As a nation we are becoming more aware of the food we and our children are eating.The recent campaign to improve school dinners by celebrity(名人) chef Jamie Oliver has helped raise awareness of our fast food lifestyles.While we may be trying to eat more healthily，it seems we still have some bad habits.

?Healthy eaters or just trendy?

Are there certain things that you do and don’t eat and why？With so many food programmes and books telling you what you should and shouldn’t eat to be healthy，it’s hard to make choices.

Some people are vegetarians for moral reasons，some don’t like the taste of meat and there are one or two people who do it because it’s trendy.Likewise，it can be trendy to follow the latest celebrity’s diet because it’s what the famous are doing.

?Eating out

People are eating out more often now，not just on special occasions as in the past.The choice of restaurants has also diversified.Italian，Chinese and Indian restaurants have been around for years but have now been joined by Mongolian，Japanese，Mexican and so on.Bars and pubs are still popular for food and often promote English cuisine made with local produce.

“We enjoy eating out a couple of times every month whether with friends or just as a couple.We like trying new things so we go to different restaurants.” said Craig,25，County Durham.

?Eating on the go

From chocolate bars to sandwiches more people are eating on the go—on the street，in cars or on buses and trains.While our parents and grandparents may frown at this behaviour，considering it to be bad manners，people eat on the go because they are rushing from one place to another.And in the home the number of people sitting down at a dining table for their evening meal is on the decrease as meal times become more informal.

“If I’m running late for work I don’t think twice about eating toast in the car or on the bus but I know my mum wouldn’t approve，” said Stacey,24.

1.What can we infer from the text?

A．Our parents think highly of the eating habits mentioned in the text.

B．We should get rid of the bad habits and try to be healthier.

C．Japanese restaurants have been around for years.

D．It’s good for people to eat out more frequently.

2.People find it difficult to decide what to eat to keep healthy because ________.

A．different programmes and books have different ideas about healthy eating

B．there are many celebrities having different diet styles

C．what the famous are doing is different from ours

D．they have some bad eating habits

3.The underlined word “diversified” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”．

A．made a great change

B．made a big difference

C．had a rapid increase

D．had a wide variety

4.Craig often goes to different restaurants because ________.

A．he likes trying new things

B．he follows the latest celebrity diet

C．he enjoys the meal with his friends

D．he has more special occasions to celebrate

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas — oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it — overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma — the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.

As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.

Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.”

Mike loved kids — all kids — and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent the anonymously to the inner-city church.

On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.

For each Christmas, I followed the tradition — one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.

As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

55.　 Why did Mike get so bored with Christmas at first?

A.　 People would pour into stores to blindly purchase gifts over Christmas.

B.　 He wasn’t satisfied with the Christmas presents he had ever received.

C.　 People couldn’t come up with any fantastic ideas for Christmas gifts.

D.　 The true meaning of Christmas remained unchanged in people’s minds.

56．The writer mentions what the two teams wore in Paragraph 4 in order to _______.

A.　 show her pride in her children’s present living conditions

B.　 explain the reason why her son’s team won the match

C.　 reflect the financial difficulty of the inner-city church

D.　 express the shock those lower-class teenagers brought her

57. What did Mike mean by saying “losing like this could take the heart right out of them”

(Paragraph 6)?

A．They didn’t care whether they could win the match or not.

B．They didn’t acknowledge the defeat because of the unfairness.

C．Being defeated in this way could make them lose confidence.

D．Being defeated in this way could inspire them to train harder.

58．Mike’s bright smile at the note suggests.
A．what his wife had done as against the Christmas spirit.
B．he thought the very Christmas gift had real significance
C．what was written on the note was easy to understand
D．he was amused by the Christmas tradition of his family.
59．What happened at the first Christmas after Mike’s death?
A．The writer asked her children to follow their family tradition.
B．All the children stood around the Christmas tree with expectation.
C．The writer removed the Christmas tree to avoid thinking of Mike.
D．The children each put an envelope on the Christmas tree for their dad.
60．In the writer’s eyes, the white envelope is a symbol of　　　　 .
A．Mike’s spirit　　　　　 B．children’s love　　　　 C．unusual ideas　　　　　 D．special gifts

阅读理解

　　It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The difference. between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.

　　Education is much more open-ended and all inclusive than schooling. Education knows not limits. It can take place any-where, whether in the shower or on the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agent (door) of education can vary from respected grandparent to the people arguing about politics on the radio, from a child to a famous scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain prodictability (可预料性), education quite often preduces surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions(宗教). People receive education from infancy (婴儿时期) on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a life-long process, a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be a necessary part of one's entire life.

　　Schooling, on the other hand, . is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at about the same time, take the assigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The pieces of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the workings of government, have been limited by the subjects being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find out in classes the truth about political problems in their society or what the newest film-makers are experimenting with. There are clear and undoubtful conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

1．The passage is organized by ________

[　　]

A．giving examples of different schools

B．telling stories about excellent teachers

C．listing and discussing several educational problems

D．telling the difference between the meanings of two related words

2．The passage supports which of the following statements?

[　　]

A．Education systems need to be changed as soon as possible.

B．Without formal education, people won't be able to read and write.

C．Going to school is only part of how people become educated.

D．Schooling is of no use because students do similar things every day.

3．What does the writer mean by using the expression “children interrupt their education to go to school” in paragraph one?

[　　]

A．All of life is education.

B．learning takes place everywhere.

C．Education is totally mined by schooling.

D．Schooling prevents people from discover new things.

4．What is the main idea of the passage?

[　　]

A．The best schools teach a variety of subjects.

B Education and schooling are quite different experiences.

C．The more years the students go to school, the better their education is.

D．Students benefit from schools, which require long hours and homework.

阅读理解：

　　It is commonly believed in the United States that school is where people go to get an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today children interrupt their education to go to school. The difference between schooling and education implied by this remark is important.

　　Education is much more open - ended and all - inclusive (包括所有的) than schooling. Education knows no limits. It can take. place anywhere, whether in the shower or on the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe of informal learning. The agent (doer) of education can very from respected grandparent to the people arguing about politics on the radio, from a child to a famous scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability (可塑性), education quite often produced surprises. A chance conversation with a stranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of other religions (宗教). People receive education from. infancy (婴幼儿) on. Education, then, is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a life-long process (过程), a process that starts long before the start of school, and one that should be a necessary part of one's entire life.

　　Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout a country, children arrive at school at about the same time, take the assigned (指定的) seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework, take exams, and so on. The pieces of reality that are to be learned, whether they are the alphabet or an understanding of the working of government, have been limited by the subjects being taught. For example, high school students know that they are not likely to find in their classes the truth about political problems in their society or what the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are clear and undoubtful conditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

1．The passage is organized by ________.

[　　]

A．giving examples of different schools

B．telling a story about excellent teachers

C．listing and discussing educational problems

D．telling the difference between the meanings of two related words

2．Does the passage support which of the following statements?

[　　]

A．Education systems need to be changed as soon as possible.

B．Without formal education, people won't be able to read and write.

C．Going to school is only part of how people become educated.

D．Schooling is of no use because students do similar things every day.

3．The phrase “For example” in Paragraph 3 introduces a sentence ________.

[　　]

A．that helps to find out some similar textbooks

B．that brings about the bad results of schooling

C．that shows the unknown working of government

D．that gives examples of the limits of classroom subjects

4．What does the writer mean by using “children interrupt their education to go to school”?

[　　]

A．Education is a life - long process.

B．Learning takes place everywhere.

C．Education is totally ruined by schooling.

D．Schooling prevents people from discovering new things.

5．What is the main idea of this passage?

[　　]

A．The best schools teach a variety of subjects.

B．Education and schooling are quite different experiences.

C．The more years students go to school the better their education is.

D．Students benefits from schools, which require long hours and homework.

    Homebuyers nationwide are watching housing prices going up, up, and up. “How high can they go?” is the question on everyone’s lips? “As long as interest rates stay around 5 percent, there’s no telling,” remarked one realtor in Santa Monica, California.
“It’s crazy,” said Tim, who is looking for a house near the beach. “In 1993, I bought my first place, a two-bedroom condominium in Venice, for $70,000. My friends thought then that I was overpaying. Five years later, I had to move. I sold it for $230,000, which was a nice profit. Last year, while visiting friends here, I saw in the local paper that the exact same condo was for sale for $510,000!”
It is a seller’s market. Homebuyers feel like they have to offer at least 10 percent more than the asking price. Donna, a new owner of a one-bedroom condo in Venice Beach, said, “That’s what I did. I told the owner that whatever anyone offers you, I’ll give you $20,000 more, under the table, so you don’t have to pay your realtor any of it. I was tired of looking.”
Tim says he hopes he doesn’t get that desperate. “Whether you decide to buy or decide not to buy, you still feel like you made the wrong decision. If you buy, you feel like you overpaid. If you don’t buy, you want to kick yourself for passing up a great opportunity.”
Everyone says the bubble(泡沫) has to burst sometime, but everyone hopes it will burst the day after they sell their house. Even government officials have no idea what the future will bring. “All we can say is that, inevitably, these things go in cycles,” said the state director of housing. “What goes up must come down. But, as we all know, housing prices always stay up a little higher than they go down. So you can’t lose over the long run. Twenty years down the road, your house is always worth more than you paid for it.”
60．If Tim had sold his flat last year, he could have earned          .
A．$ 510,000                B．$ 440,000                C．$ 280,000                D．$ 160,000
61．Donna paid another $ 20,000 to the owner secretly because          .
A．she felt like offering 10% more                    B．secret money made low price
C．the owner asked for the money                  D．she was bored with bargaining
62．We can infer from Tim’s words in paragraph 4 that           .
A．homebuyers feel hesitate facing rising house prices
B．buying a house is always a great opportunity
C．homebuyers never make the right decision
D．both sellers and buyers become desperate
63．What is the author’s opinion about the housing bubble?          
A．It is something everyone hates to see
B．Only experts know when it will burst
C．It is unavoidable in the regular circles
D．It usually stays for about twenty years