In the US and Britain, the slogan around colleges was “Save water. Shower with a friend.” Now, Wuhan University has come up with another system for the campus bathhouse. It charges students for the amount of time in a shower. Before entering the bathhouse, students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower with cash or their student ID card. The clock starts ticking the minute the tape is turned on. It pauses when a button is pressed for soap. An integrated circuit(IC) card reader at each tap shows the time. No money, no water. The benefits of the new system can be seen with the old system, which charged 1 Yuan for each person regardless of time in the shower. The university used about 320 tones of water daily under the old system, but only 160 tons now.

Many students use the new system but opinions on it are divided. Some students say it is bad because bathing had become a sort of race. Many people using it for the first time are not sure how long they need to shower. Some might be embarrassed if their time is up and they’re still covered in soap. They have to ask the bathhouse worker to help them buy extra time.

“It’s a flaw in the system that you can not buy extra time on the ID card,” said Ren, a freshman in Wuhan University. The university is also considering some students’ suggestions that they be allowed to pay after they’ve finished the shower. Not surprisingly, some are complaining about losing the hour shower. But many students say the move helps them develop a water-saving sense.

Without the time limits, most students tended to shower for 30 to an hour in the bathhouse.Some even used the hot water to wash their clothes. “In my experience, 10-20 minutes is enough,” said Dai Zhihua, a third-year student who usually takes 8 minutes.

A similar system has been installed in other universities. Shanghai Normal University introduced it at its Fengxiang Campus in September. The bathing fee there is 0.2 Yuan per minute. One male student responded by setting a record with a two-minute shower.

25．The underline word “flaw” (Paragraph3) most probably means______.

A. perfection    B. fault        C. pity       D. advantage

26．Since the new system has performed, ______ of water can be saved.

A. one half      B. one third    C. a quarter   D. two thirds

27．It can be inferred from the passage that______.

A. the new operation can solve the water crisis.

B. The university has saved a lot of water by using the new system.

C. a similar operation has been set in other universities.

D. The new operation can raise students’ environmental awareness system.

28．In which column can you find this passage?

A. People.      B. Society     C. Campus Life.    D. Lifestyle

    About five years ago, an American electrical engineer named Scott Brusaw and his wife Julie came up with the idea of putting solar panels on the ground rather than the roof. Then they began to develop the Solar Roadway. The Solar Roadway is an intelligent road that provides clean renewable energy using power from the sun while providing safer driving conditions, along with power and data delivery. They predict that the Solar Roadway will pay for itself through the generation of electricity along with other forms of income and that the same money that is being used to build and resurface current roads can be used to build the Solar Roadways.

    Each Solar Road Panel measures roughly 4 meters by 4 meters and contains a microprocessor (微处理器) that monitors and controls the panel, while communicating with neighboring panels and the vehicles traveling overhead. The inventors suggest that this provides a communications device every 4 meters on every road which could be used for example to warn drivers of cars which are moving across a centre line and various other speed control problems. The top of the Solar Road panels is made of super-strong glass that would offer vehicles the tractions (抓地力) they need.

    According to the inventors, the Solar Roadway creates and carries clean renewable electricity and therefore electric vehicles can be recharged at any conveniently located rest stop, or at any business that has paved Solar Road Panels in their parking lots.

    The inventors say their Solar Roadway has many functions and advantages from main roads to driveways, parking lots, bike paths, sidewalks and runways. The Federal Highway Administration has given Brusaw $100,000 to develop the invention and Brusaw hopes to build a smart-road parking lot in the coming spring .

24. In the inventors’ opinion, the Solar Roadway _____.

   A. is too expensive to build at present   B. will bring them a large sum of money

   C. can provide as many data as present computers

   D. costs no more money than current roads

25. The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.

   A. the panels            B. the vehicles        C. the researchers         D. the inventors

26. It can be inferred from the text that _____.

   A. the Solar Roadway is not available for gas-powered cars

   B. $100,000 is only enough to build a smart-road parking lot

   C. the Solar Roadway has already been put into use

   D. future electric vehicles can be charged anytime and anywhere

27. What can be the best title for the text?

   A. The influence the Solar Roadway has on people   B. The great changes on the roadway

   C. Solar-powered smart road of the future       D. The Solar Road — a much faster road

    Ask most people how they define the American Dream and chances are they’ll say, “Success.” The dream of individual opportunity has been home in American since Europeans discovered a “new world” in the Western Hemisphere. Early immigrants like Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur praised highly the freedom and opportunity to be found in this new land. His glowing descriptions of a classless society where anyone could attain success through honesty and hard work fired the imaginations of many European readers: in Letters from an American Farmer (1782) he wrote. “We are all excited at the spirit of an industry which is unfettered (无拘无束的) and unlimited, because each person works for himself … We have no princes, for whom we toil (干苦力活)，starve, and bleed: we are the most perfect society now existing in the world.” The promise of a land where “the rewards of a man’s industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor” drew poor immigrants from Europe and fueled national expansion into the western territories.
    We Americans have heard many illustrations of the American success stories. There’s Benjamin Franklin, the very model of the self-educated, self-made man, who rose from modest origins to become a well-known scientist, philosopher, and statesman. In the nineteenth century, Horatio Alger, a writer of fiction for young boys, became American’s best-selling author with rags-to-riches tales. The conception of success haunts us: we spend million every year reading about the rich and famous, learning how to “make a fortune in real estate with no money down,” and “dressing for success.” The myth of success has even affected our personal relationships: today it’s as important to be “successful” in marriage or parenthoods as it is to come out on top in business.
    But dreams easily turn into nightmares. Every American who hopes to “make it” also knows the fear of failure, because the myth of success inevitably implies comparison between the haves and the have-nots, the stars and the anonymous crowd. Under pressure of the myth, we become indulged in status symbols: we try to live in the “right” neighborhoods, wear the “right” clothes, eat the “right” foods. These symbols of distinction assure us and others that we believe strongly in the fundamental equality of all, yet work as hard as we can to separate ourselves from our fellow citizens.

28. What is the essence of the American Dream according to Crevecoeur?
   A. People can fully enjoy individual freedom.  

   B. People who are honest and work hard can succeed.
   C. People are free from exploitation and oppression.
   D. People are free to develop their power of imagination.
29. By saying “the rewards of a man’s industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor” (Para. 1), the author means _____.
   A. laborious work ensures the growth of an industry  

   B. a company’s success depends on its employees’ effort
   C. the more hard-working one is, the bigger his returns
   D. a man’s business should be developed step by step

30. The characters described in Horatio Alger’s novels are people who _______.
   A. succeed in real estate investment
   B. became wealthy after starting life very poor
   C. earned enormous fortunes by chance
   D. became famous despite their modest origins

31. What is the contradiction of American culture according to the author?
   A. The American road to success is full of nightmares.
   B. Status symbols are not a real indicator of a person’s wealth.
   C. What Americans chase is not often consistent with their beliefs.
   D. The American Dream is nothing but an empty dream.

A German company was concerned about talks in Moscow trying to sell some 100 million dollars worth of equipment to a Russian State company. Talks went smoothly but differences remained. So Martin Bayer himself, the CEO of the German Company, decided to come to Moscow to head the talks. Besides caring about his business, the CEO wanted to go to Russia to hunt bears.

Martin Bayer was one of the greatest hunters of our time (and the Russians knew about it). He went to the Sahara more than hundred times and hunted lions, crocodiles; he hunted polar bears in the North Pole and tigers in the rain forests of India. But he had never hunted Russian bears.

So the Russians decided to organize a bear hunt for Mr. Bayer to sweeten the talks. This wasn't a simple task. Some people in the west still believe that bears may be found and seen everywhere in Russian cities just like squirrels may be seen in our back yards. This is not true. The closest place one may find bears in the wild is maybe 2,500 miles away from Moscow. However, a solution was quickly found. The Russian businessmen went to Moscow Circus（马戏团）and for $2,000 bought a very old bear. This bear used to amuse and amaze audiences in many countries for 30 years, but got and looked too old, and was retired.

“Be careful, the Russian bears are very dangerous, and frightening,” they told to Mr. Bayer. “If compared to the Russian bears, your African lions are nothing more than harmless cats.” The bear was brought to a forest 50 miles from Moscow and was left there. Mr. Bayer was told that bears were plentiful in that forest and that many cattle and even people had been eaten in the surrounding villages.

Meanwhile, an 18-year old female drove through the forest on a motorcycle and suddenly saw a bear (no bears had been seen in those places for 200 years). She was frightened, fell, left her helmet and her motorcycle and ran away.

Mr. Bayer was excited and ready to hunt. This could become the most successful part of his extraordinary hunting experience. The next moment Mr. Bayer saw a bear in a helmet driving on a motorcycle through the forest in front of him. The bear had a happy expression on his face, as he was doing something he had been doing in the circus for 30 years: circling on a motorcycle!

Mr. Bayer lives in a private mental institution near Hamburg happily ever after. The equipment was never sold to Russia. It was sold to Iraq instead.

21. Why did the Russians invite Mr. Bayer to hunt bears?

A. Russian bears are famous for their cruelty.

B. They managed to find a bear for hunting.

C. They expected the trade to be successful.

D. There was a bear in Moscow Circus.

22. Why did the Russians say “Be careful, the Russian bears are very dangerous, and frightening”?

A. To tell Mr. Bayer that many people had been killed by bears.

B. To make Mr. Bayer feel the hunting really challenging.

C. To warn Mr. Bayer to mind his safety while hunting.

D. To tell Mr. Bayer that the bear is really dangerous.

23. We can infer from the last paragraph that __________.

A. Mr. Bayer has gone mad    B. the bear injured him badly

C. he has worked in a mental institution since then

D. the trade has gone smoothly between Russian and Iraq

Dar and I loved to dance. It was probably the first thing we did together, long before we would share our lives.

We grew up in a small Oregon mountain community where dances were held almost every Saturday night. Dar was seventeen, and l was thirteen, when we first danced. He was one of the best dancers on the floor, and so was I. We always jitterbugged. No slow dancing for us; nothing remotely romantic.

Our fathers would stand along the wall and watch. Every once in a while, Dar’s dad would smile a little and say, to no one in particular, but my dad could hear, “Boy, my kid can sure dance.” My dad never blinked an eye; he acted like he’d never heard. But a while later he would say, to no one in particular, “That girl of mine can sure dance.”

Our dancing together stopped for five years while Dar was in the South Pacific in World War II. When we met again, Dar was twenty-two, and l was eighteen. We began to date and dance again. We were as good together as we remembered, and this time we added slow dancing.

For us, life is a dance, a movement of rhythms, directions, stumbles, missteps, at times slow and precise, or fast and wild and joyous. We did all the steps.

Two nights before Dar died, the family were with us. We all ate dinner together, and Dar sat with us. He hadn’t been able to eat for several days. After dinner, I put on a Nat King Cole tape. Dar took me in his arms, weak as he was, and we danced and smiled. No tears for us. We were doing what we had loved to do for more than fifty years. It was our last dance－forever unforgettable.1 wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

1. The author first danced with Dar when_________.

A. they were still in their teens                        B. they began to date each other

C. they began to share their lives                     D. Dar returned from the South Pacific

2. What does the author mean by the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. Her dad didn’t like Dar’s father.

B. Her dad was not interested in the dance.

C. Her dad was too focused on his daughter.

D. Her dad thought his daughter danced better.

3. How did the author feel when she danced with Dar for the last time?

A. Regretful.              B. Content.         C.  Heart-broken.      D. Concerned.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A. My Unforgettable Dancing Partner               B. Dance Together to the Last

C. My Last Dance with Dar                      D. The Best Dancers