After a lot of weightlifting and 25 exhausting days training, a 52-year-old woman recently became the first female “gripman” on San Francisco’s historic cable cars.

   Fannie Barnes passed her written test and completed a final run under the watchful eye of a supervisor, Municipal Railway spokesman Alan Siegel said.

   Deep calluses(繭) are already forming at the base of her fingers and there is a hole in her glove. Two other women quit after a single day with injured muscles. “Now they’re going to have to change the word from gripman to grip person, just because of me,” Barnes said earlier, “I’m so excited.”

After almost a year of serious workouts, Barns can pull more than 61 kilos, only 23 kilos less than her body weight. And she’ll need the muscle, for this is no modern, push-button technology. Every time a car starts up again after making a stop, the gripman must haul back on a lever controlling a device that grips the cable, which runs continuously at 14 kilometers per hour. If the grip slips, so does the car. A second person operates the brakes.

In addition to having to throw her weight around on the job, she’s got to throw out some attitude to men who were hard to convince. The city employs 76 men in the job.

“A lot of men said mean things to me and didn’t want to help train me. But I would like to thank the guys who were against me because they gave me even more inspiration to do it.” she said.

Not all the men were against her. Many of the male colleagues yelled out support as she did her training runs. One of her biggest tests was drizzly December morning. She first went down the Hyde Street Hill, considered the most dangerous incline on the cable car routes. “I had to have the will and I had to believe I could do it,” she said. “It was scary, but as I started going down full grip and felt that I was in control, I knew I was on my way,” Barnes already is a pioneer of sorts. She started working as a cable car conductor six years ago, collecting fares and assisting on the back brake. She is one of only three women to have that job. But she said she always wanted the job up front on the car. (400)

1. What is unusual about Fannie Barnes getting a job as a gripman?

 A. She is the oldest one to work as a grpman.

 B. She is the first women to work as a gripman.

 C. She is the fattest women to work as a gripman.

 D. She is the most suitable one to work as a gripman.

2. What did the 52-year-old woman do when she first began working on the city’s cable car?

 A. As a gripman.    B. As a conductor.    C. As a brakeman.  D. As a supervisor.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that Fannie Barnes is ________.

 A. strong and easy-going      B. strong-willed and self-confident

 C. popular and humorous      D. considerate and quick-tempered

If you're 70 and overweight, you may live longer

A few extra pounds might help you live longer if you're past your prime(壯年) but otherwise healthy, a new study finds.

    Physicians routinely follow guidelines issued by the World Health Organization. Because weight depends on height, they use a standard measure called body mass index (BMI), which is calculated as the weight in kilograms divided by the height in meters squared.

    Healthy weight is defined as a BMI anywhere between 18.5 and 24.9 in adults, whereas 25 to 29.9 is overweight and 30+ is obese.

    The new study suggests that in the elderly, these boundaries may be too narrow. While no one is questioning that extra fat poses health risks in young and middle-aged adults, it may reduce the impact of frailty and old age, geriatrician(老年醫(yī)學(xué)專家) Dr. Thomas Yoshikawa told Reuters Health.

    So far, nobody knows exactly how BMI affects lifespan in older people. Some researchers speculate that it acts as an energy reserve that can help the elderly cope with illness.

    For the study, Australian researchers followed more than 9,000 men and women who were between 70 and 75 years old at the beginning. The participants reported their height and weight as well as various factors related to health and lifestyle. About 33 percent of the women and 44 percent of the men were overweight.

    Over 10 years, more than 2,000 of the participants died. Women who had an active life and didn't smoke were the most likely to be alive at the end of the study.

    But neither health nor lifestyle could fully explain why overweight people of both sexes survived longer than their normal-weight peers, who fared no better than obese individuals. In terms of survival, the best BMI was between 26 and 27, well within the overweight range.

    The new results agree with earlier research showing that fat may be beneficial in old age.

1．We can learn from the passage that_________．

A. the heavier one is, the better             

B. we shouldn’t lose weight when old

C. one should keep his weight within the recommended range

D. we shouldn’t worry about our weight if we are slightly fatter than normal when old 

2．According to the passage, if a person is 1.5 metres in height and 67.5 kg in weight, his BMI is________.

  A．30            B．25           C．45         D． 28

3. What does the author want to tell us most?

A. Fatness has little to do with diseases in old age.        

B. Fatness is not always bad.

C. Fatness may be beneficial instead of harmful in old age.

D. Overweight people of both sexes survive longer than their normal-weight peers.

第五部分：書面表達（滿分25分）

1995年11月15日，聯(lián)合國教科文組織作出決議，將每年的4月23日定為“世界讀書日”（World Book Day），目的是是鼓勵人們尤其是年輕人發(fā)現(xiàn)讀書的樂趣，并以此對那些推動人類社會和文化進步的人們所做出的偉大貢獻表示感謝和尊重。請根據(jù)下圖，首先談?wù)勀銓ψx書的認識(至少兩點)，如：讀書可以豐富自己的知識，開拓眼界，……；其次談?wù)勀闶侨绾巫x書的；最后談?wù)勀愦蛩憬窈笕绾巫x書（至少兩點）。字數(shù)150詞左右。

注意：短文的開頭已寫，不計入總詞數(shù)。

2010 sees the celebration of the fifteenth World Book Day.____________________

___________________________________________________________________

--- Could you bring me that novel you _____________ me about when I dropped in on you?

   --- Sorry, I can’t. I have given it to a friend.

    A. told          B. would tell             C. had told                     D. had been telling

．The education department focuses on the__________education system，instead of only individual schools．   

  A．diverse    B．entire   C.abrupt  D. typical

I would have called you up for help had it been possible, but I _____ your phone number then.

       A. hadn’t had        B. didn’t have  C. shouldn’t have  D. couldn’t have

      ________ you to be the first to solve the structure of DNA?

       A. What you think led   B. What do you think led

       C. Do you think what led      D. What led you think

Section B

Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only

be used once.  Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. probably  B. attached     C. respectively  D. finalists  E. beating

F.  sales    G. amazing     H. similar    I. included   J. contest

Do you have a problem with the messy homework? Good news! You may soon be able to solve that, thanks to Keagan Bolibol and her Problem Pad.

       Keagan is the winner of the Staples Invention Quest for kids, a (41)________ that encourages people to invent helpful office products. This is the first year that the Invention Quest has （42）________ a category for kids. “ I’m very excited,” Keagan told Scholastic News Online. “ I really can’t believe I actually did it. From the moment I entered it, it’s really (43)________that I should make it this far.”

       Keagan was one of the five (44) _______ in the kids’ category. She is a fourth-grader in Woodinville, Washington.  Keagan’s Problem Pad is (45)________ to a dry-erase board except that it can fit into a notebook. It also has a pen (46)_______ to the bottom, along with helpful tools like a multiplication table (乘法表). Kids can use the Problem Pad to do their homework and other projects. They can make mistakes and then erase them. When they finally get them right, they can copy their work on a clean sheet of paper.

       Keagan received a $25,000 prize for her invention, (47) ________ thousands of other kids. If her product is produced and sold in Staples stores, she can also receive royalties（版稅），part of the money made from (48)________ of a product. “ I’m (49) ________ going to donate some to charities. Then the rest is for college,” said Keagan.

Section C

Direction：Read the following text and choose the most suitable summary from A—F for each paragraph. There is one extra summary which you do not need.

A. Promotion by the press and media.

B. Foreign influences into British cuisine.

C. The variety of British cuisine.

D. The effect of history and climate.

E. Traditional meals for different times of the day.

F. International awards to British cuisine.

1 ______

They say a country’s cuisine（烹飪） is a reflection of its culture and national character. Therefore, the UK has always been a diverse country, since every region has its own traditional foods. For example, traditional Scottish cuisine is famous for its robust character： haggis, Aberdeen Angus beef, shortbread and whisky. Wales is well known for its lamb and leeks. Ireland is synonymous with Guinness, Irish whiskey and Irish stew.

2 ______

There are of course dishes common to the whole UK as well. Everyone （except vegetarians） likes a full English breakfast in the morning, followed by a Sunday roast for lunch, perhaps followed by fish and chips or a pork pie for dinner. For dessert, there are dozens of famous British cheeses to choose from.

3 ______

British cuisine has had a better international reputation for the last decade or so. Why is that？One reason is definitely that the wide range of ethnic groups in the UK has given British cuisine new ingredients, flavours, combinations and techniques. Curry, which is originally an Asian dish, is now officially the most popular food in the UK, whereas sandwiches used to be the most popular. With significant numbers of Polish people coming to the UK recently, Polish food shops can be found in almost every British city. Most cities have a Chinese quarter as well.

4 ______

Another reason for the improvement, however, is the large number of cookery programmes on British television. British people are more educated about food than they ever before. British chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White are internationally famous and even have television shows in the USA.

5 ______

So what are the results？In 2009, British restaurants received more Michelin stars than in any other previous year. The Michelin Guide （first established in France） sets the international standard for restaurant cuisine. With so much good food to eat, perhaps it is not surprising the UK now has an obesity problem.

 Certain actions, especially _____ the hands and feet, can cause offense in many countries because of the various cultures.

　　A. in               B. by              C. on                 D. with