阅读理解Passage One Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage. The Urbanization — migration away from the suburbs to the city center — will be the biggest real estate trend in 2015, according to a new report. The report says America’s urbanization will continue to be the most significant issue affecting the industry, as cities across the country imitate the walkability and transit-oriented development making cities like New York and San Francisco so successful. As smaller cities copy the model of these “24-hour cities”，tfiore affordable versions of these places will be created. The report refers to this as the coming of the “18-hour city，”，and uses the term to refer to cities like Houston, Austin, Charlotte, and Nashville, which are “positioning themselves as highly competitive, in terms of livability, employment offerings, and recreational and cultural facilities.” Another trend that looks significant in 2015 is that America’s largest population group, Millennials (千禧一代)，will continue to put off buying a house. Apartments will retain their appeal for a while for Millennials, haunted by what happened to home-owning parents. This trend will continue into the 2020s, the report projects. After that, survey respondents disagree over whether this generation will follow in their parents，footsteps, moving to the suburbs to raise families, or will choose to remain in the city center. Another issue affecting real estate in the coming year will be America’s failing infrastructure. Most roads, bridges, transit, water systems, the electric grid, and communications networks were installed 50 to 100 years ago, and they are largely taken for granted until they fail. The report’s writers state that America’s failure to invest in infrastructure impacts not only the health of the real-estate market, but also our ability to remain globally competitive. Apart from the specific trends highlighted above, which cause some investors to worry, the report portrays an overall optimism borne by the recent healthy real-estate “upcycle” and improving economy. Seventy-four percent of the respondents surveyed report a “good to excellent” expectation of real-estate profitability in 2015. While excessive optimism can promote bad investment patterns, resulting in a real- estate “bubble”， the report’s writers downplay that potential outcome in that it has not yet occurred. 注意：此部分试题请在答题卡2上作答。

阅读理解What is the author's advice to leaders?

阅读理解December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Christ. No one is certain why this day was chosen. It was chosen probably because, according to the calendar then in use, December 25 was the time of the year when winter days begin to grow longer in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun-worshippers had celebrated this day as the promise of spring. Over the years, a number of special customs associated with Christmas have grown up. Many of these have been introduced from Europe, while others have their origin in America. Christmas music is loved by all who hear and sing it every year. Christmas songs, bells, and merry music have been a part of Christmas for centuries. The Christmas tree is the symbol of the spirit of Christmas in many homes. Trees were not used in English homes until a German prince married Queen Victoria. The prince had the first decorated Christmas tree set up at Windsor Castle in 1841. The first Christmas trees in the New World were introduced by Hessian soldiers in 1776, during the Revolutionary War. Later German immigrants brought the tradition into wider use in the United States. The custom of decorating a community tree for outdoor display began in the early 1900''s and is a favourite custom all over America today. Since 1933, Rockerfeller Plaza, in New York City, has put up a giant tree, beautifully decorated with lights. The trees are about 30 meters tall. Some 7,000 colored lights have been used to light them. Each year at Washington, D. C. , there is a national tree lighting ceremony. The President of the United States pulls the switch that lights the brightly decorated new community Christmas tree on the White House lawn. Some families open their presents on Christmas Eve; others wait for the next morning. Some boys'' and girls'' presents are placed in stockings and hung at the foot of their beds; others find their gifts under the Christmas tree. Greeting cards began in England. One of the first artists to design and send a Christmas card in 1843 was John C. Horsley. The cards were printed in black and white and colored by hand. About 1000 of them were sold in London that year. At about the same time, another English artist, William Egley, designed a card and had it printed. He sent it to his friend with the now familiar message "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". A German immigrant, Louis Prang, designed and sold colored Christmas cards in 1874. In less than 10 years his shop was turning out 5 ,000,000 cards a year. Today greeting cards have become a big industry and billions of cards are sent all over the world every Christmas. Whatever language the greetings are written in, the message is the same— a wish for peace and goodwill among all people.

阅读理解No one really likes help. It is a great deal more satisfactory to be given the opportunity to earn one''s daily bread; and if, by so doing, one can create a continuing means of livelihood, more jobs, and better living conditions for one''s community, which is more satisfactory still. It is on this premise that the World Food Programme bases most of its operations. But how can a man born of unemployed, undernourished parents, in the depths of poverty that spreads the shanty towns near Latin American cities, or displaced people''s camps in Africa and Asia, begin to make some improvement? Someone must help, someone who understands that both food and employment are fundamental to his need. Most thinking people must have remarked at some time or other that it doesn''t make sense for half the population of the world to be in need of better food while governments and farmers elsewhere are worried by surpluses. For a number of years, until recently, North America and Australia had too much wheat. Japan had too much rice. Similarly the EEC rapidly built a butter "mountain" in its short history. It was an awareness of the cruel paradox of a world with surpluses and starvation that prompted the setting up of the World Food Programme by the United Nations and also by the Food and Agricultural Organization. Its organizers realized that it could be useful both to developed and developing countries. It could remove surpluses in such a way that they did not upset normal trading or threaten the livelihood of farmers in contributor countries, and then use these food to feed people and aid development in poor-privileged areas. So how does the World Food Programme (WFP) work and what has it achieved? Logically, the story starts with a pledging session. The contributor countries, of which there have been a hundred and four over the years, pledge themselves to give a certain value during the succeeding two years. Most of these pledges are honoured by gifts of food, but countries which do not produce food surplus to their own needs pledge money to finance the administration and shipping of the food given by others. Meanwhile, the WFP staff in Rome get requests from countries which would like to receive this food aid. Some of these are emergency requests when earthquake, hurricane, flood, drought or pestilence strikes, or political disorder cause a new wave of refugees. Of course, WFP responds to these, but they represent no more than a quarter of its aid in any one year. The real objective is to aid constructive development , and so to make full preparation against the every day disaster of having little food to eat, no work to go to, no dignity to have. So the WFP staff are responsive to requests from governments who want initial help to develop new lands for farming, to build roads, to provide irrigation, and so on. The government of the would-be recipient country has to put forward what is considered to be a worthwhile and workable scheme, and if this is accepted, WFP agrees to supply food to a certain value for a specified period of years (usually three to five). Usually the food is for the people; sometimes it is for their farm livestock.

阅读理解PassageTwo In spring, chickens start laying again, bringing a welcome source of protein at winters end

阅读理解Cheating is nothing new. But today, education and administrations are finding that instances of academic dishonesty on the part of students have become more frequent—and are less likely to be punished—than in the past. Cheating appears to have gained acceptance among good and poor students alike. Why is student cheating on the rise? No one really knows. Some blame the trend on a general loosening of moral values among today''s youth. Others have attributed increased cheating on the fact that today''s youth are far more pragmatic(实际的)than their idealistic predecessors. Whereas in the late sixties and early seventies, students were filled with visions about changing the world, today''s students feel great pressure to conform and succeed. In interviews with students at high schools and colleges around the country, both young men and women said that cheating had become easy. Some suggested they did it out of spite for teachers they did not respect. Others looked at it as a game. Only if they were caught, some said, would they feel guilty. "People are competitive," said a second-year college student named Anna, from Chicago. "There''s an underlying fear. If you don''t do well, you life is going to be ruined. The pressure is not only from parents and friends but from yourself. To achieve. To succeed. Its almost as though we have to outdo other people to achieve our own goals," Edward Wynne, editor of a magazine blames the rise in academic dishonesty on the schools. He claims that administrators and teacher have been too hesitant to take action. Dwight Huber, chairman of the English Department at Amarillo sees the matter differently, blaming the rise in cheating on the way students evaluated. "I would cheat if I felt I was being cheated," Mr. Huber said. He feels that as long as teachers give Short-answer tests rather than essay questions and rate students by the number of facts they can memorize rather than by how well they can synthesize information, students will try to beat the system. "The concept of cheating is based on the false assumption that the system is legitimate and there is something wrong with the individuals who''s doing it," he said. "That''s too easy an answer. We''ve got to start looking at the system."

阅读理解There are two major parties in Britain today, the Conservative Party and the Labor Party, which have been in power by turns since 1945. The two—party system of Britain was formed in the course of the development of the capitalist state and the political parties. In order to strengthen the state machine, the British bourgeoisie have let it come into being and exist in one form or another form since the 17 th century. P. S. Tregidgo once said: "The more parties there are, the less likely it is that any one of them will be strong enough in Parliament to outvote all the others; but when there are only two, one of them is sure to have a majority of seats. This helps to ensure a strong and stable government. "This may be the reason why the British have the two-party system. The division into two parties grew out the establishment of a Protestant Church of England in the 16 th century. Because of a purely religious difference of opinion, the Puritans were separated from the broad body of the Anglican Church. The non-Puritan Anglicans were on the side of the King and Church, and their supporters were called by their opponents "Tories. "The Puritans were for Parliament and trade, and their supporters were called by the "Tories" "Whigs". The Tories and the Whigs were in power by turns for a long time. In 1833, the Tory party split into two and its name was changed to Conservative. In the 1860s the Whigs became Liberals. From that time on, the Liberals and the Conservatives were in office by turns until 1922. The policies they put into effect were sometimes different, but they were both controlled by the rich. The working class became more and more unwilling to follow the Conservatives and the Liberals. They wanted to have their own party. So the Labor party was formed by the trade unions. After 1922 the Labor Party gradually replaced the Liberal Party to become one of the two major parties in Great Britain.

阅读理解What do we learn from the passage about egg-painting?

阅读理解Why does the author say the hope for more full-time fathers is misguided?

阅读理解What is the author's view on daycare service?

阅读理解About three hundred years ago in Italy, there lived a young man whose name was Galileo. He was always thinking and always asking the reasons for things. One evening when he was only eighteen years old he was in the cathedral at Pisa at about the time the lamps were lighted. From the (47)________lamps were hung by long rods. (48)________ the lamplighter knocked against them, or the wind blew through the (49)______ they would swing back and forth like pendulums. Galileo noticed this, then he began to study them more closely. As Galileo watched them swinging to and fro he became much (50)______. When he went to his room he began to (51)______ He took a number of cords of different (52)______ and hung them from the ceiling. To the free end of each cord he fastened a weight. Then he set all to swinging back and forth, like the (53)______ in the cathedral. Each cord was a pendulum, just as each rod had been. (54)______, to the swinging lamps in the cathedral, and to Galileo''s habits of thinking and inquiring, the world (55)______ one of the commonest and most (56)______ inventions—the pendulum clock. WORD BANK A) lamps B) cinema C) owes D) When E) Although F) cathedral G) experiment H) practice I) useful J) ceiling K) interested L) Thus M) lengths N) heights O) lambs

阅读理解Most people have heard of Shakespeare and probably know something of the plays that he wrote. However not everybody knows much about the life of this remarkable man, except perhaps that he was born in the market town of Stratford-upon Avon and that he married a woman called Anne Hathaway. We know nothing of his school life. We do not know, for example, how long it lasted, but we presume that he attended the local grammar school, where the principal subject taught was Latin. Nothing certain is known of what he did between the time he left school and his departure for London. According to a local legend (传说) , he was beaten and even put in prison for stealing rabbit and deer from the estate of a neighbouring landowner, Sir Thomas Lucy. It is said that because of this he was forced to run away from his native place. A different legend says that he was apprenticed to a Stratford butcher, but he did not like the life and for this reason decided to leave Stratford. Whatever caused him to leave the town of his birth, the world can be grateful that he did so. What is certain is that he set his foot on the road to fame when he arrived in London. It is said that at first he was without money or friends there, but that he earned a little by taking care of the horses of the gentlemen who attended the plays at the theatre. In time, as he became a familiar figure to the actors in the theatre, they stopped and spoke to him. They found his conversation so brilliant that finally he was invited to join their company.

阅读理解There is no denying that students should learn something about how computers work, just as we expect them at least to understand that the internal-combustion engine (内燃机) has something to do with burning fuel, expanding gases and pistons (活塞) being driven. For people should have some basic idea of how the things that they use do what they do. Further, students might be helped by a course that considers the computer''s impact on society. But that is not what is meant by computer literacy. For computer literacy is not a form of literacy (读写能力); it is a trade skill that should not be taught as a liberal art. Learning how to use a computer and learning how to program one are two distinct activities. A case might be made that the competent citizens of tomorrow should free themselves from their fear of computers. But this is quite different form saying that all ought to know how to program one. Leave that to people who have chosen programming as a career. While programming can be lots of fun, and while our society needs some people who are experts at it, the same is true of auto repair and violin-making. Learning how to use a computer is not that difficult, and it gets easier all the time as programs become more "user-friendly". Let us assume that in the future everyone is going to have to know how to use a computer to be a competent citizen. What does the phrase "learning to use a computer" mean? It sounds like "learning to drive a car", that is, it sounds as if there is some set of definite skills that, once acquired, enable one to use a computer. In fact, "learning to use a computer" is much more like "learning to play a game", but learning the rules of one game may not help you play a second game, whose rules may not be the same. There is no such a thing as teaching someone how to use a computer. One can only teach people to use this or that program and generally that is easily accomplished.

阅读理解Passage Two Emotional maturity means knowing that another person cannot fill up　the hole in your heart

阅读理解We all admire the beautiful blue of a clear sky or the superb contrast between the brilliant white of the clouds and the skyblue between them. This colour, however, is not natural in the atmosphere; it is an optical effect(光学效应). When light encounters a cloud of small particles, it is diffused. This may be illustrated by a familiar example. When sunlight enters a darkened room through a gap in the blinds, it will appear as a brilliant ray of light. This is because there are tiny particles of dust suspended in the air. These, although normally invisible, catch and diffuse any strong light shining on them. The same effect can be seen in the sky when broken clouds hide the sun. Thus we can see that diffusion occurs owing to all sorts of impurities in the atmosphere. This explains all the delightfully varied shades of colour seen at different times of the day. White light is a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow or spectrum (光谱) , which, as Isaac Newton proved, can be separated by a prism. In order, they are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and they are all to be found in the solar spectrum. Red light has the longest wavelength and violet the shortest but diffused approximately sixteen times more strongly than red. The size of the particles is important. Impurities such as dust and water droplets are much larger than the molecules of gas. In the lower parts of the atmosphere where most of these impurities are concentrated, the sky is different from what it is at heights where no impurities exist. A simple observation will demonstrate this principle. Examine the smoke from a cigarette before and after it has been inhaled. At first the smoke will be plainly bluish since it is made up of very minute particles; after it has been inhaled and then puffed out through the mouth, it will be yellowish because it now contains water droplets which have condensed round the particles and which are much more efficient diffuse of light. This is why the color of the sky is much more intense and dark blue when seen from the top of a mountain than from sealevel. In the first place there is an almost complete absence of water vapour and, more important, dust. Secondly, we are above the thickest portions of the atmosphere, and this naturally has the most powerful diffusing effect. The color of the sky varies from horizon to zenith (天顶) , since there is a different thickness of air in these two directions. The horizon always appears lighter, more whitish or even reddish, according to the state of the atmosphere. All this, incidentally, also intensifies the illusion of being under a great dome—the celestial roof.

阅读理解They are among the 250,000 people under the age of 25 who are out of work in the Netherlands, a group that accounts for 40 percent of the nation''s unemployed. A storm of anger (47)______ at the government-sponsored (政府资助的) youth center, even among those who are continuing their studies. "We study for jobs that don''t exist," Nicollete Steggerda, 23, said. After three decades of prosperity, unemployment among 10 member nations of the European Community has (48)______ 11 percent, affecting a total of 12.3 million people, and the number is (49)______. The bitter disappointment long expressed by British youths is (50)______ across the Continent. The title of a rock song "No Future" can now be seen written on the brick walls of closed factories in Belgium and France. Recent surveys have found that the increasing (51)______ in the last few years over the deployment (布局) in Europe of North Atlantic Treaty Organization missiles and the possibility of nuclear war have clouded European youths'' (52)______ in the future. One form of (53)______ tends to put the responsibility for a country''s economic troubles on the large numbers of "guest workers" from Third World nations, people welcomed in Western Europe in the years of prosperity. Young Europeans, brought up in an extended period of economic success and general (54)______, seem to (55)______ Americans more than they do their own parents. (56)______ enjoyment has given them a sense of expectation, each the right, to a standard of living that they see around them. "And so we pass the days at the discos, or meet people at the café, and sit and stare." Said Isabella Gcuit. "There is usually not much conversation. You look for happiness. Sometimes you even find it." Word Bank A) confidence B) projects C) chosen D) boils up E) supports F) introducing G) spreading H) stability I) protest J) relying K) resemble L) argument M) exceeded N) material O) climbing

阅读理解A good modern newspaper is an extraordinary piece of reading. It is remarkable first for what it contains: the range of news from local crime to international politics, from sports to business to fashion to science, and the range of comment and special features (特写)as well, from editorial page to feature articles and interviews to criticism of books, art, theatre, and music. A newspaper is even more remarkable for the way one reads it: never completely, never straight through, but always by jumping from here to there, in and out, glancing at one piece, reading another article all the way through, reading just a few paragraphs of the next. A good modern newspaper offers a variety to attract many different readers, but far more than any one reader is interested in. What brings this variety together in one place is its topicality (时事性), its immediate relation to what is happening in your world and your locality now. But immediacy and the speed of production that goes with it mean also that much of what appears in a newspaper has no more than transient (短暂的) value. For all these reasons, no two people really read the same paper: what each person does is to put together, out of the pages of that day’s paper, his own selection and sequence, his own paper. For all these reasons, reading newspapers efficiently, which means getting what you want from them without missing things you need but without wasting time, demands skill and self-awareness as you modify and apply the techniques of reading.

阅读理解In communities north of Denver

阅读理解The author believes that buying a house in a ZEH community ________.

阅读理解Deborah Kennys Born to Rise Tells Story of Harlem Village Academies A) Deborah Kenny, CEO of the Harlem Village Academies, is frustrated with the nations current education system