When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you're at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modem life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

The costs are becoming more and more evident, and I don't mean just the monthly bill. Dr.Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on -one personal contact, and an escape from reality. Sounds extreme, but we' ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell - phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation. He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e - mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don't have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it's because it has become very widespread. Consider that in 1987, there were only l million cell phones in use. Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them. They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

1.From the first two paragraphs, we can know                   ．

A．cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes

B．cell phone addiction is good for building personal relationships

C．people are longing to have their own cell phones

D．cell phones are the same as cigarettes

2.Cell phone addiction has caused the following effects EXCEPT            .

A．a barrier to personal contact               B．fewer friends

C．an escape from reality                    D．a serious illness

3.The underlined word "curb" in Paragraph 2 means “           ．”

A．ignore            B．control           C．develop           D．rescue

4.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that        .

A．women Use cell phones more often than men

B．talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C．cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

D．cell phones make one - on - one personal contact easy

5.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．Cell phones Are the New Cigarettes

B．Cell phones Are Harmful to the Society

C．The New Report about the Cell phone

D．The Disadvantages of the Cell phone

 

完形填空：（共20小题；每小题1．5分，满分30分）

    In history,a real cowboy was a simple farm worker on horseback．He spent a long time a day outdoors working with cows．The work was dirty,tiring and not very well paid．

    People in the western states had to __36__ cattle at low cost and send them by railway to the eastern __37__．But someone had to __38__ the cattle and get them to the nearest railroad．This was the job of a cowboy．Sometimes the __39__ was more than a thousand kilometers away and it could take as __40__ as six months to move the cattle．The __41__ was long but the cattle were driven __42__ as not to lose __43__．Then they could be sold at a good price．

    Most cowboys were young, __44__ men．A good horse _45__ their job of moving cattle much easier．A good cowboy __46__ cows and knew how to control them．At night,he __47__ to the cows to keep them calm．

    In the late 1800s,America was changing from a nation of farm to one of __48__ and cities．The cowboy seemed __49__ compared with other Americans doing ordinary jobs．

    Today,the __50__ of cowboys has __51__ greatly．One change is the use of trucks．The job is not so hard __52__ it used to be．And cowboys are better __53__ now．They are _54__ to be married．Some of them are farmers or teachers or truck drivers．Some work for big companies．

    __55__ at night and on weekends,they become cowboys．These part-time cowboys increase the total production of meat,keeping the beef price low．

A．get B．buy  C．sell D．raise

A．markets B．countries    C．cities   D．stories

A．deal with   B．find out C．look after   D．pay off

A．road    B．railroad C．state    D．farm

A．good    B．much C．long D．far

A．journey B．trip C．tour D． travel

A．hurriedly   B．smoothly C．slowly   D．carefully

A．mind    B．direction    C．head D．weight

A．unmarried   B．proud    C．strong   D．educated

A．had B．made C．found    D．helped

A．recognized  B．understood   C．owned    D．kept

A．whispered   B．shouted  C．cried    D．sang

A．towns   B．factories    C．companies    D．villages

A．free    B．brave    C．easy D．pleased

A．manner  B．job  C．life D．mind

A．changed B．developed    C．improved D．realized

A．that   B．as   C．which    D．what

A．known   B．paid C．treated  D．dressed

A．afraid  B．eager    C．worried  D．likely

A．Because B．And  C．When D．But

Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of  sound. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If    you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke from his gun      before the sound reaches your ears.

This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light   rays left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far  away that the light that you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you    four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km. per minute. In some cases, the    light from one of tonight’s stars had started on its journey to you before you were born.

Thus, if we want to be honest, we can’t say, “The stars are shining tonight.” We   have to say instead, “The stars look pretty. They were shining four years ago, but    their light has only just reached the earth.”

1. Light speed is ______ sound speed

A．as fast as	B．a million times slower than
C．about millions of times faster than	D．about a million times faster than

2.If you stand 200 meters away from a man who is firing a gun to start a race, you will find out that ______.

A．you can hear the sound before you see the smoke

B．the sound does not travel as fast as light

C．the sound will reach you before the man fires

D．sound travels about a million times faster than light

3.Sunlight obviously (明显地) ______ than the light of the moon

A．has to travel a greater distance	B．moves less quickly
C．travels much more quickly	D．is less powerful(有力的)

4.The scientific way of saying "The stars are shining tonight" should be ______.

A．the stars have been shining all the time

B．the stars seen tonight will shine four years later

C．the stars were shining long ago but seen tonight

D．the starlight seen today could be seen four years ago

 

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17,1706 in Boston，America. In his life he built a successful printing and publishing business in Philadelphia；he conducted scientific studies of electricity and made several important discoveries；he was a diplomat (外交官) and statesman；he helped establish Pennsylvania’s first university and America’s first city hospital；he also organized the country’s first subscription library (收费图书馆)．

Franklin was also unequaled in America as an inventor until Thomas Edison. Ben had poor eyesight  and needed glasses to read. He got tired of always taking them off and putting them back on，so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of glasses cut in half and put half of them together. Today，we call them bifocals (双光眼镜)．Another invention of his，an iron stove，allowed people to warm their homes.

He loved to learn about new things. He also thought it was important to make life better with the things that he invented. Electricity was one of the things he experimented with when he retired from his business. Ben discovered that lightning (闪电) and electricity were the same thing. The lightning rod was an important invention that we still use today to protect buildings and ships from lightning damage.

Franklin preferred to have his inventions used freely for the comfort and convenience of everyone. Thomas Jefferson，the third president of America，called Benjamin Franklin “the greatest man of the age and country in which he lived”．To Benjamin Franklin there was no greater purpose in life than to “live usefully”．

1.Benjamin Franklin was NOT a________.

A．diplomat                              B．scientist

C．businessman                           D．president

2.The underlined word “unequaled” in Paragraph 2 means________.

A．better than any other                    B．worse than any other

C．the same as others                      D．confident as others

3.Which of the following is NOT Benjamin’s invention?

A．Bifocals.                              B．The iron stove.

C．Printing.                              D．The lightning rod.

4.What was Benjamin Franklin’s purpose in life?

A．To live comfortably every day.

B．To be useful to others.

C．To be a famous person in the world.

D．To earn a lot by inventing things.

 

 Nobody likes home economics (家政学). But restoring the program could help us in the fight against obesity and chronic (慢性的) diseases today.

The home economics movement was founded on the belief that housework and food preparation were important subjects that should be studied scientifically. The first classes occurred in the agricultural and technical colleges that were built in the 1860s. When most departments of universities rejected women, home economics was a back door into higher education.

Indeed, in the early 20th century, home economics was a serious subject When few people understood germ (微生物) theory and almost no one had heard of vitamins, home economics classes offered vital information about washing hands regularly, eating fruits and vegetables and not feeding coffee to babies.

However, today we remember only the fixed ideas about home economics, forgetting the movement’s most important lessons on healthy eating and cooking. Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home, have contributed to many serious health problems. In the last decade, many cities and states have tried to tax junk food heavily or to ban the use of food stamps (食品券) to buy soda. Clearly, many people are doubtful about any governmental steps to promote healthy eating. But what if the government put the tools of obesity prevention in the hands of children themselves by teaching them how to cook?

My first experience with home economics happened two decades ago when I was a seventh grader in a North Carolina public school. A year later, my father’s job took our family to Wales, where I attended a large school for a few months. It was the first time I had ever really cooked anything. I remember that it was fun, and with an instructor standing by, it wasn’t hard. Those lessons stuck with me when I first started cooking for my husband and myself after college and they still do. Teaching cooking in public schools can help solve some problems facing Americans t day. The history of home economics shows it’s possible.

1.Home economics______.

A. is a subject becoming more and more popular with Americans

B. is often used to help fight against obesity and chronic diseases

C. once offered women a. special approach to university education

D. was first taught in the agricultural and technical colleges in the early 1900s

2. The third paragraph mainly tells us______ .

A. the importance of regular hand washing

B. the health benefits of fruits and vegetables

C. the contents of home economics classes in the early 20th century

D. the significance of teaching home economics in the early 20th century

3. In the opinion of the author, how should we fight against childhood obesity?

A. Children should be taught how to cook.

B. A heavy tax should be put on junk food

C. Healthy eating should be promoted at school

D. Using food stamps to buy soda should be banned

4. What does the author imply in the last paragraph?

A. Her family moved frequently in her childhood.

R Cooking classes have a far-reaching influence on her later life.

C. To receive a better education, she went to a large school in Wales.

D. Teaching cooking is the key to solving Americans’ health problems.