第二部分：阅读理解(共两节，满分40分)

第一节(共15小题;每小题2分，满分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，并在答题卡上将选项涂黑。

A

The Gloria Barron Prize honors American young people from 8 to l8 who have shown leadership and courage in public service.Each year ten winners each receive$2，000 to support their higher education or their service work.

Ellie Wen，18，was volunteering at a community center in Los Angeles.The center was set up to help immigrant families.She happened to meet adults in an EFL(English as a foreign language)class.“When I saw them struggling hard，I wondered how people in poor countries could learn English，”Ellie said.

So she started a Website，“Repeat After Us”，where people can listen to English and practice their accents.Volunteers have helped Ellie record more than 6，600 texts，including Abraham Lincoln’s“Gettysburg Address”.

Hard work pays off.There were so many times that Ellie was discouraged，but she stuck to it.The Website crashed early on，and all the recordings were lost.But volunteers worked together vigorously to start over，and the visitors returned to the site.

“Just follow your idea and know that the world is so kind.Even if you do have trouble，people will help you,”Ellie said.

“I was really excited the first month，when we had 49 visitors，”she said.Now，more than 480，000 people from a11 over the world have visited the site.“I get e-mails from China，Egypt，India，and Brazil.”They say，“Thank you so much for this resource，we’ve been waiting for it for so long!”Ellie loves knowing she is helping so many people.

Gloria Barron Prize winners like Ellie are enthusiastic about the work they do.And they encourage others to join in if they see a need.Anybody can be negative，but it needs somebody brave to be positive.Are you the brave one?

21.Choose the right order of the following.

a.Ellie started a Website，Repeat After Us.

b.Ellie happened to meet adults in an EFL class.

c.All the recordings were lost.

d.Ellie became a Gloria Barron Prize winner.

e.More than 480，000 people from all over the world visited the site.

A.c—b—a—e—d    B.a—e—d—c—b    C.b—a—c—e—d  D.b—c—a—e—d

22.Which of the following statements is true?

A.The Gloria Barron Prize honors people showing leadership and courage.

B.Each year ten winners share US$2，000 to support their higher education.

C.Ellie Wen was badly paid at a community center in Los Angeles.

D.People can practice their English via Ellie’s website.

23.The writer mainly talks about_____.

A.how to open up a website with the help of others

B.how to teach immigrant families English via the Internet

C.the Gloria Barron Prize and the story of one of its winners

D.young people who help others in various ways

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B

Cell phones：Is there a cancer link?

Could your cell phone give you cancer? Whether it could or not，some people are worrying about the possibility that phones，power lines and Wi-Fi could be responsible for a range of illnesses，from rashes to brain tumors.

Some say there is evidence to support the growing anxieties.David Carpenter，a professor of environmental health sciences at the university at Albany，in New York，thinks there’s a greater than 95 percent chance that power lines can cause childhood leukemia(白血病).Also there’s a greater than 90 percent chance that cell phones can cause brain tumors.“It’s apparent now that there’s a real risk，”said Carpenter.

But others believe these concerns are not justified.Dr Martha Linet，head of radiation epidemiology(流行病学)at the US National Cancer Institute，has looked at the same research as Carpenter but has reached a different conclusion.“I don’t support warning labels for cell phones，”said Linet.“We don’t have the evidence that there’s much danger.”

Studies so far suggest a weak connection between EMFs(电磁场)and illness—so weak that it might not exist at a11.A multinational investigation of cell phones and brain cancer，in 13 countries outside the US，has been underway for several years.It’s funded in part by the European Union，in part by a cell phone industry group.The final report should come out later this year，but data so far don’t suggest a strong link between cell phone use and cancer risk.

24.From the passage we can learn that some people are worried because________.

A.they have evidence that the use of cell phones can lead to cancer

B.they feel surprised and alarmed about cell phone use

C.some experts have given a warning

D.cell phones are responsible for brain tumors

25.By saying“I don’t support warning labels for cell phones，”Dr Martha Linet has the idea that_______.

A.the worrying is unnecessary

B.cancer—warning labels should be on cell phones

C.there is a link between cell phones and cancer

D.cell phones have nothing to do with cancer

26.Which of the following best describes the attitude of the author towards the debate?

A.Optimistic.    B.Objective.    C.Opposite. D.Casual.

27.The underlined word“justified”in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to_____.

A.explained    B.confirmed    C.classified   D.restricted

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C

Can you believe your eyes?A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.

Martin Doherty，a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland，led the team of scientists.In this experiment，Doherty and his team tested the perception(观察力)of some people，using pictures of some orange circles.The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people.The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10，and the second group included 24 a—dults aged 18 to 25.

The first group of pictures showed two orange circles alone on a white background.One of the circles was larger than the other，and these people were asked to identify the larger one.Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time.Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.

Next，both groups were shown pictures where the orange circles，again of different sizes，were surrounded by gray circles.Here’s where the trick lies.In some of the pictures，the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles—making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle，which was the real larger one.And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles—so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.

When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures，they weren’t fooled—they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before.Older children and adults，on the other hand，did not do as well.Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one，and adults got it wrong most of the time.

As children get older，Doherty said，their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context.In other words，they will begin to process the whole picture at once：the tricky gray circles，as well as the orange circle in the middle.As a result，they’re more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.

28.Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate______.

A.Children’s and adults’eye-sight

B.people’s ability to see accurately

C.children’s and adults’brains

D.the influence of people’s age

29.When asked to find the larger circle，_____.

A.children at 6 got it wrong 79%of the time with no gray ones around

B.only adults over 18 got it right 95%of the time with gray ones around

C.children at 4 got it right about 79%of the time with gray ones around

D.adults got it right most of the time with gray ones around

30.According to the passage，we can know that_____.

A.a smaller orange circle appears bigger on a white background

B.an orange circle appears bigger than a gray one of the same size

C.a circle surrounded by other circles looks bigger than its real size

D.a circle surrounded by bigger ones looks smaller than its real size

31.Why are younger children not fooled?

A.Because they are smarter than older children and adults.

B.Because older people are influenced by their experience.

C.Because people’s eyes become weaker as they grow older.

D.Because their brain can hardly notice related things together.

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D

As you are probably aware，the latest job markets news isn’t good：Unemployment is still more than 9 percent，and new job growth has fallen close to zero.That’s bad for the economy，of course.And it may be especially discouraging if you happen to be looking for a job or hoping to change careers right now.But it actually shouldn’t matter to you nearly as much as you think.

That’s because job growth numbers don’t matter to job hunters as much as job staff-turnover(人员流动)data.After all，existing jobs open up every day due to promotions，resignations，and retirements.(Yes，people are retiring even in this economy.)In both good times and bad，staff-turnover creates more openings than economic growth does.Even in June of 2007，when the economy was still booming along，job growth was only 132，000，while staff-turnover was 4.7 million!

And as it turns out，even today—with job growth near zero—over 4 million job hunters are being hired every month.

I don’t mean to imply that overall job growth doesn’t have an impact on one’s ability to land a job.It’s true that if total employment were higher.it would mean more jobs for all of us to choose from(and compete for).And it's true that there are currently more people applying for each available job opening，regardless of whether it’s a new one or not.

But what often distinguishes those who land jobs from those who don’t is their ability to stay motivated.They’re willing to do the hard work of identifying their valuable skills;be creative about where and how to look;learn how to present themselves to potential employers;and keep going，even after repeated rejections.The Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that 2.7 million people who wanted and were available for work hadn’t hunted for it within the last four weeks and were no longer even classified as unemployed.

So don’t let the headlines fool you into giving up.Four million people get hired every month in the U.S.You can be one of them

32.The author tends to believe that high unemployment rate____.

A.takes job opportunities from people

B.prevents many people from changing careers

C.should not stop people from looking for a job

D.does not mean the U.S. economy is worsening

33.What does the author say about overall job growth?

A.It doesn’t have much effect on individual job seekers.

B.It increases people’s confidence in the economy.

C.It gives a ray of hope to the unemployed.

D.It doesn’t mean greater job security for the employed.

34.What is the key to finding a job according to the author?

A.Education    B.Intelligence    C.Persistence  D.Experience

35.What do we learn about The Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data?

A.They clearly indicate how healthy the economy is.

B.They provide the public with the latest information.

C.They warn of the structural problems in the economy.

D.They don’t include those who have stopped looking for a job.