Once it was possible to define male and female roles easily by the division of labor. Men worked outside the home and earned the income to support their families, while women cooked the meals and took care of the home and the children. These roles were firmly fixed for most people, and there was not much opportunity for women to exchange their roles. But by the middle of this century, men’s and women’s roles were becoming less firmly fixed.

In the 1950s, economic and social success was the goal of the typical American. But in the 1960s a new force developed called the counterculture. The people involved in this movement did not value the middle-class American goals. The counterculture presented men and women with new role choices. Taking more interest in childcare, men began to share child-raising tasks with their wives. In fact, some young men and women moved to communal homes or farms where the economic and childcare responsibilities were shared equally by both sexes. In addition, many Americans did not value the traditional male role of soldier. Some young men refused to be drafted as soldiers to fight in the war in Vietnam.

In terms of numbers, the counterculture was not a very large group of people. But its influence spread to many parts of American society. Working men of all classes began to change their economic and social patterns. Industrial workers and business executives alike cut down on “overtime” work so that they could spend more leisure time with their families. Some doctors, lawyers, and teachers turned away from high paying situations to practice their professions in poorer neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, the feminist movement, or women’s liberation, produced additional economic and social changes. Women of all ages and at all levels of society were entering the work force in greater numbers. Most of them still took traditional women’s jobs as public school teaching, nursing, and secretarial work. But some women began to enter traditionally male occupations: police work, banking, dentistry, and construction work. Women were asking for equal work, and equal opportunities for promotion.

Today the experts generally agree that important changes are taking place in the roles of men and women. Naturally, there are difficulties in adjusting to these transformations.

1.Which of the following best express the main idea of Paragraph 1?

A.Women usually worked outside the home for wages.

B.Men and women’s roles were easily exchanged in the past.

C.Men’s roles at home were more firmly fixed than women’s.

D.Men and women’s roles were usually quite separated in the past.

2.Which sentence best expresses the main idea of Paragraph 2?

A.The first sentence.

B.The second and the third sentences.

C.The fourth sentence.

D.The last sentence.

3.In the passage the author proposes that the counterculture___.

A.destroyed the United States.

B.transformed some American values.

C.was not important in the United States.

D.brought people more leisure time with their families.

4.It could be inferred from the passage that___.

A.men and women will never share the same goals.

B.some men will be willing to exchange their traditional male roles.

C.most men will be happy to share some of the household responsibilities with their wives.

D.more American households are headed by women than ever before.

5.The best title for the passage may be ___.

A.Results of Feminist Movements

B.New influence in American Life

C.Counterculture and Its consequence

D.Traditional Division of Male and Female Roles.

We can begin our discussion of “population as global issue” with what most persons mean when they discuss “the population problem”: too many people on earth and a too rapid increase in the number added each year. The facts are not in dispute, It was quite right to employ the analogy that likened demographic growth to “a long, thin powder fuse that burns steadily and haltingly until it finally reaches the charge and explodes.”

To understand the current situation, which is characterized by rapid increases in population, it is necessary to understand the history of population trends. Rapid growth is a comparatively recent phenomenon. Looking back at the 8,000 years of demographic history, we find that populations have been virtually stable or growing very slightly for most of human history. For most of our ancestors, life was hard, often nasty, and very short. There was high fertility in most places, but this was usually balanced by high mortality. For most of human history, it was seldom the case that one in ten persons would live past forty, while infancy and childhood were especially risky periods. Often, societies were in clear danger of extinction because death rates could exceed their birthrates. Thus, the population problem throughout most of history was how to prevent extinction of the human race.

This pattern is important to notice. Not only does it put the current problems of demographic growth into a historical perspective, but it suggests that the cause of rapid increase in population in recent years is not a sudden enthusiasm for more children, but an improvement in the conditions that traditionally have caused high mortality.

Demographic history can be divided into two major periods: a time of long, slow growth which extended from about 8,000 BC.till approximately AD. 1650. In the first period of some 9600 years, the population increased from some 8 million to 500 million in 1650. Between 1650 and the present, the population has increased from 500 million to more than 4 billion. And it is estimated that by the year 2000 there will be 6.2 billion people throughout the world. One way to appreciate this dramatic difference in such abstract numbers is to reduce the time frame to something that is more manageable. Between 8000BC and 1650, an average of only 50,000 persons was being added annually to the world’s population each year. At present, this number is added every six hours. The increase is about 80,000,000 persons annually.

1.Which of the following demographic growth pattern is most suitable for the long thin powder fuse analogy?

A.A virtually stable or slightly decreasing period and then a sudden explosion of population.

B.A slow growth for a long time and then a period of rapid, dramatic increase.

C.Too many people on earth and a few rapid increase in the number added each year.

D.A long period when death rates exceeds birthrates and then a short period with higher fertility and lower mortality.

2.During the first period of demographic history, societies were often in danger of extinction because___.

A.only one in ten persons could live past 40.

B.there was higher mortality than fertility in most places.

C.it was too dangerous to have babies due to the poor conditions.

D.our ancestors had little enthusiasm for more children.

3.Which statement is true about population increase?

A.There might be an increase of 2.2 billion persons from now to the year 2000.

B.About 50,000 babies are born every six hours at present.

C.Between 8000 BC and the present, the population increase is about 80,000,000 persons each year.

D.The population increased faster between 8000BC and 1650 than between 1650 and the present.

4.The author of the passage intends to___.

A.warn people against the population explosion in the near future.

B.compare the demographic growth pattern in the past with that after 1650.

C.find out the cause for rapid increase in population in recent years.

D.present us a clear and complete picture of the demographic growth.

5.The word “demographic” in the first paragraph means___.

A.statistics of human.

B.surroundings study.

C.accumulation of human.

D.development of human.

Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time; if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the languages he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people. In the same way, when children learn to do all the other things they learn to do without being taught-to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle-compare those performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his own mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he becomes dependent on the teacher. Let him do it himself. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.

If it is a matter of right answers, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end this nonsense of grades, exams, marks, Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.

Let them get on with this job in the way that seems sensible to them. With our help as school teachers if they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated and rapidly changing as ours. Anxious parents and teachers say, “But suppose they fail to learn something essential they will need to get in the world?” Don’t worry! If it is essential, they will go out into the world and learn it.

1.What does the author think is the best way for children to learn things?

A.by copying what other people do.

B.by making mistakes and having them corrected.

C.by listening to explanations from skilled people.

D.by asking a great many questions.

2.What does the author think teachers do which they should not do?

A.They give children correct answers.

B.They point out children’s mistakes to them.

C.They allow children to mark their own work.

D.They encourage children to mark to copy from one another.

3.The passage suggests that learning to speak and learning to ride a bicycle are___.

A.not really important skills.

B.more important than other skills.

C.basically different from learning adult skills.

D.basically the same as learning other skills.

4.Exams, grades, and marks should be abolished because children’s progress should only be estimated by___.

A.educated persons.

B.the children themselves.

C.teachers.

D.parents.

5.The author fears that children will grow up into adults while being___.

A.too independent of others.

B.too critical of themselves.

C.incapable to think for themselves.

D.incapable to use basic skills.

The discovery of the Antarctic not only proved one of the most interesting of all geographical adventures, but created what might be called “the heroic age of Antarctic exploration”. By their tremendous heroism, men such as Shakleton, Scott, and Amundsen caused a new continent to emerge from the shadows, and yet that heroic age, little more than a century old, is already passing. Modern science and inventions are revolutionizing the endurance, future journeys into these icy wastes will probably depend on motor vehicles equipped with caterpillar traction rather than on the dogsthat earlier discoverers found so invaluable and hardly comparable.

Few realize that this Antarctic continent is almost equal in size to South America, and enormous field of work awaits geographers and prospectors. The coasts of this continent remain to be accurately charted, and the maping of the whole of the interior presents a formidable task to the cartographers who undertake the work. Once their labors are completed, it will be possible to prospect the vast natural resources which scientists believe will furnish one of the largest treasure hoards of metals and minerals the world has yet known, and almost inexhaustible sources of copper,coal, uranium, and many other ores will become available to man. Such discoveries will usher in an era of practical exploitation of the Antarctic wastes.

The polar darkness which hides this continent for the six winter months will be defeated by huge batteries of light, and make possible the establishing of air-fields for the future inter-continental air services by making these areas as light as day. Present flying routes will be completely changed, for the Antarctic refueling bases will make flights from Australia to South America comparatively easy over the 5,000 miles journey.

The climate is not likely to offer an insuperable problem, for the explorer Admiral Byrd has shown that the climate is possible even for men completely untrained for expeditions into those frozen wastes. Some of his parties were men who had never seen snow before, and yet he records that they survived the rigors of the Antarctic climate comfortably, so that, provided that the appropriate installations are made, we may assume that human beings from all countries could live there safely. Byrd even affirms that it is probably the most healthy climate in the world, for the intense cold of thousands of years has sterilize this continent, and rendered it absolutely germfree, with the consequences that ordinary and extraordinary sickness and diseases from which man suffers in other zones with different climates are here utterly unknown. There exist no problems of conservation and preservation of food supplies, for the latter keep indefinitely without any signs of deterioration; it may even be that later generations will come to regard the Antarctic as the natural storehouse for the whole world.

Plans are already on foot to set up permanent bases on the shores of this continent, and what so few years ago was regarded as a “dead continent” now promises to be a most active center of human life and endeavor.

1.When did man begin to explore the Antarctic?

A.About 100years ago.

B.In this century.

C.At the beginning of the 19th century.

D.In 1798.

2.What must the explorers be, even though they have modern equipment and techniques?

A.Brave and tough

B.Stubborn and arrogant.

C.Well-liked and humorous.

D.Stout and smart.

3.The most healthy climate in the world is___.

A.in South America.

B.in the Arctic Region.

C.in the Antarctic Continent.

D.in the Atlantic Ocean.

4.What kind of metals and minerals can we find in the Antarctic?

A.Magnetite, coal and ores.

B.Copper, coal and uranium.

C.Silver, natural gas and uranium.

D.Aluminum, copper and natural gas.

5.What is planned for the continent?

A.Building dams along the coasts.

B.Setting up several summer resorts along the coasts.

C.Mapping the coast and whole territory.

D.Setting up permanent bases on the coasts.

Without regular supplies of some hormones our capacity to behave would be seriously impaired; without others we would soon die. Tiny amounts of some hormones can modify moods and actions, our inclination to eat or drink, our aggressiveness or submissiveness, and our reproductive and parental behavior. And hormones do more than influence adult behavior; early in life they help to determine the development of bodily form and may even determine an individual’s behavioral capacities. Later in life the changing outputs of some endocrine glands and the body’s changing sensitivity to some hormones are essential aspects of the phenomena of aging.

Communication within the body and the consequent integration of behavior were considered the exclusive province of the nervous system up to the beginning of the present century. The emergence of endocrinology as a separate discipline can probably be traced to the experiments of Bayliss and Starling on the hormone secretion. This substance is secreted from cells in the intestinal walls when food enters the stomach; it travels through the bloodstream and stimulates the pancreas to liberate pancreatic juice, which aids in digestion. By showing that special cells secret chemical agents that are conveyed by the bloodstream and regulate distant target organs or tissues. Bayliss and starling demonstrated that chemical integration could occur without participation of the nervous system.

The term “hormone” was first used with reference to secretion. Starling derived the term from the Greek hormone, meaning “to excite or set in motion. The term “endocrine” was introduced shortly thereafter “Endocrine” is used to refer to glands that secret products into the bloodstream. The term “endocrine” contrasts with “exocrine”, which is applied to glands that secret their products though ducts to the site of action. Examples of exocrine glands are the tear glands, the sweat glands, and the pancreas, which secrets pancreatic juice through a duct into the intestine. Exocrine glands are also called duct glands, while endocrine glands are called ductless.

1.What is the author’s main purpose in the passage?

A.To explain the specific functions of various hormones.

B.To provide general information about hormones.

C.To explain how the term “hormone” evolved.

D.To report on experiments in endocrinology.

2.The passage supports which of the following conclusions?

A.The human body requires large amounts of most hormones.

B.Synthetic hormones can replace a person’s natural supply of hormones if necessary.

C.The quantity of hormones produced and their effects on the body are related to a person’s age.

D.The short child of tall parents very likely had a hormone deficiency early in life.

3.It can be inferred from the passage that before the Bayliss and Starling experiments, most people believed that chemical integration occurred only___.

A.during sleep.

B.in the endocrine glands.

C.under control of the nervous system.

D.during strenuous exercise.

4.The word “liberate” could best be replaced by which of the following?

A.Emancipate B.Discharge C.Surrender D.Save

5.According to the passage another term for exocrine glands is___.

A.duct glands

B.endocrine glands

C.ductless glands

D.intestinal glands.

If the old maxim that the customer is always right still has meaning, then the airlines that ply the world’s busiest air route between London and Paris have a flight on their hands.

The Eurostar train service linking the UK and French capitals via the Channel Tunnel is winning customers in increasing numbers. In late May, it carried its one millionth passenger, having run only a limited service between London, Paris and Brussels since November 1994, starting with two trains a day in each direction to Paris and Brussels. By 1997, the company believes that it will be carrying ten million passengers a year, and continue to grow from there.

From July, Eurostar steps its service to nine trains each way between London and Paris, and five between London and Brussels. Each train carries almost 800 passengers, 210 of them in first class.

The airlines estimate that they will initially lose around 15%-20% of their London-Paris traffic to the railways once Eurostar starts a full service later this year (1995), with 15 trains a day each way. A similar service will start to Brussels. The damage will be limited, however, the airlines believe, with passenger numbers returning to previous levels within two to three years.

In the short term, the damage caused by the 1 million people-levels traveling between London and Paris and Brussels on Eurostar trains means that some air services are already suffering. Some of the major carriers say that their passenger numbers are down by less than 5% and point to their rivals-Particularly Air France-as having suffered the problems. On the Brussels route, the railway company had less success, and the airlines report anything from around a 5% drop to no visible decline in traffic.

The airlines’ optimism on returning traffic levels is based on historical precedent. British Midland, for example, points to its experience on Heathrow Leeds Bradford service which saw passenger numbers fold by 15% when British Rail electrified and modernized the railway line between London and Yorkshire. Two years later, travel had risen between the two destinations to the point where the airline was carrying record numbers of passengers.

1.British airlines confide in the fact that__.

A.they are more powerful than other European airlines.

B.their total loss won’t go beyond a drop of 5% passengers.

C.their traffic levels will return in 2-3 years.

D.traveling by rail can never catch up with traveling by air.

2.The author’s attitude towards the drop of passengers may be described as__.

A.worried.B.delightedC.puzzled.D.unrivaled.

3.In the passage, British Rail (Para 6) is mentioned to__.

A.provide a comparison with Eurostar.

B.support the airlines’ optimism.

C.prove the inevitable drop of air passengers.

D.call for electrification and modernization of the railway.

4.The railway’s Brussels route is brought forth to show that__.

A.the Eurostar train service is not doing good business.

B.the airlines can well compete with the railway.

C.the Eurostar train service only caused little damage.

D.only some airlines, such as Air France, are suffering.

5.The passage is taken from the first of an essay, from which we may well predict that in the following part the author is going to__.

A.praise the airlines’ clear-mindedness.

B.warn the airlines of high-speed rail services.

C.propose a reduction of London/Paris flights.

D.advise the airlines to follow British Midland as their model.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage:

Some years ago the captain of a ship was very interested in medicine. He always took medicine books to sea and liked to talk about different diseases.

One day a lazy sailor on his ship pretended to be ill. He lay on his bunk (铺) and groaned as if he were very sick. The captain came to see him and was very pleased to have a patient to look after. He told the man to rest for a few days and made the other sailors do his work. Three days later another sailor pretended that he had something wrong with his chest. Once more the captain looked in his medical books and told “sick” man to have a rest.

The other sailors were very angry because they had more work to do. The patients had the best food and laughed at their friends when the captain was not looking. At last the mate (船长副手) decided to cure the “sick” men. He mixed up some soap, soot (烟灰), glue (胶水) and other unpleasant things. Then he obtained permission from the captain to give his medicine to the “sick” men. When they tasted the medicine, they really did feel ill. It was so horrible that one of the patients jumped out of hi bunk, ran up on desk and climbed the highest mast on the ship. He did not want any more medicine.

The mate told both of the men that they must take the medicine every half an hour, night and day. This soon cured them. They both said they felt better and wanted to start word again. The captain realized that the men tried to deceive him so he made them work very hard for the rest of the voyage.

1. The first sailor pretended to be ill because he wanted to .

A. test the captain’s knowledge of medicine 

B. be free from work

C. have the best food on the ship

 D. play a joke on his friends

2. When the captain knew a sailor was ill, he .

A. didn’t care much 

B. sent for a doctor

C. looked after him and told him to have a rest

D. gave him some medicine

3. The patients felt better quickly because .

A. they had been given proper medicine

B. they learned that the captain had found out the truth

C. they were laughed at by their friends

D. the medicine the mate gave was horrible

4. When the captain knew he had been deceived, he .

A. told them not to do so again 

B. lost his temper

C. made them work harder 

D. fired them

5. Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

A. A sudden Cure. 

B. Two Patients. 

C. Captain and Sailors. 

D. A Difficult Voyage.

翻译：

最近，一些地方大学开始将方言列为某些学生的必修课程，学生们要学习当地方言，然后被评分以作为毕业的依据之一。一方面，支持此种做法的人认为，将方言列为必修课可防止其消失，从而使当地传统文化和文化多样性得以弘扬，同时城市独特的个性得以保留。另一方面，反对此种做法的人争论说，当地学生与外地学生相比有很多绝对优势，因此将方言列为必修课会引起教育不公平的问题。而且，将方言列为必修课程还会引起一些其他问题，如教材使用、师资问题和考试标准等。在我看来，方言作为传统文化不可缺少的一部分和一种交流工具，可以让学生自愿学习和使用，而不是强制完成。

翻译：

中国位于亚洲东部，是世界上人口最多的国家。中国是世界四大文明古国之一，拥有大量的中华文化光辉的古迹，此外，中国地大物博，拥有茂密的森林、雄伟壮丽的瀑布、秀丽的湖泊以及如利剑直插云霄的山峰，所有这些都令世界各国人民神往。但是，更重要的是，中国以拥有五千多年的历史而自豪，遗留下无数的历史文物，其中包括珍贵珠宝、古迹名胜、宫殿及数不尽的雄伟建筑，令人惊叹不已。这种种原因都促使中国成为许多人梦寐以求的旅游胜地。

翻译：

如今，中国正步入老龄化社会，因此独生子女一代面临着巨大的工作和生活压力。中国政府开始适当调整计划生育政策，允许一些家庭在特殊情况下生育二胎。但调查显示，很多夫妻迫于不断加重的经济压力，放弃生育二胎。因此，要从根本上解决老龄化的问题不能依靠出生率的上升，最有效的办法是建立有效的社会保障制度。