第三部分：阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分，满分40分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

(A)

If you want to know how crazy people can be about their pets, you might remember that Helmsley left $12 million to her little Maltese dog when she died last year.

The dog's name is Trouble. And apparendy Trouble is still alive. Of course, I would hang on,too, if someone left me $12 million. Look! Top-shelf dog food, soft pillows everywhere, drivers walking me in nice leafy parks. I would live to be 110 in dog years.

The dog's story is still fresh in my mind the other night when I leave a steak house after a superb meal. Then I notice a woman carrying a small bag out of the door behind me.

Once outside, she walks over to where a man is holding a tiny dog hke it's a baby. The dog looks like a Maltese, too, barking and annoying, with a cute haircut,

And now I am treated to an absolute astonishing sight. Because now the woman reaches into the bag and begins pulling out little pieces of meat, which she puts on a plastic spoon and feeds to the dog.

This is no cheap steak house. It's actually, way out of my league --I'm there only because it's a special occasion. I can tell you this: if I walked out of the place with any leftover steak, it sure wouldn't go to a dog. Not at those prices.

So now the woman is Spoon-feeding the dog and the man is just standing there, holding this dog and looking as if this is the most normal thing in the world. And the dog is calmly chewing these pieces of steak as if he's a little king. And this dog is in no hurry. He's having a great time.

A few minutes go by, and now the dog finishes all of his steak. At this point, I hear the woman say to the man "Think he's still hungry?" And she glances behind her at the restaurant, as if she might go back in there to get more steak for the dog.

Watching all this, I'm afraid I'm going to shout, "Are you out of your mind? Feeding all that pricey steak to that little dog? Did you see what our American life is like today? We're all going to be eating dog food if this keeps up!"

51. Why would the author live to be 110 in dog years?

A. Because he is always in poor health and falls ill.

B. Because a Maltese dog lives longer than a human being.

C. Because his grandparents left him a large sum of money.

D. Because he thinks the dog is treated extremely well.

52. What is the story mainly about?

A. An American family's happy life.

B. A Maltese dog getting $12 million from its owner.

C. A New Yorker spending $ 8 billion for a few banks.

D. A pet dog being fed with expensive food.

53. The underlined sentence "It's actually way out of my league. " (in Para. 6) means __

A. the restaurant is too expensive for the author

B. the author hates the dog being taken there

C. the superb restaurant is about to be out of service

D. the dog doesn't belong to the author's group

54. Seeing the dog.is being treated to expensive steak, the author becomes extremely ____

A. indifferent B. annoyed C. concerned D. envious

(B)

Over three million people will do their Christmas shopping entirely online this year without once visiting an actual shop, a poll (民意调查) has found. Overcrowding and long queues in shops are forcing people away from the high street as the hassle (烦扰) of Christmas shopping becomes too much.

The number of people turning their backs on the high street is almost one million higher than it was last year, according to the poll by YouGov. Last Christmas 2.4 million shoppers did not do any of their shopping in actual shops. The figure this year is predicted to be around 3.4 million, equal to around 7 percent of the adult population.

Over a third of people said that the main turn-off about shopping on the high street is 0ver-crow-ding. Meanwhile almost a quarter said that long queues at the cheek-out are the worst thing about it.

Of the 2.065 people pored, even those who are stir taking to the shops plan to spend less time in them this Christmas. Around 31 percent of shoppers who plan to spend at least some time on the high street will spend less than half of their shopping time in actual shops, using the rest of the time to shop remotely via the internet. This compares to 28 percent of people last year. Meanwhile the proportion of people spending over half of their shopping time in high street shops has dropped from 41 percent last year to 39 percent this year. Just 2 percent of people said that they are looking forward to dealing wi.th store staff this festival season.

Guy Boxall, senior product marketing manager at Casio Business Solutions Division, which commissioned the research from YouGov, said that despite the fall in people visiting the high street,humans are "social creatures" who actually like spending time together.

"Although the high street is facing a big challenge Christmas, retailers (零售商) should see this research as a challenge to improve the in-store shopping experience, rather than the nail in the coffin. We are social creatures, and the desire to spend time with each other, particularly at Christmas, is never going to go away," said Mr. Boxall.

55. According to the poll, in this year's Christmas

A. about 7 % of the population will do both online and actual shopping

B. about 31% of shoppers will do half of their shopping in actual shops

C. about 39% of shoppers will do more than half of their shopping in actual shops

D. over three million shoppers will quit actual shopping just because of the long queues

56. What's the meaning of "turn-off" in Para.5?

A. Something that makes people lose heart

B. Something that makes people lose face

C. Something that makes people lose interest

D. Something that makes people lose courage

57. It can be inferred from Mr. Boxall's words that

A. retailers should reduce their in-store goods.

B. retailers wiR be pessimistic about the result of this research.

C. retailers should focus on the advantage of in-store shopping.

D. retailers will make more profits this Christmas than last Christmas

58. Wheat's the writer's attitude towards Christmas online shopping?

A.Concerned. B. Doubtful. C. Approving. D. Objective.