Fat and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket-anything with a round ball, I was useless, ”he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the one always made fun of in school gym classes in Devon-shire, England.

  It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first he went biking alone in a nearby forest Then he began to ride the bike along with a runner friend. Gradu-ally, Saunders set his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed and strength. At the age of 18, he ran his first marathon

  The following year, he met John Ridgway and was hired as an instructor at Ridgway's School of Adventure in Scotland, where he learn-ed about Ridgway's cold-water exploits. Greatly interested, Saunders read all he could about North Pole explorers and adventures, then decid-ed that this would be his future.

  In 2001, after becoming a skillful skier,Saunders started his first long-distance expe-dition(探险)towards the North Pole. It took unbelievable energy. He suffered frostbite(冻 疮), ran into a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit, pulling his supply-loaded sled(雪橇)up and over rocky ice.

  Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he's skied more of the North Pole by himself than any other British man. His old play-mates would not believe the change.

  Next October, Saunders, 27, heads south from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, a 2 900-kilometre journey that has never been completed on skis.

(1) What change happened to Saunders after he was 15 years old?

[  ]

A.He became good at most sports.

B.He began to build up his body.

C.He joined a sports team.

D.He made friends with a runner.

(2) The underlined word “exploits” (paragraph 3)is closest in meaning to________.

[  ]

A.journeys

B.researches

C.adventures

D.operations

(3) Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Saunders?

[  ]

a.He ran his first marathon.

b.He skied alone in the North Pole.

c.He rode his bike in a forest.

d.He planned an adventure to the South Pole.

A.acdb

B.cdab

C.acbd

D.cabd

(4) What does the story mainly tell us about Saunders?

[  ]

A.He is a success in sports.

B.He is the best British skier.

C.He is Ridgway's favorite student.

D.He is a good instructor at school.

阅读理解。
     People who travel long distances will have to decide whether they would prefer to go by land,
sea or air.Maybe nobody would say they enjoy sitting in a train for more than a few hours. The
train will soon get crowded and dirty. It is almost impossible to take your mind off the joumey.
Reading may help you to kill time but soon the clicking on the rails will bring you to sleep. During
the day,sleep never lasts long. At night,when you really wish to go to sleep,you find you can hardly
manage to do so. If you are lucky to get a sleeping seat,you spend half the night looking at the small
blue light over your head,and when you finally arrive at the station,you are
so tired that you don't want to leave.
     Long car joumeys are even less pleasant,for it is impossible even to read. On motorways, you
can, at least,travel fairly safely at high speeds,but more often,the greater part of the joumey is spent
on narrow,bumpy (崎岖不平的)  roads which are crowded with traffic.
     When travelling by sea,you have a different expe- rience. You can have a walk.on the board,
play games, swim,meet interesting people and enjoy good food,and of course,only when the sea is
calm. If it is not,you are likely to get seasick (晕船的) , and you will find no joumey can be worse
than that. Even if you travel in good weather,sea joumeys take a long time. Few people
would like to spend a third of their holidays for the pleasure of travelling on a ship.
      Travelling by plane seems to be dangerous to some people,and,it is also the most expensive of
all travelling forms,though nothing can match planes for speed and comfort(舒服). Flying at a height
of 30 000 feet, far above the clouds,and at 500 miles an hour is a very exciting experience. The
joumey is  so  smooth(平稳的 )that there is nothing to prevent you from reading or sleeping.
However you decide to spend your time,one thing is certain:you will arrive at your destination fresh
and easy. You will not have to spend the next few days recovering(恢复)from a long and tiring journey.
1. From the passage we can know that travelling by train              .
A.is the most comfortable for passengers
B.is so slow and dirty that no one wants to take a train
C. seems to be very tiring and usually takes a long time
D. will keep you awake all the time
2. What prevents people from travelling by plane?  
A. Planes can be very dangerous.
B. You will feel sorry after travelling by air.
C. Flying so high brings no comfori.
D. Air travelling takes a long time.

3.In the writer's opinion,             .