Part II Reading Comprehension (35 minutes) (40%)
　　Directions: There are 4 reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
　　Passage I
　　Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:
　　Scientists are trying to make the deserts into good land again. They want to bring water to the deserts so that people can live and grow food. Even so, more and more of the earth is becoming desert all the time.
　　Why? Scientists think that people make deserts. People are doing bad things to the earth. Some places on the earth do not get very much rain. Yet, they still do not become deserts. This is because there are some small green plants growing there. Plants help keep water in the earth. Plants do not let the wind blow the dirt away. Without plants, the land can become a desert much more easily.
　　A man decides to make a farm in a very dry place. He digs in the earth and takes away the grass and plants that are already growing on the dry land.
　　He makes a farm. He puts plants in rows. The sun is very hot. It makes the land even drier. When the rain comes, it runs between the rows of plants. It washes the good dirt away. When the wind comes, it blows between the rows of plants. It blows the good dirt away.
　　Soon the land is not good enough for a farm any more. The man lets his animals eat all the plants on it. Now the land does not have any plants on it. The sun and wind dry the land and all of the good dirt away. Now the land is a desert.
　　21. A desert is probably _______.
　　A) grassy
　　B) treeless
　　C) wet
　　D) muddy
　　22. Land is becoming desert because of lack of _______.
　　A) rain
　　B) wind
　　C) people
　　D) plants
　　23. Which of the following is NOT the reason why small green plants are very important to dry places?
　　A) They keep the earth from becoming even drier.
　　B) They do not let wind blow the earth away.
　　C) They add color to the dry places.
　　D) They hold water.
　　24. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
　　A) it is bad to plant in rows in a dry place.
　　B) it is better to raise animals on dry land than to make a farm.
　　C) it is bad to make a farm in a dry place, but it is good to raise animals there.
　　D) all lands that don’t get very rain are deserts.
　　25. What’s the purpose of the writer to give an example of the man?
　　A) To criticize him.
　　B) To tell an interesting story.
　　C) To prove man makes deserts.
　　D) To prove the hot sun makes a desert.
　　Passage II
　　Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:
　　 Museums are places where collections of objects are preserved and displayed. The objects may be anything found in nature or made by man. There are museums devoted to art, science, history, industry, and technology.
　　But museums are no longer just storehouses for collections. Today nearly all museums, large or small, carry on educational programs. Museums offer guided tours, lectures, films, music and art lessons, and other attractions.
　　 Museums work constantly to improve their collections and ways of displaying them. All museums are always on the watch for new additions to their collections. Works of art are bought from art dealers and collectors or at auction( 拍卖)sales. Museums also accept gifts and bequests（遗物）， but the large museums no longer accept everything that is offered to them. They accept only objects or collections that meet their high standards.
　　 What is to be gained from visiting museums? Museum exhibits can teach us about the world in which we live—the materials it is made of , the trees and plants that covers it, and the animals that have lived on it since its beginning. We can learn about the activities of man—his history and development and his accomplishments in arts and crafts.
　　26.The first paragraph deals with ____.
　　A) what museums preserve
　　B) what kind of objects museums display
　　C) where museums obtain their objects
　　D) how museums function
　　27. Which statement is not true?
　　A) Museums are not only storehouses for collections.
　　B) Museums are places where you can learn something.
　　C) Museums preserve and display only things found in nature.
　　D) Museums carry on educational and research programs.
　　28. Where do objects at museums usually come from?
　　A) From auction sales
　　B) From art dealers and collectors
　　C) From gifts and bequests
　　D) All the above.
　　29. The large museums accept _____.
　　A) everything offered to them
　　B) all the gifts and bequests
　　C) only objects that meet their high standard
　　D) only things that small museums do not have
　　30. The last paragraph is about_____.
　　A) the knowledge one gets from visiting museums
　　B) the things one can see in museum
　　C) the world and the people living in it
　　D) museum collections from other lands
　　Passage III
　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
　　If there is any single factor that makes for success in living, it is the ability to profit by defeat. Every success I know has been achieved because the person was able to analyze defeat and actually profit by it in his next undertaking. Confuse defeat with failure, and you are doomed indeed to failure, for it isn’t defeat that makes you fail: it is your own refusal to see in defeat the guide and encouragement to success.
　　Defeats are nothing to be ashamed of. They are routine incidents in the life of every man who achieves success. But defeat is a dead loss unless you do face it without feeling ashamed, analyze it and learn why you failed. Defeat, in other words, can help to cure its own cause. Not only does defeat prepare us for success, but nothing else can arouse within us such a compelling desire to succeed. I f you let a baby grasp a rod and to pull it away, he will cling more and more tightly until his whole weight is suspended. It is this same reaction that should give you new and greater strength every time you are defeated. If you fully use the power which defeat gives, you can accomplish with it far more than what you are capable of.
　　31. The author _______.
　　A) orders you to analyze defeat
　　B) wants you to face defeat
　　C) advises you to let a baby grasp a rod
　　D) warns you not to confuse defeat with failure
　　32. Defeat is valuable _______.
　　A) because it is a factor
　　B) because it isn’t defeat that makes you fail
　　C) because it provides the guide and encouragement to success
　　D) because it is not a thing to be ashamed of
　　33. What does the author know?
　　A) He knows every success in life.
　　B) He knows the factor making for success.
　　C) He knows every man who is able to analyze defeat.
　　D) He knows the life of every man.
　　34. The person who was able to analyze defeat is likely _______
　　A) to be a successor
　　B) to face it with feeling ashamed
　　C) to achieve success
　　D) to be ashamed of it
　　35. What does the author advise one to do with the power which defeat gives?
　　A) One should explore it.
　　B) One should explain it.
　　C) One should let a baby grasp a rod.
　　D) One should learn it.
　　Passage IV
　　Questions 36 to 40 are based on the following passage:
　　Through a series of experiments an American scientist has obtained an understanding of the social structure of the most complex of ant societies. The ants examined are the only creatures other than man to have given up hunting and collecting for a completely agricultural way of life. In their underground nests they cultivate gardens on soil made from finely chopped leaves. This is a complex operation requiring considerable division of labor. The workers of this type of ant can be divided into four groups according to size. Each of the groups performs a particular set of jobs.
　　The making and care of the gardens and the nursing of the young ants are done by the smallest workers. Slightly larger workers are responsible for chopping up leaves to make them suitable for use in the gardens and for cleaning the nest. A third group of still larger ants do the construction work and collect fresh leaves from outside the nest. The largest are the soldier ants, responsible for defending the nest.
　　To find out how good the various size-groups are at different tasks, the scientist measured the amount of work done by the ants against the amount of energy they used. He examined first the gathering and carrying of leaves. He selected one of the size-groups, and then measured how efficiently these ants could find leaves and run back to the nest. Then he repeated the experiment for each of the other size-groups. In this way he could see whether any group could do the job more efficiently than the group normally undertaking it.
　　The intermediate-sized ants that normally perform this task proved to be the most efficient for their energy costs, but when the scientist examined the whole set of jobs performed by each group of ants it appeared that some sizes of worker ant were not ideally suited to the particular jobs they performed.
　　36. In which way are the ants different from other non-human societies?
　　A) Individuals perform different functions.
　　B) They do not need to look for shelter.
　　C) Individuals vary in social status.
　　D) They do not need to search for food.
　　37. It seems that smaller ants perform more of the _______.
　　A) construction tasks
　　B) domestic tasks
　　C) defensive work
　　D) heavy work
　　38. "Good" (par. 3, Line 1) refers to the ants’ _______.
　　A) co-operation in work
　　B) sense of responsibility
　　C) work efficiency
　　D) willingness to work hard
　　39. The scientist’s work was based on _______.
　　A) occasional observations
　　B) biological theories
　　C) observations of several nests
　　D) observations of an undisturbed nest.
　　40. The organization of the ants has the effect of _______.
　　A) getting the most work done
　　B) each ant doing what it can do best
　　C) each ant helping with all the tasks
　　D) dividing the work up systematically