CTheyearof2014sawsmartpeopleal-优题课

All plant cells are capable of taking up water. Even dead ones do to a certain degree. Absorption（吸收）of water by dead cell walls makes wood become larger. In common land plants, the living cells of roots take up most of the water. Land plants without roots do exist, however. Those greenish-yellow lichens（苔藓）you see on rocks in the high mountains have no roots. Half a billion years ago, when water plants started to enter the land, the first land plants did not have roots.
Even among the flowering plants, one finds rootless forms. These flowering plants are “the higher plants” because they evolved（进化）recently and are thus considered higher on the evolutionary scale（进化度）. In the Peruvian desert, there grows one of these rootless higher plants, a bromeliad. It is a relative of the pineapple. Even if this plant had roots, they would be of no use, because where the plant grows, it never rains. The plant gets its water only from the dew（露水）it collects at night, when its leaves cool off. Such rootless plants, of course, can be moved with ease, but they will only grow when they are placed out in the open. If they are placed too near a house, the radiation from the heat of the house prevents the leaves from cooling and so prevents dew from forming, and the plant dies. In the southern United States and in Puerto Rico, one sees bromeliads growing high above the streets on the insulation（绝缘物）of electric wires. These plants get their water from rain, and the only soil they ever come in contact with is the dust that may blow on their leaves.
1．Wood becomes larger because of .
A．dead cell walls B．water entering dead cells
C．the growth of cells D．the death of cells
2．The “bromeliad” is a plant that .
A．has useless rootsB．is a pineapple
C．can grow anywhere D．takes up water through its leaves
3．The most suitable title for this passage is “ ”.
A．Absorption of water by plants B．Rootless plants
C．Plants in the desert D．Higher plants

Banks are not ordinarily prepared to pay out all account; they depend on depositors(储户) not to demand payment all at the same time. If depositors come to fear that a bank is not sound, that it can not pay off all its depositors, then that fear might cause all the depositor to appear on the same day .If they did, the bank could not pay all accounts. However, if they did not all appear at once, then there would always be funds to pay those who wanted their money when they wanted it. Mrs Elsie Vaught has told us of a terrifying run on the bank that she experienced.
One day in December of 1925, several banks failed to open in the city where Mrs Vaught lived. The other banks expected a run the next day, and so the officers of the bank in which Mrs Vaught worked as a teller(出纳员) had enough funds on hand to pay off as many depositors as might appear. The officer simply instructed the tellers to pay on demand. The next morning a crowd gathered in the bank and on the sidewalk outside. The length of the line made many believe that the bank could not possibly pay off everyone. People began to push and then to fight for places near the tellers’ windows. Clothing was torn, legs and arms broken, but the crowd continued for hours. The power of the panic atmosphere was so great that two tellers, though they knew that the bank was sound and could pay out all depositors, drew their own money from the bank. Mrs Vaught says that she had difficulty preventing herself from doing the same.
1. When would a bank run happen?
A. A bank is closed for one or more days.
B. Too many depositors attempts to draw out their money at the same time.
C. Other banks don’t have enough money.
D. Clerks of a bank take their own money out of the bank
2. The crowd in the bank and on the sidewalk gathered because of _________.
A. demand B. hunger C. doubt D. anger
3. The basic cause of a run on the bank is __________.
A. loss of confidence B. lack of enough funds
C. crowds of people D. inexperienced tellers

第四部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项
This story took place in Central Africa more than 30 years ago. One day two Europeans got to a small village in which the Negroes lived. One of them looked like the boss, the other was his assistant. The boss looked Sambo up and down said,“Young fellow, you look strong. Would you like to work for me? I will give you more money than at the rubber plantation(橡胶园).”At first Sambo wasn’t able to make up his mind, but a few minutes later he agreed.
Sambo’s new work wasn’t hard. He had only to carry light parcels from the village to the camp of the Europeans. He went a short distance along the road, then into the forest and straight to the camp. On the fifth day, when he went through the woods, he saw a big cage with a lion in it. He hesitated a little and went on. All of a sudden the cage was opened and out jumped the lion with a horrible roar(吼叫).
Sambo dropped the parcel and ran as fast as possible, so as to reach the camp in time. for the white man there were armed with guns. All at once Sambo saw two men high up in the tree. They were the two Europeans for whom he was doing. The assistant was turning the handle of the camera with a smile. It was now clear to him that he had been cheated. His eyes were filled with hatred. He wished to kill them, but it was too late.
1. The young man named Sambo was probably _____.
A. the assistant of the two Europeans
B. an African who worked at the rubber plantation
C. an African who acted as a hunter in the forest
D. the servant of the two Europeans.
2. The two Europeans went to the African village_____.
A. so as to take some photos for the villagers there
B. in order that they could write a book on travels.
C. to take a picture which showed how a real lion ate a real man
D. in order to save Sambo in time of danger
3. What did the boss say to Sambo?
A. He asked Sambo to serve as his servant in his country.
B. He wanted Sambo to guard against the lion.
C. He asked Sambo if he was afraid of a lion.
D. He told Sambo that he would be well paid if he would work for him
4. Not until Sambo _____ did he find out that he was cheated.
A. caught sight of the lion
B. saw the cage with a lion
C. found the white men on the branch of the tree
D. ran before the lion as fast as he could
5. In this story the writer mainly told us_____.
A. how Negroes were not so clever as the white
B. how cruel the two white men were
C. what a silly young man Sambo was
D. Sambo carted so much for money that he lost his life at last

If you go into the forest with friends， stay with them. If you don‘t， you may get lost. If you get lost， this is what you should do. Sit down and stay where you are. Don’t try to find your friends—let them find you. You can help them find you by staying in one place. There is another way to help your friends or other people to find you. You can shout or whistle three times. Stop. Then shout or whistle three times again. Any signal given three times is a call for help. Keep up shouting or whistling. Always three times together. When people hear you， they will know that you are not just making a noise for fun. They will let you know that they have heard your signal. They will give you two shouts or two whistles. When a signal is given twice， it is an answer to a call for help. If you don’t think that you will get help before night comes，try to make a little house with branches. Make yourself a bed with leaves and grass. When you need some water，you have to leave your little branch house to look for it. Don’t just walk away. Pick off small branches and drop them as you walk in order to go back again easily. When you are lost，the most important thing to do is to stay in one place.
1. Which signal is a call for help？
A.shouting here and there
B.crying twice
C.shouting or whistling three times together
D. whistling every where in the forest
2.When you hear two shouts or two whistles，you know that ___________.
A. someone is afraid of an animal B. people will come to help you
C. someone needs helpD. something terrible will happen
3.The main idea of the passage is_______________.
A. how to travel in the forest
B. how to spend the night in the forest
C. what you should do if you want to get some water
D. what you should do if you are lost in the forest

May : Happenings from the past
May 5,1884
Isaac Murphy , son of a slave and perhaps the greatest horse rider in American history , rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby . He becomes the first rider ever to win the race three times .
May 9 , 1754
Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette produces perhaps the first American political cartoon （漫画）, showing a snake cut in pieces, with the words “ Join or Die” printed under the picture.
May 11,1934
The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl , the result of years of drought（干旱），blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington , D.C. .
May 19, 1994
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis , former first lady and one of the most famous people of the 1960s , died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64 .
May 24, 1844
Samuel F.B. Morsr taps out the first message , “ What Hath God Wrought ,” over the experimental long-distance telegraph line which runs from Washington, D.C. , to Baltimeore , Md .
1. We know from the text that Buchanan is_____________.
A Isaac”s father B a winnning horse
C.a slave taking care if horses D.the first racing horse in Kentucky
2. What is the title of the first American political cartoon ?
A.Join or Die B.Pennsylvania Gazette
C.What Hath God Wrought D.Kentucky Derby
3. In which year did the former first lady Jacqueline die ?
A. 1934 B. 1960 C . 1964 D. 1994
4.Which of the following places has to do with the first telegram in history ?
A. Washington , D. C. B. New York City
C. Kentucky. D. Pennsylvania