A

Early one morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias

Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing

machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemed impossible to get the

thread to run smoothly around the needle.

Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream.

He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him

and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so,

Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the

needle. The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came

up towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something.

There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream,

realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the

thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the

center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and

build the first really practised sewing machine.

Elias Howe was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in

dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her

dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are

asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious(

无意识的

),

but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems

you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have

forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of

the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the

unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which the conscious

part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called

“

secret

messages to ourselves

”

.

1..According to the passage, Elias Howe was________.

A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep

B. much more hard-working than other inventors

C. the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked

D. the only person at the time who knew the value of dreams

problem Howe was trying to solve was________.

A. what kind of thread to use

B. how to design a needle which would not break

C. where to put the needle

D. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle

Edison is spoken of because________.

A. he also tried to invent a sewing machine

B. he got some of his ideas from dreams

C. he was one of Howe

’

s best friends

D. he also had difficulty in falling asleep

are sometimes called

“

secret messages to ourselves

”

because ________.

A. strange images are used to communicate ideas

B. images which have no meaning are used

C. we can never understand the real meaning

D. only specially trained people can understand them

B

Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount

of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long

listeners .Most children will

“

obey

”

spoken instructions some time before they can

speak, though the word

“

obey

”

is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and

delighted cooperation usually shown by the child .Before they can speak, many

children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first

spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making

noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as

particularly expressive as delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these can

’

t

be said to show the baby

’

s intention to communicate ,they can hardly be regarded as

early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with

sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their

store. This self- imitation

（模仿）

leads on to deliberate

（有意的）

imitation of sounds

made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the

point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

It is a problem we need to get out teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what

a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child

means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world .Thus the use

at seven months of

“

mama

”

as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a

meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog,

or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say

continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however whether

anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach

new sounds .

children start speaking________.

need equal amount of listening

need different amounts of listening

are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obeying spoken instructions

can

’

t understand and obey the adult

’

s oral instructions

en who start speaking late ________.

have problems with their listening

ly do not hear enough language spoken around them

y pay close attention to what they hear

take a long time in learning to listen properly

7.A baby

’

s first noises are ________.

expression of his moods and feelings

early form of language

C.a sign that he means to tell you something

imitation of the speech of adults

problem of deciding at what point a baby

’

s imitations can be considered as

speech________.

important because words have different meanings for different people

not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually

one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes

with age

one that should be completely ignored

（忽略）

because children

’

s use of words

is often meaningless

speaker implies________.

s can never hope to teach their children new sounds

en no longer imitate people after they begin to speak

en who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly

after they have learnt to speak, children still enjoy imitating

C

The greatest recent changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth

century there was an unusual shortening of the time of a woman

’

s life spent in

caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the 19th century would probably

have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children,

of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was

fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a

further twenty years, during which custom, chance and health made it unusual for her

to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a

woman

’

s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and is likely to take

paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has the care of children ,her work

is lightened by household appliances

（家用电器）

and convenience foods.

This important change in women

’

s way of life has only recently begun to have its

full effect on women

’

s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left

school at the first opportunity and most of them took a full-time job. However, when

they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the

school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age ,and though

women tend to marry younger ,more married women stay at work at least until shortly

before their first child is born. Many more after wads, return to full or part-time

changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with both husband and

wife accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfaction of family life, and with

both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money and running the

home, according to the abilities and interest of each of them.

are told that in an average family about 1990________.

children died before they were five

youngest child would be fifteen

of eight children lived to be more than five

or five children died when they were five

she was over fifty, the late 19th century mother________.

expect to work until she died

usually expected to take up paid employment

be healthy enough to take up paid employment

unlikely to find a job even if she is now likely

girls, the passage says, are now likely to ________.

so that they can get a job

school as soon as they can

up their jobs for good after they are married

ue working until they are going to have a baby

ing to the passage,it is now quite usual for women to ________.

at home after leaving school

men younger than themselves

working again later in life

while still at school

D

Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A

mistake on one inexpensive postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a

half times its original value.

The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony of

Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to

a London printer

-

Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue

stamps.

Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius

’

Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local

printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He accidentally inscribed the

words

“

Post Office

”

instead of

“

Post Paid

”

on the several hundred stamps that he

printed.

Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left fourteen One Penny

Orange-Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues. Because of the Two Penny Blue

’

s

rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as

＄

16 800 for it.

a century ago, Mauritius ________.

an independent country

ed to India

one of the British colonies

a small island in the Pacific Ocean

15. The mistake on the stamps was made ________.

Mauritius

Mauritius Government House

a post office

London

16. Stamp collectors have paid

16 800 for ________.

A. fourteen One Penny Orange- Reds

B. twelve Two Penny Blues

C. one One Penny Orange-Red

D. one Two Penny Blue

E

Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their

time.

Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members,

but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most

about. I know this from personal experience.

E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends

and evenings. My working hours aren

’

t necessarily much shorter than they once

were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my

young daughter than I might have if she

’

d been born before electronic mail became

such a practical tool.

The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do

something fun see a great movie perhaps

-

and there are four or five friends who might

want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.

With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and

address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message

when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their

convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.

E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away.

More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their

children off at college.

We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of

staying in touch. They don

’

t take the place of any of the old ways.

17. The purpose of this passage is to ________.

A. explain how to use the Internet

B. describe the writer

’

s joy of keeping up with the latest technology

C. tell the merits(

价值

) and usefulness of the Internet

D. introduce the reader to basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet

18. The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ________.

A. spend less time working

B. have more free time with his child

C. work at home on weekends

D. work at a speed comfortable to him

19. According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone

because the former helps one ________.

A. reach a group of people at one time conveniently

B. keep one

’

s communication as personal as possible

C. pass on much more information than the later

D. get in touch with one

’

s friends faster than the later

20. The best title for this passage is ________.

A. Computer: New Technological Advances

B. Internet: New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship

C. Computers Have Made Life Easier

D. Internet: a Convenient Tool for Communication

参考答案

:1~5CDBAB6 ~10DABDD11~15DDCCA16~20DCBAD

阅读理解（共

20

小题；每小题

2< /p>

分，满分

40

分）

A

“

How can I learn English well?

”

This is a question many students ask. In my

opinion, the most effective way is to learn lessons by heart. If you can recite the text

and write it out, you

’

ve learned it fairly well. And if you can tell, in your own words,

what the lesson says you

’

re a very successful learner indeed. Your English will be

quite perfect.

This is a difficult task. However, if you try to learn by heart only part of each lesson,

you

’

ll find it not half so hard as you might have thought.

Learning this way, you will make rapid progress. Of course, writing is also necessary.

It helps you a lot on our way to success in English.

Equally important is to feel the language. You should be able to laugh at jokes and be

shocked at bad news. When using English, try to forget your mother tongue. Instead

of helping you, your own language gets in your way. So, never try to see English

through translation.

the writer

’

s opinion, the most effective way in learning English is ________.

practise speaking, writing and feeling it

forget your own native language

translate everything into his own language

memorize the English words and grammatical rules

57.

“

Instead of helping you, your own language gets in your way.

”

This sentence

means that memorizing your own language can ________.

you to study English well

you mastering English

English easy to learn

you notice mistakes

y important is to feel the language.

“

to feel the language

”

here

means________.

get a knowledge of English by touching

B. to be able to read and write English

translate English into your own by imagining

be able to experience the rich sensation of the language

B

When we can see well, we do not think about our eyes often. It is only when we can

not see perfectly that we come to see how important our eyes are.

People who are nearsighted can only see things that are very close to their eyes. Many

people who do a lot of close work, such as writing and reading, become nearsighted.

Then they have to wear glasses in order to see distant things clearly.

People who are farsighted face just the opposite problem. They can see things that are

far away, but they have difficulty reading a book unless they hold it at arm

’

s length.

If they want to do much reading, they must get glasses too.

Other people do not see clearly because their eyes are not exactly the right shape. This,

too, can be corrected by glasses. Some people

’

s eyes become cloudy because of

cataracts. Long ago these people often became blind. Now, however, it is possible to

operate on the cataracts and remove them.

When night falls, colors become fainter to the eyes and finally disappear. After your

eyes have grown used to the dark, you can see better if you use the side of your eyes

rather than the centers. Sometimes, after dark, you see a small thing to one side of you,

which seems to disappear if you turn your head in its direction. This is because when

you turn your head, you are looking

at the thing too directly. Men on guard duty

sometimes think they see something moving to one side of them. When they turn to

look straight at it, they can not see it any more, and they believe they were mistaken.

However, this mistake happens because the center of the eye, which is very sensitive

in daylight, is not as sensitive as the sides of the eye after dark.

don

’

t know that our eyes are of great importance until ________.

A. we think about our eyes

B. we cannot see clearly

C. we wear glasses

D. we have to do much reading

ing to the passage, a ________ is more likely to be nearsighted.

B. doctor C. guard r

who are farsighted ________ .

do a lot of close work without glasses

only see things that are very close to their eyes

difficulty reading a book if they hold it at arm

’

s length

the same problem as the nearsighted people

see a small thing at night, it is better to look ________ .

wide open eyes

half shut or narrowed eyes

ht at it

a slightly different direction

C

Trees are useful to man in three important ways: they give him wood and other useful

things, they give him cool places, and they help to stop drought and flood.

Unluckily, in many parts of the world, man has not found that the third of these points

is the most important. Man wants to make money from trees,so he has cut them down

in large numbers, only to find that without them he has lost the best friends he had.

And also, he is usually too careless to plant and look after new trees. So the forests

slowly disappear.

This does not only mean that man will have fewer trees. The results are even worse:

for where there are trees, their roots break up soil-make the rain in-and also bind the

soil, thus stopping it from being washed away easily; but where there are no trees, the

rain falls on hard ground and flows away, causing floods and carrying away the rich

top- soil. When all the top-soil is gone, nothing is left but useless desert.

most important points of trees to man is ________.

help him to make money

give him cool

give him wood and other things

help him to stop drought and floods

many places forests slowly disappear because ________ .

trees have been cut down by man

trees are not well looked after

has not paid enough attention to planting trees

the above

becomes desert after all trees are cut down because ________ .

A. roots of trees break up the soil

B. there are too many rainfalls

C. strong winds bring a lot of sand

D. there are no longer trees to keep the rain and protect the top-soil.

title best fits the passage?

and Man

Function of Tree Wood

do People do with Trees?

Usage of Tree Roots

D

Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them on trains and

airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In

the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.

Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows

students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500

students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a

＄

10 million

computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will

also have access to the Internet. In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to

“

speak

”

with their teachers, their classmates, and their families. However, the most

important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers

without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food

restaurant or under the trees-anywhere at all!

Because of the many changes in computer technology , laptop use in higher education,

such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful,

they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, the portable computers

can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources.

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