Part II Reading comprehension (2x20=40 point)

Direetions: There are 4 reading passagecs in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For cach of them there are four choices marked A. B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding ltter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

passage one

Starbucks doesn't just sell cofee. It sells a coffee drinking experience. Starbucks coffee shops have high quality drinks.comfortable seating areas, and famous brands. They are fun and
fashionable paces 10 have a drink.

The first Starbucks opened in 1971. in Satle, Washingion.At first, it was just a normal coffee shop. In the 1980s, it went through big changes. The owners, after traveling in ltaly, decided to turn  Starbucks into an lalian style coffee shop. Their idea was very successful.Soon,there were Starbucks in many American cities.

in the 1990s.Starbucks went international.They opened the first store in Japan in 1995.After that,stores opened in countries all over Asia. By the year 2000. there were more than 3,000 Starbucks around the world.

Starbucks is much more than a coffee shop. The company is partmany community projeets. For example, there is a group of managers called the "Green Team". They lead recycling projeets in
their local areas. They also plant trees and clean neighborhoods.Another group, the Starbucks Foundation, encourages young pecople to read.

So. the next time you order a drink at Startbucks, feel good about yourself. It's nice to know that some companies care about you and your environment. and not just your money.

31. What led to big changes at Slarbucks?

A. A trip to Italy

B. An lalian busiessmann

C. A new group of owners

D. The American fashion scene.

32. The article does NOT discuss Starbucks shops in _______

A. China

B. America

C. Italy

D. Japan

33. What is the "Green Team"?

A. A group of Starbucks managers.

B.A type of coffe

C. A community project.

D. A football team

34. To help the envionment, Starbucks______

A. gives money to parks

B. helps young pcople learn to read

C. throws away everything

D. is part of many recycling projcts

35. You can fel good about drinking at Starbucks because___

A. it's cheap

B. the company makes a lot of money

C. the managers are friendly

D. the company cares about the environment

passage two

As a teenager in 1972. Bill Gates boasted that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 20. While he did not quite achieve that goal, only 15 years later, he was a millionaire. And by 1992. as head of the Microsoft Company, he became the richest man in America with assets of approximately US $ 6.3 billion.

Born in Seattle.Washington on 28,October,1956,Gates was named William Henry afer his father and grandfather. From the beginning.he was an extremely energetic and intelligent child. He had read the entire world book encyclopaedia (百科全書) by the age of nine. His favorite subjects at school were science and maths and his favorite pastime was "thinking".

Gates first started to play with computers at the age of 13. when one was installed at his school. At that time, computers werelarge.awkward machines. Operators were required to learn complex computer languages before the machines could be used. Even then a great deal of time and effort was needed to perform the simplest functions. Before long Gates was expert at working the school's computer. After his graduation from secondary school. Gates was accepted by the three top universities in the USA- Princeton,Harvard and Yale. He chose Harvard and began classes there the next autumn, majoring maths. But he was sill obsessed (占據(jù)心思) with
computers and spent as much time in the computer laboratories as he did in the lecture halls.

By 1975, Gates and a partner, Paul Allen, had developed asoftware program called BASIC. This was not the first program ever created, but its inventors were the first. to decide that people who wanted to use it should pay for it.

BASIC was a success because until it came along, there had been no efficient way of getting computers to carry out instructions.Although he had not completed his degree, Gates left university and went to work full time for the new company he bad formed called Microsoft.

His next projct was the software program that made him famous and very nich. I was called DOS, short for Disk Operating System. and it was puchased by IBM in 1980. Today it is the operating system used in more than 14 mllion personal compulers around the world.

As chief executive office of Microsof. Gates is known as a bright man,but one who is not easily satisfied, he is quick to criticize his staff and hates to be questioned about decisions he has made He was regarded as a loner and unfashionable boring compuler nut until his marriage to Microsoft manager Melinda French on New Year's Day 1994. Yet to most people now, Gates, is a person who is, in spite of his great wealth, humble and ordinary. He spends his money carefully. He eats in fastfood restaurants and files economy class.And when praised for Microsoft's great sccess, he has been heard to say.“All we do is put sofware in a box and if pcople see it in the stores and like it, they buy it."

36. When he was a tenager, Bill Gates wanted to be a ______.

A. teacher  B. businessman  C. doctor  D. professor

37. When Gates went to Harvard, he___

A. was interested only in maths

B. spent most of his time in computer laboratories

C. developed the first computer software program

D. divided his time between his maths studies and the computer laboratories

37.When Gates went to Harvard,he______.

A.teacher  B.businessman  C.doctor  D.professor

38. Before the development of BASIC,______.

A. no one was interested in computer software

B. software programs were very expensive

C. sofware programs were not considered commercial projects

D. no one wanted to pay for computer sofware

39. When the writer says “Bill was regarded as an unfashionable boring computer nut",he means ______.

A. Bill was so strong minded that no one could change his mind

B. the only thing that could interest Bill on his life was computer

C. Bill was such a boring young man that nobody would like to talk to him
D. Bill couldn't work out the boring computer problems

40. Most people hink Gates is ______.

A. a quite common, nomal person

B. a person obsessed with making money

C.someone who spends money freely

D.a crazy person

passage three

At the moment, the note of the highest value which is generally in use is the 20-pound note. Now, the blank of England plans to introduce a new, 50-pound note. And the Bank is trying to decide which famous English man or woman to put on the bank of the new note.

Quite a problem. The Bank usually chooses safe, historical personaities. We already have Sir Isac Newton, the scientist, the fist Duke of Wellington, the famous solider who led the British army at Waterloo,Florence Nightingale, founder of English Nursing and-of course -Shakespeare.

So far, the list of possible choices for the 50-pound note is quite
predictable. There's Sir Francis Drake, to represent the achievemnents of English explorers in the sixtcenth century. Then we have Lord Nelson, another sailor and the man who won the bttle of trafalgar in 1805 for England. The Bank will not forget music this time either. If they choose a woman, the feminist movement has two representatives:Boadicea, who fought against the Romans, or Pankhurst, who fought to get the vote for women early in this century.

41. According 1o the passage, the note ot the hughest value is_____.

A. not high enough now

B. in circulation

C. a new, 50-pound note

D. not the 20-pound note

42. We learn from the first paragraph that ______.

A. the 20-pound note is the highest value in the world

B. the 50-pound note is the highest value in the world

C. the Bank is going to use a 50-pound note

D. the Bank is going to use a 20-pound note

43. Which of the fllowing statements is FALSE according to the passage? _____.

A. The Bank usually chooses scientists in histiory for a new note.

B. The Bank usually chooses the famous soldiers for a new note.

C. The Bank usually chooses the famous women for a new note.

D. The Bank usually chooses policians for a new note.

44. "The Bank will not forget music this time either" implies that _____

A. the Bank ofen forget the music

B. the Bank always remember the music

C. music is important for the Bank

D. the most famous composers will be a possible choice

45. The passage is mainly about _____.

A. the choice ofa representative for the Bank

B. the Bank's choice of a personality for the new note

c. the comparison of the heroes in the English history

C. the companson of the heroes inthe Engishistory

D. the value of the persons in the English histoy

passage four
One sily question I simply cannot bear is "How do you feel?"Usually the question is asked of a man in action- a man walking along the street, or busily working at his desk. So what do you expect him to say? He'll probably say, "Fine, I'm all right." But you have put a bug in his ear maybe now he is not sure. If you are his good friend, you may have seen something on his face, or in his walk, that he over looked that morning. It makes him worrying a lttle. He looks in a mirror to see if everything is all right, while you go merily on your way asking someone else, "how do you feel?"

Every question has its time and place. It's perecly acceptable.for example, to ask"How do you feel?"if you are visiting a close friend in the hospital. But if the fellow is walking on both legs. hurying to take a train or sitting at his desk working, it's no time to ask him that silly question.

When George Bemard Shaw, the famous Brish writer of plays was in his eighties, someone asked him. "How do you feel?" Shaw put him in his place.“When you reach my age." he said, "either you feel all right or you are dead."

46.It can be iferred from the passage that" How do you fe!?" is used _____.

A. a question

B. a greeting

C. not a correct sentence

D. often asked among men

47. The writer cannot bear he question“How do you feel" because ______.

A. it is not a standard English sentence

B. it is ofen asked in an improper time or place

C it is not right to say it to a friend

D.it make people angry

48. What does it mean in the sentence “ it makes him worrying a little"?

A. The bug in his car.

C. Something in a mirror.

D. The question "How do you feel?"

49. What does Shaw's words imply?

A. The man could not live to be eighty.

B. He was feeling all right.

C. The man was familiar with him.

D. He wanted the man to shut his mouth.

50. Which of the following statement is TRUE?

A. We had better ask the question when someone is ill in hospial.

B. We make others at ease when we ask them How do you feel?"

C. We should not always ask such silly questions.

D.We should ask "How do you feel?" when a man is busy working.