The U.S. Department of Labor statistics(統(tǒng)計) show that there is an oversupply of college trained workers and that this oversupply is increasing. Already there have been more than enough teachers, engineers, physicists, aerospace experts, and other specialists. Yet colleges and graduate schools continue every year to turn out highly trained people to compete for jobs that aren’t there. The result is that graduates cannot enter the professions for which they were trained and must take temporary jobs which do not require a college degree.

On the other hand, there is a great need for skilled workers of all sorts: carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, TV repairmen. These people have more work than they can deal with, and their annual incomes are often higher than those of college graduates. The old gap that white —collar workers make a better living than blue collar workers no longer holds true. The law of supply and demand now favors the skilled workmen.

The reason for this situation is the traditional myth that college degree is a passport to a prosperous future. A large part of American society matches success in life equally with a college degree. Parents begin indoctrinating(灌輸) their children with this myth before they are out of grade school. High school teachers play their part by acting as if high school education were a preparation for college rather than for life. Under this pressure the kids fall in line. Whether they want to go to college or not doesn’t matter. Everybody should go to college, so of course they must go. And every year college enrollments(入學) go up and up, and more and more graduates are overeducated for the kinds of jobs available to them.

One result of this emphasis on a college education is that many people go to college who do not belong there. Of the sixty percent of high school graduates who enter college, half of them do not graduate with their class. Many of them drop out within the first year. Some struggle on for two or three years and then give up.

It’s implied but not stated in the passage that _______.

    A. many other countries are facing the same problem

    B. white-collar workers in the US used to make more money than blue-collar workers

    C. fewer students will prefer to go to college in the future

    D. the law of supply and demand has a strong effect on American higher education

Which of the following is NOT a reason why college enrollments go up every year？   

A. Many people believe that the only way to success is a college education.

    B. Many parents want their children to go to college.

    C. High school teachers urge their students to go to college.

    D. Every young man and woman wants to go to college.

By saying that “many people go to college who do not belong there”, the author means that _______.

    A. many people who are not fit for college education go to college

    B. many people who do not have enough money go to college

    C. many people who go to college drop out within the first year

    D. many people who go to college have their hopes destroyed

We can infer from the passage that the author believes that _______.

    A. every young man and woman should go to college

    B. college education is a bad thing

    C. people with a college education should receive higher pay

    D. fewer people should go to college while more should be trained for skilled jobs

Plants may not have eyes and ears，but they can recognize their siblings (兄弟姐妹)，and researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered how.The ID system lies in the roots and the chemical signals they secrete (分泌)．

Canadian researchers published that sea rocket，a common seashore plant，can recognize its siblings.Susan Dudley observed that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil，they “play nice” and don’t send out more roots to compete.However，the moment one of the plants is thrown in with strangers，it begins competing with them by rapidly growing more roots to take up the water and mineral nutrients in the soil.

After reading Dudley’s study，Bais decided to find the method behind the sibling recognition.Working in his laboratory，Bais and his doctoral student Meredith Biedrzycki set up a study with wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.In a series of experiments，young seedlings were exposed to liquid media containing the root secretions from siblings，from strangers，or only their own secretions.The length of the longest lateral (側(cè)面的) root was measured.The exposure of plants to the root secretions of strangers induced (引誘) greater lateral root formation than exposure of plants to sibling secretions.Strangers planted next to each other are often shorter，because so much of their energy is directed at root growth.Because siblings aren’t competing against each other，their roots are often much shallower (淺的)．

Biedrzycki did the painstaking laboratory research，observing more than 3,000 plants involved in the study every day for seven continuous days and documenting the root patterns.“Arabidopsis roots are nearly translucent (半透明的) when they are young and were also twisted when I removed them from plates，”Biedrzycki notes.“This manuscript (手稿) is very important for my research since the focus of my thesis project is understanding the biochemical ways behind root secretions.”

The research also may have implications for the home gardener.“Often we’ll put plants in the ground next to each other and when they don’t do well，we blame the local garden center where we bought them or we attribute their failure to a germ，”Bais says.“But maybe there’s more to it than that.”

1.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A．A Great Biology Researcher

B．Plants Recognize Their Siblings

C．Plants’ Roots and Secretions

D．A Research on Plants

2. What encouraged Bais to study the sibling recognition?

A．Sea rocket.

B．Plants’ sensing system.

C．Biedrzycki’s thesis project.

D．Dudley’s study.

3. What does the underlined word “painstaking” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Important.? B．Adventurous.

C．Careful.? D．Hard?working.

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The local garden center should be blamed when plants can’t grow well.

B．The local garden center often sells low quality seeds to customers.

C．Plants in the home garden can’t grow well because of the germ and seeds.

D．Competing against strangers，plants in the home garden can’t grow well.

Newspapers in Great Britain vary greatly in their ways of carrying the news. There are serious （嚴肅的）papers for those who want to know about important happenings everywhere, both at home and abroad．There are popular newspapers for those who prefer entertainment(娛樂) to information．

    The London newspaper that is best known outside Great Britain is probably the Times．It began in 1785, and has a high reputation (名聲) for believable news and serious opinions on the news． It calls itself an independent （獨立的）paper, which means that it does not give its support to a particular political party. Its leading articles give the opinions of the editors, not those of the owners of the paper．

    Letters to the editor are printed in the newspaper．These parts of the Times are always interesting．Most of the letters are serious subjects．But from time to time there will be long letters on the subject which is not at all serious, perhaps on a new fashion (時裝) of dress, or the bad manners of the young people, compared with the manners of thirty years ago．

If you want to get pleasure, please buy yourself ＿＿＿＿．

  A. a serious newspaper            B．a(chǎn) foreign newspaper

  C. any independent paper          D．a(chǎn) popular newspaper

The Times is an independent paper because ＿＿＿＿＿．

  A．it gives special support to all the political parties

  B．it supports no political parties

  C．the editors' opinions are not examined by the owners of the paper

  D．it is not controlled by the British Government

The underlined word “vary” in the passage probably means “＿＿＿＿＿”．

  A．improve            B．compete with each other

  C．a(chǎn)re different         D．keep in touch with each other

Which of the following is NOT true?

  A．The subjects of the letters to the editors are serious at all times．

  B．The amusing parts of the paper are letters to the editors．

  C．The manners of the young people thirty years ago were often polite．

  D．Sometimes pieces of writing on the latest fashion in clothes can satisfy your interest.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska--The 2004 winner of Alaska’s famous 1,000-mile sled-dog race, the Iditarod, won again at age 53 to become the oldest champion in 2013, a year after his son became the youngest winner.

Mitch Seavey got his dogs to the finishing line first in 9 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds. His son, Dallas Seavey, now 26, ended up ranking fourth, behind the older competitor, 43-year-old Aliy Zirkle, who followed four-time champion Jeff King, now 57.

Mitch Seavey, who lives in Seward, Alaska, operates a seasonal sled-dog touring business. The race was Mitch Seavey’s 20th Iditarod.

This year’s contest was marked by unusual conditions and unseasonable rain in the northern part of the trail, and conditions that Seavey said helped his team. “It seems like the tougher it is, the better we can do.”

He also thought highly of Zirkle, a New England immigrant（移民）who now lives in Two Rivers, Alaska. “She’s a great musher（趕狗拉雪橇的人）, and she’s going to win the Iditarod sometime, and probably more than once. We just had a little more energy, I think.” Zirkle, one of the most popular mushers, was greeted by shouts of  “Aliy, Ally” from the fans as she drove her dog team approaching the finishing line on Nome’s Front Street. “I am pretty happy to be here,” she said. “I was going for it.”

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is one of the few major U. S. sports events in which men and women compete on an equal footing. The name “Iditarod” dates from a local Athabascan term meaning “a far, distant place”. Youthful mushers in the race may have some physical advantages--they can do some things more easily. But more importantly, winning the race needs the experience in dog race.

The year’s event started on Saturday, March 2 with a ceremonial nm in Anchorage. Of the 66 mushers who started the race, 10 had dropped out of competition as of Tuesday night. For his victory, Mitch Seavey will take home $50,400 and a new truck.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Mitch Seavey is the oldest competitor in the sled-dog race in 2013.

B. Mitch Seavey, who operates a touring business, is a New England immigrant.

C. Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 2004 and 2013.

D. Mitch Seavey managed to help his son become the youngest winner in 2012.

2.On which day did Mitch Seavey probably win the champion in the 2013 Iditarod?

A. On Saturday, March 2.               B. On Monday, March 11.

C. On Saturday, March 9.               D. On Tuesday, March 13.

3. Who ranked the 2nd place in the 2013 Iditarod according to the passage?

A. Aliy Zirkle.     B. Dallas Seavey.

C. Mitch Seavey.     D. Jeff King.

4. According to the passage, we can learn that ________.

A. the sled-dog race is the most important sports event in the US

B. experience also has a major influence on the result of the race besides age

C. men and women can’t compete in the sled-dog race together at the same time

D. all the athletes in the sled-dog race are limited by age to win the sled-dog race

 Each member country of WTO must ________ its laws and regulations and compete on the principle of fairness and cooperation.

A. submit to         B. cater to                     C. correspond to            D. relate to