people worry needlessly that they do not have a good sense of humour because they are not good joke tellers. More than jokes, a sense of humour requires being willing and able to see the funny side of life’s situations as they happen. In fact, one of the best definitions（定义）of a sense of humour is “the ability to see the non-serious element in a situation.”
【小题5】_____________.
There may be a thousand different ways to express your sense of humour, but joke telling is only one of those ways. As more is discovered about how humour benefits our life, more people will be able to see and enjoy the humour when they are in a difficult situation. Life depends on air, food and water, but it is made easier to live with a good sense of humour.

When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously（同时的）about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what' s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen -- they can' t do both -- and they don' t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships -- not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group, they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls' mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author of Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked  to and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond to the brain bias of their children. Since a girl’s brain is better organized to send and receive speech，we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short grunts in reply.
【小题1】 While watching TV with others, women Usually talk a lot because they

A．are afraid of awkward silence with their families and friends

B．can both talk and watch the screen at the Same time

C．think they can have a good time and develop relationships

D．have to explain the plot and body language to their husbands

【小题2】After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours in order to              .

A．experience the happy time again	B．keep a close tie with her
C．recommend her a new scenic spot	D．remind her of something forgotten

【小题3】What does the author want to tell us most?

A．Women' s brains are better organized for language and communication

B．Women love to talk because they are more sociable than men.

C．Men do not like talking because they rely more on facts.

D．Social conditioning is not the reason why women love talking.

【小题4】 Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Women Are Socially Trained to Talk	B．Talking Maintains Relationships
C．Women Love to Talk	D．Men Talk Differently from Women

When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”．Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology．

Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic．My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day．If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?

Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone．“The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone．She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton．Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance（救护车）to her rescue．

Point 3 The mobile removes our secret．It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went．

Point 4 The telephone separates us．Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window．It was easy to get his number．We were so near—but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”

Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives．Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously（同时地）on chat lines（at least my daughter does．I wouldn’t know what to talk about）．We can talk across the world．We can even talk to astronauts（if you know any）while they’re space-walking．And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth．

How do you understand ‘Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate,…’？

       A．People don’t communicate without telephone．

       B．People communicate because of the creating of the telephone．

       C．People communicate more since telephone has been created．

       D．People communicate more because of more traffic．

Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve people’s life?

       a．Point 1．         b．Point2．          c．Point3．   d．Point 4．  e．Point 5．

       A．c, d B．a, e   C．a, c   D．b, e

It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through        ．

       A．the TV screen      

       B．a fax machine

       C．the phone line hooked up to the computer       

       D．a microphone

The best heading for the passage is ．

       A．Phone Power              B．Kinds of Phone

       C．How to Use Phones      D．Advantage of Phones