How Americans Began to Eat Tomatoes

People have strange ideas about food. For example, the tomato is a kind of very delicious vegetable. It is one of useful plants that can be prepared in many ways. It has rich nutrition and vitamin in it. But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous (有毒的). They called tomatoes “poison apples.”

President Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup. This beautiful pink soup was served at the President’s party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his honored (忠实的) guests about the fact.

56. After you read the passage, which of the following do you think is true?

A. Americans never ate tomatoes after they began to plant them.

B. Americans didn’t eat tomatoes before 19th century.

C. Even now Americans don’t eat tomatoes.

D. In the 18th century Americans ate a lot of tomatoes.

57. The passage tells us that Jefferson was a President who learned to love the taste of tomatoes       .

A. while he was in Paris                                         B. when he was a little boy 

C. because his parents told him so                            D. from books

58. According to the text, _______ made the beautiful pink soup served at the President’s party?

A. the President himself      B. a French cook         C. the President’s cook       D. the President’s wife

59. From the passage we know all the honored guests invited by Jefferson were       .

A. people from other countries    B. from France   C. people of his own country      D. men only

60. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A. All of the guests knew the soup that was served at the President’s party was made of tomatoes.

B. All of the guests thought the soup which was prepared by the President’s cook was nice.

C. All of the guests thought the taste of the beautiful pink soup was nice.

D. None of the guests knew that their president would serve his honored guests poison apples.

第三部分: 阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)

A

When I was struggling with cancer a few years ago, my wife and I formed our own “couple caution circle”. Anytime a doctor came with news of my progress, my wife would give me a big hug. The reports were seldom good during the early stages of my illness. One day a doctor brought particularly frightening news. Staring at my reports, the doctor said in a low voice, “It doesn’t look like you’re going to make it.”

     Before I could ask him a question, my wife stood up, handed me my clothes, adjusted the tubes fastened to my body and said, “Let’s get out of here. This man is a risk to your health.” As she helped me struggle to the door, the doctor came near us. “Stay back,” demanded my wife. “Stay away from us.”

     As we walked together down the hall, the doctor attempted to catch up with us. “Keep going,” said my wife. “We’re going to talk to someone who really knows what is going on.” Then she held up her hand to the doctor, “Don’t come any closer to us.”

The two of us moved as one. We found a doctor who gave us hope, even though the diagnosis was bad. I could never have made that walk toward wellness alone.

56. From the passage we learn ________.

A. when the wife learned her husband would not make it, she went crazy

B. the wife’s decision in crisis contributed to the husband’s wellness

C. the husband was diagnosed with cancer by mistake, which upset him

D. the husband became weaker as a result of the doctor’s poor treatment

57. What’s the writer’s feeling when he wrote the passage?

A. Angry.                     B. Thankful.       C. Excited.            D. Sad.

58. It can be inferred from the passage that the ________.

 A. wife was hard to get along with

 B. doctor was a dangerous man

 C. wife loved her husband very much

 D. husband believed everything would be OK

59. What would be the best title for the passage?

  A. A Happy Couple in Crisis         

  B. Struggle with Cancer

  C. In Crisis, Be Positive          

  D. Don’t Believe the Doctor

   It is Saturday night and you want to turn on your television. Can you? Or do you first need to call your partner, or your child, or whoever it is in your household who knows which handset to use and which buttons to press? If so, you are not alone. Our televisions are an unspoken disaster zone. Finally, somebody has said something.

,

  All hail (致敬) the Duke of Edinburgh. “To work out how to operate a television set, you practically have to make love to the thing,” he says, in this week’s Saturday Review. “And why can’t

you have a handset that people who are not ten years old can actually read?”

The Duke is often a reactionary (反动者), but this is not reactionary thinking. Our computers become ever easier to operate. Our cars almost drive themselves. Some mobile telephones, such as the phone, are obvious wonders: successful designs that could be operated by a child. The remote control of your television, by comparison, has changed only for the worse.

    The first wide – spread commercial remote control was the Zenith Space Command, designed in 1956. It had four buttons: power, channel up, channel down and volume. Oh, for such simple things in our lives today. Before long, the remote control was out of control. Not just with televisions, but with video players, too. They came and went, and a whole generation never figured out how to use them. Why not? In all other ways, televisual technology has developed a great deal. The screens have grown grander, the picture definition (清晰度) has grown higher, and the sound clearer. The remote controls have merely grown. Nobody ever uses half those buttons. A remote revolution is long overdue.

68.What does “Our televisions are an unspoken disaster zone” mean?

A. Television is actually a great danger to humans.

B. It is very difficult to use many TV handsets properly.

C. We should treat televisions in a friendly way.

D. Somebody has said something about television.

69.What the Duke of Edinburgh says actually means that ________.

A. TV remote controls should be made easier to use

B. we must learn to respect TVs

C. we should love watching TV

D. we should buy handsets to control our TVs

70.What’s the author’s attitude to television remote controls?

A. Positive.           B. Negative.         C. Neutral (中立的).       D. Indifferent (漠然的)

71.Which is the best title for the passage?

A. Remote Revolution.              B. From Buttons to Handsets.

C. Televisions-Out of Control.       D. Computers-Under Control.

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