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。

A

Light travels at a speed which is about a million times faster than the speed of sound. In one second, light travels about 300,000 km, but sound travels only 0.334 km. You can get some idea of this difference by watching the start of a race. If you stand some distance away from the starter, you can see smoke come from his gun before the sound reaches your ears.

This great speed of light produces some strange facts. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach us. If you look at the light of the moon tonight, remember that the light rays left the moon 1.3 seconds before they reached you. The nearest star is so far away that the light which you can see from it tonight started to travel towards you four years ago at a speed of nearly 2 million km per minute. In some cases, the light from one of tonight’s stars started on its journey to you before you were born.

Thus, if we want to be honest, we cannot say, “The stars are shining tonight.” We have to say, “The stars look pretty. T hey were shining four years ago but their light has only just reached Earth.”

56. Light speed is _____ than sound speed.

A. millions times faster B. a million times slower

C. about millions of times faster D. about a million times faster

57. If you stand 200 meters away from a man who is firing a gun to start a race, you will find out that ___

A. you can hear the gun before you see the s moke

B. sound does not travel as fast as ligh t

C. the sound of the gun will reach you before the man fires his gun

D. sound travels about a million times faster than light

58. The light of the nearest star you see tonight has been ____ for years.

A. on the earth B. on the moon

C. away from the sun D. away from the star

B

However, the number of people who learn English as a foreign language is more than 750 million. Everywhere in the world children go to school to learn English. Most people learn English for five or six years at high school. In China students learn English at school as a foreign language, except for those in Hong Kong, where many people speak English at school as a first or a second language.

In only fifty years, English has developed into the language most widely spoken and used in the world. English i s the working language of most international organizations, international trade and tourism. Businessmen and tourists often come to China without being able to speak Chinese. Chinese businessmen, taxi drivers and students talk with them using English. English is also the language of global culture, such as popular music and the Internet. You can listen to English songs on the radio or use English to communicate with people around the world through the Internet. With so many people communicating in English every day, it will become more and more important to have a good knowledge of English.

59. How many people learn English as a second language?

A. 37,500,000 B. 375,000,000 C. 750,000,000 D.75, 000,000

60. In China we are learning English as a ______.

A. first language B. second language C. foreign language D. mother tongue

61. Most international organizations use ______ as their working language.

A. English B. French C. Chinese D. Japanese

62. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. There are more than 42 countries where the majority of the people speak English.

B. The number of people who learn English as a foreign language is more than 750 million.

C. English is the language of global such as popular music and the Internet.

D. English is the most important and widely used language in the world.

63. From the passage we can infer that ______.

A. English will be the only language to be used in the world

B. Native speakers of English might find it unnecessary for them to learn a foreign language

C. The number of learners of English will become smaller in the future

D. With the development of China’s economy, Chinese will become more important than English