题目内容
Tales From Animals HospitalDavid Grant
David Grant has become a familiar face to millions of fans of Animal Hospital. Here Dr Grant tells us the very best of his personal stories about the animals he has treated, including familiar patients such as the dogs Snowy and Duchess, the delightful cat Marigold Serendipity DiamonD．He also takes the reader behind the scenes at Harmsworth Memorial Animal Hospital as he describes his day, from ordinary medical check-ups to surgery (外科手术). Tales From Animal Hospital will delight all fans of the programme and anyone who has a lively interest in their pet, whether it be cat, dog, or snake!
￡14.99 Hardback 272pp Simon Schuster
ISBN 0751304417
Issac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
Michael White
From the author of Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, comes this colourful description of the life of the world’s first modern scientist. Interesting yet based on fact, Michael White’s learned yet readable new book offers a true picture of Newton completely different from what people commonly know about him. Newton is shown as a gifted scientist with very human weaknesses who stood at the point in history where magic (魔术) ended and science began.
￡18.99 Hardback 320pp Fourth Estate
ISBN 1857024168
Fermat’s Last Theorem
Simon Singh
In 1963 a schoolboy called Andrew Wiles reading in his school library came across the world’s greatest mathematical problem: Fermat’s Last Theorem (定理). First put forward by the French mathematician Pierre de Fermat in the seven teenth century, the theorem had baffled and beaten the finest mathematical minds, including a French woman scientist who made a major advance in working out the problem, and who had to dress like a man in order to be able to study at the Ecole Polytechnique. Through unbelievable determination Andrew Wiles finally worked out the problem in 1955. An unusual story of human effort over three centuries, Fermat’s Last Theorem will delight specialists and general readers a like.
￡12.99 Hardback 384pp Forth Estate
ISBN 1857025210
1.What is Animal Hospital?
A．A news story.
B．A popular book.
C．A research report.
D．A TV programme.
2.In Michael White’s book, Newton is de scribed as _____.
A．a person who did not look the same as in many pictures
B．a person who lived a colourful and meaningful life
C．a great but not perfect man
D．an old-time magician
3.Which of the following best explains the meaning of the word “baffle” as it is used in the text?
A．To encourage people to raise questions.
B．To cause difficulty in understanding.
C．To provide a person with an explanation.
D．To limit people’s imagination.
4.The person who finally proved Fermat’s Last Theorem is ______.
A．Simon Singh
B．Andrew Wiles
C．Pierre de Fermat
D．a French woman scientist
5.What is the purpose of writing these three texts?
A．To make the books easier to read.
B．To show the importance of science.
C．To introduce new authors.
D．To sell the books.
解析：
| 1.该段短文的第一句中谈到a familiar face to milIions of
fans of Animal Hospital，后文中又提到all fans of the programme，由此不难推断出这是一个电视节目。
2.文中谈到Newton is shown as a gifted scientist with very human weaknesses，其意思相当于C项中的 Newton is described as a great but not perfect man，所以该项为正确答案。 第2段中新书对牛顿的介绍：Michael white’s learned yet readable new book offers a true pieture of Newton completely different from what people commonly know about him；此处的picture显然是一种隐喻(=a vivid or realistic verbal description)，然而选项A中的picture则为具体照片或图像。误选A项者没能分辨出这一词义上的差异。误选 B项者也是因为仅从文中给出的...colourful description of the Iife of the world’s first modern scientist(=Newton)得出了如此印象：(Newton is described as)a person who lived a colourful and meaningful life。 3.baffle一词与beat为平行并列结构，同为 the theorem的谓语，去掉baffle后该语句的含义为“这一定理击败了最棒的数学家”。选项所给出的四个解释中，A、 C两项与beat应该是转折关系，D项的含义不合常识，只有B项与上下文内容相符，故为该题正确选项。 4.应该寻找与“prove Fermat’s Last Theorem”有关的细节。文中有：Through unbelievable determination Andrew Wiles finally worked out the problem in 1995，此中所提到的人物即为答案，也就是B项。 5.从内容上看，三段文字的共同特点是都是对于某本新书作出的简介，并附简要评论，其用意应该是 to sell the books，这里sell的含义一些考生可能不太熟悉，应该是“推销；推介”之意(=promote the sale of...)，答案即此。其余三个选项虽然也都似乎与此相关，但只能反映某一侧面，选择时不应以偏概全。
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提示：
Hans Christian Andersen was a poor boy who lived in Denmark. His father, a shoemaker, had died, and his mother had married again.
Andersen’s father liked to read better than to make shoes. In the evenings, he had read aloud from The Arabian Nights. His wife understood very little of the book, but the boy, pretending to sleep, understood every word.
By day Hans Christian Anderson went to a house where
old women worked as weavers. There he listened to the tales that the women told. In those days, there were almost as many tales in Denmark as there were people to tell them.
Among the tales told in the town of Odense, where Andersen was born in 1805, was one about a fairy who brought death to those who danced with her. To this tale, Hans Christian later added a story from his own life.
Once, when his father was still alive, a young lady ordered a pair of red shoes. When she refused to pay for them, unhappiness filled the poor shoemaker’s house. From that small tragedy and the story of the dancing fairy, the shoemaker’s son years later wrote the story that millions of people now know as The Red Shoes.
As a little girl, Hans Christian’s mother was sent out on the streets to beg. She did not want to beg, so she hid under one of the city bridges. She warmed her cold feet in her hands, for she had no shoes. She was afraid to go home. Years later, her son, in his pity for her and his anger at the world, wrote the angry story She’s No Good and the famous tale The Little Match Girl.
Through his genius, he changed every early experience, even his father’s death, into a fairy tale. One cold day his father showed him a white, woman-like figure among the frost patterns. “That is the snow queen,” said the shoemaker. “Soon she will be coming for me.” A few months later he died. And years later, Andersen turned that sad experience into a fairy tale, The Snow Queen.
【小题1】Which of the following is TRUE about Anderson when he was a boy?
| A．His father had remarried before he died. |
| B．His mother was struck by The Arabian Night. |
| C．He enjoyed listening to stories very much. |
| D．He would help old weavers with their work. |
| A．Almost all tales from around the world once had their origin in Denmark. |
| B．The people in Denmark were very enthusiastic about telling tales. |
| C．The number of tales in Denmark was exactly equal to that of the people living there. |
| D．The people in Denmark loved doing nothing but tell stories to each other. |
| A．5. | B．6. | C．3. | D．4. |
| A．The Red Shoes was based on a tragedy of Anderson’s family |
| B．Andersen’s genius as well as his early experience made him successful |
| C．Andersen was educated at home by his parents because of poverty |
| D．Anderson wrote The Snow Queen in memory of his parents |
| A．Hans Christian Andersen’s Own Fairy Tales. |
| B．Hans Christian Andersen’s Family. |
| C．Hans Christian Andersen’s Bitter Experiences. |
| D．Hans Christian Andersen’s Considerate Parents. |
Tell a story and tell it well,and you may open wide the eyes of a child,open up lines of communication in a business,or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.
People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them.For example,most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources,cultures,and times.They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education,but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.
“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,”American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says,“Cinderella(灰姑娘),or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness,appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”
Working with students in schools,Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories.She works with prisoners too,helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write,direct,and act in their own lives.If they don’t like the story they are living,they can rewrite the story.Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers.“For every advance in business,”she says,“there is a greater need for communication.”Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship,she says.
Pugh spent several years in Nigeria,where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there.The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere,she says.
“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,”she says.“What I do is to focus on the value of stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs.We are all storytellers.We all have a story to tell.We tell everybody’s story.”
【小题1】What do we learn about American storytellers from Paragraph 2?
| A．They share the same way of storytelling. |
| B．They prefer to tell stories from other cultures. |
| C．They learn their stories from the American natives. |
| D．They find storytelling useful for both children and adults. |
| A．start a new life |
| B．settle down in another place |
| C．direct films |
| D．become good actors |
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
| A．Storytelling can influence the way people think. |
| B．Storytelling is vital to the growth of businesses. |
| C．Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school. |
| D．Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others. |