A

Early one morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly¹ around the needle.

Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream. He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages² whose king wanted to kill him and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream, realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and build the first really practised sewing machine.

Elias Howe was not the only one in finding³ the answer to his problem in this way.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in dreams. So did the great physicist⁴ Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious(无意识的), but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves”.

1..According to the passage, Elias Howe was________.

A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep

B. much more hard-working than other inventors

C. the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked

D. the only person at the time who knew the value of dreams

2.The problem Howe was trying to solve was________.

A. what kind of thread to use

B. how to design a needle which would not break

C. where to put the needle

D. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle

3.Thomas Edison is spoken of because________.

A. he also tried to invent a sewing machine

B. he got some of his ideas from dreams

C. he was one of Howe’s best friends

D. he also had difficulty in falling asleep

4.Dreams are sometimes called“secret messages to ourselves” because___.

A. strange images are used to communicate ideas

B. images which have no meaning are used

C. we can never understand the real meaning

D. only specially⁵ trained people can understand them

B

Language learning⁶ begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners .Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word “obey” is hardly accurate⁷ as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child .Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable⁸ difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly expressive⁹ as delight, pain, friendliness¹⁰, and so on. But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate ,they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment¹¹, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation¹²（模仿）leads on to deliberate（有意的）imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations¹³ can be considered as speech.

It is a problem we need to get out teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world .Thus the use at seven months of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed¹⁴ as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds .

5.Before children start speaking________.

A.they need equal amount of listening

B.they need different amounts of listening

C.they are all eager to cooperate¹⁵ with the adults by obeying spoken instructions

D.they can’t understand and obey the adult’s oral instructions

6.Children who start speaking late ________.

A.may have problems with their listening

B.probably do not hear enough language spoken around them

C.usually pay close attention to what they hear

D.often take a long time in learning to listen properly

7.A baby’s first noises are ________.

A.an expression of his moods and feelings　　

B.an early form of language

C.a sign that he means to tell you something　　

D.an imitation of the speech of adults

8.The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech________.

A.is important because words have different meanings for different people

B.is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually

C.is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age

D.is one that should be completely ignored（忽略）because children’s use of words is often meaningless

9.The speaker implies________.

A.parents can never hope to teach their children new sounds

B.children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak

C.children who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly

D.even after they have learnt to speak, children still enjoy imitating

C

The greatest recent changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there was an unusual shortening¹⁶ of the time of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the 19th century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which custom, chance and health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman’s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and is likely to take paid work until retirement¹⁷ at sixty. Even while she has the care of children ,her work is lightened¹⁸ by household appliances（家用电器）and convenience foods.

This important change in women’s way of life has only recently begun to have its full effect on women’ s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left school at the first opportunity and most of them took a full-time¹⁹ job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age ,and though women tend to marry younger ,more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more after wads, return to full or part-time work.Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with both husband and wife accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfaction of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money and running the home, according to the abilities and interest of each of them.

10.We are told that in an average family about 1990________.

A.many children died before they were five

B.the youngest child would be fifteen

C.seven of eight children lived to be more than five

D.four or five children died when they were five

11.When she was over fifty, the late 19th century mother________.

A.would expect to work until she died

B.was usually expected to take up paid employment²⁰

C.would be healthy enough to take up paid employment

D.was unlikely²¹ to find a job even if she is now likely

12.Many girls, the passage says, are now likely to ________.

A.marry so that they can get a job

B.leave school as soon as they can

C.give up their jobs for good after they are married

D.continue working until they are going to have a baby

13.According to the passage,it is now quite usual for women to ________.

A.stay at home after leaving school

B.marry men younger than themselves

C.start working again later in life

D.marry while still at school

D

Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one inexpensive postage²² stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value.

The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony²³ of Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer-Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.

Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius’ Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He accidentally²⁴ inscribed²⁵ the words“Post Office” instead of“Post Paid” on the several hundred stamps that he printed.

Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues²⁶. Because of the Two Penny Blue’s rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as ＄16 800 for it.

14.Over a century ago, Mauritius ________.

A.was an independent country        B.belonged to India

C.was one of the British colonies²⁷

D.was a small island in the Pacific Ocean

15. The mistake on the stamps was made ________.

A.in Mauritius        B.at Mauritius Government House

C.in a post office     D.in London

16. Stamp collectors have paid ?16 800 for ________.

A. fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds    B. twelve Two Penny Blues

C. one One Penny Orange-Red         D. one Two Penny Blue

E

Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.

Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.

E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren’t necessarily²⁸ much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she’d been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.

The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun see a great movie perhaps-and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.

With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.

E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.

We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don’t take the place of any of the old ways.

17. The purpose of this passage is to ________.

A. explain how to use the Internet

B. describe the writer’s joy of keeping up with the latest technology

C. tell the merits(价值) and usefulness of the Internet

D. introduce the reader to basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet

18. The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ________.

A. spend less time working

B. have more free time with his child

C. work at home on weekends

D. work at a speed comfortable to him

19. According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because the former helps one ________.

A. reach a group of people at one time conveniently

B. keep one’s communication as personal as possible

C. pass on much more information than the later

D. get in touch with one’s friends faster than the later

20. The best title for this passage is ________.

A. Computer: New Technological²⁹ Advances

B. Internet: New Tool to Maintain³⁰ Good Friendship

C. Computers Have Made Life Easier

D. Internet: a Convenient Tool for Communication

参考答案:CDBABDABDDDDCCA DCBAD

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