One night in March 1999, a man was driving from California to Oregon, US, to visit some friends. He had stopped his car to have some food when he started to hear strange noises. Turning on the headlights, he saw an 8-foot-tall creature covered in thick, dark hair. The creature stared at him for a minute, turned in the road and walked off slowly into the woods.
In the past 50 years alone, there have been thousands of reported sightings of similar creatures in the US, Canada, the Himalayas(喜马拉雅山地区)and even Hubei Province in China. The creature is known as bigfoot.
Bigfoot is said to be a very tall(between 2 and 4. 5 metres), ape-like(类人猿似的)creature that is covered in hair and walks upright on two legs. It is very wary(警惕的)of human beings.
Believers think bigfoot is a direct descendent(后代)of ancient gigantopithecus(巨猿). But it remains one of the planet’s undiscovered secrets. There is a little evidence(证据)to support the believers’ theory: traces of hair, footprints and body prints as well as the reported sightings. Some people have even showed what they say with photos or films of bigfoot.
But so far, no one has found bones or any other definite proof that the giant creature exists.
As a result many people believe the evidence is just part of a big trick.
The footprints are easy to make and they say: all you need to do is to make two large feet out of plaster(石膏), attach them to the bottom of your shoes and walk with big steps. As for the photos and films, they are just people dressed in ape suits.
They also say the sightings are not real, just people making mistakes. For example, bigfoot could be a bear living in the wild that sometimes stands up on its back legs. So far what we can be sure about is that .
A.there exist savages(野人)in several places in the world |
B.there are some traces of hair, footprints and body prints of the “bigfoot” |
C.bigfoot is a direct descendent of ancient gigantopithecus |
D.all the big foot discovered have the same look |
It was in that man first found the ape-like creature.
A.1999 | B.the 1960’s |
C.the 1950’s | D.the 1940’s |
The article infers but doesn’t say so that some people bigfoot’s existence.
A.may fool the world into believing |
B.have definite evidences to prove |
C.refuse to believe |
D.will soon offer proofs of |
If bigfoot is just a misunderstanding, what they saw might NOT be .
A.apes |
B.bears |
C.gigantopithecus |
D.people dressed in animal skins |
At 3:30 a.m. Pearl Carlson was shaken awake by a forceful pull. King, the family dog, was trying to pull her out of bed.Then she smelled smoke and heard the sound of fire from her parent's room. Pearl's screams awaked her mother, Fern and father, Howard, who had recently been in hospital for lung disease. Helping Howard to a first-floor window, Fern told him to climb out, then ran to her daughter.
Still inside, King appeared at Pearl's window, making squeaking (短促尖叫) sounds. When running toward Pearl's bedroom, Fern realized her husband hadn't yet escaped. She made her way back through the smoke and flames, following King's sound to where Howard lay semiconscious (半昏迷) on the floor. Fern helped him get outside. King came out only after both were safe.
As day dawned, the Carlsons saw that King's paws were badly burned, and his entire body was burned too. His chain collar had gotten so hot that it burned his throat, making it impossible for him to bark (叫) normally. Only after the seven-year-old dog refused food did they find pieces of wood in his mouth and realize that King, who slept outside, had bitten through a wood door to warn his family.
1. Who was King in this story?
A. The family sore B. The family daughter.
C. The family dog. D. The master.
2. According to the story, the first one who was completely out of danger could be .
A. Howard B. Fern C. Pearl and Fern D. Pearl
3. After reading this story, we've learnt that the following statements could be reasonable except .
A. the dog made a big hole in the door
B. the dog awoke mother first
C. the dog was the last one to escape from the burning room
D. the dog was badly burned , hurt and not able to eat
4. From this story it can be inferred that .
A. Pearl loves her parents very much
B. Howard is the best man of the family
C. the woman loves her children more deeply than her husband
D. the dog is man's best friend
三.阅读理解:(20×2.5=50分)
People have smoked cigarettes for a long time. The tobacco used to make cigarettes was grown in what is now part of the United States. Christopher Columbus, who discovered America, saw the Indians smoking, and soon the dried leaves were transported to Europe where smoking began to catch on. In the late 1800s, the Turk(土耳其人) made cigarettes even popular.
Cigarettes smoke contains at least two harmful substances, tar and nicotine. Tar, which forms as the tobacco burns, damages the lungs and therefore affects breathing. Nicotine, which is found in the leaves, causes the heart to beat faster and increases breathing rate.
Smoking cigarettes is dangerous. The U.S. Public Health Service stated that cigarette smoking is the cause of lung cancers and several other deadly diseases. The U.S. government now requires that each package of cigarettes bear(带有)a special warning about the danger of smoking.
1. The expression “catch on” in the passage may mean _________.
A. start B. cost a lot C. become popular D. dangerous
2. Before Columbus discovered America __________.
A. Europeans had smoked B. Nobody smoked in the world
C. Nicotine was not in tobacco D. Europeans had never smoked
3. In the nineteenth century smoking became popular because of the people in ________.
A. India B. Turkey C. the U.S. D. British
4. Breathing is affected by ___________.
A. nicotine B. tar C. heat D. both A and B
I came to India a year ago to find a village in which I could live and write but it was many months before I settled down happily in this Himalayan community.
I wasted a lot of time looking for the “typical” village. Yet no such thing exists. Conditions are quite different from village to village. But the villages I stayed in had much in common---poor, dirty and backward. Often the villagers themselves were puzzled and doubtful. Why had I come? I had put aside my work as a political journalist because my ideas had changed. I had come to believe that what was happening in the Third World was more important than anything else. But to understand how three—quarters of the world population live, and what effect their future might have on ours, I felt that I first had to try and share their way of life.
In the end I chose a mountain village because it was little cooler than those in the plains. I took the bus from town along a rocky road. Then came a rough walk down a steep path to the river. After this I began the climb into the hills. Whenever I stopped to catch my breath, there was a beautiful scene. After several hours’ walk the village came into sight.
1. After the writer had arrived in India,________.
A.he spent a year writing about the place he lived in
B.he spent quite some time looking for a suitable place to live in
C.he stayed in an Indian village working for the poor
D.he lived in a Himalayan community for many months.
2.While looking for a typical village, the writer found__________.
A.he was searching for the impossible
B.all the villages were exactly the same
C.he was doing something enjoyable
D.the villagers were curious about him
3.Before coming to India, the writer________.
A.had been a successful politician
B.had made a decision to work for India
C.had studied India culture for some months
D.had worked for newspapers and magazines
4.The write decided to change his way of life because__________.
A.he no longer found his work interesting
B.he hoped to live a peaceful life in the countryside
C.he wanted to find out more about the Third World
D.he wanted to try his luck in a foreign country
5. The village the writer finally chose to live in_________.
A.lay at the end of a rocky road
B.had a beautiful sight of the river
C.was a short walk from the river
D.had better weather than those in the plains.
第二部分:阅读理解(每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下面短文从每题所给的4个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。
In recent years advances in medical technology have made it possible for people to live longer than in the past. New medicines and machines are being developed every day to extend life. However, some people, including some doctors, are not in favor of these life extending measures, and they argue that people should have the right to die when they want. They say that the quality of life is as important as life itself and that people should not be forced to go on living when conditions of life have become unbearable. They say thatpeople should be allowed to die with dignity (尊严) and to decide when they want to die. Others argue that life under any conditions is better than death and that the duty of doctors is always to extend life as long as possible. And so the battle goes on and on without a definite answer.
1.The best title for this passage is _____.
A. The Right to Live B. The Right to Die
C. The Doctor’s Duty D. Life Is Better Than Death
2.In recent years, people can live longer than in the past. It’s because of _____ .
A. the development of medical technology B. big hospitals
C. good doctorsD. both B and C
3. According to some people whether a dying patient has the right to die or not is up to _____ .
. A. the doctors B. the surroundings
C. his or her familyD. the patient himself or herself
4. In the writer’s opinion _____ .
A.death is better than life B. life is better that death
C. neither death nor life is good D. none of the above
5. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Most of the medical workers join in the argument.
B. The argument has ended in favor of the patient.
C. The argument hasn’t ended yet.
D. The quality of life is not as important as life itself, so it is generally thought that people should not be allowed to die under any conditions.
"Mark Twain" was the name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) when he wrote books. His father was a lawyer, but a poor one, who lived at Florida, Missouri. The family was so poor that Samuel did not receive much teaching. He had to learn all that he could from the people whom he met. His father died when he was very young, and then there was even less money than before.
Many of the men in this part of America worked in the ships on the great River Mississippi, and he did this himself at one time (1857).
Where did he find the name "Mark Twain"? It came from the great river itself. It was part of one of the cries used by men who worked in the ships. When a man called "By the mark twain!" he meant that the river was "two marks deep" there, that is to say, six feet deep ( "Twain" is an old form of the work "Two".) Samuel Clemens often heard these words when he was young, and he used them as a penname all his life.
During his work on the Mississippi he met travelers of all kinds, and this helped him a great deal when he started to write. But the number of travelers became smaller when war started in America in 1861. Many of the great ships on the river stopped work. Samuel left then and went to Nevada with his brother, who was at that time Governor of Nevada. There, near the town of Carson, Samuel became a gold miner, but he never made much money at the time. He soon saw that life in the gold mines was not for him. He also tried writing for the newspapers in Nevada, and this seemed more hopeful. He found that he could write.
He went to Europe in 1867 and visited France and Italy. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon, and two years later he was spending nearly all his time writing. Among his books is his own story (1908).
He is now always known as Mark Twain, and many people do not even know that his family name was Clemens. He traveled in America and in England, and went to Oxford in 1907. He was one of the great American writers of the time, and could make his readers laugh – a thing which few writers can do. He died in 1910.
1."Mark Twain" was _________.
A. a famous American writer B. name of a book
C. a great river in AmericaD. a large ship
2. As a child, Samuel did not get much education because _________.
A.his father died too early
B.the family was very poor
C. he disliked school very much
D. he could learn what he liked from the people he met
3. What gave him a great deal when he started writing? _______
A. His poor childhoodB. The Mississippi river
C. All kinds of travelers he met D. His brother
4. We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. Samuel loved writing from his early age
B. Samuel did not love writing at the beginning
C. his writings to the newspaper were successful
D. his brother encouraged him to write more
5 According to the writer of the passage, a good writer could _________.
A. write a lot for his readers
B. make a lot of money for his family
C. cause his readers to laugh
D. travel everywhere he wanted