第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）

　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（a，b，c和d）中，选出最佳选项。

a

　　at one time it was the dream of many little girls to BECome a nurse．today, however, america is facing its worst nurse shortage since world war i. recently about 2, 000, 000 nurses are needed and 60 percent of all hospitals in the us have shortages large enough to threaten（= say that you will hurt somebody ff they don’t do what you want）the quality of care provided. the demand for nurses spreads widely throughout the nursing field.

　　what has become of these women in white? the answer lies in not one but several causes.　one possibility is the fact that woman have greater career options （职业选择）. in the past, women who chose to work outside the home had two basic choices: nursing or teaching. today, more women than ever are in the work force, but their options have greatly increased. there are women doctors, lawyers, firefighters and police officers. in fact, women today are found in nearly every field of work. nursing has been left behind, as women move on to jobs with higher pay and greater status（地位）。 a woman or man in the nursing field is often looked down upon as “merely a nurse”. teachers may be also at fault. many high school students are actually being steered （劝 导）away from nursing, told by teachers that they are “too bright to be a nurse”.

　　americans are living longer than ever and requiring more medical attention. in fact, the number of elderly patients has almost doubled in the past twenty years. obviously a larger population requires more nurses. aids and other diseases have caused more and more people to need nursing care. usually fatal diseases mean long drawn - out hospital stay, that is to say, more nurses are needed to care for these patients. it is estimated that the demand for nurses will be doubled the supply in the coming ten years.

　　56．why is america facing its worst nurse shortage?

　　a. because the demand of nurses has been doubled.

　　b. because more and more women prefer to be teachers and doctors.

　　c. because women have been provided with many different jobs.

　　d. because women no longer choose to be nurses.

　　57．the passage tells us that high school teachers are at fault for________.

　　a. not mentioning the worst nurse shortage in the us

　　b. introducing jobs with higher pay and greater status to their students

　　c. not asking the government to raise the nurses’ payment

　　d. persuading the students not to be nurses

　　58．the author wrote this passage in order to________.

　　a. describe the unequal treatment of women in the us

　　b. warn people to pay more attention to the nursing problem

　　c. tell us women’s free choice of jobs today

　　d. call on women not to be nurses

　　59．which of the following is true according to the passage?

　　a. high school students think themselves too bright to be nurses．

　　b. women in the us have greater career choice than those in other countries.

　　c. of all the hospitals in the world 60 percent more nurses are badly needed.

　　d. nursing used to be a popular job among women.

b

　　the producer appeared behind the recording studio window and smiled and waved to me like an old friend. and after i had read out a little test piece, he said, “that’s fine, wonderful, your voice is perfect, lovely, wonderful.” then i read a longer passage in english about the delights of touring in britain, and another about the delights of visiting london, and both were“excellent” and“just right”, and i began to consider a job in radio.

　　to be honest, i was fairly sure of myself though i lacked experience. across the room in the hamburg news agency where we both worked, a friend named peter turner called to me, “i say, mike, a man on the phone here wants someone to do a recording in english, and i’m booked up. would you read something to him in english as a sort of test?”i did, and they said“ perfect, lovely, wonderful, ... ”would i come round?

　　it was after reading their passage in english in the studio that they noticed my vowel pronunciations were not altogether king’s english, or even prince philip’s, there was a larger silence than usual, then the voice said: “fine, lovely... , but you said the word’castle’with a short‘a’. could we have the passage again please, but this time say ‘carsele’.”

　　this was easy. but then he noticed other differences in my pronunciation.

　　“it’s my northern english accent, ”i said, angry, because i had to apologize for it.

　　“oh, i see... but my jamieson, we’ll have to get it right, i’m afraid.　the recording is for teaching english to german schoolchildren, and it must be spoken in the way it is taught in german school.”

　　i read the passage again... and again... and again. but of course you cannot change the pronunciation of a lifetime in an hour. the studio men were in the state of having lost hope and underlined the vowels which caused me to feel angry, so that i’d remember them. few, really. but because i had to concentrate （集中）on them, i made a lot of mistakes in my reading. everyone got somewhat irritable（easily made angry）, so we all went out for a beer.

　　60．broadcasting did not make mike nervous________.

　　a. although he had never done any before

　　b. because he worked in a news agency

　　c. because he was used to talking on the phone

　　d. although the passages were long

　　61．what happened after mike had read the third passage?/QC7%`3Jf"E.F ( 贵州 学 习 网 高考频道试题宝库 )/QC7%`3Jf"E.FhTTp://wWw.gZu521.cOm

　　a. they made him repeat it．

　　b. they said nothing.

　　c. they began to discuss the king’s english.

　　d. they could not understand one of the words.

　　62．they wanted mike to change his pronunciation because________.

　　a. german schoolchildren did not like a northern accent

　　b. it was different from the english taught in german schools

　　c. it was different from the english spoken in germany

　　d. german schoolchildren were taught through recordings

　　63．why did mike’s reading of the passage get worse?

　　a. he needed a drink to clear his throat

　　b. he was trying to do the recording in an hour.

　　c. he was trying hard to get certain sounds right.

　　d. he could not learn so many new sounds.

c

　　let us say there is something you don’t know how to do. in the past if you were determined to learn, you might have called friends or relatives, taken a night class or walked down to the local library for a research term. but now a host of websites are springing up to provide free practical advice on these subjects and actually anything else you can think of. in one sense, these“ how - to sites represent a part of the growing world of online learning. these faqs （frequent answers and questions）, many of which still circulate（go round continuously）, took a special subject and explained it to complete novices. but, “how - to” sites take the faq idea in a somewhat different direction by addressing subjects that aren’t necessarily associated with discussion forums （论坛）.these sites take the style of a written tutorial and a tone of friendly advice. possibly the biggest and best known of these sites is learn 2．com（www. learn2. come）it offers nearly 1, 000 free tutorials and adds new ones frequently for a job interview. at ehow. com （www. ehow.）you can learn how to train for your first marathon, how to buy a vacation home, or how to make a movie in eight steps.

　　64．the purpose of the passage is to________.

　　a. introduce new websites to netizens（网民）

　　b. say how to learn new courses by internet

　　c. bring new means to learn something new

　　d. help you to solve any difficulty you meet with

　　65．the underlined word“ novices” probably means________.

　　a. people with rich experience

　　b. people without experience

　　c. beginners of“ how - to” sites

　　d. hosts of “how - to”sites

　　66．from the passage we may guess that________.

　　a. a deaf person can teach himself at home by visiting “howto” sites

　　b. “how - to” sites are specially designed for the disabled

　　c. you can just click your mouth at home to question anything

　　d. it is pleasant to listen to the advice on “how-to” sites

　　67．if you have no tent when you decide to go camping, you may________ .

　　a. visit www．learn2. com　　　　 b. visit www. ehow. com

　　c. visit some site else　　　　　　　d. go to the tourist company