Wrting artieles about films for The Front Page was my first proper job. Before then I had done bits of reviewing --- novels for other newspapers, films for a magazine and anything I was asked to do for the radio．That was how I met Tom Seaton, the first arts editor of The Front Page, who had also written for television．He hired me, but Tom was not primarily a journalist, or he would certainly have been more careful in choosing his staff．
At first, his idea was that a team of critics should take care of the art forms that didn’t require specialized knowledge: books, TV, theatre, film and radio．There would be a weekly lunch at which we would make our choices from the artistic material that Tom had decided we should cover, though there would also be guests to make the atmosphere sociable．
It all felt like a bit of dream at that time: a new newspaper and I was one of the team．It seemed so unlikely that a paper could be introduced into a crowded market．It seemed just as likely that a millionaire wanted to help me personally, and was pretending to employ me．Such was my lack of self-confidence．
Tom’s original scheme for a team of critics for the arts never took off．It was a good idea, but we didn’t get together as planned and so everything was done by phone．It turned out, too, that the general public out there preferred to associate a reviewer with a single subject area, and so I chose film．Without Tom’s initial push, though, we would hardly have come up with the present arrangement, by which I write an extended weekly piece, usually on one film．
The space I am given allows me to broaden my argument --- or forces me, in an uninteresting week, to make something out of nothing．But what is my role in the public arena? I assume that people choose what films to go to on the basis of the stars, the publicity or the director．So if a film review isn’t really a consumer guide, what is it? I certainly don’t feel I have a responsibility to be ‘right’ about a movie．Nor do I think there should be a certain number of ‘great’ and ‘bad’ films each year．All I have to do is put forward an argument．I’m not a judge, and nor would I want to be．
1．What do we learn about Tom Seaton from the first paragraph?
A．He encouraged Mark to become a writer．
B．He had worked in various areas of the media．
C．He met Mark when working for television．
D．He prefers to employ people that he knows．
2．The weekly lunches were planned in order to_________.
A．help the writers get to know each other
B．provide an informal information session
C．distribute the work that had to be done
D．entertain important visitors from the arts
3．What does the author mean when he says that Tom’s plan ‘never took off’ in Paragraph 4?
A．It was unpopular.
B．It wasted too much time.
C．It wasn’t planned properly.
D．It wasn’t put into practice.
4．Which of the following best describes what Mark says about his work?
A．His success varies from year to year．
B．He prefers to write about films he likes．
C．He can freely express his opinion．
D．He writes according to accepted rules．
第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项
Last year．I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, DC．I heard a voice say, “Can you help me?” When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended．Immediately, I pulled out all of my change and placed it on her hand without even looking at her．But the blind woman smiled and said, “I don’t want your money．I just need help finding the post office．”
In an instant, I realized what I had done．I acted with prejudice―I judged another person simply for what I assumed she had to be．I hated what I saw in myself．
The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant．I left Honduras and arrived in the US at the age of 15．I started my new life with two suitcases,my brother and sister．Through the years, I have been a doorkeeper, cashier and pizza delivery driver among many other humble(卑微的)jobs, and eventually I became a network engineer．
In my own life, I have experienced prejudice．I remember a time―at the age of 17―when I was a busboy, I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well in school, he would end up like me．
But now, living in my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am, where I have been ,and to lose sight of where I want to be going．That blind woman on the streets cured me of my blindness．She reminded me of my belief in humility(谦虚)．By the way, I helped that lady to the post office．I hope to thank her for the priceless lesson．
1．How did the writer give the blind woman money?
A．In a modest way B．In a polite way
C．In an impatient way． D．In a painful way
2According to the text, the writer__________．
A．still lives a poor life B．was busy with his work
C．was born in Honduras D．was a native of Washington D．C．
3．According to the text, the author most probably agrees that one should__________．
A．be nice to the elderly and the disabled
B．try to experience different kinds of culture
C．treat others equally with love and respect
D．think about one’s past as often as possible
4．What would be the best title of the text?
A．A priceless lesson B．An act of prejudice
C．A sightseeing trip D．A humble moment
The Antarctica is actually a desert.
The Antarctica is all ice all the year. The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero at the South Pole. Explorers(探险家) used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snowfall. But less than ten inches of snowfalls each year. That is less than half an inch of water. Ten times that much moisture(水分) falls in parts of the Sahara.
The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts(融化). It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century. When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep, it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it.
1. Antarctica is called a desert because it _____.
A. is sandy
B. has the same temperature as a desert
C. has little moisture
D. all of the above
2. The Antarctica has _____.
A. ten times as much moisture as the Sahara
B. the same amount of moisture as the Sahara
C. about one-tenth the moisture of the Sahara
D. none of these
3. The snow in Antarctica is very deep because it _____.
A. never stops falling
B. piles up year after year
C. never melts
D. Both B and C
4. The best title for this passage is “_____”
A. A Strange Continent
B. The Antarctica—An Ice Desert
C. Snowfall at the South Pole
D. The World’s Greatest Desert
Oxford is a very old town on the River Thames, about 60 miles from London. Unlike modern university towns, where you usually find the university on the edge of the town, or on its own campus(校园), Oxford’s center is the university; and around the crossroads at the very heart of Oxford, Carfax, there are grey stone colleges and other university buildings. In the center you can also find interesting old restaurants. There are a lot of churches, and few really large and interesting buildings, such as Ashmolean Museum, the round library, the Bodleain and the Radcliff Camera. Like all English towns, there are parks. The Parks is the home of university cricket(板球). In the summer months, as you leave the center and go towards the edge of Oxford you can see industrial areas in one direction; and in another, beautiful suburbs(郊区). There is, in fact, quite a lot of industry in Oxford.
1. The passage mainly introduces to us _____ .
A. an old industrial center.
B. well-known university.
C. a famous university town.
D. newly developed town.
2. Visitors to Oxford will find that _____ .
A. the university is also the town center.
B. one of the crossroads is called Carfax.
C. the university is on the edge of the town.
D. most buildings are modern and interesting.
3. What’s the special about The Parks?
A. All towns in Britain have parks like this.
B. It is the only park in Oxford.
C. It’s the home of Oxford sportsmen.
D. It is related to a popular game.
I was riding along the road when I heard someone shouting behind me. It was a young shepherds(牧羊人). He was running across a field and pointing at something.
I looked and saw two wolves running across the field. One was fully grown, the other was a cub. The cub had on his back a lamb (羔羊) which had just been killed, and he had the leg in his mouth. The old wolf was running behind.
As soon as I saw the wolves, I joined the shepherd and we started in pursuit(追赶), setting up a shout.
When they heard, some peasants started out also in pursuit, with their dogs.
As soon as the old wolf caught sight of the dogs and the men, he ran to the young one, snatched the lamb from him, threw it over on his back, and both wolves increased their pace and were soon lost from the view.
Then the shepherd began to tell me how it happened. The big wolf had sprung out (跳出) from the valley, seized the lamb, killed it and carried it off. The old wolf allowed the young wolf to carry the lamb, but kept running a short distance behind.
But as soon as there was a danger, the old wolf stopped giving the lesson, and seized the lamb for himself.
1. A cub is _____ .
A. an old wolf B. a young wolf C. a strong wolf D. a big wolf
2. The old wolf allowed the young wolf to carry the lamb because _____ .
A. he was lazy.
B. he was being run after.
C. he was wounded.
D. he was training his cub.
3. The old wolf seized the lamb for himself because _____ .
A. the cub wouldn’t carry it any longer.
B. the cub was too tired.
C. there was danger.
D. the cub wouldn’t learn.
4. In order to train the cub, the big wolf _____ .
A. showed the cub how to kill a lamb.
B. let the cub kill the lamb.
C. asked the cub to come to meet him.
D. let the cub do what he could do.
5. The passage is about _____.
A. how a young wolf carried a lamb.
B. how the wolves escaped.
C. how some peasants tried to catch the wolves.
D. how an old wolf taught his cub.
When you watch a movie in the cinema, you may wonder how “the moving pictures” is made and where the voices, and noises and music come from. Now here is the answer.
In modern times, the middle part of a cinema film has lots of small photographs, each one of which is different from the one before it. Each photograph is brought in front of a strong light, and there it stops for a very small part of a second. This photograph, therefore, appears on the screen, and we see it. Then the light is covered and the next photograph is moved to the position in the front of the strong light. Meanwhile, the metal cover turns away from the light. Thus, the second photograph is shown on the screen. This is done again and again, twenty-four times a second, and we think we are watching a moving picture on the screen. But nothing on the screen actually moves. ”The moving picture” is in fact made up of a lot of bits. We see about 86,000 different pictures every hour, but none of them moves.
The voices, noises and music are recorded on the side of the cinema film. The record looks like marks of strange shapes. The side of the film passes in front of another light, and the rays of light which pass through change as the marks change. These marks have been made from the voices and other sounds of the people and events in front of the cinema when the film is being made. The marks may be considered as “printed sounds”.
1. When a cinema film is shown, how long does each photograph appear on the screen?
A. One twenty-third of a second.
B. One twenty-fourth of a second
C. A few seconds
D. One thirty-fifth of a second.
2. Why can we see pictures moving on the screen?
A. We see about 86,000 different pictures every hour.
B. Each picture is a little different from the former.
C. Photographs change quickly.
D. Both B and C.
3. What is a cinema film made up of?
A. Small photographs and a strong light.
B. Small photographs and the sounds.
C. A lot of bits.
D. Voices and photographs.
4. Which is the true about the sound record?
A. It sounds strange.
B. It looks as irregular marks.
C. It is printed in the middle of a film.
D. It is made while the film is being shown on the screen.