英语试题

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40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。

A

In 1960 Khrushchev headed a group to visit Indonesia and was warmly treated by his hosts. Once in Jakarta the hosts treated the guests to a special fruit, the durian. President Sukarno picked one, took a bite and handed it to Khrushchev. Just then, Khrushchev noticed that all the Indonesians present were staring at him, whispering. Obviously something funny was going to happen. Puzzled, he took over the fruit and immediately a very terrible smell attacked his nose, which nearly made him sick. Being a good guest, he braced himself up and took a small bite with great care. To his surprise, he found the fruit to be uncommonly delicious. He was so impressed by this strange fruit that he decided to let his colleagues (同事) in Moscow have a taste of it too. So he sent by air one share for each member of the Presidium. The plane was to pass New Dehli and Kabul and Khrushchev didn’t forget his friends in India and Afghanistan. He gave orders that Prime Minister Nehru and the king of Afghanistan should each have a package.

When Khrushchev returned to Moscow, his colleagues all thanked him for his kind gifts, but at the same time they pointed out that either because the plane must have been delayed on the way or because of some other reasons, all the fruit had gone bad. They had to throw them away because they gave out an awful smell. Later Khrushchev received similar messages of thanks from his friends in India and Afghanistan, only the messages were more skillfully worded.

56. What did Khrushchev notice when Sukarno presented a durian to him?

A. The fruit had a terrible smell.

B. He became the centre of the people’s attention.

C. He was made fun of by the Indonesians.

D. There was something wrong with his nose.

57. Which of the following can describe the special fruit?

A. Ugly-looking but extremely tasty.

B. Unpleasant to nose but delicious to mouth.

C. Uncommonly delicious and sweet.

D. Not only delicious but also good-looking.

58. Why did Khrushchev decide to send durians to his colleagues?

A. He wanted to make fun of them.

B. To show his kindness and consideration.

C. To see whether his colleagues would like the taste of them.

D. He was impressed by the fruit, so he wanted his colleagues to taste it too.

59. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The fruit durian is uncommonly delicious but easy to go bad.

B. All delicious fruits can be accepted at once by various people.

C. His colleagues and friends didn’t know the taste of the fruit.

D. One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

B

If US software(软件) companies don’t pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye. Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry. Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top US quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country.

Already, of the world’s 12 software houses that have earned the highest position in the world, seven are in India. That’s largely because they have used new methods American software specialists refused to use. For example, for years, quality specialists, W. Edwards Deming and J.M. Juran had tried to persuade US software companies to change their attitudes to quality. But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the US--but not in Japan. By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was taking its market share with better, cheaper products. They used Deming’s and Juran’s ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs. In US factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%. In software, it still is.

Watts S. Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance(保证). But his advice was seldom paid attention to. He retired from IBM in 1986. In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(评估) and improving software quality. It has proved its value time and again. For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60 % of total software production costs. It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10 %.

Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home. The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India. Let’s hope that US lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems.

60. Which country has the most first-class software companies in the world?

A. Germany. B. The USA. C. Brazil. D. India.

61. Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?

A. He is now still an IBM employer.

B. He has worked for IBM for 37 years.

C. The US pays much attention to his quality advice.

D. India honors him highly.

62. By what means did Japan take its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?

A. Its products were cheaper in, price and better in quality.

B. Its advertising was most successful.

C. The US hardware industry was falling behind.

D. Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists.

63. What is the writer worrying about?

A. Many US software specialists are working for Japan.

B. The quality problem has become a worldwide problem.

C. The US will lose its lead in software in the world.

D. India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US.

C

Munich (慕尼黑), September 1972. It is past midnight. The Olympic basketball final between the United States and the Soviet Union is about to finish. There are six minutes left. The American team has never lost a match in the Olympics, but now America is losing by six points.

The American make one last effort. The lead is now only one point. The clock shows thirty seconds left, The Russians carefully defend their lead. Then the American Doug Collins gets the ball and seems certain to score. He is fouled. America has two free shots. The clock shows three seconds left. It is the most exciting match the crowd has ever seen.

Collins scores both shots and America takes the lead. The game is over, and America has the gold. Then something unexpected happens. The timer says there are still three seconds left to play. The game starts again, and Russia scores in the last second. Nobody can believe it. The Russian players jump for joy.

The 1972 basketball final was one of the most exciting moments in the long history of the Olympic sports.

64. When there were six minutes left for the match .

A. the Russians’ score was six points

B. the Americans’ score was six points

C. the Americans’ score was higher than that of the Russians’

D. the Russians’ score was higher than that of the Americans’

65. When there was half a minute left the Russians .

A. lost one point B. scored another point

C. was one point ahead D. was one point behind

66. What took place at the very end that decided the final score?

A. An extra 3---second playing time was added to settle a tie (平局).

B. One side scored a shot in the last 3 seconds to gain 1---point lead.

C. Two free shots given to the Americans gained for them the final 1---point lead.

D. A tie was reached when the Russians scored a shot in the last three seconds.

67.The writer thought that the match was one of the most exciting moments in the long history of the Olympic sports mainly because .

A. both teams were strong and the scores were very high.

B. Doug Collins scored two surprising points within three seconds

C. the winner and loser kept changing places unexpectedly within the last seconds

D. the team that had never lost a match in former Olympics was finally beaten

D

Two high school students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris made a series of home videos leading up to their killings of fellow students at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Time Magazine viewed the video tapes, and reports that Klebold and Harris expressed hatred for nearly all their schoolmates. Kelbold said on one tape, “I hope we kill 250 of you.” At lunchtime on April 20, Kelbold and Harris opened fire, and went on to kill 12 other students and one teacher before taking their own lives.

Time says the tapes--made over a five-week period before the violent(暴力的) act--make it clear that Klebold and Harris felt alienated and wanted revenge(报复) against those who disliked playing together with them or laughed at them--mainly the Columbine sports students.

The magazine says the only regret that the shooters show on the tapes is when Harris admits that his and Klebold’s parents would be “put through hell(地狱)once we do this.” But he said, “there’s nothing you guys (the parents)could have done to prevent this.” Klebold said, “I’m sorry I have so much anger in my heart.” Harris talked of having to move often with his family, starting over each time al the bottom of the social ladder, where people made fun of “my face, my hair, my shirts”. Time reports Klebold and Harris saw the attacks as a way to get “the respect we should”, Klebold said directors “will be fighting over this story”. FBI agent Mark Holstlaw told Time: “They wanted to be famous. And they are. They’re infamous.”

68. This passage mainly tells us about

A. the lives of two high school students

B. an example of school violence in the USA

C. the techniques of making a home video

D. the Time magazine’s reports

69. Klebold and Harris made the attack as __

A. an achievement B. a skillfully-carried-out plan

C. a way of revenge D. a beginning of all their work

70. What does the underlined word “alienated”( paragraph 3 )mean?

A. discouraged B. ashamed C. tired D. separated

71. The two boys regretted their deeds only

A. after they killed too many people

B. after they killed a wrong person

C. when they thought of their parents

D. when they saw the results

E

For more than two days in September 1974, the people of Honduras shut their windows, locked their doors and stayed in their homes. Fifi was outside, and they were frightened.

8,000 people had been dead when Fifi left. Fifi wasn’t a pet dog as the name suggests. It was a hurricane, one of the most destructive natural phenomena（现象）in the world.

Why do we give human names to wind and rain and cloud? We didn’t always. Two hundred years ago, many hurricanes in the Caribbean were named after the saint’s day（圣徒逝世忌日）on which the storm occurred. Later, storms were known by the name of the city where they came ashore. Experts then tried naming storms after the latitude（纬度）and longitude where they occurred. Finally, in 1953, hurricanes started getting people’s names—specifically, female names. Male names were added in 1979.

There are six sets of names for what the experts call “Atlantic tropical cyclones （热带气旋）”. Each list is used every six years and consists of 21 names, starting with every letter but Q,U, X,Y and Z. Male names and female names are used in turn. A storm won’t get a name until its winds reach 39mph or about 62. 4kph, at which point it becomes a tropical storm. At 74mph or 118.4kph it’s declared a hurricane.

The names on the list are used only for storms that form off the Atlantic coast of the US. There are separate lists for the Pacific. So what happens if a hurricane should cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific? It’s happened before. The storm just gets a new name and sometimes a new sex. Max Mayfield is the director of the National Hurricane Centre, in Miami, Florida. He’s in charge of picking new names for storms off the Atlantic coast. He and the experts in two dozen other countries in the Caribbean, North America vote on what names will replace retired names. In 2007, for example, Andrea, and Melissa will take the place of Allison, and Michelle. “If we have a hurricane that causes a large loss of life or damage, a country will request that name be retired, he said. Sometimes, people write in to suggest names for hurricanes. Mayfield said they got a letter from a man in Florida, who wanted them to name a hurricane after his first wife. He said it had to be a hurricane that caused terrible damage .The world would know what he had experienced living with the woman for 18 years.

72. Which of the following is most likely to be the name of a hurricane or a storm before 1979?

A. Arthur B. Peter C. Shirley D. Honduras

73. We may learn from the text that .

A. all storms don’t get their names

C. only Mayfield decides which name to choose

D. experts use names mostly suggested by people

74. How long can the six sets of names be used?

A. 126 years. B. 6 years C. 21 years D. 36 years

75. The man in Florida suggested naming a hurricane after his first wife because he wanted to .

A. express his deep love for her

B. show his sadness after losing her

C. make her known by the people in Florida

D. tell people how unhappily he was living with her

参考答案

56—60 BBDCD 61—65 DACDC 66—70 BCBCD 71—75 CCADD