72. Which of the following is mainly responsible for the fast food fad in America?

  A. The fast tempo(節(jié)拍) of modern life.

  B. Americans’ preference for ease and convenience.

  C. Keen competition in society.

  D. Americans’ jealousy for time.

71.   The main idea of the passage is that ______.

A. America’s leading position in scientific research is in danger

B. America needs more funding in scientific research

C. the National Science Foundation needs financial support

D. American students are not good in science

What makes Americans spend nearly half their food dollars on meals away from home? The answers lie in the way Americans live today.  During the first few decades of the twentieth century, canned and other convenience foods freed the family cook from full-time duty at the kitchen.  Then, in the 1940s.  work in the wartime defense factories took more women out of the home than ever before, setting the pattern of the working wife and mother. 

Today about half of the country’s married women are employed outside the home.  But, unless family members pitch in with food preparation, women are not fully liberated from that housework.  Instead, many have become, in a sense, prisoners of the completely cooked convenience meals.  It’s easier to pick up some fried chicken on the way home from work or take the family out for meals than to start opening cans or heating up frozen dinners after a long, hard day. 

Also, the rising divorce rate means that there are more single working parents with children to feed.  And many young adults and elderly people, as well as unmarried and divorced grown-ups, live alone rather than as part of a family unit and don’t want to bother cooking for one. 

Fast food is attractive because it is fast, it doesn’t require any dressing up, it offers “fun” break in the daily routine, and the expense seems small.  It can be eaten in the cars ? sometimes picked up at a drive-in window without even getting out ? or on the run.  Even if it is brought home to eat, there will never be any dirty dishes to wash because of the handy disposable wrappings.  Children, especially, love fast food because it’s finger food, no struggling with knives and forks, no bothersome instructions from adult about table manners. 

70.   The word “l(fā)ustrous” in the last paragraph can be replaced by ______.

A. important               B. shinning                    C. smart                     D. shocking

69. America is losing its highest position in research and technology because ______.

A. American students are flowing to Canada

B. the scientific pipeline is drying up

C. Thomas Edison and Wright brothers had died

D. the lack of financial support and lower social position of scientists

68.   From the passage, we can know that the computer chip, genetic engineering are ______.

A. examples of American scientific achievements

B. names of modern technology

C. seen everywhere throughout the world

D. obtained by Russia

67. If you want to go to the theatre in the afternoon, where will you go?

  A. King’s Cross Street, Halifax.             B. The Headrow, Leeds. 

  C. Oxford Street, Leeds.                   D. King’s Cross Street, Halifax. 

Moon landing. The computer chip. Genetic engineering. The artificial heart. The achievement of U.S. scientists are known and admired throughout the world. But American highest position in research and technology will continue into the 21^st century is far from certain. Thirty-two years after Russian sent up Sputnik setting off a hot race to produce more and better U.S. physicists, the scientific pipeline is drying up.The reason for this crisis(危機): American science education is in disorder.

   In an Educational Testing Service study of five countries and four Canadian provinces, American 13-year-old graded last in math and nearly last in science.

   How did America, birthplace of Thomas Edison and Wright brothers come to such a dangerous situation? One reason is lack of enough financial support for science education. After Sputnik, funding(基金) of the National Science Foundation, the leading U.S. founder of scientific research, shot up from $ 18 million to $ 130 million. By1982 financing for NSF’s education had fallen rapidly to zero.

   To be sure, changeable funding is only one reason why U.S. scientists are becoming a scarce commodity. The image of scientists is less lustrous than it was in the 50’s and 60’s, when men and women in lab coats were seen as national heroes helping the U.S. beat the Russians to the moon. Today, the country’s brightest desire is to be bankers and lawyers, not chemists or rocket designers.

66. We may learn from the text that Sue Townsend is _______. 

  A. a writer            B. an actress       C. a musician       D. a director

  A. 502116.            B. 223568.        C. 365998.         D. 430808.

65. If you want to see a play with old jokes and songs, which phone number will you ring to book a seat?

64. Which theatre offers the cheapest seat?

  A. Halifax Playhouse.                    B. City Varieties. 

  C. Grand Theatre.                       D. York Theatre Royal.