Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
I received a request from Hawaii. A vision-harmed woman whose husband was sensitive to dog hair, had written to our centre with the hope that we had an allergy-free (不引起过敏的) guide-dog.
\of cake,\I thought. The standard poodle (狮子狗), a trainable working dog with tightly curled furs, was probably the most suitable breed. Although our centre bred and used Labradors (拉布拉多狗) , I did not anticipate any difficulties in finding a suitable poodle.
It turned out that reality never comes along with my best hopes. In desperation, I decided to cross-breed a standard poodle with one of our best-producing Labradors. The mating was successful, but it produced only three puppies. We sent coat of each puppy to the Hawaiian couple and the husband found one that was allergy-free. At last we were getting somewhere, but a big job lay ahead. The puppy had to grow up and prove suitable for guiding before it went to be compatible with the vision-impaired client. We had a long way to go.
With a three to six-month waiting list for people wishing to get our puppies, I was sure that we would have no problem placing our three new crossbred puppies with a family. But I was wrong again. It seemed that no one wanted a crossbred puppy and the customers only have their eyes laid on pure breeds regarding half-blooded something as a inferior kind. Time was running out as the puppies needed to be placed in homes and socialize. Otherwise they would miss the chance to become guide dogs. In order to attract people to adopt the puppies, I stopped calling them \
During the weeks that followed, our centre was inundated with calls from excited people. The publicity of the new designer dogs went national, and then international. With such an overwhelming response, I knew we were successful and I continued training sultan, the original non-allergy puppy. He eventually went to Hawaii, amid intense coverage, where as the world's first Labradoodle, he bonded beautifully with his new owner and her allergic husband. 65. Why did the author cross-breed a new kind of dog?
A. Because he works with dogs and tries to do research on dogs. B. Because he failed to find a suitable dog for the client in Hawaii. C. Because he wanted to produce a kind of designer dog. D. Because the cross-breeds are all proved to be allergy-free
66. Why weren't customers interested in the three new puppies at beginning? A. Because they were designed mainly for vision-impaired customers. B. Because customers don't believe they can work well as guide dogs. C. Because they look down upon cross-bred dogs.
D. Because these dogs are too expensive and hard to raise. 67. How did the author do to change the customers' attitude? A. He produced a kind of designer dog. B. He invited media to report on the dogs. C. He made up a new name for the dogs.
D. He asked the Hawaii couple to adopt one dog as an example.
68. Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
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A. The Hawaii couple need a trained guide dog which is allergy-free B. All puppies had to be trained before they became guide dogs.
C. If puppies can't have contact with people they will become allergic dogs. D. Sultan finally worked well with the Hawaii couple.
(B)
You may read the questions first: Here is the top stories for today from our magazine! It's long been established belief in international development circles that diesel engines are the most cost-effective tools for pumping water and powering villages. But Robert Freling has been turning that belief on its head. Despite the temporary gains or loss, Freling has proven that solar power can be more economical than internal diesel engines, if the cost-benefit study looks beyond the short term. Crocodiles may be the world's champion chompers, killing with the greatest bite force ever directly measured for living animals, a new study says. In fact, their bite forces may rival that of mighty T. rex. Paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson and colleagues put all 23 living crocodilian species through an unprecedented bite test. The \—saltwater crocodiles—slammed their jaws shut with 3,700 pounds per square inch (psi), or 16,460 newtons, of bite force. A previously unknown type of human—jawed, heavy-browed, deer-eating cave dwellers—may have been identified via Stone Age hones from southern China, according to a controversial new study. The \that existed alongside our own as recently as 11,500 years ago, according to a team of Chinese and Australian researchers. This Thursday evening, look to the western skies as Jupiter and Venus—the two brightest planets to the unaided eye—stage a close encounter over the Northern Hemisphere. Though the two planets will appear to converge all this week, they'll be at their closest distance March 15—separated by only 3 degrees in the sky, or the width of two fingers at arms' length.
69. It is implied in the first story that ________. A. diesel engine is most effective in saving costs
B. Robert Freling has long believing in the great benefits of diesel engine C. solar power is most economical in all situations
D. internal diesel engines could be more economical on the short-term basis 70. The fourth story tells the readers that ________.
A. two planets are to come to positions of shortest distance on March 15 B. Jupiter and Venus will crash into each other this Thursday evening C. the two planets will be separated by two fingers on March 15
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D. the two planets can't be seen through human eyes
71. The most probable magazine where these stories appear is . A. Space Exploration B. National Geographic C. Animal World D. Catwalk Fashion
(C)
Research on embryonic stem cells (胚胎干细胞) is debatable because it requires the destruction of live human embryos.
Supporters find it easy to minimize the significance of this fact because the embryos are only a few days old—nothing more than ''blastocysts (胚泡)\
But if it's OK to destroy 5-day-old embryos to further scientific inquiry, is it OK to destroy embryos that are five weeks old? Five months? Eight months? Science can't answer that question.
You don't have to be part of the pro-life group to have concerns about this kind of scientific inquiry. James Thomson, the University of Wisconsin biologist has said, \human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough.\
Recently, supporters of embryonic stem cell research called on president to allow experiments using ?surplus (多余的)? fifty frozen embryos in fertility clinics, arguing that they would be disposed of anyway. But Obama didn't limit his new policy to these fertilized eggs.
On the contrary, he left open the possibility of funding studies using embryos created specifically so their cells can be harvested. He did, however, reject another option. \will —ensure,\he said, \our government never open the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society, or any society.\
But this position is hard to square with his professed (声称的) approach. On one hand, the president says his policy is \he will use pressure to keep them from doing reproductive cloning.
What this policy means is simple: It may be permissible for scientists to create cloned embryos and kill them. It's not permissible to create cloned embryos and let them live. Their cells may be used for our benefit, but not for their own.
It's the policy that is risky not just to days-old human embryos. The rest of us are sure to receive important medical benefits from this research one day. But we may lose something even more important in a moral sense. ,
72. It's implied in the fourth paragraph that pro-life group ________. A. support the research on embryonic stem cells B. don't agree with any kind of scientific research C. agree with James Thomson's opinion
D. rarely think of the consequences of embryonic stem cell research
73. The underlined phrase \A. find a square tool for B. be in line with C. quarrel with D. pay off
74. Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The author thinks there's a big difference between a 5-day embryo and a 8-month embryo. B. In Obama's policy, embryonic researchers can only use surplus embryos in fertility clinics. C. President Obama hasn't expressed his attitude toward human reproductive cloning.
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D. The Research on embryonic stem cells may bring people great medical benefits in the future. 75. The author thinks the policy is worrying in that . A. scientists are not really working without pressure
B. ban on human cloning is on the long run harmful to human development C. the research is against the law
D. we may suffer morally for the research
Section C
Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from the list A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need. A. State policies concerning pension (退休金). B. The city bankruptcy process. C. The reasons for Stockton's possible bankruptcy. D. The possible breakdown of pension system. E. The ever-growing burdens on city pension. F. The scale of city pension and its management 76. When the city manager of troubled Stockton, California, had to tell city council members why it was on track to become the biggest American city yet to go bankrupt (破产), it took hours to get through the list. There was the free health care for retirees, the unpaid parking tickets, the revenue bonds without enough revenue to pay them. On it went, a grim drumbeat of practically every fiscal malady imaginable, except an obvious one: municipal pensions. 77. Stockton is spending some $30 million a year to pay for them, but it has less than 70 cents set aside for every dollar of benefits its workers expect. Some public pension experts think they know why pensions were not on the city manager's list. They see the hidden hand of California's giant state pension system, known as Calpers, which administers hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement obligations for municipalities across the state. 78 78. Calpers does not want cities like Stockton going back on their promises, and it argues that the state law bars any reduction in pensions — and not just for people who have already retired. State law also forbids cuts in the pensions that today's public workers expect to earn in the future, Calpers says, even in cases of severe financial distress. Workers at companies have no comparable protection. 79. As the United States population ages and more and more public workers qualify for retirement,, the cost of their pensions is growing fast, turning into a major drag on many local governments' finances. The pension contributions that cities must make every year are rising, but their revenue, which often depends on property taxes, is not keeping up. Taxed-out residents, many of whom have lost their own pensions in the private sector, are unwilling to pay more. 80. Now Stockton is in the midst of a mediation process with its creditors that will determine by ______________________________________________________________
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the end of June whether it will file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, which would allow the city to negotiate reductions in its debt in court. For Calpers, the prospect of a California city bankruptcy indicates a potential failure of its pension system. Such a challenge could blow an unsustainable hole in what experts consider pension protection which used to be most airtight. The Calpers is now awaiting a vague future.
Section D
Directions: Read the passage carefully. Then answer the questions or complete the statements in the fewest possible words.
A commercial transaction, in its simplest form, involves a customer paying for goods or services. But these days, that is just the first step. Businesses want your opinion of them, too, and their requests for feedback now seem to come with every purchase.
Prime reason for the trend is that software companies like SurveyGizmo and QuestionPro have made it possible for small companies to create customer surveys at a small part of the cost of traditional surveys. Out of desperate thirst to lock in customer loyalty, businesses of all sizes see surveys as a window into the emotional world of their customers which serve like a database that will offer guidance in that field.
Consumer patience may be fraying with the surveys. The constant bothering has led to a condition known as survey tiredness and falling response rates. The declines can be reasoned from two angles. The frequent requests with no incentives (奖励) just have people stop doing it. In the old days, you felt as though you had been selected to represent the community. But this is the information age, and people know their information is worth something.
Another reason sticks with the survey itself. Many businesses, often against the advice of the experts they have hired to construct their surveys, cannot resist the temptation to ask, ask and ask yet again. Angry consumers, assured that it will take only five minutes, often complain that they approach the 10-minute mark on a survey which have too many items.
To fight survey tiredness, companies are pressing consumers with renewed material urge. On their register receipts, stores like Walmart include a Web address and an invitation to fill out a survey, with the chance to win a prize. At Staples, the prize is a $5,000 store card. In the auto industry, which tries to measure customer satisfaction at every possible stage, from the first tentative Web search to the last service visit, surveys will finally fall into performance assessment on staff of different levels. No wonder dealers sometimes throw in a free tank of gas or a free oil change as a quid pro quo to get a favorable review in their dealership's satisfaction survey.
(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS.) 81. Why do all companies want to know about customers' feelings?
82. Two reasons for customers' dislike to fill out surveys are ________.
83. To raise customers' interest, companies provide _________.
84. What makes car dealers bribe customers while doing surveys?
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