1.As we recently discovered，there is a Stepmother’s Day，though it is not on any official holiday calendar.So，it would be safe to assume that there is a similar day for stepdads，too.Right? Well，it depends on what you read.A Google search brought up posts that say，for example，“It’s on father’s day--father’s day is for fathers，step—fathers and people who are like fathers to you-it’s a day for making father figures feel special.”Further searching found a Stepfather’s DayFacebook page that says，“The unofficial Stepfather’s Day is the fourth Sunday of June.”Unfortunately，as of the publishing of this article，only 30 people have “liked” the page.Considering that studies show 3.3 million men，or 11.1%of U.S.fathers，live with at least one stepchild，that’s only a drop in the ocean.It’s interesting to note that there is a National Grandparents’ Day.President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978.Law! While grandparents are undoubtedly special people in our children’s lives，they are often seen as the most loving family members.But what about the stepparents? The stepparents are the ones who are often the outsiders，the ones who have to endure the hurtful “You’re not my dad!” or “You’re not my mom!” And yet they never give up.They do their best to overcome the inherent challenges of stepparents and be role models for their stepchildren.These unsung(未被颂扬的)family heroes deserve “official” days of honor.Perhaps if we are loud enough，President Obama，who had a stepfather himself，will sign into law NationalStepmother’s Day and National Stepfather’s Day.Are you with me? Follow me and get your voice heard.How cool it would be if we could make this happen!What is the reason for setting an official holiday for stepparents?

2.There here have been great changes in the lives of womanDuring the twentieth century thewas an unusual shortening of the time of g woman's.lifespentin caring for children.A woman marrying at the end of the 19th century would probably have been in her middle twenties, andwould be likely to have seven or eight children.of whom four or five lived till they were five years old.By the time the youngest was fifteen.the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years.(during whichcustom,chance and health made it unusual or her to get paid work.Today women marry younger and have fewer children.Usuallya woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty.Even while she has the care of children,her work is lightened by household appliances(家用电器）and convenience foods.This important change in women's way of life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position.Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity and most of them took a full-time job.However,when they married,they usually left,work at once and never returned to it..Today the school-leaving age is six-teen,many girls stay at school after that age, and though women tend to marry younger,more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born.Very many more afterwards,return to full or part-time work.Such changes have led to anew relationship in marriage,with both husband and wife accepting a greater share of the dutiesand satisfaction of family life,and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money and running the home,according to the abilities and interest of each them.According to the passage,around the year 1990 most women married （）

3.Couples are restricting the size of their families in the UK because of cash worries brought on bvthe financial crisis and the subsequent decline.We’re now up to nearly 3.7 million families whelthere is an only child，a rise from about 3.3 million in 2005.That means nearlv half of all parentshave only one child.Financial WOITies aren’t the only driver.The trend towards later motherhood has beenmentionedas a cause，as have soaring costs of raising a child，which have been calculated as￡222.500 frombirth t021 years of age.This is an increase of nearly 40%in lo years.The increasing availability of IVF(试管婴儿)is also a factor and an interesting one.Coupleswhomight have remained childless in the past now invest in IVF and get pregnant.And because ofthe cost they stop after one child.It may not be a bad thin9;there are outstanding examples of talented only children.Some arguethat being an only child promoted their success.These include actors Natalie Portman and Al Paci.n0， golfer Tiger Woods and even Queen Victoria.A study from the Institute for Social and EconomicResearch at the University of Essex also showed that the fewer brothers and sisters a child has.thehappier they are.It seems fighting for parental attention and affection--which sometimes descendsinto physical fights—is more stressful than any adult had previously thought.And it's not compensa—ted(弥补)by having a playmate.The passage shows that IVF is __________ .

4.10. If their marketing team succeeds, they __ their profits by 20 percent.

5.

根据以下资料，回答46-60题。

Number sense is not the ability to count．It is the ability to recognize a46in number．Human beings are born with this ability．47, Experiments show that many animas are, too．For example, many birds have good number sense．If a nest has four eggs and you remove one, the bird will not48．However, if you remove two, the bird49leaves．This means that the bird knows the50between two and three.

Another interesting experiment showed a bird’s51number sense．A man was trying to take a photo of a crow(乌鸦) that had a nest in a tower, but the crow always left when she saw him coming．The bird did not52until the man left the tower．The man had an53．He took another man with him to the tower．One man left and the other stayed, but they did not54the bird．The crow stayed away until the second man left, too．The experiment was55with three men and then with four men．But the crow did not return to the nest until all the men were56．It was not until five men went into the tower and only four left that they were57able to fool the crow.

How good is a human’s number sense? It’s not very good．For example, babies about fourteen months old almost always notice if something is taken away from a58group．But when the number goes beyond three or four, the children are59fooled.

It seems that number sense is something we have in common with many animals in this world, and that our human60is not much better than a crow’s.48A.survive,B.care,C.hatch,D.notice

6.During the Christmas shopping rush in London, the interesting story was reported of a tramp(流浪者)who, apparently though no fault of his own,found himself locked in a well?known chain storelate on Christmas Eve. No doubt the store was crowded with last?minute Christmas shoppers andthe staff were dead beat and longing to get home.Probably all the proper security checks weremade before the store was locked and they left to enjoy the three?day holiday untroubled bycustomers desperate to get last?minute Christmas presents.However ridiculous that may be,our tramp found himself alone in the store and decided to makethe best of it. There was food, drink, bedding and camping equipment, of which he made good use.There must also have been television sets and radios.Though it was not reported if he tookadvantage of these facilities, when the shop reopened he was discovered in bed with a largenumber of empty bottles beside him.He seems to have been a man of good humor as indeedtramps very commonly are.Everyone else was enjoying Christmas, so he saw no good reason why he should not do thesame.He yielded himself cheerfully,and was taken by the police. Perhaps he had had a betterChristmas than usual. He was sent to prison for seven days.The judge awarded no compensation(赔偿 )to the chain store for the food and drink our tramp had consumed.They had,in hisopinion,already received valuable free publicity from the story revealed in the newspaper and ontelevision.Perhaps the judge had had a good Christmas,too.It can be inferred from the passage that the underlined phrase“dead beat”in Paragraph 1 means__________.

7.The earth is nearly___the moon.

8.Passage OneOceanography has been defined as "The application of all sciences to the study of the sea.Before the nineteenth century scientists with an interest in the sea were few and far between. Certainly Newton considered some theoretical aspects of it in his writings, but he was reluctant to go to sea to further his work.For most people the sea was remote, and with the exception of early intercontinental travelers or others who earned a living from the sea, there was little reason to ask many questions about it, let alone to ask what lay beneath the surface. The first time that the question"What is at the bottom of the oceans?" had to be answered with any commercial consequence was when the laying of a telegraph cable from Europe to America was proposed. The engineer had to know the depth profile (起伏形状) of the route to estimate the length of cable that had to be manufactured.It was to Maury of the US Navy that the Atlantic Telegraph Company turned, in 1853, for information on this matter. In the 1840s, Maury had been responsible for encouraging voyages during which soundings (测水深) were taken to investigate the depths of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Later, some of his findings aroused much popular interest in his book The Physical Geography of the Sea.The cable was laid, but not until 1866 was the connection made permanent and reliable. At the early attempts, the cable failed and when it was taken out for repairs it was found to be covered in living growths, a fact which defied contemporary scientific opinion that there was no life in deeper parts of the sea.Within a few years oceanography was under way. In 1872 Thomson led a scientific expedition ( 考察), which lasted for four years and brought home thousands of samples from the sea. Their classification and analysis occupied scientists for years and led to five-volume report, the last volume being published in 1895.It was__________that asked Maury for help in oceanographic studies.

9.

Most parents,I suppose,have had the experience of reading a bedtime story1their children.And they must have realized how difficult it is to write a2children'sbook.Either the author has aimed(定目标）too3,so that children can't follow whatis in his(or more often,her)story,4the story seems to be talking to the readers.

The best children's books are 5very difficult nor very simple,and satisfy(令人满意的）the6 who hears the story and the adult(成年人）who 7it.Unfortunately（不幸的是），there are in fact few books like this,8 the problem of finding the rightbedtime story is not 9to solve.This may be why many of the books regarded as10of children's literature(文学）were in fact written for11 “Alice in Wonderland"is perhaps the most obvious(明显）of thisChildren,left for themselves,often12the worstpossible interest in literature just leave a child in a bookshop or a13and he will morewillingly choose the books written in an unimaginative(开非想象的）way.orhavelook at the most children’s comics(连环图书），full of the stories and jokes which ate the rejectionsof teachers and righting-thinking parents.Perhaps we parents should stop14 to brainwash(洗脑）children into accepting（接受）our taste in literature.After all,children and adults are so15 that we parentsshould not expect that they will enjoy the same books.So I suppose we'll just have to compromise(妥协）over the bedtime story.13.单选

10.Passage TwoThere are many commonly held beliefs about eyeglasses and eyesight that are not proven facts. For instance, some people believe that wearing glasses too soon weakens the eyes. But there is no evidence to show that the structure of eyes is changed by wearing glasses at a young age. Wearing the wrong glasses, however, can prove harmful. Studies show that for adults there is no danger, but children can develop loss of vision if they have the wrong glasses.We have all heard some of the common myths about how eyesight get bad. Most people believe that reading in dim light causes poor eyesight, but that is unique. Too little light makes the eyes work harder, so they do get tired and strained. Eyestrain also results from reading a lot, reading in bet, and watching too much television. But although eyestrain may cause somepain or headaches, it does not permanently damage eyesight.Another myth about eyes is that they can be replaced, or transferred from on person to another. There are close to on million verve fibers that connect the eyeball to brain, and as if yet it is impossible to attach them all in a new person, Only certain parts of the eye--the cornea and the "retina--can be replaced. But if we keep clearing up the myths and learning more about the eyes, someday a full transplant may be possible! From this passage one can conclude that__________.

11.No sooner___he arrived home than he___to start on another journey

12.

Themarket is a concept.If you are growing tomatoes in your backyard for sale you areProducing for the market.You might sell some to your neighbour and some to the managerof the local supermarket.But in either case,you are producing for the market.Your efforts are being directed by the market.If people stop buying tomatoes,you will stop producing them.

If you take care of a sick person to earn money,you are producing for the market.If your father is a steelworker or a taxi driver or a doctor or a grocer(杂货商），he is producing goods or service for the market.

When you spend your income,you are buying things from the market.You may spend money in stores,supermarkets and gas stations.Still you are buying from the marketWhen the local grocer hires you to drive the delivery truck,he is buying your labor in thelabour market.

The market may seem to be something abstract(抽象的）。But for each person or businessman who is making and selling something,it is real.If nobody buys your tomatoes,itwon't be long beforeyou get the message.The market is telling you something.It's tellingyou that you are using energies and resources in doing something the market doesn't wantyou to do!2.All of the following acts are producing for the market EXCEPT （）

13.___she eats.___she’ll be

14.Wu Dong won the girls’___race in the school sports meeting last week.

15.It was no good _______to his proposal because he will never change his mind..

16.Not until the game had begun __ at the sports ground.

17.The manager needs an assistant that he can _____to take care of problems in his absence.

18. He is__________to speak the truth.

19.Probably no other musical instrument(乐器）is as popular around the world as the guitar(吉他）。Almost every kind of music needs a guitar.Country and western music would not be the same without a guitar.The Spanish music called flamenco could not exist without a guitar.The sound of American blues music would not be the same without the sad cry of the guitar.And rock and roll music would almost be impossible without this instrument.People do not agree about where the guitar was first played,but most agree it is veryold.Some say an instrument very much like a guitar was played in Egypt more than one thousand years ago. Some other say that an old form of the modern guitar was brought to Spain from Persian sometime in the 12th century.The guitar continued to develop in Spain. In the 1700s it became similar to the instrument we know today.Many famous musicians played the instrument.The famous musician Niccolo Paganini played and wrote music for the guitar in the early 1800s.Franz Schubert used the guitartowrite some of his famous works.In modern times Andres Segovia helped make the instrument extremely popular.One kind of music for the guitar developed in the southern area of SpaincalledAndalusia，It will always be strongly connected with the Spanish guitar.What would be the best title for the text?（）

20.When you finish reading the book,ou will have___better understanding of___life