第四部分：閱讀理解
閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的四個選項(A、B、C和D)中，選出最佳選項。
When you look at a map of the Caribbean, you will see a bunch of little islands surrounded by. Blue waters, which include places that aren't always household names like Montserrat and Anguilla.
While some of the names may not be familiar, the fact is that the Caribbean is a popular vacation region. Those little clots on the map often turn out to be island paradises. There are more than 7,000 islands, islets, and reefs in the area, many of which are lightly populated and stunningly beautiful.
The biggest challenge you might face in planning your trip is choosing where in the Caribbean to go. All of the nations feature excellent weather. Most feature beautiful beaches. You can enjoy the waters in most of the Caribbean nations and as is often the case with island nations, you will be welcomed warmly by the locals. Here are some resources to help you.
Unless you can walk on water or you cruise the Caribbean, the best way to visit is to fly. Some destinations have more frequent and cheaper flights than others. You should do some comparison shopping on flights to the Caribbean. And if you are planning on flying there during the Christmas holiday weeks it's important to book as early as possible because prices will just keep going up as they get closer.
The Caribbean offers a wide variety of accommodation options. Check out the Caribbean hotels that are available to get a better idea of the various options. If you are on a tight budget then, the Caribbean could be challenging, as there are only a few cheap hotels and hostels that might help you save some money.
Many people see the Caribbean from a cruise ship. There is no shortage of cruises that will take you through the region. Cruise and Vacation Travel Packages is the place to go to find the cruise or vacation package that is right for you.
56. The Caribbean is popular with tourists because ________.
A. the area has a small population             B. the area has a long history.
C. there are many beautiful islands there        D. tire area is very developed
57. The underlined word "they" in the fourth paragraph refers to _________.
A. prices of air tickets                       B. tourists to the Caribbean
C. flights to the Caribbean                  D. the Christmas holiday weeks
58. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. The weather in all of the Caribbean nations is fine.
B. Most of the Caribbean hotels are cheap.
C. The local people of the Caribbean are very friendly.
D. It is hard to choose a destination in the Caribbean.

Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found on Thursday.
Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others—even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.
“We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn,” said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual (yearly) income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, girls for others and donations to charity.
“Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not,” Dunn said in a statement.
Dunn’s team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $3,000 and $8,000. “Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself” they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.
　　They gave their volunteers $5 or $20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.
“These findings suggest that very minor alterations (changes) in spending allocations (shares)—as little as $5—may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day，”Dunn said.
60. What is the general idea of the passage?
A. The more you earn, the greater happiness you will get.
B. Spending more money on yourself will make you happier.
C. Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else.
D. You can spend only 5$ a day to get happiness.
61. The underlined word “boost” in the first paragraph probably means_______.
A. help to find     B. help to bring    C. help to increase     D. help to get
62. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Those who spend more money on others can get much more bonus.
B. People usually think spending money on themselves will make them happier.
C. Very small changes in spending your money may be enough to gain happiness.
D. Researchers think that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn.
63. It can be inferred from the 6th paragraph that ______.
A. the volunteers not given 5$ or 20$ spent their own money on themselves.
B. those who spent the money on someone or something else felt happier about it.
C. the volunteers were given 5$ or 20$ as a reward for the experiment.
D. half of the volunteers could spend the money as they liked.

There’s a man in the habit of hitting me on the head with an umbrella. At first I couldn’t stand it; now I’m used to it.
I don’t know his name. I know he’s ordinary in appearance, wears a gray suit and has a common face. One hot morning, when 1 was sitting on a tree-shaded bench in Palermo Park, reading the paper, suddenly I felt something touch my head. It was the very same man who now, as I’m writing, keeps striking me with an umbrella.
So I turned around filled with anger. He just kept on hitting me. I asked him if he was crazy. He didn’t even seem to hear me. Then I threatened (威脅) to call a policeman. Calmly cool as a cucumber, he went on hitting me. After a few moments of hesitation (猶豫), and seeing that he was not about to change his attitude, I stood up and hit him on the nose. The man fell down. But he immediately got back on his feet, obviously with great effort, and without a word again began hitting me on the head with the umbrella. His nose was bleeding and, at that moment. I felt sorry for him I regretted having hit him so hard. After all, the man wasn’t exactly hitting me；he was only tapping me lightly with his umbrella, not causing any pain at all. Of course, those taps were extremely upsetting. As we all know, when a fly lands on your forehead, you don’t feel any pain；what you feel is annoyance (煩惱).  Well then, that umbrella was one huge fly that kept landing on my head time after time.
Believing that I was dealing with a madman, I tried to escape. But the man followed me, wordlessly continuing to hit me. So I began to run (I should point out that not many people run as fast as I do). He ran after me, trying to hit me. The man was out of breath so that I thought, if I continued to force him to run at that speed, he would drop dead right then and there.
64. When the man began to strike the author with an umbrella, the author_________
  A. became angry                  B. called the police
    C. turned around and escaped        D. turned around and fought back
65. The author would most probably agree that the man was________.
    A. deaf          B. blind         C. dead         D. mad
66. The author felt sorry for the man because _______.
   A. there was a fly on the man’s head     B. he hit the man so hard that his nose bled
 C. the man couldn’t catch up with him       D. the man formed a bad habit of beating others    
67. It can be learned from the passage that the man__________.
 A. shouted loudly while hitting the author  B. wanted to tell the author something
 C. ran after the author breathlessly        D. acted as if he were a fly

Last week’s topic: What’s your opinion about cheating in exams?
Wilson 822 (Fujian): An oath isn’t enough to keep anyone from cheating. Who can tell that they won’t promise something that goes against their will? So I think the punishment is important. Punishments should be serious enough to stop people breaking the oath!
Wang Changling (Anhui): The oath itself makes all test-takers think that others may consider them would-be cheaters, which can hurt their feelings. In my opinion, prevention is better than a punishment. Educators should set good examples for students to follow and be role models for them. Even if only a few educators continue to copy other people’s work and their research papers, surely, students will follow.
Anonymous(匿名的): I support the school’s action against cheating. Although the oath isn’t a duty, it can warn the would-be cheater.
Cathy Cheng: I find it is hard to refuse a friend who wants help in exams. And I think the rule of Maryland University gives the students like me a good excuse to refuse.
Zzq8301: I think it is a promising step toward what we’re talking about when we say “fair play” these days. Cheaters should be stopped because they make it difficult for the honest to succeed.
Freda (Tianjin): I was told by my foreign teacher to write down the oath on the back of my test paper in the same way that was described in the article. It is a rule everyone should obey in a fair game. Whether this method succeeds or fails is up to you. What I want to say is to be true to yourself.
60. The underlined word “oath” in Paragraph 2 may have the same meaning as “_________”. [來源:Z&xx&k.Com]
A. idea                      B. promise          C. plan                      D. opinion
61. It is clear that people mentioned in the text are talking about the rule made by _________.
A. Maryland University                    B. some colleges          
C. the Education Department           D. the government
62. How many people are in fact in favor of the rule?
A. 3                   B. 2                     C. 4                    D. 5
63. Who think teachers should set a good example? 
A. Wilson 822        B. Freda             C. Cathy Cheng   D. Wang Changling

Attitude is an internal（內(nèi)在的）state that influences the choices of personal action made by the individual. Some researchers consider that attitudes come from differences between beliefs and ideas; others believe that attitudes come from emotional states. Here, we focus on the effects of attitudes upon behavior, that is, upon the choices of action made by the individual.
The kinds of actions taken by human beings are obviously influenced greatly by attitudes. Whether one listens to classical music or rock, whether one obeys the speed limit while driving, whether one encourages one’s husband or wife to express his or her own ideas－all are influenced by attitudes. These internal states are acquired throughout life from situations one is faced with in the home, in the streets, and in the school.
Of course, the course of action chosen by an individual in any situation will be largely determined by the particulars of that situation. An individual who has a strong attitude of obeying laws may drive too fast when he is in a hurry and no police cars in sight. A child who has a strong attitude of honesty may steal a penny when she thinks no one will notice. But the internal state which remains unchanged over a period of time, and which makes the individual behave regularly in a variety of situations, is what is meant by an attitude.
Attitudes are learned in a variety of ways. They can result from single incidents, as when an attitude toward snakes is acquired by an experience in childhood at the sudden movement of a snake. They can result from the individual’s experiences of success and pleasure, as when someone acquires a positive attitude toward doing crossword puzzles by being able to complete some of them. And frequently, they are learned by copying other people’s behavior, as when a child learns how to behave toward foreigners by observing the actions of his parents. Regardless of these differences, there is something in common in the learning and modification（修正）of attitudes.
72. According to the passage, attitudes _______ .
A. come from different situations in one’s life    
B. are largely affected by one’s behavior
C. remain unchanged in one’s daily life                                  
D. could be chosen according to one’s will
73. The author uses the examples in Paragraph 3 to show _______ .
A. people often make mistakes when they are not noticed
B. people with good attitudes may sometimes do bad deeds
C. particulars of a situation may influence an individual’s action
D. an individual may change his or her attitude fairly easily
74. Which of the following is TRUE about the learning of attitudes?
A. Attitudes are only learned through one’s success.
B. Attitudes learned in danger will last longer.
C. Copying others’ behavior is not a good idea.
D. Attitudes can be learned from one’s parents.
75. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Differences of Attitudes.   B. Nature of Attitude.
C. Choices of Attitudes. D. Modification of Attitude.

All plant cells are capable of taking up water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption（吸收）of water by dead cell walls makes wood become larger. In common land plants, the living cells of roots take up most of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens（苔蘚）you see on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plants started to enter the land, the first land plants did not have roots.
Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are “the higher plants” because they evolved（進化）recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale（進化度）. In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water only from the dew（露水）it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies. In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation（絕緣物）of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.
64．From the passage we know that the evolutionary scale is graded according to _______ .
A. evolutionary cycles  B. heights and depths
C. time        D. kinds
65．The “bromeliad” is a plant that _______ .
A．has useless roots             B. is a pineapple
C．can grow anywhere  D. takes up water through its leaves
66．The most suitable title for this passage is “_______ ”.
A. Absorption of water by plants   B. Rootless plants
C. Plants in the desert       D. Higher plants

For a song to become popular, people need to hear it. In order for people to hear it, the program directors at radio stations have to play it on the air. A song’s popularity is directly related to how often it is played. That is a big responsibility for program directors. How do they decide what gets played and what doesn’t?
In the past, disc jockeys(音樂節(jié)目支持人) decided what music was played on the radio. These DJs had an ear for music and an understanding of what their audience wanted to hear. Today, that is all changing. Most major radio stations are owned by a few large national businesses. The decision of what gets played on the radio is made by executives(主管) who have little or no interest in music. They do, however, know how to run a business, and they know what sells. So, the music industry designs and creates pop entertainers, and executives in the radio industry make sure that their music is played on the radio. This explains why you do not often hear anything new and fresh on the radio. The executives do not want to give air time to music that has not been tested on the market. It is too risky. They prefer to go with music that they already know will sell. They know it will sell because it sold last week and last month and last year. They just have to change it a little.
One of the most criticized(批評)practices in the music industry is the practice of “payola”. This is when record companies pay radio stations to play the music of a given artist. This practice makes many people lose trust in the music industry and is therefore against the law. A radio station can accept money in exchange for air time of a song, but they have to make clear that the song is being played because its air time was paid for. They cannot present the song as if it were part of the normal play schedule.
Payola affects both artists and audiences. The artists who work with small record companies that cannot pay a lot of money to radio stations have a much harder time getting exposure. It creates an unfair playing field. Music lovers suffer because they are not able to hear all the music that is available.
67. According to the passage, most major radio stations belong to _______.
A. national businesses    B. program directors     C. pop entertainers        D. record companies
68. “Payola” is the practice of ________.
A. artists paying radio stations to play their songs
B. record companies buying air time for certain music
C. radio station paying record company for new songs
D. program directors deciding what music gets played
69. Who can make the largest profits from payola?
A. Disc Jockeys.    B. The given artists.     C. Business executives.      D. Program directors.
70. It can be concluded from the passage that the author _______.
A. has a positive attitude towards the practice of “payola”
B. is dissatisfied with the present situation in music industry
C. is calling for a change in the normal play schedule
D. thinks that the radio stations are doing the right thing

When you buy a T-shirt, or a fur coat in a store, it often carries a label （標簽），telling who made it or from which store it was bought . Indeed, some labels show the dress is famous and it is very expensive, so buyers secretly wish they might be carried forever. On the other hand, buyers who deal with the cheapest products would be pleased to do away with labels entirely.
However, there is another label more important than the one showing from which store the dress was bought. When a person buys a fur coat, or a jacket from a store, a label telling what the product is made of should be carried on it.
This label is required by law. Besides telling what the product on show is made of, the label should be in clear English and be where one can find it easily. The information on the label must be the truth.
The reason for this label is that most buyers today aren’t expert enough to know exactly what kind of fur or material they buy. The buyer must believe in the store that sells the products or in what the labels say.
56. The passage is mainly about_________.
A. some knowledge of clothing labels    
B. some advice on how to get dressed
C. some advice on buying clothes    
D. some knowledge of the quality of clothes
57. According to the passage, from a label we can know all of the following EXCEPT_________.
A. who made the clothes           B. where one bought the clothes
C. how much the clothes cost       D. what material the clothes are made of
58. The law requires that a product should carry a _________.
A. clean label    B. clear label     C. white label   D. secret label
59. The author probably thinks that_________.
A. all buyers want their clothes to wear labels forever
B. many buyers depend on labels when buying clothes
C. most stores don’t sell clothes with labels
D. most labels don’t tell buyers the truth

Because of the development of agriculture, the area of land affected by sand has gradually increased. During the 1950s and 1960s the land affected by sand expanded on average into 1,600 square kilometers per year. By the 1990s, the area had reached 2,500 square kilometers per year.  This kind of situation is particularly serious in many regions upwind(逆風的) from Beijing. Fengning City in Hebei Province and Duolun City in Inner Mongolia lie to the north of Beijing, and in the last 50 years the population of these two cities has grown by 2 to 3 times. In order to obtain more resources, the inhabitants have been busy with  heavy farming, tree-cutting and keeping animals. The result is that the soil which has sustained damage, and the sand layer below the earth is now exposed on the ground and the ground is rapidly being controlled by the spread of sand.
China has already noticed this problem, and has take measures to save the land. Nowadays, some land used for farming has returned to forestland and grassland. The Chinese government announced that it would invest more than RMB 600,000,000 to control Beijing’s sandstorms in the coming years. Only by decreasing the damage caused by man and restoring the natural environment will it be possible to well control the sources of the sand and dust. We hope in the not-distant future, we will solve the problem successfully and effectively.  
63. Compared with 50s and 60s, the land affected by sand increased by _____ square kilometers by the 1990s.
A. 1,600        B. 2,500         C. 900          D. 1,100         
64. Which of the following is NOT the cause of the damaged land?                      
A.People use the resources too much.
B.People keep animals which need more grain.
C.People prepare too much land to grow crops.
D.People cut a lot of forests and raise animals.
65. The major measure that Chinese government has taken is _____.                                                          
A.controlling the growth of the population     
B. making better use of natural resources
C. killing fewer animals and cutting fewer trees   
D. returning some land to forestland and grassland
66.According to the passage, it can be inferred that _____ was the major factor of the environmental damage.
A. man       B. animal      C. nature    D. desert 

"Tear’em apart!" "Kill the fool!" "Murder the referee（裁判）!"
They are common remarks one may hear at various sporting events. At the time they are made, they may seem innocent（無害的）enough. But let's not kid ourselves. They have been known to influence behavior in such a way as to lead to real bloodshed（流血）.Books have been written about the way words affect us. It has shown that words having certain meanings may cause us to react in ways quite foreign to what we consider to be our usual humanistic behavior. I see the term "opponent" as one of those words. Perhaps the time has come to delete it from sports terms.
The dictionary meaning of the term "opponent" is "enemy":“ one who opposes your interests." Thus, when a player meets an opponent, he or she may tend to treat that opponent as an enemy. At such times, winning may control one's mind, and every action, no matter how bad, may be considered correct . I recall an incident in a handball game when a referee refused a player's request for a time out for a glove change because he didn't consider them wet enough. The player rubbed his gloves across his wet T-shirt and then shouted, "Are they wet enough now?"
In the heat of battle, players have been observed to throw themselves across the court without considering the consequences that such a move might have on anyone in their way. I have also witnessed a player reacting to his opponent's intentional and illegal blocking by hitting him with the ball as hard as he could during the course of play. Off the court, they are good friends. Does that make any sense? It certainly gives proof of a court attitude which is different from normal behavior.
Therefore, I believe it is time we promoted the game to the level where it is by setting an example. Replacing the term “opponent” with “ associate” could be an ideal way to start.
The dictionary meaning of the term “associate” is “friend”；“companion.” Think it over！You may soon see and possibly feel the difference in your reaction to the term "associate' rather than "opponent."
49. Which of the following statements best expresses the author's view?
A. Bad behavior in sports will always have serious consequences.
B. The words people use can influence their behavior.
C. Unpleasant words in sports are often used by foreign athletes.
D. Unfair judgments by referees will lead to violence on the sports field.
50. Rough words are spoken during games because the players________.
A. are too eager to win                   B. are usually bad-tempered  
C. can't afford to be polite in competitions    D. treat their friends as competitors
51. What did the handball player do when he was not allowed a time out to change his gloves?
A. He refused to continue the game.
B. He angrily hit the referee with a ball.
C. He claimed that the referee was unfair.
D. He wet his gloves by rubbing them across his T-shirt.
52. The author hopes to have the current situation in sports improved by_______.
A. changing the attitude of players on the sports field
B. raising the referee's sense of responsibility
C. calling on players to use clean language on the court
D. regulating the relationship between players and referees