IV. 阅读理解(共18小题;每小题2分,满分36分)

阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A,B,C,D)中,选出最佳选项。

A

To Whom It May Concern:

Your address was forwarded to us by How to Magazine. All of us here think The International Institute of Not Doing Much is the best organization in the world. You know how to avoid unnecessary activities!

As a matter of fact, we closely followed the advice in your article. First, we replaced all our telephones with carrier pigeons. Simply removing the jingle of telephones and replacing them with the pleasant sounds of birds has had a remarkable effect on everyone. Besides, birds are cheaper than telephone service. After all, we are a business. We have to think of the bottom line. As a side benefit, the birds also fertilize the lawn outside the new employees’ sauna(桑拿房).

Next, we sold the computers off to Stab, Grab, Grit, and Nasty, a firm of lawyers nearby. Our electricity bill went way down. Big savings! The boss is impressed. We have completely embraced paper technology. Now that we all use pencils, doodling is on the increase, and the quality of pencil woman ship is impressive, as you can tell from my handwriting in this letter. By the way, if you can, please send this letter back to us. We can erase and reuse it. Just tie it to Maggie’s leg and she’ll know where to take it.

Now it’s very calm and quiet here. You can notice the difference. No more noise on the telephones! All we hear is the scratching of pencil on paper, the sound of pigeons, and the delivery of inter-office correspondence by paper airplane.

Wonderful! I’ve always wanted to work for an insurance company ever since I was a little girl. Now it’s perfect.

Sincerely yours,

Eleanor Lightly

Spokeswoman and Company Hair Stylist

ABC Activity Insurance: insure against overdoing it

56. Which of the following best describes the life the author is leading?

A. A simple, slow-paced life.         B. A life of hard work and security.

C. A religious, peasant-like life.       D. A life away from paper and pencils.

57. Where is Eleanor’s letter sent to?

A. How To Magazine.              B. ABC Activity Insurance Company.

C. Stab, Grab, Grit, and Nasty Law Firm.

D. The International Institute of Not Doing Much.

58. Which of the following is practiced in the author’s company?

A. Replacing the manual work system with modern technology.

B. Turning off lights in the daytime to save electricity.

C. Recycling paper resources whenever possible.

D. Buying birds and pets as company for the staff.

59. What is true about Maggie?

A. She works as a manager in the author’s company.

B. She sometimes helps fertilize the lawn outside the sauna.

C. She often helps with inter-office correspondence using e-mail.

D. Her handwriting has improved a lot after entering the company.

60. What is the purpose for the person to write this letter?

A. to show his dissatisfaction with the new environment.

B. to complain about the bad working condition.

C. to persuade people to live a simple life.

D. to express his gratitude for the good advice.

B

One side effect of globalization and the related phenomenon of greatly increased mobility is that the traditional definition (定义) of “foreigner” has passed its sell-by date.

Is a European who has lived in China longer than in his home country, becoming fluent in the language and culture in the process, still a foreigner in China, or has he become more of a foreigner in his own home town? What about a Beijinger who did her schooling in Canada and then lived and worked in mainstream (主流) society there for another 20 years while raising a family, who has no intention of returning to China? Does she think and act like a foreigner? What do we mean by this label?

When I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, the faces you would see during a walk through a local shopping mall back in the 1960s and 1970s included almost none of Asian descent (血统). Today the same malls are full of Asian faces, and a glance at the ranks of top scoring students in local schools reveals lots of Asian surnames.

To some extent, this is no great surprise in the American context, because America is a land of immigrants, and a cultural melting pot. Apart from the native American Indians, Americans are (or were), in some way, all foreigners anyway. Absorbing a large number of immigrants is an established pattern in American history.

In most places, the traditional foreigners were people who didn’t speak or read the local languages well, were unfamiliar with local customs and lifestyles, often engaged in relatively third-class work, and certainly not the type of people you would want your sons or daughters to marry. But, nowadays, a foreigner down the street may have better SAT scores than you did, or higher degree from a better university. He might also be your son’s or daughter’s next employer.

The traditional role models are getting mixed up, and it looks like this is just the beginning of a new chapter. Today, the whole thing has totally changed. It’s not about where people are from or what color their skins are. It’s about who they are, what values and skills they bring, and how they think.

61.By mentioning a European and a Beijinger , the author tends to tell us______.

A. It’s no long proper to define foreigners according to their birthplaces

B. the label of foreigners can never be removed

C. most foreigners can do well in learning languages

D. It’s impossible for a foreigner get recognition abroad

62.What can be inferred from the 3rd paragraph?

A. In 1960s and 1970s, Asians didn’t shop in Chicago.

B. Today, more and more Asian travelers like to shop in Chicago.

C. There are more Asian immigrants today than in 1960s and 1970s in Chicago.

D. Most Asian students do well academically in the schools in Chicago.

63.Which is Not the feature of the traditional foreigners according to the author?

A. They didn’t have good command of the local languages.

B. It’s hard for them to marry local people.

C. They rarely got familiar with the local customs and lifestyles.

D. Most of them didn’t live at the bottom of the local society.

64. The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 has the closest meaning to________.

A. the term “foreigner” should be redefined

B. the term “foreigner” should no longer be used

C. there are no longer foreigners in the world today

D. the term “foreigner” is not proper to define people

65.What’s the main idea of the passage?

A. Globalization and mobility caused more and more immigrants.

B. The standards of defining “foreigner” has thoroughly changed.

C. America is a cultural melting pot.

D. Immigration is a global social phenomenon.

C

Seated in a convertible (敞篷车) with the top down at 60 miles an hour, Mary looked at the flies that sat on top of Mark's hair. How could they stay there? She wondered.

Mary had not seen Mark in years, until the other day when he came into the café where she worked. His appearance was different from when he was in high school. Now, he was a bit fat and thick glasses covered his eyes. However, that didn't change Mary's feelings for him at all. He had just bought a brand new red sports car and asked her if she would like to go for a ride and then have dinner with him. Her heart beat with excitement as he opened the door for her. She noticed something very strange as Mark got into the car and started to drive away. On the hair was a group of flies just sitting there.

Mary stared in amazement. It seemed the faster they drove, the more determined the flies were to stick to his hair.

Mary remained silent. She leaned forward and turned the radio on, to try to divert her attention away from the flies, but she couldn’t help thinking about them. She looked up at Mark, who was completely devoted to what was going on and continued to sing to the music while driving merrily along.

Finally, Mark pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road beside a diner and looked in the mirror and said, "Mary, I would like to comb my hair before we get something to eat. Could you reach under the seat and give me my hair cream?"

Mary reached under the seat and pulled out a camping backpack, which contained a round jar and started to laugh wildly as she pointed to the label(商标).

"That’s not hair cream on your hair, Mark! It says it's Fly Trap Glue!”

66. What did Mary probably do?

A. A car saleswoman.  B. A waitress.  C. A cook.  D. A driver.

67. We can learn from the text that _________.

A. Mark used to be a thin, handsome boy   B. Mark had bought a new sports car for Mary

C. Mark and Mary had been in love for years D. Mary felt strange when she saw the red car

68. The underlined word “divert” in Para 4 can be replaced by _______.

A. take   B. absorb    C. replace   D. recover

69. What’s the best title for this passage?

A. A wonderful ride  B. Unchanged love  C. A hair trick  D. Stuck on you