三阅读理解 (45分)

(A)

In 1500, the world’s population was about 435 million, today, it is 5.5billion, with more than a million children being born every day. The rapid growth in population since 1800 is largely due to improvements in food production and medical knowledge. In many part of the world, rapid population growth causes serious problems, such as food shortages and overcrowding in cities.

URBAN POPULATION

In 1900, only 10 percent of the world’s population lived in cities. Today, that figure is about 50 percent, The table below lists the world’s most populated cities.

CITY       POPULATION

Tokyo      27,245,000

Sao Paulo   19,235,000

New York   16,158,000

Mexico     15,276,000

Bombay    13,322,000

Shanghai   12,670,000

Los Angles  11,853,000

LIFE EXPECTANCY

Life expectancy is the average length of time a person is likely to live. People in wealthier countries generally have higher life expectancies than people in poorer countries.

LIFE (MALE)      LIFE(FEMALE)

EXPECTANCY      EXPECTANCY

COUNTRY AGE     COUNTRY AGE

Japan   76.8        Japan   82.9

Iceland   76.3       Iceland 81.9

Sweden   76.1      Sweden  81.7

Greece    75.5      Greece   76.8

ADULT LITERACY

Adult literacy rates show the number of people over the age of 15 who can read and write. The table below lists the average literacy for a variety of countries.

COUNTRY  PERCENTACE OF POPULATION

United states of America              99

United Kingdom             99

Brazil                      82

China                      80

Kuwait                     74

Afghanistan                 32

Somalia                    24

Niger                      14

TOP TEN LANGUAGES

LANGUAGE       NUMBER OF SPEAKERS

Chinese (Mainland)          885,000,000

English                    322,000,000

Spanish                    266,000,000

Bengali                    189,000,000

Hindi                      182,000,000

Portuguese                  170,000,000

Russian                    170,000,000

Japanese                    125,000,000

German                     98,000,000

(   )36. According to the information, which problem is associated with rapid population growth?

A. Excessive food being wasted.

B. Too many people living in the city.

C. Experimentation with food production.

D. More people practicing medicine.

(   )37. According to the information about “urban population” which of the following statements is true?

A. In 1900, about 10 percent of the world population lived in cities.

B. Los Angles and Shanghai have the same population.

C. The population of Bombay is greater than that of New York.

D. The third most populated city is Tokyo.

(   )38. The overall purpose of this information is to_______.

A. show how the standard of living in poor countries has recently improved

B. describe how poor countries with large populations feed their people

C. report on worldwide trends in population and living standards

D. question the reason for high life expectancy in wealthy countries

(B)

NEW DELHI -Just a few years ago, Mala was a typical middle-class Indian housewife. She cooked, cleaned and looked after her two small children.

Last year, her life took a tragic turn. Her husband died of AIDS; she was found out HIV-positive (艾滋病病毒检验呈阳性反应) and her mother-in-law took her children away from her, saying they would get the disease. “When friends dropped in for a visit, she would introduce me, saying, ‘She is my son’s widow. She has AIDS,’" said Mala. AIDS is now described as "explosive (炸药) "around the world. A study of a hospital in the port city of Durban in south Africa, where the world’s biggest and Africa’s first AIDS conference opened last Sunday, found that almost half the beds in medical wards (病房)were occupied by AIDS patients.

South Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing HIV infections(传染), with 1,700 people infected daily, adding to the 4.3 million, or 10 percent of its population, living with HIV. Until now, Asia has been more successful in holding the AIDS virus(病毒) than Africa, where the disease has killed about 12 million people.

AIDS is now threatening to surround many of Asia’s poverty-stricken countries. Countries in Asia, such as Cambodia, and Thailand, have HIV infection speeds over 1 percent. But the low speeds hide huge numbers of affected people, because of the population base.

In India, for example, 3.7 million are infected, more than in any other country except South Africa. In China, an estimated 500,000 people, mainly drug users, live with HIV/ AIDS. Gordon Alexander, a senior advisor for UN AIDS in India, estimates(估计) that the number hit by AIDS in Asia will climb to about eight million over the next five years from about six million.

In many Asian countries, the battle against HIV is a social cultural one against public discussion of sexual health and put a nationwide media campaingn into action to limit the spread of HIV through unsafe sex. Brenton Wong, an official with Singapore’s Action for AIDS, says the actual HIV incidence in the city state of 3.9 million people is at least eight times higher than official data. “Shame and deny is still very, very common so people are afraid to get tested and many times won’t even tell their families if they test positive,” said Wong.

(   )39. What does the underlined word “she” refer to?

A. Mala.                 B. Mala’s mother.

C. Mala’s mother-in-law.    D. Mala’s sister

(   )40. It is judged that there are_______ people hit by AIDS in Asia or so.

A. 43 million       B. 6 million    C. love   D. 3.7 million

(   )41. According to the passage, the main means that AIDS spreads in Asia is through_______.

A. blood          B. unsafe sex    C. love    D. drugs

(   )42._______ is the second largest country which has more HIV infection all over the world.

A. China          B. South Africa   C. India   D. Thailand

(C)

What was it like to live in space?

Imagine orbiting (环轨道运行) the earth once every ninety-three minutes. Imagine traveling through space at more than twenty-seven-thousand kilometers an hour. That is what the skylab astronauts did. During that time they ate, slept, and did most of the things people do on the earth. But there was one big difference. There was no gravity.

Gravity is the force that holds us down to the earth. Skylab was beyond the reach of the earth's gravity. People and objects were weightless. They floated freely unless held down.

At times, the skylab astronauts enjoyed the 1ack of gravity. They could float like bubbles through the spaceship. They could hang upside down like bats(蝙蝠). They could do sticks like circus acrobats(杂技演员).

At other times, however, they did not enjoy the lack of gravity. with no gravity, their food new right off the plate. And a dropped tool just floated away.

Skylab was a space house. But living and working in it were very different from living and working in a house on the earth.

Skylab had a workshop, a s1eeping area, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Unlike a bedroom on the earth, the sleeping area did not contain beds. It had hanging bags. The astronauts slept standing up in the bags. They could not lie flat in a normal bed, because they would float off.

The bathroom in skylab had a shower. So, the astronauts could wash themselves. The shower was completely closed in. This was necessary to prevent the water frome floating throughout the spaceship. Water and wastes had to be pulled by pipes into storage containers.

The astronauts in skylab wore shoes that had special devices on the bottoms. These devices linked with similar devices on the floor of the spaceship. This kept the astronauts in one place as they worked or ate.

On the two earlier flights, astronauts had eaten from tubes(管) or bags. They just squeezed(挤压) the food into their mouths. On skylab, eating was a more normal activity.

The astronauts ate bread, meat, vegetables, and fruits. They stored the food in freezers. They warmed it in special heating devices. Magnets (磁铁) held down their knifes, forks, and spoons. Covers kept the food from floating away. The astronauts drank water and other liquids from p1ashc container similar to baby bottles.

(   )43. Sometimes the astronauts enjoyed the lack of gravity because______.

A. they thought it was fun in skylab

B. they and the objects were weightless

C. things floated freely unless held down

D. the skylab was beyond the earth's gravity

(   )44. In the skylab, the astronauts ate______.

A. food by squeezing it into their mouths

B. food more difficult than they did in spaceships

C. bread, meat, vegetables, and fruits kept under covers

D. the food kept in tubes or bags prepared beforehand

(   )45. How did the astronauts drink water or other liquids?

A. They drank water and other liquids just as babies do.

B. They used baby bottles to drink water and other liquids.

C. They drank water and other liquids prepared for babies.

D. They drank water and other liquids left by young babies.

(  )46. Orbiting the earth in a skylab, the astronauts_________.

A. warmed their food in special freezers before eating it

B. slept not by lying flat in beds but standing up in hanging bags

C. walked with their feet on the floor of the skylab with special devices

D. used a closed-in shower so that the water would not float out of the skylab

(D)

Scientists are thinking about cities of new kind, which are quite different from those we live in. Some building designers are designing new cities in the desert. The cities wi1l he 1lnder g1ass demes(圆顶) in which heating and cooling system will control the climate (气候). TI1e temperature there will, of co1lrse l always he comfortable for people to live in, for there will never he any heavy rain or snowstorm. But this seems to he unreasonable because it is believed to he too closed a world for its inhabitants(居民).

Perhaps people will live in high vertical(垂直的) cities which are large enough to contain all the necessities of life. This kind of cities will use less land than horizontal cities, so they can provide more homes for people and thus

will be helpful to Small countries that have 1arge population.

Another idea which small countries and island countries will he interested in is the floating city. Monaco, for example, has already built homes, stores and offices on the water of the Mediterranean Sea. And a Japanese Designer has suggested a plan for constructing buildings on bridges over Tokyo Bay(海湾).

Long long ago o1lr ancestors lived in caves, as is known to us all. But do you know some scientists are now thinking that we should go hack to living in caves? The caves of future will, of course, be different from those of the Stone Age. Computers will control light and climate. Farms and parks will be on the land over the cave city. When you want to go to the countryside or a park 1br your holiday, just a short ride in a lift will take you there.

(   )47. What do you think the underlined word "horizontal" in paragraph 2 means?

A. Ladder-shaped.

B. Flat.

C. Undersea.

D. Underground.

(   )48. What kind of the city described in the passage covers less land?

A. The floating city.

B. The horizontal city.

C. The glass-domed city.

D. The vertical city.

(   )49. Who can enjoy natural climate?

A. People living under glass domes.

B. People living in cave cities.

C. People living in vertical cities or floating cities.

D. People living in cave cities or floating cities.

(   ) 50. Which of the following drawings gives a correct imagination described in the passage?

2                        阅读表达(共5小题;每小题4分，满分20分)

Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.

In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all—whether rich or poor, clever or stupid — one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in some countries a far larger number of people with university degree; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful(耻辱的)in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, __________________________________________. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…

In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to our brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary, and that it is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.

51. What is the best title of the passage? (Please answer within 10 words.)

___________________________________________________________________________.

52. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?

The aim of education is to make everyone to fit for life.

___________________________________________________________________________.

53. Please fill in the blank in the second paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. (Pease answer within 10 words.)

___________________________________________________________________________.

54. What do you think of today’s education in China? (Please answer within 30 words.)

___________________________________________________________________________.

55. Translate the underlined sentence in the first paragraph into Chinese.

___________________________________________________________________________.