题目内容
Agatha Christie went out at night．She never forgot the night when she met a robber many years ago．
That evening, she was invited to a birthday party which lasted until 2 o’clock in the morning．Agatha walked in the quiet street alone． Suddenly from the shadow of a dark building a tall man with a sharp knife in his right hand ran out at her． “Good morning, lady,” the man said in a low voice, “I don't think you wish to die here!”
“What do you want?” Agatha asked．
“Your earrings(耳环)． Take them off!”
Agatha suddenly had a bright idea． She tried to cover her necklace with the collar (衣领 ) of her overcoat while she used the other hand to take off both of her earrings and then she quickly threw them on the ground．
“Take them and let me go,” she said． The robber saw that the girl didn’t care for the earrings at all, only trying to protect the necklace． He thought the necklace would cost more, so he said, “Give me your necklace．”
“Oh, sir． It’s not worth much． Please let me keep it．”
“Stopping rubbish(废话)． Quick!”
With shaky hands, Agatha took off her necklace． As soon as the robber disappeared, she picked up her earrings and ran as fast as she could to one of her friends．
The earrings cost 480 pounds and the necklace the robber had taken away cost only six pounds．
【小题1】Agatha never forgot the night, for she _______．
| A．was robbed of her earrings |
| B．had a good time at the birthday party |
| C．was robbed of her necklace |
| D．was robbed, but she fooled the robber |
| A．was over at 2 | B．didn’t end after 2 |
| C．ended before 2 | D．didn’t end at 2 |
| A．Agatha pretended not to care for her earrings |
| B．Agatha pretended to care for her necklace |
| C．Agatha really cared for her earrings |
| D．Agatha didn’t care for her earrings at all because they were not too expensive |
| A．brave and famous | B．clever and brave |
| C．foolish | D．beautiful |
【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】D
【小题4】B
解析
In 1977, a dead author of detective stories saved the life of a 19-month-old baby in a most unusual way. The author was Agatha Christie, one of the most successful writers of detective stories in the world.
In June 1977, a baby girl became seriously ill in Qatar, near Saudi Arabia. Doctors were unable to find out the cause of her illness with confidence, so she was sent to Hammersmith Hospital in London. She was then only semi-conscious (半清醒状态) and on the "Dangerously Ill" list. A team of doctors hurried to examine the baby only to discover that they, too, were confused by the very unusual symptoms (症状). While they were discussing the baby's case, a nurse asked to speak to them.
"Excuse me," said Nurse Marsha Maitlan, "but I think the baby is suffering from thallium poisoning. (铊中毒)"
"What makes you think that?" Dr. Brown asked. "Thallium poisoning is extremely rare."
"A few days ago, I was reading a novel called A Pale Horse by Agatha Christie," Nurse Maitlan explained. "In the book, somebody uses thallium poison, and all the symptoms are described. They're exactly the same as the baby's."
"You're very thoughtful and you may be right," another doctor said. "We'll carry out some tests and find out whether it's thallium or not."
Tests showed that the baby had indeed been poisoned by thallium, a rare metallic substance used in making special glass. Once they knew the cause of the illness, the doctors were able to give the baby the correct treatment. She soon recovered and was sent back to Qatar. Later it was reported that the poison might have come from an insecticide (杀虫剂) used in Qatar.
【小题1】The one who first suggested the correct cause of the baby's illness was _____.
| A．a doctor in Qatar | B．Nurse Maitlan |
| C．Dr. Brown | D．Agatha Christie |
| A．she was born there |
| B．the hospitals in Qatar were full at that time |
| C．she was the daughter of a doctor in London |
| D．the Qatar doctors were not sure whether they could cure her |
| A．had never met this baby |
| B．had spent a long time studying the baby's case |
| C．visited the baby in the hospital at Hammersmith |
| D．gave Nurse Maitlan some advice on the phone |
| A．a dangerous pair of glasses |
| B．the water in Qatar |
| C．a harmful substance used to kill insects |
| D．a dead writer |
| A．an urgent one | B．quite a simple one |
| C．a usual one | D．the result of thallium poisoning |
Bestsellers for last week
A Special Relationship
This novel is about a woman whose entire life is turned upside down in a very foreign place despite the fact that people there speak her language. Sally Good child is a 37-year-old American who, after nearly two decades as a highly independent journalist, finds herself pregnant and in London. She married an English foreign correspondent, Tony Thompson, whom she met while they were both on assignment in Cairo. From the beginning, Sally’s relationship with both Tony and London is an uneasy one: She finds her husband and his city to be far more foreign than imagined. But her adjustment problems soon turn into a nightmare(噩梦). She discovers that everything can be taken down and used against you, especially by a spouse (配偶) who now considers you an unfit mother and wants to prevent you from ever seeing your child again.
Born in 1955, Douglas Kennedy is the bestselling author of romances such as “The Big Picture”. He is also the author of several praised travel books.
White Hot
Sayre Lynch decided never to return to her hometown Destiny, after she changed her last name and finally escaped from the influence of her controlling father, Huff Hoyle, who owns the iron foundry that the town is built around.
But when Danny, her younger brother, is found dead with a shotgun in his mouth, Sayre unwillingly goes back for his funeral and is annoyed when her father’s handsome lawyer, Beck Merchant, tries to please her.
When the young officer investigating(调查) the case notes that some of the evidence points to murder rather than suicide(自杀), Sayre finds herself unable to leave Destiny. She’s annoyed by Beck’s constant presence, and she is not sure if 
he’s trying to help or throw her off the trail. Nor does she trust her father or her older brother, Chris, who is as prime suspect in Danny’s murder.
As she tries to figure out how the handsome, charming Beck fits into the picture, she finds herself deeply attracted to him.]
Sandra Brown is the author of 51 New York Times top-five bestsellers. She began her writing career in 1981 and has since published 65 novels.
【小题1】From the brief introduction of “A Special Relationship” we can imagine _____.
| A．Sally and Tony’s marriage is pleasant. | B．Sally and Tony may break up. |
| C．Sally and Tony often quarrel about their jobs. | D．Sally is hard to get on with. |
| A．America | B．London | C．Cairo | D．Cairo & London |
| A．Chris killed Danny. | B．Lynch is Sayre’s real family name. |
| C．Huff Hoyle knows who killed Danny. | D．Sayre fell in love with Beck. |
| A．Sayre thinks Beck has something to do with Danny’s death. |
| B．Sayre thinks Beck is the right person she wants to marry. |
| C．Sayre likes the handsome Beck in the picture. |
| D．Sayre doesn’t know whether Beck likes her. |
When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once so full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family. Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
But one chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were visiting her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.
“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,” she told a wide-eyed Meagan. “I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“She had an elegant, hand-painted face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost respectful tone. “My doll was dressed in a pretty pink gown, decorated with fine lace. … Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me — my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it. But how happy I was that morning!”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago. “I played with my doll all morning long. And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down gently on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
“I hardly had to turn around — I knew it was my precious doll. And it was. Her lace skirt had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. She was gone forever.”
A few years later, GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia(肺炎). Now the tears in her eyes spilled over — tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
Silent for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my sympathetic little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local doll-make. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown hair and a kidskin body to copy the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz volunteered to put the doll together, and Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit. Meagan wrote the story of the lost doll by giving examples.
Finally our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our happily packed gift to GG, where she sat surrounded by children, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Holding the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again, “She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.”
And perhaps she wasn’t saying that just to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close copy of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-year-old daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG really recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
【小题1】GG moved in with her daughter because____.
| A．she wanted to live with a large family |
| B．she was not able to live on her own due to her weakness |
| C．her husband passed away |
| D．she thought it was the children’s obligation to take care of her |
| A．Because she saw her great granddaughter’s doll. |
| B．Because she recalled her dead parents. |
| C．Because she was surrounded by her offspring. |
| D．Because she felt lonely during the Christmas season. |
| A．GG’s doll was important and was a symbol of many things. |
| B．GG showed great respect for his husband’s love. |
| C．GG missed the great old days she spent with her family. |
| D．GG was grateful for her long life. |
| A．She envied her sister all her life. |
| B．She felt guilty for breaking GG’s doll and decided to go. |
| C．She left home at a young age. |
| D．She died of some disease at a young age. |
| A．Because she was clever. | B．Because she was loving. |
| C．Because she was sensitive. | D．Because she was imaginative. |
| A．treating the elderly well is moral |
| B．it is impossible to copy the exact doll for the elderly |
| C．love, the permanent rhythm of life, will always remain in the elderly’s heart |
| D．physical comfort from children rather than psychological care is important |