第二部分 阅读理解 (共两节， 满分40分)

第一节 (共15小题;每小题2分，满分30分)阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

A

In early autumn I applied for admission to college. I wanted to go nowhere but to Cornell University, but my mother fought strongly against it. When she saw me studying a photograph of my father on the sports ground of Cornell, she tore it up. “You can’t say it’s not a great university, just because Papa went there.”

“That’s not it at all. And it is a top university.”She was still holding the pieces in her hand. “But we can’t afford to send you to college.”

“I wouldn’t dream of asking you for money. Do you want me to get a job to help support you and Papa? Things aren’t that bad, are they?”

“No,”she said. “I don’t expect you to help support us.”

Father borrowed money from his rich cousins to start a small jewelry shop. His chief customers were his old college friends. To get new customers, my mother had to help. She picked up a long-forgotten membership in the local league of women, so that she could get to know more people. Whether those people would turn into customers was another question. I knew that my parents had to wait for quite a long time before their small investment (投资) could show returns. What’s more, they had not wanted enough to be rich and successful; otherwise they could not possibly have managed their lives so badly.

I was torn between the desire to help them and change their lives, and the determination not to repeat their mistakes. I had a strong belief in my power to get what I wanted. After months of hard study I won a full college scholarship. My father could hardly contain his pride in me, and my mother eventually gave in before my success.

21. The author was not allowed to go to Cornell University mainly because_______

A.his father graduated from the university

B.his mother did not thinks it a great university

C.his parents needed him to help support the family

D.his parents did not have enough money for him

22. Why did the mother renew her membership in the league?

A.To help with her husband’s business B.To raise money for her son

C.To meet her long-forgotten friends D.To better manage her life

23. According to the text, what was the author determined to do in that autumn?

A.To get a well-paid job for himself B.To improve relations with his mother

C.To go to his dream university D.To carry on with his father’s business

B

Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

Previous studies have linked high exposure to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物)were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好)quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

24. The text mainly discusses the relationship between _____________.

A. heart problems and air quality B. heart problems and exercising

C. heart problems and smoking D. heart problems and fatty food

25. The underlined word “modest” in Paragraph 3 most probably means_______ .

A. relatively high B. extremely low

C. relatively low D. extremely high

26. What can we learn from the text?

A. Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart.

B. The EPA conducted many studies on air quality.

C. Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking,

D. Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made.

27. The author’s purpose of writing the text is most likely to _______.

A. inform B. persuade C. describe D. entertain