America has been experiencing the longest economic increase in its history. Inco

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America has been experiencing the longest economic increase in its history. Incomes have risen, unemployment has fallen, and cities such as New York are bursting with new office buildings.
But just a short walk from Manhattan’s skyscrapers, George Brown sits on the side-walk, cooking a lunch of rice and bits of fish over a can of cooking fuel.
Brown is homeless——one of the 2.3 million people in the US who end up on the street.
During the day, Brown collects aluminum cans and sells them for five cents a piece. At night, he sleeps on the street.
“I have been on the street about eight or nine years, something like that,” said the 62-year-old former construction worker.
Brown admits he had problems with alcohol and has smoked cocaine. But he said he still wants a more stable housing arrangement. He could afford it just with the money he earns by collecting cans and small pieces of metal, if only truly low-income housing were available.
However, he sees no hope of finding affordable housing in New York.
With the strong economy and unemployment down, beautiful housing is being built to meet demand.
A US report shows rents in New York City rose more than 27 per cent, from ＄549 to ＄700 a month.
One of the side effects of the strong economy is that rents have been going up.
The majority of people who experience homelessness really just need some affordable housing help.
But few housing companies are building for the poor. Many small apartments in the city now rent for ＄1,500 a month or more.
Brown, the homeless New Yorker, said he has a daughter who lives in the city but he rarely sees her. She is angry about his drinking and won’t allow it in her house.
Smiling, he said he also has seven grandchildren whom he’d like to see more often. “All I’ve got to do is clean up my act,” he said.
小题1:What kind of life does George Brown lead?

A．Stable.

B．Dangerous.

C．Hard.

D．Comfortable.

小题2: It can be inferred from this passage that .

A．America is short of housing companies

B．the poor can’t benefit from the increasing economy

C．poor people in America will become rich

D．housing companies will build more houses for the poor

小题3:The underlined part “clean up my act” in the last paragraph means “   ”.
A. remove my cans                B kick my bad habits
C. make a lot of money             D. see my grandchildren
小题4:Which part of a newspaper is the passage possibly taken from?

A．Society.

B．Science.

C．Arts.

D．Business.

答案

小题1:C
小题2:B
小题3:B
小题4:A

解析

略

举一反三

John Smith was a writer, who wrote detective stories for magazines, though he never dealt with criminals（罪犯）. One evening he could not finish an end for a story. He sat in his study（书房）, but he had no ideas. So he decided to go to the cinema.
When he came back, he found that he had had a visitor. Someone had broken into his house. The visitor had had a drink, smoked several of his cigarettes and had read his story. The visitor left him a note.
“I have read your story and I don’t think it is very good. Please read my suggestions and you can finish it. By the way, I am a thief. I’m not going to steal anything tonight. But if you become a successful writer, I will return.”
John read the thief’s suggestions. Then he sat down and wrote the rest of the story. He is still not a successful writer, and he is waiting for his “visitor” to return. Before he goes out in the evening, he always leaves a half-finished story in his study.
56. Detective stories are stories about      .
A. science        B. children      C. the future      D. the police
57. John went to the cinema because                    .
A. he was too tired
B. he wanted to look for a thief
C. he could not finish his story and hoped to get some ideas
D. he wanted to enjoy himself in the cinema
58. The visitor came to John’s house in order to              .
A. steal something B. read the story C. have a drink D. visit the writer
59 The visitor                   .
A. stayed in John’s house for a night    B. took some of John’s things away
C. left John some advice

D. was a good friend of John’s
60. John would like to .
A. have a talk with his visitor
B. get more ideas from the visitor
C. make friends with the visitor
D. catch the visitor and take him to the police
DCAC

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第二节：完形填空（共20小题，每题1分，满分20分）
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项。
I got lots of interesting experiences in a free school. At first I couldn’t believe it. There were no    41   in rows or loud-sounding bells, nor did anyone have to go to   42  . Although we lived “in”,    43  made us go to bed at a certain time; there was no “ lights out”.
The    44 thing was that practically all the students went to class, and very few people stayed up late at night. Only the new people stayed up or    45 class. The new ones always went wild    46  , but his wildness never lasted long. The freedom took some getting used to. Our teachers treated us like _47 ; never did we have to   48_  “ stand up”, “ sit down”, “ speak out”. I don’t   49   one student who didn’t try his best.
The subjects were the same as those in the ___50_____ school, but what a difference in the method! For example, in botany (植物学) we had   51__ classes in the spring or fall, but instead we planted two gardens, a vegetable garden and a flower garden. Then in winter we each studied a few    52 things about what we had grown. In math the students built three different sizes of storerooms---small ones   53  , but usable. They did this instead of having lessons in the classroom. They really had a    54 time, too, designing everything, drawing the blueprints(蓝图;设计图), figuring out the angles and so on. I didn’t take    55__ . But I could do the basic things with numbers. That’s   56  .
57_    I think I am a     58   person for having gone to the school. I can read and write as well as anyone else of my age, and I think better. That’s probably a real big      ___59    between the free school and the regular school--- the amount of    60  .
41.A.desks           B. lights         C. books            D. windows
42.A. home           B. bed          C. class             D. work
43.A. teachers         B. parents        C. nobody           D. somebody
44.A. sad             B. last           C. good             D. strange
45.A. attended         B. took          C. missed           D. studied
46.A. from then on     B. at first         C. once more        D. just then
47.A. workers         B. pupils         C. gardeners         D. grown- ups
48.A. play            B. say           C. study             D. understand
49.A. hear from        B. feel like      C. think about        D. know of
50.A. night            B. regular        C. small            D. real
51.A. all              B. short         C. no               D. indoor
52.A.wild             B. successful     C. interested        D. particular
53.A. as well          B. after a while  C. of course         D. as a result
54.A. funny           B. great         C. convenient        D. terrible
55.A. math          B. angle         C. botany           D. gardens
56.A. uninteresting     B. interesting    C. enough          D. dangerous
57.A.On the whole     B. Once again     C. Sooner or later     D. After a while
58.A. careful          B. better         C. busier            D. lovely
59.A. problem         B. chance        C. difference         D. change
60.A. reading         B. gardening     C. teaching          D. thinking

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If you’ve ever seen a James Bond movie you’ll know that the hero gets around in a smart Aston Martin car. Even if you know full well that you could never afford such an expensive vehicle, you don’t forget the name, or the car. Why? You have been subjected to product placement.
Companies pay for a film to place their products in the movie. Product placement took off in the West in the 1980s and is now catching on in China. Two Hunan Satellite TV series are recent examples：Ugly Wudi and Let’s Go Watch the Meteror Shower（《一起去看流星雨》）. Shampoo, mobile phones, cars— anything can be product-placed. Advertisers value the great appeal (吸引力) of the movies, knowing that a successful film can showcase their goods to hundreds of thousands of viewers. But when product placement takes over, artistic value can take a back seat.
Cai Zhiyong has been product-placing for years. The Beijing-based advertiser admits there is a conflict between art and business. He explains cash-strapped filmmakers often have to sacrifice (牺牲) the quality of their work because they need money from advertisers. In the original story for Meteor Shower, the heroine’s mother owned an ice cream shop. But no ice cream company wanted to give away money to the film. For this reason, the story was changed. In the film the man drinks 20 cups of milk tea where it was originally intended that he would eat ice cream.
Even here incredible, you may see the power of business over the movies, since the flim was perhaps written so that a product could be placed— whether it was ice cream or milk tea.
James Bond movies are mentioned in the first paragraph to show _________.
A. how popular James Bond is      B. how great the Aston Martin car is
C. how to make a movie more artistic   D. how well product placement works
Product placement can have a bad effect on the _________ of a movie.
A. sound effect            B. appeal
C. commercial success         D. artistic value
What does the underlined word “cash-strapped” in Paragraph 6 probably mean?
A. Short of money.        B. Self-moneymaking
C. With a lot of cash.           D. Intending to earn money
We can learn from the example of Meteor Shower that __________.
A. business has a big say in the movie
B. the original story was not good for a movie
C. filmmakers care more about making money.
D. milk tea companies are more successful than ice cream companies.

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第三部分阅读理解（共20小题。每小题2分，满分40分）
　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
Events took place around the world last week to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The March eighth observance came as thousands of delegates from one hundred thirty countries met at the United Nations in New York. They discussed progress on a plan of action for women"s equality. The document was approved ten years ago at a conference in Beijing.
It calls for improved health care for women, along with economic and political gains. It also calls for efforts to reduce human rights violations against women.
In Asia last Tuesday, there were demonstrations against unfair treatment of women.
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a Conference of Women Leaders. Laura Bush, the president"s wife, spoke at the event which had representatives from fifteen Muslim nations. The first lady praised recent political gains for Muslim women.
In Afghanistan, for example, President Hamid Karzai has appointed the first female governor of a province. In Iraq, women hold almost one-third of the 249 seats in the newly elected National Assembly. And Missus Bush noted that nearly half the voters in the Palestinian presidential election were women.
International Women’s Day began in nineteen ten in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was designed to build support for voting rights for women worldwide. Missus Bush noted that it took American women many years to be recognized as full citizens with the right to vote.
Last week, just before International Women Day"s, hundreds of women and men demonstrated in Kuwait to demand the right for women to vote. The government urged parliament to act quickly to debate such reforms.
Also last Monday, Human Rights Watch released a report on sexual violence by soldiers and members of armed groups in eastern Congo. The New York-based group says tens of thousands of women and young girls have been raped and beaten. Yet it says almost all the crimes have gone without punishment.
51．According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. The document on women’s equality has not been approved yet.
B. Muslim women’s rights have been improved.
C. Palestinian women are totally equal now.
D. Kuwait women urged government to reform.
52. About how many women have been elected into National Assembly?
A. 166 B. 83 C. 249 D. 124
53. You can most probably read the text in ________.
A. a textbook B. a magazine C. a newspaper D. a biology book
54. What’s the best title of the text?
A. International Women’s Day
B. Women’s equal rights
C. How to ensure women’s equal rights
D. How do people celebrate International Women’s Day

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E
A United Nations report says the number of people in the world is expected to reach 6500 million this July. By the middle of the century, the population could reach more than 9000 million. That would be an increase of 40﹪.
These numbers are fresh estimates for a report on world population change from 1950 to 2050. Hania Zlotnik is director of the U.N. Population Division. She says the world has added nearly 500 million people in the last six years.
But, in her words, "the good news is that new estimates show that it will take a little longer" to add the next 500 million. Mizz Zlotnik says this will probably happen by 2013.
The U.N. report says most population growth by 2050 will take place in less developed countries. Their population is expected to increase from 5000 million today to almost 8000 million. The population of more developed nations is expected to stay about the same, at just over 1000 million.
The report says nine countries will be responsible for about half the world population increase by 2050. These include Bangladesh, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and India. The others are Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and the United States.
Twelve countries are expected to have populations at least three times the size now. These include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and East Timor. The others are Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger and Uganda.
The report says birth rates remain low in forty-four developed countries.
Today, worldwide, there is an average of two-point-six children per woman. This number is expected to fall to just over two children per woman in 2050. But U.N. population experts note that they cannot be sure which way birth rates will go in the future.
The U.N. report also notes that AIDS has increased death rates and slowed population growth in sixty countries. The area most affected by the disease is Southern Africa.
There, how long people live has fallen from an average of sixty-two years in 1995 to forty-eight now. Researchers believe life expectancy will fall to forty-three years by 2015, then begin a slow recovery.
67. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The population growth will slow down in the next few years.
B. Most population growth will take place in developed countries.
C. There is an average of 2.6 children per woman in developed countries.
D. The area most affected by AIDS is Uganda.
68. Which one is the best title of this passage?
A. AIDS slowed population growth.
B. Most population growth will take place in less developed countries.
C. Population growth and death rate.
D. UN world population report.
69．The author believes that the population growth results from_______
A. The birth rate in developed countries is too high.
B. The birth rate in developing countries is too high.
C. AIDS hit only a few countries.
D. A decrease in death rate.
70. Which of the following best describe the author’s attitude towards the rapid population growth?
A. sympathetic B. happy C. optimistic D. critical

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