You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to endure almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
　When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the box's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
　In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
　Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can stand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What does the author say about the black box?

You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the back of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can resist massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What does the author say about the black box?

 Perhaps the only test score that I remember is the 41. I was in high school. The test was the final for the class. It was a rather  36  test. I didn’t know how  37  I had done but I knew there were things on   38   that I didn’t know.

   I remember   39    waiting for the result. When Mr. Bales  40  my paper on my desk, I was   41    . There in big  42   numbers, circled to draw attention, was my grade — 41! I  43  my paper so that others couldn’t see it. A 41 was not   44   that you wanted your classmates to see. Finally, Mr. Bales stood behind the desk and   45   the class. “The grades were not very good;   46  of you passed,” he announced. “ The highest grade in the class was a 41, so all of you failed.”

   A 41. That was me. Suddenly my dismal(阴沉的) face didn’t look quite so bad. I had the highest grade. I felt a lot   47   . As soon as I got home, my mother asked me, “How did you do on your test?” “I made a 41,” I said. My mother’s    48   changed suddenly. “You failed.” “But I had the highest grade in the class!” I replied. “ I don’t    49   what everyone else had. You failed. It doesn’t matter if everyone else failed too; what matters is what you do,” my mother  50   answered.

   For years, I thought that was a harsh judgment. My mother was always that  51  . It didn’t matter what the other kids did; it only mattered what I did and  52  I did it excellently.

   We often don’t understand the wisdom of good parents until we ourselves stand   53  the parenting shoes. My mother’s philosophy（人生态度）has   54    me throughout life. The path of the crowd is wide but the path to pass the tests of life is   55   and there are very few people on it.

1.A. easy                B. difficult                             C. exciting            D. disappointed

2.A. much                  B. good                                 C. well          D. long

3.A. this                     B. them              C. it               D. one

4.A. happily           B. anxiously           C. excitedly      D. calmly

5.A. fell            B. handed            C. dropped         D. lay

6.A.excited       B. worried                C. delighted                 D. shocked

7.A. red         B. black               C. blue          D. green

8.A. collected     B. gathered              C. hid                      D. kept

9.A. everything B. something                      C. anything           D. nothing

10.A. talked          B. declared                          C. announced             D. addressed

11.A. some                 B. each                                  C. none                 D. most

12.A. worse               B. better                          C. best                     D. good

13.A. looks                  B. appearance                     C. eyes          D. expression

14.A. understand      B. care                                  C. mind                        D. want

15.A. rudely               B. politely                    C. firmly                 D. impatiently

16.A. method             B. manner                            C. behavior      D. way

17.A. this               B. that               C. which              D. what

18.A. on                      B. at                            C. in                      D. of

19.A. taken                 B. brought                       C. fetched      D. carried

20.A. wide                  B. deep              C. narrow        D. straight

第三部分：阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，共30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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Who decides how English is spoken around the world? Do teachers in the colleges and schools? What about those who write dictionaries or books? Do they decide what is good and what is bad English? Or do governments decide when a language will change? Probably you have thought about this question once or twice before. The answer is that none of these people decide how English will be spoken. Believe it or not, many of the biggest changes in how English is spoken have come from common people in the streets. And one of the most important places where English has changed is on the playground! These playground can be any place where young people meet, such as a sports field or a beach. For example, black kids invented many new words in American English as they played basketball or music. Often words used by black kids in the big cities become popular with other kids many years later. Another popular sport, baseball, has also given many words and expressions to American English. On the beaches of southern California, teenagers invented words to describe how they felt when they surfed. These words found their way into the high schools and then to other places. Similar changes in English happened among young people in Ireland and Australia. Children from one group would find ways to play with children of another group more easily. Often they made new words just to develop an identity different from their parents.
56. Who decides how English is spoken?
A. Governments        B. Teachers       C. Ordinary people    D. Black kids
57. According to the passage many English words come from ______.
A. everyday life        B. textbooks       C. dictionaries        D. baseballs
58. Why do these kids invent new words?
A. because they want to make up a dictionary.
B. because they try to beat their teachers.    
C. because they are asked to do so.
D. because they want to feel different from their parents

III. 阅读(共两节，满分40分)
第一节阅读理解(共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下列短文，从媒体所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
In Stockholm, the Swedish Academy has chosen the British author Doris Lessing for the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The selection of Doris Lessing for a Nobel was popular among the hundreds of journalists gathered for the announcement in Stockholm.
Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl said with skepticism, fire and visionary power Lessing has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.
Doris Lessing was born in 1919 in Persia - modern-day Iran - to British parents, moving as a child with her family to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she stayed in school only to the age of 14.
A year after moving to London, she published her first novel in 1950. The Grass is Singing examines unbridgeable racial conflict in colonial Africa through the eyes of a white farmer's wife and her black servant.
A member of the British Communist Party during the 1950s and a campaigner against nuclear arms and South African apartheid, Lessing was for years banned from that country and from Rhodesia.
Her literary breakthrough came in 1962 with publication of The Golden Notebook, seen by many, though not necessarily Lessing, as a pioneering work of modern feminism. A disjointed study of the mind of the main character, Anna Wulf, the novel explores her thoughts about Africa, politics and communism, relationships with men and sex, and Jungian analysis and dream interpretation.
Lessing's themes shifted to psychology in her works from the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was fascinated with the Islamic mystic tradition of Sufism. Her turn toward science fiction with the Canopus series in the early 1980s was not warmly received by traditionalist critics, but she has continued to win new readers and numerous literary awards, including the David Cohen British Literary Prize and the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature, both in 2001.
Following the announcement, the Horace Engdahl told VOA why he was personally so pleased with Lessing's selection.
"She is one of the truly great writers - of novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction," Engdahl said. "She is one of the few writers who have had the courage to uphold the principle of equality between the male and female experience, and she has given the impulse to numbers of other women writers. And she is really the mother of a school that is one of the most important in our contemporary literature."
At 87, Doris lessing is the oldest Nobel Literature laureate since the first prizes were awarded in 1901. Each Nobel Prize is this year accompanied by a check for approximately $1.4 million.
41. How old was Doris Lessing when she published her first novel?
A. 14            B. 26           C. 31                D. 50
42. Which of the following about The Grass is Singing is true?
A. It is mainly about racial conflict between the whites and the blacks in the US.
B. The main characters are a white farmer’s wife and her black servant.
C. It was published in Africa.
D. It was Doris Lessing’s most famous novel.
43. We can infer from the passage that __________.
A. Journalists are very interested in the election of Doris Lessing’s for Nobel Prize.
B. Doris Lessing regard The Golden Notes as a pioneering work of feminism.
C. Doris Lessing has written about many different subjects.
D. Many writers have the courage to stick to the equality between the male and female experience.
44. The underlined word school in the last paragraph but one means________.
A. institution for educating children
B. college or university
C. department of a university 
D. group of writers, thinkers
45. Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?
A. Doris Lessing wins Nobel Prize for literature
B. The greatest British female writer
C. The oldest Nobel Prize winner
D. 2007 Nobel Prize announced in Stockholm