Now let’s look ourselves as a species in relation to ecosystem balance.Modern scientists believe that humankind, like other animals, evolved(进化) through millions of years of changes and adaptations to the environment and that our most direct evolutionary ancestor was probably an earlier species of the primate(monkey, ape) group. Despite this similarity with other creatures, however, the evolution of humankind differs from that of other species in one important and unique way.
In other species, evolution has led to specialization, both in the species abilities and in its place within the environmental structure. For example, the giraffe is much adapted to feeding on treetops, but it is also specialized and thus limited to feeding on trees and shrubs. Only with great difficulty can it bend down to graze on the ground. Similarly, the anteater is extremely well adapted to eating ants but is unable to catch or eat other animals. The same is true for countless other species.
For humankind it is opposite. Our evolution had led to a very generalized ability. Our highly developed intelligence and ability to make and handle tools mean that we can do almost anything. Humans evolved in such a way that we are able to move into every environment on Earth and even into space. No natural competitor offers great resistance, and other natural enemies such as disease have been controlled.
Said another way, we see in humankind a great imbalance between biological potential and environmental resistance. The result is the rapidly increasing world population, frequently referred to as the population explosion. Further, to support our growing population, natural ecosystems are being increasingly displaced by human habitations, agriculture, and other human supporting activities.
【小题1】From the passage we can infer that in the course of evolution _______.

第二节 完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
Learn to Meet Challenges
My classmates called me “the alien” ,and they avoided me like the plague（瘟疫）.As a young boy, I  36   from a serious skin disease ,which filled my arms with scars（伤疤）. The true   37   of my condition, however, was social: I lived a life of loneliness.
Doctors predicted that I would never fully recover, but my parents encouraged me to hope for the future, teaching me that any difficulty could be overcome. I therefore took a / an   38    role in fighting against my disease, trying many medications and herbs, and my health   39    greatly before I graduated. I realized that my personal   40   had led to this improvement. I regained self-confidence and made many friends at school.
Years later,   41    my personal battle against disease, I learned a great deal about   42    by overcoming difficulties.
I joined the Culture Club as a Special Event Director. I  43   a group of six students in organizing various activities. I was the most advanced ESL student among the group, so I considered myself the most capable. But I quickly learned my   44    , While preparing for our first presentation, I was   45  with my team members and often rejected their   46      . I
performed most of their tasks myself , allowing them to   47    me only with small details. As a result, the presentation was not very successful. The setback   48    me, and I spoke of it to the club’s director. She responded that she   49  my ability to succeed in the future. This comment filled me with   50   , for I realized that I had never trusted my own team members.
51   they were weak in English, they had many valuable talents. I immediately   52   my policy, allowing my team members to choose the tasks they desired and to complete them on their own. For our program, we had many meetings, which gave   53  to many good ideas. Most importantly, the atmosphere among us improved dramatically. We were   54   and eager to devote time to the program , and I learned what true leadership is.
My experiences  55   improved my ability to handle challenging situations.
36. A. judged  B. suffered     C. prevented   D. separated
37. A. pain     B. sign    C. value  D. meaning

Parkour is a sport with the aim of moving from one point to another as smoothly, efficiently and quickly as possible using chiefly the abilities of the human body. It’s more similar to martial arts (武术) than to a sport. Parkour focuses on how any obstacle is dealt with, whether the obstacle is either physical or mental.
Inspiration for parkour came from the “Natural Method of Physical Culture” developed by Georges Hebert in the early twentieth century. French soldiers in Vietnam were inspired by Heber’s work and created what is now known as parcours du combatant (障碍训练课程). David Belle, who was introduced to this method by his father Raymond Belle, a Vietnamese soldier who had practiced it, had taken part in activities such as martial arts and gymnastics, and sought to apply his athletic skill in a manner that would have practical use in life.
After moving to Lisses, David Belle continued his journey with others. “From then on we developed,” says Sebastien Foucan, who helped to spread parkour, “and really the whole town was there for us; there for parkour.”
Over the years as devoted practitioners (实践者) improved their skills, their moves continued to grow in scale, so that building-to-building jumps and drops of over a storey(楼层) became common in media description, causing much misunderstanding on the nature of parkour.”
Although many practitioners say parkour isn’t an extreme sport, it does carry risk with it. The practice of running, jumping, and leaping from a variety of urban structures (roof tops, staircases, raised surfaces, walls, etc.) and landing on concrete, of course, carries the potential for injury. Some of the most common injuries include sprained (扭伤的) ankles and injuries to the knees.
According to one practitioner, “One of the biggest differences between parkour and other so-called ‘extreme’ sports is that it is not concerned only with physical skills, but also with one’s mental and spiritual pleasure.”
1.    The second paragraph is mainly about _______.
A. Belle’s devotion to parkour                           B. the origin of parkour
C. the use of parkour during wartime             D. the practical use of parkour in life
2.    What do we know about David Belle?
A. He used to be a French soldier in Vietnam.
B. His attitude toward Hebert’s work was negative.
C. He and Foucan held different views on parkour.
D. He attempted to make full use of his athletic skill in life.
3.    What do we infer from the passage?
A. The practitioners think parkour is worth the risk.
B. Parkour needs specially designed training places.
C. The practitioners are often blamed by the media.
D. Parkour was developed in the early twentieth century.
4.    Parkour requires _______.
A. only the abilities of human body      
B. move from one point to another
C. the ability to deal with mental problems 
D. the ability to remove obstacles physically and mentally
5.    According to the passage, which of the following is parkour?
A.           B.    
C.        D.

阅读下列短文, 从每题所给的选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卷上将该项涂黑。
D
Around the globe, the tourist trade is booming and you are promised to enjoy all the comfort and convenience of modern tourism. The first-class systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other’s countries at a moderate cost. What was once the ‘grand tour’, reserved for only the very rich, is now within most people’s grasp. The package tour and chartered flights (包机) are quite popular to us. Modern travelers enjoy a level of comfort which those on grand tours in the old days couldn’t have dreamed of. With all this coming and going, you would expect greater understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! So what’s the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other? So there is a great misdirection in tourist business, especially in conducted tour items.
Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They purposely set out to “protect” their passengers from too much contact with the local population. Modern tourists lead a protected and separated life. They live at international hotels, where they eats their international food and sips their international drink while gazing at the natives from a distance. Designed tours to places of interest are carefully arranged. The tourists are allowed to see only what the organizers want them to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourists to wander off on their own; and anyway, language is always a barrier, so they might only be too happy to be protected in this way.
At its very worst, this merely leads to a new and terrible kind of colonization. The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of certain old ideas of other nations and countries. We don’t see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe what they are, even staying along with that from text books during our schooling.
You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, emotional, cold, pedantic (爱追究的), native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned, these adjectives just actually act as barriers, for we can’t do the job with certainty. So, frequently, when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm what you have already obtained as the first conceptions in your mind. And you get home only with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression, such as the saying, “Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites (伪君子)” and “Latin peoples shout a lot ”. However, to gain the real understanding, you only have to make a few foreign friends and you will know how ridiculousridiculous ridiculous ridiculous and harmful some old conceptions of other nations are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you?
Being carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. A very wild and limited outlook may stir up racial hatred and blind us to the basic fact — how reasonless it sounds! – that all people are human. We are all similar to each other, while at the same time all unique.
【小题1】What does “grand tour” bring people now?

A．tourism does little to increase understanding between nations

B．tourism is terrible without the work of the tourist organizations

C．conducted tour is so dull that nobody wants to accept it now

D．tourism really does something wonderful to many countries

Sir,
Just over six months ago, I saw an advertisement in the Morning Mail for a set of the complete works of William Shakespeare. Your company, Cosmo books Ltd., offered this set (eight books of plays and two books of poetry) at what was claimed to be a ‘remarkable’ price: fifteen pounds and fifty pence, including postage and packing. I had wanted a set of Shakespeare’s plays and poems for some time, and these books, in red imitation leather, looked particularly attractive; so I sent for them.
Two weeks later, the books arrived, together with a set of the complete works of Charles Dickens which I had not ordered. So I returned the Dickens books to you, with a cheque for fifteen pounds and fifty pence for the works of Shakespeare. Two more weeks passed. Then there arrived on my door step a second set of the works of Shakespeare, the same set of novels by Dickens and a six book set of the plays of Moliere, in French. Since I do not read French, these were of no use to me at all. However, I could not afford to post all these books back to you, so I wrote to you at the end of August of last year, instructing you to come and collect all the books that I did not want, and asking you not to send any other books until further notice.
You did not reply to that letter. Instead you sent me a bill for forty two pounds, and a set of the plays of Schiller, in German. Since then, a new set of books has arrived every two weeks, the works of Goethe, the poems of Milton, the plays of Strindberg; I hardly know what I have. The books are still all in their boxes, in the garage, and my car has to stand in the rain outside.
I have no room for any more books, and even if I read from now until the Last Judgment, I should not finish reading all the books that you have sent me.
Please send no more books, send no more bills, send no more angry letters demanding payment. Just send one large lorry and take all the books away, leaving me only with the one set of the complete works of Shakespeare for which I have paid.
Yours faithfully,
SIMON WALKER
【小题1】Simon Walker wrote the letter to ________