75. What is the author's purpose in writing the passage? ________.

　 A. To discuss why people like talking about weather.

　 B. To encourage people to join in conversations.

　 C. To persuade people to stop making noises.

　 D. To explain why people keep talking.

答案　 72.D　 73.C　 74.B　 75.D

Passage 95

(06·湖南B篇)

For the first time in modern history,less than half of the U.S.adult population now reads literature,according to a recent survey.Reading at Risk A Survey of Lilerary Reading in America presents a detailed review of the decline of reading’s role in the nation’s culture.

Reading at Risk is a survey of national fashion in adult literary reading.The data souree for Reading at Risk is as reliable and objective(客观的)as any such survey can be.The key results of the survey are presented in the “Surnmary”,but the report can be further exploined as:literary teading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups,but　 the rate of decling has been speeded up,especially among the young.Reading at Risk merely shows a great cultural change that most Americans have already noted－our society’s great turn to clectronic media for entertainment and information.

Reading a book requires a degree of active attention and devotion.Indced,reading itself is a progressive skillo that depends on years of cducation nand practice.On the contrary,most electronic media such as television,recordings,and radio make fewer demands on their audiences,and indced require no more than passive participation.While oral culture has a rich reality and electronic media offer the commdenbic atteation of variety.print culture affords irreplaceable forms of focused and thought than make varicen communications and views possible.The deline in reading.thenfore ,equals a larger retreat(减少)from participation in public and culutural life.

　 What is to be done?There is surely no single solution to the pretent problem.just as there is no single cause .The important thing now is to underwand that America can no longer take active and devoted reading for granted.

　 Reading is not a timeless,common ability.As more Americans love thus ability .out nation becomes less informed,active ,and independent minded .There are not speakeras that a free, inventive,or productive society can afford to love.

74. According to the passage, people usually ______talk to their neighbors ______.

　 A. about whatever they have prepared

　 B. about whatever they want to

　 C. in the hope of learning something new

　 D. in the hope of getting on well

73. By "the buzzing of a fly" (Para. 1), the author means"________”

　 A. the noise of an insect　　　　　　　 B. a low whispering sound

　 C. meaningless talks　　　　　　　　 D. the voice of a chatterbox

72. According to the author, people make conversation to ______

　 A. exchange ideas　 　　　　　　　　B. prove their value

　 C. achieve success in life　 　　　　　D. overcome their fear of silence

71. From the passage we know that the author is most probably.__

　 A. a supporter of free global trade

　 B. a member of the Food Commission

　 C. a supporter of First World food markets

　 D. a member of an energy development group

答案　 68.D　 69.A　 70.C　 71.A

Passage 94

(06·湖北E篇)

Silence is unnatural to man. He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness. In between he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and he feats silence more than anything else. Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence. If he is introduced to another person, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a failure, a worthless person, and is full of envy of the emptiest headed chatterbox (喋喋不休的人). He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure (蜡塑人像).

　　 The aim of conversation is not, for the most part, to communicate ideas; it is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz; there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito (蚊子). But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person. Most buzzing, fortunately, is pleasant to the ear, and some of it is pleasant even to the mind. He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbours.

　　 Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new. Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other peoples ears, though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel At the end of an evening during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time, they just prove themselves to be successful conservationists

70. By comparing tomatoes raised in Britain and in Ghana, the author tries to explain that ______

　 A. British tomatoes are healthier than Ghanaian ones

　 B. Ghanaian tomatoes taste better than British ones

　 C. cutting down food miles may not necessarily save fuel

　 D. protecting the environment may cost a lot of money

69. The phrase "food miles" in the passage refers to the distance _______.

　 　A. that a food product travels to a market

　 B. that a food product travels from one market to another

　 C. between UK and other food producing countries

　 D. between a Third World country and a First World food market

68. The Food Commission is angry because it thinks that_______

　 A. UK wastes a lot of money importing food products

　 B. some imported goods cause environmental damage

　 C. growing certain vegetables damages the environment

　 D. people waste energy buying food from other countries

63. The best possible title for this passage is “_______”.

　　 A. Ways of Choosing Gifts　　　　　　　　　 　 B. An Important Tradition

　　 C. Exchanging Presents　　　　　　　　　　　 　 D. Message in a Gift

答案　 60.D　 61.D　 62.C　 63.D

Passage 93

(06·湖北D篇)

An environmental group called the Food Commission is unhappy and disappointed because of the sale of bottled water from Japan. The water, it angrily argues an public, has traveled 10,000 "food miles" before it reaches Western customers. "Transporting water halfway across the world is

surely the extremely stupid use of fuel when there is plenty of water in the UK." It is also worried that we are wasting our fuel by buying prawns(对虾) from Indonesia (7,000 food miles) and carrots from Sooth Africa (5,900 food miles).

　　 Counting the number of miles traveled by a product is a strange way of trying to tell the true situation of the environmental damage clone by an industry. Most food is transported around the world on container ships that are extremely energy-efficient (高能效的). It should be noted that a ton of butter transported 25 miles in a truck to a farmers' market does not necessarily use less fuel on its journey than a similar product transported hundreds of miles by sea. Besides, the idea of "food miles" ignores the amount of fuel used in the production. It is possible to cut down your food miles by buying tomatoes grown in Britain rather than those grown in Ghana; the difference is that the British ones will have been raised in heated greenhouses and the Ghanaian ones in the open sun.

　　 What the idea of "food miles” does provide, however, is the chance to cut out Third World countries from First World food markets. The number of miles traveled by our food should, as I see it, be regarded as a sign of the success of the global (全球的) trade system, not a sign of damage to the environment.

62. In the third paragraph, the author tells us that________.

　 A. attention should be paid to the receivers' responses

　 B. one learns from what he did in the past

　 C. the choice of gifts reflects one's emotional qualities

　 D. one should spend more time choosing gifts