Directions： There are four reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions. For each question there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the one best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the ANSWER SHEET with a pencil. Children are a relatively modern invention. Until a few hundred years ago they look like adult, wearing grown-up clothes and grown-up expressions, performing grown-up tasks. Children did not exist because the family as we know it had not evolved. Children today not only exist； they have taken over, in no place more than in America, and at on time more than now. It is always Kids Country here. Our civilization is child-centered, child-obsessed. A kid s body is our physical ideal. In Kids Country we do not permit middle-aged. Thirty is promoted over 50, but 30 knows that soon his time to be overtaken will come. We are the first society in which parents expect to learn from their children. Such a topsy-turvy situation has come to abort at least in part because, unlike the rest of the world, ours is an immigrant society, and for immigrants the only hope is in the kids. In the Old Country, that is, Europe, hope was in the father, and how much wealth he could accumulate and pass along to his children. In the growth pattern of America and its ever-expanding frontier, the young man was ever advised to GO WEST； the father was ever inheriting from his son. Kid s Country may be the inevitable result. Kid s Country is not all bad. America is the greatest country in the world to grow up in because it is Kid s Country. We not only wear kids clothes and eat kids food； we dream kids dreams and make them come true. It was, after all, a boys game to go to the moon. If in the old days children did not exist, it seems equally true today that adults, as a class, have begun to disappear, condemning all of us to remain boys and girls forever, jogging and doing push-ups against eternity. 21. The author uses the example of the Renaissance painting to show that. A. adults showed less concern for children than we do now B. adults were smaller and thinner at that time, but they still had lots of work to do C. children looked and acted like adults at that time D. children were not permitted to appear in family paintings at that time 22. In the third paragraph, “the Old Country” is contrasted with America . A. to show differences in family size B. to show differences in attitudes towards family relations C. to show two kinds of geography D. to show two different kinds of economic relations between generations 23. Going to the moon is an example of . A. America s dreams and creativity B. America s childish and queer behavior C. Why America hasn t grown up D. Why America is considered as the greatest country in the world 24. According to the passage, which of the following is true？ A. It is very difficult for the middle-aged to live in America B. America is Kid s Country because the majority of the American population are children C. Kid s Country was taking shape in America when immigrants poured into the country. D. America is more of Kid s Country than any other countries in the world 25. By saying “condemning all of us to remain boys and girls forever, jogging and doing push-ups against eternity”, the author means that . A. she thinks people shouldn t be so concerned about physical fitness B. she feels too old and tired to do such hard exercise C. American society is overemphasizing youth and physical appearance D. What happened to children centuries ago may occur to adults in America soon Passage 2 The modern age is an age of electricity. People are so used to electric lights, radios, televisions, and telephones that it is hard to imagine what life would be like without them. When there is a power failure, people grope about in flickering candlelight, cars hesitate in the streets because there are no traffic lights to guide them, and food spoils in silent refrigerators. Yet people began to understand how electricity works only a little more than two centuries ago. Nature has apparently been experimenting in this field for millions of years. Scientists are discovering more and more that the living world may hold many interesting secrets of electricity that could benefit humanity. All living cells sent out tiny pulses of electricity. As the heart beats, it sends out pulses that can be measured and recorded on the surface of the body. When the pulses are recorded, they form an electrocardiogram, which a doctor can study to determine how well the heart is working. The brain, too, sends out brain waves of electricity, which can be recorded in an electroencephalogram, The electric currents generated by most living cells are extremely small-often so small that sensitive instruments are needed to record them. But in some animals, certain muscled cells have become so specialized as electrical generators that they do not work as muscle cells at all. When large numbers of these cells are linked together, the effect can be astonishing. The electric eel is an amazing living storage battery. It can send a jolt of as much as eight hundred volts of electricity through the water in which it lives. （An electric house current is only one hundred twenty volts.） As many as four-fifths of all the cells in the electric eel s body are specialized for generating electricity, and the strength of the shock it can deliver corresponds roughly to the length of its body. 26. What is the main idea of the passage ？ A. Electric eels are potentially dangerous. B. Biology and electricity appear to be closely related. C. People would be at a loss without electricity. D. Scientists still have much to discover about electricity. 27. The author mentions all of the following as results of a blackout EXCEPT . A. refrigerated food item may go bad B. traffic lights do not work C. people must rely on candlelight D. elevators and escalators do not function 28. Why does the author mention electric eels？ A. To warn the reader to stay away from them. B. To compare their voltage to that used in houses. C. To give an example of a living electrical generator. D. To describe a new source of electrical power. 29. How many volts of electricity can an electric eel emit？ A. 1,000. B. 800. C. 200. D. 120. 30. It can be inferred from the passage that the longer an eel is the . A. more beneficial it will be to science B. more powerful will be its electrical charge C. easier it will be to find D. tougher it will be to eat