第三部分 阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分，满分30分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

The painter Georgia O’keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided she wanted to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her bond with the land. Like most painters, O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals of nature.

O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Levered Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New York in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak(荒凉的) landscape and broad skies of the Western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached(变白的) bones found in the desert figured prominently(突出的) in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colorful flowers, rocks, barren(贫瘠的) hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best known works in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, she continued to produce tributes(贡品、颂词) to the Western desert until her death in 1986.

O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She established her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private endeavor. Almost from the beginning, her work was more indentifiably American than that of her contemporaries in its simplified and idealized treatment of color, light, space, and natural forms.

56. Which of the following best tells what this passage is about ?

A. O’Keeffe was a distinctive modern American painter.

B. O’Keeffe was the best painter of her generation.

C. O’Keeffe liked to paint only what was familiar to her.

D. O’Keeffe used colors and shapes that are too reduced and simple.

57. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an influence on O’Keeffe’s paintings ?

A. Her rural upbringing         B. Her life in the West

C. The works of European artists  D. The appearance of the natural landscape

58. Which of the following is most similar to O’Keeffe’s relationship with nature?

A. A photoghrapher’s relationship with a model.

B. A writer’s relationship with a publisher.

C. A student’s relationship with a teacher

D. A carpenter’s relationship with a hammer.

59. Why is O’Keeffe considered an artistic pioneer ?

A. Her work became influential in Europe.

B. She painted the American Southwest.

C. Her paintings had a definite American style.

D. She painted things that were familiar to her.

B

According to a report by the China News Weekly, Chinese white collars are becoming fully occupied in the office. They pursue many of their activities in the office building, eating, doing exercise, resting, playing games or even dating.

In large cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, where economy is developing at a fast speed, office workers face an increasing work pressure day by day and many of them have begun to make office their home.

As the young generation in society, most of them are aged between 25 and 45. In the eyes of outsiders, they enjoy a comfortable life: they lead the fashion trend in the city and earn a high salary; they enjoy a flexible working schedule and a very good working environment; having a good education background, they don’t have to worry that one day they will lose their jobs.

However, only the white collars themselves know what others see as a good life is in fact a boring life. They often work extra hours, suffer from loss of creative ability and have little time to make friends. When they go off from work late at night, somethimes they might think of asking for a leave the next day and having a holiday somewhere. However, when a new day begins, they find everything back to normal and themselves pushed by new tasks.

In fact, even if they don’t work extra hours in the office, they have no place to go. Many of the young people are fresh from college, or have come to work in large cities from their hometowns. As newcomers, they haven’t established (建立)a social network. They have few friends to go dating. Meanwhile, many of them face a great pressure for earning money to buy a house or a car. If they cannot afford to buy these, they still have to work to pay for high apartment rents and communication fares.

60.The underlined sentence probably means _______

A.Chinese white collars are not allowed to get out of the office

B.The office is crowded with Chinese white collars

C.Chinese white collars make the office filled with odds and ends

D.Chinese white collars spend most of their time in the office

61.The followings are all reasons why white collars want to have a rest EXCEPT that _______

A.They have to continue to stay at office after work

B.They feel more and more difficult to think up a good idea

C.They have no interest in anything

D.They have little time to make friends

62.The main idea of the third paragraph is that_______

A. white collars are admired by other people

B. white collars needn’t worry about losing jobs

C. white collars can earn high salary and work freely

D. white collars are in the lead in the way of behaving

63. From the passage , we can infer that _______

A. white collars are all workaholics who regard the office as home

B. white collars suffer from material and mental pressure in life

C. white collars are the models of young people in society

D. people have a good understanding of what white collars’ life is

C

A NATIONWIDE　BESTSELLER

It’s likely that everything you learned about America’s ancient history is wrong.

The new book, 1491, completely changes our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.

When Columbus landed there were probably more people in the Ameicas than there were in Europe.

The peoples of North America had such healthy lifestyles that as late as the 19th century they continued to be the tallest people on earth.

Facts have shown that the Americas were populated as long as 33000 years ago.

4000 years ago Mesoamerican farmers developed corn in a feat (技艺)of genetic engineering that still isn’t completely understood.

Comments On 1491

“In the tradition of Jared Diamond& John McPhee, a totally new view of pre-Columbian America.”

------ Richard Rhodes

“Attractively written and really absorbing… Charles C. Mann has produced a book that’s part detective story, part epic(史诗) and part tragedy(悲剧). He has taken on a vast topic: thousands of years, two huge continents, and cultures.”

------Charles Matthews, San Jase Mercury News

“Powerful and challenging.”

------ Alan Taylor, Washington Post

“A pleasure to read as well as a wonderful education.”

------ Howard Zinn