In a room above the store, where a party __________,some workers were busily setting the table.

A. was to be held       B. has been held      C .will be held        D.  is being held

I returned to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, after college graduation. I had been there before my mother became a minister.

Two weeks later, I told my mother I was bored.  She said, “Here’re the car keys. Go and buy some fruit.”  1   ,I jumped into the car and speeded off.

Seeing me or rather my  2   ,a boy sprang up(跳起來(lái)).  3    to sell his bananas and peanuts. “Banana 300 naira. Peanut 200 naira! ”

Looking at his black-striped bananas, I  4    to 200 total for the fruit and nuts. He  5   .I handed him a 500 naira note. He didn’t have  6   .So I told him not to worry. He was  7   and smiled a row of perfect teeth.

When, two weeks later, I  8   this same boy, I was more aware of my position in Nigerian society. I should  9   this country as the son of a  10   .But it was hard to find pleasure in a place where it was so  11   to see a little boy who should have been in school selling fruit.

   “What’s up?” I asked.  He answered in  12   English, “I…I no get money to buy book. ”I took out two 500 naira notes. He looked around  13   before sticking his hand into the car   14  the bills. One thousand naira means a lot to a family that  15   only 50,000 each year.

   The next morning, security officers told me, “In this place, when you give a little, people think you’re a fountain of opportunity(機(jī)會(huì)).”

  16    it’s right, but this happens everywhere in the world.  I wondered if my little friend had actually used the money for  17   .

    After six months’ work in northern Nigeria, I returned and saw him again standing on the road.

Are you in school now?”

He nodded.

A silence fell as we looked at each other, then I  18    what he wanted.  I held out a 500 naira note. “Take this.”

He shook his head fiercely and stepped back  19    hurt.

“It’s a gift.” I said.

     Shaking his head again, he handed me a basket of bananas and peanuts, “I’ve been waiting to  20   these to you.”

1. A. Encouraged            B. Disappointed       C. Delighted             D. Confused

2. A. car                  B. mother                   C. driver               D. keys

3. A. willing                 B. afraid              C. eager                D. ashamed

4. A. got down              B. bargained down      C. put down            D. took down

5. A. explained              B. promised            C. agreed              D. admitted

6. A. change                B. notes               C. checks              D. bills

7. A. troubled              B. regretful            C. comfortable                  D. grateful

8. A. ran after               B. ran into             C. ran over                     D. ran to

9. A. protest                B. enjoy               C. help               D. support

10. A. minister             B. headmaster          C. manager             D. president

11. A. lucky                B. amazing             C. funny               D. common

12. A. old                  B. broken             C. traditional            D. modern

13. A. proudly               B. madly               C. curiously             D. nervously

14. A. for                  B. with                     C. at                          D. upon

15. A. spends                       B. pays                C. makes              D. affords

16. A. Possibly               B. Actually             C. Certainly            D. Fortunately

17. A. joys                  B. nuts                 C. books            D. bananas

18. A. asked                     B. imagined             C. reminded            D. realized

19. A. when                     B. as if               C. even if             D. after

20. A. send               B. provide             C. sell                 D. give

For the first time in modern history, less than half of the U.S. adult population now reads literature, according to a recent survey. Reading at Risk A Survey of Literary Reading in America presents a detailed review of the decline of reading’s role in the nation’s culture.

Reading at Risk is a survey of national fashion in adult literary reading. The data source for Reading at Risk is as reliable and objective(客觀的)as any such survey can be. The key results of the survey are presented in the “Summary”, but the report can be further explained as: literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decling has been speeded up, especially among the young. Reading at Risk merely shows a great cultural change that most Americans have already noted－our society’s great turn to electronic media for entertainment and information.

Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and devotion. Indeed, reading itself is a progressive skill that depends on years of education and practice. On the contrary, most electronic media such as television, recordings, and radio make fewer demands on their audiences, and indeed require no more than passive participation. While oral culture has a rich reality and electronic media offer the considerable advantages of variety, print culture affords irreplaceable forms of focused and thought that make various communications and views possible. The decline in reading, therefore ,equals a larger retreat(減少)from participation in public and cultural life.

     What is to be done? There is surely no single solution to the present problem, just as there is no single cause .The important thing now is to understand that America can no longer take active and devoted reading for granted.

     Reading is not a timeless, common ability. As more Americans love thus ability our nation becomes less informed, active, and independent minded .These are not qualities that a free, inventive, or productive society can afford to lose.

1. The main purpose of the survey is to _______.

   A. focus on the role of electronic media and reading

   B. show that American young people read less and less

   C. give a report of the national of literary reading

   D. review that less than half of the population now reads literature

2. According to the passage ,reading _______.

   A. requires less attention and devotion

   B. demands no more than passive participation

   C. limits various communications and views

   D. means active participation in public and cultural life

3. The underlined phrase “cultural change ”in Paragraph 2 refers to the change _______.

   A. from oral culture to electronic media

   B. from print culture to electronic media

   C. from electronic media to oral culture

   D. from electronic media to print culture

4. The author of the passage ________.

A. misunderstands oral culture

B. doubts the Americans to read more

C. encourages the Americans to read more

D. agrees to the solution to present problem in reading

The coyote(叢林狼)that clever animal of wide-open spaces has come to the nation’s captial. In fact, coyotes have spread to every corner of the United States, changing their behaviors to fit new environments and causing researchers to deal with a troublesome new kind of creature: the city coyote.

The coyote originally lived in the middle of the continent. One of its most obvious characters is its smartness, which has made the animal a notorious（臭名昭著的）pest. Hunters trapped, shot and poisoned more than a million coyotes in the 1900s.It’s still one of America’s most hunted animals. Yet the coyote has survived. How has the coyote shown this extraordinary ability? “I guess if you wanted to use one word, it’d be ‘plasticity’.” says Erie Gese, an expert at Utah State University. Coyotes can live alone, in pairs, or in large packs like wolves, hunt at night or during the day , occupy a small region or an area up to 40 square miles; and live on all sorts of food, from lizards（蜥蜴）and shoes, to ants and melons.

    Unbelievably people helped coyotes increase when they killed most of the wolves in the United States. The spreading of coyotes into city areas, though is recent. They travel at night, crossing sidewalks and bridges，running along roads and ducking into culverts （鉆入涵洞)and underpasses .No one knows why coyotes are moving into cities, but experts explain that cleverer, more human-tolerant(不怕人的)coyotes are teaching urban survival skills to new generations.

Occasionally，coyotes might attack human beings. There have been about 160 attacks on people in recent years Therefore, people have been consistently told not to feed coyotes or leave pet food unsecured.  That plus a large trapping program in the neighborhood, has cut down on the coyote population.

1. The underlined word “plasticity” in Paragraph 2 refers to____________.

A. the ability to fit the environment      B. notorious smartness

C. hunting ability                    D. being human-tolerant                   

2. The aim of the passage is to_____________.

A. tell people how to fight against coyotes

B. tell us why the coyote is the most hunted animal

C. supply the reason why the coyote is a kind of motorious pest

D. explain how the coyote has spread to and survived in cities                        

3. According to the passage, coyotes__________.

A. originally lived in the west of the continent

B. sleep during the day but look for food at night

C. are teaching survival skills to their younger generations

D. suffered a population decrease because people killed wolves                       

4. According to the passage, to cut down on the coyote population, people are advised to_______.

A. leave pet food secured             B. keep coyotes in small regions

C. force coyotes to live alone          D. avoid using trapping programs

The discovery of a dwarfed (矮個(gè)的)”human being” who lived in Flores .Indonesia, up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family .This “Flores Human” was three foot tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp (黑猩猩),yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives. They seem to have made tools ,worked together to find food and cook it, and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.

It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member .The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils (化石)from our own species; Homo sapiens (智人)；and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago .Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago ,much too late to be responsible for the tools .If this tiny human made the tools ,them the inside structure (結(jié)構(gòu))of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp’s ,despite being just a third the size of ours.

    This “new human” was suspected to be a dwarfed branch of Homo erectus (直立人).When creatures are separated in regions with rare resources but few enemies, being big is a disadvantage, and evolution tends to shrink them, a process known as island dwarfing. Could natural selection make a human smaller while keeping — even improving — mental ability ?Quite possibly, believes Christopher Wills of the University of California.

     Has the “Flores Human” even shown the ability of language? “I find it difficult to imagine that people could make tools，use fire ,and kill large animals without fairly advanced communication.”  Wills says .Did “Flores Human” possess the basic components of human culture — such as the burying of the dead with ceremony? Emiliano Bruner of the Italian Institute points out that Indonesia’s hot, wet environment is bad for fossilization. It is reasonable to assume, he says, that the 18,000-year-old bones of the most complete Flores woman were well-preserved because she was buried with special care.

1. According to the passage, “Flores Human”______.

A.      lived a partly human life

B.      was a branch of Homo sapiens

C.      used tools before Homo sapiens arrived

D.     had a brain as a common chimp’s                    

2. The underlined part “this tiny human” in Paragraph 2 refers to _______.

A. a chimp                                    B. Flores Human

C. Homo sapiens                           D. Homo erectus

3. This passage mainly talks about______.

A. the tools made by “Flores Human”

B. the language used by “Flores Human”

C. the evolution of “Flores Human”

D. the major surprising findings about “Flores Human”      

4. According to the passage, it is believed that “Flores Human”_______.

A. was dwarfed by its enemies   

B. could use language

C. left a lot of fossils in hot and wet environment

D. reached Flores 40,000 years ago

    Susan Sontag (1933 — 2004)was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything — to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing .When she was still in her early 30s,publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life ,trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art .With great effort and serious judgment. Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.

Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords(格言),but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In “Notes on Camp”, the 1964 essay that first made her name ,she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings,                 through which she could not have been more famous .“Notes on Camp”, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.

By conviction（信念）she was a sensualist（感覺論者）, but by nature she was a moralist （倫理學(xué)者）,and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s , it was the latter side of her that came forward.  In Illness as Metaphor —published in 1978, after she suffered cancer—she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities（被壓抑的性格）, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong lifelong habit.

In America, her story of a 19th  century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000.But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. “Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending …is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.

1. The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 means Sontag_________.

A.      was a symbol of American cultural life

B.      developed world literature, film and art

C.      published many essays about world culture

D.     kept pace with the newest development of world culture

2. She first won her name through ___________.

A.      her story of a Polish actress

B.      her book Illness as Metaphor

C.      publishing essays in magazines like partisan Review

D.     her explanation of a set of difficult understandings

3. According to the passage, Susan Sontag__________.

A.      was a sensualist as well as a moralist

B.      looked down upon the pop culture

C.      thought content was more important than form

D.     blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed

4. As for Susan Sontag’s lifelong habit, she __________.

A.      misunderstood the idea of seriousness

B.      re-examined old positions

C.      argued for an openess to pop culture

D.     preferred morals to beauty

5. Susan Sontag’s lasting fame was made upon___________-.

   A. a tireless, all-purpose cultural view

   B. her lifelong watchword ：seriousness

   C. publishing books on morals

D. enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing

    Susan Sontag (1933 — 2004)was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything — to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing .When she was still in her early 30s,publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life ,trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art .With great effort and serious judgment. Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.

Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords(格言),but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In “Notes on Camp”, the 1964 essay that first made her name ,she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings,                 through which she could not have been more famous .“Notes on Camp”, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.

By conviction（信念）she was a sensualist（感覺論者）, but by nature she was a moralist （倫理學(xué)者）,and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s , it was the latter side of her that came forward.  In Illness as Metaphor —published in 1978, after she suffered cancer—she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities（被壓抑的性格）, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong lifelong habit.

In America, her story of a 19th  century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000.But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. “Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending …is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.

1. The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 means Sontag_________.

A.      was a symbol of American cultural life

B.      developed world literature, film and art

C.      published many essays about world culture

D.     kept pace with the newest development of world culture

2. She first won her name through ___________.

A.      her story of a Polish actress

B.      her book Illness as Metaphor

C.      publishing essays in magazines like partisan Review

D.     her explanation of a set of difficult understandings

3. According to the passage, Susan Sontag__________.

A.      was a sensualist as well as a moralist

B.      looked down upon the pop culture

C.      thought content was more important than form

D.     blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed

4. As for Susan Sontag’s lifelong habit, she __________.

A.      misunderstood the idea of seriousness

B.      re-examined old positions

C.      argued for an openess to pop culture

D.     preferred morals to beauty

5. Susan Sontag’s lasting fame was made upon___________-.

   A. a tireless, all-purpose cultural view

   B. her lifelong watchword ：seriousness

   C. publishing books on morals

D. enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing

I used to earn _______than a pound a week when I first started work.

A. a little                       B. a few

C. fewer                        D. less

—You look very tired _______at all last night?

—No, not really. I’m tired out now.

A. Do you sleep                   B. Were you sleeping

C. Did you sleep                   D. Had you slept

She was educated at Beijing University, ________she went on to have her advanced study abroad.

A. .after which                    B. from which

C. from that                       D. after that