China is known ______ greatly in terms of its cultural values over the past few years.

       A. to change                B. having changed     C. changing          D. to have changed 

As you move around your home, take a good look at the things you have. It is likely that your living room will have a television set and a video, and your kitchen a washing machine and a microwave oven. Your bedroom drawers will be filled with almost three times as many clothes as you need. You almost certainly own a car and possibly a home computer, holiday abroad at least once a year and eat out at least once a week.

    Now, perhaps, more than ever before, people are wondering what life is all about, and what it is for. Seeking material success is beginning to trouble large numbers of people around the world. They feel that the long hours work culture to make more money to buy more things is eating up their lives, leaving them very little time or energy for family or pastimes. Many are turning to other ways of living and downshifting is one of them.

    Six percent of workers in Britain took the decision to downshift last year. One couple who downshifted is Daniel and Liz. They used to work in central London. He was a newspaper reporter and she used to work for an international bank. They would go to work by train every day from their large house in the suburbs (郊區(qū)), leaving their two children with a nanny (保姆). Most evenings Daniel wouldn’t get home until eight or nine o’clock, and nearly twice a month he would have to fly to New York for meetings. They both earned a large amount of money but began to feel that life was passing them by.

    Nowadays, they run a farm in the mountains of Wales. “I always wanted to have a farm here,” says Daniel, “and we took almost a year to make the decision to downshift. It’s taken some getting used to, but it has been worthy of. We have to think twice now about spending money on car repairs and we no longer have any holidays. However, I think it’s made us stronger as a family, and the children are a lot happier.”

    Liz, however, is not quite sure. “I used to enjoy my job, even though it was hard work and long hours. I’m not really a country girl, but I suppose I’m gradually getting used to looking after the animals. One thing I do like, though, is being able to see more of my children. My advice for other people wanting to do the same is not to think about it too much or you might not do it at all.”

What do the first two paragraphs tell us?

    A. People seldom work long hours to make money.

    B. People hardly buy more things than necessary.

    C. People are sure everything they own is in the right place.

D. People realize there is more to life than just making money.

When Daniel was a reporter he _____.

    A. lived in central London          B. disliked his job

    C. missed his children               D. was well paid

Daniel and Liz both agree that the move to the farm _____.

    A. was easy to organize              B. has improved family life

    C. was extremely expensive           D. has been a total success

What does the underlined “it” in the last paragraph refer to?

    A. Child-caring.        B. Liz’s advice.   C. Downshifting.   D. Liz’s job.

語(yǔ)音知識(shí)（共5小題；每小題1分，滿分5分）

從A、B、C、D四個(gè)選項(xiàng)中，找出其劃線部分與所給單詞的劃線部分讀音相同的選項(xiàng)，并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。

例：have     A. gave            B. save              C. hat            D. made

答案是C。

stomach

A. butcher      B. machine      C. chemistry        D. achieve

throw

A. downtown     B. cow          C. low              D. flower

pleasure

A. increase         B. spread       C. break            D. reason

thus

A. pollute      B. cushion      C. huge         D. luggage

manage

A. example B. taste            C. passage      D. fasten

The big storm left, ________ a great damage to that area.

  A. caused     B.  to cause    D. having been caused    D. having caused

Detectives often look for footprints when they try to solve crimes. Scientists use footprints, too—dinosaur footprints when they try to figure out how dinosaurs lived and moved.

Dinosaurs died out about 65 million years ago. Today scientists work to solve the mysteries of these ancient animals.

Footprints, or tracks(腳印), are an important way to learn about dinosaurs. Christian Meyer of the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland, calls dinosaur tracks “the closest thing to a movie” of dinosaurs.

“They tell us something about the size of the animal, the way they were walking…they tell us something about their speed,” Meyer said.

Tracks also show that dinosaurs sometimes traveled in groups. Traveling in groups probably helped dinosaurs protect themselves from enemies. Plus, some meat-eating dinosaurs may have hunted in groups, much like wolves do today. Being in a group could help dinosaurs work together to kill large animals.

Dinosaur footprints can be as small as a few inches across, but they can also be as big as a few feet across. Dinosaur footprints have been found throughout the world at over 1,500 sites, including a T. Rex footprint in New Mexico. “Trackways” are groups of footprints.

And scientists aren’t the only ones finding dinosaur tracks—kids can, too! Eleven-year-old Mark Turner and nine-year-old Daniel Helm discovered dinosaur tracks in British Columbia, anada. Soon scientists began studying the tracks.

Scientists and other people interested in studying dinosaurs are working to save the trackways from activities like construction and mining.

The passage mainly tells us that_______.

there were really dinosaurs on the earth millions of years ago

dinosaurs were the most frightening animals in the past

C. dinosaur footprints are important in learning about dinosaurs

why dinosaurs died out millions of years ago

By studying footprints scientists can know the following EXCEPT _______.

A. how big the dinosaur was             B. what color the dinosaur was

C. how fast the dinosaur could run        D. how the dinosaur walked

By working in groups, some meat-eating dinosaurs_______.

   A. made the hunting of large animals easily

   B. could travel a long way without being lost

   C. could protect themselves from being hunted by wolves

   D. could get to a place faster

From the last paragraph we can infer that some human activities like mining_______.

   A. are helpful to the study of dinosaurs

   B. can help scientists solve many mysteries

   C. can lead to the discovery of the footprints

   D. can destroy the footprints of the dinosaur

We asked both Tonny and Jerry, but      could offer any help.

A. either                B. all                           C. none                 D. neither

Intelligence doesn’t ______ mean success. You need to work hard as well.

A. honestly         B. formally         C. simply           D. necessarily

The managing director was to _______ the accident, although it was not his fault.

  A. be blaming for B. be blamed on C. blame for    D. blame on

The summer I was ten, my mother decided to bring us to the world of art. My brother and I were not very excited when we realized what my mother meant. What she meant was that we would have to spend one afternoon a week with her at the Fine Arts Museum. Before each visit to the museum, she made us read about artists and painting styles. It was almost as bad as being in school. Who wants to spend the summer thinking about artists when you could be with your friends at the swimming pool?

     First we had to read about ancient Egyptians and their strange way of painting faces and then go to look at them at the museum. My 12-year-old brother thought this was so funny, but I was not interested. Later we had to learn about artists in the Middle Ages who painted people wearing strange long clothing. We had to look at pictures of fat babies with wings and curly (鬈曲的) hair and with no clothes on flying around the edges of paintings. I certainly couldn't see what was so great about art.

     On our last visit to the museum, something happened when I saw a painting by a woman called Mary. In it, a woman was reading to a child. The colors were soft and gentle, and you could tell by the mother’s expression how happy she was just to be with the child. I couldn't stop looking at this painting! I wanted to see every painting Mary had ever made! It was really worth looking at so many paintings to find a painter who could interest me so much.

   The aim of the mother’s plan was to _______.

    A. take them to visit the museum           B. introduce them to the world of art

    C. ask them to read about artists               D. show them different painting styles

   What was the writer’s experience in the museum before the last visit?

    A. She came to feel her mother’s love.         B. She liked many paintings.

    C. She hardly enjoyed herself.             

D. She could understand the pictures of fat babies.

   What made the writer go through a change that summer?

    A. One of Mary's paintings.                 B. A strange way of painting.

    C. Artists in the Middle Ages.                  D. Her mother’s instruction.

--How about _______ Christmas evening party?

--I should say it was _______ success.

A. a; a             B. the; a               C. a; 不填          D. the; 不填