a disembodied (空洞的) spirit, almost ___54___ of his person and moving in a mist of impressions and emotions, and a fiercely competitive individual trying ___55___ to control the rush of events that were the steps in his own ___56___ from child to man. He believed that everything was a matter of ___57___ — the current principle of American education — and his fantastic ___58___ was continually leading him to expect too much. He wanted to be a great athlete, popular, brilliant and always happy. During this year at school, where he had been punished for his “freshness,” for fifteen years of thorough spoiling at home, he had grown uselessly introspective, and this ___59___ with that observation of others which is the beginning of wisdom. It was apparent that before he obtained much success in dealing with the world he would know that he?d been in a fight.
Fifteen is of all ages the most difficult to ___60___——— to put one?s fingers on and say, “That?s the way I was.” And all one can know is that somewhere between thirteen, boyhood?s ___61___, and seventeen, when one is a sort of counterfeit young man, there is a time when youth ___62___ hourly between one world and another —— pushed ceaselessly forward into unprecedented experiences and
___63___ trying to struggle back to the days when nothing had to be ___64___ for. Fortunately none of our contemporaries remember much more than we do of how we behaved in those days; nevertheless the ___65___ is about to be drawn aside for an inspection of Basil?s madness that summer.
51. A. boarded B. missed C. jumped D.followed 52. A. happy B. unhappy C.memorable D.favourable 53. A. swelling B. bending C. lengthening D. strengthening 54. A. aware B.fond C. critical D. unconscious 55. A. randomly B. desperately C. particularly D. indifferently 56. A. evolution B. revolution C. solution D.introduction 57. A. fact B. opinion C. course D. effort 58. A. fashion B. ambition C. character D. treasure 59. A. contacted B. associated C. interfered D. smashed 60. A. digest B.describe C. deal D. locate 61. A. majority B. minority C. senior D. junior 62. A. floats B. varies C. fluctuates D. ranges 63. A. successfully B. vainly C. wildly D. gently 64. A. hunted B. provided C. compensated D. paid 65. A.curtain B. adolescence C. portrait D. ceiling
Section B
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
There are people in Italy who can?t stand soccer. Not all Canadians love hockey. A similar situation exists in America, where there are those individuals you may be one of them who yawn or even frown when somebody mentions baseball. Baseball to them means boring hours watching grown men in funny tight outfits standing around in a field staring away while very little of anything happens. They tell you it?s a game better suited to the 19th century, slow, quiet, gentlemanly. These are the same people you may be one of them who love football because there?s the sport that glorifies “the hit”.
By contrast, baseball seems abstract, cool, silent, still.
On TV the game is fractured into a dozen perspectives, replays, close ups. The geometry of the game, however, is essential to understanding it. You will contemplate the game from one point as a painter does his subject; you may, of course, project yourself into the game. It is in this projection that the game affords so much space and time for involvement. The TV won?t do it for you.
Take, for example, the third baseman. You sit behind the third base dugout and you watch him watching home plate. His legs are apart, knees flexed. His arms hang loose. He does a lot of this. The skeptic still cannot think of any other sports so still, so passive. But watch what happens every time the pitcher throws: the third baseman goes up on his toes, flexes his arms or brings the glove to a point in front of him, takes a step right or left, backward or forward, perhaps he glances across the field to check his first baseman?s position. Suppose the pitch is a ball. “Nothing happened,” you say. “I could have had my eyes closed.”
The skeptic and the innocent must play the game. And this involvement in the stands is no more intellectual than listening to music is. Watch the third baseman. Smooth the dirt in front of you with one foot; smooth the pocket in your glove; watch the eyes of the batter, the speed of the bat, the sound of horsehide on wood. If football is a symphony of movement and theatre, baseball is chamber music, a spacious interlocking of notes, chores and responses.
66. Those who don?t like baseball may complain that ______. A. it is only to the taste of the old B. it involves fewer players than football C. it is not exciting enough D. it is pretentious and looks funny 67. The author admits that ______.
A. baseball is too peaceful for the young B. baseball may seem boring when watched on TV C. football is more attracting than baseball D. baseball is more interesting than football 68. By stating ?I could have had my eyes closed.? the author means (4th paragraph last sentence): A. The third baseman would rather sleep than play the game.
B. Even if the third baseman closed his eyes a moment ago, it could make no difference to the result. C. The third baseman is so good at baseball that he could finish the game with eyes closed all the time
and do his work well.
D. The consequence was too bad he could not bear to see it. 69. We can safely conclude that the author ______. A. likes football B. hates football C. hates baseball D. likes baseball
(B)
Some of the world?s most significant problems never hit headlines. One example comes from agriculture. Food riots and hunger make news. But the trend lying behind these matters is rarely talked about. This is the decline in the growth in yields of some of the world?s major crops. A new study by the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal looks at where, and how far, this decline is occurring.
The authors take a vast number of data points for the four most important crops: rice, wheat corn and soybeans. They find that on between 24% and 39% of all harvested areas, the improvement in yields that took place before the 1980s slowed down in the 1990s and 2000s.
There are two worrying features of the slowdown. One is that it has been particularly sharp in the world?s most populous countries, India and China. Their ability to feed themselves has been an important source of relative stability both within the countries and on world food markets. That self-sufficiency cannot be taken for granted if yields continue to slow down or reverse.
Second, yield growth has been lower in wheat and rice than in corn and soya beans. This is problematic because wheat and rice are more important as foods, accounting for around half of all calories consumed. Corn and soybeans are more important as feed grains. The authors note that “we have preferentially focused our crop improvement efforts on feeding animals and cars rather than on crops that feed people and are the basis of food security in much of the world.”
The report qualifies the more optimistic findings of another new paper which suggests that the world will not have to dig up a lot more land for farming in order to feed 9 billion people in 2050, as the Food and Agriculture Organization has argued.
Instead, it says, thanks to slowing population growth, land currently ploughed up for crops might be able to revert to forest or wilderness. This could happen. The trouble is that the forecast assumes continued improvements in yields, which may not actually happen. 70. What does the author try to draw attention to? A. Food riots and hunger in the world. B. News headlines in the leading media. C. The decline of the grain yield growth. D. The food supply in populous countries. 71. Why does the author mention India and China in particular?
A. Their self-sufficiency is vital to the stability of world food markets. B. Their food yields have begun to decrease sharply in recent years. C. Their big populations are causing worldwide concerns. D. Their food self-sufficiency has been taken for granted.
72. What does the new study by the two universities say about recent crop improvement efforts? A. They fail to produce the same remarkable results as before the 1980s. B. They contribute a lot to the improvement of human food production. C. They play a major role in guaranteeing the food security of the world. D. They focus more on the increase of animal feed than human food grains.
73. What does the Food and Agriculture Organization say about world food production in the coming decades?
A. The growing population will greatly increase the pressure on world food supplies. B. The optimistic prediction about food production should be viewed with caution. C. The slowdown of the growth in yields of major food crops will be reversed. D. The world will be able to feed its population without increasing farmland. (C)
Among the more colorful characters of Leadville?s golden age were H.A.W. Tabor and his second wife, Elizabeth McCourt, better known as “Baby Doe”. Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. Horace Austin Warner Tabor was a school teacher in Vermont. With his first wife and two children he left Vermont by covered wagon in 1855 to homestead in Kansas. Perhaps he did not find farming to his liking, or perhaps he was tempted by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. At any rate, a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. “Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here.” he said.
As it turned out, it was silver, not lead, that was to make Leadville?s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store, which sold everything from boots to salt, flour, and tobacco. It was his custom to “grubstake” prospective miners, in other words, to supply them with food and supplies, or “grub”, while they looked for ore, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if
one was discovered. He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value.
Finally one day in the year 1878, so the story goes, two miners came in and asked for “grub”. Tabor had decided to quit supplying it because he had lost too much money that way. These were persistent, however, and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. “Oh help yourself. One more time won?t make any difference,” He said and went on selling shoes and hats to other customers. The two miners took $17 worth of supplies, in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings. They picked a barren place on the mountain side and began to dig. After nine days they struck a rich vein of silver. Tabor bought the shares of the other two men, and so the mine belonged to him alone. This mine, known as the “Pittsburgh Mine,” made 1 300 000 for Tabor in return for his $17 investment.
Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for $117 000. This turned out to be even more fabulous than the Pittsburgh, yielding $35 000 worth of silver per day at one time. Leadville grew. Tabor became its first mayor, and later became lieutenant governor of the state. 74. Leadville got its name for the following reasons EXCEPT ______. A. because Tabor became its leading citizen
B. because great deposits of lead is expected to be found there C. because it could bring good fortune to Tabor D. because Tabor renamed it so
75. The word “grubstake” in paragraph 2 means ______. A. to supply miners with food and supplies B. to open a general store
C. to do one?s contribution to the development of the mine
D. to supply miners with food and supplies and in return get a share in the mine, if one was discovered 76. Tabor made his first fortune ______.
A. by supplying two prospective miners and getting in return a one-third interest in the findings B. because he was persuaded by the two miners to quit supplying C. by buying the shares of the other D. as a land speculator
77. The underlying reason for Tabor?s life career is ______. A. purely accidental
B. based on the analysis of miner?s being very poor and their possibility of discovering profitable mining
site
C. through the help from his second wife
D. he planned well and accomplished targets step by step
Section C
Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words.
When the Internet powerhouse Yahoo wanted to teach ethics to its employees, it faced a challenge familiar to multinational companies.
Yahoo employs nearly 14,000 people at 25 sites worldwide. They would feel bored at sitting down in front of a dated video in which actors with 1980s haircuts tell them what to do. So it hired a company called The Network to design a game. In the game, the truck where Yahoo was
