When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices （装置） tell the time — which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007.

But while the wise have realized that they don’t need them, others — apparently including some distinguished men of our time — are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to ￡250,000 for a piece.

This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Expensive watches come with extra functions — but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?

If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world.

Watches are now classified as “investments” （投资）. A 1994 Patek Philippe recently sold for nearly ￡350,000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from ￡15,000 to ￡30,000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It’s a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up — they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that ￡350,000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Timex.

1.The sales of watches to young people have fallen because they      .

A. have other devices to tell the time              B. think watches too expensive

C. prefer to wear an iPod                       D. have no sense of time

2.It seems ridiculous to the writer that ______.

A. people dive 300 metres into the sea

B. expensive clothes sell better than cheap ones

C. cheap cars don’t run as fast as expensive ones

D. expensive watches with unnecessary functions still sell

3.What can be learnt about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

A. It targets rich people as its potential customers.

B. It’s hard for the industry to beat its competitors.

C. It wastes a huge amount of money in advertising.

D. It’s easy for the industry to reinvent cheap watches.

4.Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Timex or Rolex?                      B. My Childhood Timex

C. Watches? Not for Me!                     D. Watches — a Valuable Collection

Three years ago, five parrots were set free in a wild place of Arizona, thousands of miles from the Channel Islands in Jersey where they had been looked after by zookeepers. No evolutionary strategies informed them how to behave in this new landscape of mountainous pine forest unoccupied by their kind for 50 years. To the researchers’ surprise, they failed to make contact with a group of wild parrots imported from Mexico and set free at the same time. Within 24 hours the reintroducing ended in failure, and the poor birds were back in cages, on their way to the safety of the Arizona reintroduction programme.

Ever since then, the programme has enjoyed great success, mainly because the birds now being set free are Mexican birds illegally caught in the wild, confiscated （没收） on arrival north of the border, and raised by their parents in the safety of the programme. The experience shows how little we know about the behaviour and psychology （心理） of parrots, as Peter Bennett, a bird researcher, points out: “Reintroducing species of high intelligence like parrots is a lot more difficult. People like parrots, always treating them as nothing more than pets or valuable ‘collectables’.”

Now that many species of parrot are in immediate danger of dying out, biologists are working together to study the natural history and the behaviour of this family of birds. Last year was an important turning point: conservationists founded the World Parrot Trust, based at Hayle in Cornwall, to support research into both wild and caged birds.

Research on parrots is vital for two reasons. First, as the Arizona programme showed, when reintroducing parrots to the wild, we need to be aware of what the birds must know if they are to survive in their natural home. We also need to learn more about the needs of parrots kept as pets, particularly as the Trust’s campaign does not attempt to discourage the practice, but rather urges people who buy parrots as pets to choose birds raised by humans.

1.What do we know about the area where the five parrots were reintroduced?

A. Its landscape is new to parrots of their kind.

B. It used to be home to parrots of their kind.

C. It is close to where they had been kept.

D. Pine trees were planted to attract birds.

2.The reintroducing experience three years ago shows that man-raised parrots

A. can find their way back home in Jersey

B. are unable to recognize their parents

C. are unable to adapt to the wild

D. can produce a new species

3.Why are researches on parrots important according to the passage?

A. The Trust shows great concern for the programme.

B. We need to know more about how to preserve parrots.

C. Many people are interested in collecting parrots.

D. Parrots’ intelligence may some day benefit people.

4.According to the passage, people are advised ______.

A. to treat wild and caged parrots equally

B. to set up comfortable homes for parrots

C. not to keep wild parrots as pets

D. not to let more parrots go to the wild

My grandfather came from Hungary and was the only one in his family who settled down in the United States. The rest of his family remained in Europe. When World War I broke out, he seemed to have become another man, downhearted. Such obvious change was not born out of concern for his welfare, but out of fear: if his only son, my uncle, had to go to war, it would be cousin fighting against cousin.

One day in 1918, my Uncle Milton received his draft notice. My grandparents were very upset. But my mother, at the age of 10, felt on top of the world about her soldier brother going off to war. Realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and all of her friends, my uncle bought them all service pins, which meant that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted.

The moment came when my uncle and the other soldiers, without any training but all in uniforms, boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. Although no one noticed. I’m sure my grandmother had a tear in her eye for the only son. The train slowly pulled out, but not about a thousand yards when it suddenly paused. Everyone stared in wonder as the train slowly returned to the station. There was a dead silence before the doors opened and the men started to step out. Someone shouted, “The war is over!” For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. The men lined up in two lines, walked down the steps, and with the band playing, marched down the street, as returning heroes, to be welcomed home. My mother said it was a great day, but she was just a little disappointed that it didn’t last a tiny bit longer.

1.What the grandfather was most worried about was ______.

A. the spread of the world war              B. the safety of his two cousins

C. a drop in his living standards               D. his relatives killing each other

2.The underlined phrase “draft notice” means “______”.

A. order for army service                   B. train ticket for Europe

C. letter of rejection                      D. note of warning

3.What did the “service pins” （in Para. 2） stand for in the eyes of the little girls?

A. Strength.            B. Courage.         C. Victory.             D. Honor.

4.Which of the following words can best describe the ending of the story?

A. Disappointing.       B. Unexpected.      C. Uncertain.           D. Inspiring.

阅读下面短文，从短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

There was a very special teacher who made a far-reaching difference in my life.

Fall, 1959, the first day of class at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School was about to begin. “Who”, I asked a senior, “is Mrs. McNamara, my 10^th grade English teacher?” He just  1and said something about my being in  2. Soon, I understood what he meant. Mrs. McNamara had a pattern of  3that she repeated again and again. We would have a literature reading task for  4. The next day, when we came to class, there would be two or three topics on the blackboard  5to the homework reading. We were  6to write an in-class essay about one of the topics. The following day, she would  7the corrected and graded essays and each person would be called  8to stand in front of the class and to  9his/her essay. The class were required to criticize （评论） that essay,  10the grade of everyone in class would be reduced.

The first time that I  11her read-write-criticize method, I had not  12to do the homework and had written something without knowing what it meant.  13the extreme embarrassment I suffered, standing before my classmates,  14myself. No one laughed at me; no one would be  15enough, or foolish enough, to do that in Mrs. McNamara’s class. The embarrassment came from  16and along with it came a strong  17not to let it happen again.

Mrs. McNamara kept all of our written work in files; it was easy to see the  18in writing that had occurred. What was not so easy to see was the inner transformation that had taken place, at least for me. What Mrs. McNamara  19me to do was to see myself as others see me and, having done that, I could improve myself. And I  20. Thank you, Mrs. McNamara.

1..A.nodded             B. laughed         C. apologized      D. shouted

2.A. trouble            B. sorrow          C. danger          D. anger

3.A. behaviour          B. evaluation           C. activity             D. thought

4.A. review             B. performance     C. practice             D. homework

5.A. added              B. related              C. contributed          D. compared

6.A. expected           B. persuaded       C. allowed         D. advised

7.A. collect           B. return               C. send            D. receive

8.A. on purpose         B. at first             C. by chance       D. in turn

9.A. talk through      B. hand over       C. read out             D. show off

10.A. so                B. and              C. but              D. or

11.A. tried            B. adopted         C. examined         D. experienced

12.A. undertaken       B. attempted            C. bothered        D. hesitated

13.A. Remember          B. Predict         C. Bear             D. Imagine

14.A. playing jokes on      B. making a fool of     C. setting a trap for   D. taking advantage of

15.A. brave            B. careless             C. proud           D. selfish

16.A. above             B. within          C. behind          D. below

17.A. tendency         B. preference           C. determination        D. sense

18.A. improvements      B. pains           C. difficulties         D. advantages

19.A. trusted               B. invited              C. forced               D. permitted

20.A. did               B. could           C. had              D. would

 His efforts to raise money for his program were ______ because, no one showed any intention to take a cent out of their pockets.

A. in place      B. in sight          C. in effect         D. in vain

 You’d sound a lot more polite if you make a request ______ a question.

A. in search of                      B. in the form of

C. in need of                        D. in the direction of

 The questionnaire takes ______ ten to fifteen minutes to complete and can be used along with the assessment interview.

A. mainly       B. punctually       C. approximately    D. precisely

 As there is less and less coal and oil, scientists are exploring new ways of making use of ______ energy, such as sunlight, wind and water for power and fuel.

A. primary      B. alternative       C. instant          D. unique

 In our class, when the bell rang and the teacher closed his book, it was a ______ for everyone to stand up.

A. signal        B. chance          C. mark            D. measure

 Hiking by oneself can be fun and good for health. It may also be good for ______ building.

A. respect       B. friendship        C. reputation        D. character