1 . The spread of worsening international financial crisis has seriously affected world economic growth and stability. The ongoing financial crisis is rarely seen in history. Countries and organizations have taken measures in response, and we hope these measures will produce the desired results soon. Countries in Asia and Europe are an important force for international financial stability and world economic growth. I suggest that we make greater efforts in the following aspects:
First, countries should run their own affairs well. In the face of the crisis, it is important for leaders to act in the fundamental and long-term interests of the people and use necessary monetary and regulatory tools to regain market confidence as soon as possible and maintain economic growth.
Second, set up coordination(调和) and cooperation among governments. The financial departments, central banks and financial regulators around the world should closely follow the development of the crisis and study its trend and impact.
Third, strengthen regional financial dialogue and cooperation. Members of the Eurozone have reached agreement on the basic principles to tackle the financial crisis. We in Asia are also exploring the possibility of expanding the size of bilateral currency swap( 互惠外汇信贷)arrangements under the 10+3 framework .
Fourth, push forward the reform of the international monetary and financial systems. The present crisis has exposed the weaknesses in the existing international financial system and governance structure. It important to do three things in this regard: first, increase the say and representation of developing countries in international financial organizations; second, expand the space of the regulation of the international financial system, and third, establish a reasonable global financial rescue mechanism(机制).
1. According to the passage, members of the Eurozone reached agreement on _______.| A．how to deal with the financial crisis |
| B．how to regain market confidence |
| C．how to maintain economic growth |
| D．how to study the crisis trend |
| A．to closely follow the development of the crisis. |
| B．to study the trend and impact of the financial crisis. |
| C．to do their own business well. |
| D．to increase the say and representation of developing countries in international financial organizations. |
| A．mainly | B．keep | C．increase | D．decrease |
| A．Global issues included energy, food, the environment etc. |
| B．There has been no financial crisis more serious than this one in history. |
| C．Facing the crisis, the first thing the countries should do is to do their own business well. |
| D．Asian and European countries are an important force for the world economic growth. |
| A．What we should do during the financial crisis. |
| B．We should draw serious lessons from the financial crisis. |
| C．Countries and organizations have taken measures in response to the financial crisis. |
| D．We should set up coordination and cooperation among governments. |
The thing is, my luck’s always been ruined. Just look at my name: Jean. Not Jean Marie, or Jeanine, or Jeanette, or even Jeanne. Just Jean. Did you know in France, they name boys Jean? It’s French for John. And okay, I don’t live in France. But still, I’m basically a girl named John. If I lived in France, anyway.
This is the kind of luck I’ve had since before Mom even filled out my birth certificate. So it wasn’t any big surprise to me when the cab driver didn’t help me with my suitcase. I’d already had to tolerate arriving at the airport to find no one there to greet me, and then got no answer to my many phone calls, asking where my aunt and uncle were. Did they not want me after all? Had they changed their minds? Had they heard about my bad luck—all the way from Iowa—and decided they didn’t want any of it to rub off on them?
So when the cab driver, instead of getting out and helping me with my bags, just pushed a little button so that the trunk (汽车后备箱) popped open a few inches, it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to me. It wasn’t even the worst thing that had happened to me that day.
According to my mom, most brownstones in New York City were originally single-family homes when they were built way back in the 1800s. But now they’ve been divided up into apartments, so that there’s one—or sometimes even two or more families—per floor.
Not Mom’s sister Evelyn’s brownstone, though. Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted Gardiner own all four floors of their brownstone. That’s practically one floor per person, since Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted only have three kids, my cousins Tory, Teddy, and Alice.
Back home, we just have two floors, but there are seven people living on them. And only one bathroom. Not that I’m complaining. Still, ever since my sister Courtney discovered blow-outs, it’s been pretty frightful at home.
But as tall as my aunt and uncle’s house was, it was really narrow—just three windows across. Still, it was a very pretty townhouse, painted gray. The door was a bright, cheerful yellow. There were yellow flower boxes along the base of each window, flower boxes from which bright red—and obviously newly planted, since it was only the middle of April, and not quite warm enough for them.
It was nice to know that, even in a sophisticated (世故的) city like New York, people still realized how homey and welcoming a box of flowers could be. The sight of those flowers cheered me up a little.
Like maybe Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted just forgot I was arriving today, and hadn’t deliberately failed to meet me at the airport because they’d changed their minds about letting me come to stay.
Like everything was going to be all right, after all.
Yeah. With my luck, probably not.
I started up the steps to the front door of 326 East Sixty-Ninth Street, then realized I couldn’t make it with both bags and my violin. Leaving one bag on the sidewalk, I dragged the other up the steps with me. Maybe I took the steps a little too fast, since I nearly tripped and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk. I managed to catch myself at the last moment by grabbing some of the fence the gardeners had put up…
1. Why did the author go to New York?
| A．She intended to go sightseeing there. |
| B．She meant to stay with her aunt’s family. |
| C．She was homeless and adopted by her aunt. |
| D．She wanted to try her luck and find a job there. |
| A．she was given a boy’s name in French |
| B．the cab driver didn’t help her with her bags |
| C．her sister Courtney discovered blow-outs |
| D．nobody had come to meet her at the airport |
| A．have an effect on | B．play tricks on | C．put pressure on | D．throw doubt on |
| A．the author left home without informing her mother |
| B．the author arrived in New York in a very warm season |
| C．her aunt’s family lived a much better life than her own |
| D．her aunt and uncle were likely to forget about her arrival |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
1685 was a very good year for German composers. Within the space of a month, two of the greatest were born: Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederic Handel.
Handel’s father was a barber and surgeon, which sounds like a strange combination today, but back then those occupations went hand in hand. Even though Handel was very interested in music, his father didn’t think that was a good way to earn a living, so he wanted his son to be a lawyer. The story goes that Handel smuggled a quiet piano into the house so that he could practise in secret.
One day, Handel went along when his father went to shave a duke. While his father was working, Handel sat down and played the duke’s organ. The duke was so impressed that he convinced Handel’s father to let his son study music, and Handel finally got to learn how to compose.
Handel soon discovered that what he liked most was opera. In fact, he was so passionate about opera that he even fought a duel (决斗) over it with one of his friends. Since Italy was the place to learn about opera composing, Handel went off to Italy to study. When he got home, he got a job as court composer for a German prince.
Having landed such a wonderful job, Handel immediately asked his boss for time off. He wanted to go to England, where he’d heard that there weren’t nearly enough composers to satisfy the British taste for Italian opera.
After great success writing opera in London, Handel came back to Germany. Then fate played a funny trick on Handel and his boss. The Queen of England died, and it just so happened that the prince Handel worked for was next in line to the British throne. When he arrived in London as King George, followed Handel, his court composer in Germany.
In addition to serving the King, Handel became one of the most successful opera composers of his time. And he also produced them and traveled all over Europe to hire the best singers. There are stories of battles with rival opera producers and of fights between rival singers. Handel apparently had quite a temper.
If you ever go to London, look for Handel’s grave in Westminster Abbey, where there’s a wonderful monument to him.
1. How did Handel begin to learn to compose?
| A．His father was sure of his future success. |
| B．His performance impressed a duke. |
| C．He begged his father to send him to Italy. |
| D．He practised hard and taught himself music. |
| A．bought secretly | B．took secretly | C．carried in advance | D．possessed personally |
| A．Because he could find better jobs in London. |
| B．Because he enjoyed greater fame in London. |
| C．Because his boss became King of Britain and brought him along. |
| D．Because London was a wonderful place to learn about opera. |
| A．bad-tempered | B．talented | C．enthusiastic | D．optimistic |
| A．Handel was born in the same year with Bach. |
| B．Many people worked both as a barber and surgeon. |
| C．Handel quit his job to learn about opera in Italy. Handel was buried in London and was built a monument. |
The risk of having a heart attack on any given day should be one in seven, but a six-year study helped by researchers at the Free University of Berlin of more than 2,600 Germans showed that the average person had a 20 per cent higher chance of having a heart attack on a Monday than on any other day.
Working Germans are particularly not protected against attack, with a 33 per cent higher risk at the beginning of the working week. Non-workers, by comparison, appear to be no more at risk on a Monday than any other day.
A study of 11,000 Italians proved 8 am on a Monday morning as the most stressful time for the heart, and both studies showed that Sunday is the least stressful day, with fewer heart attacks in both countries.
The findings could lead to a better understanding of what is the immediate cause of heart attacks, according to Dr Stefan Willich of the Free University. “We know a lot about long-term risk factors such as smoking and cholesterol（胆固醇）but we don’t know what actually causes heart attacks, so we can’t give clear advice on how to prevent them,” he said.
Monday mornings have a double helping of stress for the working body as it makes a rapid change from sleep to activity, and from the relaxing weekend to the pressures of work.
“When people get up, their blood pressure and heart rate go up and there are hormonal（内分泌）changes in their bodies,” Willich explained. “All these things can have an unfavourable effect in the blood system and increase the risk of a clot（血凝块）in the arteries（动脉）which will cause a heart attack.”
“When people return to work after a weekend off, the pace of their life changes. They have a higher workload, more stress, more anger and more physical activity,” said Willich.
1. Monday morning feeling, as this passage shows, .
| A．is not so serious as people thought |
| B．is harmful to working people in developed countries. |
| C．is the first killer in Germany and Italy. |
| D．is created by researchers in Germany and Italy |
| A．people’s working time |
| B．people’s living place |
| C．people’s diet and lifestyle |
| D．people’s nationalities |
| A．blood pressure | B．heart rate |
| C．hormonal changes | D．blood group |
| A．Stop working on Monday |
| B．Create a pleasant working environment |
| C．Get up late on Monday morning |
| D．Go to work with a doctor |
5 . As a physician who travels quite a lot, I spend a lot of time on planes listening for that dreaded “Is there a doctor on board?” announcement. I’ve been
The study estimated that there are a(n)
Let’s face it: plane rides are
| A．called | B．informed | C．addressed | D．surveyed |
| A．accident | B．incident | C．condition | D．disaster |
| A．soon | B．many | C．long | D．often |
| A．met | B．identified | C．treated | D．provided |
| A．for | B．by | C．to | D．through |
| A．before | B．when | C．since | D．while |
| A．collected | B．discovered | C．conducted | D．published |
| A．consulted | B．read | C．consumed | D．considered |
| A．amount | B．sum | C．average | D．number |
| A．significant | B．common | C．heavy | D．serious |
| A．For | B．But | C．And | D．So |
| A．require | B．engage | C．inspire | D．command |
| A．include | B．imply | C．confine | D．contain |
| A．enjoyable | B．favorable | C．peaceful | D．stressful |
| A．who | B．which | C．what | D．that |
| A．mentally | B．easily | C．neatly | D．naturally |
| A．ought to | B．used to | C．may | D．need |
| A．Any | B．Other | C．One | D．Another |
| A．Whatever | B．Whenever | C．Whichever | D．Wherever |
| A．most | B．least | C．worst | D．best |
6 . B
Increasing Noise Annoys
People want action on noise, a recent public meeting in Brisbane showed. Some want technical improvements such as quieter air conditioners or better sound barriers around major roads. Others want tougher laws to restrict noise from building sites or to require owners to take responsibility for barking dogs. But the highest priority (优先) was a noise complaints system that works.
Brisbane City Council receives more complaints about noise than all other problems put together. So it conducted survey and found that about half its citizens are upset by noise in one form or another—traffic, mowers, pool pumps, air conditioners or loud parties. This inspired the Council to bring together more than 100 citizens one evening to talk through solutions to the problem.
The meeting found the present noise complaints system bizarre. Depending on the problem, responsibility for noise can lie with the Council, the Environment Protection Authority, one of three government departments or even the police. So complaints often feel they are getting the run-round. When the people at the meeting were asked to vote for changes, the strongest response was for a 24-hour noise hotline to be the first port of call for all complaints.
The meeting also favored regulatory measures, such as tougher minimum standards for noise in appliances like air conditioners. This even makes economic sense, as noise is a waste of energy—and money. Other measures the meeting supported were wider buffer zones around noisy activities and controls to keep heavy traffic away from residential areas（居民区）.
1. According to the passage, what do people want most?| A．Tougher laws. | B．Technical improvements. |
| C．An effective noise complaints system. | D．Tougher minimum standards for noise. |
| A．reasonable | B．wonderful | C．strange | D．responsible |
| A．3. | B．4. | C．2. | D．5. |
| A．Tougher minimum standards for noise in appliances are necessary. |
| B．Traffic, mowers, pool pumps, and air conditioners are all the sources of noise. |
| C．90% of the residents are annoyed by noise. |
| D．Heavy traffic should be kept away from residential areas according to the meeting. |
| A．the result of the survey carried out by itself |
| B．a noise complaints system that works |
| C．people asking for tougher laws on noise |
| D．requirements of an effective noise complaints system |
7 . What's your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember the first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom recall events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four rarely retain any memory of specific, personal experiences.
A variety of explanations have been proposed by psychologists for this "childhood amnesia"( 记忆缺失,健忘).One argues that the hippocampus, the region of the brain which is responsible for forming memories, does not mature（成熟）until about the age of two. But the most popular theory maintains (主张）that, since adults do not think like children, they cannot access childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories. But when they search through their mental files for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don't find any that fit the pattern. It's like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary.
Now psychologist Annette Simms offers a new explanation for childhood amnesia. She argues that there simply aren't any early childhood memories to recall. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else's spoken description of their personal experiences in order to turn their own short-term, quickly forgotten impressions of these experiences into long-term memories. In other words, children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about them - Mother talking about the afternoon spent looking for crabs(蟹) at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean Park. Without this verbal reinforcement, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form permanent memories of their personal experiences.
1. According to the passage, it is widely believed that_________.| A．it is impossible for an adult to recall his(or her) childhood experiences |
| B．adults virtually have no access to their childhood memories |
| C．adults think in words while children think in images |
| D．adults and children have different brain structures |
| A．Chinese and English are totally different languages |
| B．it is unlikely to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary |
| C．adults and children have different memory patterns |
| D．memories are in some way connected with languages |
| A．verbal reinforcement is necessary for children to have permanent memories |
| B．there does not exist such things as childhood memories |
| C．children's brains are mature enough to form permanent memories |
| D．children are generally inexperienced and unable to remember things they don't understand |
Most likely, you were thinking about finals or the holidays, although in this city I’ve noticed that thinking about the holiday is a fancy way of saying how much stuff will I get.
Now reflect on your thoughts for this holiday season. Most people are still thinking about the holidays, but I say that with a grain of salt. Everybody with a functioning brain and the ability to communicate knows that this holioday season comes with a pretty large price tag: the debt of all the hardships, both domestic and foreign, that we’ve faced over the past 12months.
Let’s face it: some of us will get everything we want over the holidays. But there are others whose parents have lost their jobs or who have lost jobs themselves because of the current economic situation. As much as we try to ignore it, there is still economic unrest in the blue and gold suburb.
In this situation, we have three options. One: We ignore the situation, like we seem to do for every bad thing that happens around us, because by God, it’s the American Way! Two: We recognize that our economy is shot, feel bad about it and spend our time wishing for the good old days. Three: We recognize that our economy is shot, but instead of moping, reflect on every good thing that we have going for us. Now, which option sounds best to you?
I spent a week this summer working in and around New York City with the city’s homeless population. Or so I thought. Although a lot of the people I served were in fact homeless, a significant number of them had a job or a home or both. The truth of the importance of this situation is that they and thousands of others across the country can’t afford even the most basic things of life, even while working two jobs. Yet no one that I met complained about their hardships. Instead, they took whatever I happened to give them(which was, more often than enough, not enough) and were genuinely grateful for what they had.
Wrap your heads around that statement for a second. These people worked their butts off to stay alive with minimal results, yet were overjoyed by a flimsy(脆弱的) paper plate with donated green beans on it. Although I am ashamed to admit it( both as a girthy figure and an affluent citizen), I have taken for granted most of my meals, let alone green beans, and I know for a fact that I am not alone.
1. According to the passage when people think about holidays they care much for ____.
| A．where to spend their holidays | B．how to spend their holidays |
| C．what they can get for their holidays | D．who they should go to visit |
| A．began to go bad. | B．began to improve | C．was still serious | D．was favorable for middle class. |
| A．to be thankful in time of hardship. | B．to spend their holidays in a wise way |
| C．to think little about their holidays | D．to help the country to sail through the crisis |
| A．a homeless child | B．an old professor | C．a famous scientist | D．a young student |
