41. Important people don’t often have much free time as their work (_____)_ all their time.

2. Passage Seventeen No one knows how man learned to make words. Perhaps he began by making sounds like those made by animals. Perhaps he grunted like a pig when he lifted something heavy. Perhaps he made sounds like those he heard all round him——water splashing， bees humming， a stone falling to the ground. Somehow， he learned to make words. As the centuries went by， he made more and more new words. This is what we mean by language. People living in different countries made different kinds of words. Today there are about fifteen hundred different languages in the world. Each contains many thousands of words. A very large English dictionary， for example， contains four or five hundred thousand words. But we do not need all these. Only a few thousand words are used in everyday life. The words you know are called your vocabulary. You should try to make your vocabulary bigger. You’re supposed to read as many books as you can. There are plenty of books written in easy English for you to read. You will enjoy them. When you meet a new word， you should find it in your dictionary. Your dictionary is your most useful book.The number of different languages spoken is about ( ) .

A. 150

B. 1500

C. 5000

D. 4000

1. Passage Twenty-Five Online dating has just been revealed to be one of the most common ways to start a relationship. But new research reveals that the concept is still highly flawed (有缺陷的). An analysis of 400 studies into online dating shows that while it offers access to plenty of other singles， users can be overwhelmed and put off by the volume of choice， defeating the purpose. The research， by Northwestern University and published in the journal Psychological Science in the public interest， found that the processes involved don’t lend themselves to forming strong relationships. The findings also indicated that the concept of an online profile (介绍) is not entirely useful and “can result in treating potential partners as mere objects ”. Lead author Eli. J. Finkel explained， “Online dating is a terrific addition for singles to meet. However， there are two problems. ” First， studying over seemingly endless lists of profiles of people one does not know， as on Match.com， does not reveal much about them. Second， it “overloads people and they end up shutting down，” he said. He compared it to shopping at “supermarkets of love” and said psychological research shows people presented with too many choices tend to make lazy and often poor decisions. The study’s authors also questioned the algorithms ( 算法) employed by sites such as eHarmony.com to match people based on their interests or personality—comparing it to having a real estate agent of love. While the algorithm may reduce the number of potential partners from thousands to a few， they may be as unsuitable for each other as two people meeting at random， Dr. Finkel explained， adding the chances are no better than finding a relationship by walking into any bar. “There’s no better way to figure out whether you’re a match with somebody than talking to them over a coffee or beer，” Dr. Finkel said. What is the author’s attitude towards online dating?

A. Negative.

B. Positive.

C. Indifferent.

D. Neutral.

35. Sam used to (_____) late with his roommates and play computer games.

A. 　 stay in

B. 　 stay up

C. 　 stay on

D. 　 stay away

3. Passage Five The appeal of advertising to buying motives can have both negative and positive effects. Consumers may be convinced to buy a product of poor quality or high price because of an advertisement. For example， some advertisers have appealed to people’s desire for better fuel economy for their cars by advertising automotive products that improve gasoline mileage. Some of the products work. Others are worthless and a waste of consumers’ money. Sometimes advertising is intentionally misleading. A few years ago， a brand of bread was offered to dieters with the message that there were fewer calories in every slice. It turned out that the bread was not dietetic， but just regular bread. There were fewer calories because it was sliced very thin， but there were the same number of calories in every loaf. On the positive side， emotional appeals may respond to a consumer’s real concerns. Consider fire insurance. Fire insurance may be sold by appealing to fear of loss. But fear of loss is the real reason for fire insurance. The security of knowing that property is protected by insurance makes the purchase of fire insurance a worthwhile investment for most people. If consumers consider the quality of the insurance plans as the message in the ads， they will benefit from the advertising. Each consumer must evaluate her or his own situation. Are the benefits of the product important enough to justify buying it? Advertising is intended to appeal to consumers， but it does not force them to buy the product. Consumers still control the final buying decision. The passage tells us that ( ) .

A. sometimes advertisements really sell what the consumer needs

B. advertisements occasionally force consumers into buying things they don’t need

C. the buying motives of consumers are controlled by advertisements

D. fire insurance is seldom a worthwhile investment

1. Passage Sixteen Justin was always prepared. His motto was “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” His bedroom was so full of flat bicycle tires， bent tennis rackets， deflated basketballs， and games with missing pieces that you could barely get in the door. His parents asked him to clean out his room. “What use is a fish tank with a hole in the bottom?” his father asked. But Justin simply smiled and repeated his motto， “Never throw anything out， you never know when it might come in handy.” When Justin was away from home， he always carried his blue backpack. He liked to think of it as a smaller version of his bedroom——a place to store the many objects that he collected. It was so worn and stretched that it hardly resembled a backpack anymore. It was full of the kind of things that seemed unimportant， but when used with a little imagination， might come in handy. Justin had earned a reputation for figuring things out and getting people out of otherwise hopeless situations. Many of his classmates and neighbors sought him out when they needed help with a problem. On the first day of school， his friend Kenny， came looking for Justin. “Do you think you have something in your bag that could help me remember my locker code?” he asked. “I lost the paper it was written on. I have science class in two minutes and if I’m late on the first day it’ll make me look bad for the rest of the year.” Kenny looked genuinely worried. “Relax，” Justin said， taking his backpack off and opened it. “Remember how you borrowed my notebook in hometown to write the code down? Well， I know how we can recover what you wrote. ” He took the notebook and a soft lead pencil out of his bag. The page that Kenny had written on had left faint indentations (旧凹痕) on another page in the notebook. Justin held the pencil on its side and rubbed it lightly over the indentations. Slowly but surely the numbers of the locker code appeared in white， set off by the gray pencil rubbings. “That’s amazing!” Kenny said. “I owe you one.” And he dashed off to open his locker. Why is Justin’s room such a mess?

A. He always forgets to clean it.

B. He never throws anything away.

C. He has no time to clean it.

D. He shares a room with Kenny.

47. The best way to make friends is to start a conversation with someone and (_____)what your common interests are and go from there.

A. 　 lead to

B. 　 lay down

C. 　 keep on

D. 　 find out

5. Passage Nineteen A 3-year-old boy who was lost in the woods for two days is now safe at home. But Casey Hathaway told his rescuers that he was not alone in the rainy， freezing cold woods. He said he was with a friend——abear. The child went missing on January 22 while playing with friends at his grandmother’s house in the southern state of North Carolina. When the other children returned to the house and Casey did not， the family searched the area for almost an hour before calling the police. Police formed a search and rescue team to look for the young boy in the nearby woods. But two days went by and still——no Casey. The woods of North Carolina are home to many black bears， like this one. It seems one of them helped a little boy while he was lost in the woods. Then on January 24， someone called the police saying they heard a child crying in the woods. Police followed up on the information and found Casey at about 9:30 that night. They pulled him out of some briar (荆棘). He was in good health. Police Officer Chip Hughes said that Casey did not say how he was able to survive in the woods for two days in the cloud， rainy weather， but that “he did say he had a friend in the woods that was a bear that was with him. ” Hundreds of people helped in the search and rescue efforts， including some 600 volunteers， federal police and members of the military. Hughes told reporters that at no point did he think Casey had been kidnapped (绑架). Doctors at Carolina East Medical Center treated Casey for minor injuries. He was then released to his family on January 25 .All the following are mentioned as those helping in the rescue efforts EXCEPT ( ) .

A. reporters

B. volunteers

C. federal police

D. members of the military

1. Passage Twenty-Eight On November 19， 1863， Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery. The Civil War was still going on. There was much criticism of President Lincoln at the time. He was not at all popular. He had been invited to speak at Gettysburg only out of politeness. The principal speaker was to be Edward Everett， a famous statesman and speaker of the day. Everett was a handsome man and very popular everywhere. It is said that Lincoln prepared his speech on the train while going to Gettysburg. Late that night， alone in his hotel room and tired out， he again worked briefly on the speech. The next day Everett spoke first. He spoke for an hour and 57 minutes. His speech was a perfect example of the rich oratory of the day. Then Lincoln rose. The crowd of 15，000 people at first paid little attention to him. He spoke for only nine minutes. At the end there was little applause. Lincoln turned to a friend and remarked， “I have failed again.” On the train back to Washington， he said sadly， “That speech was a flat failure， and the people are disappointed” . Some newspapers at first criticized the speech， but little by little as people read the speech， they began to understand better. They began to appreciate its simplicity and its deep meaning. It was a speech which only Abraham Lincoln could have made. Today， every American school child learns Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address by heart. Now everyone thinks of it as one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history. In 1863， Abraham Lincoln was ( ) .

A. very critical

B. unpopular

C. very popular

D. very courteous

33. Gold has been highly prized throughout the ages due chiefly to (_____)_.

A. 　 it is scarce

B. 　 so scarce is it

C. 　 scarcity of it

D. 　 its scarcity

34. The terrible weather eventually (_____) our holiday

A. 　 destroyed

B. 　 damaged

C. 　 spoiled

D. 　 defeated