Almost all of us grew up eating meat, going to zoos, and perhaps wearing leathers.Many

prices in urban areas such as San Francisco and Los Angeles being higher than the state average it is almost impossible for not just the poor but also the lower middle class workers to afford decent housing and no possibility of home ownership. The majority of the population lacks a college education, and the median home price was determined to be $723,790, requiring an upper middle class income which only roughly 20% of all households in the county boast. Such fluctuations in local markets are however not considered in the Federal poverty line and thus leave many who live in poverty-like conditions out of the total number of households classified as poor.

A.Many sociologists and government officials have argued that poverty in the US is understated.

B.The poverty line lost all connection over time with current consumption patterns of the average family.

C.The issue of understating poverty is especially pressing in the states with both a high cost and a high poverty rate such as California.

D.The official poverty line today is essentially what it takes in today's dollars to purchase the same poverty-line level of living half a century ago.

It can be really frustrating (使人沮丧的) for an overweight person to go to a gym and work out with a positive attitude. All one has to do is walk by almost any nice gym and notice all the healthy, sweating, “skinny ” members. Sometimes they stare at those of us who are, well, zaftig . It is easy to see the judgment behind their eyes. Who wants to put up with that？ Many people are self-conscious of their bodies and feel isolated when joining workout classes of while exercising, especially if they are larger than most of the others in the group. Now the fitness industry is finally paying attention. Popular gyms are catering (迎合) to overweight and weight conscious customers by dedicating areas where the “skinny ” people are not allowed. There are even gyms or programs that require members to be at least 50 pounds overweight to participate. Trainers recommend functional fitness as a practical goal, rather than six-pack abs(六块 腹肌). (79)They often use text messages to stay in touch with customers. Often at these specialized gyms, the trainers are overweight themselves, or working on their own weight goals, and this can help those people with anxiety caused by poor body image. The equipment has been designed for use by larger people. Wider seats, more cushioning, no mirrors, and tinted (有色的) windows for privacy, are all important changes. (80)Hopefully these types of gyms will successfully grow in numbers in the future. The idea is a very simple and potentially popular one. If it helps those of us who are bigger exercise more and improve our fitness level, it ’s a step in the right direction. The word zaftig in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.

A.fat

B.healthy

C.friendly

D.polite

Almost everyone knows the meaning of "Mr.", "Mrs.", and "Miss". "Mr." is used before the names of gentlemen. "Mrs." is for married women and "Miss" is for single women. But what is "Ms."？

For some time, businessmen in the US have used "Ms." before a woman's name when they do not know whether or not the woman is marrieD.Today, however, many women prefer to use "Ms." rather than "Mrs." or "Miss". The word "Mr." does not tell us whether a man is married or not. Many women think this is an advantage for men. They want to be equal to men in this way. These women feel that it is not important for people to know whether or not they are marrieD.

There are some problems with "Ms.", however. Not all women like it. Some like the older ways of doing things. Some find it difficult to pronounce. ("Ms." sounds like [miz].) Generally, young women like it better than older women do. It is difficult to know whether "Ms." will be used by more American women in the future or not. What do you think of this change？

1. Many young women prefer to use "Ms." because ________.

：A.they think themselves as good as men

B.it doesn't tell whether they're married or not

C.the word sounds more pleasant than "Mrs." does

D.the word has been used for a long time

Questions 28 to 31 are based on the following passage.

The number of international students at colleges and universities in the United States has increased continually for fifthyear.

The Institute of International Education in New York released its annual ” Open Doors ” report this week. It says a record ofmore than 720,000 students from other countries were studying in America during the last school year. The number was 5%higher than the year before and almost one-third higher than ten years ago.

There were big increases from China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran and Venezuela. Almost 22% of international studentswere Chinese, with increases especially at the undergraduate level. Together, almost half of all international students camefrom China, India and South Korea.

Peggy Blumenthal at the institute says that Chinese students are now studying throughout the United States. Twenty yearsago, students from China only knew of a handful of the US institutions, but now they are admitted into the US communitycolleges, small liberal arts institutions, and research universities — really spread across the US. Ms. Blumenthal suggests thatone reason for the increase is a lack of space in Chinese colleges for everyone who wants an education. She says studentsand their parents are also looking for a different educational experience.

More international students study in California than in any other states. For ten years in a row, the University of SouthernCalifornia in Los Angeles led the country, with more than 8,600 foreign students.

The most popular area of study for international students is business and management, followed by engineering.

28.Big increases in the number of international students were mainly from __________

A.China, Vietnam, India, etc

B.South Korea, China, Vietnam, etc

C.Iran, China, Saudi, Arabia, etc

D.South Korea, Vietnam, Venezuela, etc

According to the passage the number of Chinese students in the US is__________A.about 720,000

B.about 360,000

C.about 158,000

D.about 8, 600

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage？A.Home Countries of International Students in the US

B.Study Areas of International Students in the US

C.New Trends of International Students in the US

D.Backgrounds of International Students in the US

Where do Chinese students study in the US today？A.In a handful of institions

B.In small liberal arts institutions

C.In different kinds of institutions

D.In engineering institutions

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！

sts' only job is to explore emotions, and yet they choose to focus on the ones that feel bad. This wasn't always so. The earliest forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy. But somewhere in the 19th century, more artists began seeing happiness as insipid, phony or, worst of all, boring as we went from Wordsworth's daffodils to Baudelaire's flowers of evil. You could argue that art became more skeptical of happiness because modern times have seen such misery. But it's not as if earlier times didn't know perpetual war, disaster and the massacre of innocents. The reason, in fact, may be just the opposite: there is too much damn happiness in the world today. After all, what is the one modern form. of expression almost completely dedicated to depicting happiness？ Advertising. The rise of anti-happy art almost exactly tracks the emergence of mass media, and with it, a commercial culture in which happiness is not just an ideal but an ideology. People in earlier eras were surrounded by reminders of misery. They worked until exhausted, lived with few protections and died young. In the West, before mass communication and literacy, the most powerful mass medium was the church, which reminded worshippers that their souls were in peril and that they would someday be meat for worms. Given all this, they did not exactly need their art to be a bummer too. Today the messages your average Westerner is bombarded with are not religious but commercial, and forever happy. Fast-food eaters, news anchors, text messengers, all smiling, smiling. Our magazines feature beaming celebrities and happy families in perfect homes. And since these messages have an agenda--to lure us to open our wallets to make the very idea of happiness seem unreliable. "Celebrate!" commanded the ads for the arthritis drug Celebrex, before we found out it could increase the risk of heart attacks. What we forget--what our economy depends on is forgetting--is that happiness is more than pleasure without pain. The things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment. Today, surrounded by promises of easy happiness, we need someone to tell us as religion once did, Memento mori: remember that you will die, that everything ends, and that happiness comes not in denying this but in living with it. It's a message even more bitter than a clove cigarette, yet, somehow, a breath of fresh air.

第36题：By citing the example of poets Wordsworth and Baudelaire, the author intends to show that

A. Poetry is not as expressive of joy as painting or music. B. Art grow out of both positive and negative feeling. C. Poets today are less skeptical of happiness. D. Artist have changed their focus of interest.

to as many as two or three different newspapers. But why do people read newspapers？ Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings – battles lost and won, kings or rulers overthrown (推翻) or killed – took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate. Today we can read in our newspapers of important events that occur in far away countries on the same day they happen. Apart from supplying news from all over the world, newspapers give us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, radio, television and film guides, book reviews, stories, and of course, advertisements. The bigger ones are put in by large companies to bring attention to their products. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for the advertising space, but it is worth the money for news of their products goes into almost every home in country. For those who produce newspapers, advertisements are also very important. Money earned from advertisements makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit. The phrase “subscribe to” in the first paragraph means “__________”.

A. go to the newspaper stand and buy

B. send their own news stories to

C. agree to buy for a specific period of time

D. become faithful readers of

There are great impediments to the general use of a standard in

pronunciation comparable to that existing in spelling.

(orthography). One is the fact that pronunciation is learnt

'naturally' and unconsciously, and orthography is learnt 【B1】______

deliberately and consciously. Large numbers of us, in fact,

remain throughout our lives quite unconscious with what 【B2】______

our speech sounds like when we speak out, and it often 【B3】______

comes as a shock when we firstly hear a recording of ourselves. 【B4】______

It is not a voice we recognize at once, whereas our own handwriting

is something which we almost always know. We begin the 'natural' 【B5】______

learning of pronunciation long before we start learning to read or

write, and in our early years we went on unconsciously imitating and 【B6】______

practicing the pronunciation of those around us for many more hours

per every day than we ever have to spend learning even our difficult 【B7】______

English spelling. This is 'natural', therefore, that our speech-sounds 【B8】______

should be those of our immediate circle；after all, as we have seen,

speech operates as a means of holding a community and 【B9】______

giving a sense of 'belonging'. We learn quite early to recognize a

'stranger', someone who speaks with an accent of a different

community — perhaps only a few miles far. 【B10】______

【B1】

men. Mrs is used for married women and Miss is for unmarried woman. But ___21___ is Ms？

For some time, businessmen in the United States have used Ms before a woman's name when they do not know whether the woman is married or not. Today, however, many women like Ms better than Mrs or Miss.

The word “___22___” does not tell us whether or not a man is married. So the women want to be equal to men in this way. These women feel that it is not important for people to know whether they are married or not.

There are some problems with Ms. Not all the women like it. Some like the older ways of doing things. Some find ___23___ difficult to read. Ms ___24___[miz]. Young women like it better than older women ___25___. It is difficult to know whether most American women will use Ms in the future. What do you think of it？

21)、

A.Mr

B.it

C.sounds like

D.do

E.what

22)、

A.Mr

B.it

C.sounds like

D.do

E.what

23)、

A.Mr

B.it

C.sounds like

D.do

E.what

24)、

A.Mr

B.it

C.sounds like

D.do

E.what

25)、

A.Mr

B.it

C.sounds like

D.do

E.what

d weekends they are free and __1__ themselves. Some watch television or go to the movies, others take part in sports. This is decided by their own interests.

There are many different ways to spend our free time. Almost everyone has some kind of __2__. It may be something from colleting stamps to making model planes. Some hobbies are very expensive, but others don't cost anything at all. Some collections are worth a lot of money, others are valuable only to their owners.

I know a man who has a coin collection worth several __3__ dollars. A short time ago he bought a rare fifty-cent piece which cost him $50! He was very happy about this collection and thought the price was all right. On the other hand, my youngest brother collects match boxes. He has almost 600 kinds of them, but I wonder __4__ they are worth any money. However, to my brother they are quite valuable. __5__ makes him happier than to find a new match box for his collection.

That's what a hobby means, I think. It is something we like to do in our free time just for the fun of it. The value in dollars is not important, but the pleasure it gives us is.

1)、A.thousand

B.of

C.Nothing

D.enjoy

E.hobby

2)、A.thousand

B.of

C.Nothing

D.enjoy

E.hobby

3)、A.thousand

B.of

C.Nothing

D.enjoy

E.hobby

4)、A.thousand

B.of

C.Nothing

D.enjoy

E.hobby

5)、A.thousand

B.of

C.Nothing

D.enjoy

E.hobby

YOUR WORKING ENVIRONMENT IS KILLING YOU!

Many of us spend plenty of our time at work, but rarely give much thought to how our environment might be affecting us.

Open offices could be making you unproductive and unhappy. A 2011 review of studies examined the effects of various types of office environments. It found that open offices can have a negative impact on workers when it comes to focus, efficiency, creativity and job satisfaction12. However, a 2013 study found that employees with private offices were more satisfied at work.

A noisy workspace could be killing your concentration because of phones ringing and colleagues chatting, typing and moving around. These noises are the “enemy of focus” and meaningful time is lost.

Your working environment could be upping your stress levels. A recent Monster.com poll found that 42 percent of U.S. workers have left a job due to stressful environment. It also found that 61 percent of American workers believe that work stress has been a cause of illness.

A sedentary lifestyle. increases your risk of disease. We’ve all heard that “sitting is the new smoking”. Your desk job could almost be killing you. Sitting at a desk all day can also contribute to aches and pains, while staring at a computer screen for hours can cause vision problems and headaches.

It’s no exaggeration that your working environment is killing you. Be alert!

1. Many of us __________ pay much attention to our working environment. {A; B; C}

A. seldom

B. often

C. always

2. Open offices could make you __________.{A; B; C}

A. efficient and unhappy

B. inefficient and upset

C. relaxed and happy

3. It was found that employees with _________ were more satisfied at work. {A; B; C}

A. private offices

B. open offices

C. new offices

4. According to the passage, _________ are the “enemy of focus”. {A; B; C}

A. colleagues chatting

B. phone ringing

C. noises

5. Staring at a computer screen for hours increases your chances of _________. {A; B; C}

A. vision problems

B. headaches

C. Both A and B