PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION (30%)
Directions: Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage
They say a cat has nine lives, and I think that possible since I am now living my third life and I’m not even a cat. My father died when I was 15, and we had a hard struggle to make a living. And my mother, who was seriously ill in her last years, died while still in her 60s. My sister married soon after, and I followed her example within the year.
This was when I began to enjoy my first life. I was very happy, in excellent health. I had a good job in San Jose and a beautiful home up the peninsula (半岛) in San Carlos. Life was a pleasant dream. Then the dream ended. I became afflicted (使苦恼) with a slowly progressive disease of the motor nerves, affecting first my right arm and leg, and then my other side. Thus began my second life...
In spite of my disease I still drove to and from work each day, with the aid of special equipment installed in my car. And I managed to keep my health and optimism (乐观), to a degree, because of 14 steps. Crazy? Not at all. Our home was an affair with 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. Those steps were a standard measure of life. They were my yardstick, my challenge to continue living. I felt that if the day arrived when I was unable to lift one foot up one step and then drag the other painfully after it ---repeating the process 14 times, I would be through---I could then admit defeat and lie down and die.
Then on a dark night in August, 1971, I began my third life. It was raining when I started home that night; strong winds and slashing rain beat down on the car as I drove slowly down one of the less-traveled roads. Suddenly the steering wheel jerked (猝然一动). In the same instant I heard the bang of a blowout. It was impossible for me to change that tire! Utterly impossible!
I started the engine and thumped slowly along until I came to the dirt road, where I turned in and where I found lighted windows welcomed me to a house and pulled into the driveway and honked the horn.
The door opened and a little girl stood there. When she knew what happened to me, she went into the house and a moment later came out, followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting. I sat there comfortable and dry, and felt a bit sorry for the man and the little girl working so hard in the storm.
About an hour later, the man’s voice was heard, “This is a bad night for car trouble, but you’re all set now.” “Thanks,” I said. “How much do I owe you?” He shook his head, “Nothing. Cynthia told me you were a cripple. Glad to be of help. I know you’d do the same for me. There’s no charge, friend.” I held out a five-dollar bill, “No! I like to pay my way.” He made no effort to take it and the little girl stepped closer to the window and said quietly, “Grandpa can’t see it.”
56. “A cat has nine lives” here means ___________.
A. a cat can live nine times longer than any other animal B .a cat can die ninth
C .a lucky man can not die easily D the writer will live nine times
57. What do you think of the man who helped change the tire?
A. Old, warm-hearted but pitiable
B. Blind, but warm-hearted and happy
C. A blind old man that has nothing to do every day.
D. A poor old man that is always ready to help others.
58. How will the story be ended?
A. The writer paid the little girl but the old man did not accept.
B. The writer drove away with tears running down his cheek.
C. The writer stayed there, without knowing what to do and how to do it.
D. In the next few frozen seconds the writer felt the shame and astonishment he had never felt
before.
59. How do you understand the underlined sentence “I followed my sister’s example?”
A. He listened to his sister carefully.
B Mother told him that he must get the agreement from his sister for whatever he would do.
C His sister got married. He, too.
D His sister was a great woman.. He must learn from her.
60. The best title for this passage perhaps will be _____.
A.The Old Man and His Daughter B. Heart Leaping Up
C.Never Lose Heart D. Good Will Be Rewarded Good
阅读理解
A
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 cjould 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.
1. 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
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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.
(1) Mr. Brown (the motorist)
At about 9:20 p.m. on October 14th, I was driving along Market Road in the direction of Midwick. I wanted to go to Sturham to collect my wife, who had been visiting some friends. I prepared to turn into Sturham Road, which was on my right. In the distance, I saw the lights of a car moving towards me but it was a long way from me. I put out my hand to show that I was going to turn right. Then I started to turn slowly towards Sturham Road. Suddenly there was a loud noise on the passenger's (near) side of the car. I stopped the car and got out. A motorcycle had hit my car. The motorcyclist had been thrown over the car. He was injured, so I ran to a shop to phone for help.
(2) Mr. Smith (the injured motorcyclist)
On the evening of October 14th, I was going home along Market Road towards Newtown. I was riding my motorcycle. I was going slowly because some of the streetlights were out and the road was wet and slippery. Just before Sturham Road, a car suddenly drove right across my path. The driver did not flash his lights to give a warning. I could not turn in time, so I hit the side of the car. When I woke up, I was lying in a hospital in Market Road.
(3) Mr. Lee (another motorcyclist)
At about 9:10 p.m. on October 14th, I left my home in Midwick. Ten minutes later I was riding my motorcycle along Market Road. I was going to Newtown. There was a motorcycle about 40 metres in front of me. It was not going very quickly. The man on it was riding near the curb (路边) but I was near the center of the road. The motorcyclist in front of me tried to turn to his right but there was no time. He hit the car and was injured. There was no car going along in front of us or put by the road.
48．Which of these statements about the accident is probably correct?
A．Mr. Brown wrongly supposed that the lights of the two motorcycles were those of a car.
B．The lights of the car moving towards Mr. Brown made him unable to see.
C．Mr. Brown knocked down a motorcyclist on purpose.
D．The accident was caused by the carelessness of the first motorcyclist.
49．It seems probable from the statements that Mr. Brown__________.
A．gave no signal to show that he was turning right
B．did not give any signal until he was actually turning
C．failed to give a proper signal at that time
D．flashed his light to show that he was going to turn
50．We would expect to find that Mr. Brown's car was damaged on its________ side.
A．front B．leftC．rightD．driver's
Have you ever suddenly felt that someone you knew was in trouble—and was he? Have you ever dreamed something that came true later? Maybe you have ESP (超感觉知觉).
ESP stands for Extrasensory Perception. It may be called a sixth sense. It seems to let people know about events before they happen, or events that are happening some distance away.
Here's an example. A woman was ironing clothes. Suddenly she screamed, "My father is dead! I saw him sitting in the chair!" Just then, a telegram came. The woman's father died of a heart attack. He died sitting in a chair.
There are thousands of stories like this one on record. Scientists are studying them to find out what's behind these strange mental messages. Here's another example—one of hundreds of dreams that have come true.
A man dreamed he was walking along a road when a horse and carriage came by. The driver said, "There's room for one more." The man felt the driver seemed dead, so he ran away. The next day, when the man was getting on a crowded bus, the bus driver said, "There's room for one more."
Then the man saw that the driver's face was the same face he had seen in the dream. He wouldn't get on the bus. As the bus drove off, it crashed and burst into flames. Everyone was killed!
Some people say stories like these are coincidences. Others, including some scientists, say that ESP is real. From studies of ESP, we may someday learn more about the human mind.
44．According to the passage, the author believes that the sixth sense is_________.
A．in existence B．imaginative C．not real D．impossible
45．ESP lets people know___________.
A．about events before they happen
B．about events after they happen
C．about events that are happening some distance away
D．A and C
46．In the last paragraph the underlined word "coincidences" probably means ____.
A．things that may not happen
B．things that happen in a dream
C．things that must happen
D．things that happen by accident
47．This article is mainly about_________.
A．the human dreamB．the sixth sense
C．the human mind D．a crowded bus
It seems that the Englishmen just cannot live without sports of some kind. A famous French humourist once said that this is because the English insist on behaving like children all their lives. Wherever you go in this country, you will see both children and grown-ups knocking a ball about with a stick or something, as if in Britain men shall always remain boys and women girls! Still, it can never be bad to get exercise, can it?
Taking all amateur (业余) and professional sports in Britain into consideration, there can be no doubt that football is at the top of the list. It is called soccer in the United States. The game originated (起源于) in Britain and was played in the Middle Ages or even earlier, though as an organized game, or "association football", it dates only from the beginning of the 19th century.
The next is rugby, which is called "football" in the United States. It is a kind of football played by two teams of fifteen players than eleven. In rugby, an oval-shaped ball is used which can be handled as well as kicked. It is a pretty rough game.
In summer, cricket is the most popular sport. In fact, it has sometimes been called the English national game. Most foreigners find the game rather slow or even boring, but it enjoys great popularity among the British.
Tennis rates high on the list, too. It was introduced into England from France in the 15th century, but it was from England that it spread to practically every country in the world Table tennis, or "ping-pong", surely is not played on a great scale as it is in China or Japan. Basketball and volleyball were introduced into Britain during the late 19th century from America and are gaining popularity. Horse-back riding, swimming, rowing and golf all attract a lot of people.
41．The main purpose of Paragraph 1 is to tell us that the English ___________.
A．are all sports lovers B．behave like children
C．like to kick a ball around D．can remain young all their lives
42．According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true about football and rugby?
A．They differ in the shape of the ball.
B．They are played by different numbers of players.
C．They both can be handled.
D．They both can be kicked.
43．The game that was never played in Britain until the late 19th century is _________.
A．basketball B．tennis C．rugbyD．football
It is true that a smile means the same thing in any language. So does laughter or crying. There are also a number of clear similarities in the way different animals show the same feeling. Dogs, tigers and humans, for example, often show their teeth when they are angry. This is probably because such behavior patterns are inherited (遗传) rather than learned.
Fear is another emotion that is shown in much the same
way all over the world. In Chinese and in English literature, a phrase like “he went pale and begin to tremble (颤抖)”suggests that the man is either very afraid or he has just got a very big shock. However, “he opened his eyes wide” is used to suggest anger in Chinese whereas in English it means surprise. In Chinese surprise can be described in a phrase like “they stretched out（伸出）their tongues”! Sticking out your tongue in English is an insulting（侮辱）or expresses disgust.
Even in the same culture, people differ in ability to understand and express feelings. Experiments in America have shown that women are usually better than men at recognizing fear, anger, love and happiness on people’s faces. Disgust, contempt (蔑视) and suffering seem to be the most difficult emotions for people everywhere either to recognize or to express. Other studies show that older people usually find it easier to recognize or understand body language than younger people do. And psychologists (心理学家) such as E.G. Beier have also shown that some people often give the completely impression of how they feel. For example, they try to show love but in fact communicate dislike. Or when they want to show interest, they give the impression that they don’t care. This can happen even among close friends and members of the same family. In other words, what we think we are communicating through language, voice, face and body movements may be the exact opposite of what for people understand.
71．According to the passage, even in different cultures the most easily recognized emotion is .
A．anger B．dislike C．happiness D．surprise
72．Experiments show that easier understanding of words and gestures has something to do with your .
A．age and sex B．love and cultural differences
C．impressions about the speaker D．emotional state
73．When we communicate with people, .
A．we know exactly what they mean while they express their emotions
B．we sometimes misunderstand each other
C．we usually mislead them by expressing the opposite of our feeling
D．it seems much mere difficult to understand body language than language
74．Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A．When we communicate our real emotions, we many cause misunderstanding to others.
B．Different people in different cultures may have different ways to understand one gesture.
C．Some people are likely to hide their real feelings and express them in the opposite way.
D．What we say does always mean the same thing as the gestures we make.
75．The underlined word “disgust” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ” in this passage.
A．strong dislike B．friendliness C．love D．sickness