第Ⅰ卷（选择题，共50分）

：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

One day Walt Disney had a vision. It was a vision of a place where children and parents could have fun together. The more Walt dreamed of a "magical park," the more imaginative and elaborate it became.

The original plans for the park were on 8 acres next to the Burbank studios where his employees and families could go to relax. Although, World War II put those plans on hold. During the war, Disney had time to come up with new ideas, and creations for his magical park. It was soon clear that 8 acres wouldn't be enough.

Finally in 1953, he had the Stanford Research Institute conduct a survey for a 100-acre site, outside of Los Angeles. He needed space to build rivers, waterfalls, and mountains; he would have flying elephants and giant teacups; a fairy-tale castle, moon rockets, and a scenic railway; all inside a magic kingdom he called "Disneyland."

The search for the best venue for the park ended in the rural Anaheim, California with a purchase of a 160-acre orange grove near the junction of the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) and Harbor Boulevard.Construction for Disneyland began on July 21, 1954, 12 months before the park was scheduled to open.

Some 160-acres of citrus trees had been cleared and 15 houses moved to make room for the park. However, when the real designing came around, Disney met with inevitable questions. How do you make believable wild animals, that aren't real? How do you make a Mississippi paddle ship? How do you go about building a huge castle in the middle of Anaheim, California? Disney asked his movie studio staff for answers. The design of Disneyland was something never done before. There would be four uniquely different theme parts: Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrow land. Bit by bit, Disneyland got ready for Opening Day. The staff worked around the clock to get ready.

But opening day was a terrible disaster. Besides the terrible opening day conditions, the park did eventually pick up. By 1965, ten years after opening day, 50 million visitors had come through the gates.

1. The passage is mainly about___________.

A. How Disneyland came into being

B. The difficulties Disney met in building Disneyland

C. What visitors can enjoy in Disneyland.

D. A brief introduction to Disneyland

2. Which of the following dates would probably be the opening date of Disneyland?

A. 1953 B. 1954 C. 1955 D. 1965

3. Which of the following statements is Not True?

A. World War II had some influence on the building plan of the Disneyland.

B. Disney must have met many difficulties in building Disneyland.

C. Disney was a great man with great imagination and creativity.

D. About 50 million visitors have visited Disneyland so far.

4. The underlined phrase in the last paragraph probably means _________.

A. collect B. improve C. find D. open

B

It was Sunday yesterday and my son and I walked a couple of miles in the morning. We got hungry so we decided to stop for a meal in a restaurant. While we were waiting in a line, a woman came in. She was very angry and talking about a beggar who had asked her for money. In her opinion, those people had the ability to earn their bread and butter.

I was feeling uncomfortable with the situation and wondering what I should say to my son later. I had told him that we should help those who were in need of help. At that time the lady said, “Today is my birthday, and nobody can bother me.”

I knew this was my chance to help her change her thinking and to help her feel cared for on her birthday. I asked the waitress for help, telling her I wanted to pay for the woman’s meal.

The waitress looked at me in surprise. I paid for our meal and that of the woman. When the woman finished eating her food, the waitress told her that it was I who had paid for her meal. Then the woman came to our table and tried to force her money on us. She even said, “I can’t take your money, because I didn’t help the person who asked me for money for food!”

I just smiled and said, “I just hope you have a very nice birthday.”

She ended up sitting near us and talked with us. It turned out that she was crazy about animals. Hearing our stories of pet adoptions really cheered her up. “You are a nice father,” she said.

She left, seeming to be happier and more thoughtful about all that had happened. I’d say it was worth the price.

5. The author and his son stopped walking that morning because .

A. they were too tired to walk any farther

B. the author felt sick and had to return home

C. they were hungry and needed to eat something

D. a woman stopped them and asked for some money

6. What did the author do to show his care for the woman?

A. He paid for the woman’s meal.

B. He gave the woman some money.

C. He bought a birthday gift for the woman.

D. He talked with the woman about pet adoptions.

7. By “I’d say it was worth the price”, the author meant .

A. the restaurant gave him a big discount

B. one should be generous with his money

C. what he did for the woman was meaningful

D. the price he paid for the meal was reasonable

. C

It’s well-known that meditation (冥想) has many benefits, but do you know how to practice it for a beginner?

Set a proper scene

Find a space for meditation. It should be private and quiet. Make sure the temperature is comfortable. Sit on a cushion (垫子) if the floor is uncomfortable. You may play soft music if you like.

Take a moment to loosen up. Remember that the goal of meditation is to relax. Loosen your clothing, remove your shoes and have a good stretch. Do your best to ease any muscle tension that might keep you from achieving relaxation. Make an effort to relax your facial muscles.

Focus on your breath

Sit down in the space you’ve prepared. Close your eyes and breathe. Each time you breathe in, count “one”. Each time you breathe out, count “one”. The idea is to strengthen being in the moment — the last breath doesn’t matter, and the next one doesn’t matter; only this one matters.

Feel your breath inflate (胀大) your lungs and push on your diaphragm (隔膜). Feel how sweet it is to inhale the fresh air. As you do this, your body will gradually begin to relax and all of your attention will be centered within your mind.

Return to real life

Once you feel fully centered in your mind, allow yourself to gradually drift back to real life. Move your fingers and toes and slowly wake your body up. Open your eyes and remain there for a few minutes until your senses come back, and then slowly stand up.

Even if you can’t make it fully into your mind, you still get some benefits from it. If you want to feel better, you just need to practice. Set about 10 minutes around the same time every day and repeat this exercise.

8. The text is about .

A. the best way to stay relaxed B. tips on how to breathe slowly

C. the benefits of practicing meditation

D. steps in practicing meditation for beginners

9. Which of the following can best fill in the blank?

A. Forget yourself. B. Avoid being disturbed.

C. Prepare yourself for it. D. Pay attention to your inner self.

10. The underlined word “inhale” in the text can be replaced by “ ”.

A. look for B. take in C. keep away D. think of

11. To gain greater benefits of meditation, beginners are advised to .

A. practice it in a daily basis B. listen to some popular music

C. do some exercise in advance D. spend a long time in practicing it

D

The campaign is over. The celebrations have ended. And the work for US president-elect Barack Obama has begun.

The 47-year-old politician rose to the highest post because of his stand against the war in Iraq and his plans to fix a weak economy. But what will the first 47-year-old African-American president do for race relations?

Obama’s victory appears to have given blacks and other minorities a true national role model. For years, many looked to athletes and musicians for inspiration. As Darius Turner, an African-American high school student in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times, “Kobe doesn’t have to be everybody’s role model anymore.”

Recent polls（民意测验）also suggest that Obama’s victory has given Americans new optimism about race relations. For example, a USA Today poll found that two-thirds of Americans believe relations between blacks and whites “will finally be worked out”. This is the most hopeful response since the question was first asked during the civil rights revolution in 1963.

However, it’s still too early to tell whether Obama’s presidency will begin to solve many of the social problems facing low-income black communities.

Although blacks make up only 13 percent of the US population, 55 percent of all prisoners are African-American. Such numbers can be blamed on any number of factors on America’s racist past, a failure of government policy and the collapse(瓦解)of the family unit in black communities.

It is unlikely that Obama will be able to reverse (扭转) such trends overnight. However, Bill Bank, an expert of African-American Studies, says that eventually young blacks need to find role models in their own communities. “That’s not Martin Luther King, and not Barack Obama,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s actually the people closest to them. Barack only has so much influence.”

In the opinion of black British politician Trevor Phillips, Obama’s rise will contribute more to multiculturalism than to race relations in the US.

“When the G8 meets, the four most important people in the room will be the president of China, the prime minister of India, the prime minister of Japan and Barak Obama,” he told London’s The Times newspaper. “It will be the first time we’ve seen that on our television screens. That will be a huge psycholog