第二部分：阅读理解(第一节15小题。第二节5小题;每小题2分，满分40分)

第一节：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，并在答题纸上填上该选项标号。

A

I was telling my boy Sonny the story of the hare (兔子) and the tortoise (乌龟). At the end I said, “ Son, remember: Be slow and steady (镇定的), and that will win the race. Don’t you think there’s something to learn from the tortoise?”

Sonny opened his eyes wide, “Do you mean next time when I’m entering for the 60-metre race I should wish that Billy, Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?”

I was shocked, “But the tortoise didn’t wish that the hare would fall asleep!”

“He must have wished that,” Sonny said, “Otherwise how could he be so foolish as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did.”

“He didn’t have such a wish,” I insisted. “He won the race by perseverance (坚忍不拔的), by pushing on steadily.”

Sonny thought a while. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’s for sure.”

I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They’re just hopeless.

61. The writer argued (辩论)with his son because ______________.

A. they disagreed about whether the tortoise was foolish

B. he liked tortoises while his son liked hares

C. he liked the story of the hare and the tortoise while his son didn’t.

D. he tried to teach his son a moral (品德) lesson but the son had totally different opinion

62. Sonny believed that the tortoise ______________.

A. took a risk (冒险) by agreeing to run a race  B. won the race by his own hard working

C. in fact did win the race luckily            D. was not given a fair chance in the race

63. Billy, Tony and Sandy must be_______________.

A. boys who Sonny has run races with before

B. boys who were unknown to Sonny’s father

C. boys who Sonny did not expect to race with again

D. boys who Sonny has never raced with before

64. According to the passage, who do you think learnt a lesson?

A. Sonny    B. The tortoise     C. Sonny’s father     D. The hare

B

Science, as we think, was born when the Greek philosopher (哲学家) Thales ( about 640-546 B.C.) asked a difficult question: What makes up our universe?

No one had a ready answer, so Thales went on studying the earth around him, the sky and the stars. He saw so much water on earth and so much water falling from the sky as rain that he decided water must be the basic substance (物质) of the universe.

Other Greek thinkers became interested in this question. They suggested other answers. One said that because air lies around the earth, it must be air that makes up all things. Another said that fire, appearing in different forms, was the building block of the universe.

The Greek philosophers were feeling their way towards the ideas on which chemistry is based. Centuries later, scientists proved that the universe is made up of certain basic substances. But the list is much more complicated than the Greeks realized. We now know of 103 basic substances which we call “ elements (元素)”.

65. Thales, the famous Greek philosopher, died when he was about____________.

A. 106 years old  B. 94 years old  C. 46 years old   D. 40 years old

66. The meaning of the underlined word “complicated” in the last paragraph is “__________”.

A. not simple  B. not difficult   C. not different  D. not famous

67. From the passage we know that _____________.

A. Greeks were all philosophers           B. Thales asked many questions

C. water and air make up all things.        D. science began long ago

68. On the whole, the passage tells about ______________.

A. the famous Greek thinkers        B. early tries to understand the universe

C. air lying all around the earth       D. water falling from the sky

69. After reading the passage, we can be sure that________________.

A. Thales decided that the basic substance of the universe was air

B. nothing ever changes in the universe

C. the early Greek thinkers did much valuable work for the progress of science

D. the universe is made up of four different substances

C

When the seventeenth-century settlers brought the English language to America, they immediately and necessarily began to adapt (使适应) it to their new en-vironment. These changes were clear early and criticized by some people on both sides of the Atlantic. However, after the Revolution, Americans began to be proud of their own form of English. Noah Webster was the major early supporter of American meanings and spellings over British ones and published the earliest American dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language. During the years since Webster, language differences have continued to develop, proving (证明) the truth of George Bernard Shaw’s often-repeated words that the two nations are “divided by a common language”.

Like the American language, the earliest American literature (文学) copied English models. However, after the Revolution and the War of 1812, writers began to create a clear American literature. However, in 1820, Sydney Smith asked the famous question “Who reads an American book?”

Answering to this and similar taunts (讽刺) with creative anger, American writers soon produced works that plenty of British people read. Works by Washington Irving, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain had been acclaimed greatly in Britain by the end of the nineteenth century.

Even as American writers got respect in Britain, British writers continued to have great influence in America. Charles Dickens went to America twice, in 1842 and 1867-68. Other major British writers who traveled and lived in the United States include D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley. British best works continue to be widely read. The works of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen became popular films.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, many books and writers continue to cross the Atlantic in both directions — made possible by the proud heritage (继承) of the shared language.

70. The author of this passage seems to think ______.

A. American English is better than British English

B. British English is better than American English

C. the same language has connected the two nations

D. the same language has divided the two nations

71. From the question asked by Sydney Smith, we can infer ______.

A. the British found American books difficult to understand

B. the British had to translate American books into English ones

C. the British looked down upon American books at first

D. the British thought highly of books written by Americans

72. The underlined word “acclaimed” in Paragraph 3 probably means “______”.

A. discussed   B. sold     C. refused.    D. welcomed

D

Pingyao, in the center of Shanxi Province, is a famous historic cultural city of China and a world cultural heritage (遗产) site. It’s 90 kilometers south of Taiyuan on the Fen River.

People lived in Pingyao during the New Stone Age. Its long period as a county government seat has left Pingyao with lots of historic buildings and sites, with a 2,700-year history. Ninety-nine of them are under government protection, including Zhengguo Temple, Shuanglin Temple and Pingyao Ancient City.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, businessmen organized commercial (商业的) groups that did business nationwide. Shanxi Province had some of the most important ones and Pingyao was their center. In 1823, a store, known as Rishengchang (Sunrise Prosperity), traded in bank checks rather than in silver or gold coins. It was the beginning of modern Chinese banking. Branch (分支) banks were soon set up in major cities in China and other parts of Asia, leading to great development in Pingyao. Its lacquer ware (漆器) became well known.

In Pingyao Ancient City are many traditional houses and commercial buildings, 3,797 of which are protected and more than 400 of which are in good condition. Not only do the houses in Pingyao show Shanxi’s history and culture, but this large number is valuable for studying its history, customs, ancient buildings and art. Most of these houses are still used as homes and shops of local people.