Spending beyond one’s means is becoming a national problem for Americans．Borrowing has become so easy that it takes great willpower for people to refuse it．“I received a number of gold MasterCard and gold Visa card offers in the mail during the past two months，”said one computer engineer at AT ＆T Bell Laboratories in Chicago．“I got three of them in one day last week．”

 Lenders are providing easy credit（信贷）for borrowers．Many banks now offer every borrower a great variety of credit，a service once offered almost only to big companies．Norwest Bank Minneapolis offers lending programs for cars and boats that can cut monthly payments nearly m half .Carmakers，too，are lengthening easier terms．Ford Motor Credit states that 45 % of its recent lendings has been for sixty months，rather than the sixty-six-month period that was usual before．

 The total consumer debt（债务）in the United States rose 73 percent between 1974 and 1984，as the debt for each man，woman，and child increased from $10，264 to $26，566．Huge debt now is present in our economy（经济）at all levels．As a nation，we are more than $7 trillion in debt，and the total keeps increasing astonishingly.

 As we have over borrowed，so have we overspent．In late 986，the share of after-tax income that Americans saved sank below 2 percent for a short time，less than half the figure at which we saved only 10 years ago．Americans now are buying from foreigners between about $50 and $100 billion more Mercedes and Toyotas, Paris fashions，and tours to Europe than the Boeing 747s， agriculture machinery , or Kansas wheat that the foreigners bought from America. The country could not produce and pay for all the things it wanted.

 To make a long story short, we Americans have serious problems in keeping down spending and keeping up personal savings．It is high time for us American people to learn the basics of long-term money management.

48．According to the author,  what is a main reason for Americans to overspend？

A.        Americans buy a lot of  foreign products．

B.        It is easy for Americans to manage their debts．

C.        Borrowing money has become a simple matter．

D.       Americans have more extra money than before．

49．Ford Motor Credit lengthens 45％of its lending to 60 months in order to_______．

A.        help more Americans to settle their debts

B.        encourage people to buy foreign cars

C.        make better use of its money

D.       attract more customers

   50．What does the author suggest as a way to deal with over borrowing?

A.        Teaching people how to manage money．

B.        Advising people on what to buy．

C.        Limiting the use of credit cards．

D.       Reducing average incomes．

   51．Which of the following points does the author wish to make?

A.        America should sell more of its products abroad．

B.        A healthy society has to learn to 1ive within its means．

C.        People’s income determines their money management．

D.       Government should prevent people from over borrowing．

One day an out of work mimic(滑稽演员) is visiting the zoo and attempts to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he starts to draw the crowd，a zoo keeper grabs him and drags him into his office. The zoo keeper explains to the mimic that the zoo's most popular attraction，a gorilla(大猩猩)，has died suddenly and the keeper fears that attendance at the zoo will fall off. He offers the mimic a job to dress up as the gorilla until they can get another one. The mimic accepts.

So the next morning the mimic puts on the gorilla suit and enters the cage before the crowd comes. He discovers that it's a great job. He can sleep all he wants，play and make fun of people and he draws bigger crowds than he ever did as a mimic. However，eventually the crowds tire of him and he tires of just swinging on wires. He begins to notice that the people are paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience，he climbs to the top of his cage，crawls across a partition(隔离物)，and dangles from the top to the lion's cage. Of course，this makes the lion very angry，but the crowd loves it.

At the end of the day the zoo keeper comes and gives the mimic a raise for being such a good attraction. Well，this goes on for some time－the mimic keeps taunting the lion，the crowds grow larger，and his salary keeps going up. Then one terrible day when he is dangling over the angry lion he slips and falls. The mimic is terrified.

The lion gathers itself and prepares to attack. The mimic is so scared that he begins to run round and round the cage with the lion close behind. Finally，the mimic starts screaming and yelling，“Help me，help me！”But the lion is quick and attacks. The mimic soon finds himself flat on his back looking up at the angry lion and the lion says，“Shut up，you idiot！Do you want to get us both fired？”

36．The mimic visits the zoo to________.

A．take care of the dying gorilla           B．beg some money from the zoo keeper

C．ask for a job there                     D．perform and earn some money there

37．The zoo keeper offers the mimic a job to act as the gorilla because________.

A．it is more expensive to hire a real gorilla

B．the real gorilla died but the keeper does not want to lose its visitors

C．he likes the mimic's performance

D．he wants to help the mimic who is out of work

38．What does the mimic feel about the new job at first?

A．He likes it because he has enough freedom in the job.

B．He likes it but he prefers to working as a mimic.

C．He doesn't like it for people do not respect him.

D．He doesn't like it because he gets little pay.

39．The mimic climbs to the lion's cage because________.

A．he finds it more interesting to climb the cage

B．he wants to play with the lion

C．he wants to attract the attention of his audience

D．he has never seen a lion before

40．What does the passage mainly tell us?

A. The mimic and his job                B. The mimic and his success

C. The actor and the mimic              D. The mimic and his animals

A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting!

"It was a subconscious act," said Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. "Yong people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's addictive. They can’t simply stop doing that."

Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing -- accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites -- there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook? Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a non-profit group that monitors media's impact on families.

Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and "social-network checking" as accepted parts of the workday?

"In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are adept at texting with their phones still in their pockets," said 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, "and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones."

When the boy was scolded for texting, _________________.

       A. he was polite and regretful

       B. he was trying sending another message

       C. his fingers shouldn’t be put on his lap

       D. he listened carefully and nodded

What does the underlined word “subconscious” mean?

       A. dangerous               B. purposeless                    C. popular                    D. impolite

What can we learn about the students in their teens and early 20s?

       A. All of them are addicted to using cellphones.

       B. They will get rid of the habit once they go to work.

       C. They are greatly different from the past generations.

       D. Most of them check Facebook more than 10 times a day.

What can we infer from the passage?

       A. The employers will accept texting at workday.

       B. The students will give up their phones one day.

       C. It’s convenient for students to communicate with others with cellphones.

D. Facebook is a kind of book students need to read at school.

 My bookshelves are full of dust―and with good reason．When iIt comes to cleaning that part of my home，I suffer from the most serious case of avoidance（回避反应症）．

 The thing is this：when I do set out to clean and re-organize my books，which seldom happens，I place myself into a really bad situation．No sooner do I take a title from the shelf, blow off the dust，and wipe down the cover thanI find myself sitting on the floor with legs crossed and my back against the wall．Pretty soon books get piled up on my legs as I am reunited with old friends．

  It is as if these boobs have voices，and each  wants to say its piece．“Remember me？I was given to you when you went into the Navy , so that you would never lack for companionshlp，”one whispers．Another says，“I  was your first book of poems，given to you before you learned  to love poetry.”And a third，“I was the book that made history so attrctive to you．”

  Perhaps thegreatest pleasuret of  re-organizing my books are the surprise―or better said，reunions―that occur. During my latest book cleaning adventure，I found one that had fallen behind the shelf:“Tales of Edgar Allan Poe．”Not an unusual title，but the words written on the first page made it very special“With Love from Mom and Dad，Christma 1965．” What’s this? A book on the physics of lasers（激光）．It is filled with mathematical statements，and I had bought it at a library sale when I was 12，not long after the laser had been invented．I couldn’t  understand a bit of it，bul  I did  learn what “laser”meant．

  What I end up with when I empty my bookshelves is a cross-section（横剖面）of my personal history. It’s like a road cut whre one sees all the layers of rock going back through time to the beginning of the simplest life forms．The books I’ve read―and kept―are not just old fiends．They’ re my resume．

44．What could be said about the author?

    A．He is too busy to tidy up his bookshelves．

    B．He considers his books treasured possessions．

    C．He has made a lot of notes in his book．

    D．He is a lover of sclence books．

45．By saying that his book have voices，the author means_________.

    A．they bring back happy memories

    B．they are recorded in human voice

    C．they say a lot about human history

    D．they offer good topic for discussion

46．What does the author enjoy most from re-orgazining his books？

    A．Finding some missing books．

    B．Putting books in good order．

    C．Learning something new from the books，

    D．Rediscovering interesting stories behind some books．

47．The underlined word     “resume”in the last paragraph probably means_______．

    A. personal history

    B. precious notes

    C. good companion

    D. simple life forms

 (10·湖南C篇)

People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

      Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly(均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

      "We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect (忽略) the mouth."

      According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.

      The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of. expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

      It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than did Westerners. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less."

      In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

66. The discovery shows that Westerners         .

    A. pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth

    B. consider facial expressions universally reliable

    C. observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways

    D. have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions                                                      

67. What were the people asked to do in the study?

A. To make a face at each other.              B. To get their faces impressive.

C. To classify some face pictures.            D. To observe the researchers' faces.                 

68. What does the underlined word "they" in Paragraph 6 refer to?

A. The participants in the study.

B. The researchers of the study.

C. The errors made during the study.

    D. The data collected from the study.                                                                                

69. In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to         .

A. do translation more successfully

B. study the mouth more frequently

C. examine the eyes more attentively

D. read facial expressions more correctly                                                                          

70. What can be the best title for the passage?

    A. The Eye as the Window to the Soul

B. Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions

C. Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills

D. How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding