Passage 3

I'm usually fairly skeptical about any research that concludes that people are either happier or unhappier or more or less certain of themselves than they were 50 years ago. While any of these statements might be true, they are practically impossible to prove scientifically. Still, I was struck by a report which concluded that today's children are significantly more anxious than children in the 1950s. In fact, the analysis showed, normal children ages 9 to 17 exhibit a higher level of anxiety today than children who were treated for mental illness 50 years ago.

    Why are America's kids so stressed? The report cites two main causes: increasing physical isolation -- brought on by high divorce rates and less involvement in community, among other things -- and a growing perception that the world is a more dangerous place.

    Given that we can't turn the clock back, adults can still do plenty to help the next generation cope.

    At the top of the list is nurturing ( 培育 ) a better appreciation of the limits of individualism. No child is an island. Strengthening social ties helps build communities and protect individuals against stress.

    To help kids build stronger connections with others, you can pull the plug on TVs and computers. Your family will thank you later. They will have more time for face-to-face relationships, and they will get more sleep.

    Limit the amount of virtual (虛擬的) violence your children are exposed to. It's not just video games and movies; children see a lot of murder and crime on the local news.

    Keep your expectations for your children reasonable. Many highly successful people never attended Harvard or Yale.

    Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you cope with your own anxieties and provide a good model for your kids. Sometimes anxiety is unavoidable. But it doesn't have to ruin your life.

36.   The author thinks that the conclusions of any research about people's state of mind are______.

A) surprising   B) confusing      C) illogical        D) questionable

37.   What does the author mean when he says, "we can't turn the clock back" (Line 1, Para. 3)?

A) It's impossible to slow down the pace of change.

B) The social reality children are facing cannot be changed.

C) Lessons learned from the past should not be forgotten.

D) It's impossible to forget the past.

38.   According to an analysis, compared with normal children today, children treated as mentally ill 50 years ago____.

A) were less isolated physically

B) were probably less self-centered  

C) probably suffered less from anxiety

D) were considered less individualistic

39.   The first and most important thing parents should do to help their children is ____.

A) to provide them with a safer environment

B) to lower their expectations for them

C) to get them more involved socially

D) to set a good model for them to follow

40.   What conclusion can be drawn from the passage?

A) Anxiety, though unavoidable, can be coped with.

B) Children's anxiety has been enormously exaggerated.

C) Children's anxiety can be eliminated with more parental care.

D) Anxiety, if properly controlled, may help children become mature.

Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning)   (15 minutes)

Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the

questions on Answer Sheet 1.

For questions 1-7, mark

Y(for YES)                   if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;

N (for NO)                   if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;

NG (for NOT GIVEN)   if the information is not given in the passage.

For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.

Highways

Early in the 20th century, most of the streets and roads in the U.S. were made of dirt, brick, and cedar wood blocks. Built for horse, carriage, and foot traffic, they were usually poorly cared for and too narrow to accommodate (容納) automobiles.

With the increase in auto production, private turnpike (收費公路) companies under local authorities began to spring up, and by 1921 there were 387, 000 miles of paved roads. Many were built using specifications of 19th century Scottish engineers Thomas Telford and John MacAdam (for whom the macadam surface is named), whose specifications stressed the importance of adequate drainage. Beyond that, there were no national standards for size, weight restrictions, or commercial signs. During World War I, roads throughout the country were nearly destroyed by the weight of trucks. When General Eisenhower returned from Germany in 1919, after serving in the U.S.Army’s first transcontinental motor convoy (車隊), he noted: “The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany’s Autobahn or motorway had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land.”

It would take another war before the federal government would act on a national highway system. During World war Ⅱ, a tremendous increase in trucks and new roads were required. The war demonstrated how critical highways were to the defense effort. Thirteen per cent of defense plants received all their supplies by truck, and almost all other plants shipped more than half of their products by vehicle. The war also revealed that local control of highways had led to a confusing variety of design standards. Even federal and state highways did not follow basic standards. Some states allowed trucks up to 36,000 pounds, while others restricted anything over 7,000 pounds. A government study recommended a national highway system of 33,920 miles, and Congress soon passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, which called for strict, centrally controlled design criteria.

The interstate highway system was finally launched in 1956 and has been hailed as one of the greatest public works projects of the century. To build its 44,000-mile web of highways, bridges and tunnels, hundreds of unique engineering designs and solutions had to be worked out. Consider the many geographic features of the country: mountains, steep grades, wetlands, rivers, deserts, and plains. Variables included the slope of the land, the ability of the pavement to support the load, the intensity of road use, and the nature of the underlying soil. Urban areas were another problem. Innovative designs of roadways, tunnels, bridges, overpasses, and interchanges that could run through or bypass urban areas soon began to weave their way across the country, forever altering the face of America.

Long-span, segmented-concrete. cable-stayed bridges such as Hale Boggs in Louisiana and the Sunshine Skyway in Florida, and remarkable tunnels like Fort McHenry in Maryland and Mt. Baker in Washington, met many of the nation’s physical challenges. Traffic control systems and methods of construction developed under the interstate program soon influenced highway construction around the world, and were invaluable in improving the condition of urban streets and traffic patterns.

Today, the interstate system links every major city in the U.S., and the U.S. with Canada and Mexico. Built with safety in mind, the highways have wide lanes and shoulders, dividing medians or barriers, long entry and exit lanes, curves engineered for safe turns, and limited access. The death rate on highways is half that of all other U.S. roads (0.86 deaths per 100 million passenger miles compared to 1.99 deaths per 100 million on all other roads.)

By opening the North American continent, highways have enabled consumer goods and services to reach people in remote and rural areas of the country, spurred the growth of suburbs, and provided people with greater options in terms of jobs, access to cultural programs, health care, and other benefits. Above all, the interstate system provides individuals with what they cherish most: personal freedom of mobility.

The interstate system has been an essential element of the nation’s economic growth in terms of shipping and job creation: more than 75 percent of the nation’s freight deliveries arrive by truck; and most products that arrive by rail or air use interstates for the last leg of the journey by vehicle. Not only has the highway system affected the American economy by providing shipping routes, it has led to the growth of spin-off industries like service stations, motels, restaurants, and shopping centers. It has allowed the relocation of manufacturing plants and other industries from urban areas to rural.

By the end of the century there was an immense network of paved roads, residential streets, expressways, and freeways built to support millions of vehicles. The highway system was officially renamed for Eisenhower to honor his vision and leadership. The year construction began he said: “Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear-United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.”

注意：此部分試題請在答題卡1上作答。

1.National standards for paved roads were in place by 1921.

2.General Eisenhower felt that the broad German motorways made more sense than the two-lane highways of America.

3.It was in the 1950s that the American government finally took action to build a national high way system..

4.Many of the problems presented by the country’s geographical features found solutions in innovative engineering projects.

5.In spite of safety considerations, the death rate on interstate highways is still higher than that of other American roads.

6.The interstate highway system provides access between major military installations in America.

7.Service stations, motels and restaurants promoted the development of the interstate highway system.

8. The greatest benefit brought about by the interstate system was                          .

9. Trucks using the interstate highways deliver more than                                .

10. The interstate system was renamed after Eisenhower in recognition of                    
                                                                           .

Directions: In this section ,there is a passage with ten blanks .You are required to select one word for each blank from a list of choices given in a word bank following the passage .Read the passage through carefully before making your choices .Each choice in bank is identified by a letter .Please mark the corresponding letter for each item on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the center .You may not use any of the words in the bank more than once.

Questions 47 to 56 are based on the following passage.

E1 Nino is the name given to the mysterious and often unpredictable change in the climate of the world. This strange   47   happens every five to eight years. It starts in the Pacific Ocean and is thought to be caused by a failure in the trade winds (信風), which affects the ocean currents driven by these winds. As the trade winds lessen in   48  , the ocean temperatures rise, causing the Peru current flowing in from the east to warm up by as much as 5℃.

The warming of the ocean has far-reaching effects. The hot, humid (潮濕的) air over the ocean causes severe  49  thunderstorms. The rainfall is increased across South America,  50  floods to Peru. In the West Pacific, there are droughts affecting Australia and Indonesia. So while some parts of the world prepare for heavy rains and floods, other parts face drought, poor crops and   51  .

E1 Nino usually lasts for about 18 months. The 1982-83 E1 Nino brought the most  52  weather in modern history. Its effect was worldwide and it left more than 2,000 people dead and caused over eight billion pounds  53  of damage. The 1990 E1 Nino lasted until June 1995. Scientists  54  this to be the longest E1 Nino for 2,000 years.

Nowadays, weather experts are able to forecast when an E1 Nino will  55 , but they are still not  56  sure what leads to it or what affects how strong it will be.

注意：此部分試題請在答題卡2上作答。