题目内容

CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? The ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks(标点符号) probably didn’t bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc.

The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They·put·a·point·between·each·word·in·a·sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a prick(刺).

         When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The space separated words and while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma.

         Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark comes form the Latin word xt. It was originally formed by putting an upper-case(大写字母) I on the lower-case xt. The Latin word xt means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word question, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question. Over time, it became a symbol formed by putting a lower-case q on an o.

           Punctuation is still changing today. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example, the “interrobang.” This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, “She did what‽” or “How much did you pay for that dress‽” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized – yet. But its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.

1.Which of the following is a comma?

A. ,                              B. :                               C.    ;                           D. !

2.What’s the first paragraph mainly about?

A. The history of punctuation.

B. The introduction of punctuation.

C. The very beginning of punctuation.

D. The ancient Greek way of writing without punctuation.

3.Please put the following events in the order they happened.

a. The exclamation mark and question mark came into the punctuation family.

b. Comma came into existence.

c. Romans put a dot between words to separate words.

d. A period was used to end a sentence.

e. The “interrobang” was invented.

A. cbdae                     B. dcbae                     C. dbcea                     D. cdbae

4.What is the most possible situation for “She did what‽”?

A. You are told she gave her baby boy a good beat.

B. You are wondering what she did to save the poor boy.

C. You want to know what she did for a living after fleeing to a foreign country.

D. You demand someone else tell you what in the world happened to her.

5. According to the article, we learn ________.

A. punctuation didn’t come into being until the 5th century.

B. no one can really tell what new marks we may have in the future.

C. the invention of “interrobang” is a failure since it is not widely used.

D. both the exclamation mark and the question mark come from Greek words.

 

【答案】

 

1.A

2.D

3.D

4.A

5.B

【解析】略

 

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Read the following passage.Complete the diagram by using the information for the passage.

Write NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS for each answer.

United Nations officials say now fewer people than they thought are infected with the AIDS virus.

Last year, the agency known as UNAIDS thought that 39.5 million people were living with HIV.On Tuesday it reduced by 16% to a little more than 33 million.

Agency officials say the low number reflects better information form more countries.The agency reduced the number for five African countries: Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Also, UNAIDS says it now believes the number of new HIV cases per year reached a high in the late 1990s at more than three million.This year, it thinks that 2.5 million people became infected, and 2 million people died of AIDS.

Luckily, better treatments are saving lives, and more people are getting the drugs.

Yet even as the number of new infections has dropped, UN officials say AIDS is still one of the leading causes of the death worldwide, and the major cause in Africa.African death rates remain high, they say, because treatment needs are not being met.Sub-Saharan Africa had almost 70% of the new cases of HIV reported this year.UNAIDS officials say this is a sharp reduction since 2001, but there is a need to further improve research method.

Billions of dollars are being spent preventing and treating HIV.Experts worry that the new number may lead to a drop in financial support.But UNAIDS officials say they do not change the need for immediate action and more money.They warn that in some countries, infection rates that were falling are rising again now.

Title: A New Report on      (71)      Infections

     (72)    

Few people are infected with AIDS.

 

    (73)    

u  The number has been      (74)     a little over 33 million.

u  HIV infected 2.5 million and      (75)     2 million last year.

u  The number of infections in five      (76)     has fallen.

Measure

To reduce new infections, the organization is supplying more people

with better      (77)     .

 

 

     (78)    

u  That treatment needs are not being met results in

   (79)     in Africa.

u  Because of the new number, some organizations may

provide    (80)     to the program.

u  In some countries, the infection rates are rising again.

 

You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes(撞击) through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars and run out of them even when they catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress(床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.

Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff(悬崖)a thousand feet high. His parachute(降落伞)failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too.

1. Stuntmen are those who ______.

A. often dress up as actors   

B. prefer to lead dangerous lives

C. often perform seemingly dangerous actions 

D. often fight each other for their lives

2.Stuntmen earn their living by ______.

A. playing their dirty tricks     B. selling their special skills

C. jumping out of high windows D. jumping from fast moving trains

3. When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.

A. he needs little protection B. he will be covered with a mattress

C. his life is endangered       D. his safety is generally all right

4.Which of the following is the main factor of a successful performance?

 A. Strength.        B. Exactness.        C. Speed.       D. Carefulness

5.What can be inferred from the author’s example of the Norwegian stuntman?

A. Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.

B. The percentage of serious accidents is high.

C. Parachutes must be of good quality.

D. The cliff is too high.

 

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