2012年普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（山东卷） 英 语 第I卷（共105分）

Whenever we hear about “the homeless,”, most of us think of the Developing World. But the 36 is that homelessness is everywhere. For example, how many of us would expect to see people living on the streets of a 37 country like Germany?

Kurt Muller and his wife Rita have spent eleven years making 38 for the homeless of Berlin, Germany’s capital. They first 39 one long hot summer when most Germans were 40 on holiday. Kurt and his wife stayed at home, made sandwiches, 41 a table in the street and gave food to the homeless.

The Mullers soon realized that food and clothing weren’t 42 . “What these people also need is warmth and 43 ,” says Rita. The Mullers didn’t 44 to give their phone number to the street people and told them to phone anytime. Rita 45 there was somebody at home to answer the phone and their home was always 46 to anyone who couldn’t face another night on the street.

The couple were soon 47 all their time and money, so Kurt visited food and clothing companies to 48 donations. Today, over thirty companies 49 donate food and other goods to the cause and volunteers help to 50 them to the homeless. The public also give clothes and money and a shoe producer 51 new shoes.

Kurt and Rita receive no 52 for their hard work. “ We feel like parents,” says Rita, “and parents shouldn’t 53 money for helping their children. The love we get on the streets is our salary.” Though Rita admits she often gets 54 . she says she will continue with her work because she likes the feeling of having made a 55 in the world.

One of the greatest contributions to the first Oxford English Dictionary was also one of its most unusual. In 1879, Oxford University in England asked Prof. James Murray to serve as editor for what was to be the most ambitious dictionary in the history of the English language. It would include every English word possible and would give not only the definition but also the history of the word and quotations (引文)showing how it was used.

This was a huge task.,so Murrary had to find volunteers from Britain, the United States, and the British colonies to search every newspaper, magazine, and book ever written in English. Hundreds of volunteers responded, including William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor was an American surgeon who had served in the Civil War and was now living in England. He gave his address as “Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire,”” 50 miles from Oxford.

Minor joined the army of volunteers sending words and quotations to Murray. Over the next 17 years, he became one of the staff’s most valued contributors.

But he was also a mystery. In spite of many invitations, he would always decline to visit Oxford. So in 1897， Murray finally decided to travel to Crowthorne himself. When he arrived, he found Minor locked in a book-lined cell at the Broadmoor Asylum（精神病院） for the Criminally insane.

Murray and Minor became friends, sharing their love of words. Minor continued contributing to the dictionary, sending in more than 10,000 submissions in 20 years. Murray continued to visit Minor regularly, sometimes taking walks with him around the asylum grounds.

In 1910, Minor left Broadmoor for an asylum in his native America. Murray was at the port to wave goodbye to his remarkable friend.

Minor died in 1920, seven years before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. The 12 volumes defined 414,825 words, and thousands of them were contributions from a very scholarly and devoted asylum patient.

San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle. And, Longview has its squirrel bridge. The bridge, which has attracted international attention, is now a local landmark.

The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy road without getting flattened by passing cars.

The original bridge was built over Olympia Way on the west edge of the library grounds. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to avoid traffic to and from the Park Plaza office building where office staff put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, Peters and others who worked in and near Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over.

One day Peters found a dead squirrel with a nut still in its mouth, and that day’s coffee break discussion turned into squirrel safety. The group of businessmen cooked up the squirrel bridge idea and formed a committee to ask the blessing of the City Council(市政会).The Council approved, and Councilwoman Bess LaRiviere named the bridge “Nutty Narrows.”

After architects designed the bridge, Amos Peters and Bill Hutch started Construction, They built the 60-foot bridge from aluminum and lengths of fire hose(消防水带). It cost 1,000.

It didn’t take long before reports of squirrels using the bridge started. Squirrels were even seen guiding their young and teaching them the ropes. The story was picked up by the media, and Nutty Narrows became know in newspapers all over the world.

In 1983, after 20 years of use, Peters took down the worn-out bridge. Repairs were made and crosspieces were replaced. The faded sign was repainted and in July 1983, hundreds of animal lovers attended the completion ceremony of the new bridge.

Peters died in 1984, and a ten-foot wooden squirrel sculpture was placed near the bridge in memory of its builder and his devotion to the project.

For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app(application).

Strange though it may seem — “my wife already does that” was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week — Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安装) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them “smart”.

Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it’s Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.

The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners is at work or on the bus.

Samsung says it’s not just something new — the app connection actually has some practical uses.

“If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go,” said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.

The company also says that with electricity rate(电价)varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.

Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do —enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV.第II卷（共45分）

[1] Ashley Power’s mother bought a computer for her when she was eight. When she was thirteen, she was surfing the Internet regularly, but she couldn’t find anywhere for teenagers to meet and talk. And one day she thought, “If I had my own website, I’d make it a really interesting site for teenagers.”

[2]So, when Ashley was sixteen, she launched her own website, called Goosehead. She had no idea how big a success it would be, but three years later, the site was the most successful teen site in the USA! It was getting 100,000 hits every day, and Ashley had about 30 employees.

[3] After a few years, the website closed down. Then Ashley, who lives in Los Angeles, was asked to write a book called The Goosehead Guide to Life. The book is about how to design a website and start a business. It begins with a section called “All About Ashley,” where Ashley tells readers what it is like to be the boss of a company when you are only sixteen. “ I was so happy. But it was crazy in a lot of ways. I got very stressed. I mean, I was only sixteen — I didn’t even have a car! If you were sixteen and you had your own company, you’d be stressed, too！“

[4] In an interview Ashley gave advice to teenagers who wanted to start their own business, “Just be strong and have your dreams and work hard at them. And don’t listen when _______, because I heard ‘no’ a lot. Just keep going until you hear ‘yes’!”