陕西省西安市第一中学2014届高三上学期期中考试英语试题试卷(4)

50. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. The salesgirl is rude.                  
B. The salesgirl is bored.
C. The salesgirl cares about me.
D. The salesgirl says the words as a routine.
51. By saying “Have a nice day", a stranger may _____.
A. try to be polite to you                   B. express respect to you
C. give his blessing to you                 D. share his pleasure with you
52. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Have a Nice Day—a Social Custom    
B. Have a Nice Day—a Pleasant Gesture
C. Have a Nice Day—a Heart-warming Greeting
D. Have a Nice Day—a Polite Ending of a Conversation
                                     C
If Confucius（孔子）were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles.  He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
  While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought.  It’s nothing personal.  Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
  But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
  In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy（哲学）. Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantages of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Westerners philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
   So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.
   Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
   As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.
53.  The opening paragraph is mainly intended to ________
A. provide some key facts about Confucius
B. attract the readers’ interest in the subject
C. show great respect for the ancient thinker
D. prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations
54. We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students______
A. have a great interest in studying Chinese
B. take an active part in Chinese competitions
C. try to get high scores in Chinese exams
D. fight for a chance to learn Chinese
55. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Forgotten Wisdom in America B. Huge Fans of the Chinese Language
C. Chinese Culture for Westerners    D. Old Thinker with a Big Future
56. The passage is most likely to appear in ___________.
A. a biography lesson   B. a history paper  
C. a newspaper   D. a philosophy textbook
                                     D
It’s 2035. You have a job ,a family and you’ re about 40 years old ! Welcome to your
future life.
    Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror. “Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny pre-programmed electronics (智能电子元件) are rearranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror, you find it hard to believe you’re 40. You look much younger. With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You ’ re not even middle-aged!
    As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that,” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code(电子源码) on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible food appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
    “Ready for your trip to space?” you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space — and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel.” Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots (防疫针) are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
    It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “ My office. Autopilot. ”you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video film rather than read it.