At three a.m., Jack Mills was sitting at the controls of the mail train. The train was made up of 13 cars. At the end of the train, 71 mailmen sat sorting the mail. Inside the second car, there were only five mailmen and 128 bags full of five-pound notes. This train had run more than 100 years without being robbed(抢劫). At three minutes past three, Mills and his helper, David Whitby, saw a yellow warning light. They slowed the train, and then stopped. Whitby went to the telephone beside the track. It was out of order. Then he saw a man moving between the second and the third cars. Before Whitby could give a warning, he was knocked down by two men. Mills’ cars with all the mailmen had been disconnected by the robbers. At the bridge, the bags of money were unloaded from the train and thrown into waiting trucks. One of the robbers who obviously knew the schedules(时刻表) of all the trains kept looking at his watch. At 3:45 he said, “That will have to be enough.” The robbers drove away with more than 2,500,000 pounds.
41. The robbery took place______.
A. before 3:03 B. in the early morning
C. after three o’clock in the afternoon D. after 3:45
42. The robbers_____ before the train stopped.
A. were all in the train B. forced Mills to stop the train
C. were waiting for the train to stop D. ordered Mills to go on driving
43. Why didn’t the other mailmen help the mailmen in the second car when the robbery happened?
A. Because they were busy sorting the mail.
B. Because they didn’t want to help the mailmen in the second car.
C. Because the last eleven cars were separated from the front cars.
D. Because they knew nothing about the robbery.
44. One of the robbers kept looking at his watch because________.
A. he wanted to know the exact time B. he enjoyed looking at his watch
C. he didn’t know when another train would come
D. they had to leave before another train came
45. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. The train was out of order.
B. The telephone was put out of order by the robbers
C. Whitby had an assistant driver.
D. The robbers carried the money away by truck.
Sometimes it is difficult to talk to taxi drivers. They must give all their attention to the road as they work out the shortest way to the place where you are going. However, passengers from Wangfujing were in surprise when they took a taxi. The driver just would not stop talking - in English.
Organized by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy, “Dare to Speak” examines if Chinese people will speak English in “real-life” situations.
Matthew Knowles, an acting student from South Carolina at Beijing Film Academy, acted the part as the “driver”. He collected six passengers on Saturday morning, most of whom were female white-collar （白领）workers.
“Of course they were surprised at first, wondering why I’m driving a taxi, and wondering whether this is a real taxi, but then most of them were pretty willing to speak,” he said. Knowles said he was also surprised by his “passengers”. “Apart from my first ‘passenger’, who could speak very little English, all the rest spoke English very well, and it was fun to communicate with them,” he said, adding that some “passengers” were quite talkative.
The “foreign taxi driver” project was just one of the “Dare to Speak” activities, which have been going on since the end of October. Other projects included a foreign store owner near a high school in Beijing, a cook in a Shanghai university canteen. They were testing the willingness of Chinese people, especially students and white-collar workers, to speak to foreigners in English.
Rong Xin, senior manager of IELTS （雅思） with the British Embassy, said they hoped to let IELTS takers in China know that communication is the ultimate goal of IELTS.
“We hope that more and more IELTS takers in China can realize the importance of communicating in English in real life, instead of just getting high test scores,” she said.
The underlined word ultimate is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．most difficult | B．most common |
| C．most famous | D．most important |
With all the wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us get through each and every day of our lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling down in the dumps ( 处于沮丧中), as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.
How would you feel if you could not joke around with your wife, husband, child, co-worker neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your comer store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with.My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine.This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is common courtesy (礼貌) to speak to others that are around you.
I know of a few people that don’t have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say.Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their face.They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?
Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness in this present world. It drives people crazy. We all need to find a way to bypass the sadness and bring a little light into our lives. So, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.
The phrase “busting a gut" in the third paragraph can be replaced by __________.
| A．explaining carefully | B．speaking loud |
| C．keeping silent | D．laughing hard |
According to body language expert Robert Phipps, the way people sleep at night actually determines a lot about the type of personality they have. Phipps has identified four sleeping positions that affect personality.
Phipps found that worriers, those who stress the most, tend to sleep in the fetal(胎儿的) position. He found that this is the most common bedtime position, with nearly 58 percent of people sleeping on their side with knees up and head down. The more we curl up(蜷曲), the more comfort we are seeking, according to Phipps.
The second most common position is the log. Sleeping with a straight body, with arms at each side, as if they are standing guard at Buckingham Palace, indicates stubbornness, and these people (the 28 percent who sleep this way) often wake up stiffer than when they went to sleep.
"The longer you sleep like this, the more rigid your thinking is and you can become inflexible, which means you make things harder for yourself," according to Phipps.
Yearner(向往型) sleepers are next on the list. About 25 percent of people sleep in this style — on their side with arms stretched out in front, looking as if they are either chasing a dream or perhaps being chased themselves. Yearners are typically their own worst critics, always expecting the best results, explained Phipps. These people often wake up refreshed and eager to face the challenges of the day ahead.
Perhaps the most peculiar(奇怪的) of sleep styles is the freefaller position. This sleep style makes up 17 percent of the population. They sleep face down with arms stretched out. These people, according to Phipps, feel like they have little control over their life. Not only is this the strangest of sleep styles, but also the least comfortable, and people may wake up feeling tired and have no energy.
In conclusion, Phipps has only one more thing to add: "A good night’s sleep sets you up for the following day and our sleeping positions can determine how we feel when we wake."
The underlined word "rigid" is closest in meaning to " ".
| A．stubborn | B．flexible | C．comfortable | D．strange |
One Sunday, my family had gathered at my parents’ house to feast upon Mom’s wonderful cooking．During the normal dinner chatter, I noticed that my father was slurring （说话含混） his words．No one mentioned this during dinner, but I felt compelled to discuss it with my mother afterward．
We decided that there was something seriously wrong and that Dad needed to see the doctor．
Mom phoned me two days later．“The doctor found a brain tumor （肿瘤）．It’s too large at this point to operate．Maybe they can do something then, but the odds are long．”
Even with the treatment, my father’s condition worsened, and the doctor finally informed us that this condition was terminal．During one of his stays in the hospital, we brought our baby daughter Chelsey with us when we visited him．By this time he had great difficulty speaking．I finally figured out that he wanted Chelsey to sit on his stomach so he could make faces at her．
Watching the two of them together, I realized I was living an experience that would stay with me forever．Though grateful for the times they could share, I couldn’t shake the feeling of a clock ticking in the background．
On the visit to my parents’ home during what we all know was my father’s last days, my mother took Chelsey from my arms and announced, “Your father would like to see you alone for a minute．”
I entered the bedroom where my father lay on a rented hospital bed．He appeared even weaker than the day before．
“How are you feeling, Dad?” I asked．“Can I do anything for you?”
He tried to speak, but he couldn’t make out a word．
“I’m sorry, but I can’t understand you,” I said．
With great difficulty he said, “I love you．”
We don’t learn courage from heroes on the evening news．We learn true courage from watching ordinary people rise above hopeless situations．In many ways my father was a strict, uncommunicative man．He found it difficult to show emotion．The bravest thing I ever saw him do was overcome that barrier to open his heart to his son and family at the end of his life．
What does the underlined sentence “the odds are long” mean?
| A．It takes a long time for Father to recover． |
| B．There’s little possibility for Father to recover． |
| C．Father needs love and care from his family． |
| D．They need a proper time to operate on Father． |
Unlike chemists and physicists, who usually do their experiments using machines, biologists and medical researchers have to use living things like rats. But there are three Nobel prize-winning scientists who actually chose to experiment on themselves – all in the name of science, reported The Telegraph.
1. Werner Forssmann (Nobel prize winner in 1956)
Forssmann was a German scientist. He studied how to put a pipe inside the heart to measure the pressure inside and decide whether a patient needs surgery.
Experiments had been done on horses before, so he wanted to try with human patients. But it was not permitted because the experiment was considered too dangerous.
Not giving up, Forssmann decided to experiment on himself. He anaesthetized (麻醉) his own arm and made a cut, putting the pipe 30 centimeters into his vein. He then climbed two floors to the X-ray room before pushing the pipe all the way into his heart.
2. Barry Marshall (Nobel prize winner in 2005)
Most doctors in the mid-20th century believed that gastritis was down to stress, spicy food or an unusually large amount of stomach acid. But in 1979 an Australian scientist named Robin Warren found that the disease might be related to a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori.
So he teamed up with his colleague, Barry Marshall, to continue the study. When their request to experiment on patients was denied, Marshall bravely drank some of the bacteria. Five days later, he lost his appetite and soon was vomiting each morning – he indeed had gastritis.
3. Ralph Steinman (Nobel prize winner in 2011)
This Canadian scientist discovered a new type of immune system cell called the dendritic cell. He believed that it had the ability to fight against cancer.
Steinman knew he couldn’t yet use his method to treat patients. So in 2007, when doctors told him that he had cancer and that it was unlikely for him to live longer than a year, he saw an opportunity.
With the help of his colleagues, he gave himself three different vaccines based on his research and a total of eight experimental therapies（疗法）. Even though Steinman eventually died from his cancer, he lived four and a half years, much longer than doctors had said he would.
The underlined word “gastritis” in Paragraph 5 probably means ______.
| A．a kind of bacteria | B．a kind of stomach disease |
| C．a new type of therapy | D．a large amount of stomach acid |