第三部分：阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分，共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。

A

What is eBay? The simple answer is that it is a global trading platform where nearly anyone can trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods. Including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes-the list goes on and on.

The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school, he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tuft University in 1988, he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started Bay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the website that he had to upgrade(升级)and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill, and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great .com crashes of the late 1990s, eBay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the ten most visited online shopping websites on the Internet.

eBay sells connections, not goods, putting buyers and sellers into contact with each other. All you have to do is to take an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business; the world is your market place. Of course for each item(商品)sold, eBay gets a percentage and that is great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sold.

51. We learn from the text that eBay provides people with______________.

A. a way of buying and selling goods   B. a website for them to upgrade

C. a place to exhibit their own photos   D. a chance to buy things at low prices

52. From “he has never looked back ” in Paragraph 2, we learn that Peter______________.

A. did not feel lonely     B. was always hopeful

C. did not think about the past   D. became more and more successful

53. How does eBay make money from its website?

A. By bringing sellers together.    B. By charging for each sale.

C. By listing items online.        D. By making e-photos.

B

For five days, Edmonton's Downtown Park is transformed into one huge stage where artists are able to share their talents, and where people are able to celebrate and enjoy themselves. Since its beginning in 1980, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival has been commemorating(纪念)the true feeling of what folk music is all about and that's the traditional togetherness(友爱)that is felt when people gather to share stories and feelings through songs.

This year will be the sixth year when volunteer Riedel will be offering up her time to the festival. "People coming off a busy spring and summer have a moment of relaxation," Riedel said. "It's really easy to relax, and it's great seeing family and friends have fun together." These families and friends come from all different kinds of musical tastes. People who take pleasure in Blues are there, so are people who love Bluegrass. This festival does its best to develop everyone's musical interests.

With so many years of experience, the festival has become a well-oiled machine, and does whatever it can to make attendees feel as comfortable as possible. There are free water stations throughout the venue(举办地)for people to fill up their travel cups. When people buy food, reusable dishes are given a $2 plate fee, but that is returned when the plate is brought back.

The festival has completely sold out of tickets, and in record time. But with big names such as Van Morrison and Jakob Dylan, it’s easy to see how that was going to happen. There is no parking area during the festival, so using the Park & Ride system or Edmonton Transit is highly recommended. A bike lock-up area is provided and will be available from Thursday to Sunday one hour before the gates open until 45 minutes after the gates close.

The Edmonton Folk Music Festival begins on Wednesday, Aug.4 with Van Morrison playing the special donation fund(基金)concert, and will finish up on Sunday, Aug.8.

54. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. It’s hard for people to appreciate Blues.

B. It costs people a little to fill up their cups from water stations.

C. Riedel has volunteered for the festival for at least 5 years.

D. People have to pay $2 for a plate of food.

55. We can learn from the passage that______________.

A. people can get tickets easily for the festival

B. driving one’s own car to the festival is highly recommended

C. bikes are available at the festival from Wednesday to Sunday

D. the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is highly recommended

56. What would the best title for the passage?

A. Folk Music of Blues

B. One Festival for All

C. Festival for family Gathering

D. Edmonton’s Downtown Park

C

Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world，in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertisers hoping to sell their products.

The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.

It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.

57. What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?

A. The exercise of rights is a luxury.

B. The practice of choice is difficult.

C. The right of choice is given but at a price.

D. Choice and right exist at the same time.

58. Why do more choices of goods cause anxiety?

A. Professionals find it hard to decide on a suitable product.

B. People are likely to find themselves overcome by business persuasion.

C. Shoppers may find themselves lost in the broad range of items.

D. Companies and advertisers are often misleading about the range of choice.

59. By using computers as an example, the author wants to prove that____________.

A. advanced products meet the needs of people

B. products of the latest design flood the market

C. competitions are fierce in high-tech industry

D. everyday goods need to be replaced often

60. What is this passage mainly about?

A. The variety of choices in modern society.

B. The opinions on people’s rights in different countries.

C. The problems about the availability of everyday goods.

D. The helplessness in purchasing decisions.

D

阅读短文，根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Muzak

The next time you go into a bank, a store, or a supermarket, stop and listen. What do you hear? ___61___ It's similar to the music you listen to, but it's not exactly the same. That's because this music was especially designed to relax you, or to give you extra energy. Sometimes you don't even realize the music is playing, but you react to the music anyway.

Quiet background music used to be called "elevator(电梯)music" because we often heard it in elevators. But lately we hear it in more and more places, and it has a new name "Muzak". About one-third of the people in America listen to "Muzak" everyday. The music plays for 15 minutes at a time, with short pauses in between. It is always more lively between ten and eleven in the morning, and between three and four in the afternoon, when people are more tired. ___62___ If you listen to Muzak carefully, you will probably recognize the names of many of the songs. Some musicians or songwriters don't want their songs to be used as Muzak, but others are happy when their songs are chosen. Why? __63__

Music is often played in public places because it is designed to make people feel less lonely when they are in an airport or a hotel. It has been proven that Muzak does what it is designed to do. Tired office workers suddenly have more energy when they hear the pleasant sound of Muzak in the background. __64__ Supermarket shoppers buy 38 percent more groceries.

___65___ They say it's boring to hear the same songs all the time. But other people enjoy hearing Muzak in public places. They say it helps them relax and feel calm. One way or another, Muzak affects everyone. Some farmers even say their cows give more milk when they hear Muzak!

A. Some people don't like Muzak.

B. The music gives them extra energy.

C. Music is playing in the background.

D. Factory workers produce 13 percent more.

E. Muzak tends to help people understand music better.

F. They get as much as $4 million a year if their songs are used.

G. Muzak is played in most of the big supermarkets in the world.

第II卷  非选择题(共40分)

一、单词拼写(共6小题，每小题1分，共6分)

1. According to study, bright colours like red and yellow are _________(有吸引力的)to little children.

2. Although many great musicians play important roles in music, Beethoven's symphony is ___________.(独一无二的)

3. C_________ something new is not easy, for one must have talent as well as patience.

4. Since it was her first performance, she felt e____________ nervous when standing on stage.

5. Song Zuying made her ______________(露面)in a concert in Sydney, which helped more foreigners understand Chinese folk music.

6. Although Liu Wei is disabled, he is o___________ about life and has won the first prize in China’s Got Talent. (中国达人秀)

二、完成句子(共4小题，每小题1分，共4分)

1. Computers ____________________________(对……有影响)modern life since 1990s.

2. Our future is in our own hands and we should ___________________ it. (对……负责)

3. I ____________________(习惯)the way she speaks to me, which really makes me unhappy.

4. In class, our attention should __________________(专注于)the teacher, otherwise we will miss something important.

三、短文填空(共15空，每空1分，共15分)

A. 按照课文原文和首字母的提示完成下面短文，每空只填一词。

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand. It is l___1___ on North Island with a population of just under a million. This seaside city is an important c___2___ for business and industry. It is also the most exciting city in New Zealand with people of many different c___3___living there.

The history of Auckland goes back to 650 years ago when the Maoris s___4___ in the area. It used to be the capital of New Zealand for some time. Since 1945, the city has grown and now it has large modern suburbs.

Famous sights i___5___ Mt Eden as well as the Auckland Harbor Bridge. In the city, you can enjoy an a___6___ view from the Sky Tower. Auckland is also a modern city and a nice place to live. It has a warm climate with plenty of sunshine-the a___7___ temperature in January is 23.4C.

B. 阅读下面短文，根据所给单词的首字母，用单词的适当形式填空，每空只填一词。

C__8__ the words costume with play, cosplay is becoming an increasingly popular form of performance art.

Cosplayers buy or make a costume of their f___9___ cartoon character and then dress up in it. But the fun doesn’t stop here. In addition to looking like a character, cosplayers must also learn to imitate a character’s personality, facial e___10___ and behaviors. Once they have perfected their character, they show their talents in the streets.

Although the term cosplay o___11___ in Japan, the idea for it seems to have been born in the United States. In 1939, Forrest J. Ackerman attended the 1st World Science Fiction Convention in New York w___12____ a space suit. 45 years later, Japanese Takahashi attended a similar convention in Los Angeles. I___13___ by the many costumes at the convention, he returned home and invented the term cosplay. Soon after, he began using it in Japanese Sci-fi magazines and the word spread quickly t___14___ Japan.

Today, people all around the world are taking part in cosplay’s fun. The g___15___ of cosplay is to dress up, have fun and bring fantasy to life.

四、书面表达(15分)

请按照以下图示的顺序写一篇100词左右的周记，讲述你班上周参加歌咏比赛的情况。第一句话已给出。

Sunday   Dec. 12                                                 Sunny

Last week, we had a singing competition.

On Monday morning_______________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________