【题目】The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

I noticed every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I looked down on the computer and asked her, “What do all you people do?”

“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

“That’s good, sir.”

“How long will the computer be down? I wanted to know.”

“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer—What about your planes? They are still flying, aren’t they?”

“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could, just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he is flying to Washington,” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. It can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The words soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

【1】Where do you often hear the frightening words “Our computer is down”?

A.at the airport. B.At the gate.

C.On business D.In the ticket office

2】What could the girl in the ticket office do without asking the computer?

A.She could do nothing.

B.She could write out a ticket.

C.She could still sell a ticket.

D.She could answer passengers’ questions.

3】What does the underlined word “down” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A.White B.Broken C.Black D.Dark

4】We can learn from the last paragraph that .

A.a modern computer won’t be down

B.computers can take the place of human

C.there will be great changes in computers

D.sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people

5】The best title for the article is .

A.Asking the Computer

B.When the Computer Is Down

C.The Computer of the Airport

D.The Most Frightening Words

【题目】The summer I was ten, my mother decided to bring us to the world of art. My brother and I were not very excited when we realized what my mother meant. What she meant was not that we could take drawing classes or painting classes but that we would have to spend one afternoon a week with her at the Fine Arts Museum. Before each visit to the museum,she made us read about artists and painting styles. It was almost as bad as being in school. Who wants to spend the summer thinking about artists when you could be with your friends at the swimming pool?

First we had to read about ancient Egyptians (古埃及人)and their strange way of painting faces and then go to look at them at the museum. My 12-year-old brother thought this was so funny, but I was not interested. Later we had to learn about artists in the Middle Ages who painted people wearing strange long clothing. We had to look at pictures of fat babies with wings and curly hair and with no clothes on flying around the edges of paintings. I certainly couldn't see what was so great about art.

On our last visit to the museum,something happened when I saw a painting by a woman called Mary. In it, a woman was reading to a child. The colors were soft and gentle, and you could tell by the mother's expression how happy she was just to be with the child. I couldn't stop looking at this painting I wanted to se every painting Mary had ever made! It was really worthwhile looking at so many paintings to find a painter who could interest me so much.

【1】The aim of the mother's plan was to __________.

A. take them to visit the museum

B. introduce them to the world of art

C. ask them to read about artists

D. show them different painting styles

【2】What was the writer's experience at the museum before the last visit?

A. She came to feel her mother's love

B. She liked many paintings.

C. She hardly enjoyed herself.

D. She could understand the pictures of fat babies.

【3】What made the writer change that summer?

A. One of Mary's paintings.

B. A strange way of painting.

C. Artists in the Middle Ages.

D. Her mother's instruction.

【4】From the text, we can see __________.

A. the importance of curiosity

B. the effect of art

C. the value of learning

D. the power of family education

【5】The writer and her brother had thought that they could __________ in their summer vacation.

A. have visited some art museums

B. have been to Egypt for a visit

C. have taken drawing or painting classes

D. have played with their friends

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