(2007·浙江)

Many of them turned a deaf ear to his advice, ________they knew it to be valuable.

[　　]

 (07·重庆A篇)

The very wealthy English Baron Fitzgerald had only one child, a son, who understandably was the apple of his eye. His wife died when the child was in his early teens. So Fitzgerald devoted himself to fathering the kid. Unfortunately the son died in his late teens.

Meanwhile, Fitzgerald's wealth greatly increased. He spent a lot on art works of the masters. Later Fitzgerald himself became seriously ill. Before his death, he had carefully prepared his will as to how his wealth would be settled-to sell his entire collection at an auction(拍卖）.

Because of the large quantity and high quality of his collection, a huge crowd of possible buyers gathered for the auction. Many of them were museum directors and private collectors eager to bid（出价）. Before the auction, the art works were shown, among which was a painting of Fitzgerald's son by an unknown artist. Because of its poor quality, it received little attention.

When it was time for the auction, the auctioneer gaveled（敲槌）the crowd to attention. First the lawyer read from Fitzgerald's will that the first art work to be auctioned was the painting of his son.

The poor-quality painting didn't receive any bidders. . . except one-the old servant who had served the son and loved him, and who for emotional reasons offered the only bid.

As soon as the servant bought the painting for less than one English pound, the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked the lawyer to read again from the will. The crowd became quiet, and the lawyer read from the will: “Whoever buys the painting of my son gets all my collection. ”Then the auction was over.

56. The English Baron Fitzgerald was __________.

A. a museum director                                     B. a master of art

C. an art collector                                           D. an art dealer

57. Why did the old servant bid for the painting of Fitzgerald's son?

A. He was devoted to the family.                      B. He saw that no one bid for it.

C. He knew the content of the will.                  D. He found it cheap for him to buy.

58. Fitzgerald's will showed __________.

A. his desire to fool the bidders

B. his invaluable love for his son

C. his sadness at the death of his son

D. his regret of having no children to take over his wealth

The slogan “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas” has been going strong for 27 years now. Dogs and cats have been popular Christmas gifts in the gifts in the UK and Europe for many years. But some people still haven’t quite got the message.

The slogan still holds good. Some 105,000 dogs were rounded up by local government last year because they had been abandoned, many of them shortly after the festival season.

The main reason given by owners for handing their dogs over to the Dogs Trust is that the dogs need more attention than they can give; behavioral problems and moving home are also reasons given.

But Eleanor Silk, the Trust’s communications director, says, “It’s often four or five months after Christmas, in early summer, when owners find that the dog has got too big and too active, or it hasn’t been trained properly and has caused damage around the home.”

In any case, some organizations that help pets are quick to point out that if you are serious about getting a puppy(小狗) as a pet, Christmas is not the time to do it. Puppies need to get used to their new surroundings, to be introduced to a routine, and to be looked after like small children. It’s hard to meet any of these needs at Christmas. What’s more, pulling a puppy out of a Christmas stocking in itself sends the wrong message to children. It encourages children to think of the puppy as a toy, rather than a responsibility.

Appreciating what you’re taking on with a dog can be a sobering (清醒的) realization. “For life” means thinking about the effect they’ll have on your life. It also infers you will need to care for the dog for its whole life.

1.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Dogs and Cats—the Most Popular Christmas Gifts.

B．A pet is for Life, Not just for Christmas.

C．How to Take Care of Your Pets over Christmas.

D．Let’s Help Those Abandoned Pets

2.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT a reason for pets to be abandoned?

A．Pets spread some diseases.

B．Pets damage some things in the house.

C．The owners can’t take good care of the pets.

D．The owners have to move to other places.

3.The underlined words “rounded up” in Paragraph 2 mean “________”.

A．given out as gifts

B．thrown away

C．gathered into one place

D．raised to make money

4.The fifth paragraph mainly tells us________.

A．how to take best care of Christmas pets

B．the right time to have a puppy as a pet

C．the reasons why Christmas is not the time to get a pet

D．the worries about Christmas pets from organizations that help pets

5.Why is the author against the idea of putting a dog in the Christmas stocking as a Christmas gift?

A．Because these dogs can still cause damage.

B．Because children will not take dogs seriously.

C．Because children don’t like to have dogs as Christmas gifts.

D．Because a Christmas stocking is not big enough to put a dog in.

II. 语言知识及应用（共两节，满分35分）
第一节完形填空（共10小题，每小题2分，满分20分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从21~30各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
At the beginning of a new year, I always ask my Chinese friends what their expectations are. I am  21 to realize that, they all dream of owning a car. Most of them  22   that sooner or later every Chinese family can acquire a car.
I don’t by any means contest the  23  of  Chinese people to enjoy the same housing conditions, household appliances and other goods that are available in developed countries. But it seems obvious that many of them have related to the mass ownership of  24   autos.
I know that it’s not   25   to sacrifice our personal comfort and open our minds to consider what is good for an entire  26    , rather than just for ourselves. But I would not   27   to the further pollution of Beijing by owning a car. And if I were to return to Montreal, I would not buy a car there either.
In today’s China owning a car is seen as a symbol of  28    and success. I wish Chinese people would acquire the maturity to reject that idea, and make their  29  towards developing a good public transportation system. The country needs more trains, more buses and more subways. That is the only way to get out of the traffic  30 .
21. A. delighted            B. surprised         C. satisfied                    D. frightened
22. A. hope                B. suggest              C. require                     D. encourage
23. A. trends               B. hobbies          C. rights                D. duties
24. A. modern              B. fashionable          C. public               D. private
25. A. difficult             B. easy                   C. convenient            D. suitable
26. A. organization          B. family              C. society               D. country
27. A. belong              B. contribute           C. stick                 D. devote
28. A. wealth               B. glory               C. treasure              D. achievement
29. A. ways                B. decisions            C. turns                 D. efforts
30. A. accident             B. jam              C. way                 D. system

Uncertainty spreads through our lives so thoroughly that it dominates our language，Our everyday speech is made up in large part of words like probably, many, soon,great,little.What do these words mean? 

Such verbal imprecision is not necessarily to be criticized. Indeed, it has a value Just because it allows uw to express judgments when a precise quantitative statement is out of the question.

We have been trying to pin down by experiments what people meari by these expressions in specific contexts, and how the meanings change with age. For instance,a subject is told "There are many trees in the park" and is asked to say what number the word may mean to him. Or a child is invited to take "some" sweets from a bowl and we then count how many he has taken. We compare the number he takes when he is alone with the number when one or more other children are present and are to take some sweets after him, or with the number he takes when told to give

“some" sweets to another child.

First, we find that the number depends, of course, on the items involved. To most people some friends means about five, while some trees means about twenty. However, unrelated areas sometimes show parallel values. For instance, the language of probability seems to mean about the same thing in predictions about the weather and about politics: the expression is certain to( rain,or be elected)signifies to the average person about a 70 percent chance; is likely to, about a 60 percent chance; probably will, about 55 percent.

Secondly, the size of the population of items influences the value assigned to an expression.Thus, if we tell a subject to take "a few" or“a lot of" glass balls from a box, he will take me if the box contains a large number of glass balls than if it has a small number, But not proportionately more: if we increase the number of glass balls eight times, the subject takes only half as large a percentage of the total.

Thirdly, there is a marked change with age. Among children between six and fourteen years old, the older the child, the fewer glass balls, he will take. But the difference between a lot and a few widens with age. This age effect is so consistent that it might be used as a test of intelligence.

51. What's the right attitude towards the words like probably, any and soon ?

A. They are inaccurate and we should avoid them.

B. They are necessary since we cannot be always precise.

C. They should be criticized because there are too many of them.

D. Their value is not yet clear since we don't know their meaning.

52. Why do we do experiments with the words many and some?

A. To prove that people are insensitive to these words.

B. To prove that the words dominate our everyday speech.

C. To find out how the meanings vary with age and contexts.

D. To find out whether the words can mean a precise quantity.

53. Which of the following expressions means a larger chance in weather broadcast?

A. Possible.   B. Probable.   C. Be likely to.  D. Be certain to.

54. Which of the following is similar to the underlined word signifies in its meaning?

A. makes    B. means     C. predicts    D. indicates

55. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A. Uncertainty in the Language Use.

B. How to Use Language in an Uncertain Way

C.Uncertain Words and their Use in Specific Contexts

D. Experiments on Relationship between Uncertainty and Language Use