8. The little girl grasped her mother's hand as she crossed the street.
A.understood
B.had a hold over
C.took hold of
D.left hold of
A B C D
C
[解析] 句意：过马路时，这个小女孩抓住她妈妈的手。句中的grasp意为“抓住”。take hold of意为“抓住，控制住”，与grasp意思相近；understand意为“懂得，理解”；have a hold over意为“控制，对……有影响”；leave hold of意为“放开”。
9. In the situation comedy, a traditional format for television shows, the same characters appear repeatedly in humorous episodes.
A.respectively
B.again and again
C.simultaneously
D.briefly
A B C D
B
[解析] 句意：在传统的电视剧形式情景喜剧中，同一批人物在搞笑的剧集中反复出现。句中的situation comedy意为“情景喜剧”。repeatedly意为“重复地、反复地”：again and again为“反复地”；respectively意为“分别地，各个地”；simultaneously意为“同时”；briefly意为“简短地”。
10. The best olive oil is obtained from olives that are harvested just after they ripen.
When Mike Kelly first set out to build his own private space-ferry service, he figured his bread-and-butter business would be lofting satellites into high-Earth orbit. Now he thinks he may have figured wrong. "People were always asking me when they could go," says Kelly, who runs Kelly Space Technology out of San Bernardino, California. "I realized that real market is in space tourism." According to preliminary market surveys, there are 10,000 would-be-space-tourists willing to spend $ 1 million each to visit the final frontier. Space Adventure in Arlington, Virginia, has taken more than 130 deposits for a two-hour, $ 98,000 space tour tentatively (and somewhat dubiously) set to occur by 2005. Gene Meyers of the Space Island Group says: "Space is the next exotic vacation spot." This may all sound great, but there are a few hurdles. Putting a simple satellite into orbit with no oxygen, life support or return trip necessary already costs an astronomical $ 22,000/kg. And that doesn't include the cost of insuring rich and possibly litigious passenger. John Pike of the Federation of American Scientists acerbically suggests that the entire group of entrepreneurs trying to corner the space tourism market have between them "just enough money to blow up one rocket." The U.S. space agency has plenty of money but zero interest in making space less expensive for the little guys. So the little guys are racing to do what the government has failed to do: design a reusable launch system that's inexpensive, safe and reliable. Kelly Spaee's prototype looks like a plane that has sprouted rocket engines. Rotary Rocket in Redwood City, California, has a booster with rotors make a helicopter-style return to Earth; Kistler Aerospace in Kirkland, Washington, is piecing together its versions from old Soviet engines, shuttle-style thermal protection tiles and an elaborate parachute system. The first passenger countdowns are still years away, but bureaucrats at the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington are already informally discussing flight regulations. After all, you can't be too prepared for a trip to that galaxy far, far away. For those who are intent on joining the 100-mile high club, Hilton and Budget are plotting to build space hotels. Before the Russian space Mir came down, some people were talking about using it as a low-rent space hotel to reduce the cost. If a space hotel is finally built in space, and if you're thinking of staying in it, you may want to check the Michelin ratings before booking yourself a suite.
1. Mike Kelly planned to turn his business of making bread and butter into a business that is engaged in space tourism.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
B
[解析] 第一段的第一句话是“...he figured his bread-and-butter business would be lofting satellites into high-Earth orbit.”理解此句子的关键是bread and-butter，作为形容词，它的意思是“基本的，日常的”，而不是“面包与黄油”。由此可见，Mike Kelly的初衷并不是投身于太空旅行，所以题干的说法是错误的。
2. Kelly hoped to develop space tourism, which he thought would be a good market.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
A
[解析] 选A的依据是第一段最后一句话：“I realized that real market is in space tourism.”这句话表明Kelly认识到真正的市场是太空旅行，作为一个商人，他理所当然会致力于开发真正的市场。
3. Space Adventure in Arlington has taken 130 deposits totaling $ 98,000 for a two-hour space tour.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
B
[解析] 第二段第二句话是“Space Adventure in Arlington, Virginia, has taken more than 130 deposits for a two-hour, $98,000 space tour tentatively (and somewhat dubiously) set to occur by 2005.”句子的意思是，每人交了98,000美元的定金，而不是总共98,000，从这句话中可以看出历时两个小时的太空旅行计划在2005年，该旅行是试验性的，并且在一定程度上令人质疑。因此题干的说法是错误的。
4. It sounds great that soon there will be space residence, although it is still a tentative plan.
6. Little guys, who do not have plenty of money but have great interest in space tourism, are trying to make the space travel less expensive but more reliable.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
A
[解析] 选A的依据是第三段该句话“So the little guys are racing to do what the government has failed to do: design a reusable launch system that is inexpensive, safe and reliable.”少数人在争相做政府未做成功的事情，即设计一套可以再度使用的廉价、安全、可靠的发射系统。
7. We can infer from the context that the Michelin ratings can help people to find prices of hotels.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
A B C
A
[解析] 选A的依据是文章最后一句话“If a space hotel is finally built in space, and if you are thinking of staying in it, you may want to check the Michelin ratings before booking yourself a suite.”如果太空旅馆最终在太空建立，而你又正在考虑住在里边，在预定房间之前你或许想查看一下Michelin参数。
Nicola Walters has been taking part in experiments in Scotland to discover why humans gain and lose weight. Being locked in a small room called a "calorimeter" (热量测量室) is one way to find out. 1. The signs above the two rooms read simply "Chamber One" and "Chamber Two". These are the calorimeters: 4m by 2m white-walled rooms where human volunteers are locked up in the name of science. Outside these rooms another sign reads "Please do not enter—work in progress" and in front of the rooms advanced machinery registers every move the volunteers make. Each day, meals measured to the last gram are passed through a hole in the wall of the calorimeter to the resident volunteer. 2. Nicola Walters is one of twenty volunteers who, over the past eight months, have spent varying periods inside the calorimeter. Tall and slim, Nicola does not have a weight problem, but thought the strict diet might help with her training and fitness programme. As a self-employed community dance worker, she was able to fit the experiment in around her work. She saw an advert for volunteers at her local gym and as she is interested in the whole area of diet and exercise, she thought she would help out. 3. The experiment on Nicola involved her spending one day on a fixed diet at home and the next in the room. This sequence was repeated four times over six weeks. She arrived at the calorimeter at 8:30 am on each of the four mornings and from then on everything she ate or drank was carefully measured. Her every move was noted too, her daily exercise routine, timed to the last second. At regular intervals, after eating, she filled in forms about how hungry she felt and samples were taken for analysis. 4. The scientists help volunteers impose a kind of order on the long days they face in the room. "The first time, I only took one video and a book, but it was OK because I watched TV the rest of the time," says Nicola. And twice a day she used the exercise bike. She pedaled (踩踏板) for half an hour, watched by researchers to make sure she didn't go too fast. 5. It seems that some foods encourage you to eat more, while others satisfy you quickly. Volunteers are already showing that high-fat diets are less likely to make you feel full. Believing that they may now know what encourages people to overeat, the researchers are about to start testing a high-protein weight-loss diet. Volunteers are required and Nicola has signed up for further sessions.
1. Paragraph 1 ______ A. What does the calorimeter look like inside? B. What program was designed for the experiment? C. What is a calorimeter? D. What is the first impression? E. How do the volunteers kill the time? F. Why did Nicola join in the experiments?
[解析] 第四段主要介绍志愿者接受实验时如何打发自己的时间，主要是看看电视或看书。选项E中的kill the time就是“打发时间”的意思，与第四段意思相符，故选E。
5. The machinery outside the calorimeters records everything ______. A. the volunteers do B. because she does not have a weight problem C. because the life there can be very boring D. make people overeat E. because she was her own boss F. after passing a high-protein test
British scientists are breeding a new generation of rice plants that will be able to grow in soil containing salt water. Their work may enable abandoned farms to become productive once more. Tim Flowers and Tony Yeo, from Sussex University's School of Biological Sciences, have spent several years researching how crops, such as rice, could be made to grow in water that has become salty. The pair have recently begun a three-year programme, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, to establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty conditions. The aim is to breed this capability into crops, starting with rice. It is estimated that each year more than 10m hectares (公顷) of agricultural land are lost because salt gets into the soil and stunts (妨碍生长) plants. The problem is caused by several factors. In the tropics, mangroves (红树林) that create swamps (沼泽) and traditionally formed barriers to sea water have been cut down. In the Mediterranean, a series of droughts have caused the water table to drop, allowing sea water to seep (渗透) in. In Latin America, irrigation often causes problems when water is evaporated (蒸发) by the heat, leaving salt deposits behind. Excess salt then enters the plants and prevents them functioning normally. Heavy concentrations of minerals in the plants stop them drawing up the water they need to survive. To overcome these problems, Flowers and Yeo decided to breed rice plants that take in very little salt and store what they do absorb in cells that do not affect the plants' growth. They have started to breed these characteristics into a new rice crop, but it will take about eight harvests before the resulting seeds are ready to be considered for commercial use. Once the characteristics for surviving salty soil are known, Flowers and Yeo will try to breed the appropriate genes into all manners of crops and plants. Land that has been abandoned to nature will then be able to bloom again, providing much needed food in the poorer countries of the world.
1. Which of the following statements about Flowers and Yeo is true?
A.They are students at Sussex University.
B.They are rice breeders.
C.They are husband and wife.
D.They are colleagues at an institution of higher learning.
B.to identify genes that promote growth in salty soil
C.to breed rice plants that taste salty
D.to find ways to remove excessive salt from soil
A B C D
B
[解析] 本题的答案可以在第三段里找到，这段的第一句话说他们开始了一个为期3年的研究项目，目的是“establish which genes enable some plants to survive salty condition”(确认哪些基因使得某些作物能在含盐的条件下生长)。这和选项B是同一个意思。
3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a cause of the problem discussed in the passage?
A.Natural barriers to sea water have been destroyed.
第二篇 The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied (征收) on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. Until then there were only a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses. The first eight lighthouses erected on the West Coast in the 1850s featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeast were set up on rocky eminences (高处), enormous towers were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there—massive structures like the majestic lighthouse in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, which was lit in 1870. 190 feet high, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country. Not withstanding differences in construction appearance, most lighthouses in America shared several features: a light, living quarters, and sometimes a bell (or, later, a foghorn). They also had something else in common: a keeper and usually the keeper's family. The keeper's essential task was trimming the lantern wick (灯芯) in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life, they were seamen, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouse was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, and agency of the Treasury Department, the keeper corps gradually became highly professional.
2. Why does the author mention the Massachusetts Bay Colony?
A.It was the headquarters of the United States Lighthouse Board.
B.Many of the tallest lighthouses were built there.
C.The first lantern wicks were developed there.
D.The first lighthouse in North America was built there.
A B C D
D
[解析] 考的具体细节是作者提到马萨诸塞湾殖民地的原因。本文第一段第二句“The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor”提供了答案。所以，正确答案是D。
3. It can be inferred from the passage that lighthouses in the Northeast did NOT need high towers because ______.
A.ships there had high masts
B.coastal waters were safe
C.the coast was straight and unobstructed
D.the lighthouses were built on high places
A B C D
D
[解析] 考的是位于东北地区的灯塔建得不是很高的原因。本题的线索在第二段第三句话“Since most stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences，enormous towers were not the rule.”文中说，由于大多数位于东北地区的灯塔建在岩石高地上，所以，一般灯塔都不需要建得很高很大。所以，正确答案是D。
4. According to the passage, where can the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States be found?
A.Little Brewster Island.
B.The Florida Keys.
C.Cape Hatteras.
D.Cape Cod.
A B C D
C
[解析] 考的具体细节是最高的砖砌灯塔位于什么地方。依据原文第二段第八句话，“...like the majestic lighthouse in Cape Hatteras...it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.”我们可以得知，1870年建于北卡罗来纳州Hatteras角的灯塔是美国最高的砖砌灯塔，高度为190英尺。所以，正确答案是C。
5. We can know from the passage that the coast of North Carolina is ______.
A.rocky eminences
B.high and flat
C.low and sandy
D.high and sandy
A B C D
C
[解析] 考的是北卡罗来纳州的海岸情况。根据原文第二段第七、八句话“Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, ...it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.”可知，马里兰(Maryland)和佛罗里达海岸(the Florida Keys)相似，而马里兰(Maryland)和佛罗里达(the Florida Keys)海岸是low and sandy。所以，北卡罗来纳州也应是low and sandy。选项A．rocky eminences指的是美国东北海岸，选项B、D根本没有提及。所以，正确条案是C。
第三篇
Calculating Crime
When you think about math, you probably don't think about breaking the law, solving mysteries or finding criminals. But a mathematician in Maryland does, and he has come up with mathematical tools to help police find criminals. People who solve crimes look for patterns that might reveal (揭示) the identity of the criminal. It's long been believed, for example, that criminals will break the law closer to where they live, simply because it's easier to get around in one's own neighborhood. If police see a pattern of robberies in a certain area, they may look for a suspect who lives near the crime scenes. So, the farther away from the area a crime takes place, the less likely it is that the same criminal did it. But Mike O'Leary, a mathematician at Towson University in Maryland, says that this kind of approach may be too simple. He says that police may get better clues to the location of an offender's home base by combining these patterns with a city's layout and historical crime records. The records of past crimes contain geographical information and can reveal easy targets—that is, the kind of stores that might be less difficult to rob. Because these stores are along roads, the locations of past crimes contain information about where major streets and intersections (十字路口) are. O'Leary is writing a new computer program that will quickly provide this kind of information for a given city. His program also includes information about the people who live in the city, and information about how a criminal's patterns change with age. (It's been shown, for example, that the younger the criminal, the closer to home the crime.) Other computer programmers have worked on similar software, but O'Leary's uses more math. The mathematician plans to make his computer program available, free of charge, to police departments around the country. The program is just one way to use math to fight crime. O'Leary says that criminology—the study of crime and criminals—contains a lot of good math problems. "I feel like I'm in a gold mine and I'm the only one who knows what gold looks like," he says. "It's a lot of fun."
1. Which of the following statements about math is true?
A.It is too difficult for the police to use in finding criminals.
B.Few people associate it with finding criminals.
C.Some criminals make use of it when committing crimes.
D.It has long been employed in solving crimes.
A B C D
B
[解析] 细节题。由文中第一段可知，很少人用数学来破案，但一个数学家做到了，故选B。
2. People tend to think there is a relationship between ______.
A.the time of a crime and the age of the criminal
B.the type of a crime and the identity of the criminal
C.the pattern of a crime and the equipment of the criminal
D.the location of a crime and the residence of the criminal
The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos edited by David Levy, Macmillan, ￡20, ISBN 0333782933 Previous generations of scientists would have killed to know what we know. For the first time in history, we have a pretty good idea of the material content of the Universe, our position within it and how the whole thing came into being. In these times of exploding knowledge there is a definite need to take stock and assemble what we know in a palatable (受欢迎的) form. 1 The essays in The Scientific American Book of the Cosmos have been selected by David Levy, co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which in 1994 struck Jupiter with the violence of several full-scale nuclear wars. 2 This is certainly a great collection of essays, but it is not, as the book promises, a seamless (完美的，无缝隙的) synthesis of our cunrrent knowledge. Nobody can fault the range of articles Levy has included. There are essays on the planets, moons and assorted debris (碎片) in the Solar System, and on our Galaxy, the Milky Way. 3 The contributors, too, are stars in their own fields. Not many books can boast chapters written by such giants as Erwin Schrodinger and Francis Crick. My personal favorites are a piercingly clear essay by Albert Einstein on general relativity and an article by Alan Guth and Paul Steinhardt on the inflationary (膨胀的) Universe. So much for the book's content. But Levy has not succeeded in providing an accurate synthesis of our current knowledge of the cosmos, which the book jacket promises. Gathering together previously published articles inevitably leaves subject gaps, missing explanations and so on. 4 But there isn't one. In fact, surprisingly for a book so densely packed with information, there is no index. Collecting essays in this way is clearly a good publishing wheeze (巧妙的主意). But this approach shortchanges the public, who would be better served by an account moulded into a seamless whole. 5 However, for the next edition, please, please can we have an index? A. Tegmark fears he may hold the record for the longest time taken to read one book. B. In a more positive vein, this is a wonderful collection of essays to dip in and out of if you already have a good overview (概述) of current cosmic understanding. C. Levy is an active astronomer and an accomplished writer, so you'd expect him to provide a broad and accurate picture of our current understanding of the cosmos. D. Scientific American has attempted to cater to this need by bringing together essays that have appeared in the magazine. E. To some extent, these could have been plugged with a glossary (词表) of terms. F. Also included are contributions on the world of subatomic particles, the origin of life on the Earth and the possibility of its existence elsewhere.
Young adults who are fit have a higher IQ and are more likely to go on to university, reveals a major new study 1 out at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital. The results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study 2 1.2 million Swedish men doing military service who were born between 1950 and 1976. The research group analyzed the 3 of both physical and IQ tests the youngsters took right after they started serving the army. The study shows a clear link 4 good physical fitness and better results for the IQ test. The strongest links are for 5 thinking and verbal comprehension. But it is only fitness that plays a 6 in the results for the IQ test, and not strength. "Being fit means that you also have good heart and lung 7 and that your brain gets plenty of oxygen," says Michael Nilsson, professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy and chief physician at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. "This may be one of the reasons why we can see a clear link with fitness, but not with muscular 8 . We are also seeing that there are growth factors that are important." By analyzing data for twins, the researchers have been 9 to determine that it is primarily environmental factors and not genes that 10 the link between fitness and a higher IQ. "We have also shown that those youngsters who 11 their physical fitness between the ages of 15 and 18 increase their performance," says Mafia berg, researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy and physician at a health centre. "This being the case, physical education is a 12 that has an important place in schools, and is an absolute must 13 we want to do well in math and other theoretical subjects." The researchers have also compared the results from fitness tests during national service 14 the socioeconomic status of the men later in life. Those who were fit at 18 were more 15 to go into higher education, and many secured more qualified jobs.
1.
A.put
B.cut
C.taken
D.carried
A B C D
D
[解析] put out意为“熄灭，出版”，cut out意为“切断，删去”，take out意为“取出，去掉”，carry out意为“实施，执行”，从题意来看，本句所要表达的是“研究所进行了一项研究”，故选D项。
深色：已答题 浅色：未答题