完形填空

  John is good swimmer. Every summer he goes to swim in the swimming pool nearby. He is 1 a good diver(跳水者). He learned to dive only several weeks ago. But he thought he had learned 2 and wanted to 3 his wife how much he had learned and how well he 4 dive.

  One day at three o'clock in the afternoon he drove his wife to the swimming pool, 5 her a place to sit 6 , made her very comfortable and then told her to 7 and watch 8 to dive.

  He climbed up the ladder and ran 9 the diving board to the end. He jumped high up 10 the air and turned a somersault(筋斗). But he 11 his head first on the board 12 a crash(撞击声). How 13 !

  Some people shouted for help. 14 people said it was silly 15 him to try that dive. His wife was very frightened. Soon John was taken to hospital and got 16 treatment(治疗). He was saved. The next 17 a report of John's 18 appeared in the newspaper. It began 19 this, “Yesterday afternoon, Mr. John Capp had a serious accident at the City Swimming Pool… 20 he was saved.”

1.

[  ]

A.also
B.not
C.such
D.neither

2.

[  ]

A.a little
B.little
C.a lot
D.lot

3.

[  ]

A.tell
B.show
C.employ
D.promise

4.

[  ]

A.should
B.would
C.might
D.could

5.

[  ]

A.kept
B.gave
C.found
D.left

6.

[  ]

A.on
B.by
C.about
D./

7.

[  ]

A.sit
B.come
C.wait
D.stand

8.

[  ]

A.her
B.him
C.them
D.people

9.

[  ]

A.along
B.from
C.across
D.through

10.

[  ]

A.on
B.above
C.from
D.in

11.

[  ]

A.jumped
B.hit
C.dropped.
D.landed

12.

[  ]

A.with
B.without
C.into
D.as

13.

[  ]

A.exciting
B.wonderful
C.adventurous
D.terrible

14.

[  ]

A.A few
B.Many
C.Other
D.Few

15.

[  ]

A.of
B.for
C.to
D.about

16.

[  ]

A.strange
B.kind
C.immediate
D.much

17.

[  ]

A.moment
B.hour
C.day
D.week

18.

[  ]

A.news
B.dive
C.treatment
D.accident

19.

[  ]

A.as
B.like
C.at
D.with

20.

[  ]

A.at least
B.how
C.however
D.but

Bells sound. Lighted messages appear. Men and women work at computers. They talk on the telephone. At times they shout and run around.
This noisy place is a stock exchange (证券交易所). Here expert salespeople called brokers buy and sell shares(股份) of companies. The shares are known as stocks. People who own stock in a company own part of that company.
People pay brokers to buy and sell stocks for them. If a company earns money, its stock increases in value. If the company does not earn money, the stock decreases in value. Brokers and investors(投资者)carefully watch for any changes on the Big Board. That is the name given to a list of stocks sold on the New York Stock Exchange.
Investors and brokers watch the Big Board to see if the stock market is a bull market or a bear market. In a bear market, prices go down. In a bull market, prices go up.
Investors in a bear market promise to sell a stock in the future at a set price. But the investor does not own the stock yet. He or she waits to buy it when the price drops.
The meaning of a bear market is thought to come from an old story about a man who sold the skin of a bear before he caught the bear. An English dictionary of the sixteen hundreds said, to sell a bear is to sell what one has not.
Word experts dispute the beginnings of the word bull in the stock market. But some say it came from the long connection of the two animals – bulls and bears – in sports that were popular years ago in England.
Investors always care about the possibility of a company failing. In the modern world, a company that does not earn enough profit (利润)is said to go belly up. A company that goes belly up dies like a fish. Fish turn over on their backs when they die. So they are stomach, or belly up.
Stock market investors do not want that to happen to a company. They want a company whose stock they own to earn more profit than expected. This would sharply increase the value of the stock. Investors are hoping for a windfall(横财).
72. The first paragraph is written for the purpose of ________.
A. making readers interested in buying stocks
B. telling readers the place is so busy
C. telling readers people in the stock exchange are busy
D. attracting readers’ attention to the topic of the passage
73. A fresher of a stock market probably turns to a (n) _______ for advice.
A. company                                 B. investor
C. broker                                   D. word expert
74. John bought his stock from a company which has gone belly up this year. We can infer _________ .
A. John would lose money this year
B. John would earn money this year
C. the stock market is a bear market
D. the stock market is a bull market
75. The reason why investors pay attention to the company whose stock they own is that _______ .
A. the company belongs to them
B. the company earns much money
C. they work for the company
D. they are financially connected with the company

You hear the comment all the time: the U.S. economy looks good by figures, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Wealthy Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.

The Wealthy Society is a modern classic because it helped describe a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty (贫穷) was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the fear of another Great Depression gave way to an economic growth. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.

To Galbraith, materialism (物质主义) had gone mad and would cause discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unsatisfying. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people wrongly considered government only as “a necessary bad.”

It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich — overpaid chief managers, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, people feel “squeezed” because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants — for bigger homes, more health care, more education, and faster Internet connections.

The other great disappointment is that it has not got rid of insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As company unemployment increased, that part has gradually become weaker. More workers fear they’ve become “the disposable American,” as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.

Because so much previous suffering and social conflict resulted from poverty, the arrival of widespread wealth suggested utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, wealth succeeds. There is much less physical suffering than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, wealth also creates new complaints.

Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the search for growth cause new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Wealth sets free the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-accomplishment. But the promise is so unreasonable that it leads to many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown. Figures indicate that happiness has not risen with incomes.

Should we be surprised? Not really. We’ve simply confirmed an old truth: the seeking of wealth does not always end with happiness.

1.The Wealthy Society is a book ________.   

A.about poverty in the past

B.written by Louis Uchitelle

C.indicating that people are becoming worse off

D.about why happiness does not rise with wealth

2.According to Galbraith, people feel discontented because ________.   

A.materialism has run wild in modern society

B.they are in fear of another Great Depression

C.public spending hasn’t been cut down as expected

D.the government has proved to be necessary but ugly

3.Why do people feel“squeezed”when their average income rises considerably?  

A.They think there are too many overpaid rich.

B.There is more unemployment in modern society.

C.Their material demands go faster than their earnings.

D.Health care and educational cost have somehow gone out of control.

4.What does Louis Uchitelle mean by “the disposable American” ?  

A.People with a stable job.

B.Workers who no longer have secure jobs.

C.Those who see job stability as part of their living standard.

D.People who have a sense of security because of their rising incomes.

5.What has wealth brought to American society?   

A.Stability and security.

B.Materialism and content.

C.A sense of self-accomplishment.

D.New anxiety, conflicts and complaints.

 

 

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California.That could take several months.  

So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C.Lawmakers in Congress(国会) in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land.Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.

Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.

It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach(马车) would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.

Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.

One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.

The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.

The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”

1.What is the passage mainly about?

         A.Different ways of sending mail in the United States.

         B.The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.

         C.The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.

         D.The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.

2.The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.

         A.mail was usually carried west on ships  

B.it was safer to travel to send mail by land

         C.it would take less time to send mail by land

D.stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail

3.As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.

         A.could only stop once a day                

B.was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment

         C.was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.

         D.had different horses or mules pulled all the way

4.What can we learn from the passage?

         A.John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.

         B.John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.

         C.Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.

         D.Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey. 

 

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