“Sesame Street” has been called “the longest street in the world”. That is because the television program by that name can now be seen in so many parts of the world. That program became one of American’s exports soon after it went on the air in New York in 1969.
In the United States more than six million children watch the program regularly. The viewers include more than half the nation’s pre-school children, from every kind of economic, racial, and geographical group.
Although some educators don’t agree to certain elements in the program, parents praise it highly. Many teachers also consider it a great help, though some teachers find that problems appear when first graders who have learned from “Sesame Street” are in the same class with children who have not watched the program.
Tests have shown that children from all racial, geographical, and economic backgrounds have benefited from watching it. Those who watch it five times a week learn more than occasional(偶然的) viewers. In the US the program is shown at different hours during the week in order to increase the number of children who can watch it regularly.
The programs all use songs, stories, jokes, and pictures to give children a basic understanding of numbers, letters and human relationships. But there are some differences. For example, the Spanish program, produced in Mexico City, devotes more time to teaching whole words than to teaching separate letters.
Why has “Sesame Street” been so much more successful than other children’s shows? Many reasons have been suggested. People mention the educational theories of its creators, the support by the government and private businesses, and the skillful use of a variety of TV tricks. Perhaps an equally important reason is that mothers watch it along with their children. This is partly because famous adult stars often appear on it. But the best reason for the success of the program may be that it makes every child watching feel able to learn. The child finds himself learning, and he wants to learn more.
1. Children who often watch the program _______.
A. can have problems in school B. will be well educated
C. will take no interest in their studies D. have benefited from it
2. What is special about the program?
A. Children learn and enjoy themselves while watching.
B. It makes children feel able to learn.
C. It is shown at different hours during the week.
D. It offers great fun.
3. Why is “Sesame Street” so popular in the world?
A. Because it is supported by the government and businesses.
B. Because it uses a variety of skillful tricks.
C. Because it makes every child watching it feel able to learn.
D. Because mothers watch it along with their children.
4. The best title for this passage can be _ ______.
A. TV Programs B. Sesame Street
C. Educating Children D. A Great Success
A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.
This attitude toward manual labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every proof of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward, furthermore the dinner will not consist only of something quickly and easily collected from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby shop. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction group on a highway in order to pay for his education.
1. From paragraph 1, we can know that in America _________.
A. people feel painful to mention their fathers as labors.
B. people can always rise to the top through their won efforts
C. college professors win great respect from common workers
D. people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man
2. According to the passage, the hostess cooks dinner herself mainly because _________.
A. she takes pride in what she can do herself
B. servants in American are hard to get
C. she can hardly afford servants
D. It is easy to prepare a meal with canned food
3. The expression “ wait on table” in the second paragraph means “_________”.
A. work in a furniture shop B. keep accounts for a bar
C. serve customers in a restaurant D. wait to lay the tabl
4. Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage?
A. A Respectable Self-made Family B.American Attitude toward Manual Labor
C. Characteristics of American Culture D. The Development of Manual Labor
No one wants to look silly or do the wrong thing at a new job. It is important to make the right impression from the very first day. You will face new people. You will be in a new place. It may be difficult to know what to do. Here are five tips to help you make it through the first days at a new job:
First impressions can last forever: Make sure you make a good one. Before your first day, find out if your new job has a dress code. If so, be sure to follow it. No matter what, always be neat and clean.
Get to work in time: Give yourself an extra 15 minutes to make sure you arrive on time.
Pay attention to introductions: One of the first things that your supervisor may do is to introduce you to co-workers. These co-workers will be important to you. They are the ones who will answer your questions when the boss is not around.
Ask plenty of questions: Make sure that your supervisor has told you what is expected of you. If he or she has not told you your duties, ask for a list. Set daily and weekly goals for yourself.
Never be the first one to leave: Observe what your co-workers do around quitting time. It does not look good for you to be eager to leave.
1. Before you arrive at work, you should_________.
A. introduce yourself B. dress in a right way
C. know your duties D. know your co-workers well
2. According to the passage, which of the following statements is True?
A. You should be the first one to arrive at work.
B. You should ask your co-workers for your duties.
C. You are required to arrive 15 minutes earlier.
D. You should not be eager to go back home.
3. According to the passage, your supervisor is most likely your _____.
A. leader B. teacher C. workmate D. visitor
4. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Getting a New Job. B. Tips on How to Work.
C. The First-Day Work. D. The Importance of Co-workers.
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never found the time? Far too many.
This is life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal(排演)and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for real life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English: “Have a nice day”. They speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day .
How often do we say to ourselves “I’ll take up horse-riding( or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position,” only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be completely abnormal(反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area? I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.
1. The first paragraph of the passage tells us that ___________.
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom fulfill them
C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
2. The underlined phrase "turn his back on" most probably means________.
A. leave for B. return to C. give up D. rely on
3. The man left his first job partly because he was _________ .
A. in an abnormal mental state B. under too much pressure
C. not well paid D. not respected
4. What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Provide Homes For Our Family B. Take Up Horse-riding
C. Value This Very Day D. Stay Alive
第四部分：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。
The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs(手铐) and toes trained to escape ankle chains. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, passed quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? World-wild fame, and a name remembered today.
1. According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.
A. his special tricks and supernatural powers
B. his wisdom and magic tricks
C. his magic tricks and unhuman powers
D. his unusual ability and a skeleton key
2. In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.
A. the year 1898 B. his first prison escape
C. the publicity D. Harry Houdini’s success
3. It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous _______.
A. in 1894 B. before he married
C. when he was about 24 D. at the age of 17
4. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. A Man of Many Secrets B. A Skeleton Key
C. World-wild Fame D. Great Escape
第三节：完形填空（共20小题，每小题1.5分，满分30分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
The climate will be warm and __21___ with prolonged droughts in most of the world’s grain growing ___22__. Because of the increase in temperature, the ice cap will begin to melt and sea level is predicted to __23___ about ten meters, causing flood in many areas.
In the atmosphere, a concentration of carbon dioxide acts like the _24__ in the roof of a greenhouse. It allows the sun’s rays to pass _25___ easily on the way to the earth’s _26__, but prevents heat _27__ by the earth from escaping back into space. __28__, as the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide rises,because of the industrial burning of fossil fuels, this greenhouse effect could __29__ the temperature of the earth. The burning of fossil fuels __30__ carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide accumulates(积聚) in the atmosphere, and __31_ the greenhouse effect, the temperature of the earth’s surface could rise. __32__ this warming up took place, the polar ice caps would begin to melt,__33__raising sea level. The __34__ influence that seems to be cooling the earth is the variable behavior of the sun. As the sun rotates(旋转) on its orbit, it presents hotter or colder faces to the earth, and this seems to have a considerable effect __35__ the distribution of the earth’s atmospheric pressure and on the wind circulation. The heat __36__ of the sun also varied, the latest trend being __37__, the heat output appears to be decreasing and the indications are that the earth’s __38_ is entering a cooler cycle. Scientific models that take __39__ account this __40__ behavior of the sun are also predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age.
21. A. wet B. rainy C. dry D. icy
22. A. farms B. regions C. towns D. villages
23. A. rise B. appear C. move D. raise
24. A. glass B. shylight(天窗) C. chimney D. attic(顶楼)
25. A. by B. over C. in D. through
26. A. ground B. bottom C. floor D. surface
27. A. taken in B. sent out C. admitted to D. taken out
28. A. However B. Yet C. Afterwards D. Therefore
29. A. benefit B. forbid C. raise D. effect
30. A. leads to B. gives off C. results from D. joins hands
31. A. as to B. as for C. without D. because of
32. A. Whether B. Before C. If D. After
33. A. so B. instead C. thus D. but
34. A. natural B. unusual C. former D. ordinary
35. A. in B. on C. over D. at
36. A. input B. activity C. output D. movement
37. A. downward B. upward C. forward D. onward
38. A. pressure B. surface C. climate D. appearance
39. A. from B. into C. in D. on
40. A. unbelievable B. dull C. variable D. hidden
