第二部分：阅读理解(共25小题。每一节每小题2man'">2分，第二节每小题1分；满分45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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia was delivered to my house. No card came with it Calls to the flower-shop were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to discover the sender’s name and just delighted in the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper.

But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged these imaginings. She’d ask me if there was someone for whom I had done special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man across the street whose mail I’d delivered during the winter. As a girl, though, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy I had run into.

One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt so sad that I became completely uninterested in my upcoming graduation dance, and I didn’t care if I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In truth, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia-lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery(神秘).

My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

41. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. A childhood Dream.                      B. A Mother’s Love.

C. A Graduation Party.                     D. A Special Birthday.

42. The mother insisted that her daughter go to the graduation dance because ______.

A. she could take care of things herself

B. she hoped she would find a boyfriend

C. she wanted her to be happy and strong

D. she thought education was most important

43. Who was the sender of the flower?

A. A boy the writer had run into.

B. One of the writer’s neighbors.

C. One of the writer’s classmates.

D. The writer’s mother.

B

The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society—a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.

“My grandmothers didn’t do anything but keep house and serve everybody. They were programmed to do that,” said Emils Comette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.

While men have long spent their time fishing and playing golf, women have sometimes seemed to becoent-me unnoticed as they age. But the generation now turning 50 is the baby boomers(生育高峰期出生的人), and the same people who refused their parents’ way of being young are now trying a new way of growing old.

If you take into consideration feminism(女权主义), a bit of spare money, and better health for most elderly, the Red Hat Society looks almost inevitable(必然的). In this society, women over 50 wear red hats and purple(紫色的) clothes, while the women under 50 wear pink hats and light purple clothing.

“The organization took the idea from a poem by Jenny Joseph that begins: “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn’t go,” said Ellpt 189.0pt 273.0pt">

“The point of this is that we need a rest from always doing something for someone else,” Cooper said. “Women feel so ashamed and sorry when they do something for themselves. ” This is why chapters are discouraged from raising money or doing anything useful. “We’re a ladies’ play group. It couldn’t be more simple,” added Cooper’s assistant Joe Heywood.

44. The underlined word “chapter” in paragraph 2 means _______.

A. one branch of an organization

B. a written agreement of a club

C. one part of a collection of poems

D. a period in a society’s history

45. From the text, we know that the “baby boomers” are a group of people who _______.

A. have gradually become more noticeable

B. are worried about getting old too quickly

C. are enjoying a good life with plenty of money to spend

D. tried living a different life from their parents when they were young

46. It could be inferred from the text that members of the Red Hat Society are _______.

A. interested in raising money for social work

B. programmers who can plan well for their future

C. believers in equality between men and women

D. good at cooking big meals and taking care of others

47. Who set up the Red Hat Society?

A. Emily Cornette.                             B. Ellen Cooper.

C. Jenny Joseph.   D. Joe Heywood.

48. Women join the Red Hat Society because _______.

A. they want to stay young                

B. they would like to appear more attractive

C. they would like to have fun and live for themselves

D. they want to be more like their parents

C

Taiwan police cannot decide whether to treat it as an extremely eleven act of stealing or an even elev-ecer cheat (诈骗). Either way,  it could be the perfect crime (犯罪), because the criminals are birds—horning pigeons !

The crime begins with a telephone message to the owner of a stolen car : if you want the car back, pay up then, the car owner is directed to a park, told where to find a bird cage and how to attach money to the neck of the pigeon inside. Carrying the money in a tiny bag, the pigeon flies off.

There have been at least four such pigeon pick-ups in Changwa. What at first seemed like the work of a clever stay-at-home car thief, however,  may in face be the work of an even lazier and more inventive criminal mind—one that avoid(避免) not only colleting money but going out to steal the car in the first place. Police officer Chen says that the criminal probably has pull New Roman'">  he lets someone else do it and then waits for the car-owner to place an ad (启事) in the newspaper asking for help.

The theory is supported by the fact that,  so far,  none of the stolen cars have been returned. Also, the amount of money demanded-under 3,000 Taiwanese dollars–seems too little for a car worth many times more.

Demands for pigeon-delivered money stopped as soon as the press reported the story. And even if they start again, Chen holds little hope of catching the criminal. “We have more important things to do,” he said.

49. After the car owner received a phone call. He _______.

A. went to a certain pigeon and put some money in the bag it carried

B. gave the money to the thief and had his car back in a park

C. sent some money to the thief by mail

D. told the press about it

50. The “lazier and more inventive” criminal refers to _______.

A. the car thief who stays at home

B. one of those who put the ads in the paper

C. one of the policemen in Changwa

D. the owner of the pigeons

51. The writer mentions the fact that “none of the stolen cars have been returned” to show _______.

A. how easily people get fooled by criminals

B. what Chen thinks might be correct

C. the thief is extremely clever

D. the money paid is too little

52. The underlined word “they” in the last paragraph refers to _______.

A. criminals           B. pigeons

C. the stolen cars   D. demands for money

53. We may infer from the text that the criminal knows how to reach the car owners because _______.

A. he reads the ads in the newspaper

B. he lives in the same neighborhood

C. he has seen the car owners in the park

D. he has trained the pigeons to follow them

D

You might think that “global warming” means nothing more than a rise in the world’s temperature But rising sea levels caused by it have resulted in the first evacuation(撤离) of an island nation—the citizens of Tuvalu will have to leave their homeland.

During the 20th century, sea level rose 8—12 inches. As a result. Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding of salt water which has polluted the country’s drinking water.

Paani Laupepa, a Tuvaluan government official, reported to the Earth Policy Institute that the nation suffered an unusaually high number of fierce storms in the past ten years. Many scientists connect higher surface water temperatures resulting from global warming to greater and more damagingtorms.

Laupepa expressed dissatisfaction with the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions(导致温室效应的气体排放),which are a main cause of global warming. “By refusing to sign the agreement, the US has effectively taken away the freedom of future generations of Tuvaluans to live where their forefathers have lived for thousands of years,” Laupepa told the BBC.

Tuvalu has asked Australia and New Zealand to allow the gradual move of its people to both countries.

Tuvalu is not the only0pt; TEXT-INDEN country that is vulnerable (易受影响的) to rising sea levels. Maumoon Gayoon, president of the Maldives, told the United Nations that global warming has made his country of 311,000 an “endangered nation”.

54. The text is mainly about _______.

A. rapid changes in earth’s temperature

B. bad effects of global warming

C. moving of a country to a new place

D. reasons for lowland flooding

55. According to scientists, the DIRECT cause of more and fiercer storms is _______.

A. greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized nations

B. higher surface water temperatures of the sea

C. continuous global warming

D. rising sea levels

56. Laupepa was not satisfied with the United States because it did not _______.

A. agree to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions

B. sign an agreement with Tuvalu

C. allow Tuvaluans to move to the US

D. believe the problems facing Tuvalu were real

57. The country whose situation is similar to that of Tuvalu is _______.

A. Australia           B. New Zealand

C. the Maldives      D. the United States

E

Last year my sixth-grader daughter, Elizabeth, was forced to put up with science. Her education week after week, contained mindless memorization of big words like “batholith” and “saprophyte” She learned by heart the achievements of famous scientists who did things like “improved nuclear fusion(核聚变) “—never mind that she hasn’t the least idea of what nuclear fusion means. Elizabeth did very well (she’s good at memorizing things ). And now she hates science. My eighth-grader son, Ben, also suffered from science education. Week after week he had to perform lab experiments with answers already known. Ben figured out how to guess the right answers, so he got good grades. Now he hates science, too.

Science can provide an exciting way to develop children’s curiosity. Science education should teach ways to ask questions and week answers. But my children got the mistaken idea in school than science is difficult dull and has no relation to their everyday interests.

As a physicist, I am saddened and angered to see “the great science turnoff” I know that science is important in our lives. Yet studies prove that our schools are turning out millions of graduates who know almost nothing about and have almost no interest in science. What’s gone wrong? Who is to blame? Yet studies

58. We learn from paragraph 1 that _______.

A. the writer was proud of Elizabeth and Ben

B. both Elizabeth and Ben could become scientists

C. Elizabeth had to learn much about great scientists

D. Ben was good at trying new ideas in lab experiments

59. The writer thinks that in science education we should first _______.

A. get students interested in the subject

B. answer students’ questions in delightful ways.

C. smooth out difficulties in lab experiments

D. explain the special terms clearly

60. By writing the text, the author questions _______.

A. the difficulty level of the science texts

B. the way science is taught in school

C. the achievements of famous scientists

D. students’ poor records in science classes

第二节  根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

—He is very good, isn’t he?

— ___61___

—I said the singer was great.

—___62___

—___—Have you seen him here before?

—  ___63___  I think he probably writes the music and words because I’ve never heard any of the songs before.

—It’s not fair.

—  ___64___

—People with musical ability like that having to stand around here to make a living

—Perhaps he enjoys it or makes more money than you think.

—  ___65___

A. What do you mean?

B. Sorry, what did you say?

C. I hope so.

D. Do you like popular music?

E. Be quiet, listen to him

F. Yes, and interesting to watch

G. Oh, yes, He’s always at exactly the same place on Saturdays when I come into town.