In Singapore, most of us love window-shopping while some others enjoy having a picnic at East Coast Park or Changi Beach on sunny days. Singaporeans are never bothered by the occasional thunderstorm. However, we know that if it rains for long continuous periods, there will be more serious effects. Just recently the main shopping street of Orchard Road was flooded and some part of Bukit Timah was impassable to traffic. People reacted by writing in to the newspaper to complain about this! We forget that other countries suffer much worse effects. Elsewhere, heavy tropical（熱帶的）storms often result in floods that ruin crops especially in Thailand and Malaysia. This in turn usually means that the price of rice and vegetables here in Singapore will rise because we import these products from them. If there is a typhoon or tsunami, thousands of lives are lost too. This happened in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand in 2004 and it serves to remind us of how Mother Nature can cause great damage.

Weather patterns in general have changed dramatically in recent years. Scientists believe that global warming and the resulting melting of the polar ice-cap has caused the level of the ocean to rise. This in turn causes flooding of low-lying areas in countries where the land is rather flat and some parts of which is below water level. It is believed that human activities have caused Mother Nature to show her extreme anger, so it is now important that we really work together to cut down on harmful activities, for example, illegal logging（伐木）or irresponsible forest-burning to clear land for farming.

56.From Paragraph 1, we can see that most Singaporeans love________.

A. making complaints           B. going out for picnics

C. doing window-shopping    D. traveling along the coast

【答案】C

【解析】根據(jù)第一段第一句可知。

57.What will happen in Singapore if there are floods in its neighboring countries?

A. Heavy tropical storms will follow shortly.

B. The price of rice and vegetables will go up.

C. Many people will write in to the newspaper.

D. More rice and vegetables will be imported.

【答案】B

【解析】根據(jù)第一段倒數(shù)三，四句可知。熱帶風(fēng)暴導(dǎo)致的洪水會(huì)毀掉莊稼，新加坡的蔬菜和大米是從這些國(guó)家進(jìn)口的，所以會(huì)導(dǎo)致蔬菜，大米的價(jià)格上升。

58.The underlined word“it” in Paragraph 2 refers to___________.

A. the arrival of heavy tropical storms

B. the import of rice and vegetables

C. the rising price of rice and vegetables

D. the loss of lives in natural disasters

【答案】D

【解析】上句提到臺(tái)風(fēng)和海嘯會(huì)導(dǎo)致成千上萬(wàn)的人死亡。這在2004年在印度尼西亞和泰國(guó)的普吉島發(fā)生過(guò)。自然災(zāi)害到這人死亡這件事用來(lái)提醒我們大自然可以帶來(lái)巨大損害。

59.Which of the following shows how the low-lying areas are flooded?

a. global warming

b. the rise in ocean level

c. harmful human activities

d. the flooding of low-lying areas

e. the melting of the polar ice-cap

A. c→a→e→b→d         B. a→c→e→b→d        

C. c→a→b→e→d         D. d→a→c→b→e

【答案】A

【解析】根據(jù)最后一段可知。

60.What should we do in order not to make Mother Nature angry?

A. Clear more land for farming.           B. Reduce harmful human activities.

C. Bring down the price of food.          D. Improve the quality of weather.

【答案】B

【解析】根據(jù)最后一段It is believed that human activities have caused Mother Nature to show her extreme anger, so it is now important that we really work together to cut down on harmful activities,“人們認(rèn)為是人類(lèi)的活動(dòng)導(dǎo)致了大自然極端憤怒， 因此，現(xiàn)在我們真的應(yīng)該團(tuán)結(jié)合作減少有害活動(dòng)�！�

LONDON —A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake (假冒的）bomb detectors (探測(cè)器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn’t cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $77. 8 million from the sales of his detectors — which were based on a kind of golf ball finder — to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

McCormick, 57，was convicted (判罪) of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

“Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,’’ Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”

The detectors, sold for up to $ 42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “l(fā)acked any grounding in science” and were of no use.

McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya，the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

“I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.

39. Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?

A. He sold bombs.                              B. He caused death of people.

C. He made detectors.                              D. He cheated in business.

40. According to the judge, what McCormick had done ________ .

A. increased the cost of safeguarding

B. lowered people’s guard against danger

C. changed people’s idea of social security

D. caused innocent people to commit crimes

41. Which of the following is true of the detectors?

A. They have not been sold to Africa.

B. They have caused many serious problems.

C. They can find dangerous objects in water.

D. They don't function on the basis of science.

42. It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick _________ .

A. sold the equipment at a low price

B. was well-known in most countries

C. did not think he had committed the crime

D. had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text

【語(yǔ)篇解讀】本文是一篇記敘文，題材是新聞報(bào)道。本文報(bào)道了一條賣(mài)假冒炸彈探測(cè)器的商人被判10年徒刑的新聞。

段落	關(guān)鍵詞、句	大意推測(cè)
第一部分（Para. 1-3）	McCormick, 57，was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London	新聞案件的簡(jiǎn)介：57歲的McCormick上月被起訴詐騙并于周三在倫敦的Old Bailey court法庭被判刑。
第二部分（Para. 4）	cheating conduct, promoted a false sense of security, contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people	法官宣判：罪犯的欺騙行為增強(qiáng)了人們虛假的安全感并促使導(dǎo)致給無(wú)辜百姓帶來(lái)死亡和傷害。
第三部分（Para. 5-7）	But in fact they “l(fā)acked any grounding in science” and were of no use, sold…to… , never had any bad results	案件細(xì)節(jié)及當(dāng)事人的反訴：假冒炸彈探測(cè)器被銷(xiāo)往世界各地，但它根本沒(méi)有科學(xué)依據(jù)，也毫無(wú)用處。罪犯狡辯假冒產(chǎn)品沒(méi)有給用戶帶來(lái)任何不良后果。

【解析】

39. D。細(xì)節(jié)理解題。難度：中等。問(wèn)題是“為什么McCormick被判刑入獄”。根據(jù)問(wèn)題中的關(guān)鍵詞sentenced to prison定位原文第一段。第一段說(shuō)到McCormick是一位商人，生產(chǎn)了假冒的炸彈探測(cè)器，這是一種商業(yè)欺騙。選項(xiàng)D和其對(duì)應(yīng)，為正確答案。

40. B。細(xì)節(jié)理解題。難度：難。問(wèn)題是“根據(jù)法官的說(shuō)法，McCormick的所為導(dǎo)致了什么樣的結(jié)果”。根據(jù)問(wèn)題中的關(guān)鍵詞according to the judge定位第四段的第一句：your cheating conduct … promoted a false sense of security and … contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people（你的欺騙行為提高了人們虛假的安全感并助推給無(wú)辜百姓帶來(lái)死亡和傷害）。由此可見(jiàn)，McCormick的行為讓人們有了安全感，但這種安全并不真實(shí)。B “降低了人們防范危險(xiǎn)的安全意識(shí)”符合此意，為正確答案。

41. D。判斷題。難度：難。問(wèn)題是“下面哪種說(shuō)法對(duì)探測(cè)儀來(lái)說(shuō)是正確的”。

解題思路：根據(jù)問(wèn)題中的關(guān)鍵詞detectors，把四個(gè)選項(xiàng)具體對(duì)應(yīng)到原文中一處。A對(duì)應(yīng)文章倒數(shù)第二段的最后一句he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya，the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand。該句中的Kenya是非洲的肯尼亞，否定了A的說(shuō)法。B對(duì)應(yīng)第一段第一句“the man hadn’t cared about potentially deadly consequences”，法官只說(shuō)罪犯沒(méi)有關(guān)注潛在的致命后果，而不是已經(jīng)導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重的問(wèn)題。C對(duì)應(yīng)第五段的第一句話“were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air”提示，探測(cè)儀的功能只是據(jù)說(shuō)，而不一定真的具備找到水中危險(xiǎn)物品的功能。選項(xiàng)D定位第五段的最后一句“in fact they ‘lacked any grounding in science’ and were of no use可知，這種探測(cè)儀沒(méi)有科學(xué)根據(jù)，也毫無(wú)用途，和D“沒(méi)有科學(xué)根據(jù)的工作原理”相吻合，故最佳答案是D。

42. D。推理判斷題。難度：中等。

解題思路：返回原文，將選項(xiàng)與原文一一進(jìn)行比較。

本題主要考查第四段和第七段。A“以低價(jià)銷(xiāo)售設(shè)備”與原文第四段第一句不符，因?yàn)樵摼涮岬椒ü僦缚豈cCormick通過(guò)賣(mài)一些無(wú)用的設(shè)備來(lái)巨額利潤(rùn)。B“在大多數(shù)國(guó)家很有名”與文中提到的區(qū)區(qū)幾個(gè)國(guó)家和地區(qū)Iraq，Belgium，Saudi Arabia，Kenya，Hong Kong，Egypt和Thailand購(gòu)買(mǎi)他的探測(cè)儀不符。C“認(rèn)為他沒(méi)有犯罪”和第七段對(duì)應(yīng)，其中他所說(shuō)的“I never had any bad results from customers”和C符合，Ｃ是正確答案。Ｄ“他沒(méi)有賺取文中提到的那么大利潤(rùn)”在原文沒(méi)有語(yǔ)言根據(jù)。