Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (35 minutes)

Directions: There are 4 passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A),B) ,C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the centre.

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Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage:

Increasingly, over the past ten years, people—especially young people—have

become aware of the need to change their eating habits, because much of the food they eat, particularly processed foods, is not good for health. Consequently,there has been a growing interest in natural foods: foods which do not contain chemical additives and which have not been affected by chemical fertilizers widely used in farming today.

Natural foods, for example, are vegetables, fruit and grain which have been

grown in soil that is rich in organic matter.In simple terms, this means that the soil has been nourished by unused vegetable matter, which provides it with essential vitamins and minerals. This in itself is a natural process compared with the use of chemicals and fertilizers, the main purpose of which is to increase the amount but not the quality of foods grown in commercial farming areas.

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Natural foods also include animals which have been allowed to feed and move

freely in healthy pastures. Compare this with what happens in the mass production

of poultry: there are battery farms, for example, where thousands of chickens live crowded together in one building and are fed on food which is little better than

rubbish. Chickens kept in this way are not only tasteless as food; but also produce eggs which lack important vitamins.

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There are other aspects of healthy eating which are now receiving increasing

attention from experts on diet. Take, for example, the question of sugar. This is

actually a nonessential food! Although a natural alternative, such as honey, can

be used to sweeten food if this necessary, we can in fact do without it. It is

not that sugar is harmful in itself. But it does seem to be additive: the quantity

we use has grown steadily over the last centuries and in Britain today each person consumes an average of 200 pounds a year! Yet all it does is provide us with energy, in the form of calories. There are no vitamins in it, no minerals and nofiber.

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It is significant that nowadays fiber is considered to be an important part

of a healthy diet. In white bread, for example ,the fiber has been removed. But

it is present in unrefined flour and of course in vegetables. It is interesting

to note that in countries where the national diet contains large quantities of unrefined flour and vegetables, certain diseases are comparatively rare. Hence the emphasis is placed on the eating of whole meal bread and more vegetables by modern experts on “healthy eating”.

 21.Which statement best expresses the main idea of this article?

 A) People should eat any food to keep themselves healthy and strong.

 B) People should eat natural foods to keep themselves healthy and strong.

 C) People should eat fiber foods to keep themselves healthy and strong.

 D) People should eat vegetables to keep themselves healthy and strong.

 22.“Particularly processed foods” means ____.

 A) foods which are particularly processed by adding chemical additives

 B) foods which are particularly made by commercial farms

 C) foods which are specially produced by commercial factories

 D) foods which are not specially made by adding anything

 23.Natural foods means ____.

 A) foods good for health

 B) foods not good for health

 C) foods such as vegetables, fruit and grain from rich organic matters soil

 D) crops from rich organic matters soil and meats of animals from healthy

pastures

 24.There are no vitamins, no minerals and no fibers in ____.

 A) natural foods C) sugar

 B) animal meats D) fruit

25.“Yet all it does is provide us with energy, in the form of calories.” It means ____.

 A) processed food provides us with energy

 B) natural food furnishes us with vitamins and minerals

 C) sugar gives us enough energy in the form of calories

 D) fiber helps us to digest food

Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage:

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With a tremendous roar from its rocket engine, the satellite is sent up into

the sky. Minutes later, at an altitude of 300 miles, this tiny electronic moon begins to orbit about the earth. Its radio begins to transmit an astonishing amount

of information about the satellite's orbital path, the amount of radiation it

detects, and the presence of meteorites. Information of all kinds races back to

the earth.No human being could possibly copy down all these facts, much less remember and organize them. But an electronic computer can.

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The marvel of the machine age, the electronic computer has been in use only

since 1946. It can do simple computations—add,subtract, multiply and divide—with

lighting speed and perfect accuracy. Some computers can work 500,000 times faster

than any person can.

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Once it is given a “program” — that is, a carefully workedout set of in

structions devised by a technician trained in computer language — a computer ca

gather a wide range of information for many purposes. For the scientist it can

get information from outer space or from the depth of the ocean. In business and industry the computer prepares factory inventories, keeps track of sales trends and production needs, mails dividend checks, and makes out company payrolls. It can keep bank accounts up to date and make out electric bills. If you are planning a trip by plane, the computer will find out what to take and what space is available.

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Not only can the computer gather facts, it can also store them as fast as they are gathered and can pour them out whenever they are needed. The computer is really a highpowered“memory” machine that “has all the answers”—or almost all.Bes

ides gathering and storing information, the computer can also solve complicated problems that once took months for people to do.

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At times computers seem almost human. They can “read” handprinted letters,

play chess, compose music, write plays and even design other computers. Is it any

wonder that they are sometimes called “thinking” machines?

Even though they are taking over some of the tasks that were once accomplished by our own brains, computers are not replacing us at least not yet. Our brain

has more than 10 million cells. A computer has only a few hundred thousand parts.

For some time to come, then, we can safely say that our brains are at least 10,

000 times more complex than a computer.How we use them is for us, not the computer, to decide.

 26.In the first paragraph, the author thinks an electronic computer can ____.

 A) copy down all the facts

 B) remember all the facts

 C) organize the facts and eve