命题、校对：王华静 尹丽丽 2014年3月29日

第Ⅰ卷（选择题，满分70分）

第二部分：阅读理解（共两节，40分）

第一节 （共15小题；每小题2分，共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。

A

Dear Mr. King,

Your grocery store is outstanding in many ways. I enjoy the selection of produce and fresh bakery items. I have been a long time Supermart shopper and hope to continue for many years. I have found, however, that I must make a separate shopping trip to one of your competitors because there are many items your store does not carry. This becomes inconvenient for me, as my time is valuable, and I do not like to make two trips. Your low prices and excellent customer service keep me coming back to Supermart, but I would be a more satisfied customer if I could find all the items I need in one place.

Specifically, I have never been able to purchase nacho cheese soup at your store. I can find other flavors (味道) of soup, but your store does not carry nacho cheese soup, a common ingredient (原料) in many of my recipes. In addition, I can only find large wonton wrappers, while many other stores carry both large and small and offer a more varied selection for their customers. Another example is Regent Brand Chili Seasoning. Though it is not a leading brand, it is still common on the shelves of other grocery stores in this area and is superior in flavor to its competitors.

I sincerely hope to continue a relationship with your store, and I hope that you will consider the possibility of expanding your goods to be more competitive.

Yours truly,

Bob Watson

21. According to Bob, the grocery store ________.

A. meets all his needs B. is outstanding in every way

C. offers good customer service D. lacks convenient transportation

22. How does the author present his point in Paragraph 2?

A. By giving examples. B. By analyzing the figures.

C. By providing scientific findings. D. By comparing two different stores.

23. From the letter, we can learn that the author is ________.

A. a very picky reporter B. a competitor of the store

C. a responsible nutritionist D. a regular customer of the store

B

A little old couple walked slowly into McDonald’s one cold winter evening. They were so old that they looked out of place amid the young families and young couples eating there that night.

Some of the customers looked admiringly at them. You could tell what the admirers were thinking. “Look, there is a couple who has been through a lot together, probably for 60 years or more!”

The little old man walked right up to the cash register, placed his order with no hesitation and then paid for their meal. The couple took a table near the back wall and started taking food off the tray. There was one hamburger, one order of French fries and one drink. The little old man unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half. He placed one half in front of his wife. Then he carefully counted out the French fries, divided them in two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife. He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them.

As the man began to eat his few bites of hamburger the crowd began to get restless. Again you could tell what they were thinking, “That poor old couple. All they can afford is one meal for the two of them.”

As the man began to eat his French fries one young man stood and came over to the old couple’s table. He politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple to eat. The old man replied that they were just fine. They were used to sharing everything.

Then the crowd noticed that the little old lady hadn’t eaten a bite. She just sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink.

Again the young man came over and begged them to let him buy them something to eat. This time the lady explained that, no, they were used to sharing everything together.

　　As the little old man finished eating and was wiping his face neatly with a napkin the young man could stand it no longer. Again he came over to their table and offered to buy some food.

　　After being politely refused again, he finally asked a question of the little old lady. “Ma’am, why aren’t you eating? You said that you share everything. What is it that you are waiting for?”

　　She answered, “ The teeth”.

24. The underlined phrase in the first paragraph most probably means ______________.

A. looked helpless B. looked romantic

C. looked unsuitable D. looked cheerful

25. Why did some of the customers admire them?

A. Because they walked in hand in hand

B. Because they come to McDonald’s together

C. Because they have been together for many years

D. Because they come in such a cold winter evening

26. How much food did the man get?

A. One hamburger, one French fries and one cup of tea

B. One hamburger, two French fries and two cups of tea

C. One hamburger, one French fries and two cups of tea

D. One hamburger, two French fries and one cup of tea

27. Why didn’t the old lady eat her portion of meal?

A. Her artificial teeth didn’t fit her well.

B. She forgot to bring her teeth with her.

C. Her husband had not finished using the teeth.

D. She was waiting for someone to get her teeth for her.

C

American researchers found females are the more talkative sex because of a special “language protein(蛋白质)” in the brain.

The study, conducted by neuroscientists (神经学家)and psychologist from the University of Maryland, concluded that women talked more because they had more of the Foxp2 protein. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that higher levels were found among humans that were women but in rats that were males. Their findings came after it was previously claimed that ladies speak about 20,000 words a day – over 13,000 more than men. “This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals,” said Prof Margaret McCarthy, who led the study. In their study, the researchers attempted to determine what might make male rats more vocal than their female friends.

They separated four-day-old rats from their mothers and then counted the number of times they cried out in the “ultrasonic range”, the frequencies higher than humans can hear, over five minutes. While both sexes called out hundreds of cries, the males called out twice as often, they found. But when the pups were returned to their mother’s cage, she fussed over her sons first. Tests conducted on the parts of the brain known to be associated with vocalcalls showed the male pups have up to twice as much Foxp2 protein as the females. The researchers then increased the production in the brains of female pups and reduced it in males. This led to the female rats crying out more often and their mothers showing more interest to them. In contrast, males became less “talkative”.

The researchers then tested samples from ten children, aged between three and five, which showed that females had up to 30 per cent more of the Foxp2 protein than males, in a brain area key to language in humans.

“Based on our observations, we assume higher levels of Foxp2 in girls and higher levels of Foxp2 in male rats is an indication that Foxp2 protein levels are associated with the more communicative sex,” said Prof McCarthy. “Our results imply Foxp2 as a component of the neurobiological basis of sex differences in vocal communication in mammals. “

28. From the second paragraph, we can learn that ________.

A. women always speak more words than men

B. men and male rats have low levels of language protein

C. women and male rats have similar levels of Foxp2

D. McCarthy isn’t the first to find females more talkative

29. The underlined phrase “fussed over” in the third paragraph probably means______.

A. paid attention to B. related to C. put pressure on D. counted on

31. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage ?

A. Tests on humans and rats B. Why women are the talkative sex

C. Sex differences in Foxp2 protein D. Foxp2 protein determines oral ability

D

Recently, an almost literal case of lifeboat ethics(伦理) occurred. On Aug. 4, Graham and Sheryl Anley, while boating off the coast of South Africa, hit a rock. As the boat threatened to sink the husband got off, but his wife was trapped in the boat. Instead of freeing his wife and getting her to shore, Graham grabbed Rosie, their pet dog. With Rosie safe and sound, Graham returned for Sheryl. All are doing fine.

It's a great story, but it doesn't strike me as especially newsworthy. News is supposed to be about something fairly unique, and recent research suggests that, in the right circumstances, lots of people also would have grabbed their Rosie first.

We have strange relationships with our pets. We lavish our pets with adoration and better health care than billions of people receive. We speak to pets with the same high-pitched voices that we use for babies. As an extreme example of our feelings about pets, the Nazis had strict laws that guaranteed the humane treatment of the pets of Jews being shipped to death camps.

A recent paper by George Regents University demonstrates this human involvement with pets to an astonishing extent. Participants in the study were told a situation in which a bus is out of control, bearing down on a dog and a human. Which do you save? With responses from more than 500 people, the answer was that it depended: What kind of human and what kind of dog?

Everyone would save a brother, grandparent or close friend rather than a strange dog. But when people considered their own dog versus people less connected with them—a distant cousin or a hometown stranger—votes in favor of saving the dog came rolling in. And an astonishing 40% of respondents, including 46% of women, voted to save their dog over a foreign tourist.

What does a finding like this mean? First, that your odds aren't so good if you find yourself in anoth