As I write this, I have half an eye on an old James Bond film that is showing on my computer. But this is a story about how I stopped watching TV and began reading again for pleasure, after ten years in which I hardly turned a page.
I suppose I was an enthusiastic reader of "literature" between the ages of nine and fourteen. I had enough time to be White Fang, Robinson Crusoe, and Bilbo Baggins and Jeeves. Of course there was room in the schoolboy's imagination for some real historical figures: Scott of the Antarctic, all of the Vikings, and Benjamin Franklin were good friends of mine.
Then, in adolescence, I began a long search for strange and radical (激进的) ideas. I wanted to challenge my elders and betters, and shock my fellow students with amazing points of view. Of course, the only place to look was in books. I hunted out the longest titles and the authors with the funniest names; I searched the library for completely unread books. Then I found one which became my bible for the whole of 1982, it had a title composed of eleven long words and an author whose name I didn't know how to pronounce. It was really thick and looked dead serious. Even better, it put forward a whole world-view that would take days to explain. Perfect. I took it out of the library three times, proud to see the date-stamps lined up on the empty library insert.
Later, I went to university. Expecting to spend long evenings in learned discussion with clever people, I started reading philosophy. For some reason I never found the deep-thinking intellectuals I hoped to meet. Anyway, I was ready to impress with my profound (深奥的) knowledge of post-structuralism, existentialism and situationism. These things are usually explained in rather short books, but they take a long time to get through. They were the end of my youthful reading.
Working life was hard to get used to after so much theory. It was the end of books for me. There didn't seem to be much in books that would actually get things done. To do things you had to answer the telephone and work a computer. You had to travel about and speak to people who weren't at all interested in philosophy. I didn't stop reading, you can't avoid that. I read all day. But no books came my way, only manuals (操作手册) and contracts and documents. Maybe most people satisfy their need for stories and ideas with TV and, to tell the truth, it was all I needed for ten years. In those days I only had a book "on the go" for the duration of aeroplane flights. At first I would come home and watch TV over dinner. Then, I moved the TV so I could watch it from bed. I even got a switch so I could turn it off without getting out of bed. Then, one fateful day, my TV broke and my landlady took it away.
My new TV is an extra circuit board (电路板) inside my computer. It's on a desk in front of a working chair and I can't see it from the bed. I still use it for the weather forecasts and it's nice to have it on while I'm typing this… but what to do last thing at night? Well, have another go with books.
Now, I just like books. I have a pile of nice ones by my bed and I'm reading about six at the same time. I don't want to be any of the characters. I don't care if a thousand people have already read them. I don't have to search through libraries. There are books everywhere and all of them have something to read in them. I have the strange feeling that they've been there all along, waiting for me to pick them up.
【小题1】The writer enjoyed reading “literature” between the ages of nine and fourteen because ________.

阅读下面短文，从短文后各题的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出适合填入
对应空白处的最佳选项, 并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。   
My job was to make classroom observations and encourage a training program that would enable students to feel good about themselves and take charge of their lives. Donna was one of the volunteer teachers who participated in this      .
One day, I entered Donna’s classroom, took a seat in the back of the room and      . All the students were working       a task. The student next to me was filling her page with “I Can’ts.” “I can’t kick the soccer ball.” “I can’t get Debbie to like me.” Her page was half full and she showed no       of stopping. I walked down the row and found       was writing sentences, describing things they couldn’t do.
By this time the activity aroused my      , so I decided to check with the teacher to see what was going on       I noticed she too was busy writing. “I can’t get John’s mother to come for a parents’ meeting.” I felt it best not to      .
After another ten minutes, the students were       to fold the papers in half and bring them to the front. They placed their “I Can’t” statements into an empty shoebox. Then Donna     hers. She put the lid on the box, tucked it under her arm and headed out the door. Students followed the teacher. I followed the students. Halfway down the hallway Donna got a shovel from the tool house, and then marched the students to the farthest corner of the playground. There they began to      . The box of “I Can’ts” was placed at the       of the hole and then quickly covered with dirt. At this point Donna announced, “Boys and girls, please join hands and       your heads.” They quickly formed a circle around the grave.
Donna delivered the eulogy (悼词). “Friends, we gathered here today to       the memory of ‘I Can’t.’ He is       by his brothers and sisters ‘I Can’ and ‘I Will’. May ‘I Can’t’ rest in      . Amen!”
She turned the students       and marched them back into the classroom. They celebrated the       of “I Can’t”. Donna cut a large tombstone from paper. She wrote the words “I Can’t” at the top and the date at the bottom, then hung it in the classroom. On those rare occasions when a student       and said, “I Can’t,” Donna       pointed to the paper tombstone. The student then remembered that “I Can’t” was dead and chose other statement.   

1. A．job B．project C．observation D．course

2. A．checked? B．noticed C．watched D．waited

3. A．on B．with C．as D．for

4. A．scenes? B．senses C．marks D．signs

5. A．nobody B．somebody C．everyone D．anyone

6. A．curiosity B．suspect C．sympathy D．worry

7. A．and B．or C．but D．so

8. A．insert B．interrupt C．talk D．request

9. A．taught B．shown C．forced D．instructed

10. A．added B．wrote C．made D．folded

11. A．cry B．pray C．dig D．play

12. A．back B．bottom C．top D．edge

13. A．drop B．raise C．fall D．lift

14. A．keep B．thank C．forgive D．honor

15. A．remembered B．punished C．removed D．replaced

16. A．silence B．heart C．peace D．memory

17. A．down B．up C．off D．around

18. A．birth B．passing C．loss D．starting

19. A．awoke B．reminded C．forgot D．apologized

20. A．simply B．hardly C．seriously D．angrily

B
The world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012, the US space agency insisted Monday in a rare campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie．
The latest big screen offering from Sony Picture, 2012, arrives in theaters on Friday, with a 200-million-dollar production about the end of the world supposedly based on myths backed by the Mayan calendar．It is claimed that the end of time will come as a Planet X---or Nibiru---heads toward or collides with the Earth．
Some websites accuse NASA of hiding the truth on the planet’s existence, but the US space agency condemned such stories as an “Internet hoax”．“There is no factual basis for these claims,” NASA said in a question-and-anwser posting on this website．“If such a collision were real, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye．Obviously, it does not exist．Credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012,” it insisted．“After all, our planet has been getting along just well for more than four billion years,” added NASA．
There is another planet, Eris, floating in space．But the small planet similar to Pluto will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can come no closer than four billion miles to the Earth, according to NASA．
Earlier theories set the disaster for May 2003, but when nothing happened the date was moved forward to the winter in 2012 to coincide with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar．
NASA insisted the Mayan calendar in fact does not end on December 21, 2012, as another period begins immediately afterward．
And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our planet would be “negligible（unimportant）”, NASA said．
“And while comets and asteroids （小行星） have always hit the Earth, big hits are very rare,” NASA noted．The last major impact was believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting in the end of dinosaurs．
“We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs,” the space agency said．
49．______ played a key role in the spread of the rumors．
A．A new book               B．The Internet and a new Hollywood movie
C．NASA                   D．An Indian calendar
50．We can infer that ______．
A．people didn’t take the rumor seriously
B．Planet X --- or Nibiru does exist
C．astronomers have been tracking Planet X for over ten years
D．the rumor caused a panic among some people
51．NASA thinks that Eris ______．
A．might have a threat to the Earth     B．doesn’t have any threat to the Earth
C．is too far away to be visible       D．is similar to our planet, where life might exist
52．Which of the following is the best title?
A．New Hollywood movie 2012
B．December 21, 2012, Not the end of the world
C．End of the ancient Mayan calendar
D．How rumors came into being

第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的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 jobless man applied for the position of “office boy” at Microsoft. The HR manager     36    him , then watched him cleaning the floor as a     37  .
"You are    38  ." he said. Give me your e-mail address   39    I'll send you the application to   40   , as well as the date when you may start.
The man replied, "But I don't have a computer, neither an e-mail".
"I'm sorry"', said the HR manager."    41   you don't have an email, that    42   you do not exist. And anyone who doesn't exist cannot have the job."
The man left the office,    43  . He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10kg tomato crate（柳条箱）. He then sold the tomatoes in a door-to-door round. In less than two hours, he     44    doubling his capital. He   45    the operation three times, and returned home with $60. The man realized that he can   46    in this way, and started to go earlier every day, and return late.    47  , his money doubled or tripled（增至三倍） every day.    48   , he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet （车队）of delivery vehicles. Five years later, the man is one of the     49   food retailers（零售商） in the US.
He started to plan his family's   50   , and decided to have a life insurance. He called an insurance broker（经纪人）, and chose a protection plan. When the conversation was    51  , the broker asked him his e-mail. The man replied, "I don't have an e-mail." The broker said    52  , "You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded in building an empire. Can you    53   what you    54    have been if you had an e-mail?!!"
The man thought for a while and replied, "Yes, I'd be a(n)   55   at Microsoft!"
36.A. introduced           B. interviewed              C. examined             D. invited
37.A. game                   B. test               C. favour               D. reward
38.A. employed            B. received              C. fired                      D. checked
39.A. or                             B. so                 C. and                   D. but
40.A. put up                B. make up             C. take in                     D. fill in
41.A. If                 B. Although             C. Though               D. Even though
42.A. means             B. suggests              C. reminds                D. explains
43.A. excited           B. frustrated         C. amazed              D. satisfied
44.A. tried                        B. attempted            C. succeeded            D. failed
45.A. realized          B. contacted          C. reviewed             D. repeated
46.A. contribute         B. donate              C. survive              D. react
47.A. Instead           B. Otherwise            C. Thus                 D. But
48.A. Shortly               B. Regularly             C. Occasionally          D. Naturally
49.A. fastest          B. biggest            C. oldest                D. highest
50.A. health                    B. fortune            C. success               D. future
51.A. interrupted      B. recovered          C. continued                      D. concluded
52.A. curiously            B. happily              C. nervously               D. patiently
53.A. believe            B. imagine           C. predict                       D. indicate
54.A. could           B. should               C. must                 D. need
55.A. manager            B. boss                C. office boy                      D. political leader

I came to study in the United States a year ago. Yet I did not know the American society until I was injured in a car accident because after the accident I had to see a doctor-and go to court（法庭）.

　　After the accident, my roommate called a doctor for me. I was very grateful and determined to repay him one day. But the next day, he asked me to pay him $200 for what he had done. I was astonished. He had good reason to charge me, he said. And if I wanted to collect money from the person who was responsible for my injury, I'd have to have a good lawyer. Now that he had helped me to find a good doctor, it was only fair that I should pay him.

　　But every time I went to see the doctor, I had to wait about 50 minutes. He would see two or three patients at the same time, and often stop treating one so as to see another. Yet he charged me $115 each time. The final examination report consisted of ten lines, and it cost me $215.

　　My lawyer was all smiles the first time we met. But after that he avoided seeing me at all. he knew very well the other party was responsible for the accident, yet he hardly did anything. He simply waited to collect his money. He was so irresponsible that I decided to dismiss（解雇）him. And he made me pay him $770.

　　Now I had to act as my own lawyer. Due to my inexperience, I told the insurance the date I was leaving America. Knowing that, they played for time, … and I left without getting a cent.

　　My experiences taught me two things about America: firstly, in a country like America money is everything. It is more important than friendship honour or professional morality（职业道德）. Secondly, foreigners are still being unfairly treated. So when we talk about America, we should see both its good and bad sides.

The author's roommate offered to help him because_____.

    A. he felt sorry for the author

    B. he thought it was a chance to make some money

    C. he knew the doctor was a very good one

    D. he wanted the author to have a good lawyer

A good doctor is essential for the author to____.

    A. be properly treated

    B. talk with the person responsible for the accident

    C. recover before he leaves America

    D. eventually get the responsible party to pay for his injury

The word " charge " in the passage means____.

　　A. be responsible   B. accuse       C. ask as a price       D. claim

Both the doctor and the lawyer in this passage are very___.

　　A. friendly     B. greedy       C. professional     D. busy

What conclusion can you draw from this story?

　　A. Going to court is something every common in America

　　B. One must be very careful while driving a car

　　C. There are more bad sides in America than good sides

　　D. Money is more important than other things in the US