For eighty four days old Santiago had not caught a single fish. At first a young boy, Manolin, had shared his bad fortune, but after the fortieth luck less day the boy’s father told his son to go in another boat. From that time on, Santigao worked alone. The boy loved the old fisherman and always helped him with money and food. Usually, they would talk about the fish they had taken in luckier times or about American baseball after supper, while at night, alone in his cottage, Santiago dreamed of lions on the beaches of Africa, where he had gone years before. He no longer dreamed of his dead wife.

On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago set off to fish before dawn. Two of his baits (饵) were fresh tunas (金枪鱼) the boy had given him, as well as sardines (沙丁鱼) to cover his hooks. Then he set his lines which went straight down into deep dark water.

As the sun rose he saw other boats in toward shore. A bird showed him where dolphin were chasing some flying fish. This time Santiago saw tuna jumping in the sunlight. A small one took the hook on his line. Pulling the fish aboard, the old man thought it a good fortune.

Toward noon a marlin, a common fish in the sea, started eating the bait which was one hundred meters down. Gently the old man played the fish, a big one, as he knew from the weight on the line. At last he struck to settle the hook. The fish did not come out of she surface. Instead, it began to pull the boat to the northwest. The old man followed it. Although he was alone and no longer strong, he had his skill and knew many tricks. He waited patiently for the fish to be tired.

It was cold after the sunset. When something took one of his remaining baits, he cut the line with his knife. Once the marlin leaned suddenly, pulling Santiago forward on his face and cutting his cheek. By dawn his left hand was cramped (抽筋的). The fish had headed northward; there was no land in sight. Hungry, he cut pieces from the tuna and chewed them slowly.

That morning the fist jumped. Seeing it, Santiago knew he had hooked the biggest marlin he had ever seen. Then the fish went down and turned toward the east. Santiago drank a little water from the bottle during the hot afternoon.

Close to nightfall a dolphin took the small hook he had rebated. He lifted it aboard, careful. After he had rested, he cut meat from the dolphin and kept also the two flying fish he hound in its stomach. That night he slept. He awoke to feel the line running through his fingers as the fish jumped. Feeding line slowly, he tried to tire the marlin. After the fish slowed its run, he washed his cut hands in sea water and ate one of the flying fish. At sunrise the marlin began to circle. Faint, he worked to bring the big fish nearer with each turn. Almost exhausted, he finally drew his big fish alongside and drove in the harpoon(鱼叉). The fish was two feet longer than the boat. No fish like it had ever been seen in Havana harbor.

An hour later, he sighted the fist shark, a fierce Mako, and it came in fast to chase after the dead marlin. The old man struck the shark with his harpoon. The Mako rolled and sank, carrying the harpoon with it and leaving the marlin bloody. He knew the smell would spread. Watching, he saw two sharks closing in. he stuck at one with his knife and watched it sliding down into deep water. The other he killed while it tore at the flesh of the marlin. When the third appeared, he thrust (刺) it with the knife. The other sharks came at sunset. At fist he tried to beat them with the tiller (舵柄) from the boat, but his hands were bleeding and there were too many in the sea. In the darkness, as he steered toward the harbor of Havana, he head them hitting the boat again and again. But the old man though only of his steering and his great tiredness. He had gone out too far and the sharks had beaten him. He knew they would leave him nothing but the stripped skeleton of the big marlin.

All lights were out when he sailed into the little harbor and beached his boat. He could just make out the white backbone and the upstanding tail of the fish. Once he fell under their weight and lay patiently until he could gather his strength to go on. In his cottage he fell on his bed and went to sleep.

The above story is adapted from         .

    A.Treasure Island      B.The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

    C.The Old Man And The Sea  D.The Son Of The Sea

Why did the man feel that he could be lucky this time?

    A.Because a small tuna took the hoot on his line.

    B.Because he dreamed about the American lions.

    C.Because he saw many flying fish were chased by the dolphins.

    D.Because a lot of sharks followed his boat.

According to the text, which statement is NOT true about Manolin?

    A.The boy had mercy on Santiago.

    B.The boy often shared his stories with Santiago.

    C.The boy showed his great concerns to Santiago.

    D.The boy was Santiago’s adopted son.

Why does Santiago let the marlin lead his boat instead of pulling the big fish up?

    A.He wanted to kill the marlin first before he pulled it up to the boat.

    B.He was too tried and hungry to pull the big fish up.

    C.His experience told him not to do so before the fish was tired out.

    D.He wanted to use the marlin as a bait to catch the sharks.

Which sentence below can be used to best describe Santiago’s character?

    A.“He no longer dreamed of his dead wife.” (Para 1)

    B.“Although he was alone and no longer strong, he had his skill and knew many tricks.” (Para 4)

    C.“Almost exhausted, he finally drew his big fish alongside and drove in the harpoon.” (Para 7)

    D.“Once he fell under their weight and lay patiently until he could gather his strength to go on.” (Para 9)

.According to the text, what will be talked about in the next paragraph?

    A.the man’s action to realize his dream about the lions.

    B.people’s reflection when they saw the giant marlin outside.

    C.people’s discussion about how they ate the giant marlin.

    D.a funeral held by the boy and the local people after his death.

When you visit America, you will see the word Motel on signs and notice boards. It is made up of “motor” and “hotel” and it is really a hotel for people who arrive by car (how-ever, you don’t need a car to stay at one). You have to pay when you arrive for your room, which usually has a bath. Meals are not provided, but there will certainly be a cafeteria (自助餐馆). Americans eat a lot of salads and sandwiches. Along the main roads there are a lot of motels. Each tries to offer more than next. Some provide television in every bedroom; others have swimming pools; and so on. Motels are especially useful when you are in the country, far from a town or city. You will also find them in the big National Parks.

In these great National Parks, you may meet guests you don’t expect to see. An American friend told me a little story. In the middle of a moonless night she heard strange noises outside her motel window in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Thinking it might be a thief, she jumped out of bed, opened the door and crept towards a dark shadow(阴影). As she got close, she saw the thief. She was dreadfully frightened: it wasn’t a human thief — it was a big black bear. The bear was turning over some empty tins with its paw, looking for tasty bits of food. My friend decided to leave that particular thief alone!

There are also, of course, places called “rooming houses”,  where they receive lodgers (房客). You will see such signs as Tourists or Rooms Rent, and you could try one of these. A word of warning — looking for a room in New York during the tourist season is like looking for gold on the moon!

1.Which of the following is TRUE about motels?

A.You can only find motels in the big National Parks.

B.They are free for people who arrive by car.

C.If you want to stay at a motel, you must have a car.

D.The word “motel” is formed by two words.

2.Which of the following is NOT provided by motels?

A.Baths.            B.Swimming pools.    C.TV.               D.Meals.

3.The underlined word “crept” in the second paragraph probably means “______”.

A.moved slowly      B.rushed out         C.threw away        D.ran fast

4.The second paragraph mainly tells us ______.

A.an interesting story

B.the experience of the author’s friend

C.we may meet animals in the National Parks

D.bears usually look for food at night

5.From the last paragraph, we can learn that in New York during the tourist season ______.

A.tourists can find gold there

B.tourists can have a sweet dream there

C.it is difficult to find a room there

D.there is warning for tourists to New York

 

Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a mean rumor(谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.

There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying(欺侮). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.

When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.

We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.

Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle(毛毛雨), and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work.

1.To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on ______.

A.whether it is done behind someone

B.whether it is painful or not

C.whether it is a kind of bullying

D.whether it is spread fast.

2.If a rumor is spread about someone, others may_______.

A.point out his or her advantages

B.keep away from him or her

C.not feel he or she is an outsider

D.be hurt if getting close to him or her again.

3.The purpose of this passage is to _______.

A.advise on how to deal with rumors

B.teach us how to judge a rumor

C.find out why rumors spread fast

D.explain why rumors hurt

 

Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described as the “secret language” of elephants. They have been monitoring(监测) communications between animals that cannot be heard by human ears.

The elephant’s call will be familiar to most people, but the animals also give out growls (低吼). Their growls, however, are only partly audible (听得见的); two-thirds of the call is at frequencies that are too low to be picked up by our hearing. To learn more about the inaudible part of the growl, the team attached (附在……上面) a microphone sensitive to these low frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo’s female elephants. The researchers could then relate the noises the animals were making to what they were doing. Matt Anderson, who led the project, told BBC News, “We’re excited to learn how they interact and contact with one another.”

The team has already learned that pregnant females use this low frequency communication to announce to the rest of their long gestation (妊娠期) of over two years, in the last 12 days we see the low part of the growl, which we can’t hear. This we believe is to announce to the rest of the herd that the baby is upcoming,” said Dr Anderson.

The researchers believe that this also warns the elephants to look out for coming danger. “You may think that a baby calf of about 300 pounds would not be as open to predation (捕食) as other species,” he says. “But packs of hyenas (袋狼) are a big threat in the wild.”

Female elephants are only in season for around four days every four years and these calls can be heard by males more than two miles away.

1.Why some elephants’ call is called “secret language”?

A.Because it can’t be heard by human ears.

B.Because it can only be heard by female elephants.

C.Because people don’t know its meanings.

D.Because people haven’t studied it completely.

2.By using a sensitive microphone and a GPS tracking system, the researchers wanted to find out             .

A.where the elephants usually go

B.what the elephants’ growls really mean

C.how mother elephants raise baby calves

D.how elephants protect their babies.

3.A pregnant elephant uses inaudible growls to           .

A.show the location where she is staying

B.ask for help when she losses her way

C.scare away the enemy

D.let others know she will have a baby

4.What is the passage mainly about?

A.The elephants can speak like people.

B.The wild elephants’ ways to fight against enemies.

C.The “secret language” between elephants.

D.The special life of female elephants.

 

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