阅读理解Passage A 1

阅读理解Questions 31-32 Half a century ago a radio astronomer called Frank Drake thought of a way to calculate the likelihood of establishing contact with aliens

阅读理解Passage 1 What we know of prenatal development makes all this attempt made by a mother to mold the character of her unborn child by studying poetry, art, or mathematics during pregnancy seem utterly impossible

阅读理解Passage 2 Open up most fashion magazines and you will see incredibly thin models with impossible hair and wearing unreasonably expensive, impracticably styled clothes

阅读理解Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 decide on the best choice and write your answers on the Answer Sheet.Passage 3The making of classifications by literary historians can be a somewhat risky enterprise. When Black poets are discussed separately as a group, for instance, the extent to which their work reflects the development of poetry in general should not be forgotten, or a distortion of literary history may result. This caution is particularly relevant in an assessment of the differences between Black poets at the turn of the century (1900-1909) and those of the generation of the 1920’s. These differences include the bolder and more forthright speech of the later generation and its technical inventiveness. It should be remembered, though, that comparable differences also existed for similar generations of White poets.When poets of the 1910’s and 1920’s are considered together, however, the distinctions that literary historians might make between “conservative” and “experimental” would be of little significance in a discussion of Black poets, although these remain helpful classifications for White poets of these decades. Certainly differences can be noted between “conservative” Black poets such as Counter Cullen and Claude McKay and “experimental” ones such as Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes. But Black poets were not battling over old or new styles; rather, one accomplished Black poet was ready to welcome another, whatever his or her style, for what mattered was racial pride.However, in the 1920’s Black poets did debate whether they should deal with specifically racial subjects. They asked whether they should only write about Black experience for a Black audience or whether such demands were restrictive. It may be said, though, that virtually all these poets wrote their best poems when they spoke out of racial feeling, race being, as James Weldon Johnson rightly put it, “perforce the thing the Negro poet knows best.”At the turn of the century, by contrast, most Black poets generally wrote in the conventional manner of the age and expressed noble, if vague, emotions in their poetry. These poets were not unusually gifted, though Roscoe Jamison and G. M. McClellen may be mentioned as exceptions. They chose not to write in dialect, which, as Sterling Brown has suggested, “meant a rejection of stereotypes of Negro life,” and they refused to write only about racial subjects. This refusal had both a positive and a negative consequence. As Brown observes, “Valuably insisting that Negro poets should not be confined to issues of race, these poets committed [an] error...they refused to look into their hearts and write.” These are important insights, but one must stress that this refusal to look within was also typical of most White poets of the United States at the time. They, too, often turned from their own experience and consequently produced not very memorable poems about vague topics, such as the peace of nature.

阅读理解Passage 3 Planet Earth was stricken by floods, drought and fire in 1997, a year which ended with the worlds major polluters quarreling about ways to prevent further environmental disaster

阅读理解Passage B Of all the lessons taught by the financial crisis, the most personal one has been that American aren‟t too slick with money

阅读理解Directions: There are 3 passages in this section. 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 decide on the best choice and write your answers on the Answer Sheet.Passage ThreeKnowledge economyThere have long been markets in tin, cocoa, silver and the like. There used to be security in thinking that somewhere there was a product, something you could touch and see. Now there are new markets in abstractions, trade in ideas and knowledge. Everyone has knowledge but there used to be no way to trade it—except through jobs. That simple fact of economic life was the basis for white collar employment for centuries. The whole job culture grew up because there was no alternative way to sell knowledge, other than the worker or manager providing for a fixed price, his or her knowledge to an employer to own or control. The quantity of knowledge provided has typically been measured in time.But today we stand at the threshold of a new era. The information economy has matured and become smarter. According to many business commentators, we are now living in a knowledge economy. There has always been a market for knowledge, of course. The publishing industry is based on it. But today the internet is making the distribution of knowledge ever easier. The days when the publisher decided what got published are over. Anyone with a PC and a modem can talk to the world. This is reducing the friction in the knowledge economy.Everyone has knowledge of whatever industry she or he is in. say you are a computer dealer, for example. Over the years you have compiled a list of the ten best lowest price places to buy wholesale computer equipment. Now you can sell your knowledge to newer, younger computer dealers who have no way to build up this knowledge without losing thousands of pounds finding it out the hard way. Until now, such knowledge remained securely locked in the recipient’s head, accumulated and then worthlessly withered away. This no longer needs to be the case. Such knowledge can be sold via websites.Knowledge has a distinct advantage in today’s marketplace. It’s a renewable resource. Better yet, it’s worth actually increases. “Knowledge is the only asset that grows with use,” observes Stanford University Professor Paul Romer. But what exactly is knowledge and how can it be packaged to trade on an open market? “Knowledge is experiential information, intelligence applied thorough and gained from experience,” says Joseph Pine and James Gilmore in their book The Experience Economy.The value of knowledge often depends on variables such as time and the credibility of the seller. Certain knowledge may have a very limited shelf life. In sights concerning how to set up an internet business in one country, might be worth a fortune on one day and nothing the next, depending on changes in government policy. Markets in knowledge will be significance for one thing. They represent one of the most original uses of the web technology. In some corner of the globe there is a company wanting to source plastic widgets from Poland, and somewhere else another company that wishes to set up a plastics factory there. It’s simply a case of connecting the two.Indicater.com is a good example of a knowledge trader. It is targeted at food service managers throughout the hospitality industry. “We started with the context rather than extracting money from suppliers,” explains founder Mike Day, “we offer food service professionals interactive support to increase sales and profits. People don’t want another one-dimensional site full of advertising that doesn’t help them to do their job more effectively. It has to be customized offering real solutions to real problems.” The site’s features include access to online training and a tariff tracker to restaurants can check prices throughout the sector.

阅读理解If you‟ve ever been on a jury, you might have noticed that a funny thing happens the minute you get behind closed doors

阅读理解Passage 3 Unlike written language, speech itself was not a technology devised to overcome human limitations in the face of social and environmental changes

阅读理解Passage 1 I used to look at my closet and see clothes

阅读理解Passage A These days we hear a lot of nonsense about the great classless society‟

阅读理解Passage B One of the most important things to consider before buying any property is the location, because it is where you plan to spend a large part of your life or the rest of your life in some circumstances

阅读理解Passage One Questions 31 and 35 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Questions 31-33 IN APRIL Kumon, a Japanese firm opened a tuition centre in Small Heath, a poor district of Birmingham

阅读理解Passage 1 Learning disabilities are very common

阅读理解Passage One Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage

阅读理解A lot of animals are afraid during an eclipse of the sun. Birds stop singing. Sometimes people too are afraid. Astronomers know the dates of eclipses and they are not afraid. The old astronomers ofBabylon and Egypt had no telescopes; but the sky in those countries was usually clear, so they could watch the stars easily. They studied everything in the sky and they also noticed both total and partial eclipses.Because they knew the dates ofeclipses, they had great power. People believed that the sky was important. They believed that an eclipse could kill a man.About 2500 years ago there was a very long war. One battle followed another, and the end never came. During one of the battles, there was a partial eclipse of the sun. The day got very dark, and the soldiers on both sides were filled with fear. They believed that the gods were angry. So they stopped fighting, and ended their long war.The sun is a star. It appears to be bigger than any other star. That is because it is near us; but the other stars are far away. The sun shines because it is very hot, but the moon shines because it reflects the sun’s light. It is like a big mirror. If we visited the moon, we should see the earth. It is also like a mirror and it reflects the light ofthe sun.Does the sun ever get dark during the day? It does so when the moon hides it. Sometimes the moon goes in front of the sun. We can watch its edge when it slowly crosses the sun’s disc. Everything gets darker and darker; then, at last, we cannot see any part of the sun’s disc. The moon is hiding it completely. That is a total eclipse ofthe sun; sometimes only part ofthe sun’s disc is hidden; that is not a total eclipse. It is a partial eclipse ofthe sun.

阅读理解Questions 34-35 Before Michael Pollan came along, eating as a form of politics was a fringe activity

阅读理解Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. 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 decide on the best choice and write your answers on the Answer Sheet.Passage TwoRussia’s new revolution in conservationWhen naturalist Sergei Smirenski set out to create Russia’s first private nature reserve since the Bolshvik revolution, he knew that the greatest obstacle would be overcoming bureaucratic resistance.The Moscow State University professor has charted a steep course through a variety of foes, from local wildlife service officials who covet his funding to government officials who saw more value in development than conservation. But with incredible dedication, and the support of a wide range of international donors form Japan to the United States, the Murovyovka Nature Reserve has finally come into being.Founded at a small ceremony last summer, the private reserve covers 11000 acres of pristine wetlands along the banks of the Amur River in the Russian Far East. Here, amid forests and marshes encompassing a variety of microhabitats, nest some of the world’s rarest birds—tall, elegant cranes whose numbers are counted in the mere hundreds.The creation of the park marks a new approach to nature conservation in Russia, one that combines traditional methods of protection with an attempt to adapt to the changing economic and political circumstances of the new Russia.“There must be a thousand ways to save a wetland. It is time for vision and risk, and also hard practicality,” wrote Jim Harris, deputy director of the International Crane Foundation, a Wisconsin-based organization dedicated to the study and preservation of cranes, which has been a major supporter of the Murovyovka project.Dr. Smirenski’s vision has been eminently down to earth. At every step, he has tried to involve local officials, businessmen and collective farms in the project, giving them a practical, economic stakes in its success. And with international support, he is trying to introduce new methods of organic farming that will be more compatible with preserving the wetlands.