Directions: There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by five questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.
Passage 1
Americans spend a lot of money in their daily lives. Working people spend money on transportation to and from work and on various expenses throughout the day. Americans enjoy shopping and buy many things that they need and want. They spend a lot of money on entertainment. They buy sports equipment, to do sporting events and do many things that cost money. However, many Americans don’t pay cash or write checks for these things. More and more, they pay for things with credit cards(信用卡).
Credit cards are small, rectangular plastic cards. Banks give these cards to their customers. When the customer buys something at a store, he shows his card at the store. This authorizes(委托)the store to charge(记入)the bank account for the customer’s purchase. The bank collects all the charges for each customer. Then once a month the bank requires the customer to pay all the charges for that month. The bank does not force the customer to pay the full amount. It asks the customer to pay for the charges in several payments over a period of time. However, the bank requires the customer to pay interest on the unpaid of the charges.
In this way the bank allows customers to buy things they cannot afford at one time. People can use the card to buy what they want and pay for it over a period of time. They also do not need to carry a lot of money.
41. How do Americans pay for what they buy? They _______.
A. either pay cash or write checks B. are allowed to use credit cards
C. pay cash, write checks or use credit cards D. neither pay cash nor use credit cards
42. What is a credit card? It’s a _______.
A. kind of money Americans are interested in
B. special type of check used by Americans to buy what they need
C. small rectangular plastic card used for money
D. dollar made of paper
43. What are some of the advantages in using credit cards? People _______.
A. can get what they want and need when they have no money
B. can get things at a store they cannot afford at one time
C. don’t need to carry a lot of money
D. B and C
44. How often does the bank require its customer to pay all the charges?
A. Once a month. B. Over a long period of time
C. The sooner, the better D. The moment he has plenty of money
45. Who are allowed to use credit cards in the United Sates?
A. Those who are authorized to spend money.
B. Those who can make regular payments.
C. Those who can afford to pay interest on the unpaid of the charges.
D. Those who are very rich.
Passage 2
When you send a letter or a postcard, you have to put stamps on the envelope or on the card. When did people first begin to use stamps? Who was the first to think of this idea?
In the early nineteenth century, people did not use stamps. They had to pay postage(邮费)when they received letters. Sometimes they didn’t want to receive a letter at all, but they had to pay money for it. They were unhappy about this. The postage was high at that time, because the post offices had to send many people to get the postage.
Rowland Hill was a schoolteacher in England. He was the first to think of using stamps in 1850s. He thought it would be much easier for people to use stamps. People could go to the post office to buy stamps and put them on envelopes before they sent the letters. The post office could just put seals(邮戳)on the stamps so that people could not use the stamps again. In this way, the post office did not need to send postmen to get postage. It only needed fewer postmen to send letters.
46. People began to use stamps ________.
A. at the beginning of the nineteenth century B. in the middle of the nineteenth century
C. more than two hundred years ago D. when people first sent letters and postcards
47. Before stamps were used, postage ________.
A. was paid by the letter-writers B. was paid by the letter-receivers
C. was got by postmen D. both B and C
48. Rowland Hill ________.
A. invented the first stamp B. was a postman in England
C. gave the idea of using stamps D. was the first man to use stamps
49. After stamps were used ________.
A. postmen needn’t get postage B. people needn’t pay postage
C. the post office could get more postage D. people should pay more postage
50. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. How did stamps begin to be used? B. Why were postmen sent to get postage?
C. When did people first begin to use stamps? D. Who was the first to think of using stamps?
Passage 3
Have you ever wondered why different animals or pests have their particular colours? Colours in them seem to be used mainly to protect themselves.
Birds, especially seagulls, are very fond of locusts, but birds cannot easily catch locusts because locusts change their colours together with the change of the colour of crops. When crops are green, locusts look green. But when crops are ripe, locusts take on exactly the same brown colour as crops have. Some other pests with different colours from plants are usually easily found and eaten by their enemies. So they have to hide themselves in terror for lives and appear only at night.
If you study the animal life in any part of the world, you will find the main use of colouring is to protect themselves. Bears, wolves and other beasts move quietly through forests. They are usually invisible to the eyes of hunters, because they have the colour much like the barks of trees.
An even more strange act remains to be noticed. A kind of fish living in seas can send out a kind of very black liquid when it faces danger. While the liquid spreads over, its enemies cannot find it, and it immediately swims away. Thus, it has existed up to now though it is not powerful at all.
51. This passage mainly talks about ________.
A. the change of colour in locusts
B. the protective coloration of animals and pests
C. how a certain sea fish protects itself
D. animals or pests can dye themselves different colours
52. Locusts are ________ but they are not easily wiped out by their enemies because ________.
A. animals; they are powerful enough B. beasts; they are dangerous to their enemies
C. pests; they take on the same colours as crops D. birds; they fly extraordinarily fast
53. The pests that have different colours from plants usually appear at night because ________.
A. their enemies can easily find them and eat them
B. they have the habit of coming out in darkness
C. it’s easy for them to destroy plants in darkness
D. birds take their rest when night comes
54. Bears and wolves have the same colour as barks of trees because ________.
A. they fear other beasts
B. they like brown or grey colours
C. they enjoy walking through forests quietly
D. the colours help prevent themselves from being noticed
55. A certain fish living in seas has lived through millions of years because ________.
A. it is the most powerful in the sea
B. no other fishes can swim so fast as it can
C. it can send out a kind of liquid which makes its enemies unable to find it
D. the liquid it sends out can kill its enemies
Passage 4
A warm-hearted nurse on her first day’s work came to a patient who had came to London for a visit to the famous doctor. She asked the patient whether there was anything that she could do for him. But he only waved his had, shook his head and said something she couldn’t understand. With a pleasing smile she asked him again and he just kept doing the same and saying the same words, but in about 3 minutes, he closed his eyes. The nurse felt his pulse and found out that the patient had died.
The nurse felt so sorry for the poor patient who had ended his life very far way from his home that she ran to the doctor in a hurry and repeated to the doctor the sounds she had heard. “My dear girl,” said the doctor after listening to what she repeated, “you’ve just killed him. He was saying, ‘You’ve been standing on my oxygen(氧气)pipe.’”
56. The patient had come to London ________.
A. to see whether he could make friends with the nurse
B. to get the medical treatment from the doctor
C. to do some business to make money
D. to visit the world-famous city
57. The nurse asked the patient ________.
A. if he was feeling any better B. whether he wanted to do anything
C. if he needed her help D. whether she was a warm-hearted lady
58. When the nurse asked the patient again ________.
A. he repeated what he had said B. he kept silent all the same
C. he said he needed her help very much D. he said she was a very bad woman
59. The patient died ________.
A. because of the doctor B. because of the nurse
C. because his illness was too bad D. because of the wrong medicine he had taken
60. The patient passed away ________.
A. in his homeland B. far from the hospital
C. on his own farm D. just at a hospital
Ⅴ.Writing (20 points)
Directions: For this part, write a short passage in about 80 words according to the following situation.
写一篇作文，简述人们在找工作时要考虑的一些因素，并解释其原因。
