A famous American John Muir said in 1898: “The Grand Canyon… as unearthly (神秘的) in the color and grandeur (壮观) of its architecture as if you had found it after death on some other star.” Like Muir, those of us who stand along the rim are prompted to wonder about the unearthliness and the forces that created and are still changing this place.

After more than 100 years of studies, many things are still mysterious. Today visitors come by the thousands -- the great and simple of the earth -- all in a spirit of wonder. Travelers come from every state of the Union, from every country in Europe and Asia.

From the depths of the canyon comes welling silence. Seldom can you hear the roar of the river, for all sounds are swallowed in this gulf of space. “It makes one want to murmur.” A woman once whispered to her companion. This silence is not the silence of death; rather, it is a presence. It is like a great piece of music. But music made of man works up to a climax (高潮) and stops.

Now, visitors to the South Rim alone may number 18,000 in a single day. Some of that number will travel by mule train down Bright Angel Trail to the canyon's floor, cross the raging river by a suspension bridge (吊桥) and walk to the North Rim. Though the two rims face each other across only 12 miles, it is a journey of 214 miles by car from one to the other. Nor can you visit the North Rim except in summer; some 1,200 feet higher than the South Rim, it is snow covered much of the year except in July and August.

   But there is no day that you may not visit the South Rim and find the sun warm on your face and the air perfumed with the incense (香气) of smoke from an Indian hearth (香炉). No wonder an American writer and journalist said, “I came here an atheist (无神论者), and departed a devout (虔诚的)believer.”

What is it that attracts so many travelers to the Canyon?

A. The unearthliness and the grandeur of its architecture.

B. The presence of American super stars.

C. The saying made by American writers and journalists.

D. The roaring of the river in the Canyon.www..ocm

What does the underlined word “simple” refer to?

A. peaceful stream  B. land surface       C. common people        D. tamed animals

If you want to visit the North Rim from the South Rim, which of the following won’t be the way of traveling for you?

A. By train.                B. By animal.      C. By car.                         D. On foot.

The last sentence “I came here an atheist, and departed a devout believer.” implies that ______.

A. natural wonders such as the Canyon have some effect on human activities

B. all visitors to the Grand Canyon are God believers

C. atheist can’t see the magnificence of the Grand Canyon

D. the Grand Canyon is an unearthly sight that only God could create

You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes(撞击) through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars and run out of them even when they catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress(床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff(悬崖)a thousand feet high. His parachute(降落伞)failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too.
【小题1】 Stuntmen are those who ______.

A.often dress up as actors
B.prefer to lead dangerous lives
C.often perform seemingly dangerous actions
D.often fight each other for their lives
【小题2】Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
A.playing their dirty tricks B.selling their special skills
C.jumping out of high windowsD.jumping from fast moving trains
【小题3】 When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.
A.he needs little protectionB.he will be covered with a mattress
C.his life is endangered D.his safety is generally all right
【小题4】Which of the following is the main factor of a successful performance?
A.Strength. B.Exactness. C.Speed. D.Carefulness
【小题5】What can be inferred from the author’s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
A.Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B.The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C.Parachutes must be of good quality.
D.The cliff is too high.




C
Can you imagine a catfish bigger than a boy? There are more than 1,000 kinds of catfish;28 species are found in the United States' lakes and rivers. This huge family has some mighty strange members. Let's meet a few.
Walking catfish.Nature's feisty little catfish,found in southern Florida,has an extra lung for breathing on dry land. When its swimming hole dries up,the walking catfish waddles on stiff forward fins in search of another lake or stream.If an enemy attacks,the fish flares(展开)its top and front fins and leaps at the attacker to scare it off.
Armored catfish.This catfish has heavy,bony plates protecting its body. The shell makes the fish difficult to bone. To cook it,throw the fish whole into a fire. When it is done,break it open for eating.Some armored catfish are found in Florida,but the 100-pounders live in South America.
Rounding out the family of strange catfish are talking catfish,which make growing sound when you pull them from the water;climbing catfish,which move quickly up shore brush in search of food;electric catfish,which can deliver a mild shock;and blind catfish,which settle in the inky blackness of underwater caves.Blind catfish find food through taste buds in their eight whiskers(须).
Most catfish have four whiskers on the upper jaw and four on the lower jaw. Sensory holes on these whiskers help the fish smell and taste food even in the muddiest of water.The United States does not have catfish anywhere near the size of those in South America.But in some large U.S,rivers,blue and flathead catties do top 100 pounds.
Most of the catfish you are likely to catch will be much smaller,about frying pan size.When you catch one,remember that the top fins and the forward fins have poison glands(腺)at their bases. They can give you painful wounds (…)
63.The purpose of the passage is to___________.
A.encourage readers to go fishing for catfish
B.inform readers of the world's largest catfish
C.describe the unusual characteristics of catfish
D.explain different ways to catch a variety of catfish
64.The author talks about the way of cooking an armored catfish to show that
A.it has heavy and bony plates        B.it's hard to cook and eat
C.it has too many bones      D.it's poisonous inside
65.Which is NOT mentioned about catfish in the passage?
A.Its eating habits.                                    B.Its living conditions. 
C.Its whiskers.                                 D.Its size
66.What may be continued in the last paragraph?
A.The author's love for catfish.     B.Where else to catch a catfish.
C.The origin of the name “catfish”    D.The safest way to handle catfish


Passage Nine(Holmes’ Knowledge)
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System! ” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it.
1.What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?
[A]Praising.        B.Critical.            [C]Ironical.             [D]Distaste.
2.What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?
[A]By deduction.       B.By explanation.         [C]By contrast.          [D]By analysis.
3.What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?
[A]Learning what every body learned.
B.Learning what was useful to you.
[C]Learning whatever you came across.
[D]Learning what was different to you.
4.What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
B.One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.

Some people think that they will get ill if they use their brains(大脑)too much.  It is not true.  Through many researches, scientists show us that the more you use your brains, the better they will be, and the wiser you will become.

Of course, if you want to keep your mind clear and be energetic(充满活力的), you must take a proper rest and study properly.  To the teenagers, using their brains in the morning is good for their health.

There are many ways to rest.  One is a peaceful rest.  Sleep is a peaceful rest.  Another is an active rest.  For example, take a walk outdoors, do morning exercises every day.  To change the way of the brains’activities(活动)is also a good way to rest.

In everyday life, to eat some eggs, meat, fresh vegetable and fruit is also good for the brains.

Wish you a wise man and a happy life.

1.If ________________ ,your mind will be clean?

A.You go swimming in a lake

B.You are active in learning

C.You have a good rest and study properly.

D.You can sing a song

2.Which of the following statements is false?

A.Sleep is a kind of good rest.

B.Doing morning exercises is a peaceful rest.

C.Going out for a rest is an active rest.

D.Different activities are a good rest.

3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A.Illness comes from the fact that the brains are used too much.

B.Fruits are the most important for the brains.

C.The brains will be better if they are used often.

D.Sleep is the only way of having a rest.

4.Which of the following can be used as the best title of the passage?

A.How to Use your Brain

B.How to Rest

C.How to Become a Wise Man

D.Keep Your Mind Clear

 

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