I went into the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper,“ Would you like to buy a chair?” He looked it over carefully and said,“ Yes, not a bad chair. How much do you want for it, sir?” “Twenty pounds,”I said. “OK, ”he said, “I’ll give you twenty pounds. ”“It ‘s got a slightly broken leg,”I said. “Yes, I saw that, it's nothing.”

　　Everything was going according to plan and I was getting excited. “What will you do with it?”I asked. “Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done. ”“I'll buy it,”I said. “What do you mean？ You’ve just sold it to me,”he said. “Yes, I know but I’ve changed my mind. I'm sorry, I'll give you twenty -seven pounds for it. ”“ Your must be crazy, ”he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. “I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair. ”“ You’re right, ”I said. “And what would you have done if I had walked in and said,’Would you mend this chair for me　I wouldn't have agreed to do it,” he said. “We don’t do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But I’ll mend this for you, shall we say for a fiver?”He was a very nice man and was greatly amused（感到有趣）by the whole thing.

　　56．We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer ________.

　　A. was rather impolite

　　B. was warmly received

　　C. asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair

　　D. asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair

　　57．The expression “the penny dropped” in the last paragraph means the shopkeeper ________.

　　A. changed his mind　　　　　　　 B. accepted the offer

　　C. saw the writer’s purpose　　　　　D. decided to help the writer

　　58．How much did the writer pay?

　　A. ￡ 5.　　　　B. ￡ 7.　　　　 C. ￡ 20.　　　　D. ￡ 27.

　　59．From the text, we can learn that the writer was ________

　　A. hanest　　　　B. careful　　　　C. smart　　　　 D. funny

B

　　Life on land probably began about 430 million years ago, though it has existed in the water for perhaps as much as 3,000 million years. When we think of the first thing on land, we probably think of strange animals coming out of the oceans, but in fact no animals could have been living if plants had not been on land first. Plants had to be on land before animals arrived. They supplied the first land animals with the surrounding and food necessity, since they, the plants, are the only form of life that is able to get and store energy.

　　The first plants to exist out of the water were probably certain kinds of algae（海藻）which were followed by other plants that grew close to the ground and needed water in which to reproduce. Once the move to land had been made, however, evolution（进化）took place quickly. By the end of 100 million years, plants had developed their roots（根）,and some had got tree -like forms since height was very important in gaining sunlight. About 300 million years ago, much of the world was covered with forests of huge trees. In most ways they were like modern trees. They had roots, leaves, wood, but mostly they had not developed seeds.

　　60．The main idea of the first paragraph is ________.

　　A. life on land probably began 430 years ago

　　B. the first animal on land came from oceans

　　C. there wouldn't be animals without plants

　　D. plants are the only form of life that is able to get and store energy

　　61．Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

　　A. Algae has existed for more than 430 million years.

　　B. It is impossible that algae might be the earliest plant on land.

　　C. Plants get food from animals in the oceans.

　　D. Evolution began after animals appeared on land.

　　62．Plants with roots appeared about ________ million years ago.

　　A. 430　　　　　B. 300　　　　　 C. 330　　　　　 D. 100

　　63．According to the passage, ________ appeared earlier than ________.

　　A. apples; oranges　　　　　　　　 B. oranges; apples

　　C. oranges; roses　　　　　　　　　D. algae; wheat

C

　　The dream of flying into outer space, cherished by the Chinese people for centuries, will soon come true.

　　China launched its fourth unmanned spacecraft （飞船）“Shenzhou Ⅳ” on December 30 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gansu Province. It was the 27th consecutive（连续的 ）and successful launch of China - made rockets since October 1996. This launch has made it more realistic for China to send a person into space on its own following Russia and the USA.

　　Qi Faren，leading designer of the spacecraft system, said all the functions （功能） designed for manned flights have withstood （经受住）the test of three previous, successful launches and return landings of the “Shenzhou” spaceships.

　　China launched the “Shenzhou Ⅰ ”, “Shenzhou Ⅱ ”and “Shenzhou Ⅲ ”spacecrafts in 1999,2001 and 2002 respectively.

　　“Shouzhou Ⅳ” was to make it a more comfortable place in which astronauts can live and work. All parts of the application system for manned flight are aboard the “Shenzhou Ⅳ”craft in all test flights.

　　China’s manned flight programme began in 1992. A number of unmanned test flights will be launched before Chinese astronauts are sent into space.

　　Leading scientists in charge of China’s manned space programme said the successful launch of the “Shenzhou Ⅳ” laid a solid foundation for the country’s future task of sending Chinese astronauts to outer space.

　　The spacecraft returned to the earth on January 5, after completing seven experiments in space.

　　Officials at the centre said that“ Shenzhou Ⅴ”, a manned spacecraft, is expected to be launched later this year.

　　64．How many countries can send a person into space on its own by now？

　　A. 2.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　B. 3.

　　C. 4.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　D. Not mentioned.

　　65．China’s manned flight programme began in ________.

　　A. 1992　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. October 1996.

　　C. 1999　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. January 2003

　　66．As a matter of fact, ________ .

　　A. “Shenzhou Ⅴ ”has been launched

　　B. “Shenzhou Ⅳ” was a manned spacecraft

　　C. “Shenzhou Ⅲ ”and“ Shenzhou Ⅳ” were not launched in the same year

　　D. the dream of man flying into outer space has come true in China

　　67．Which is the most suitable title for the passage?

　　A. The Successful Launching of “Shenzhou Ⅳ ”.

　　B. The Landing of “Shenzhou Ⅳ ”.

　　C. Chin a’s Manned Flight Programme.

　　D. The Third Country Sending a Person into Outer Space.

D

　　More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving（旺盛的）. As Skolnich notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline（衰退）in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce（离婚）rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.

　　What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses （配偶）．

　　Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with “full - time” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the present marriage and“ part- time”children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half- brothers and half - sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.

　　68．By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.

　　A. Americans are more traditional than Europeans

　　B. Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans

　　C. there are more married couples in the USA than in Europe

　　D. more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age

　　69．Divorced Americans ________ .

　　A. prefer the way they live

　　B. will most likely remarry

　　C. have lost interest in marriage

　　D. are the majority of people in the society

　　70．Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families？

　　A. Which types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable.

　　B. A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife.

　　C. Americans prefer to have more kids than before.

　　D. There are no nuclear families any more.

　　71．Though great changes have taken place in the structure of American families, ________ .

　　A. the majority of Americans still have faith in marriage

　　B. the functions of marriage remain unchanged

　　C. most Americans prefer a second marriage

　　D. most Americans prefer to be single

E

　　Many people believe the glare（炫目的光）from snow causes snowblindness. Yet, with dark glasses or not, they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snowblindness ,when exposed to several hours of“ snow light”.

　　The United States army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow -covered country. Rather ,a man’s eyes frequently find nothing to focus on （聚集） in a broad space of snow- covered without- grass land. So his gaze continually moves and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding something, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become tired and the eye muscles ache. Nature makes up for this discomfort by producing more and more fluid （流 体） which covers the eyeball. The fluid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until it makes eyes difficult to see dearly, and the result is total, even though for a short time, snowblindness.

　　Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts（侦察兵）ahead of the troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow - covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark - colored objects ahead on which they can focus too. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop searching the snow -blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time. the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a continuous white land is overcome.

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