Passage Three

　　When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices(装置)tell the time—which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007.

　　But while the wise have realized that they don’t need them, others—apparently including some distinguished men of our time—are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to £250.000 for a piece.

　　This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Expensive watches come with extra functions—but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?

　　If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world.

　　Watches are now classified as “investments”(投资). A 1994 Philippe recently sold for nearly? £350, 000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from? 15, 000 to? 30, 000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It’s a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up-—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when of fashion. Prices may keep going up—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that? £350, 000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Times.

　　44. The sales of watches to young people have fallen because they__________.

　　A. have other devices to tell the time

　　B. think watches too expensive

　　C. prefer to wear an iPod

　　D. have no sense of time

　　45. It seems ridiculous to the writer that_______________.

　　A. people dive 300 metres into the sea

　　B. expensive clothes sell better than cheap ones

　　C. cheap cars don’t run as fast as expensive ones

　　D. expensive watches with unnecessary functions still sell

　　46. What can be learnt about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

　　A. It targets rich people as its potential customers.

　　B. It’s hard for the industry to beat its competitors.

　　C. It wastes a huge amount of money in advertising.

　　D. It’s easy for the industry to reinvent cheap watches.

　　47. Which would be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Timex or Rolex?

　　B. My Childhood Timex

　　C. Watches? Mot for Me!

　　D. Watches—a Valuable Collection

　　Passage Four

　　A few years ago, Paul Gerner began to gather a group of architects in Las vegas to ask them what it would take to design a public school that used 50 percent less energy, cost much less to build and obviously improved student learning . ”I think half of then fell off their chairs,” Gerner says.

　　Gerner manages school facilities (设施)for Clark county, Nevada, a district roughly the size of Massachusetts. By 2018, 143, 000 additional students will enter the already crowded public-education system. Gerner needs 73 new schools to house them. Four architecture teams have nearly finished designing primary school prototypes (样品) ; They plan to construct their schools starting in 2009. The district will then assess how well the schools perform, and three winners will copy those designs in 50 to 70 new buildings.

　　Green schools are appearing all over, but in Clark County, which stands out for its vastness, such aggressive targets are difficult because design requirements like more natural light for students go against the realities of a desert climate. ”One of the biggest challenges is getting the right site orientation(朝向), ” Mark McGinty, a director at SH Architecture, says. His firm recently completed a high school in Las Vegas. “You have the same building, same set of windows, but if its orientation is incorrect and it faces the sun, it will be really expensive to cool.”

　　Surprisingly, the man responsible for one of re most progressive green-design competitions has doubts about ideas of eco-friendly buildings. ”I don’t believe in the new green religion,” Gerner says. ”Gerner says.”Some of the building technologies that you get are impractical. I’m interested in those that work. ”But he wouldn’t mind if some green features inspire students. He says he hopes to set up green energy systems that allow them to learn about the process of harvesting wind and solar power. ”You never know what’s going to start the interest of a child to study math and science,”he says.

　　48.How did the architects react to Garner’s design requirements?

　　A. They lost balance in excitement.

　　B. they showed strong disbelief.

　　C. they expressed little interest.

　　D. they burst into cheers.

　　49.Which order of steps is followed in carrying out the project?

　　A. Assessment-Prototype-Design-Construction.

　　B. Assessment-Design-Prototype-Construction.

　　C. Design-Assessment-Prototype-Construction.

　　D. Design-Prototype-Assessment-Construction.

　　50.What makes it difficult to build green schools in Clark County?

　　A. The large size.

　　B. Limited facilities.

　　C. The desert climate.

　　D. Poor natural resources.

　　51.What does Gerner think of the ideas of green schools?

　　A. They are questionable. C. They are advanced.

　　B. They are out of date. D. They are practical.

　　Passage Five

　　Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be, Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant (不相关的). A half century ago in the United states, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time, Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.

　　The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does , It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer, in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible” is often debated, How should we , as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?

　　These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years—but unless we meet the truant officer (学监) , we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working.”but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes(构成) “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. , When we turn the clock forward to start daylight—saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves; “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law—as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work , time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.

　　52. By saying” Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be,” the writer means that __________.

　　A. work time is equal to rest time

　　B. many people have a day off on Monday,

　　C. it is hard for people to decide when to rest

　　D. the line between work time and rest time is unclear

　　53. The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people____.

　　A. fail to make full use of their time

　　B. enjoy working overtime for extra pay

　　C. are unaware of the law of time

　　D. welcome flexible working hours

　　54. According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they_____.

　　A. need to acquire knowledge

　　B. have to obey their parents

　　C. need to find companions

　　D. have to observe the law

　　55. What is the main idea of the passage?

　　A. Our life is governed by the law of time

　　B. How to organize time is not worth debating.

　　C. New ways of using time change our society.

　　D. Our time schedule is decided by social customs