CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET.

     In 1575, the French scholar Louis LeRoy published a learned book in which he voiced despair over the changes caused by the social and technological innovations of his time, what we now call the Renaissance. We also feel that our times are out of order; we even have reason to believe that our descendants will be worse off than we are.
     The earth will soon be overcrowded and its resources exhausted. Pollution will ruin the environment, upset the climate, and damage human health. The gap in living standards between the rich and the poor will widen and lead the angry, hungry people of the world to acts of desperation including the use of nuclear weapons as blackmail. Such are the inevitable consequences of population and technological growth if present trends continue.
     The future is never a projection（投射）of the past. Animals probably have no chance to escape the tyranny of biological evolution,  but human beings are blessed with the freedom of social evolution. For us, trend is not destiny. The escape from existing trends is now facilitated by the fact that societies anticipate future dangers and take preventive steps against expected changes.
     Despite the widespread belief that the world has become too complex for comprehension by the human brain, modern societies have often responded effectively to critical situations. The decrease in birth rates, the partial prohibition of pesticides and the rethinking of technologies of the production and use of energy are but a few examples illustrating a sudden reversal of trends caused not by political upsets or scientific breakthroughs, but by public awareness of consequences.
     Even more striking are the situations in which social attitudes concerning future difficulties undergo rapid changes before the problems have arisen. There have been the heated arguments about the problems of behavior control and of genetic engineering, even though these is as yet no proof that effective methods can be developed to manipulate behavior and genes a population scale.
     One of the characteristics of our times is thus the rapidity with which steps can be taken to change the orientation of certain trends and even to reverse them. Such changes usually emerge from grassroots movements rather than from official directives.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     Every body gets sick. Disease and injury make us suffer throughout our lives, until finally some attack on the body brings our existence to an end. Fortunately, most of us in modern industrialized societies can take relatively good health for granted most of the time. In fact, we tend to fully realize the importance of good health only when we or those close to us become seriously ill. At such times we keenly appreciate the ancient truth that health is our most precious asset, one for which we might readily give up such rewards as power, wealth, or fame.
     Because ill health is a universal problem, affecting the individual and society, the human response to sickness is always socially organized. No society leaves the responsibility for maintaining health and treating ill health entirely to the individual. Each society develops its own concepts of health and sickness and authorizes certain people to decide who is sick and how the sick should be treated. Around this focus there arises, over time, a number of standards, values, groups, statuses, and roles: in other words, an institution. To the sociologist, then, medicine is the institution concerned with the maintenance of health and treatment of disease.
     In the simplest pre-industrial societies, medicine is usually an aspect of religion. The social arrangements for dealing with sickness are very elementary, often involving only two roles: the sick and the healer （治疗者）. The latter is typically also the priest, who relies primarily on religious ceremonies, both to identify and to treat disease: for example, bones may be thrown to establish a cause; songs may be used to bring about a cure. In modern industrialized societies, on the other hand, the institution has become highly complicated and specialized, including dozens of roles such as those of brain surgeon, druggist, hospital administrator, linked with various organizations such as nursing homes, insurance companies, and medical schools. Medicine, in fact, has become the subject of intense sociological interest precisely because it is now one of the most pervasive and costly institutions of modern society.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and choose the corresponding letter. 

     The City of Melton has been awarded the UNESCO（联合国教科文组织）Learning City Award at UNESCO's 2nd International Conference on Learning Cities hosted by Mexico in September, 2015. The award was given in recognition of the City of Melton’s efforts to develop a learning city and implement the UNESCO Key Features of Learning Cities through its Community Learning Plan. 

     Melton City Council Mayor, Ms. Sophie Ramsey was proud to accept the award on behalf of the City of Melton. "It is a huge honour to receive the UNESCO Learning City Award and the fact that the City of Melton was selected as one of the case studies along with much larger cities such as Beijing, is evidence of the innovative work being done in Melton,’’the Mayor said.
     The UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning launched its publication, "Unlocking the Potential of Urban Communities: Case Studies of Twelve Learning Cities” at the conference. The first-of-its-kind publication highlights examples of cities from all over the world that use the learning city approach to enhance citizens’ individual empowerment （权力）, social combination, economic development, cultural prosperity and sustainable development.
     At the conference, Ms. Ramsey participated in a strategic forum of mayors from around the world. Ms. Ramsey emphasized the benefits of developing relationships internationally, highlighting the great potential for the City of Melton to attract and engage in international business delegations, education, cultural and knowledge exchanges.
     "We live in a global economy and we not only have a responsibility to provide opportunities for our residents，but to also be good global citizens,” she said. “The City of Melton is experiencing some of the fastest urban growth in the country, and with growth comes opportunity. Due to its growing international reputation for work in this area, Melton City Council was invited to be one of the conference presenters. While at the conference, the Mayor was also elected by the delegates to chair a committee of experts to draft the UNESCO Statement on Sustainable Learning Cities. This invitation which was later approved by the 600 plus delegates from over 90 nations participating in the conference reflected very positively on the Council's standing within the international learning community and was a significant honour for both the Council and the Mayor.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     The Nile made Egypt’s civilization possible. The river is more than 400 miles long. In its fertile valley crops are grown for food and cotton for clothing. Mud from the river bottom makes good bricks for houses. Thus ways of getting food, clothing and shelter were close for the Egyptians.
     The Nile is a highway for the people of Egypt. Flat bottomed boats and large narrow barges carry products from one city to another. There are also passenger boats on the Nile, carrying people up and down the river. In ancient times huge blocks of stones were floated down the river on barges. These stones are used in making buildings and monuments.
     For thousands of years the Egyptians have depended on the Nile for their crops. The land on both sides of the Nile is desert, where crops cannot be raised. But crops grow well in the Nile Valley. In fact, several different crops are often grown on the same land during the same year.
     Once the Nile flooded each year, overflowed its banks, and carried rich soil in land every summer. These floods were caused by early summer rains.
     At present there is a series of dams in the Nile. Water raises high in the river each summer as usual. The people do not let the Nile flood, however. They store the water behind dams. It is now possible to use the water as needed, not just at flood time.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     A major aspect of psychology called behaviorism developed from research on learning. It was introduced in 1913 by the American psychologist John B. Watson, who felt psychologists should study observable behavior rather than states of consciousness or thought processes. He believed changes in behavior result from conditioning, a learning process in which a new response becomes associated with a certain stimulus.
     Watson's approach to behaviorism was strongly influenced by the research of the Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov during the early 1900s. Pavlov's experiments with animals proved that certain reflex actions can become conditioned responses to entirely new stimuli. For example, a dog's mouth begins to water as a reflex when the animal smells meat. Pavlov rang a bell each time he was about to give meat to a dog. Eventually, the dog's mouth began to water when Pavlov merely rang the bell. The flow of saliva had become a conditioned response to the ringing of the bell.
     Watson demonstrated that responses of human beings could be conditioned in a similar manner. In an experiment, he struck a metal bar loudly each time an infant touched a furry animal. The sound scared the child, who in time became frightened by the mere sight of the animal. Watson felt he could produce almost any response in a child if he were able to control the child's environment.
     During the mid-1900s, the American behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner became known for his studies of how rewards and punishments can influence behavior. He believed that rewards, or positive reinforcements, cause behavior to be repeated. Positive reinforcements might include praise, food, or simply a person's satisfaction with his or her own skill. Punishments discourage certain behavior and warn people to avoid situations in which they might be punished. Skinner conclude that positive reinforcement is more effective in teaching new and better behaviors. His work led to the development of teaching machines, which are based on positive reinforcement.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET.

     Whether it is out or necessity or by choice, for most of us there are periods when much of what we do does not afford us satisfaction. Many students never enjoy exam period; and even in the most engaging workplaces, some projects are less interesting than others.
     Research shows that pursuing self-satisfying goals--engaging in activities that are meaningful and pleasurable--impacts our experience in other areas that are not directly related to these activities. Meaningful and pleasurable activities can function like a candle in a dark room, and just as it takes a small flame or two to light up an entire physical space, one or two happy experiences during an otherwise uninspiring period can transform our general state and rejuvenate us. I call these brief but transforming experiences happiness boosters--activities, lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, that provide us with both meaning and pleasure, both present and future benefit.
     Happiness boosters can inspire and invigorate us, acting as both a motivation pull and a motivation push. For a single parent, a happiness booster in the form of a meaningful outing with her children over the weekend can change her overall experience of life, including the hours spent at work. The outing can motivate her and pull her through the week, giving her something to look forward to when she gets up for work in the morning. The same happiness booster can then energize her, providing her with the push she needs by recharging her motivational stores for the following week.
     Ideally, we want our entire day to be filled with happy experiences. This kind of life is not always attainable, though, and it might be that we need to wait until evenings or weekends to pursue activities that provide present and future benefit. One of the common mistakes people make is that in their free time they choose passive pleasure-seeking over an active pursuit of happiness. At the end of a hard day at work or in school, they opt to do nothing but sit around in front of the television screen rather than engage in activities that are both meaningful and pleasurable.

CAREFUL READING

Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer.

     Central Park, emerging from a period of abuse and neglect, remains one of the most popular attractions in New York City, with half a million out-of-towners among the more than 3 million people who visit the park yearly. About 15 million individual visits are made each year.
     Summer is the season for softball, concerts and Shakespeare; fall is sunning; winter is wonderful for sledding, skating and skiing; and springtime is the loveliest of all. It was all planned that way.
     About 130 years ago Frederic Olmsted and his collaborator Calvert Vaux submitted their landscaping plan for a rectangular parcel two miles north of the town's center. The barren swamp was reported as “a spot where miasmic (瘴气的) odors pollute every breath of air." It took 16 years for workers with pickaxe and shovels to move 5 million cubic feet of earth and rock, and to plant half a million trees and shrubs, making a tribute to nature—a romantic 19th-century perception of nature.
     What exists today is essentially Olmsted and Vaux's plan, with more trees, buildings and roads. Landscape architects still speak reverently of Olmsted's genius and foresight, and the sensitive visitor can see the effects he sought.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and choose the corresponding letter. 

     It is difficult to form a correct idea of a desert without having seen one. It is a vast plain of sands and stones, with mountains here and there of various sizes and heights, without roads or shelters. They sometimes have springs of water. The most remarkable of deserts is the Sahara. This is a vast plain, but little elevated above the level of the ocean, and covered with sand and gravel（砂烁）, with a mixture of sea shells. 

     Amid the desert, there are springs of water, which burst forth and create verdant（翠绿的） spots, called oases. There are thirty-two of these which contain fountains, and date and palm trees; twenty of them are inhabited. They serve as stopping places for the caravans, and often contain villages. Were it not for these, no human being could cross this waste of burning sand. So violent, sometimes, is the burning wind that the scorching（灼热的）heat dries up the water of these springs, and then frequently, the most disastrous consequences follow. 

     In 1805, a caravan consisting of 2,000 persons and 1,800 camels, not finding water at the usual resting place, died of thirst, both men and animals. Storms of wind are more terrible in this desert than on the ocean. Vast surges and clouds of red sand are raised and rolled forward, burying everything in there and it is said that whole tribes have thus been swallowed up.
     The situation of such is dreadful, and admits of no resource. Many die and become victims of the most horrible thirst. It is then that the value of a cup of water is really felt. To be thirsty in a desert, without water, exposed to the burning sun, without shelter, is the most terrible situation a human being can be placed in.
     If, unfortunately, any one falls sick on the road, he or she must either endure the fatigue of traveling on a camel, which is troublesome even to healthy people, or he or she must be left behind on the sand, without any assistance, and remain so until a slow death comes to relieve him or her.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET.

     Sleep plays a major role in preparing the body for an alert and productive tomorrow. But sleep is not a period of inactivity. The sleeping brain is highly active at various times during the night, performing numerous “house keeping tasks”. These keep us alive and aid our ability to think and remember. Sleep also energizes the body and brain. Most people spend one-third of their lives sleeping and this will affect the other two-thirds in terms of alertness, energy, moods, body weight, perception, memory, thinking, reaction time, productivity and performance.
     To limit sleep means our health and daytime potential are significantly reduced. So, good sleep strategies are essential in order to feel energized day after day. There is no strategy which works for everyone, so each person needs to experiment. One important thing is that you shouldn’t worry too much if you go a few nights without a lot of sleep. It won’t ruin your life. On any given night, one in four people can’t sleep properly and everyone suffers from a lack of sleep at some time.
     How does one minimize this problem? It is really quite simple. The first thing you must do is to reduce stress as much as possible. Stress is part of everyday life and, while we can never be entirely without stress, it can be managed. This means taking control of your life and focusing on what is important. One sleeping strategy is to sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and relax all your muscles, breathing easily through your nose. Continue this for ten to twenty minutes. This should help you reduce stress and sleep better. Or, you can try getting plenty of exercise, because a tired body is likely to sleep better.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET. 

     English people are less genetically diverse today than they were in the days of the Vikings, possibly due to two deadly diseases that swept their country centuries ago, a new study says.
     The study compared DNA from ancient and modern Englanders and found that the country has a smaller gene pool than it did a thousand years ago.
     The findings come in contrast to modern England’s reputation as a cultural melting pot, where in many major cities you are as likely to hear Urdu from India or Yoruba from Nigeria being spoken on the streets as English.
     Rus Hoelzel, a geneticist from the Britain’s University of Durham, and his colleagues obtained DNA samples from the skeletal remains of 48 ancient Britons who lived between A. D. 300 and 1000. The researchers studied the DNA, which was passed down from mothers to their children. By comparing the DNA with that of thousands of people from various ethnic backgrounds living in England today, they found that genetic diversity was greater in the ancient population. The team also compared the ancient DNA with samples from people living in continental Europe and the Middle East, and found a similar lack of genetic variety.
     One possible explanation for this narrowing of diversity might be two major outbreaks of plague that swept England and much of Europe — the Black Death (1347 — 1351) and the Great Plague (1665 — 1666).
     The Black Death epidemic is estimated to have killed as much as 50 percent of the population of Europe. Three centuries later, a fifth of the population of London died in the Great Plague. However, these diseases didn’t kill randomly, Hoelzel explained. “The plague killed some people while others remained resistant,” he said.
     Eske Willerslev, a specialist in ancient DNA from the University of Copenhagen, said he is surprised by the findings but agrees that the historic epidemics may explain the loss in diversity.
     Since the diseases, it appears that England hasn’t been able to make up the loss to the gene pool, despite the high rate of immigration into the country over the past 200 years.

II. SPEED READING Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET.

            Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. And whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been more pleasant.
The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. In most work success is measured by income, and while the capitalistic society continues, this is inevitable. It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can procure. However dull work may be, it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation, whether in the world at large or only in one's own circle. Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run, and for most men this comes chiefly through their work. In this respect those women whose lives are occupied with housework are much less fortunate than men, or than women who work outside the home. The domesticated wife does not receive wages, has no means of bettering herself, is taken for granted by her husband (who sees practically nothing of what she does), and is valued by him not for her housework but for quite other qualities. Of course this does not apply to those women who are sufficiently well-to-do to make beautiful houses and beautiful gardens and become the envy of their neighbors; but such women are comparatively few. For the great majority, housework cannot bring as much satisfaction as work of other kinds brings to men and to professional women.
         The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet, however modest, for ambition, belongs to most work, and is sufficient to make even a man whose work is dull happier on the average than a man who has no work at all. But when work is interesting, it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from tedium. The kinds of work in which there is some interest may be arranged in a hierarchy.

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer.

     Alcatraz Island, sometimes referred to as the Rock, is a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. It served as a lighthouse, then a military fortification (要塞), then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963. It became a national recreation area in 1972. Today, the island is a historic site operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tourists.
     The first Spaniard to discover the island was Juan Manuel de Ayala in 1775, and the earliest recorded owner of the island of Alcatraz is Julian Workman, to whom it was given by Mexican governor Pio Pico in June 1846 with the understanding that the former would build a lighthouse on it. Later that same year John C. Fremont bought the island for $5,000 in the name of the United States government. When California became part of the United States in 1848, the U.S. Army used the island as a military camp for the protection of San Francisco Bay. Later, the army decided to turn it into the site of detention (拘禁), a task for which it was well suited because of its isolation. In 1867 a brick jailhouse was built, and in 1868 Alcatraz was officially designated a long-term detention facility for military prisoners. On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Western US Military Prison.
     Due to its isolation from the outside by the cold, strong, dangerous currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz was used to house Civil War prisoners as early as 1861. In 1898, the Spanish-American war would increase the prison population from 26 to over 450. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz for safe confinement. By 1912 there was a large cellhouse, and in the 1920s a large 3-story structure was nearly at full capacity. The island became a federal prison in August 1934. During the 29 years it was in use, the jail held such notable criminals as A1 Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (the Birdman of Alcatraz), James Bulger and Alvin Katpis, who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate. It also provided housing for the Bureau of Prison staff and their families, and no prisoner had ever successfully escaped from the island.

SPEED READING

Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer.

          Many editors and writers today define flash fiction as a story ranging from a few words to not usually over 1,500 to 2,000 words (but more often less than 1,000 words). A traditional short story ranges from 3,000 to 20,000 words, so flash fiction is considerably shorter. However, while length can help identify flash fiction, it is of little use in actually defining it.
        The amorphous and variable quality of flash fiction allows for the constant changing of shapes as these stories draw and develop from various genres and traditions to create stand-alone stories that often work on their own terms. Countless writers are involved in writing flash fiction in various ways. Many are involved in following the form's long tradition, and many others are reinventing the form as they continue to experiment with the boundaries and methods of fiction. These shortest of stories are not always diversions for the moment but are often stories that are profound and memorable—as good fiction of longer lengths can be.
        Charles Baxter notes in the introduction to Sudden Fiction International: 60 Short Short Stories, “This form is not about to be summarized by anyone's ideas about it. The stories are on so many various thresholds: they are between poetry and fiction, the story and the sketch, prophecy and reminiscence, the personal and the crowd. As a form, they are open, and exist in a state of potential.”
         Some names for flash fiction are chosen to stress brevity, suggesting that such stories can be read or even written in a flash. Other names are chosen to emphasize the way in which the stories affect and enlighten readers. And still other names are chosen for the way in which they cause readers to perform the act of reading, many times forcing them to slow down and read such pieces as slowly and carefully as they would read good poetry.
         Even though this type of writing travels by several names, flash fiction has become the most popular label, likely because of its snappy poetic consonance, which makes it easy to hold in memory, and because of its distance from the older, less descriptive term “short-shorts”. More and more writers, editors, and readers use “flash fiction” to refer to very short stories.

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages and then decide on the best answer.

      I love the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, especially the magic of the 1971 original starring Gene Wilder. It's a wonderful tale of dreams coming true. I've watched it many times. One part of it always makes me feel good about life itself. In fact it has even been an inspiration for me to travel the world.
     Do you remember when Charlie is telling Grandpa George that he's won a golden ticket to visit the Wonka chocolate factory? He is so excited but then pauses for a moment to remember that their family is very poor. He's a good boy and wants to do the right thing. But when he suggests that they could sell the ticket to earn some money, Grandpa George will have none of it! He's even more excited than Charlie and tells the boy
     "There’s plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But there are only five of the tickets in the whole world. Only a dummy give this up for something as commons money. Get that mud off your pants, he says with excitement " You've got a factory to go to!"
     What great words! With his years of wisdom, he's saying that in his hand he's holding a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is the moment to do something extraordinary and quite possibly life-changing. There's plenty of money in the world but even all of it won’t equal this experience.
     And so it is with travel. I quickly recognized the truth in the saying “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.” Wealth is not only defined by our bank balance; it is also in so many other aspects of our life such as unique experiences far from home. Even a treasured photograph or the pride and satisfaction of being able to say “yes, I’ve been there”can be priceless.
     In our lives, a golden Wonka ticket is simply the opportunity to do something. If you want to travel and see the world, then embrace the excitement of Grandpa George. Don't worry about the money it's going to cost. You'll be able to earn some later.
     So, do you have the golden ticket of opportunity? If you do then get that mud off your pants because you've got a world to explore! Twenty years from now you'll have only regret if you don't.

​

Ⅲ.SKIMMING AND SCANNING
In this part there is one reading passage followed by 3 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 answers marked [A],[B],[C]and[D].Skim or scan the passages, then decide on the best answer and write it on the ANSWER SHEET.

                                                                                                     Page
PREFACE                                                                                          1
INTRODUCTION                                                                               5
The Search of American Character
by Luther S. Luedtke                                                                          35
PART ONE
Building a Nation
1.America's Natural Landscapes                                                         43
by Pierce Lewis
2.From Immigration to Acculturation                                                   68
by Arthur Mann
3.The Frontier Family: Dislocation and the American Experience             81
by Lillian Schlissel
4.A Consonance of Towns                                                                   91
by Richard Lingeman
5.Urban America                                                                               105
by Sam Bass Warner, Jr.
6.Cultural Regions of America                                                             121
by Raymond D. Gastil

PART TWO                                                                                       135
Expressions of American Culture
1.American Manners                                                                           140
by Neil Harris
2.The Artlessness of American Culture                                                  153
by Dickran Tashjian
3.A New Architecture, Yet Old                                                              165
by Leland M. Roth
4.Literature and Values: The American Crusoe and the Idea of the West  177
by Richard Lehan
5.Entertainment and the Mass Media                                                   190
by Norman Corwin  
6.Sports and American Culture                                                             207

by Richard G. Powers ​

Ⅲ.SKIMMING AND SCANNING
In this part there is one reading passage followed by 4 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 answers marked [A],[B],[C]and[D].Skim or scan the passages, then decide on the best answer and write it on the ANSWER SHEET.

     The effort to develop gene (基因) transplants as a treatment for hereditary (遗传的) diseases has taken another step forward.
     An American team has developed a highly efficient technique to carry out gene transplants in mice. Eventually, scientists hope to be able to use the technique in man to replace the defective genes responsible for diseases such as hemophilia and cystic fibrosis.
     The latest feat in the drive towards performing a gene transplant on man was reported by doctors Suzanne Mansour, Kirk Thomas and Mario Capecchi of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Salt Lake City.
     “It is a breakthrough, producing a new approach to doing gene therapy,”said Dr Capecchi.
     Previous attempts at inserting new genes into the chromosome, the bady's genetic blueprint, have had only limited success.
     A British team has found a way to persuade a transplanted gene to work by the discovery of special genetic material that “switches on”the gene, wherever it is inserted in a cell's genetic material.
     But a misplaced gene may affect the operation of other genes, disrupting the operation of the cell and leading to cancer in rare cases.
     Now the Utah team has developed a procedure in which the cell self-destructs if a new gene is not properly inserted. Their transplant gene contains a toxic component that produces poison in the cell if the gene is misplaced.
     The gene transplant was successful for one in 20 cells. Thousands of cells had to be screened when other methods were carried out, said Dr Thomas.
     The transplants were carried out on mouse embryo (胚胎) stem cells, the progenitors (祖先) of a number of cells in mice.
     They can be used to identify the function of genes and create mice with human genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis to help research into cures.

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer.

     The first books were quite different from the books of today. They were made of baked clay tablets. Some of these tablets that have been found were used in Mesopotamia about fifty-five hundred years ago. The people of that time used symbols to represent their language. When the clay was soft, the symbols were written in the clay. After the tablets were baked, the clay hardened and the messages were permanently preserved. Most of the tablets that have been found are business records, such as deeds to certain lands in the area.
     The Egyptians found a material that was more convenient to write on than clay. They used the bark of the papyrus, a grassy plant that grows wild in the Nile Valley. They pasted layers of this bark together to make long sheets—sometimes over 100 feet long. A wooden roller was attached to each end of the sheet so that a small portion could be read, and then the papyrus could be rolled up a little to reveal a new portion of writing. Because this method was employed, the Egyptian writing was done in columns, reading from top to bottom.
     For centuries, this type of book was used in Greece, Egypt, China and Rome. The Romans made roll books of vellum, a soft parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs, kids or calves. About 300 A.D. a new type of book was developed: three or four sheets of vellum were folded and sewn together. Then the ends were cut so that the pages could be turned.
     The Chinese began printing books during the Middle Ages, long before the Europeans. Their printing type was made of baked clay and their books were made of paper—another Chinese invention. The Chinese books looked very much like our modern books. However, the Chinese had little or no contact with Europe at that time, so it is not clear whether the Europeans learned about printing from the Chinese.
     The first known inventor of printing in Europe was Johannes Gutenberg of Germany. The first book printed in his workshop was a Latin Bible. A few copies of this first book still exist. They are now over 500 years old. The Gutenberg Bible was printed on a hand press with type made of lead. Most of the copies were printed on paper, but a few were printed on vellum. The books are about 12 inches wide and 16.5 inches long.

CAREFUL READING
Read the following passages carefully. Decide on the best answer and choose the corresponding letter. 

     In the past, American families tended to be quite large. Parents raising five or more children were common. Over the years, the size of the family has decreased. One reason for this is an increase in the cost of living. On the average, children attend schools for more years than they used to, making them financially dependent on their families. Moreover, children nowadays are better dressed and have more money to spend on entertainment. The parents usually take the responsibility for all the expenses. Meanwhile, families are less close than they used to be. More and more American mothers work away from home.
     The breakup of the family occurs when the parents divorce. A lot of children in the U.S. live part of their young lives with only one parent. Broken families usually result in problems for children and parents alike. Children blame themselves when their parents separate. They grow up feeling unsettled as they are moved back and forth between parents.              

     Usually one parent is responsible for raising the children. These single parents must care for the children's emotional and psychological needs while also supporting them financially. This is very demanding and leaves very little time for the parent's own personal interests. Single parents often marry other single parents. In this type of family, unrelated children are forced to develop brother or sister relationship. The situations of many American families today are not good. However, recent signs indicate that things are getting better. The divorce rate is declining. The rate of childbirth is rising. Perhaps Americans have learned how important families are.

Ⅲ.SKIMMING AND SCANNING
In this part there is one reading passage followed by 3 questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 answers marked [A],[B],[C]and[D].Skim or scan the passages, then decide on the best answer and write it on the ANSWER SHEET.

     The 45 students in the first homeroom class of the ninth grade were all seated at their desks when the opening notes of the Brahms symphony roared from the loudspeaker at precisely 8∶30 a.m. Soon the violins faded, and a slow, synthesized pulse spread across the room, numbing the mind with its smooth, hypnotic gait. The room was cold and slightly dank (潮湿的). No sun shone through the plate glass windows overlooking the balcony. The clouds, like the students, were still.
     In a moment, a soothing, resonant voice began to speak.“Good morning, boys and girls. Let's begin another wonderful day. Please close your eyes…”
     For ten minutes every morning the students at Sano Junior High sat in quiet meditation to prepare themselves for the day ahead. The principal, Sakamoto Sensei, had introduced this system, known as Method Training, several years earlier in order to quell the growing incidence of school“violence,”mainly minor scuffles and hair violations. The program consisted of a sequence of 25 tapes for total mental and physical conditioning. Each day a different tape was played…
     After ten minutes the music dissolved, the voice disappeared, and Mrs. Negishi-standing erect before the class-took control of the homeroom meeting.
     “Stand up,”she commanded, and the students rose to their feet.
     “Attention,”she said, and they dropped their arms to their thighs.
     “Bow.”
     It was 8∶42 in the morning.
     People who are born and grow up in different cultures act and think very differently from one another. Bruce Feiler, an American who taught school in Japan, was struck by the ways in which Japanese schools socialized their students to become adult members of Japanese society. Deep respect for authority, long hours of focused learning, appropriate modes of dress, even proper ways to bow-all of these were central aspects of Japanese education that would be virtually unthinkable in most American schools today. Japanese educational practices, in turn, reflect widely shared norms and values that are found in Japanese families, workplaces, and indeed throughout Japanese culture. 

SPEED READING
Skim or scan the following passages, and then decide on the best answer.

     Laura House remembers the day with embarrassment. “Mom and I were on our way home after dinner when we stopped at an intersection,” she says. “When the light changed, the guy ahead of us was looking at a map of something and didn’t move right away. I leaned on my horn and automatically yelled. I didn’t even think about what I was doing. Mom’s jaw just dropped. She said, ‘Well, I guess you’ve been living in the city too long.’ That’s when I realized that my anger was out of control.”
     According to Carol Tavris, author of Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, the keys to dealing with anger are common sense and patience. She points out that almost no situation is improved by an angry outburst. Shouting, fuming, or leaning on the car horn won’t make traffic begin to flow, make the screen unlock or make keys appear. Patience, on the other hand, is a highly practical virtue. People who take the time to cool down before responding to an anger-producing situation are far less likely to say or do something they will regret later.
     Anger-management therapist Doris Wilde agrees. “Like any feeling, anger lasts only about three seconds,” she says. “What keeps it going is your own negative thinking.” As long as you focus on the idiot who cut you off on the expressway, you’ll stay angry. But if you let the incident go, your anger will go with it. “Once you come to understand that you’re driving your own anger with your thoughts,” adds Wilde, “you can stop it.”
     Experts who have studied anger also encourage people to cultivate activities that effectively release their anger. For some people, it’s reading newspapers or watching TV, while others need more active outlets (发泄渠道), such as taking a walk, hitting golf balls, or working out with a punching bag. People who succeed in calming their anger also enjoy the satisfaction of having dealt positively with their frustrations.
     For Laura House, her experience in the car with her mother was a wake-up call. “Once I saw what I was doing, it really wasn’t that hard to develop different habits. I simply decided I was going to treat other people the way I would want to be treated. I’m a calmer, happier person now,” she reports.