The Western has been the favorite type for American adventure story since the nineteenth centu??ry. While the American West was being settled, newspapers and "dime novels" could depend on stories of the frontier settlements and tell tales about living in the untamed wilderness to sell. The public back East was eager to read about the West, even if the stories were more fiction than fact.

In 1902, Owen Wister published his novel The Virginian, which was one of the first novels to treat the Western as a serious literary form; the novel still sold well and had inspired several movies and a television series. In 1905, Bertha H. Bower and Zane Grey published their first novels, and the popular Western novels had continued to flourish from that day on, with current novels by Luke Short, Max Brand, and Louis L’ Amour carrying on the tradition.

The first Western movie appeared even earlier than these serious Western novels. Before the turn of the century, an associate of Edison’s had filmed Cripple Creek Barroom Scene, a few seconds of film showing the inside of a saloon, to help publicize the invention of the movie camera. In 1903 the Edison’ company filmed the first "full-length" Western — The Great Train Robbery. The film lasts less than fifteen minutes, but a story is told its entirety. In the movie, bandits (强盗) rob a train and its passengers, killing the engineer, and find themselves tracked down by a posse. Audiences loved the movie. Some theaters were actually opened for the single purpose of showing The Great Train Rob??bery and only later realized that they could do equally well showing other movies. The film was so suc??cessful that other companies, and finally even the Edison company itself, began producing copies and other versions of The Great Train Robbery. Ironically, in" an era when the West was still very real —-Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma were all territories rather than states in 1903 — The Great Train Robbery was filmed in New Jersey.  

9. The purpose of this passage is to________.

A. discuss the making of the movie The Great Train Robbery

B. discuss the early Western novels

C. discuss the art of movie making

D. trace the development of the Western as an American adventure story tradition

10. We can conclude from this passage that________.

A. people lost interest in the West after 1903

B. Owen Wister was an ex-cowboy

C. New Jersey was still "untamed wilderness" in 1903

D. films were fairly uncommon at the time The Great Train Robbery was made

11. The passage suggests that________.

A. Edison’s invention of the movie camera happened;by accident

B. movie houses didn’t make much-money in the early days

C. Easterners were fascinated by the " wild West"

D. The Great Train Robbery was poorly received by the public because it lacked a plot

12. As used in this passage, the word “literary” means________.

A. humorous                B. financial             C. appropriate to literature      D. amateur 

Have you ever wished you could solve complex math problems without thinking? What about learning to play the piano in just three days? Or mastering several foreign languages within a month?
Eddie Morra, the main character in the movie Limitless can do all these things. But he isn’t Superman or Harry Potter. Eddie has taken pills called NZT.
Thriller Limitless came out in China on October 13. In the movie, Eddie is faced with “writer’s block”. He hasn’t written a single word of a novel, and his deadline has passed. And there’s more bad news: his girlfriend breaks up with him. By chance, Eddie runs into a relative who is a drug dealer. He gives Eddie some pills called NZT that allow people to make use of 100 percent of their brains. With the magic pills, Eddie’s life changes completely. He can recall everything he has ever read, seen or heard. He gains a sixth sense that allows him to predict future events. He even becomes a kungfu master by simply memorizing actions in Bruce Lee’s movie.
Before long he has finished his novel, won back his girlfriend and stepped into the financial world. He becomes rich incredibly quickly and is soon employed by a powerful Wall Street company. However, bad side effects are just around the corner. The effects of the pill last for only one or two days, and Eddie has to find more supplies of the pills. Meanwhile, the pills start to have other effects on him. Eddies’ mind loses the ability to control the actions of his body. What does destiny hold for him? Will he be able to go back to his normal life?
“Eddie’s fate turns out to be a barbed (讽刺的) joke… a sharp-eyed comic fable for an age of greed (贪婪)and speed.” writes A. O. Scott, a movie critic with the New York Times.
The drug isn’t real-----yet, some researchers say such memory-enhancing drugs might not be far off. Would you take such a pill despite its side effects? Is the ability to remember everything a blessing or a curse?
【小题1】Which of the following happened to Eddie after he took the pill?

A.He can easily call everyone in the world.
B.He can expect what will happen next with his sixth sense.
C.He can control a powerful Wall Street company and becomes rich.
D.He can make a special pill to improve his own memory.
【小题2】What’s A. O. Scott’s opinion of the movie?
A. The movie can help slow our pace in life.
B. The movie turned out to be only a joke.
C. The movie can help invent a memory-enhancing drug.
D. The movie aims to show something is wrong with our society.
【小题3】What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A.Memory-enhancing is sure to do good to us.
B.More people will take pills to enhance their memory.
C.People are soon likely to remember everything.
D.Such a pill to enhance memories may soon be invented.
【小题4】What is writer’s purpose of writing the passage?
A.To give us the information of a new movie.
B.To inform us of a new research on a new drug.
C.To suggest a good way to improve memory.
D.To tell us something about a new drug to enhance our memory.

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