Section C

Passage One

整体预测

本短文三道题选项中的sense of sight/hearing/smell/taste和through…sounds/swimming gestures表明，短文可能与某种水生动物有关，涉及感官和做事方式等。

The vast oceans of the world are dark，deep and mysterious places where eyesight counts for little as soon as you venture very far beneath the surface.

For humans，who live in a world dominated by visual stimuli，to exist in such conditions would be impossible. But for whales and dolphins that live in the ocean or，in the case of a few species，miry rivers，the darkness is unimportant.What is important to them is sound.

Sound is an efficient way to transmit and sense information，especially as it travels five times faster through water than through air.If humans shout to someone，it is unlikely that they will be heard a kilometre away.But if a whale shouts in an ocean channel，another whale may hear it tens，if not hundreds，of kilometres away.

Whales and dolphins use sound in two ways：for communication and for echolocation.Dolphins and toothed whales communicate through a wide variety of high-frequency sounds.

But as well as using sounds to communicate，toothed whales and dolphins also rely on echolocation to learn about their immediate environment，including kill that might be waiting nearby.They produce intense short broad-band pulses of sound in the ultrasonic range.These clicks are brief，typically less than one millisecond long— but they are repeated many times each second.

16.For whales and dolphins，which sense is most important？

解析B）。选项中的sense of sight/hearing/smell/taste表明，本题可能考查某种感官。短文中提到，对于生活在海洋和河流里的海豚和鲸类，所处环境黑暗与否对于它们来说无关紧要，声音才是最重要的。由此可知，对于它们来说最重要的是听觉，故答案为B）。but转折处为常考点，听音时应留意。

17.How much faster does the sound travel in the water than in the air？

解析B）。选项的内容表明，本题考查倍数或次数。短文中提到，声音在水中的传播速度是在空气中的5倍，故答案为B）。数字处为常考点，是听音重点。

18.How do the dolphins and toothed whales communicate？

解析A）。选项中的through…sounds/gestures表明，本题考查做某事的方式。短文中提到，海豚和齿鲸是通过多种高频声音（through a wide variety of high-frequency sounds）来交流的，故答案为A）。

Passage Two

整体预测

本短文三道题选项中的write travel guides，checking all the facts和spends half of her time travelling表明，短文可能与女士为了写旅行指南而去旅行有关。

When you’re lying on the white sands of the Mexican Riviera，the stresses of the world seem a million miles away.Hey，stop！This is no vacation—you have to finish something！

Here lies the problem for travel writer and food critic Edie Jarolim.“I always loved travelling and always liked to eat，but it never occurred to me that I could make money doing both of those things，”Jarolim said.Now you can read her travel advice everywhere in Arts and Antiques，in Brides，or in one of her three books—The Complete Idiot Travel Guide to Mexico’s Beach Resorts.

Her job in travel writing began some eight years ago.After getting a PhD in English in Canada she took a test for Frommer’s Travel Guides，passed it，and got the job.After working at Frommer’s，Jarolim worked for a while at Rough Guides in London，then Fodor’s，where she fell so in love with a description of the Southwest of the US that she moved there.

Now as a travel writer，she spends one-third of her year on the road.The rest of the time is spent completing her tasks and writing reviews of restaurants at home in Tucson，Arizona.

As risky as the job sounds，the hard part is fact-checking all the information.Sure，it’s great to write about a tourist attraction，but you’d better get the local museum hours correct or you could really ruin someone’s vacation.

19.Which country does Jarolim live in now？

解析B）。选项的内容表明，本题考查国家，听音时捕捉关键信息词对号入座即可选出答案。由短文中提到的she fell so in love with a description of the Southwest of the US that she moved there可知，亚罗利姆现在住在美国，故答案为B）。

20.What is most difficult for Jarolim？

解析C）。选项均以动词-ing开头表明，本题可能考查某行为动作。由短文中提到的the hard part is fact-checking all the information可知，核实信息最难，故答案为C）。C）中的checking all the facts与fact-checking对应，问题中的difficult与hard对应。

21.What do we know about Jarolim from the passage？

解析A）。选项均以she开头表明，本题考查女士的事实状况。以由短文中提到的now you can read her travel advice everywhere可知，作为旅行作家，她在工作中取得了成功，故答案为A）。综合信息点进行推理判断是解答本题的关键。

Passage Three

整体预测

本短文四道题选项中的they，parents和family members表明，短文可能与青少年和父母的关系有关。

The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families.But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents，which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their rooms after endless family quarrels.

An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past.“We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families，”said one member of the research team.“They’re expected to be rebellious and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds；they want a car and material goods，and they worry about whether school is serving them well.There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children，and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process.They don’t want to rock the boat.”

So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends.“My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me，”says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall.“I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing.As long as they know what I’m doing，they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome，who is now 21，agrees.“Looking back on the last 10 years，there was a lot of what you could call negotiation.For example，as long as I’d done all my homework，I could go out on a Saturday night.But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”

22.What is the popular image of teenagers today？

解析B）。选项均以they开头，其中的worry about school，dislike living with their parents，have to be locked和quarrel a lot表明，they指代青少年，本题可能考查青少年对学校及父母的态度。由短文开头提到的the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their rooms after endless family quarrels可知，人们通常认为青少年不愿意和父母们在一起，故答案为B）。问题中的popular image对应短文中的popularly-held image；答案出处中的locked in their rooms after endless family quarrels做后置定语，修饰teenagers。

23.What do we know about teenagers according to the study？

解析D）。选项中重复出现的they don’t want to和family表明，they指代青少年，本题可能考查青少年不愿意待在家里的某种表现。由短文中提到的they don’t want to rock the boat可知，他们不想惹麻烦，故答案为D）。D）中的cause trouble是对短文中rock the boat的同义转述。

24.What do we know about today’s parents compared with parents of 30 years ago？

解析A）。选项均以they开头，结合其中的give their children，care less…children’s life，much stricter… children和go to…with their children可知，they指代父母，本题可能考查父母对待孩子的态度。由短文中提到的…it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than…to treat their children as friends和短文结尾处17岁女孩Daniel Lazall提到的…I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that可知，现在的父母给孩子更多的自由，故答案为A）。问题中的today’s parents对应短文中的this generation of parents。

25.What is the passage mainly about？

解析C）。选项均为概括性强的名词短语表明，本题可能考查短文的主旨。短文开头提到the evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families，接下来的几段则围绕“家庭和谐”展开叙述，由此可知，短文主要谈论了家庭和谐的话题，故答案为C）。