Now go through TEXT F quickly to answer question 52 and 53.
　
The indisputable giant of the early Romantic period of classical music was Ludwing van Beethoven. Beethoven's life spanned the period of the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century, a time of political and social revolution in the Western world. Beethoven was the personification of the modern artist: he felt himself the equal of royalty, and this belief was echoed in his music.
　
Of Flemish descent, Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany on December 16 or 17, 1770. His mother was a cook and his father a menial musician who was also drunkard. He started to receive formal musical instruction in 1779, and after only three years became deputy court organist and a member of the court orchestra.    A year later his first composition was published.
　
In 1787 he set out for Vienna to meet Mozart. Within two weeks of his arrival, his mother fell ill and he hurried back to Bonn. She died in the same year, and her death affected Beethoven very deeply.
　
In 1792 he returned to Vienna, never to see Bonn again. Soon after, Beethoven made his entrance into the cultured middle class, and through his patron Count Waldstein, into the world of the nobility. He was in great demanded as a performer and a teacher.
　
In spite of this success, however, Beethoven was known as an eccentric. He changed domiciles on the average of once a month, and he could not get along with his servant. Moreover, his personality was touched by paranoia -- he often felt harassed by unfounded suspicions. These emotions were intensified by his gradual loss of hearing.
　
While Beethoven's life was overridden with his deafness, this misery drove the man to despair, but not the composer. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century he composed a vast amount of music. He was under the patronage of Archduke Rudolph, Prince Joseph Max Lobkowitz and Prince Ferdinand Kinsky, all of whom guaranteed him an annual salary so he could devote his entire time to composing -- on the condition that he not leave Vienna. Beethoven was thus in the unheard of position of complete independence from any employment or commission. The musician and composer were no longer servants of the court; they were the equal of noblemen.
　
This artistic freedom, however, did not free him from mundane problems. Often his patrons did not pay him on time, and the publishers of his compositions frequently sent his royalties late. Moreover, after the death of his brother Karl, he was appointed guardian of his nephew which brought him much vexation and grief. He had long and bitter quarrels with the boy's mother whom he considered unfit to raise the child.
　
In spite of the adversity in his personal life, Beethoven produced some of his greatest works during this time. Many of his piano sonatas were composed in these years, each of which he dedicated to patrons and friends. In these works he drew on forms used by earlier composers while exploring new depths of emotions.
　
Sorrow, passion and fanfare were hallmarks of his music. Moreover, he was drawn to subjects of epic or heroic grandeur. The most glorious of his symphonies, the "Eroica", was originally dedicated to Napoleon. On hearing that he had crowned himself emperor, however, Beethoven changed the dedication to read, "To the memory of a great man." He was also a master of the fugue and canon, undoubtedly because of the influence of J.S. Bach. He said of the Baroque master: "He should not be called Bach ("brook" in German) but Meer (sea)."
　
Toward the the end of Beethoven's life, his deafness was total. One can only marvel at fact that he produced so much music which he never heard. His last symphony, the "Coral", reflects the strength of his spirit. In the last movement the chorus and soloists join the orchestra in a grand finale based on Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy". When Beethoven conducted this work in Vienna he was totally deaf. After one particular passage there was thunderous applause. Unaware of the adulation, he continued conducting. One of the singers pulled his sleeve and pointed to the audience. He then turned and bowed.
　
In 1826 Beethoven's chronic poor health took a turn for the worse. He developed pleurisy, and later pneumonia. His last days were wracked with suffering until finally, on March 26, 1827, he died. The funeral of this musician giant was attended by twenty thousand people.
　
TEXT G
First read the question.
54. Who is Dolly?
A.    A scientist in Chicago.
B. A member of the U.S. National Bioethics Advisory Committee.
C. A Scottish researcher at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute.
D. The first animal cloned from the cells of an adult.
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT G quickly to answer question 54.
　
From the slave drones of Huxley's Brave New World to the hollow-headed replicates of Helene's Time Enough for Love and the production-line Hitler of The Boys from Brazil, clones get a bad press. Yet, in the real world, we encounter clones al the time. Identical twins are genetic replicas of each other. And so, for that matter, are some oranges. All the world's navel oranges come from a single cutting.
　
But it is the laboratory-made clones that upset people. Chicago's Dr Richard Seed found that out when he proposed establishing a chain of fertility clinics that would clone man in His image, such man-made creation was merely our latest step towards becoming God. Howls of outrage echoed from Washington to China. It was the latest eruption in a debate that has been simmering ever since Scottish researchers at Edinburgh's Roslin Institute announced the cloning of a lamb called Dolly.
　
Scientists have been cloning frogs and mice since 1952, but Dolly was the first animal to be cloned from the cells of an adult, rather than an embryo or fetus. This was a necessary step in the institute's plan to mass-produce transgenic animals. These include cows and sheep that have been implanted with human genes for such medically useful items as ant thrombin III, an anti-cloning protein genes for heart patients, or Factor IX, a clotting protein for hemophiliacs. The proteins are discharged in their milk. The animals also include donor organ pigs whose tissues are compatible with human tissue.
　
To many non-scientists, Dolly's cloning raised the specter of human cloning. The Pope promptly called for a worldwide ban on human cloning. The U.S. National Bioethics Advisory Committee also recommended a ban -- for safety reasons, such as the risk to clone children from cancer-causing mutations in government-funded research on human cloning and put a bill before Congress proposing to outlaw such research for five years. A U.S. opinion poll found 90 percent opposition to human cloning. By the end of 1997, the 40-nation Council of Europe had imposed the first legal binding international ban on human cloning.
　
Cloning had also been criticized for its effects on the experimental animals. At birth, lambs and calves cloned from embryos can be twice the usual size, creating considerable stress on the surrogate mother. Transgenic animals can experience unpleasant in their growth rates, physical condition or behavior. The "Beltsville pig", for instance, was created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Beltsville, Maryland, to produce human growth hormone. The pig grew all right, but suffered severely from bone and joint problems. There is also the question of premature ageing. Do cloned animals wear out faster? Genes trend to accumulate wear and tear with age. This may mean that 18-month-old Dolly really had the genes and physiology of an eight-year-old. If so, will she age and die faster than her non-cloned pals? The scientists are watching closely.
　
Right now, cloning research is continuing at speed. Researchers know how to grow human tissue cloned from aborted fetuses, keeping it alive in laboratories as a potentially inexhaustible source of replacement tissue to graft onto sick people. One U.S. company, Reprogenesis, claims to have induced the growth of nipples on breast tissue. It aims to make silicon implants obsolete within five years. Some gene therapy researchers are even predicting that, within 10 to 20 years, the biggest taboo for genetic researchers--permanent alternation of human gene line -- will be an accepted medical practice. "Gremlin intervention" is already used on mice to alter genes in the sperm and egg cells. It is dome by implanting cloned tissue in the developing embryo.
　
For all frenzied activity and gung-ho talk, it may be some time before we see the promise of the new techniques. And those hordes of identical people swarming across the continents? They are unlikely to happen. Right now, the techniques are still very costly and very inefficient. Noting that Dolly was the only one of 277 cloned eggs to survive, Jim Mc Whir of the Roslin Institute says that, for now, human cloning "is completely impracticable, especially considering that it's much pleasanter making children in the classical way". And, even if it does become less costly and more efficient in future, who could really want to change that?
　
TEXT H
First read the questions.
55. This passage can be categorized as ____.
A. narration
B.    argumentation
C. exposition
D. objective description
正确答案是

56. What conclusion have many folklorists arrived at?
A. The early account of folk customs are unreliable.
B. Folklore is the means by which people try to relieve themselves of pain and tedium and to comprehend the world.
C. The participants were not aware of the significance of their customs.
D. The participants were not intelligent enough to recognize the value of their own customs.
正确答案是

Now go through TEXT H quickly to answer question 55 and 56.
　
One of the greatest problems in assessing most accounts of folk customs is that they trend to give only antiquary's point of view. After all, to most observers, the people they were looking at were simple and illiterate, unmindful of the true significance of the customs they had preserved. Why question them at length if they didn't understand the essential nature of what they were doing? So a folklorist is likely to emphasize aspects of a tradition which reflect his or her own interests or which fit in with preconceived ideas, while possibly ignoring or giving only passing mention to aspects which may, in fact, be of equal importance.
　
One aspect which generally gets left out of accounts is the viewpoint of the participants themselves: For instance, why they indulge in a particular activity at a particular time of year or of their lives and what feelings they experience while doing so. And now, ideas deriving from folklore studies are so widespread that they may easily have become an integral part of the attitudes of the participants in a custom. So the folklorist is rather like a man staring at a scene in a mirror who must be aware, to fully understand that scene, that his own reflection is a major part of what he is looking at.
　
It is, however, also true to say that many contemporary students of folklore are fully aware of the problems which beset their enquires. Like true scientists they draw their conclusions by looking at available evidence, rather than selecting evidence which fits in with existing theories. Some have also looked away from the "obviously" ancient and turned their attention to folklore where it thrives, in the social life of modern cities, in industry and sport etc. They may, for example, end up looking at the lore of the motor car, or of popular music, and at customs which, though they have no hints of paganism, nevertheless have much in common with older activities which do.
　
Many folklorists have gradually come to the conclusion that folklore is not necessarily a thing of past, a relic of ancient and outmoded ways of thinking, but the means by which people try to make sense of the world (or to confront its lack of sense) and try to alleviate boredom and suffering.
　
TEXT I
First read the question.
57. What does this text touch on?
A.    The classification of taxation.
B. The nature and purpose of taxation.
C. The history of legislation.
D. The functions of taxation.
正确答案是