My husband and son took a New York-to-Milwaukee flight that was supposed to leave Friday at 11:29 am. The flight boarded after 4 pm and didn’t leave the gate until 4:40, and half an hour later the pilot announced it would be another hour until takeoff. At that point a Jewish family, worried about violating the Sabbath (安息日), asked to get off. Going back to the gate cost the plane its place in line for takeoff, and the flight was eventually cancelled. Was the airline right to grant that request?
M. W, Norwalk, CONN.
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Situations like that can bring out the worst in people. But despite the increasing resentment(怨恨) of a plane full of people, the pilot tried to do the right thing. He went out of his way to satisfy one family’s urgent need. He should not have done so.
Passengers bought tickets in the belief that the airline’s primary goal was to get them to their destination as close to the schedule as possible. Once they got on the plane and the doors are locked, it’s not correct to announce that the rules have changed and that a personal (as opposed to medical) emergency —no matter how urgent — might take precedence(优先).
That would be just as true if turning back to the gate had merely cost a few minutes rather than doomed the flight entirely, since on a plane, even a slight delay can spread outward, from the people in the cabin to those meeting them to the passengers waiting to board the plane for the next leg of its journey and so on. It would also be true if the personal emergency were not religious — if someone suddenly realized she’d made a professional mistake that might cost her millions, and she had to race back to the office to fix it.
If a religious practice does nothing to harm others, then airlines should make a reasonable effort to accommodate it. Though that family has every right to observe the Sabbath, it has no right to enlist an airplane full of captive bystanders to help them do so. By boarding a flight on a Friday afternoon, the family knowingly risked running into trouble. The risk was theirs alone to bear.
【小题1】M. W. wrote the letter to ask whether ______.

A.Any religious passenger has the right to ask the pilot to take off
B.The airline has the right to cancel the flight without any reason
C.A flight should meet any passenger’s need despite others’ benefit
D.A plane which has left the gate should give up taking off
【小题2】What do we know from the reply letter?
A.The pilot did the right thing in spite of the fierce resentment.
B.The plane should turn back if anyone aboard is seriously ill.
C.Anybody who has boarded has no chance to get off the plane.
D.Any flight shouldn’t change its schedule no matter what has happened.
【小题3】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 4 mean?
A.Turning back to the gate usually takes a plane quite a long time.
B.Nobody should take precedence to require the plane to turn back to the gate.
C.Even if it had taken a few minutes it was not right to turn back to the gate.
D.It was OK if turning back to the gate hadn’t caused the flight to be cancelled.
【小题4】The author of the reply letter thinks that _________.
A.It’s right for the plane to turn back to the gate to save a passenger’s treasure
B.The Jewish family should give up observing the Sabbath after boarding
C.The biggest problem of turning back is to bring trouble to the pilot
D.The Jewish family had better avoid boarding on Friday afternoon


Welcome A board Your Piccadilly Flight To Heathrow
The Piccadilly line to Heathrow(伦敦希思罗机场) is not only the most convenient (方便的) way to travel but also the most cost-effective. So the next time you’re traveling to Heathrow, make sure you fly Piccadilly line.
Your Piccadilly flight features:
l Departures from 36 stops on the Piccadilly line, or from over 200 stations only one change way
l Service every 5 minutes to and from Heathrow throughout the day
l Journeys from central London taking less than 50 minutes
l Only £3.70 for a single adult fare
l See tables below for journey times
Fares to and from central London
l Adult single £3.70
l Child single £1.50
If you are traveling as a group, then you are allowed to use the Family Travelcard, which means each adult can travel for £3.40 and each child for £0.80.
The group must be made up of 1 or 2 adults traveling with 1-4 children (from 09:30 Monday-Friday and at any time weekends and Public Holidays).
Members within the group do not need to be related.
Traveling to Heathrow
 
Mon — Sat
Sun
From
Journey Time
Frequency
First Train
Last Train
First Train
Last Train
Earls Court
39 mins
5 mins
05:55
00:43
07:15
23:49
Piccadilly Circus
49 mins
5 mins
05:45
00:32
07:05
23:38
 
Traveling from Heathrow
 
Mon — Sat
Sun
To
Journey Time
Frequency
First Train
Last Train
First Train
Last Train
Earls Court
34 mins
5 mins
05:13
23:49
05:57
23:30
Piccadilly Circus
45 mins
5 mins
05:13
23:49
05:57
23:30

【小题1】 Which of the following statements is TRUE about the Piccadilly line?
A.The Piccadilly line is the most convenient one around the world.
B.Taking the Piccadilly line can save the passengers more money.
C.The Piccadilly line is the only public transportation to Heathrow.
D.The flight from Earls Court to Piccadilly Circus takes 39 minutes.
【小题2】 At what time does the first train from Earls Court arrive at Heathrow on Sunday?
A.07:49.B.06:34.C.07:54.D.06:31.
【小题3】 If Mr. Smith wants to take the train with his five-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter at 08:00 on Sunday morning, how much should he pay?
A.£5.00.B.£6.70 .C.£5.20.D.£4.20.
【小题4】 When taking the Piccadilly line, whether to or from Heathrow, one may _________.
A.expect a train every 5 minutes at the stopB.get to the first stop no later than 23:30
C.get a discount once traveling in groupsD.get to the destination within 34 minutes

Please look at the Flight Timetable and choose the right answers.

Flight No. Departure  Arrival   From    To       Stop

CA907   07:45      12:10   Beijing  Moscow   Chengdu

CA981   01:58      18:35   Beijing  New York  Shanghai

CA158   10:20      23:10   Beijing  London    Chengdu

CA149   11:35      22:10   Beijing  Sydney    Hong Kong

CA923   12:35      17:10   Beijing  Moscow   /

CA167   13:15      02:40   Beijing  Paris      Moscow

CA147   15:55      10:15   Beijing  Sydney    Guangzhou

CA949   17:25      07:35   Beijing  Paris      Shanghai

CA173   19:20      01:50   Beijing  Moscow   Urumqi

CA937   21:25      08:10   Beijing  London    Hong Kong

(departure=leaving)

1.You’ll go to Australia. You can only take        

     when you reach Beijing Airport at eleven forty.

   A.CA923          B.CA149         C. CA147        D. CA167

2. If you spend fourteen hours and ten minutes going to France, you must stay in        on the way.

A. Hong Kong      B. Shanghai C. Moscow   D. Chengdu

3. It will take you     to reach England if you stop in Hong Kong.

A. nine hours and twenty      B. ten hours and thirty-five

C.  twelve  hours and fifty     D. ten hours and forty-five

4.ou may         in Beijing if you want to go to America.

A. take one plane         B. take two planes 

C. take three plane         D. not take any planes

5. How many planes may you take in Beijing if you want to go to Australia?

A. One          B. Two      C. Three        D. Four.

 

第三部分阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)

阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。

  Many people will remember the flight of the space shuttle(航天飞机)challenger,in June,1983. The achievement of Sally Ride,America’s first woman astronaut to fly into space,made this flight especially memorable. Students from two Camden, New Jersey, high schools, however, are probably to remember Norma rather than Sally whenever they think about the flight.

  Norma didn’t travel alone. She brought about 100 companions along with her. Norma was an ant,a queen ant who,with her subject,made up the first ant colony(群体)to travel into space. The ants were part of a science experiment designed by students to test the effects of weightlessness on insects.

  The equipment designed by the students for their colony functioned perfectly throughout the long space trip. The young scientists and their teachers were very sad to find that their insect astronauts had all died at some point before the container was returned to the school and opened. The problem didn’t occur in space,but on the ground after challenger had landed. The container remained in the desert for nearly a week before the ant colony was moved. The hot,dry desert air dried out the colony’s container and the ants died from lack of moisture(水分).

  The project was termed success because it did provide useful information. Students will continue their efforts to pinpoint(精确找到)what went wrong. They will try to prevent the same difficulties from reoccurring on future missions. They don’t want to be discouraged either by the demise of the ants or by the $ 10,000 shuttle fare they will have to pay to send the next colony of ants into space.

51.What does the passage mainly tell us?

A.Sally Ride,America’s first woman astronaut.

B.How to keep ants alive in space.

C.How to make equipment for insects in space.

D.An experiment with ants in space.

52.According to the passage, we know that the underlined word“demise”is another word for“_____”.

A.death               B.colony

C.insect              D.moisture

53.We don’t think the project was a failure. This is because_____.

A.everything went as smoothly as expected

B.the students had pinpointed exactly the reason

C.something important had been learned

D.the students had succeeded in the experiment

54.We can conclude that ants _____ on the next space trip.

A.will have to be kept alive in a container full of water

B.will have to be sent into space with the first woman astronaut

C.should be put into a container where there is enough food

D.should be put into a container which is not too dry

 

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