(09·湖北C篇)

When I was seven my father gave me a Timex, my first watch. I loved it, wore it for years, and haven’t had another one since it stopped ticking a decade ago. Why? Because I don’t need one. I have a mobile phone and I’m always near someone with an iPod or something like that. All these devices（裝置）tell the time—which is why, if you look around, you’ll see lots of empty wrists; sales of watches to young adults have been going down since 2007.

But while the wise have realized that they don’t need them, others—apparently including some distinguished men of our time—are spending total fortunes on them. Brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Breitling command shocking prices, up to £250.000 for a piece.

This is ridiculous. Expensive cars go faster than cheap cars. Expensive clothes hang better than cheap clothes. But these days all watches tell the time as well as all other watches. Expensive watches come with extra functions—but who needs them? How often do you dive to 300 metres into the sea or need to find your direction in the area around the South Pole? So why pay that much of five years’ school fees for watches that allow you to do these things?

If justice were done, the Swiss watch industry should have closed down when the Japanese discovered how to make accurate watches for a five-pound note. Instead the Swiss reinvented the watch, with the aid of millions of pounds’ worth of advertising, as a message about the man wearing it. Rolexes are for those who spend their weekends climbing icy mountains; a Patek Philippe is for one from a rich or noble family; a Breitling suggests you like to pilot planes across the world.

Watches are now classified as “investments”（投資）. A 1994 Philippe recently sold for nearly? £350, 000, while 1960s Rolexes have gone from? 15, 000 to? 30, 000 plus in a year. But a watch is not an investment. It’s a toy for self-satisfaction, a matter of fashion. Prices may keep going up-—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when of fashion. Prices may keep going up—they’ve been rising for 15 years. But when fashion moves on, the owner of that? £350, 000 beauty will suddenly find his pride and joy is no more a good investment than my childhood Times.

59 The sales of watches to young people have fallen because they__________.

A. have other devices to tell the time

B. think watches too expensive

C. prefer to wear an iPod

D. hame no sense of time

60. It seems ridiculous to the writer that_______________.

A. people dive 300 metres into the sea

B. expensive clothes sell better than cheap ones

C. cheap cars don’t run as fast as expensive ones

D. expensive watches with unnecessary functions still sell

61. What can be learnt about Swiss watch industry from the passage?

A. It targets rich people as its potential customers.

B. It’s hard for the industry to beat its competitors.

C. It wastes a huge amount of money in advertising.

D. It’s easy for the industry to reinvent cheap watches.

62. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Timex or Rolex?

B. My Childhood Timex

C. Watches? Mot for Me!

D. Watches—a Valuable Collection

答案  59.A  60.D  61.A  62.C 

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

 (09·湖北A篇)

My grandfather came from Hungary and was the only one in his family who settled down in the United States. The rest of his family remained in Europe. When World War I broke out, he seemed to have become another man, downhearted. Such obvious change was not born out of his welfare, but out of fear: if his only son, my uncle, had to go to war, it would be cousin fighting against cousin.  

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C. a drop in his living standards

D. his relatives killing each other

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C. letter of rejection

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

 (09·湖北B篇)

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A. Its landscape is new to parrots of their king.

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B. We need to knows more about how to preserve parrots

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D. Parrots’ intelligence may someday benefit people.

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

 (09·湖北D篇)

A few years ago, Paul Gerner began to gather a group of architects in Las vegas to ask them what it would take to design a public school that used 50 percent less energy, cost much less to build and obviously improved student learning . ”I think half of then fell off their chairs,” Gerner says.

Gerner manages school facilities （設(shè)施）for Clark county, Nevada, a district roughly the size of Massachusetts. By 2018, 143, 000 additional students will enter the already crowded public-education system. Gerner needs 73 new schools to house them. Four architecture teams have nearly finished designing primary school prototypes （樣品） ; They plan to construct their schools starting in 2009. The district will then assess how well the schools perform, and three winners will copy those designs in 50 to 70 new buildings.

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A. They lost balance in excitement.

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64．Which order of steps is followed in carrying out the project?

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B. Assessment－Design－Prototype－Construction.

C. Design－Assessment－Prototype－Construction.

D. Design－Prototype－Assessment－Construction.

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B. Limited facilities.

C. The desert climate.

D. Poor natural resources.

66．What does Gerner think of the ideas of green schools?

A. They are questionable.

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C. They are advanced.

D. They are practical.

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

 (09·湖北E篇)

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be, Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant （不相關(guān)的）. A half century ago in the United states, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time, Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.

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C. it is hard for people to decide when to rest

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B. enjoy working overtime for extra pay

C. are unaware of the law of time

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B. have to obey their parents

C. need to find companions

D. have to observe the law

70. What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Our life is governed by the law of time

B. How to organize time is not worth debating.

C. New ways of using time change our society.

D. Our time schedule is decided by social customs

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