He had to overcome his a____________ to alcohol because of his poor health.

There is a wide v____________ of patterns to choose from.

The only a____________ to that building is along that muddy track.

 This model is technically s____________ to its competitors, so I prefer this one.

The family sphere (范圍) used to be defined by its isolation from the public realm（領(lǐng)域）. There was the public male realm of "reasonable accomplishment" and cruel competition, and the private female and child-rearing sphere of home, intuition（直覺）and emotion. The private realm was supposed to be isolated from the realities of adult life. For both better and worse, television and other electronic media tend to break down the difference between those two worlds. The membrane（膜）around the family sphere is much more permeable (可滲透的). TV takes public events and transforms them into dramas that are played out in the privacy of our living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms.

Parents used to be the channel through which children learned about the outside world. They could decide what to tell their children and when to tell it to them. Since children learn to read in stages, books provide a kind of natural screening process, where adults can decide what to tell and not tell children of different reading abilities. Television destroyed the system that separated adult from child knowledge and separated information into year-by-year slices for children of different ages. Instead, it presents the same information directly to children of all ages, without going through adult filters（過濾）.

So television presents a real challenge to adults. While a parent can read a newspaper without sharing it with children in the same room, television is accessible to everyone in that space. And unlike books, television doesn't allow us to flip（翻轉(zhuǎn)）through it and see what's coming up. We may think we're giving our children a lesson in science by having them watch the Challenger take off, and then suddenly they learn about death, disaster and adult mistakes.

Books allow adults to discuss privately what to tell or not tell children. This also allows parents to keep adult material secret from children. Take that same material and put it on The Today Show and you have 800,000 children hearing the very things the adults are trying to keep from them. "Television takes our kids across the globe before parents give them permission to cross the street."  

More importantly, children gradually learn that adults are worried and anxious about being parents. Actually, television has also places families under a lot of stress.

           How Television Changes Childhood?

       The Underground Railroad wasn’t underground and it wasn’t a railroad. But it was real just the same. And it was one of the brightest chapters in American history.

       The Underground Railroad was a secret network of people who helped slaves flee to freedom before the Civil War. The slaves were black people from families who had been brought from Africa in chains. They were owned by their white masters and forced to work without pay.

       The first slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. Two hundred years later, there were nearly four million slaves in the United States. Most worked in large plantations in the South. By then, slavery had been outlawed in most northern states.

       Many slaves were treated cruelly. Some were not. All could be bought and sold. Some slaves bought their own freedom by earning money during time off from work at the plantation. There were free black people in both the North and South during slavery days.

       Thousands of slaves ran away each year. Some fled to get away from harsh masters. Others wanted to enjoy liberty. The Underground Railroad was started to help them.

       The “station” of the Underground Railroad were homes, shops, and churches where runaway slaves were hidden and fed. The “agents” or “stationmasters” were people --- both black and white --- who hated slavery. They wanted to help slaves get free.

      “Conductors” on the Underground Railroad led or transported fugitives（逃跑者）from station to station on their way to free states. They had to watch for slave catchers, who were paid to capture runaways and return them. Some conductors guided slaves all the way to Canada.

       The most famous conductor was Harriet Tubman. She was a strong, determined woman. Before she became a conductor, Mrs. Tubman had been a passenger on a dangerous journey on the Underground Railroad.

       She lived as a slave on the plantation in Maryland. One day in 1849, Mrs. Tubman heard that she was going to be sold. She decided to escape instead.

       Harriet Tubman walked away from the plantation that night. She followed the North Star toward the free state of Pennsylvania 90 miles away. Sometimes she hiked all night, from station to station on the Underground Railroad. Once she was hidden under blankets and vegetables in a farm wagon, and she rode through the night. Another time she was carried in a rowboat for miles.

       She got to Pennsylvania one morning just at sunrise.

67. Slaves could buy their own freedom through _____.

A. overtime work                                    B. the Underground Railroad

C. a secret network                                 D. working on the plantation

68. What the Underground Railroad didn’t have was _____.

A. “stations, conductors and agents”           B. people who hated slavery

C. slave catchers                                           D. slave owners

69. From the experience of Harriet Tubman, we learn that _____.

A. slaves could easily escape through the Underground Railroad

B. running away from the plantation was a dangerous journey

C. only a very small number of slaves could run away each year

D. she failed to walk away from the plantation

70. This story is mainly about _____.

A. Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad

B. America’s Underground Railroad System

C. how people in the United States used a secret network to help free slaves

D. why nearly 4,000,000 slaves arrived in the United States

“We don’t have rush hours any more”, said Mr. Charles Mac Lean, who runs the nation’s busiest road. “We have rush periods, and they keep getting longer and longer.”

Mac Lean was describing Chicago’s 235 miles of expressway. But the same might be said about almost any of the expressways that have become an important part of American city life―and about the heavy traffic that often blocks them. In Chicago, a computerized system has been developed that controls traffic on the city’s seven expressways. Now one man―a controller―can follow the movement of Chicago’s traffic by looking at a set of lights. The system uses electronic sensors that are built into each expressway, half a mile apart. Several times a second, the computer receives information from each sensor and translates it into green, yellow, or red lights on a map in the control room. A green light means the traffic is moving forty-five miles an hour, yellow means thirty to forty-five miles an hour and red means heavy  traffic―cars standing still or moving less than thirty miles an hour.

“See that red light near Austin Avenue?” the controller asked a visitor. “That’s a repair truck fixing the road, and the traffic has to go around it”.

At the Roosevelt Road entrance to the expressway, the light kept changing from green to red and back to green again. “A lot of trucks get on the expressway there,” the controller explained. “They can’t speed up as fast as cars.”

The sensors show immediately where an accident or a stopped car is blocking traffic, and a truck is sent by radio to clear the road. The system has lowered the number of accidents by 18 percent. There are now 1.4 deaths on Chicago’s expressways for each one hundred million miles traveled, while in other parts of the country there are 2.6.

Traffic experts say that the Chicago system is the “coming thing”. Systems like Chicago’s are already in use on some expressways in Los Angeles and Houston. “Chicago has taken the lead,” says New York City’s traffic director; and he adds, “We are far behind…”

63. How does the controller follow Chicago’s traffic?

  A. By controlling the traffic lights.

B. By operating a computer in the control room.

C. By sending a truck to clear the roads.

D. By looking at a set of lights on the map in the control room.

64. The underlined word “it” in paragraph 3 refers to ____________.

    A. a truck which needs repairing            B. a red light

C. Austin Avenue                                  D. a truck doing repairs on the road

65. Which of the statements is true about the computerized system in Chicago?

    A. It changes rush hours into rush periods.

B. It saves a lot of labor and meanwhile prevents some deaths.

C. It is the first system of this kind in America.

D. It will soon be followed by New York City.

66. What might be the best title for this passage?

    A. Computerized Traffic Control System         B. Rush Periods Getting Longer

C. No Rush Hours Any More                         D. Sensors on Expressways

       When Rikke Dausen in Denmark goes to get some milk from the fridge, she has trouble getting past the refrigerator door. But it’s not because of any physical obstruction. It’s usually because the PC monitor in her refrigerator’s door has informed her that a new email message has arrived.

       Rikke and her husband are taking part in a six-month trial sponsored by a Danish firm and two Swedish partners. They hope to show that computers can be put to much more practical daily use than most people think. Fifty families and singles were provided with a free model known as the “Screenfridge” for the duration of trial.

       “It’s really very clever”, says Rikke. She can call up email, news reports, sales items at the supermarket or addressed out of the endless ocean Internet possibilities. “I’m not the type who wants to sit in front of the computer and wait 10 minutes for the modem to connect,” she says.

       The creators of the Screenfridge aim at this type of buyer. They think the machine should attract people who have limited time to solve technical problems or surf online.

       The PC that is built into the door is very small. It is only two centimeters wide, and completely silent.

       “Everything moves quickly”, as Rikke admits. “Well, the whole thing is really just an amusement”, she says. “But when the thing is gone after the test, it will be pain to have to go down in the basement again to download my email”.

       The Screenfridge is due to hit the market sometime next year.

56. The writer gives a description of Rikke using the Screenfridge in order to _____.

A. report Rikke’s daily life                  B. prove the value of PC

C. describe modern life                        D. introduce the new product

57. For what purpose is the Screenfridge made?

A. To improve the email service.

B. To make refrigerators more useful.

C. To help those who cannot use computers.

D. To make it easier to use computers.

58. How long has Rikke probably been using the Screenfridge?

A. Several months.           B. More than a year.      C. Several years.   D. Several hours.

59. It can be learned from what Rikke says at the end of the passage that _____.

A. she is not satisfied with the Screenfridge

B. she wishes she could continue to use the Screenfridge

C. she is sorry she has to download her email in the basement

D. she doubts whether she can really depend on the Screenfridge

It’s difficult for doctors to help a person with a hurt brain.  36  enough blood, the brain can live only three to five minutes. Usually doctors can’t fix the hurt  37  such a short time.

Dr Robert White thinks he knows a  38  of help. He thinks doctors should make the hurt brain  39  to live for 30 minutes without blood. This gives the doctor  40  time to do something for the brain. Dr White experimented his  41  on fifteen monkeys.  42  he taught them to do different jobs. Then he operated on them. He made the monkeys’ blood go  43  a machine. When the brains’  44  was 10℃, he stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes, he turned the blood back on. He  45  the blood again. After their operations, the monkeys were almost  46  before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the job the doctor  47  them.

Dr White’s idea works well on monkeys. He thinks it will work on  48 . He think it will help with heart problems. A person  49  die when his heart stops; doctors can  50  it again. The problem comes: when the brain is without blood for about 5 minutes, it  51 . If doctors start the heart again after 5 minutes, the person has  52  body but a dead brain. Maybe in the future, doctors will  53  Dr White’s idea. When the person’s heart stops the doctor will  54  cool the brain. They will have 30 minutes to start the heart again. Maybe there will be no  55  the brain.

We firmly believe that the war never settles anything. It only _____ violence.

A. runs into           B. comes from         C. leads to             D. begins with