Young women are more adventurous than young men when travelling abroad in gap years. One in three female backpackers visits more than three countries during a year out and travels alone, according to new research.

By contrast, the majority of their male counterparts visit only one country and tend to travel in groups, says a survey by the Gap Year company, which provides information and services for students considering taking a year out.

More women than men say that their prime reason for taking time off is to see the world and experience different cultures. Men were more likely to rank “having fun” higher on their list of priorities. Women were more likely to value the challenge of a foreign trip, and many cited reasons such as learning a language and meeting new people.

The more adventurous gap years taken by women seem to work to their benefit: more than three quarters of those surveyed reported increased confidence, self-reliance and inde??pendence, whereas only half of the men had that experience.

The research also showed that women were more likely to do voluntary work while trav??elling, with more than one in ten helping with teaching or development projects. One of the reasons given for this is a wish to see the country in an authentic light.

A greater proportion of women than men faced objections or criticism from their fami??lies over their gap-year plans. Among the men surveyed, lack of money was the main barrier to travel.

Carolyn Martin, a doctor from London, was a typically confident female traveller.

Starting in Cape Town, she travelled around southern Africa and Australia with a string of

unusual and sometimes dangerous jobs.

“I had one job chasing elephants off the runway in Africa by banging a stick against a pan,” she recalled. “It was OK but one day I did get chased by one.”

She said that she had travelled alone because “you meet more people”.

46. By referring to “gap year” the writer means ______.

A. a gap you come across after leaving high school

B. a time when you are caught in a dilemma between work and study

C. a period before you find a job upon your graduation from college

D. a year off between high school and college for certain purposes

47. According to the article, ______.

A. most of the women students will travel abroad during the summer holidays

B. one third of the women students will travel abroad in a year

C. women students are more likely to travel abroad alone

D. women students are willing to travel abroad in a group

48. In the third paragraph, the underlined word “priorities” most probably means ______.

A. selections     B. attractions    C. preferences     D. projects

49. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. Men students will travel less during the gap year because of their part-time jobs.

B. Women students will travel more but face more objections.

C. The article suggests that women travelling alone will have dangerous experi??ences.

D. Men students prefer to travel inside their own country to going abroad.

50. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

   A. Girls Get the Best out of Gap Years   B. Boys Lack Courage in Gap Years

   C. For Fun or for Adventure?          D. Young Women Are More Adventurous

　　Why doesn’t the unemployment rate ever reach zero? Economists, who generally believe that supply tends to meet demand, have long thought about this question. Even in good times, i.e. not now, there are people who can’t find work. And even in bad times, i.e. now, there are job openings. With over 14 million people out of work and looking for a job, you would think every available job would be filled. But that’s not the case. Not now and not ever.

　　On Monday, the Nobel Prize committee awarded the prize for economics to the three scholars who have done the most to explain this phenomenon. Two of the winners are Americans, Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Mortensen of Northwestern. The third winner is Christopher Pissarides, who teaches at the London School of Economics and was born on Cyprus.

　　Like most of economics, what they have found about why the jobless and ready-employers don’t find each other seems obvious. You have to find out there is job opening you are interested in. Employers need to get resumes （简历）. It takes a while for both employers and employees to make the decision that this is what they want. And these guys came up with a frame-work to study the problem of why people stay unemployed longer than they should and what can be done about it.

　　So what would today’s Nobel Prize winners do to solve the current problem of the unemployed? And does the awarding of the prize contribute to the politicians’ lowering joblessness?

　　Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as “a complete surprise” though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.

　　For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government policy aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long periods of unemployment, “is very much based on our work,” he said.

　　“One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don’t lose their feel for the labor force,” Pissarides told reporters in London. “The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training – it could be as simple as providing work experience.”

According to the writer, which is true about finding jobs?

　　A. It is always difficult to find a job.

　　B. Everyone can find a job in good times.

　　C. Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to find a job in bad times.

　　D. It is possible to find a job even in times as bad as now.

What is it that leads to their winning the prize?

　　A. They have found the reason for unemployment.

　　B. They have put forward a set of ideas to deal with unemployment.

　　C. They have found out why people don’t want to be employed.

　　D. They have long studied the problem of unemployment.

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

　　A. Pissarides thinks his work surprising.

　　B. The work of Pissarides has influenced many economists.

　　C. Some of the winners’ ideas have been put into practice.

　　D. It is probable that unemployed young people in Britain benefit from Pissarides’ work.

According to Pissarides, _________ is effrctive in dealing with unemployment.

　　A. spending large sums of money on training

　　B. teaching some knowledge of economics

　　C. providing work experience

　　D. keeping people unemployed for some time

I intended to compare notes with a friend, but unfortunately ________ couldn’t spare me even one minute．

1. A.
   they
2. B.
   one
3. C.
   who
4. D.
   it

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19. 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.

Looking thinner and darker, 30 year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames（泰晤士河）and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process (过程)doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.

Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention.

In 1999, he was buried in a coffin (棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar(柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.

“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”

But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.

It is _    __ for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.

A. pleasant      B. delicious       C. dangerous        D. important

Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that _   ___.

A. he had become blind             B. he had serious back pains

C. he lost his sense of taste      D. he was in weak health

Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?

A. Serious         B. Adventurous          C. Mad          D. Crazy

Which of the following is NOT true of David Blaine?

A. Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box.

B. Blaine was born and brought up in England.

C. In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder.

D. Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days.            

Today, in many high schools, teaching is now a technical miracle of computer labs, digital cameras.  DVD players and laptops. Teachers can e-mail parents, post messages for students on online bulletin(公告，告示) boards, and take attendance with a quick movement of a mouse.

Even though we are now living in the digital age, the basic and most important element of education has not changed. Most students still need that one-on-one, teacher-student relationship to learn and to succeed. Teenagers need instruction in English, math or history, but they also want personal advice and encouragement. Kids talk with me about their families, their weekend plans, their favorite TV shows and their relationship problems. In my English and journalism class, we talk about Shakespeare and persuasive(富有哲理的) essays, but we also discuss college basketball, the war in Iraq and career choices. Students show me pictures of their rebuilt cars, their family vacations, and their newborn baby brothers. This personal connection is the necessary link between teachers and students that no amount of technology can improve upon or replace.

A few years ago I had a student in sophomore English who was struggling with my class and with school in general. Although he was a humorous young man who liked to joke around, I knew his family life was far from ideal. Whenever I approached him about missing homework or low test grades, he always had the same reply: “It doesn’t matter because I’m quitting school anyway.” Even though he always said this in a half-teasing way, I knew he needed to hear my different opinion and my “value of a high school education” lecture. He needed to hear this speech from me. After he left my class, he struggled through the next two years of school. But, he did finally graduate because we kept telling him to hang in there. We’d cared about him finishing school.

Recently, I saw this former student working at a local Italian restaurant. I told him again how proud I was of him. He said that he was hoping to go back to school to become a certified electrician. I encouraged him to get that training.

Students rely on compassionate teachers to guide, to tutor, to listen, to laugh and to cry with them. Teachers provide the most important link in the educational process — the human one.

The first paragraph mainly discusses _______.

    A．the variety of modern teaching methods

    B．the wide use of modern technology in education

    C．the importance of teacher-parent relationship

    D．the importance of using modern technology

The underlined word “compassionate” in Para 5 means          .

    A．ambitious    B．knowledgeable    C．sympathetic  D．generous

According to the text, the most important element in education is         .

    A．teacher’s good instruction  B．advanced technology

    C．teachers’ encouragement D．personal connection

The author states his view of education by         .

    A．example  B．description  C．figure   D．comparison