BUKHANNON, West Virginia—Two rescue teams slowly moved along a two-mile path on Monday night to the site of a coal mine explosion that trapped 13 miners, who had not been heard from since the early morning accident．

     Meanwhile, at a nearby church, more than 250 family members and friends gathered, waiting for updates（最新报道）on the rescuers’ progress．

    The miners were trapped at about 6:30 and many families weren’t informed of the accident until about 10 a．m-more than three hours after it happened．“It’s very upsetting, but you’ve got to be patient, I guess,” said John Helms, whose brother, Terry, was trapped in the mine．

     The trapped miners were about 260 feet underground and about 10,000 feet from the Sago Mine’s entrance, said Roger Nicholson, general counsel from International Coal Group．

     At a late night news conference, Nicholson said one team had advanced about 4, 800 feet in the four hours since entering the mine just before 6 p．m．Another team entered the mine about 30 minutes later．

     He said the crew was very experienced, with some members having worked underground for

30 to 35 years．The miners were equipped with about one hour of breathable oxygen each．The company has not released the names of the miners．

     The teams test the air about every 500 feet, and have to disconnect （remove） the power to the phones they use to communicate with the surface before doing that．“ We don’t want to be energizing anything if it’s in an atmosphere with burnable gases,” Kips said．

     The cause of the explosion was not immediately known．High levels of carbon monoxide were discovered shortly after the explosion, which delayed rescue efforts, but those levels have since subsided（减退）, authorities said．

According to the passage, we can infer that ________．

       A．all the miners who were trapped underground were still alive

       B．communication with the trapped miners was cut off

       C．the two rescue teams entered the mine at the same time

    D．the rescue started as soon as the accident happened

If the first team advanced at an average speed, they could dig about _______ per hour．

 A．1,000 feet            B．2,400 feet        C．1,200feet        D．4,800feet

Where can the passage be seen?

       A．In a magazine．           B．In a newspaper．        

       C．In a science book．．      D．On an advertisement．

Which of the following shows the position where the miners were trapped?

When you practice reading with passages shorter than book length, do not try to take in each word separately, one after the other. It is much more difficult to grasp the broad theme of the passage this way, and you will also get the stuck on individual words which may not be absolutely essential to a general understanding of the passage. It is a good idea to skim through the passage very quickly first to get the general idea of each paragraph. Titles, paragraph headings and emphasized word can be a great help in getting this skeleton outline of the passage. It is surprising how many people do not read titles, introductions or paragraph headings. Can you, without looking back, remember the title of this passage and the heading of this paragraph?
Most paragraphs of a passage or chapter have a 'topic sentence' which expresses the central idea. The remaining sentence expand or support that idea. It has been estimated that between 60% and 90% of all expositive（说明的）paragraphs in English have the topic sentence first. Always pay special attention to the first sentence of a paragraph; it is most likely to give you the main idea.
Sometimes , though , the first sentence in the paragraph does not have the feel of 'main idea' sentence. It does not seem to give us enough new information to justify a paragraph. The next most likely place to look for the topic sentence is the last sentence of the paragraph.
Remember that the opening and closing paragraphs of a passage or chapter are particularly important . The opening paragraph suggests the general direction and content of the piece, while the closing paragraph often summarizes the very essence （精髓）.
【小题1】It is a good idea to skim through a passage quickly first ________.

During his life Dr James Naismith worked as a doctor, taught P.E and wrote several books. While he never thought it very important, Dr Naismith is today best known for one thing. He was the inventor of basketball.
Dr James Naismith was born in Canada in 1861 and his first job was at a special sports school in the USA. One day the school principal told James he was having a problem with the students. Because of heavy snow, the students could not go outside. He told James that they needed a sport the boys could play indoors and gave the teacher two weeks to think of something.
It was on the very last day that James came up with his idea. The “birth of basketball” is said to be on December 21, 1891, when two teams from the school played the first game. It was quite different from the basketball games of today. It had 9 players on each team and footballs were used instead of basketballs. Soon after, the game changed to 5 players on each side, using special “basketballs” through nets.
Although Dr Naismith did not live to see basketball become the worldwide game it is today, in 1936, just three years before his death, basketball became an Olympic sport at the Games in Berlin.
【小题1】
Which of the following things did Dr James Naismith NOT do?

Wendy ,Carol, Jenny, Tom 和Mark 想观看演出或参加培训.阅读下列材料, 从所给的6个选项中,选出符合各自要求的最佳选项。其中一项是多余的。(5分)
【小题1】Wendy, a student who is interested comedy and acting,will be free on Oct.12th .She wants to relax herself by enjoying some performances, but she has no more than $4.
【小题2】Carol is expected to be free on October 15th. She plans to enjoy some
performances while having a cup of coffee.
【小题3】Jenny, a student who majors in art, is interested in Italian art as well as Chinese art. She will be free after school at 4:30.
【小题4】Tom will go to study in the USA for a master’s degree. He wants to have a full-time special training for several months to improve his oral English.
【小题5】Mark , a worker of an export company, needs to improve his writing and oral English. He can only go to the training class after work every day.

STAGE
Keep it in the air: The Chaoyang Theater is one of the Beijing theaters to present acrobatics(杂技 ) all year round. Top acrobatic artists invited from all over the country perform for Chinese and foreign tourists. The program contains trick cycling, leaping through hoops and Chinese magic tricks. Some of the artists have won prizes in international competitions.
Time: 7∶15 p.m. Daily
Place: 36, Dongsanhuan Beilu, Chaoyang District
Tel: 65072421, 65071818
Use your head: Green Hat is a new drama given by a group of young Chinese actors. It’s a rewrite of American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous novel The Scarlet Letter.  It describes the heroine’s great courage in finding the true love against the public disagreement.
Time: 7∶15 p.m. until March 5, except Mondays
Place: China Children’s Theater
Tel: 66037255, 66037265
Mix and match: Story of Puppets tells of a fairy, Zixia, who looks for true love in the human world. After watching a puppet play Peony Pavilion, she thinks there must be true love in reality, so she uses magic to turn the puppet characters into humans, wanting to fall in love with the puppet hero. But things don’t go as she planned... Li Liuyi, the director of the play has made several successful attempts to present different traditional operas in one play. This time he combines Peking Opera, Kunqu Opera, Pingju Opera along with a band, using the structure of modern drama.
Time: 7∶ 30 p.m. until March 10, except Mondays
Place: Small Playhouse of Beijing People’s Art Theater
Tel: 65250123
Peking Opera: The Beijing Peking Opera Troupe will give two performances at the Chang’an Grand Theater. Each performance includes two classical excerpts (选段). One is Wenxi (a play focusing on singing and dancing); the other is Wuxi (a play full of acrobatic dancing). The first night will be The Crossroad and Presenting a Pearl of the Rainbow Bridge. And the second night will see the performance of The Goddess of Heaven Scatters Flowers and Havoc in Heaven.
Time: 7∶30 p.m. February 27, 28
Place: Chang’an Grand Theater
Tel: 86531043
73.   If a tourist want to see a performance on March 15, he can call _____ to book a ticket.
A. 86531043   B. 65250123   C. 66037255   D. 65071818
74.   We can learn from the text that _____.
A. Story of puppets is a play held in China Children’s Theater
B. the artists who have won prizes will perform only magic tricks
C. on March 5 there will be two plays for us to choose
D. the artists in the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe are from all over the country
75.   According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. The director of the Story of Puppets combines different operas in it.
B. Green Hat is based on a famous novel acted by some American artists.
C. Top Acrobatic artists will present their performances around our country.
D. The Beijing Peking Opera Troupe will give two performances with the same excerpts.