第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）

 阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A,B,C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
A.
 “The Lord of the Rings”, one of the best sellers in the new millennium（千年）, was made up of three parts——“The Fellowship of the Ring”, “Two Towers”, and “The Return of the King”. Millions upon millions of people have read it in over 25 different languages, but fewer know about the author and the history of the composition of the creative materwork.
  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892. His parents died when he was a child. Living in England with his aunt, Tolkien and his cousins made up play languages, a hobby that led to Tolkien’s becoming skilled in Welsh, Greek, Gothic, Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon.
  After graduating from Oxford, Tolkien served in World War I. In 1917, while recovering from trench fever, he began composing the mythology for The Rings. As a professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1930s at Oxford, Tolkien was part of an informal discussion group called the Inklings, which included several writers. The group was soon listening to chapters of Tolkien’s imaginative work “The Hobbit”.
  Hobbit was a name Tolkien created for a local people that could best be described as half-sized members of the English rural（乡村的）class. Hobbits live in hillside holes. One of them, Bilbo Baggins, looks for treasures with a group of dwarves（侏儒）. On the way, he meets the twisted, pitiful creature Gollum, from whom he sees a golden ring that makes the holder invisible.
  One of Tolkien’s students persuaded her employer, publisher Allen & Unwin, to look at a draft（草稿）. The chairman of the firm, Stanley Unwin, thought that the best judge for a children’s book would be his ten-year-old son. The boy earned a shilling for reporting back that the adventure was exciting, and “The Hobbit” was published in 1937.
  It sold so well that Unwin asked for a continuation. Over a dozen years later, in 1954, Tolkien produced “The Lord of the Rings”, a series of books so creative that they hold readers—new and old —after their publication.

56．What can we learn from the text?
    A． “The Lord of the Rings” didn’t sell well in the last millennium.
    B．People know better about Tolkien himself than about his works.
    C．Tolkien was quite familiar with Old English.
    D．Tolkien knew very well about different kinds of local languages in Africa.

57．Which of the following helped most in making “The Hobbit” published?
    A．One of Tolkien’s students.      B．Stanley Unwin’s son.
    C．Allen & Unwin.                   D．Bilbo Baggins.

58．What is mainly discussed in the text?
    A．“The Lord of the Rings” and its writer.
    B．A completely new masterwork in the new millennium.
    C．A famous professor at Oxford University.
    D．The power of the magic ring.

59．Which of the following shows the right order of Mr. J.R.R.Tolkien’s life experience?
    a．He had his “The Hobbit” published.
    b．He became a member of the Inklings.
    c．He served in World WarⅠ
    d．He became an undergraduate at Oxford.
    e．His work “The Lord of the Rings” came to the world.
    f．He moved to England to live with his aunt.
    A．f-d-b-c-a-e                      B．f-d-c-b-a-e        
    C．f-c-d-b-e-a                      D．d-f-c-a-b-e

B.
  The 12-year-old CE0(首席执行官)of a Web sitedesign company will be one of 300 business and political leaders accompanying Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on a trade visit to China in March．
  Keith Peiris，who founded Cyberteks Design in June 1999 and now has 25 clients(客户)in North America，insisted in an interview that he is “ just like any other kid.”
  He and his father will spend nine days on the Team Canada trip to Beijing，shanghai and Hong Kong，where Chretien aims to showcase the best of Canadian business in the most populous country in the world．
  A glance at the complex，elegant animations(动画)on his www.cybertecks.com site shows the extent of Peiris’talent．“He doesn’t want to be No.2,”his father Deepal said proudly．
  His father，who is now vice president of operations at Cyberteks，said，“I am teaching my son what I know．We make decisions together．I haven’t done anything my son disagreed with．He makes the final decision．”
  The company has seven offices in the United States and five part-time employees who，like the Peiris family，work from their London homes．
  Keith Peiris admitted some potential clients change their minds when they learn his age，but the well-in-formed not-yet-teenager tries to ignore them．
  “Suddenly，I’ve been called a whiz kid or geek，which I am not too happy about．A few people have asked if they should call me ‘mister’，but I stay casual, I am still a kid.

60．That Keith Peiris insisted that he is” just like any other kid” shows he is      ．
    A．proud             B．modest            C．honest           D．excited

61．Who makes the final decision on operations at Cyberteks Design?
    A．Keith Peiris      B．Deepal Peiris     C．Jean Chretien    D．Both A and B．

62．According to the information in the passage，w hich is the best and fastest way to know more about the Web giant?
    A．We can go to Canada to pay him a visit．
    B．We can make an international telephone call to him．
    C．We’d better visit his web site-w w w．cyberteks．com．
    D．We can write to his father for the kid’s information．

63．Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
    A．Keith Peiris is a Canadian boy．
    B．All the employees of the child’s company work at home．
    C．The Canadian Prime．Minister means to show off Keith’s success during his stay in China．
    D．Keith always tries his best to be the best in the field of web site designing．

C.
 “I have a regular film camera but I just don’t use it much，” said Ms Lowery，23，a computer programmer．“When I got married last year，I had all these pictures that didn’t come out right．With digital cameras，you aren’t spending money on film for wasted pictures，”she said．
  There are plenty of models from which to choose：from simple $200 point and shoot snappers to $1,000 wonder with all the qualities that any advanced amateur(业余爱好者)could want．The wide selection is a sure sign that in may buyers’ minds，digital cameras have risen from mere gadgets to must-have items．
  Digital cameras 0ffer more than just the instant previewing 0f pictures on small color screens．They can store dozens，sometimes hundreds，of pictures that can be printed easily“ at home or sent by e-mail．Although there are extra costs-the cost of memory cards for storage and the special paper for printing---many buyers have been willing to make the switch．
  Although about 90 percent of American househo1ds still use film cameras，digital cameras are capturing a growing share of the market．And the number of digital camera households，now at about 10 percent，is certain to grow，as producers introduce more and more camera．, whose quality is as good as film cameras．Soon，even professionals will use them．
  Salesmen expect digital cameras to be popular gifts this holiday season．“They are very hot this year，”said Yossi Fogel at B&H Photo in New York．“The prices have come down and the quality has gone up．Who wants to travel with 30 rolls 0f film? With a large memory card to store pictures，you can shoot and shoot and never have to worry about changing a roll．How many times have you missed a picture because you failed to reload the film?”

64．Which of the following is N0T the advantage of the digital camera over the film camera?
    A．The user has to spend additional money for it．
    B．It comes in many models for the customer．
    C．It saves money from unwanted pictures．    
    D．Its pictures can be sent by e-mail．

65．According to this passage，the American household using digital cameras will increased      ．
    A．their producers spend more money
    B．their operation becomes simpler
    C．their salesmen are more friendly
    D．their quality keeps improving

66．Which of the following is NOT TRUE about film camera?
    A．Their pictures can be printed at a photo shop． 
    B．Their pictures can be enlarged as desired．
    C．Their pictures can be seen before they are printed．
    D．Their pictures can be stored for a 1ong time．

67．According to this article，digital cameras nowadays are used mainly by      ．
    A．professionals    B．amateurs    C．housewives   D．students

D.
  Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.
  Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact(交流) and build relationship. These are a few of the recently recognized features of email, say experts, which should cause individuals and organizations to rethink the way they use email.
  “Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits,” says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics(语言学) at an American university. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect(反映) a growing unconcern about the way we write.
  Baron argues that we shouldn’t forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in email. “The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.
  Others say that despite its poor writing, email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.
  “Email is a critical new communication technology.” says Ian Lancashire, a professor of English at Toronto University. “It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”
  Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are usually scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech. “It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says. Still, he accepts that this new-found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble. Emails sent in a day almost exceed(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.

68. From what Baron says in the third paragraph we can see that ________.
    A. careless people use email more than careful people
    B. email requires people to change their native language
    C. professors in universities don’t need to use email
    D. people communicate by email full of mistakes

69. What does the underlined word “it”(in Paragraph 4) refer to?
    A. The poor writing.     B. Email.     C. The good writing.    D. A new communication technology.

70. In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because _______.
    A. it can be useful all over the world
    B. it is the fastest way to communicate
    C. we can express ourselves in a free way
    D. we can save a lot of paper

71. This passage mainly shows us that ______.
    A. people should stop using email to communicate
    B. experts hold different opinions about email writing
    C. Americans only use email to communicate
    D. email makes people lose interest in English

E.
  Some people believe that international sport creates good will between the nations and that if countries play games together they will learn to live together．0thers say that the opposite is true：that international competitions encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred．There is probably some truth in both arguments，but in recent years the 0lympic Games have done little to support the view that sport encourages international brotherhood．Not only was there the tragic incident including the murder of athletes，but the Games were also ruined by incidents caused mainly by smaller national contests．
  0ne country received its second—place medals with visible anger after the hockey(曲棍球)final．There had been noisy scenes the end of the hockey match， the losers objecting to the final decisions．  They were sure that  one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair．Their manager was in great anger when he said：“This wasn’t hockey．Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished．”The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension of the team for at least three years．
  Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals，or in non—national teams，might be too much to hope for．But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages     aggressive patriotism(爱国主义)．

72．According to the author，recent the Olympic Games have      ．
    A．created goodwill between the nations
    B．brought about only false national pride
    C．hardly showed any international friendship
    D．1ed to more and more misunderstanding and hatred

73．What did the manager mean by saying，“Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished”?
    A．His team would no longer take part in international games．
    B．Hockey and the Federation are both ruined by the unfair decisions．
    C．There should be no more Hockey matches organized by the Federation．
    D．The Federation should break up．

74．The author gives the example in paragraph 2 to show      ．
    A．how false national pride led to undesirable incidents in international games
    B．that sportsmen have been more obedient than they used to be
    C．that competitiveness in the games discourage international friendship
    D．that unfair decisions are common in the Olympic games

75．What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?
    A．The organization of the 0lympic Games must be improved．
    B．Athletes should compete as individuals in the Olympic’ Games．
    C．Sport should be played competitively rather than for the love of the game．
    D．More and more athletes will compete for their own honor．