61. What can we learn from the two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen?

A. One man’s meat is another man’s poison. B. They are really gentlemen true to their word. C. They are too vain to express their true feelings. D. The conduct of the two gentlemen is really absurd.

C

Today, many species of animals and plants are endangered. This means they are in danger of becoming extinct and living on only in the pages of history books. The famous dodo is a classic example of a creature that became extinct. A flightless bird that lived on the island of Mauritius, it was discovered by sailors in 1598 but was hunted to extinction by 1681.

Hunting has caused the Bengal tiger and the African elephant to be endangered today but habitat destruction can also lead to extinction. This is equally true for plants. Animals and plants disappear for other reasons too, but the main cause is often a disruption（打乱，破坏） in the natural food chain, whether due to hunting, habitat destruction, or even the introduction of alien species.

The natural food chain is the cycle that governs the existence of all life on this planet. It is a carefully balanced cycle and any imbalance that occurs can cause knock-on effects that have serious consequences. At the beginning of the natural food chain are plants which turn sunlight into energy and draw nutrients from the earth. Plants are called producers.

After the producers come the consumers. There are three tiers of consumers. First are creatures such as plant-eating animals, fish and insects which feed off the producers. These animals that only eat plants are called herbivores. The second tier of consumers are carnivores - animals that live off other animals. The third tier of consumers eats both other animals and plants. These consumers, including most humans, are called omnivores.

After animals and plants die, they become food for other smaller creatures, such as bacteria and some plants, such as fungi. As they feed, these creatures turn the dead bodies back into gases and minerals which are again food for the producers at the beginning of the food chain. And so the cycle continues.

All of nature is connected and governed by hundreds of these delicate food chains and if a single plant in the chain cannot survive, then the insects that live off the plant start to die and the animals that eat the insects also start to die.

When a food chain is disrupted, the consequences can be extremely serious. One estimate suggests that for each plant species that is lost, up to 30 animals and insects may also die out. One wonders how many species were affected by the extinction of the dodo?

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Humans can have disastrous effects on food chains. We've already mentioned hunting but now let's look at travel. When people first started to explore the world they took plant and animal species from their home countries and introduced them wherever they went. They didn't realize that by introducing alien species they were disrupting the natural food chains of the areas they discovered. Although there are strict rules in place today controlling the import and export of alien species, some places are still fighting the effects of aliens introduced hundreds of years ago.

For example, Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean is a breeding ground for albatrosses that have been nesting there for centuries. But in the 19th century, mice from passing ships were brought to the island. Being a species alien to the island, they had no natural predators and have now grown to such a size that they are attacking and killing albatross chicks. If they are allowed to continue, they will wipe out the albatross population.

With import laws and people's rising awareness of how humans affect the natural environment, hopefully we can learn to fit better into the natural food chains that govern our world. Otherwise we need to accept that the loss of any more plants and animals could eventually mean our own extinction. 62. What do the first two paragraphs mainly tell us?

A. Hunting and habitat destruction lead to extinction. B. Many species of animals and plants are endangered. C. Plants and animals become extinct for the same reasons.

D. The main cause of extinction is often a disruption in the natural food chain. 63. Which of the following sentence is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Strict rules alone can remove the bad effects of alien species. B. Plants, herbivores and carnivores are the three tiers of consumers. C. If a bird becomes extinct, the relevant food chain will be disrupted. D. Animals and plants become extinct because alien species are imported.

64. By mentioning the mice in Gough Island, the author intends to highlight ______.

A. mice worldwide are growing all the time B. being aliens, they had no natural predators

C. some places are still fighting the effects of aliens D. traveling can have disastrous effects on food chains 65. What is the best title of the passage?

A. Survival of the fittest.

B. Endangered animals and plants.

C. How to protect the natural environment. D. The link between food chains and extinction.

D

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What will higher education look like in 2050? That was the question addressed Tuesday night by Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University.

“We’re at the end of the fourth wave of change in higher education,‖ Crow began, arguing that research universities followed the initial establishment of higher education, public colleges, and land-grant schools in the timeline of America.

In less than a half-century, he said, global market competition will be at its fastest rates of change ever, with several multitrillion-dollar economies worldwide. According to a recent projection, the nation’s population could reach 435 million, with a large percentage of those residents economically disadvantaged. In addition, climate change will be ―meaningfully uncontrollable‖ in many parts of the world.

The everyday trends seen today, such as declining performance of students at all levels, particularly in math and science, and declining wages and employment among the less educated, will only continue, Crow maintained, and are, to say the least, not contributing to fulfilling the dream of climbing the social ladder mobility, quality of life, sustainable environment, and longer life spans that most Americans share.

“How is it that we can have these great research universities and have negative-trending outcomes?‖ Crow said in a talk ―I hold the universities accountable. … We are part of the problem.‖

Among the ―things that we do that make the things that we teach less learnable,‖ Crow said, are the strict separation of disciplines, academic rigidity, and conservatism, the desire of universities to imitate schools at the top of the social ranks, and the lack of the computer system ability that would allow a large number of students to be educated for a small amount of money.

Since 2002, when Crow started being in charge at Arizona State — which he calls the ―new American university‖ — he has led more than three dozen initiatives that aim to make the school ―inclusive, scalable, fast, adaptive, challenge-focused, and willing to take risks.‖

Among those initiatives were a restructuring of the engineering and life sciences schools to create more linkages between disciplines; the launch of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Sustainability; the start of a Teachers College to address K-12 performance and increase the status of the Education Department at the university; and broadened access, increasing the freshman class size by 42 percent and the enrollment of students living below the poverty line by 500 percent.

Universities must start, Crow noted, ―by becoming self-reflective architects, figuring out what we have and what we actually need instead of what legend tells us we have to be.‖ Research universities today have ―run their course,‖ he added. ―Now is the time for variety.‖

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During a discussion afterward, Crow clarified and expanded on some of his points. He discussed, for example, the school’s distance-learning program. ―Nearly 40 percent of undergraduates are taking at least one course online,‖ he said, which helps the school to keep costs down while advancing interactive learning technologies.

He said that Arizona State is working to increase the transfer and completion rates of community-college students, of whom only about 15 percent, historically, complete their later degrees. ―We’ve built a system that will allow them to track into universities,‖ particularly where ―culturally complex barriers‖ beyond finances limit even the most gifted students.

66. The fourth wave of change in America’s higher education refers to _______.

A. public colleges B. land-grant schools C. research universities D. initial higher education 67. Which is NOT part of the American dream most people share?

A. People enjoy a quality life. B. People live longer and longer.

C. The freedom to move around. D. An environment that is sustainable. 68. Which is an initiative adopted by Crow at Arizona State University?

A. Restructuring the teachers College. B. Launching the School of Life Sciences. C. Ignoring the linkages between disciplines. D. Enrolling more students from poor families.

69. Which one is similar to the underlined word ―architect‖ in meaning?

A. The author of the guidebook is an architect by profession. B. If you want to refurnish the house, consult the architect. C. Deng Xiaoping is one of the architects of the PRC. D. Tom is considered one of the best landscape architect here.

70. With the distance-learning program, Arizona State University is able to ______.

A. enroll 40% of its students online

B. keep costs down without a loss of quality C. provide an even greater number of courses

D. attract the most gifted students all over the world

第二卷 （共35分）

第一节 任务型阅读 （共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填一个单词。

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