【正文】 value the aged as a source of experience and wisdom. But Americans seem to favor those that are young, or at least “young at heart”. Many older Americans find the “golden years” to be anything but golden. Economically, “senior citizens” often struggle just to get by. Retirement at age 65 brings a sharp decrease in personal ine. Social security benefits usually cannot make up the difference. Older people may suffer from poor nutrition, medical care and housing. Some even experience age discrimination (歧視 ). In 1987, American sociologist Pat Moore dressed up like an older person and wandered city streets. She was often treated rudely—even cheated and robbed. However, dressed as a young person, she received much more respect. Unfortunately, the elderly population in America is increasing fast. Why? People are living together. Fewer babies are being born. And middleaged “baby boomers” are rapidly entering the groups of the elderly. America may soon be a place where wrinkles (皺紋 ) are “in”. Marketing experts are already noticing this group of consumers (消費者 ). 28. The main idea of the third paragraph is________. A. the golden years can make the old earn lots of money B. many old people in America are leading a hard life C. the old in America have to retire at the age of 65 D. American social security benefits are not good 29. From the last paragraph we know that the underlined word “in” can be replaced by________. A. serious B. bad C. disappearing slowly D. growing fast 30. From this passage we can know________. A. in America, growing up is not a wonderful process B. in America, growing up is as wonderful a process as growing old C. in America, growing up is a wonderful process, while growing old is not D. in America, growing old is a wonderful process, while growing up is not 31. What should be mentioned in the following paragraph? A. The public will change their attitude towards old people. B. People will provide more services to the old in their munities. C. Companies will soon produce more goods for old Americans. D. The government will pass laws to ensure the benefits of the people. D To many webbuilding spiders, most of whom are nearly blind, the web is their essential window on the world: their means of municating, capturing prey (獵物 ), meeting mates and protecting themselves. A webbuilding spider without its web is like a man cast away on an island of solid rock, totally out of touch and destined to starve to death. So important is the web to an orbweb spider?s survival that the animal will continue to construct new webs daily even if it is being starved. For 16 days the starving spider builds pletely normal webs. Then, as the animal gets scrawnier (憔悴的 ), it constructs a widermeshed web using fewer strands (線 ). Such webs would only trap larger prey, which is more economical from the perspective of a starving spider. The spider stores energy by recycling web protein. It simply eats its own web each evening and reuses it to produce new silk. In studies with radioactively labeled materials, it was found that 95 percent of web protein reappears in the next day?s web. Most of the energy needed for webbuilding is used in walking over the strands as they are laid down. Scientists are impressed by the adaptability （適應(yīng)能力） of the spider?s highly preprogrammed brain, which is larger for its size than the brain of any other invertebrate (無脊椎動物 ). If webbuilding is interrupted, or if some of the existing strands are destroyed, the spider simply goes back to see where the web is left off and then finished building a normal web. One spider will even finish building the inplete web of another. 32. What is probably the best title for the passage? A. Secrets of Spiders? Adaptability B. Importance of Webs to Spiders C. Secrets of the Spiders? Life D. Spiders? Highly Preprogrammed Brain 33. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE? A. Webbuilding spiders have good eyesight. B. One webbuilding spider usually conducts one web. C. Most spiders will stop conducting webs when hungry. D. Webbuilding spiders will probably die without their webs. 34. A spider conducts a widermeshed web when _______. A. it is 16 days old B. it is getting weaker C. it has fewer strands D. it hunts for food 35. A spider? s ability to finish an inplete web proves that _______. A. it has a highly preprogrammed brain B. it reuses its web protein to reproduce new silk C. the web is everything for a spider D. it is able to rebuild a destroyed web 第二節(jié) (共 5 小題；每小題 2 分，滿分 10 分 ) 根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從短文后的選項中 選出能填入空白處的最佳選項。 36 This date was the old midwinter festival in preChristmas times, around the time of the longest night and the shortest day. Christmas in the 21st century has many traditions: Christmas trees, cards and presents. Shops can make about 60 percent of their year?s ine in the three months before Christmas, so most shops get ready for it in October. 37 The first time this happened was in 1867 when Macy?s famous shop in New York, stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve. By midDecember, almost every shop and street has a Christmas tree. 38