The Sahara Festival is a celebration of the very recent past. The three-day event is not fixed to the same dates each year, but generally takes place in November or December. It is well attended by tourists, but even better attended by locals.

    During the opening ceremonies, after the official greetings from the government leaders, people who attend the festival begin to march smartly before the viewing stands, and white camels transport their riders across the sands. Horsemen from different nations display their beautiful clothes and their fine horsemanship. One following another, groups of musicians and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turn to show off their wonderful traditional culture. Groups of men in blue and yellow play horns and beat drums as they dance in different designs. On their knees in the sand, a group of women in long dark dresses dance with their hair: their long, dark, shiny hair is thrown back and forth in the wind to the rhythm of their dance.

    The local and visiting Italian dogs are anxious to run after hares. The crowd is on its feet for the camel races. Camels and riders run far into the distance, and then return to the finish Line in front of the cheering people.

    Towards the evening, there comes the grand finale of the opening day, an extremely exciting horserace. All the riders run very fast on horseback. Some riders hang off the side of their saddles. Some even ride upside down -- their legs and feet straight up in the air -- all at full speed. Others rush down the course together, men arm in arm, on different horses. On and on they went. SO fast and so wonderful!

The Sahara Festival is a festival which________.

A. has a very long history in North Africa

B. is held in the same place on the same day

C. is attended mainly by the people in the Sahara

D. is celebrated mostly by travelers from different countries

Before the races begin, ________ take part in the activities during the opening ceremonies.

A. musicians, dancers, horses and hares

B. camel riders, musicians, dogs and hares

C. horsemen, dancers, camels and dogs

D. musicians, officials, camels and horses

The underlined word "finale" in the fourth paragraph most probably means the _______of the opening day.

A. first part         B. middle          C. last part          D. whole

This passage mainly tells readers_______.

A. what happens on the opening day of the Sahara Festival

B. how people celebrate during the three-day Sahara Festival

C. what takes place at the closing ceremonies of the Sahara Festival

D. how animals race on the first and the last days of the Sahara Festival

To me, life without music would not be exciting. I realize that this is not true for everybody. Many people get along quite well without going to the concert, and listening to the record. But music plays an important part in everyone's life, whether he realizes it or not. Try to imagine, for example, what films or TV plays would be like without music. Would the feelings, the moving plot, and the greatest interests, be so exciting or dramatic? I'm not sure about it.
Now, we have been speaking of music in its more common meaning----the kind of music we hear in the concert hall. But if we look at some parts of music more closely, we discover them in our everyday life too----in the rhythm of the sea, the melody of a bird in the woods and so on. So music surely has meaning for everyone, in some way or other. And, of course, it has special meaning for those who have spent all their lives working on playing or writing music.
It is well said, “Through music a child enters into a world of beauty, expresses himself from his heart, feels the joy of doing things alone, learns to take care of others, develops his mind and makes his body strong.”
【小题1】What dose the writer say more about in the text?

 It is well known ___ a person eats causes changes in the body.

A. what                B. that what                  C. what that           D. that

2. It is well known that China's great achievements in economic and social development over the past 30 years cannot be _____ its continuous efforts to push for rural reforms.

A. separated from B. separated between C. divided into D. divided between

It is well known that the Japanese people’s love of fish is almost as a bee’s interest in honey．As fish populations were decreasing, fishing companies were forced to fish further and further away from the shore．Then they had a big challenge－how to keep the fish fresh for longer．So they decided to keep the fish stored in freezers on the boats．But the public did not like frozen fish．So again the fishing companies had a new bigger challenge．What they decided to do was to have fish tanks on their boats．After catching fishes, they would put them in the tanks and keep them living there until they got back to shore．But in this protected environment, lacking predators (掠食者)，the fish stopped moving around．The Japanese public felt these dull fish did not taste fresh, which had an unpleasant effect upon sales．Once again the fishing companies had an even bigger challenge

Stop for a minute! Before we go any further, I would like to ask “What are your challenges? How do you handle an unexpected challenge?” May I think it this way that you should try to attack your challenges? Conquer（战胜） them with a Swiss army knife．Take the most proper and simple tool that you can adopt to deal with your situation.

Now back to our story．How did the Japanese finally figure out the fresh fish problem？Sharks! You might think the same．Sharks were caught and put into the tanks with other fishes．Don’t sharks eat fish? Well, they do eat a few fish, but they did also keep more fish active and alert (警觉的)．The fish stay fresh because they are challenged.

Now, try to keep yourself fresh by finding your own shark to offer yourself a challenge in your own business and career.

The main reason for the fishing company to fish in the far sea was that         .

       A．the fish resource near the shore was on the decrease

      B．the fishes farther away from the sea tasted fresher       

       C．people would prefer eating fresh fishes to less fresh ones

       D．it was getting harder and harder to keep fishes fresh

From the text we can learn that           .

       A．Japanese people love honey as much as a bee does

       B．the fish kept in tanks didn’t sell well because of their taste

       C．the fish stored in the protected environment tasted the best

       D．the fish kept in tanks didn’t taste fresh because they died before reaching the restaurant

The underlined part of the last paragraph means “            .”

       A．If you went fishing, you might do as the fishing companies did

       B．Try to find a big shark, and you will meet your challenge

      C．To succeed in life, you should always be ready to meet challenges

       D．Sharks are usually compared to the challenges in people’s life

The purpose for the author to write the passage is to        .

       A．tell the readers “no pains, no gains”

       B．tell the readers how the Japanese keep the fish fresh

       C．advise readers to look for challenges to make progress

       D．advise readers to find something difficult to do