第一部分： 阅读理解

　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

　　A

　　A sixth of undergraduates in Beijing this year have registered at driving schools. The students，mostly from majors such as business management or international trade，will finish their driving courses within 20 days or so.

　　Training costs have dropped to 2，600 yuan for students，according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing. The price is not really low，but students will accept it，seeing it as an investment （投资） in their future. Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job. But a driver’s licence （驾驶执照） has become another factor .（因素）

　　“In the job market，owning a driver’s licence sometimes strengthens a graduating student’s competitiveness for a good position，” says Zhou Yang，an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and Law.

　　Cars will become a necessary part of many people’s lives in the coming years，and it is difficult to get a licence after graduation because of the pressures on working people’s time. “Having a full- time job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive. We senior students have plenty of spare time，plenty of opportunities to learn，” Zhou says.

　　Xu Jian，an official at the driving school，said undergraduates were very capable and serious，and could grasp in an hour what ordinary people took four hours to learn. In this driving school，middle-aged people，young women and college students are the main learners.

　　To get a driver’s licence，a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours’ practice before the final road test.

　　1. ________ in Beijing want to learn to drive.

　　A. Half the undergraduates

　　B. Many undergraduates

　　C. Most undergraduates

　　D. Most of the undergraduates who learn business or international trade

　　2. The undergraduates are learning to drive mainly because ________.

　　A. they need this skill to find a good job

　　B. they like to drive cars

　　C. most of them are from rich families

　　D. most of them will be able to buy cars in the future

　　3. Which of the following is likely to be Xu Jian’s opinion of students’ learning to drive？

　　A. He thought it was better to learn it at college than at work.

　　B. He thought it was a waste of money and time to learn to drive.

　　C. He thought they could learn to drive faster.

　　D. He thought they would spend three times more time to learn to drive than ordinary people.

　　4. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage？

　　A. Students Pay Less to Learn to Drive Now

　　B. Students Learn to Drive

　　C. Better to Learn to Drive at Colleges

　　D. Welcome to the Driving School

　　B

　　An “apple-polisher” is one who gives gifts to win friendship or special treatment. It is not exactly a bribe （贿赂），but is close to it.

　　“Apple-polishing” is as old as human society，but the phrase itself is recent，about 50 years old. It comes from the schoolroom. For a long time，some schoolboys would leave a shiny apple on the teacher’s desk.

　　They would rub and polish （擦亮） the apple to give it a bright shine，so as to make it look more tasty.

　　Such a gift，the students hoped，might make the teacher shut her eyes to their poor work and give them a good mark.

　　All sorts of people are apple-polishers，including politicians and people in high offices—almost everybody.

　　There are other phrases meaning the same thing as “apple-polishing”—“soft-soaping” or “buttering-up”。 A gift is just one way to “soft-soap” somebody，or to “butter him up”。

　　Another way that is just as effective as apple-polishing is flattery，giving someone high praise — telling him how good he looks，or how well he speaks，or how wise he is. Flattery，of course，is the cheapest kind of“applepolishing”。

　　To flatter another costs you nothing and you can give it as freely as you want. And you can always find somebody eagerly looking for it.

　　5. An “apple-polisher” is one who ________.

　　A. tries to please someone to get favour

　　B. bribes with money to get something

　　C. is really friendly to everyone around him

　　D. plants apple trees and polishes his apples every day

　　6. Why did the students polish the apple for their teacher？

　　A. They hoped that she would not pay attention to them.

　　B. They didn’t want her to wash the apple by herself.

　　C. They wished to draw her attention.

　　D. They longed for her giving them a good mark.

　　7. According to the passage，the easiest way to please someone is ________.

　　A. to flatter him B. to bribe him

　　C. to talk freely with him D. to play jokes on him

　　8. The author seems to suggest that ________.

　　A. nobody likes to be flattered

　　B. very few people apple-polish others

　　C. apple-polishing is a kind of bribe

　　D. many people like to be soft-soapedv

　　C

　　Self-employed private physicians who charge for each patient’s visit are the foundation of medical practice in the United States. Most physicians have a contract relationship with one or more hospitals in the community. They send their patients to these hospitals，which usually charge patients according to the number of days they stay and the facilities that they use. Some hospitals belong to a city，a state or，in the case of veterans’（退伍军人的）hospitals，a federal （联邦的）government agency. Others are operated by churches or other non-profit groups.

　　Some medical doctors are on salary. Salaried physicians may work as hospital staff members（职员），or residents （高级专科住院实习医生），who are often still in training. They may teach in medical schools，be hired by companies to care for their workers or work for the federal government’s Public Health Service.

　　Physicians are among the best paid professionals in the US. In the 1980s，it was not uncommon for medical doctors to earn incomes of more than $100，000 a year. Specialists，particularly surgeons，might earn several times that amount. Physicians list many reasons why they should be so well rewarded for their work. One reason is the long and expensive preparation required to become a physician in the US. Most would-be physicians first attend colleges for four years，which can cost nearly $20，000 a year at one of the best private academies. Prospective （未来的）physicians then attend medical schools for four years. Tuition alone can be over $10，000 a year. By the time they have gotten their medical degrees，many young physicians are deeply in debt. They still face three to five years of residency （高级专科住院实习）in a hospital，the first year as a learner physician. The hours are long and the pay is relatively low.