SectionⅡ Reading Comprehension(40 minutes)
Part A
Directions:
Read the following three texts. Answer the questions on each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET by drawing a thick line across the corresponding letter in the brackets.
Text I
Fifteen years ago, I entered the Boston Globe, which was a temple to me then. It wasn’t easy getting hired. But once you were there, I found, you were in.
Globe jobs were for life-guaranteed until retirement. For 15 years I had prospered there — moving from an ordinary reporter to foreign correspondent and finally to senior editor. I would have a lifetime of security is I struck with it. Instead, I had made a decision to leave. I entered my boss’s office. Would he rage? I wondered. He had a famous temper. “Matt, we have to have a talk,” I began awkwardly.
“I came to the Globe when I was twenty-four. Now I’m forty. There’s a lot I want to do in life. I’m resigning.” “To another paper?” he asked. I reached into my coat pocket, but didn’t say anything. I handed him a letter that explained everything. It said that I was leaving to start a new media company. We were at a rare turning point in history. I wanted to be directly engaged in the change. “I’m glad for you,” he said, quite out of my expectation. “I just came from a board of directors meeting and it was seventy-five percent discouraging news. Some of that we can deal with. But much of it we can’t, ” he went on. “I wish you all the luck in the world,” he concluded. “And if it doesn’t work out, remember, your star is always high here.”
Then I went out of his office, walking through the newsroom for more good-byes. Everybody was saying congratulations. Everybody — even though I’d be risking all on an unfamiliar venture: all the financial security I had carefully built up.
Later, I had a final talk with Bill Taylor, chairman and publisher of the Boston Globe. He had turned the Globe
into a billion-dollar property. “I’m resigning, Bill, ”I said. He listened while I gave him the story. He wasn’t looking angry or dismayed either. After a pause, he said, “Golly, I wish I were in your shoes.”
46. From the passage we know that the Globe is a famous _______.
[A] newspaper [B] magazine
[C]temple [ D ] church
47. If the writer stayed with the Globe _________.
[ A] he would be able to realize his lifetime dreams.
[ B] he would let his long-cherished dreams fade away.
[ C ] he would never have to worry about his future life.
[ D] he would never be allowed to develop his ambitions.
48. The writer wanted to resign because _________.
[A] he had serious trouble with his boss.
[ B ] he got underpaid at his job for the Globe.
[ C ] he wanted to be engaged in the new media industry.
[ D ] he had found a better paid job in a publishing house.
49. When the writer decided to resign the Globe was faced with _______.
[ A ] a trouble with its staff members
[ B ] a shortage of qualified reporters
[ C ] an unfavorable business situation
[ D ]an uncontrollable business situation
50. By “:I wish I were in your shoes.” (in the last paragraph) Bill Taylor meant that _______.
[ A ] the writer was to fail.
[ B] the writer was stupid
[ C ] he would do the same if possible
[D] he would reject the writer’s request
Text 2
Do you find it very difficult and painful to get up in the morning? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleitman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a daily energy cycle.
During the hours when your labor through your work you may say that you’re “hot”. That’s true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak. For some people the peak comes during the forenoon. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so, but it leads to such familiar monologues as: “Get up, Peter! You’ll be late for work again!” The possible explanation to the trouble is that Peter is at his temperature-and-energy peak in the evening. Much family quarrelling ends when husbands and wives realize what these energy cycles mean, and which cycle each member of the family has.
You can’t change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit if better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleitman believes. Maybe you’re sleepy in the evening but feel you must stay up late anyway. Counteract your cycle to some extent by habitually staying up later than you want to. If your energy is low in the morning, but you have an important to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won’t change your cycle, but you’ll get up steam and work better at your low point.
Get off to a slow start which saves your energy. Get up with a leisurely yawn and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the troublesome search for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. Whenever possible, do routine work in the afternoon and save requiring more energy or concentration for your sharper hours.
51. If a person finds getting up early a problem, most probably ________.
[A] he is a lazy person.
[ B ] he refuses to follow his own energy cycle.
[C] he is not sure when his energy is low.
[D] he is at his peak in the afternoon or evening.
52. Which of the following may lead to family quarrels according to the passage?
[AJ Unawareness of energy cycles.
[B] Familiar monologues.
[C]A change in a family member’s energy cycle.
[D] Attempts to control the energy cycle of other family members.
53. If one wants to work efficiently at his low point in the morning, he should __________.
[A]change his energy cycle
[B] overcome his laziness
[C]get up earlier than usual
[D] go to bed earlier
54. You are advised to rise with a yawn and stretch because it will __________.
[A] help to keep your energy for the day’s work.
[B] help you to control your temper early in the day
[C] enable you to concentrate on your routine work
[D] keep your energy your energy cycle under control all day
55. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
[A] Getting off to work with a minimum effort helps save one’s energy.
[B] Dr. Kletman explains why people reach their peaks at different hours of day.
[C] Habit helps a person adapt to his own energy cycle.
[D] Children have energy cycles, too.
Text 3
There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect”— conserving heat reflected from the earth and raising the world's average temperature. If this view is correct and the world's temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be in water.
Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth's temperature — a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would mane agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report drafted by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very possible) Perhaps, if we are lucky enough, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world's temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits, people neglect the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?
56. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution _______.
[ A ] cause widespread damage in the countryside
[ B ] affected the entire eastern half of the United States
[ C ] had damaged effect on health
[ D ] existed merely in urban and industries areas
57. As to the greenhouse effect, the author __________.
[ A ] share the same view with the scientist.
[ B ] is uncertain of its occurrence
[ C ] rejects it as being ungrounded
[ D ] thinks that it will destroy the world soon
58. The word “offset” in the second paragraph could be replaced by _________.
[ A] slip into [ B ] make up for
[ C ] set up [ D ] catch up with
59. It can be concluded that ____________.
[ A ] raising the world's temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life on earth.
[ B] lowering the world's temperature merely a few degrees would lead major farming areas to disaster.
[C] almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade.
[D] the world's temperature will remain constant in the years to come.
60. This passage is primarily about __________.
[A]the greenhouse effect……
[ B ] the burning of fossil fuels……
[C] the potential effect of air pollution.
[ D] the likelihood of a new ice age.
