就“高三学生是否应该参加其它课外活动”这个主题发表你的看法，并根据你个人的学习经历和老师的看法和建议，简述你的理由。（题目自拟）

“We are reading the first part of the first section of a book whose pages are never-ending. ”I don’t know who wrote those words, but I have always liked them as a reminder that the future can be anything we want to make it.  We can take the mysterious, unknown future and carve out of it anything that we can imagine, just like a sculptor carves a statue from a shapeless stone . We are all in the position of the farmer.  If we plant a good seed , we get in a good harvest ; if our seed is poor and the field is full of weeds , we get in a useless crop ; if we plant nothing at all , we. I want the future to be better than the past.  I don’t want it damaged by the mistakes and errors with which history is filled. We should all be concerned about the future because that is where we will spend the rest of our lives. The past is gone forever. Nothing we can do will change it. The future is before us and dynamic. Everything we can do will affect it. Each day will bring with it new frontiers, in our homes and in our business, if we will only recognize them.  We are just at the beginning of the progress in every field of human effort.

1. What is the purpose of the author? (Please answer within 10 words.)

2. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?

  Future is of vital importance to us in our life, so we should take care of it.

3. Please fill in the blank in the third paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence.  (Please answer within 10 words.)

4. The author said, “The future can be anything we want to make it.” What do you want to make your future? (Please answer within 30 words.)  

5. Translate the underlined sentence in the fifth paragraph into Chinese.

People can be addicted to different things, e.g. alcohol, drugs, certain foods, or even television.  People who have such an addiction are compulsive (难以抑制的); i. e.  , they have a very powerful psychological need that they feel they must satisfy.  According to psychologists, many people are compulsive spenders; they feel that they must spend money.  This compulsion, like most others, is irrational – impossible to explain reasonably.  For compulsive spenders who buy on credit, charge accounts are even more exciting than money.  In other words, compulsive spenders feel that with credit, they can do anything.  Their pleasure in spending enormous amounts is actually greater than the pleasures that they get from the things they buy.

There is even a special psychology of bargain hunting.  To save money, of course, most people look for sales, low prices, and discounts.  Compulsive bargain hunters, however, often buy things that they don’t need just because they are cheap.  They want to believe that they are helping their budgets, but they are really playing an exciting game: when they can buy something for less than other people, they feel that they are winning.  Most people, experts claim, have two reasons for their behavior: a good reason for the things that they do and the real reason.

It is not only scientists, of course, who understand the psychology of spending habits, but also business people.  Stores, companies and advertisers use psychology to increase business: they consider people’s need for love, power, or influence, their basic values, their beliefs and opinions, and so on in their advertising and sales methods.

Psychologists often use a method called “behavior therapy” to help individuals solve their personal problems.  In the same was, they can help people who feel that they have problems with money.

1.  According to psychologists, a compulsive spender is one who spends large amounts of money       .

       A. and takes great pleasure from what he or she buys  

B. in order to satisfy his or her basic needs in life

       C. just to meet his or her strong psychological need   

D. entirely with an irrational eagerness

2. According to the writer, compulsive bargain hunters are in constant search of the lowest possible prices         .

       A. because they want to save money to help their budgets

       B. because they can have the feeling of winning others in getting things for less money

       C. and will not have money problems if they can keep to their budget

       D. but they often admit they feel dissatisfied if they can get things for less money than others

3. The passage is mainly concerned with          .

       A. the psychology of money – spending habits  

B. the purchasing habits of compulsive spenders

       C. a special psychology of bargain hunting     

D. the use of the psychology of spending habits in business

4. Which of the following statements is true?

       A. All people spend money for exactly the same reason they need to buy things.

       B. Business people and advertisers can use the psychology of money to increase sales.

       C. Business people understand the psychology of compulsive buying better than scientists do.

       D. Compulsive bargain hunters do not have problems with money.

5. From the passage we may safely concluded that compulsive spenders or compulsive bargain hunters         .

       A. are really unreasonable         

B. need special treatment

       C. are really beyond treatment      

D. can never get any help to solve their problems with money

It was once thought that air pollution affected only the area around large urban districts with factories and heavy automobile traffic.  Today, we know that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally(=really) worldwide.  On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the entire eastern half of the United States and led to health warnings even in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing（制造业的） and automobile traffic.  In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be affected by air pollution.  Some scientists feel that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels is creating a “greenhouse effect” – holding in heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature.  If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be under water.

Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particulate matter（颗粒物质）in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature – a result that would be equally disastrous（损失惨重的）.  A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to new ice age and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas.  At present we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report prepared by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very likely).  Perhaps, if we are very lucky, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now.

1. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution       .

A. caused widespread damage in the countryside     

B. affected the entire eastern half of the United States

       C. had damaging effects on health                 

D. existed merely in urban and industrial areas

2. As far as the greenhouse effect is concerned, the author       .

       A. shares the same view with the scientists    B. is uncertain of its occurrence

       C. rejects it as being ungrounded                    D. thinks that it will destroy the world soon

3. The word “offset” (Para. 2) could best be replaced by       .

       A. slip into                B. make up for          C. set up                   D. catch up with

4. It can be inferred from the passage that           .

       A. raising the world’s temperature only a few degrees wouldn’t do much harm to life on earth

       B. lowering the world’s temperature merely a few degrees would lead many major farming areas to disaster

       C. almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade

       D. the world’s temperature will remain constant in the years to come

5. This passage is primarily concerned with       .

       A. the greenhouse effect                            B. the burning of fossil fuels

       C. the potential effect of air pollution    D. the likelihood of a new ice age

When people ask your children to “get an education”, they tell you only half the truth.  What they really mean is to get just enough education to give manpower for your society.

Get a high school diploma, at least.  Without that, you are occupationally dead, unless your name happens to be George Washington or Thomas Edison and you can successfully stop study in primary schools.

Get a college degree, if possible.  With a BA, you should start to find a job.  You have to put on the brakes now.  If you do go for a master’s degree, make sure it is an MBA and only from a first – class university.  Otherwise, the famous law of diminishing (报酬递减率) begins to work.

Do you know, for example, that long – distance truck drivers make more money a year than full professors? Yes, each driver was paid $28,000 in 1997 while a full professor managed to get $27,930.

A PhD is the highest degree you can get, but except in a few specialized fields such as physics or chemistry, where the degree can quickly be turned to industrial or commercial aim, you are facing a not very bright future.  There are more PhDs unemployed in this country than in any other part of the world by far.

If you became a PhD in English or history or political science or languages or – worst of all – in philosophy（哲学）, you take the risk of becoming over – educated for our national demands.

Thousands of PhDs are selling shoes, driving taxis, waiting on tables and filling out applications month after month, and then may be taking a job in some high school or college with the pay much less than a door–keeper makes.

1. According to the writer, society expects education to turn out people who will       .

       A. raise their payment                  B. get employed

       C. become specialized in some field             D. meet the demands as a source of manpower

2. Long–distance truck drivers make more money a year than full professors because         .

       A. the famous law of diminishing functions

       B. long – distance truck drivers only get a high school diploma

       C. full professors are PhDs in English or history

       D. long – distance truck drivers work harder than full professors

3. If you don’t want to be occupationally dead, you       .

       A. should look for a job in a primary school      

B. must at least get a high school diploma

       C. have to get as high an education as possible

D. should try to avoid being overeducated in philosophy

4. The underlined phrase “put on the brakes” in the 3 rd paragraph means “      ”.

       A. stop learning for a high degree            B. take up a master’s degree at once

       C. go on studying in a first – class university   D. find any interesting job

5. What can we know from the passage?

       A. The higher education you get, the more money you will earn.

       B. There are more PhDs than the society demands.

       C. Neither George Washington nor Edison received formal education.

       D. If you are specialized in physics, you can’t get a good job easily.