第4部分：阅读理解(第31～45题，每题3分，共45分)
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每道题后面有4个选项。请根据文章的内容
从每题所给的4个选项中选择1个最佳答案，涂在答题卡相应的位置上。
第一篇
More Than a Ride to School
The National Education Association claims．“The school bus is a mirror of the community．”
They further add that，unfortunately, what appears on the exterior does not always reflect the
reality of a chosen community．They are right--sometimes it reflects more! Just ask Liesl
Denson. Riding the school bus has been more than a ride to school for Liesl．
Bruce Hardy．school bus driver for Althouse BUS Company has been Liesl’s bus driver since
kindergarten．Last year when Liesl’s family moved to Parkesburg，knowing her bus went by her
new residence。she requested to ride the same bus
This year Liesl is a senior and will enjoy her last year riding the bus．She says，”It’s been a
great ride so far! My bus driver is so cool and has always been a good friend and a good listener．Sometimes when you’re a child adults do not think that what you have to say is important．Mr.Hardy always listens to what you have to say and makes you feel important．’’Her friends Ashley Batista and Amanda Wolfe agree．
Bruce Hardy has been making Octorara students feel special since 1975. This year he will
celebrate 30 years working for Althouse Bus Company，Larry Althouse，president of the company,
acknowledges Bruce Hardy’s outstanding record：“You do not come by employees like Bruce
these days. He has never missed a day of work and has a perfect driving record．He was
recognized in 2000 by the Pennsylvania School Bus Association for driving 350,000 accident
free miles．Hardy’s reputation is made further evident through the relationships he has made with
the students that ride his bus．”
Althouse further adds，‘‘Althouse Bus Company was established 70 years ago and has been
providing quality transportation ever since．My grandfather started the business with one bus．
Althouse Bus Company is delighted to have the opportunity to bring distinctive and safe service
to our local school and community and looks forward to continuing to provide quality service for
many more years to come．’’
Three generations of business is not all the company has enjoyed．Thanks to drivers like
Bruce Hardy，they have been building relationships through generations，Liesl’s mother Carol
also enjoys fond memories of riding Bruce Hardy’s bus to the Octorara School District．
31 The word“mirror#39;’in the first line could be best replaced by
E ‘‘vehicle”．
F ‘‘device”．
G “need”
H “reflection”．
32 Bruce Hardy has been working with Althouse Bus Company
A for 30 years．
B for 70 years．
C since last year．
D since 2000
33 Which of the following statements is NOT true of Bruce Hardy?
A He is popular with his passengers．
B He has never missed a day of work．
C He is an impatient person
D He has driven 350.000 accident free miles．
34 Althouse Bus Company was founded by
A Larry Althouse．
B Althouse’s grandfather
C Liesl’s mother
D Ashley Batista．
35 Althouse Bus Company pays much attention to
A employing young drivers
B running quality schools．
C providing free driving lessons
D building sound relationships．
第二篇
A Phone That Knows You’re Busy
It’s a modern problem：you’re too busy to be disturbed by incessant(连续不断的)phone
calls so you turn your cellphone off .But if you don’t remember to turn it back on when you’re
less busy．you could miss some important calls if only the phone knew when it was wise to
interrupt you，you wouldn’t have to turn it off at all. Instead，it could let calls through when you
are not too busy
A bunch of behavior sensors(传感器)and a clever piece of software could do just that，by
analyzing your behavior to determine if it’s a good time to interrupt you．If built into a phone，the
system may decide you’re too busy and ask the caller to leave a message or ring back later．
James Fogarty and Scott Hudson at Camegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania based their
system oil tiny microphones，cameras and touch sensors that reveal body language and activity．
First they had to study different behaviors to find out which ones stongly predict whether your
mind is interrupted
The potential“busyness”signals they focused on included whether the office doors were left
open or closed，the time of day，if other people were with the person in question，how close they
were to each other, and whether or not the computer was in use．
The sensors monitored these and many other factors while four subjects were at work . At
random intervals，the subjects rated how interruptible they were on a scale ranging from“highly
interruptible’’to“highly not—interruptible” . Their ratings were then correlated with the various
behaviors . “It is a shotgun(随意的)approach：we used all the indicators we could think of and
then let statistics find out which were important，” says Hudson
The model showed that using the keyboard，and talking on a landline or to someone else in
the office correlated most strongly with how interruptible the subjects judged themselves to be．
Interestingly，the computer was actually better than people at predicting when someone was
too busy to be interrupted . The computer got it right 82 per cent of the time，humans 77 per cent．
Fogarty speculates that this might be because people doing the interrupting are inevitably biased
towards delivering their message，whereas computers don’t care．
The first application for Hudson and Fogarty’s system is likely to be in an instant messaging system，followed by office phones and cellphones．“There is no technological roadblock(障碍)
to it being deployed in a couple of years，” says Hudson
36 A big problem facing people today is that
A they must tolerate phone disturbances or miss important calls．
B they must turn off their phones to keep their homes quiet．
C they have to switch from a desktop phone to a cellphone．
D they are too busy to make phone calls．
37 The behavior sensor and software system built in a phone
A could help store messages．
B could send messages instantly
C could tell when it is wise to interrupt you．
D could identify important phone calls．
38 Scientists at Carnegie Menon University tried to find out
A why office doors were often 1eft open．
B when it was a good time to turn off the computer．
C what questions office workers were bothered with．
D which behaviors could tell whether a person was busy
39 During the experiment，the subjects were asked
A to control the sensors and the camera．
B to rate the degrees to which they could be interrupted．
C to compare their behaviors with others’．
D to analyze all the indicators of interruption．
40 The computer performed better than people in the study because
A the computer worked harder．
B the computer was not busy
C people tended to be biased．
D people were not good at statistics．