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Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each of the passages is followed by 5 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Declaring that physical exercise is one of the most powerful medicines to help improve our quality of life is not an exaggeration. The World Health Organization expressed the same view in its 2002 World Health Report, emphasizing that the damage produced by lack of physical activity was equal to the strong probability of serious illness such as heart disease and even some kinds of cancer.
Those who have embraced an active lifestyle for years are familiar with the sort of physical and psychological benefits that come from exercise. Nevertheless, a lot of people would never think of physical activity as a way of feeling better, simply because they don't think they are in need of it, or because they are lazy or maintain that they haven't got enough time.
There are many positive effects that result from physical exercise and they are not only concerned with the physical aspects but also psychological and social ones.
Beginning with the physical benefits, physical activity improves the life of the heart, burns off fat, lowers high blood pressure, makes tissues more resistant, and increases muscle flexibility and joint mobility.
On a psychological level, physical activity helps reduce anxiety and stress by causing tension to disappear and by encouraging us to have a better sense of ourselves through listening to our bodies during movement.
Lastly, seeing ourselves in better health is advantageous socially. The sense of satisfaction thus obtained will result in an increase of self-respect and self-confidence in terms of our ability to interact with others.
The benefits linked to exercise have also not gone unnoticed in the business world, with more and more companies setting up gyms on-site. Employees’ improved health translates into better performance and reduced costs as well as an increase in people's satisfaction in the work place.
Physical activity is recommended for all age groups, including children. It is an important growth factor in a child's education.
And for the elderly? There is no doubt that regular physical activity allows greater efficiency in daily life as well as creating more basic independence day by day, including the possibility of keeping in touch with others and not feeling isolated.
1. The writer regards physical exercise as a strong medicine because ______.
A. the WHO holds the view B. it helps improve the quality of life
C. the lack of it equals serious illness D. it enables people to live longer
2. Many people do not engage in physical exercise mainly because ______.
A. they are not aware of its benefits B. they don’t have the facilities
C. they don’t think they need it D. they are physically unfit for it
3. According to the passage, physical exercise can make people ______.
A. stronger and more intelligent B. more intelligent and more open-minded
C. more open-minded and healthier D. healthier and stronger
4. Physical exercise is socially beneficial because ______.
A. it gives people competitive advantage
B. it helps people reduce anxiety
C. it enables employees to work better for their company
D. it makes people confident in dealing with others
5. According to the passage, regular physical exercise can make old people ______.
A. better able to look after themselves
B. look younger than they really are
C. less likely to suffer from diseases
D. more aggressive in their interaction with others
Passage Two
According to the United States government, people are classified as homeless if they have no place to stay and no expectation of finding a place for the next thirty days. Although technically accurate, that is an impersonal assessment of an enormous and very human problem.
The homeless population represents all of us Americans. It includes men and women, the elderly, children, and infants. Its members are from all ethnic (种族的) groups. What they have in common is poverty.
Currently in the U.S., thirty-nine million people live in poverty. When money is really tight, paying the rent or buying food often becomes a choice. Government assistance in the form of food stamps does help but, as one homeless man explains, you can't pay the rent with food stamps.
With no money for rent, the streets and homeless shelters become the alternative.
Although men constitute the largest group within the homeless population, homeless women with children are rapidly joining them. In fact, one quarter of the homeless people in the U.S. are teenagers and young children.
People may become homeless for numerous reasons. However, there are certain factors that many of these individuals have in common. They include a lack of adequate education and job skills. A majority of the teenagers and adults have not completed high school.
The abuse of alcohol and drugs is also a common factor. One third of the adult homeless population abuses alcohol, while one quarter of the same group uses drugs.
Some members of this population suffer mental health problems. Within the past several years many institutions for the mentally ill have been closed and their patients sent “home”. Unfortunately, a number of those people have no home to go to and they are unable to adequately look after themselves.
Job loss in today's economy has also become a real factor in the loss of people's homes. The breakup of families through abandonment and divorce are also contributing factors, particularly when there are children involved. The parent who is left to care for the kids with inadequate income may be forced to depend on the homeless shelters to put a roof over their heads.
6. The writer thinks that the U.S. government's definition of the homeless reveals ______.
A. an insincere attitude toward the homeless
B. an unbearable attitude toward the homeless
C. an uncivilized attitude toward the homeless
D. an unsympathetic attitude toward the homeless
7. The U.S. government helps the homeless by ______.
A. giving them homeless allowances B. giving them food stamps
C. finding jobs for them D. finding residences for them
8. Most of the homeless in the U.S. are ______.
A. male adults B. female adults C. the elderly D. children
9. People become homeless for all the following reasons EXCEPT ______.
A. the lack of adequate education
B. the abuse of alcohol and drugs
C. the closure of institutions for the mentally ill
D. the poor performance of economy
10. The breakup of families is likely to lead to homelessness because a parent with kids may ______.
A. lose his or her job in today’s economy
B. be unable to look after the kids
C. not have enough income
D. find residence at a homeless shelter
Passage Three
In early 2004 eight tiny sensors were dropped from a plane near a military base in California. After hitting the ground, the sensors also known as smart dust sensors organized themselves into a network and quickly detected a fleet of military vehicles on the ground. The determined the direction, speed and size of a series of military vehicles traveling along the road and later transmitted the data to a computer at a nearby base camp.
Smart dust sensors are minicomputers as small as a grain of rice in some cases that can monitor and evaluate their physical environment and can relay the information via wireless communication. They can monitor elements such as temperature, moisture, humidity, pressure, energy use, vibration, light, motion, radiation, gas, and chemicals. These devices will soon have many applications, such as use in emergency rescue.
Software has been developed to run these minicomputers. A key feature of the software is the ability of the sensors to automatically organize themselves into a communications network and talk to each other via wireless radio signals. If any one connection is interrupted, the sensors will self correct and pass the information on to the next available sensor.
Each sensor has a chip that does the computing work recording things like temperature and motion at its location. Each sensor also has a tiny radio transmitter that allows it to talk to other sensors within 100 feet or so. With a single network of 10,000 sensors—thought to be the biggest array (阵列) of sensors currently possible you could cover 9 square miles and get information about each point along the way. The data finally works its way to a base station that can send the information to a computer or to a wireless network.
The scientists who are working with this technology say smart dust sensors can be used to detect the location or movement of enemy troops in areas too dangerous or remote for soldiers to operate. Scattering hundreds of self networking sensors from a manned or unmanned plane onto the battlefield, in theory, could produce critical information and lead to strategic advantage. Sensors could also be used to detect the presence of chemical weapons and could give troops the time needed to put on protective gear.
11.Smart dust sensors can do all the following EXCEPT ______.
A. giving troops their protective gear
B. organizing themselves into a computer network
C. detecting the movement of military vehicles nearby
D. operating in remote and dangerous war zones
12.By “physical environment” (Paragraph 2), the writer means such elements as ______.
A. the position of military troops B. the presence of minicomputers
C. the strength of radio signals D. the amount of water vapor in the air
13. If connection between two sensors is blocked, the network will automatically ______.
A. replace the sensor involved B. repair the sensor involved
C. ignore the sensor involved D. destroy the sensor involved
14. To cover an area of 3 square miles and get information about each point along the way, how many smart dust sensors are needed?
A. About 3,000 sensors. B. About 3,300 sensors.
C. About 5,000 sensors. D. About 6,600 sensors.
15. The passage implies that the smart dust sensors are most likely to be used in ______.
A. emergency rescue B. monitoring pollution
C. military operations D. evaluating the environment
Passage Four
Each semester, Andrew Tom receives a term bill outlining his expenses: tuition, dorm fee, student center fee, recreation fee, resident activity fee, health insurance. If only the rest of his expenses were as easy to quantify.
“It's like you start out the semester with plenty of money and then $20 for dinner out here and $100 at the department st ore there, it's gone,” said Tom, a Northeastern University third year student. “And there are so many things you need like toothpaste or laundry detergent (洗涤剂) that you don't think about until you get here and need it.”
From the books lining their shelves to the fashionable clothes filling their closets, college students say the expenses of a college education go well beyond tuition and a dining hall meal plan. Many say they arrive on campus only to be overwhelmed by unexpected costs from sports fees to the actual price of a slice of pizza.
Balancing a job with schoolwork, especially at colleges known for their heavy workloads like Harvard and MIT, can be tough. So can the pressure students often feel to financially keep pace with their friends.
“When you get dragged along shopping, you're going to spend money; if you get dragged to a party and everyone wants to take a cab but you're cheap and want to take a bus, chances are you'll end up sharing the fee for the cab,” said Tom. “I guess you could say no, but no one wants to be the only one eating in the snack bar while your friends are out to dinner.”
Max Cohen, a biology major at MIT, said he is accustomed to watching fellow students spend $40 a night to have dinner delivered or $50 during a night out at a bar. During the school's recent spring break, friends on trips for the week posted away messages that read like a world map Paris, Rome, Tokyo. “Meanwhile I stay home and work,” said Cohen. “I didn't realize when I came here how much money I would spend or how hard I would have to work to get by.”
It is a lesson some younger students learn quickly. Others, surrounded by credit card offers, go into debt, or worse, are forced to leave school.
“A lot of people don't think twice about how much they spend,” said a first year student at MIT, “and you feel the pressure sometimes to go along with them.”
16.The sentence “If only the rest of his expenses were as easy to quantify” (Paragraph 1) implies that ______.
A. there are many other unexpected expenses
B. it is easy to calculate how much more to spend
C. the tuition is too high to be calculated
D. he has to pay only a few other expenses
17. All the following expenses are included in the term bill EXCEPT ______.
A. health insurance B. sports fees
C. recreation fees D. dorm fees
18. According to the passage, many college students ______.
A. have to work hard in their studies
B. suspend their studies in order to work
C. depend on their families for all the expenses
D. are under great financial pressure
19. The word “cheap” (Paragraph 5) is closest in meaning to “______”.
A. inferior in quality B. inexpensive
C. unwilling to spend D. valueless
20. From the last paragraph, one may learn that an important reason for the high hidden costs for college students is ______.
A. the extremely high prices of daily necessities
B. the school’s overcharging for campus activities
C. the too many expenses the students have to pay
D. the pressure of keeping pace with their peers
Part IV Cloze Test (15 minutes, 10 points)
Directions: There are 10 blanks in the following passage. For each numbered blank, there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.
Ireland is the best place in the world to live for 2005, 1 a life quality ranking that appeared in Britain’s Economist magazine last week.
The ambitious 2 to compare happiness levels around the world is based on the principle that wealth is not the only 3 of human satisfaction and well being. The index of 111 countries uses 4 on incomes, health, unemployment, climate, political stability, job security, equality between men and women as well as what the magazine calls “freedom, family and community life”.
Despite the bad weather, troubled health service, traffic problems, and the high cost of living, Ireland scored an impressive 8.33 points 5 10. That put it well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which managed 8.07. Zimbabwe (津巴布韦), troubled by political insecurity and hunger, is rated the lowest, 6 only 3.89 points.
“Although rising incomes and increased individual choices in developed countries are 7 valued,” the report said, “some of the factors associated with 8 such as the breakdown in traditional institutions and family values in part take away from a positive impact.
“Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new the fourth highest gross domestic product per head in the world in 2005, low unemployment, political 9 with the preservation of certain warm elements of the old, such as 10 family and community life.”
1. A. following up B. coming with C. according to D. except for
2. A. attempt B. attack C. attitude D. attraction
3. A. reason B. volume C. measure D. monitor
4. A. amount B. data C. number D. account
5. A. up to B. out of C. off and on D. in about
6. A. missing B. getting C. keeping D. putting
7. A. hardly B. excessively C. highly D. passively
8. A. modernization B. civilization C. constitution D. tradition
9. A. liberties B. activities C. unions D. campaigns
10. A. sticky B. static C. steep D. stable
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