composed by Minujin and the voice of the artist repeating the word “book” in scores of languages.
“Building this tower is really a wonder，” Minujin said, standing before the structure as curious passers-by looked at a downtown city square.“A hundred years from now, people will say‘there was a Tower of Babel in Argentina...and it didn't need translation because art needs no translation'.”
Minujin, who worked with US artist Andy Warhol, built a full-scale mode of the Parthenon in Buenos Aires in 1983, using books banned by the military dictatorship (专政) that ended that year.
This year's book tower marks Buenos Aires' naming as the 2011 World Book Capital by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)．
“We've been laying books for 10 days straight，” said Sebastian Atienza, 26, who works for the company that built the tower under Minujin's command. “But it's worth it. It's where all languages come together.”
When the exhibit ends later this month, Minujin said literature lovers will be allowed to come and pick one book each. The rest will be brought down to start a new archive (档案馆) that has already been named The Library of Babel, the name of a story by Argentina's most famous author, Jorge Luis Borges.
56．According to the passage, the Tower of Babel________. A．is made from 30,000 books from nearly 50 countries B．is designed by American artist Matte Minujin C．will hold the book exhibition for 10 days D．has a height of twenty-five meters
答案：D 细节分析题。从第一段第二句“called the Tower of Babel, the 25-meter high tower...”可知。
57．After the book exhibition, most books will be________. A. handed out among visitors B. donated to UNESCO
C. sent to Argentina's new archive D. bought by Jorge Luis Borges
答案：C 细节分析题。从最后一段第二句“The rest will be brought down to start a new archive(档案馆) that has already been named The Library of Babel”可知。
58．The passage is probably taken from a(n)________． A. advertisement C. textbook
B. tourism guide D. newspaper
答案：D 推理判断题。文章主要讲述了阿根廷的“通天书塔”，材料新颖，很可能出现在报纸上。
B
(2012·稳派教育新课改质检)
My husband and I have always been friendly with the clerks at the local convenience store where we often get gasoline. I don't think people appreciate what a difficult job these folks have sometimes. They work for a little over minimum wage and I often wonder how they make ends meet.
One of the clerks, “Charlie，” was missing her glasses one day. I commented on it and she said they'd been broken and that she couldn't afford a new pair. It was obvious that she was having a difficult time.
We wondered how we could help, so turned to our own eye
doctor for assistance with a plan. We had his secretary contact her, asking her to come in for an eye exam free of charge. We told the doctor to let her order whatever glasses she wanted and that we would pay for them. Although Charlie questioned what was going on, the doctor just told her that someone had anonymously(用匿名的方式) donated the money for her new glasses. When we went in to pay the bill, the doctor told us he was so touched by our idea that he waived the exam fee and only charged us for half the price of the glasses!
It was so wonderful to see Charlie in her new glasses and she enjoyed telling all the regular customers how it came about. I'm sure that upon hearing her story, ideas of kindness may have emerged in the minds of many. She will never know who the gift was from and I hope the idea that good guys really do get a break sometimes was planted for her.
文章大意：本文是一篇记叙文。主要讲述了作者帮助自己常去的便利店中的职员买了一副新眼镜的故事。
59．Why didn't the clerk “Charlie” wear glasses one day? A. A pair of glasses was too expensive for him. B. Her old glasses were broken. C. Her glasses were missing. D. She forgot to wear glasses.
答案：B 细节理解题。根据第二段第二句中的“I commented on it and she said they'd been broken...”可知，B项是正确的。
60．From the passage, we can infer that________. A．Charlie was a young man
B．Charlie knew who donated money for the new glasses
C．the Charlie's income was very little D．Charlie must be near-sighted
答案：C 推理判断题。根据第一段第三句的“They work for a little over minimum wage and I often wonder how they make ends meet.”可知，Charlie作为该便利店的一员，工资只能比最低收入多一点。故C项是正确的。而D项文中并未提及，故排除；根据第三段的“...asking her to come in for an eye exam free of charge.”可知，Charlie是女性，故A项错；由最后一段的“She will never know who the gift was from...”可知，B项也不对。
61．The underlined word “waived” in the third paragraph can be replaced by________.
A. gave up C. cut down
B. took up D. put off
答案：A 词义猜测题。根据下文的“...and only charged us for half the price of the glasses！”可知，医生因我们的行为而备受感动，因此没有索要检查费并且仅向我们要了眼镜的一半的费用。故可知A项正确。短语give up“放弃”；take up“从事，占据”；cut down“削减”；put off“推迟”。
62．The best title of the passage should be________. A. The Wonderful Feeling of Helping Others B. Customer's Gift to an Employee C. A Friendly Clerk—Charlie D. A New Pair of Glasses
答案：B 主旨大意题。本文主要讲述了一位常去当地便利店的顾客看到一位职员眼镜坏了，却买不起一副新的眼镜，从而产生要帮助她的想法。并通过自己眼科医生的帮助给这位职员买了一副新的眼
镜的故事。故选B项。
C
(2012·泸州一诊)
A dead six-ton satellite passed over the West Coast and near Auckland before burning up over a remote area of the Pacific Ocean, Nasa maps show.
The 20-year-old Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) dropped about 24 pieces of metal debris (碎片) over 800 km as it entered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday.
Nasa data tracks its descent (下落) from above the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa to the Pacific Ocean at 14.1 degrees south latitude and 189.8 degrees east longitude.
New Zealand was the only major land mass on its re-entry path. Nasa says satellite debris scattered (撒落) over the south Pacific Ocean about as far away from large land masses as you can get.It says the US Air Force calculated the satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa.But pieces of it did not start hitting the water for another 480 kilometers to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island.Experts believe the metal pieces fell over an 800-kilometre span.
On Saturday, scientists said it was possible some pieces could have reached northwestern Canada, but Nasa said overnight that new calculations show it landed earlier than they thought, nowhere near North America.
Nick Johnson, Nasa's chief scientist for orbital debris, said the satellite had descended “well within” the range predicted (预测) by the Joint Space Operations Center (JSOC)．“This was not an easy re-entry to predict because of the natural forces acting on the satellite