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Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension(35 minutes)
Directions:There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C), and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
Passage One
Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
Many of the most damaging and life threatening types of weather torrential rains, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes（龙卷风）– begin quickly, strike suddenly, and disappear rapidly, destroying small regions while leaving neighbouring areas untouched. Such event as a tornado struck the northeastern section of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987. Total damages from the tornado exceeded $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm.
Conventional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short lived local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to study carefully the subtle（微妙的）atmospheric changes that come before these storms. In most nations, for example, weather-balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at locations typically separated by hundreds of miles. With such limited data, conventional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large regions than they do forecasting specific local events.
Until recently, the observation intensive approach needed for accurate, very short-range forecasts, or “Nowcasts,” was not feasible. The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was extremely high, and the difficulties involved in rapidly collecting and processing the raw weather data from such a network were hard to overcome. Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems. Radar systems, automated weather instruments, and satellites are all capable of making detailed, nearly continuous observation over large regions at a relatively low cost. Communications satellites can transmit data around the world cheaply and instantaneously, and modern computers can quickly compile and analyze this large volume of weather information. Meteorologists（气象学者）and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment capable of transforming raw weather data into words, symbols, and vivid graphic displays that forecasters can interpret easily and quickly. As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality.
21.The word “exceeded” in paragraph 1 most probably means ____.
A) added up to B) were more than
C) were about D) were less than
22.Conventional computer models of the atmosphere fails to predict such a short-lived tornado because____.
A) the computer is not used to forecast specific local events
B) the computers are not advanced enough to predict it
C) the weather data people collect are often wrong
D) weather conditions in some small regions are not available
23.According to the passage, the word “Nowcast” (paragraph 3) means ____.
A) a way of collecting raw weather data
B) a forecast which can predict the weather conditions in the small area in an accurate way
C) a network to collect instant weather data
D) a more advanced system of weather observation
24.According to the passage, ____ is the key factor to making “Nowcasts” a reality.A) scientific and technological advances such as radar, or satellites
B) computer scientist
C) meteorologists
D) advanced computer programs
25.According to the author, the passage mainly deals with ____.
A) a tornado in Edmonton, Alberta
B) what’s a “Nowcast”
C) the disadvantage of conventional computer models of the weather forecast
D) a breakthrough in weather forecast
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
Bringing up children is a hard work, and you are often to blame for any bad behavior of your children. If so, Judith Rich Harris has good news for you. Parents, she argues, have no important long-term effects on the development of the personality of their children. Far more important are their playground friends and neighborhood. Ms. Harris takes to hitting the assumption, which has dominated developmental psychology for almost half a century.
Ms. Harris’s attack on the developmentalists’ “nature” argument looks likely to reinforce doubts that the profession was already having. If parents matter, why is it that two adopted children, reared in the same home, are no more similar in personality than two adopted children reared in separate homes? Or that a pair of identical twins, reared in the same home, are no more alike than a pair of identical twins reared in different homes?
Difficult as it is to track the precise effects of parental upbringing, it may be harder to measure the exact influence of the peer（同龄人）group in childhood and adolescence. Ms. Harris points to how children from immigrant homes soon learn not to speak at school in the way their parents speak. But acquiring a language is surely a skill, rather than a characteristic of the sort developmental psychologists hunt for. Certainly it is different from growing up tensely or relaxed, or from learning to be honest or hard-working or generous. Easy though it may be to prove that parents have little impact on those qualities, it will be hard to prove that peers have vastly more.
Moreover, mum and dad surely cannot be ditched completely. Young adults may, as Ms. Harris argues, be keen to appear like their peers. But even in those early years, parents have the power to open doors: they may initially choose the peers with whom their young associate, and pick that influential neighborhood. Moreover, most people suspect that they come to resemble their parents more in middle age, and that people’s child bearing habits may be formed partly by what their parents did. So the balance of influences is probably complicated, as most parents already suspected without being able to demonstrate it scientifically. Even if it turns out that the genes they pass on and the friends their children play with matter as much as affection, discipline and good example, parents are not completely off the hook.
26. According to Ms. Harris, ____.
A) parents are to blame for any bad behavior of their children
B) parents will affect greatly the children’s life in the long run
C) nature rather than nurture has a significant effect on children’s personality development
D) children’s personality is shaped by their friends and neighbors
27.Which of the following views is consistent with what the developmentalists hold?A) Children are more influenced by their peers than by their parents.
B) Twins are quite different if they are reared in two separate families.
C) Identical twins reared in the same home are different in personality.
D) Nurture has a less significant effect on children’s personality development.
28.According to Para. 3, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) It is harder to track the precise effects of parental upbringing than the exact influence of the peer group in children.
B) Immigrant children tend to discard the way their parents speak quickly when they go to school.
C) It has been proved that peers have more impact on children’s qualities such as to be honest or hard-working or generous.
D) It is easier for children to acquire a language at school than at home.
29.The word “ditched” ( Line 1,Para. 4) could best be replaced by ____.
A) proved B) emphasized
C) compared D) ignored
30. What is the author’s main purpose?
A) To highly praise Ms. Harris’s work.
B) To counter Ms. Harris’s work.
C) To objectively report on Ms. Harris’s work.
D) To critically comment on Ms. Harris’s work.
Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
Microsoft is no longer the world’s biggest company by market capitalization. Three other U.S. companies have overtaken the software giant in terms of stock market value. The firm’s value has gone down sharply by 41% so far this year, from nearly $600 billion to $358 billion. Much of the reason for the fall has been the uncertainty prompted by the on-going anti-trust case. It has been overtaken by General Electric, now worth $506 bn, Intel, worth $441 bn and Cisco Systems, $436 bn.
Over the past year Microsoft shares have moved downwards from a high of $120 to $68 in early trading on 7 June. Meanwhile rival Cisco has seen its share price rise by $25 to more than $60 as the company has gained its role in providing the hardware for the Internet. And for most of the year it has been competing with computer chip maker Intel for the second place. Intel’s Pentium chips are widely used in personal computers worldwide.
The company that now holds the title of the world’s biggest company is an industrial giant which makes everything from toasters to jet engines. GE has sales of $110 bn—nearly ten times that of Microsoft and 340,000 employees worldwide. It has seen its profits grow by 15% a year to $11 bn. GE Capital Services, its financial subsidiary, make up nearly half its sales. GE produces power generation systems, locomotive, medical imaging equipment and electrical appliances. It also owns the U.S. television network NBC and its financial news subsidiary, CNBC, and ironically, a joint venture with Microsoft to provide news on the Internet.
Microsoft’s shares now face a further period of uncertainty as the company’s legal battle continues. It could also face difficulty in recruiting and retaining employees whose pay has been boosted by their share options. The Seattle based firm is likely to go to an appeals court on any rulings. It could suffer further losses from lawsuits brought by competitors, who would be able to claim triple（三倍）damages for any losses suffered. And with its energy and resources tied up in the lawsuits, the company may find it difficult to continue to innovate in the future, or move so aggressively to buy up competitors.
31.Microsoft’s shares are devalued drastically owing to ____.
A) fierce competition from rivals
B) its involvement in a lawsuit（诉讼）
C) the court rulings
D) the decrease in sales volume
32.Cisco Systems’ share price has risen considerably ____.
A) after it has overtaken part of Microsoft’s shares
B) after it has beaten Intel and risen to the second place
C) since it has gained a firm footing in the market
D) because it is developing jointly with Microsoft
33.Which is now the second biggest company in the United States?
A) General Electric. B) Intel.
C) Cisco Systems. D) GE Capital Services.
34.Which of the following companies is owned by General Electric and Microsoft together?
A) GE Capital Services. B) NBC.
C) CNBC. D) MSNBC.
35.Why is it difficult for Microsoft to retain employees?
A)Because it faces an uncertain future.
B)Because it will have problem innovating itself.
C)Because it will have problem paying them.
D)Because it may be bought up by its competitors one day.
Passage Four
Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
Paradise Lost is Milton’s masterpiece. Its story is taken from the Bible, about “the fall of man”, that is, how Adam and Eve are tempted by Satan to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and how they are punished by God and driven out of Paradise. In Milton’s words, the purpose of writing the epic is to “justify the ways of God to men”, but apparently, Milton is uttering his intense hatred of cruelness of the ruler in the poem. By depicting Satan and his followers as well as their fiery utterance and brave actions, Milton is showing a Puritan’s（清教徒的）revolt against the dictator and against the established Catholics and the Anglican Church.
In the poem God is no better than a cruel and selfish ruler, seated on a throne with a group of angels about him singing songs to praise him. His long speeches are not pleasing at all. He is cruel and unjust in punishing Satan. His angels are stupid. But Satan is by far the most striking character in the poem, who rises against God and, though defeated, still persists in his fighting.
Adam and Eve shows Milton’s belief in the power of man. God denies them a chance to pursue for knowledge. It is this longing for knowledge that opens before mankind a wide road to intelligent and active life. It has been noted by many critics that Milton’s revolutionary feelings makes him forget religious doctrines（教条）. The angels who surround the God never think of expressing any opinions of their own, and they never seem to have any opinions of their own. The image of God surrounded by such angels resembles the court of an absolute monarch（君主）. But Satan and his followers, who freely discuss all issues in council, remind us of a Republican Parliament.
36.This passage is most probably ____.
A) a review of Milton’s Paradise Lost
B) an introduction of what Paradise Lost is about
C) a depiction of the cruelness of the British ruler
D) part of an introduction to English literature
37.According to the passage, Milton ____.
A) describes Satan as a Puritan
B) doesn’t believe in God
C) is satisfied with the British ruler
D) calls on people to fight against the dictator
38.In the poem, Satan is described as ____.
A) an evil person
B) contrary to what is depicted in the Bible
C) selfish and cruel devil
D) a stupid ghost
39.Which of the following can NOT be inferred from this passage?
A) If Adam and Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit, human being would be ignorant until now.
B) God acts like a dictator.
C) Satan and his followers are parliament members in the poem.
D) The angels are depicted as stupid in the poem.
40.According to this passage, Paradise Lost is written for the purpose of ____.A) praising God for the creation of the world
B) criticizing the cruelness of British ruler
C) changing people’s unfavourable impression of Satan
D) expressing his support for the fight of Satan
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