Todaywehadadiscussioninclassab-优题课

第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles”(风格) of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often confused(困惑) in Japan because most streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks(地标) in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!
56. When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a certain place, they usually ______.
A. describe the place carefully B. show him a map of the place
C. tell him the names of the streets D. refer to recognizable buildings and places
57. What is the place where people measure distance in time?
A. New York. B. Los Angeles. C. Kansas. D. Iowa.
58. People in Yucatan may give a tourist a wrong answer ______.
A. in order to save time B. Los Angeles.
C. so as to be polite D. for fun
59. What can we infer from the text?
A. It’s important for travelers to understand cultural differences.
B. It’s useful for travelers to know how to ask the way properly.
C. People have similar understandings of politeness.
D. New Yorkers are generally friendly to visitors.

Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events------love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It tells real-life, stories and sounds the way people really talk. As life becomes more complicated(复杂), it is good to hear music about ordinary people.
Country music, sometimes called country-western, comes from two kinds of music. One is the traditional music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern Unite States. The other is traditional cowboy music from the west. The singers usually play guitars, and in the 1920s they started using electric guitars. At first city people said country music was low class. It was popular mostly in the South. But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the Northeast and Midwest to work in the factories. They took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became popular all over the country.
Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada-------in small towns and in New York City, among black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. About 1, 200 radio stations broadcast country music twenty-four hours a day. English stars sing it in British English, and people in other countries sing it in their own languages. The music that started with cowboys and poor southerners is now popular all over the world.
77. It can be learned from the passage that country music comes from.
A. the Northeast and Midwest
B. factories and army camps in the South
C. the Appalachian Mountains and the West
D. real-life stories in small towns
78. Before World War II country music was popular mainly in.
A. the south B. the north C. the Midwest D. the Northeast
79. Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the world
today because.
A. city people said it was low class
B. people could sing it in many different languages
C. it started with cowboys and poor Southerners
D. it is loved by different kinds of people in the world
80. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Country music is about human feelings and events.
B. Country music is sung by stars all in English.
C. Country music is popular among city people today.
D. City people didn’t like country music at first.

In the mid 1990’s, people started doing business on the Internet. At that time, there were two kinds of companies(公司). First, there were traditional companies. They sold things in stores. Then there were Internet companies. They didn’t have a store, and they only sold things on the Net.
Traditional companies didn’t want to lose any business. Quickly they made their own websites and began selling things on the Net. These are the so-called “brick and click” companies. Many stores are made of brick. And you click on your mouse to buy things with your computer. That’s where the name “brick and click” comes from.
By the late 1990’s, e-business like amazon.com, buy.com and etoys.com were in trouble. Their profits（利润）were not very high. Competition was great. Many of these business were losing lots of money. In 2000, many e-business went out of business.
Why are “brick and click” companies, like Barnes and Noble, Toys RVs and Walmart so successful? First, many customers know and trust their names. Their websites like walmart.com. are easy to remember. These companies also have lots of experience. They know how to run a successful business.
In the world of e-commerce, companies are fighting for every dollar and every customer. Will “brick and click” companies win the war? Only time will tell.
72. Which of the following would be a “brick and click” company?
A. A restaurant.
B. A clothing company with no website.
C. A bookseller with five stores and a website.
D. A video seller with a big website but no stores.
73. What did many traditional companies do in the mid 1990’s? .
A .They went out of business.B. They made their websites.
C. They bought Internet companies. D. They sold their companies.
74. What gave Internet companies lots of trouble in the late 1990’s?.
A. Heavy competition. B. They were short of money.
C. They didn’t know what to do.D. people didn’t believe in them.
75. “Brick and click” companies are so successful because______.
A. people trust them B. their names are easy to remember
C. they are experiencedD. all the above
76. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. All the “brick and click” companies run a successful business.
B. “Brick and click” companies are certain to win the business competition.
C. It is uncertain whether “brick and click” companies will win the competition.
D. Both “brick and click” companies and Internet companies will be successful in the future

When friends come to visit us in the evening, they spend their time telling us they are in a hurry and looking at their watches. It isn’t that our friends are all very busy; it is just that we haven’t got a television. People think that we are very strange. “But what do you do in the evening?” they are always asking. The answer is very simple. Both my wife and I have hobbies. We certainly don’t spend our evenings staring at the walls. My wife enjoys cooking and painting and often attends evening classes in foreign languages. This is particularly useful as we often go abroad for our holidays. I collect stamps and I’m always busy with my collection. Both of us enjoy listening to the music and playing chess together．
Sometimes there are power cuts and we have no electricity in the house. This does not worry us; we just light candles and carry on with what we were doing before. Our friends, however, are lost------No television! -------So they don’t know what to do. On such evenings our house is very full; they all come to us. They all have a good time. Instead of sitting in silence in front of the television, everybody talks and plays games．
69. The couple have not got a television, because______．
A. they are not rich enough
B. they are strange people
C. they enjoy spending evenings in their own ways
D. they don’t know what to do when there are power cuts
70. At night when there is no electricity, the couple____．
A. have to look at the walls B. can do nothing but sit in silence
C. will have many visitors D. have to go out for candles
71. The best title for this passage is _____________.
A. Why Do We Need a Television? B. Candle! But No Electricity!
C. Different Friends, Different Hobbies D. We Go Without Televisions!

The following is a true story. It happened in the northern end of Queens land, Australia, where all kinds of animals live in the forest.
Lisa, a 33-year-old woman, went to prepare lunch in the kitchen, leaving Barney, her three-year-old son, playing by himself in the back garden.
Suddenly, a sharp cry of Barney came into the mother’s ears, and Lisa rushed into the backyard in a hurry and found a big snake entwining(缠绕) the little child with its terrible body and trying to eat the boy as its delicious dish! It was a boa(蟒蛇)! Lisa was terrified and quite angry. She made up her mind to save her son from the snake’s mouth.
It was fearless mother love that made Lisa forget what she faced. She took up an old hoe (锁头) from the ground and beat the boa with all her strength.
One...two... With the hoe, Lisa beat the snake repeatedly, but useless. The little boy’s voice and breath were getting weaker and weaker. Lisa’s heart was broken and she got nearly mad.
Suddenly Lisa put away the hoe and threw herself to the boa, opening her mouth and bit into the boa’s back as if trying to eat a rare steak(牛排). Lisa was really mad!
Blood was spurting(喷射) out of the boa’s body and covered most of Lisa’s body. The boa was so badly wounded that it let go of Barney and moved back into the forest hurriedly. It had never known how a woman had such terrible sharp teeth! On halfway home, the boa died.
It was fearless mother love that saved the little boy.
65. When she rushed into the back garden, Lisa found ______
A. a boa eating her son
B. her son was playing with a big snake
C. her son in danger of losing his life
D. her son was fighting with a boa
66. Lisa failed in fighting against the boa at first just because ______.
A. she was bit by the boa
B. the boa was too strong
C. the hoe was not sharp enough
D. she was afraid that she would hurt her son
67. Lisa bit the snake because ______.
A. she was mad
B. she thought her teeth were much sharper than the boa
C. her son was entwined by the boa
D. she hadn’t got any other way to fight with the snake
68. The best title for this passage is ______.
A. Mother and BoaB. Fearless Mother Love
C. A Boa and a BoyD. Saving a Boy from a Boa

A．popular writer	B．famous actress
C．school teacher	D．pretty singer