1、AIf you want to know how crazy people can be about their pets, you might remember that Helmsley left $12 million to her little Maltese dog when she died last year.The dogs name is Trouble. And apparently Trouble is still alive. Of course, I would hang on too, if someone left me $12 million. Look! To
2、p-shelf dog food, soft pillows everywhere, drivers walking me in nice leafy parks. I would live to be 110 in dog years.The dogs story is still fresh in my mind the other night when I leave a steak house after a superb meal. Then I notice a woman carrying a small bag out of the door behind me.Once ou
3、tside, she walks over to where a man is holding a tiny dog like its a baby. The dog looks like a Maltese, too, barking and annoying, with a cute haircut,And now I am treated to an absolute astonishing sight. Because now the woman reaches into the bag and begins pulling out little pieces of meat, whi
4、ch she puts on a plastic spoon and feeds to the dog.This is no cheap steak house. Its actually way out of my league -Im there only because its a special occasion. I can tell you this: if I walked out of the place with any leftover steak, it sure wouldnt go to a dog. Not at those prices.So now the wo
5、man is Spoon-feeding the dog and the man is just standing there, holding this dog and looking as if this is the most normal thing in the world. And the dog is calmly chewing these pieces of steak as if hes a little king. And this dog is in no hurry. Hes having a great time.A few minutes go by, and n
6、ow the dog finishes all of his steak. At this point, I hear the woman say to the man Think hes still hungry? And she glances behind her at the restaurant, as if she might go back there to get more steak for the dog.Watching all this, Im afraid Im going to shout, Are you out of your mind? Feeding all
7、 that pricey steak to that little dog? Did you see what our American life is like today? Were all going to be eating dog food if this keeps up! 51. Why would the author live to be 110 in dog years? A. Because he is always in poor health and falls ill.B. Because a Maltese dog lives longer than a huma
8、n being.C. Because his grandparents left him a large sum of money.D. Because he thinks the dog is treated extremely well.52. What is the story mainly about?A. An American familys happy life.B. A Maltese dog getting $12 million from its owner.C. A New Yorker spending $ 8 billion for a few banks.D. A
9、pet dog being fed with expensive food.53. The underlined sentence Its actually way out of my league. (in Para. 6) means _A. the restaurant is too expensive for the authorB. the author hates the dog being taken thereC. the superb restaurant is about to be out of service D. the dog doesnt belong to th
10、e authors group54. Seeing the dog is being treated to expensive steak, the author becomes extremely _A. indifferent B. annoyed C. concerned D. enviousBOver three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意调查) has found. O
11、vercrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas
12、2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is over-crowding. Meanwhile almost
13、 a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.Of the 2,065 people polled, even those who are still taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend les
14、s than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year t
15、o 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing with store staff this festival season.Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people vi
16、siting the high street, humans are social creatures who actually like spending time together.Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are s
17、ocial creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away, said Mr. Boxall.55. According to the poll, in this years Christmas A. about 7 % of the population will do both online and actual shoppingB. about 31% of shoppers will do half of their
18、 shopping in actual shopsC. about 39% of shoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shopsD. over three million shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues56. Whats the meaning of turn-off in Para.5?A. Something that makes people lose heartB. Something that mak
19、es people lose faceC. Something that makes people lose interestD. Something that makes people lose courage57. It can be inferred from Mr. Boxalls words that . A. retailers should reduce their in-store goods.B. retailers will be pessimistic about the result of this research.C. retailers should focus
20、on the advantage of in-store shopping.D. retailers will make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas58. Whats Mr. Boxalls attitude towards Christmas online shopping?A. Concerned. B. Doubtful. C. Approving. D. Objective.CFew, if any, instruments shape national culture more powerfully than the
21、 materials used in schools. Textbooks are not only among the first books most people meet; in many places they are, along with religious texts, almost the only books they have. A study in South Africa showed that fewer than half of pupils had access to more than ten books at home. In 2010 a study by
22、 Egypts government found that, apart from school textbooks, 88% of Egyptian households read no books.The degree to which a government keeps control of the textbooks used in classrooms is a good guide to its commitment to ideological(意识形态) control. Where that desire is strong, governments are likely
23、to produce the textbooks themselves or define carefully what goes into them.Americas State Department employs people to keep an eye on other countries textbooks, in an effort to understand better how their people think and what their governments want them to think. Other countries probably do the sa
24、me.Textbooks have long been a source of worry. After the attacks on America on September 11th 2001, some in both America and Saudi Arabia, including officials, supposed that Saudi Arabias curriculum of intolerance was responsible, at least in part, for the emergence of al-Qaeda (基地组织). Sometimes the
25、 requirements of the state are more clearly seen in what textbooks leave out. The world has long criticized Japan for the way its textbooks whitewash the countrys history, in particular dressing up Japanese war crimes. The “New History Textbook”, for example, which was submitted for government appro
26、val in 2000, played down Japans aggression in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95 and the occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s, and avoided mention of the use of sex slaves by its armies or the rape of Nanjing. In America most of the disputes about textbooks are home-grown. Liberals worry that th
27、eir children are being taught a nationalistic version of history that emphasizes the wonders of industrialization and plays down slavery and the killing of Indian tribes. By contrast, Conservatives complain about inadequate education of love for their country and too much secularism (政教分离论). In 2010
28、 the Texas board of education managed to remove Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, from the states list of important revolutionary figures, apparently because of Jeffersons insistence on the separation of church and state. He was, however, swiftly restored.As long as textbo
29、oks are issued or approved by the state, they will remain a political issue. But as access to other textbooks is enjoyed more widely, some of the dominance they now enjoy will weaken. 59. The authors purpose of writing this passage is .A. to present his findings of the importance of textbooks B. to
30、inform the readers of present practices of textbooks C. to explore the contribution of the government to textbooks D. to argue against the government in the control of textbooks 60. Governments will probably produce the textbooks themselves and decide the contents when .A. people have strong desire
31、to readB. governments hope to reform educationC. governments want to control ideologyD. governments expect to understand people better 61. Which of the following is not included in the textbooks of relevant countries?A. Curriculum of intolerance in Saudi Arabia. B. Japanese war crimes in Japanese te
32、xtbooks. C. Wonders of industrialization in American textbooksD. Thomas Jefferson in Texas present textbooks. 62. While talking about textbooks, the author seems to think that .A. they should be controlled by the governmentB. home-grown disputes are easier to settleC. they should be a political issu
33、eD. they are not necessarily soDThe later part of the 20th century saw its share of strange financial bubbles（泡沫）. There was the real-estate bubble, the stock market bubbles, and the .com bubble, just to name a few. In each instance people paid huge amounts for things that shouldnt have been worth a
34、nything like the going price. And each time people stood around afterwards and said “What were we thinking?” Actually the same thought occurred to the Dutch in the 17th century. As much as the tulip（郁金香） is associated with Holland, it is not native there. Rather it was introduced in 1593 by a botani
35、st named Carolus Clusius, who brought it from Turkey. He planted a small garden, intending to research the plant for medicinal purposes. Had Clusiuss neighbors been morally upright, the tulip might still be a rare foreign plant in the gardening world. Instead they broke into his garden and stole som
36、e of his tulip in order to make some quick money, and in the process started the Dutch tulip trade.Over the next several decades tulips became a craze among the rich of Holland, and prices began to rise. Soon even ordinary bulbs were selling for extraordinary prices, and the actually rare bulbs were
37、 extremely large. Here is an example of how many useful items it cost to buy one single tulip bulb: four tons of wheat, eight tons of rye, one bed, four oxen, eight pigs, 12 sheep, one suit of clothes, two casks of wine, four tons of beer, two tons of butter, 1,000 pounds of cheese and one silver dr
38、inking cup. The height of the bubble was reached in the winter of 1636-37. Tulip traders were making fortunes regularly. A good trader could earn up to 60,000 florins in a month- approximately $61,710 in current U.S. dollars. With profits like those to be had, nothing local governments could do stop
39、ped the passion of trading. Then one day in Haarlem a buyer failed to show up and pay for his bulb purchase. The coming panic spread across Holland, and within days tulip bulbs were worth only a hundredth of their former prices. The tulip bubble had burst.Looking back throughtime its easy to laugh a
40、t the foolish Dutch, paying such prices for simple tulip bulbs, but an economic bubble was nothing new even then. Were still doing the same sorts of things today. 63. The author wrote the passage .A. to share the information about tulips B. to analyze the cause of the tulip bubbleC. to warn us to re
41、flect on economic bubblesD. to present his study of the 17th-century Holland64. It can be inferred from the 2nd paragraph that .A. Carolus Clusius planted tulips for medical purposesB. Clusiuss neighbors were morally not honestC. the tulip is much associated with HollandD. the tulip is a common flow
42、er in the garden 65. In which of the following period did tulip traders find it easiest to make money?A. From Nov. 12 to Nov. 25. B. From Nov. 25 to Dec. 1.C. From Dec. 1 to Dec. 12.D. From Dec. 12 to Feb. 3.66. The writer listed all the items for which a tulip bulb was exchanged .A. to attract the
43、readers B. to arouse the readers curiosity C. to show its huge potentialD. to show peoples craze of tradingERemoving the sleeve(封套), you will find a book that is entirely white, except for the names of its author and subject in elegant black type on the cover. It is the perfect design for the biogra
44、phy of a man who insisted that even the insides of his products be perfectly constructed, and that his factory walls flash in the whitest white.The cover was the only part of the book Steve Jobs wanted to control, writes Isaacson in his introduction. Though Mr. Jobs pushed the biographer of Albert E
45、instein and Benjamin Franklin to write in his own way, generously allowing the writer more than 40 interviews, this book offers quite a different view of Mr. Jobs, who won much praise from his fans after his death on October 5th at the age of 56.As a biographer of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Frankl
46、in, Mr. Isaacson knows how to celebrate long-dead genius, but he claimed that Steve Jobs would not be entirely praiseful words. The picture he paints, particularly in the first half of this book, is not nice. Mr. Jobs emerges as a controlling and often cold-blooded character. A child of the 1960s co
47、unter-culture (反主流文化), he hated materialism and lived in simply furnished houses ( in part because he was too particular about furniture). But when Apple went public in 1980, he refused to give any share to Daniel Kottke, a longtime supporter and soul mate from college. He has to abandon the people
48、he is close to, observes Andy Hertzfeld, an early Apple engineer.Mr. Jobs was undoubtedly possessing an extraordinary ability to attract others and inspire a kind of faith that could not be questioned. But also he could be cold and cruel. If he disapproved of an employees work, he often shamed him.
49、This is who I am, he once said after being challenged, “and you cant expect me to be someone Im not.” This disgusting personality wasnt always helpful, but it served a purpose, writes Mr. Isaacson, many would end their chain of horror stories by saying that he got them to do things they never dreame
50、d possible.”Mr. Isaacson treats Steve Jobs as the biography of record, which means that it is a strange book to read so soon after its subjects death. 67. The biography for Jobs is believed to have the perfect design because _A. it follows Jobs style B. its cover is entirely whiteC. black and white
51、are his favorite. D. it is designed by a famous biographer68. The picture of Jobs that Isaacson paints in his book is _cruel humorous particular generousA. B. C. D. 69. It can be safely concluded that .A. Jobs is highly spoken of in the bookB. Isaacson doesnt think Jobs a good manC. Jobs didnt care about the design of the bookD. all descriptions of Jobs are not nice in the book70. This passage can be classified asA. a personal diary B. a book review C. a news report D. a TV interview A篇：5154 DDAB B篇：5558CCCD C篇：5962BCBD D篇：6366CBAD E篇：67-70AADB