第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
A
Centuries ago, man discovered that removing moisture(潮湿)from food helps to store it, and that the easiest way to do this is to expose the food to sun and wind. In this way the North American Indians produce pemmican(dried meat ground into powder and made into cakes), the Scandinavians make stockfish and the Arabs dried dates.
All foods include water—cabbage and other leaf vegetables contains as much as 93% water, potatoes and other root vegetables 80%, lean meat 75% and fish, anything from 80% to 60%, depending on how fatty it is. If this water is removed, the activity of the bacteria(细菌)which cause food to go bad is checked.
Fruit is sun-dried in Asia Minor, Greece, Spain and other Mediterranean countries, and also in California, South Africa and Australia. Various methods are used, but in general, the fruit is spread out on trays in drying yards in the hot sun.
Nowadays most foods are dried mechanically. The method of such dehydration(脱水)is to put food in chambers through which hot air is blown at temperatures of about 110℃ at entry to about 43℃ at exit. This is the usual method for drying such things as vegetables, minced(切碎的)meat, and fish.
Dried foods take up less room and weigh less than the same food packed in cans or frozen, and they do not need to be stored in special conditions. For these reasons they are invaluable to the climbers, explorers and soldiers in battle, who have little storage space. They are also popular with housewives because it takes so little time to cook them. Usually it is just a case of replacing the dried-out moisture with boiling water.
56．According to the text, the open-air method of drying food       .
   A．is the one most commonly used today
 B．was invented by the American Indians
 C．has been known for hundreds of years
 D．tends to be unhealthy
57．Bacteria which cause food to go bad        .
   A．cannot live in sunlight            
 B．are killed by drying
 C．are in no way dependent on the water contained
 D．have their activity greatly reduced by drying
58．Today vegetables are most commonly dried        .
   A．on hot and sunny days      B．in hot-air chambers
 C．in the sun and wind             D．using the open tray method
59．Housewives like dried foods because they        .
   A．are quick to prepare             B．taste better than fresh foods
 C．can be preserved by boiling it water  D．look fresh when cooked
B
Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is one of life’s essentials. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have all been told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.
But for many people the thought of food first thing in the morning is by no means a pleasure. So despite all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of people who didn’t have breakfast increased by 33 percent-from 8.8 million to 11.7 million-according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.
For those who feel pain of guilt about not eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years indicate that, for adults especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast.“Going without breakfast does not affect performance,”said Arnold E.Bender, former professor of nutrition（营养）at Queen Elizabeth College in London,“nor does giving people breakfast improve performance.”
Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better performance is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not adults. “The literature,”says one researcher, Dr. Ernesto Pollitt at the University of Texas,“is poor.”
60．For those who do not take breakfast, the good news is that     .
  A．several studies have been done in the past few years.
 B．the omission of breakfast does no harm to one’s health.
 C．adults have especially made studies in this field.
 D．eating little in the morning is good for health.
61．“…nor does giving people breakfast improve performance”（in Line 17）means        .
   A．anyone without breakfast does improve his performance.
 B．not giving people breakfast improves performance.
 C．having breakfast does not improve performance, either.
 D．people having breakfast do improve their performances, too.
62．The word“literature”in the last sentence refers to     .
   A．stories, poems, plays, etc. B．written works on a particular subject.
 C．any printed material. D．the modern literature of America.
63．What is implied but NOT STATED by the author is that        .
   A．breakfast does not affect performance.
 B．Dr. Pollitt is engaged in research work at an institution of higher learning.
 C．not eating breakfast might affect the health of children.
 D．Professor Bender once taught college courses in nutrition in London.
C
Not very long ago, the computer was a strange machine. Not many people understand it. Not many people said yes to it. Today, much of that is changing. The first computer system was introduced for use in business in the mid-1950s. since then, the number of computer systems used in business, governments, and industries has grown rapidly. In September, 2000, about 30,000,000 systems were in use in the United States. This figure is growing by tens of thousands every year.
The electric computer is an important part in our lives. Each year we use computer more and more to help us to collect data(数据)and to provide us with information. At one time, people thought computers were only useful for banks, department stores and governments but today the rapidly increasing number of computers are used for many other purposes.
Have you ever stopped to think how you are affected by a digital computer? The clothes you wear probably made with the help of a digital computer. Te newspaper, the radio and television programs are often edited and prepared by the digital computers.
Computers today are playing important roles in education, transportation and medicine . They are used to predict the weather, to examine the river or ocean and to develop defence systems. They are being used by business, governments and industries. There is no reason to think that their uses will decrease. Computers will become a greater part of our lives. The effect of the computer is very great.
The list of its uses could go on and on. Although the first computer was only introduced in the mid-1950s, computers now affect millions of people in countless ways every day.
64．From the text we can know before 1950s the computer was        .
   A．widely used                      B．no use at all    
 C．liked by people                  D．not understood by many people
65．Every year the number of computers being used has        .
   A．reduced                          B．increased fast  
 C．not changed                     D．increased slowly
66．The writer thinks our lives are affected, but we        .
   A．don’t quite notice it            B．don’t have known it clearly
 C．don’t want to know about it      D．don’t like it
67．Althought the first computer was only introduced in the mid-1950s, computers now affect millions of people in countless ways every day. This means       .
   A．the writer did not like computers     
 B．the writer like computers
 C．the writer thought computers have developed quickly
 D．the writer thought we couldn’t live without computers
D
Insurance(保险)is the sharing of risks. Nearly everyone is exposed to risk of some sort. The house owner, for example, knows that his property can be damaged by fire; the shipowner knows that his vessel may be lost at sea; the breadwinner knows that he may die at an early age and leave his family the poorer. On the other hand, not every house is damaged by fire nor every vessel lost at sea. If these persons each put a small sum into a pool, there will be enough to meet the needs of the few who do suffer loss. In other words, the losses of the few are met from the contributions of the many. This is the basis of insurance. Those who pay the contributions are known as “the insured”and those who administer the pool of contributions as“insurers”.
Not all risks lead themselves to being covered by insurance. Broadly speaking, the ordinary risks of business and speculation cannot be covered. The risk that buyers will not buy goods at the prices offered is not of a kind that can be statistically estimated(评估)— and risks can only be insured against if they can be so estimated.
The legal basis of all insurance is the“policy”! This is a printed form of contract on paper of the best quality. It states that in return for the regular payment by the insured of a named sum of money, called the “premium”, which is usually paid every year, the insurer will pay a sum of money or compensation for loss, if the risk or event insured against actually happens. The wording of policies, particularly in marine insurance, often seems very old-fashioned, but there is a sound reason for this. Over a large number of years many law cases have been brought to clear up the meanings of doubtful phrases in policies. The law courts, in their judgments, have given these phrases a definite and indisputable meaning, avoid future disputes the phrases have continued to and to be used in policies even when they have passed out of normal use in speech.
68．According to this passage, insurance is possible because          .
   A．everyone at some time suffers loss
 B．only a small proportion of the insured suffer loss
 C．nearly everyone suffers loss
 D．only insured people suffers loss
69．By“the pool of contributions”the writer means       .
   A．money paid by the insured B．money paid by the insurers
 C．the cost of administering insurance  D．the amount of each premium
70．Old-fashioned wording is sometimes used in insurance because        .
   A．insurance is old-fashioned
 B．insurance has existed for a long time
 C．it enables ordinary people to understand it
 D．the meaning of such wording has been agreed upon
第二节：阅读下面一段对话，从对话中获取信息填写短文后方框中的标有71—75题号的空格(每空一词)。
Woman: Excuse me, please. I seem to have lost my scarf.
Man: Oh, I see. Well, I’ll have to fill out this lost and found report for you. It was a scarf, you say.
Woman: That’s right.
Man: what sort of scarf, madam?
Woman: Well, it was a square silk scarf, red with a black design on it.
Man: I see. And how big?
Woman: Mm, I guess it was about two feet square.
Man: Two feet square. And what would it be worth?
Woman: Well, it was quite an expensive scarf. I’d say it was worth about thirty dollars.
Man: and where did you leave it?
Woman: I’m pretty sure I left it in the coffee shop on the 5th floor.
Man: and when was that?
Woman: About 1:30, I think.
Man: Where did you go when you left the coffee shop?
Woman: To the shoe department, and then I came here.
Man: I’m sure it will turn up. Now could you give me your name?
Woman: Thomas, Mrs. Edna Thomas.
Man: and your address, Mrs. Thomas?
Woman: 20 King Street, Apartment 5B.
Man: And your telephone number?
Woman: 893-2124.

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