阅读理解Directions: Read the following passages and answer the questions. Choose the most appropriate answer for each question and circle the letter on the answer sheet. Remember to write the letter corresponding to the question number.At the end of the nineteenth century, a rising interest in Native American customs and an increasing desire to understand Native American culture prompted ethnologists to begin recording the life stories of Native American. Ethnologists had a distinct reason for wanting to hear the stories: they were after linguistic or anthropological data that would supplement their own field observations, and they believed that the personal stories, even of a single individual, could increase their understanding of the cultures that they had been observing from without. In addition, many ethnologists at the turn of the century believed that Native American manners and customs were rapidly disappearing, and that it was important to preserve for posterity as much information as could be adequately recorded before the cultures disappeared forever.There were, however, arguments against this method as a way of acquiring accurate and complete information. Franz Boas, for example, described autobiographies as being “of limited value, and useful chiefly for the study of the perversion of truth by memory,” while Paul Radin contended that investigators rarely spent enough time with the tribes they were observing, and inevitably derived results too tinged by the investigator’s own emotional tone to be reliable.Even more importantly, as these life stories moved from the traditional oral mode to recorded written form, much was inevitably lost. Editors often decided what elements were significant to the field research on a given tribe. Native Americans recognized that the essence of their lives could not be communicated in English and that events that they thought significant were often deemed unimportant by their interviewers. Indeed, the very act of telling their stories could force Native American narrators to distort their cultures, as taboos had to be broken to speak the names of dead relatives crucial to their family stories.Despite all of this, autobiography remains a useful tool for ethnological research: such personal reminiscences and impressions, incomplete as they may be, are likely to throw more light on the working of the mind and emotions than any amount of speculation from an ethnologist or ethnological theorist from another culture.

阅读理解A Fighting Lady ① Deborah Sampson was born in 1760

阅读理解 Sometimes it's just hard to choose. You're in a restaurant and the waiter has his pen at the ready. As you hesitate, he gradually begins to take a close interest in the ceiling, his fingernails, then in your dining partner. Each dish on the menu becomes a blur as you roll your eyes up and down in a growing panic. Finally, you desperately opt for something that turns out to he what you hate. It seems that we need devices to protect us from our hopelessness at deciding between 57 barely differentiated varieties of stuff—be they TV channels, gourmet coffee, downloadable ring tones, or perhaps, ultimately even interchangeable lovers. This thought is opposed to our government's philosophy, which suggests that greater choice over railways, electricity suppliers and education will make us happy. In my experience, they do anything but. Perhaps the happiest people are those who do not have much choice and aren't confronted by the misery of endless choice. True, that misery may not be obvious to people who don't have a variety of luxuries. If you live in Madagascar, say, where average life expectancy is below 40 and they don't have digital TV or Starbucks, you might not be impressed by the anxiety and perpetual stress our decision-making paralysis causes. Choice wasn't supposed to -make people miserable. It was supposed to be the hallmark of self-determination that we so cherish in modern society. But it obviously isn't: ever more choice increases the feeling of missed opportunities, and this leads to self-blame when choices fail to meet expectations. What is to be done? A new book by an American social scientist, Barry Schwartz, called The Paradox of Choice, suggests that reducing choices can limit anxiety. Schwartz offers a self-help guide to good decision-making that helps us to limit our choices to a manageable number, and ultimately derive greater satisfaction from the choices we make. But once you realize that your Schwartzian filters are depriving you of something you might have found enjoyable, you will experience the same anxiety as before, worrying that you made the wrong decision in drawing up your choice-limiting filters. Arguably, we will always be doomed to buyers' remorse and the misery it entails. The problem of choice is perhaps more difficult than Schwartz allows.

阅读理解 In a poor, inland, gang-infested part of Los Angeles, there is a clinic for people with type 1 diabetes. As part of the country health care system, it serves persons who have fallen through all other safety-net options, the poorest of the poor. Although type 2 diabetes is rampant in this part of town, type 1 diabetes exists as well. Yet these latter individuals generally lack access to any specialty care—a type of treatment they desperately need due to a complexity of dealing with type 1 diabetes in the setting of poverty and psychosocial stress. The Type 1 Clinic meets one morning per week and is staffed by four endocrinology fellows and a diabetologist, often me. I have the unique perspective of working part of the time in a county setting and the other part of the time in a clinic for people with health insurance, in Beverly Hills. I know what is possible in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. East Los Angeles teaches me what happens when access to care is not available. Most of our patients, in their 20s and 30s and 40s, already have complications of their diabetes many near end stage. Concepts about maintaining near-normal blood glucose levels often miss their mark—lack of education or money or motivation or factors I can't even imagine make the necessity of a patient acting as his or her own exogenous pancreas nearly impossible, especially when there are acute consequences to hypoglycemia and few to moderate hyperglycemia. Historically, in spite of these barriers, we persisted and thought we made a difference. Often, teaching simple carbohydrate counting or switching therapy to long-acting insulin improved patients control and their quality of life. The fellows felt they made a positive impact in the health of their patients. Driving home I would be encouraged by what we had accomplished, although saddened by the severity of the complications suffered by many of our patients. Yet everything changed with the recession of 2008. In Beverly Hills I heard a lot about the demise of the financial markets. Patients of mine had invested with Bermie Madoff. Some, once billionaires, were now millionaires. Personal assistants and housekeepers were laid off, vacation homes were put on the market, and parties became less lavish. But all still live in safe, clean homes, wear designer clothes, and eat high-quality food. The landscape is very different for many of my East LA patterns. The temporary, part-time jobs they had cobbled together to keep food on the table and pay for housing are gone. I—naively—didn't realize how much worse poverty could get. But now many of our patients are young without food and are becoming homeless. One young man, a college student trying to work his way out of poverty by going to school, lost his job and is living in his car. He is still taking classes but is unable to afford more than a dollar meal from a fast-food restaurant once every day or two. Management of his diabetes involves simply keeping him alive with his erratic, poor eating habit.

阅读理解Questions 11 to 20 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 4 Life moves oneven in Tucson

阅读理解Fabio Schvartsman, a wellrespected businessman as yet, may now be the most detested man in Brazil

阅读理解Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage: It is the staff of dreams and nightmares

阅读理解Passage 1 Global warming may or may not be the great environmental crisis of the 21st century, butregardless of whether it is or isntwe wont do much about it

阅读理解In the movies and on television, artificial intelligence is typically depicted as something sinister that will upend our way of life

阅读理解Stratford-on-Avon, as we all know, has only one industryWilliam Shakespearebut there are two distinctly separate and increasingly hostile branches

阅读理解Robots are useful in exploring space because they can work in the conditions which exist in space

阅读理解Passage 1 Wild Bill Donovan would have loved the Internet, the American spymaster who built the Office of Strategic Services in World War II and later laid the roots for the CIA was fascinated with information

阅读理解It is said that in England death is pressing, in Canada inevitable and in California optional. Small wonder. Americans ''life expectancy has nearly doubled over the past century. Failing hips can be replaced, clinical depression controlled, cataracts removed in a 30-minute surgical procedure. Such advances offer the aging population a quality of life that was unimaginable when I entered medicine 50 years ago. But not even a great health-care system can cure death--and our failure to confront that reality now threatens this greatness of ours. Death is normal; we are genetically programmed to disintegrate and perish, even under ideal conditions. We all understand that at some level, yet as medical consumers we treat death as a problem to be solved. Shielded by third-party payers from the cost of our care, we demand eyed ''thing that can possibly be done for us, even if it''s useless. The most obvious example is late-stage cancer care. Physicians--frustrated by their inability to cure the disease and fearing loss of hope in the patient--too often offer aggressive treatment far beyond what is scientifically justified. In 1950, the U.S. spent $12.7 billion on health care. In 2002, the cost will be $ I, 540 billion. Anyone can see this trend is unsustainable. Yet few seem willing to try to reverse it. Some scholars conclude that a government with finite resources should simply stop paying for medical care that sustains life beyond a certain age--say 83 or so. Former Colorado governor Richard Lamm has been quoted as saying that the old and infirm" have a duty to die and get out of the way" so that younger, healthier people can realize their potential. I would not go that far. Energetic people now routinely work through their 60s and beyond, and remain dazzlingly productive. At 78, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone jokingly claims to be 53. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O''Connor is in her 7Os, and former surgeon general C.Everett Koop chairs an Internet start-up in his 80s. These leaders are living proof that prevention works and that we can manage the health problems that come naturally with age. As a mere 68-year-old, I wish to age as productively as they have. Yet there are limits to what a society can spend in this pursuit. As a physician, I know the most costly amd dramatic measures may be ineffective and painful. I also know that people in Japan and Sweden, countries that spend far less on medical care, have achieved longer, healthier lives than we have. As a nation, we may be overfunding the quest for unlikely cures while underfunding research on humbler therapies that could improve people''s lives.

阅读理解Passage 4 Read the following passages carefully and then explain in your own English the exact meaning of the numbered and underlined parts

阅读理解 They already guide blind and disabled people; now dogs are to be trained to help people with dementia (痴呆). The duties of these 'guide dogs for the mind' will include reminding their owners to take medication, as well as encouraging them to eat, drink and sleep at regular intervals. The dementia dogs will be trained to respond to sound triggers in the home that prompt them to perform tasks. These could include delivering a bite-proof bag of medicine with a note inside reminding the patient to take it, or waking them up in the morning. The idea was developed by design students at the Glasgow School of Art and will now be put into practice by Alzheimer's Scotland and Dogs for the disabled. Joyce Gray of Alzheimer's Scotland said, 'People in the early stages of dementia are still able to live a relatively normal life, and dogs help to maintain routine.' The other advantage of using the pets as companions is that conversation can be increasingly confusing for people with Alzheimer's, but dogs can give them a sense of silent support and companionship. People light up when they see animals. They don't need to communicate verbally but they can still interact. You can have a speechless bond. The dog would also encourage the owner to take them out for walks, ensuring they keep exercising and interacting with other people.

阅读理解Text 1 Jumanji is a story for children about a very strange game - a game that becomes far too real and frightening for the players

阅读理解Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A., B., C. and D.. You should deicide the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.Passage FourThe discovery of planets around distant stars has become—like space-shuttle launches—newsworthy but just barely. With some 50 extrasolar planets under their belt, astronomers have to announce something really strange to get anyone’s attention.Last week they did just that. Standing in front of colleagues and reporters at the American Astronomical Society’s semiannual meeting in San Diego, the world’s premier planet-hunting team— astronomer Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues-presented not one but two remarkable finds. The first is a pair of planets, each about the mass of Jupiter, that whirl around their home star 15 light-years from Earth in perfect lockstep. One takes 30 days to complete an orbit, the other exactly twice as long. Nobody has ever seen such a configuration. But the second discovery is far stranger—a solar system 123 light-years away in the constellation Serpens, that harbors one “ordinary” planet and another so huge—17 times as massive as Jupiter—that nobody can quite figure out what it can be. It is, says Marcy, “a bit frightening”.What’s frightening is that these discoveries make it clear how little astronomers know about planets, and they add to the dawning realization that our solar system—and by implication Planet Earth—may be a cosmic oddball. For years theorists figured that other stars would have planets more or less like the ones going around the sun. But starting with the 1995 discovery of the first extrasolar planet-a gassy monster like Jupiter but orbiting seven times as close to its star as Mercury orbits around our sun—each new find has seemed stranger than the last. Searchers have found more “hot Jupiters” like that first discovery. These include huge planets that career around their stars not in circular orbits but in elongated ones; their gravity would send any Earthlike neighbors flying off into space. Says Princeton astronomer Scott Tremaine: “Not a single prediction for what we’d find in other systems has turned out to correct.”Last week’s giant was the most unexpected discovery yet. Conventional theory suggests that it must have formed like a star, from a collapsing cloud of interstellar gas. Its smaller companion, only seven times Jupiter’s mass, is almost certainly a planet, formed by the buildup of gas and dust left over from a star’s formation. Yet the fact that these two orbs are so close together suggests to some theorists that they must have formed together—so maybe the bigger one is a planet after all. Or maybe astronomers will have to rethink their definition of “planet”. Just because we put heavenly objects into categories doesn’t mean the distinctions are necessarily valid. And as Tremaine puts it, “When your classification schemes start breaking down, you know you’re learning something exciting. This is wonderful stuff.”

阅读理解Questions 41 to 50 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 2 Diego Chiapello, legally blind since birth, isnt one of Italys famous ―mamas boys‖ who live with their parents into adulthood