Passage Four Most people do not think of fishes and other sea animals as having voices, a

Although reefs face other threats from pollution, industrial activities, and overfishing, it is global climate change that most concerns scientists

A．Mass media are one of the most profitable industries in AmericA．

B．Mass communication was successful from its early stages．

C．The four major functions of mass media have always been profitabl

E．

D．Making money is the chief purpose of mass mediA．

Passage Four

If you are like most people, your intelligence varies from season to season. You are probably a lot sharper in the spring than you are at any other time of year. A noted scientist, Ells- worth Huntington (1876-1947) concluded from other men's work and his own among peoples in different climates that climate and: temperature have a definite effect on our mental abilities.

He found that cool weather is much more favorable for creative thinking than summer heat is. This does not mean that all people are less intelligent in the summer than they are during the rest of the year. It does mean, however, that mental, abilities of large numbers of people tend to be lowest in the summer.

Spring appears to be the best period of the year for thinking. One reason may be that in the spring man's mental abilities are affected by the same factors that bring about great changes in all nature.

Fall is the next best season, then winter. As for summer, it seems to be a good time to take a long vacation from thinking!

46. According to the passage, your mental ability ______.

A. depends on your attitude towards people in different time of the year

B. changes for the worst when you dislike most people in hot season

C. will be best in winter and worst in summer if you want to be creative

D. turns to be more powerful in spring than in any of the other seasons

Passage Four

Students all over the world have to work for their education. A college education in the United States is

expensive. The costs are so high that most families begin to save for their children's education when their children are babies. Even so, many young people cannot afford to pay the expenses of full-time college work. They do not have enough money to pay for school costs. Tuition for attending the university, books for classes, and living expenses are high. There are other expenses such as chemistry and biology lab fees and special student activity fees for such things as parking permits and football tic, kets. The cost of college education increases every year. However, classrooms are still crowded with students. Some American students have scholarships or other support, but many do not.

Students from other countries have money problems to overcome, too. Because students in most international programs need to have a sponsor, they work hard to earn scholarships or special loans. International students understand the value of going to school in another country. They also know that it is difficult. Yet just as Americans choose to attend American universities in spite of the difficulty, however, it is usually possible for students from abroad to work on university campuses to pay for some of the costs of their education. Some people believe that students value their education more if they work for it.

48. Tuition for attending the university in the United States is ______.

A. inexpensive

B. high

C. free from charge

D. costless

Ⅲ. Cloze (30 points)

Directions: For each blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that is most suitable and mark your answer by blackening the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet.

Times have changed and the ideas of the young and the old about the same thing are often ill contra diction. For example, parents and teenagers often disagree about the amount of freedom and responsibility that young people (21) to have. The teenager is more independent and often wants to be (22) to choose his own friends, select his own courses in school, plan for his own vocational (23) , and earn and spend his own money, and generally (24) his own life in a more independent (25) than many parents are able to (26) .

Most problems (27) teenagers and their parents yield to (导致) (28) planning and decision making. Within ally particular family, (29) are avoided and problems are solved when all of the persons take (30) in the situation, and (31) in working it out. (32) parents and young people learn how to get (33) well with each other and develop skills in understanding and (34) understood, even (35) most difficult problems are relieved and a situation might appear that teenagers and their parents can some times see eye to eye.

21. A. is

B. should

C. will

D. are

Ⅲ. Cloze (20 points)

Directions: For each blank in the following passage, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that is most suitable and mark your answer by blackening the corresponding letter on the answer sheet.

We are interested in the weather because it (21) us so directly—what we wear, (22) we do, and even how we feel. Geographers, however, are (23) interested in climate than in weather. Climate is the pattern of all the weather conditions over a long period of time. Generally (24) , climate (25) to these normal weather conditions, not (26) daily or yearly changes.

Climate, like weather, changes (27) time. It is true (28) these changes (29) a long time, but not as long as we might expect. Records show that over the centuries large portions of the earth have experienced great changes (30) climate.

21. A. effects

B. defects

C. infects

D. affects

Passage Three

Many theories about the origin of the ocean have been proposed by scientists. The most widely accepted one is that the earth at some time in its very early history became hot enough to melt the materials from which it was formed. While in this molten state, lighter rock-forming materials (造岩材料) floated on the surface of the heavier ones. Then, between four and a half four billion (十亿) years ago, the molten earth cooled sufficiently to form. a crust of rock that was many miles thick.

Surrounding the earth was an unbroken canopy of clouds miles thick and made up mostly of water vapor. Rain falling toward the still-hot earth was heated to steam and rose to the clouds again. After many millions of years, as the earth continued to cool, its surface temperature fell below the boiling point of water. Rainwater could now remain on the earth, covering its whole surface except for the higher places on earth that had been formed from the lighter rock materials.

In 1970, scientists had pieced together evidence that the lighter rock materials had formed one huge continent by a vast ocean. Then, about 200 million years ago, the great continent began to break up, the pieces moving slowly apart.

The onrushing waters of the single huge ocean now entered and filled the spaces between the separating continents--and became the several oceans and seas we know today.

41. This passage mainly talks about ______.

A. the origin of the earth

B. the origin of the ocean

C. the history of the earth

D. the forming of the earth's crust

Passage Four

Millions of stars are traveling about in space. A few form. groups which journey together, but most of them travel alone. And they travel through a universe so large that one star seldom comes near to another.

We believe, however, that some two thousand million years ago, another star wandering through space, happened to come near our sun. Just as the sun and the moon raise tides on the earth, so this star must have raised tides on the surface of the sun. But they were very different from the small tides that are raised in our oceans; a large tidal wave' must have travelled over the surface of the sun, at last forming a mountain so high that we cannot imagine it. As the cause of the disturbance (动荡) came nearer, so the mountain rose higher and higher. And before the star began to move away again, its tidal pull had become so powerful that this mountain was torn to pieces and threw off small parts of itself into space. These small pieces have been going round the sun ever since. They are the planets (行星).

46. Millions of stars are______.

A. following a regular path in space

B. always travelling together

C. seldom wandering about in the universe

D. moving about without a fixed course

Passage Four

Archimedes was a famous Greek mathematician and scientist. He was born around 287 BC and he died in the year 212 BC.

Archimedes is most well-known for one specific idea that he came up with. "Archimedes's Principle" states that a solid object which is immersed in a liquid is pushed up by a force which is equal to the weight of the water that the object moves. For example, if you put a piece of wood and a piece of gold the same size in water, only the wood will float. Both the wood and gold move the same amount of water, but the wood weighs less than this water, while the gold weighs more.

It is believed that Archimedes discovered this principle when the king of Syracuse asked him to solve a problem. The king wanted to know if his crown was pure gold or a mixture of gold and silver. The king, of course, did not melt his crown to find out. The idea came to Archimedes as he lowered himself into his bath. He noticed how the water spilled out of the tub. He decided to use the same idea for the crown. He knew that a gold crown immersed in water would weigh more than one made of silver. The experiment was done and the goldsmith was proved guilty of trying to cheat the king.

48. A good title for the selection is______.

A. Archimedes

B. Archimedes's Principle

C. A Gold and Silver Crown

D. The King of Syracuse

Passage Four

More than 6,000 children were expelled (开除) from US school last year for bringing guns and bombs to school, the US Department of Education said on May 8.

The department gave a report to the expulsions (开除) as saying handguns accounted for 58 percent of the 6,093 expulsions in 1996 and 1997, against 7 percent for rifles (步枪) or shotguns and 35 percent for other types of firearms.

"The report is a clear sign that out nation's public schools are cracking down (严惩) on students who bring guns to school," Education Secretary Richard Riley said in a statement. "We need to be tough-minded about keeping guns out of our schools and do everything to keep our children safe."

In March 1997, an 11 years old boy and 13 years old boy using handguns and rifles shot dead four children and a teacher at a school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In October, two were killed and seven wounded in a shooting at a Mississippi school. Two months later, a 14 years old boy killed three high school students and wounded five in Dasucah, Kentucky.

Most of the expulsions, 56 percent, were from high school, which have students from about age 13.34 percent were from junior high schools and 9 percent were from elementary schools, the report said.

46. From the first paragraph we can infer that in the US schools ______.

A. students enjoy shooting

B. students are eager to be solider

C. safety is a problem

D. students can make guns