Part Ⅲ: Reading Comprehension (20×2%=40%)
Directions: There are four 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. Read each passage carefully and decide on the best choice.
(1)
Mention Colombia, and most people think of cocaine, kidnappings and guerrilla violence. These have served to keep all but the most adventurous tourists away for decades. But under Alvaro Uribe, Columbia’s president since 2002, violence has fallen steadily and many parts of the country have become safe. Now the government is trying to replace conventional images of Columbia with different ones: white-sand beaches, colonial cities, jungle-clad mountains and placid coffee farms.
The tourism campaign has begun at home. This month, during the mid-year school holidays, thousands of Colombians have enjoyed the newly-recovered freedom to travel, using specially policed routes from major cities to favourite holiday spots. The aim now is to convince foreigners. With a promotional budget of just $4m this year, the tourism agency is concentrating its efforts on tour operators and cruise and airline executives. This spring, it invited 130 of them to see the country’s beaches, its coffee farms and the Amazon region.
Mr. Uribe has himself lobbied losses of cruise-ship firms. This seems to have paid off. In May, Royal Caribbean announced that from next year some of its ships would call at Cartagena, a colonial walled port on the north coast. The Florida Caribbean Cruise Association held its annual meeting in the city last week.
Tourism officials expect 1.5m foreign visitors this year, more than 50% up from the 925,000 in 2005. Mexico, Latin America’s top tourist destination, attracts 20m foreigners a year. Lonely Planet, a travel publisher, has chosen Colombia as one of its top ten travel hotspots for 2006, in large part because of the improvement in safety.
But care is still needed. Lonely Planet advises tourists to steer clear of Choco on the Pacific coast, Putumayo in the far south and “anywhere east of the Andes”, where there are still guerrillas. America’s State Department and the British Foreign Office also warn travelers against wandering into rural areas.
Even so, groups of foreign hikers have recently taken to visiting Ciudad Perdida, one of the largest and oldest pre-Columbian settlements in the Americas, in the jungles of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The area is still home to leftist guerrillas and remnants of their arch-enemies, the right-wing paramilitary militias. But the fact that many other parts of what is a large and physically beautiful country are now safe to visit amounts to progress.
61. To most people, Colombia is a place full of ______.( )
A. attraction B. stimulus
C. surprise D. hazard
62. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.( )
A. Colombians wished to travel around the country for long
B. travel lines are guarded by the police to ensure safety
C. a large number of foreigners will be attracted to Colombia
D. the promotional budget for tourism will increase next year
63. The phrase “paid off” in Paragraph 3 probably means ______.( )
A. come off B. fallen through
C. been expensive D. been possible
64. Which of the following is a safer place for travelers to go to?( )
A. Choco. B. Mexico.
C. Putumayo. D. Ciudad Perdida.
65. The best title for the passage is ______.( )
A. Colombians Travel B. The Beautiful Colombia
C. Come to Sunny Colombia D. The Future of Colombia
(2)
During the meal, you’d better be careful not to leave a spoon in a soup bowl or coffee cup or any other dish. The coffee spoon ought to be on the saucer. The soup spoon ought to be on the plate under the bowl. When you are having soup, make the least noises and use the side of your spoon inside out this way, not the tip. And you mustn’t pick up your soup bowls so as to drink away the last drops of your soup from the bottom of the bowl.
Very often there is only one main course and salad, followed by your sweet. If you find the meal not enough, say “Oh, it’s delicious!” and ask for some more of the chicken or steak or whatever you have just had. The hostess will be very glad that you appreciate her cooking and will give you an extra portion. But if you observe the Chinese way of being polite and say “No, thank you” when the hostess offers you more, you will most probably starve later. Because Americans will never press food on you. Yet it is not polite to keep silent and not to talk with the person next to you. It would be considered good manners if you handle your silverware with care so that they dont make any noise. When coffee comes, drink it from your cup. The coffee spoon should rest on the saucer while you are drinking. And smoking, of course, is rarely seen at a diner table. Well, when the meal is finished, the guests put their napkins on the table and stand up, the men again helping the ladies with their chairs.
After the dinner, the guests usually stay for an hour or two, then they would say, “well, I’m afraid I must be going now.” The host and hostess would of course urge everyone to stay longer. “What, already? Won’t you have another coffee?” The guests, for instance, would say, “I’d love to, but I have to be up early tomorrow. Thank you for a most enjoyable evening. Good night.”
And if you stay overnight or over the weekend, it will be courteous to send a thank-you note to the host or hostess the following day, very often with a small gift such as a box of chocolate or some flowers as a token of appreciation of their hospitality.
66. Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?( )
A. How to Prepare for a Meal. B. Never Press Food on Your Guest.
C. Table Manners in the U. S. A. D. How to Enjoy a Dinner.
67. The passage suggests that ______.( )
A. to make the hostess happy you should ask for more food even if you are full
B. you should keep silent at a dinner table in order to be polite
C. if you want to be friendly with the person next to you, you should press food on him
D. talking is necessary at a dinner table
68. At a dinner table, you do all the following except ______.( )
A. making the least noise possible
B. picking up your soup bowl to drink away the last drop
C. handling your silverware with care
D. drinking the coffee from your cup
69. What does “courteous” mean in the last paragraph? ( )
A. Friendly. B. Generous.
C. Polite. D. Noble.
70. The passage implies that ______. ( )
A. different nations have different customs
B. Chinese customs are quite similar to American ones
C. both Chinese and Americans have soup before the main course
D. if you are polite, the hostess will press more food on you
