The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2 September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.
The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker(面包师) in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery (面包房) into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.
By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul's and the Guildhall along them.
Samuel Peyps, the famous writer, wrote about the fire. People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.
The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.
After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect (建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone, In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the new St Paul's.
The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.
【小题1】It seems that the writer of the text was most sorry for the fact that______.

  The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2 September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.

        The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker(面包师) in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery (面包房) into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

        By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul's and the Guildhall along them.

        Samuel Peyps, the famous writer, wrote about the fire. People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat.

        The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.

        After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect (建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone, In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the new St Paul's.

       The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.

It seems that the writer of the text was most sorry for the fact that______.

    A. some people lost their lives                    

B. the birds in the sky were killed by the fire

    C. many famous buildings were destroyed  

D. the King's bakery was burned down

Why did the writer cite (引用) Samuel Pepys?

    A. Because Pepys was among those putting out the fire.  

 B. Because Pepys also wrote about the fire.

    C. To show that poor people suffered most.       

D. To give the reader a clearer picture of the fire.

How was the fire put out according to the text?

    A. The King and his soldiers came to help.

    B. All the wooden houses in the city were destroyed.

    C. People managed to get enough water from the river.

    D. Houses standing in the direction of the fire were pulled down.

Which of the following were reasons for the rapid spread of the big fire?______.

    (a) There was a strong wind.                         (b) The streets were very narrow. 

    (c) Many houses were made of wood.           (d) There was not enough water in the city.     

    (e) people did not discover the fire earlier.

    A. (a), (b)       B. (a), (b), (C)      C. (a), (b), (d)        D. (b), (c) (e)

Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa. He was 51 years old at the time. When doctors examined Napoleon’s body, they said that the former emperor of France had died from cancer of the stomach. That was the cause of death recorded in the official report. However, other doctors disagreed. One doctor who was present during the examination of the body said that Napoleon died of hepatitis. Other historians and medical experts have suggested that Napoleon died of syphilis, tuberculosis, or perhaps malaria. Now, after careful research, a British chemist thinks that Napoleon might have been poisoned -- not by a person, but by his wallpaper.

    Napoleon was sent to the island of St. Helena in 1815 after he lost the battle of Waterloo. He was a prisoner on the island. Although he had servants to attend to him, he had to live in one small building. St. Helena is a very wet island, so the walls of the building were always covered with mold. Napoleon became ill from spending too much time inside his house. Almost constantly he had a fever, chills, and felt sick to his stomach. He often felt pain in his shoulders and in his side. His skin turned yellow. He got frequent headaches, and he would become dizzy and vomit(吐). None of the medicine that the doctors gave Napoleon seemed to help. They were not sure what was the matter. Finally, Napoleon was too weak to leave the house. One night, while he was sleeping, he went into a coma and died.

Many doctors who later reviewed the reports of Napoleon’s illness found that the symptoms(症状) did not show a man who suffered from stomach cancer. It seemed obvious that Napoleon had died from some other cause. In 1961, a Swedish doctor examined some of Napoleon’s hair and found a high level of arsenic, a chemical poison. Was Napoleon murdered? It is doubtful. Arsenic was used in many types of medicine during Napoleon’s time, so he might have taken the arsenic as a cure for his illness. Then, in 1982, Dr. David Jones from England began to look into the mystery and suggested that Napoleon might have breathed in arsenic which was in the air of his house. In the 1700s and 1800s, arsenic was used to make a kind of green paint used on cloth and wallpaper. If the paint was used on a wet wall, the arsenic would go into the air. A person in the room might breathe that air. After studying the wallpaper in the room where Napoleon died, Dr. Jones found high levels of arsenic in the green paint on the walls.

Why did Napoleon live on St. Helena?

    A. He owned the island.         B. He was a prisoner there.

    C. His family lived there.        D. He liked the island.

The official report said that Napoleon died of____________.

   A. cancer     B. a coma     C.  mold       D. poison

Napoleon suffered from the following symptoms except __________.

   A. chills      B. fever      C  dizziness     D. bleeding

According to Dr. Jones, how did the arsenic probably get into Napoleon’s body?

   A. He drank it..   B. He touched it.   C. He breathed it in.    D. He ate it

The passage says that                      .

    A. a British doctor thinks he has found the cause of Napoleon’s death

    B. many doctors have tried to guess the cause of Napoleon's death

    C. Napoleon could have died from poison

D. all of the above

I liked climbing things when I was a baby. My mother remembers and has told me most of those   16   moments like this one. When I was one and a half years old, we lived in our first house in Rue St-Louis. On a hot summer day, my father intended to   17  the roof of our old house. In order to climb up there, he   18   a ladder front of the house.

In my town,   19   could walk outside because the streets were   20  . I was outside watching my father climb on that strange thing. I was curious about why my father disappear at last. So I decided to go up it to   21   why it was impossible to see my father after he reached the   22   of that thing. At 1.5 years old, still a baby wearing pampers, I climbed that ladder to the roof top and started walking   23  . My father did not notice that-he was on the other side occupied with his repairs. It happened that a nice lady in our   24   passed by and   25   me. The nice lady came to my house and   26   my mother of it, who was fearful and   27   ran outside to speak with me.

She really thought I would just   28   that roof, for I was just a baby  29  . She asked me to sit down and stop moving in a   30   way you speak to your babies when they are cute.   31  , I threw myself flat on the   32  and waited.

My mother climbed the ladder to   33   me up and there I was enjoying the view laughing at my mother’s shocked face.   34   the saying goes, “He who knows nothing   35  nothing.”

1.A．valuable         B．unforgettable  C．endless        D．worthy

2.A．build            B．paint          C．clean          D．mend

3.A．spread           B．laid           C．stood          D．moved

4.A．adults           B．children       C．babies         D．villagers

5.A．smooth           B．wide           C．clean          D．safe

6.A．figure out B．think out            C．pick out       D．point out

7.A．foot             B．top            C．step           D．body

8.A．out              B．up             C．down           D．around

9.A．house            B．neighborhood   C．family         D．company

10.A．met             B．inspected      C．heard          D．spotted

11.A．asked           B．warned         C．reminded       D．advised

12.A．quietly         B．slowly         C．immediately    D．curiously

13.A．fall off        B．climb onto     C．repair         D．destroy

14.A．after all       B．at all         C．in all         D．all in all

15.A．concerned       B．cautious       C．nice           D．clear

16.A．Therefore B．Instead              C．However        D．Otherwise

17.A．ladder          B．ground         C．roof           D．street

18.A．bring           B．pick           C．put            D．take

19.A．When            B．While          C．For            D．As

20.A．doubts          B．fears          C．ignores        D．understands

Last year, two days after Christmas, we kicked China out of the house. Not the country obviously, but bits of plastic, metal, and wood with the words “Made in China”. We kept what we already had, but stopped bringing any more in. because it had coated our lives with toys, and useless stuff. Sometimes I worried about jobs sent overseas, but price triumphed over virtue at our house. We couldn’t resist what China was selling.
But on that dark Monday last year, an unease feeling washed over me as I sat on the sofa. It wasn’t until then that I noticed a fact: China was taking over the place.
It stared back at me from the empty screen of the television. I spied it in the pile of tennis shoes by the door. It glowed in the lights on the Christmas tree and watched me in the eyes of a doll lying on the floor, I slipped off the couch and sorted gifts into two piles: China and non-China. The count came to China, 25, the world, 14. Christmas, I realized, had become a holiday made by the Chinese. Suddenly I wanted China out.
I persuaded my husband, and on Jan. 1 st, we started a-year-long household embargo on Chinese imports. The idea wasn’t to punish China. And we didn’t fool ourselves into thinking because we wanted to measure how far it had pushed in. We wanted to know what it would take in time, money, and worry to kick our China habit!
In the spring, our 4-year-old son started a campaign to support “China things”. “It’s too long without China,” he cried. He kept at me all day. I have discovered for myself that China doesn’t control every aspect of our daily lives, but if you take a close look at the underside of boxes in the toy department, I promise it will give you pause. “When we can buy China things again? Let’s never stop.” My son said.
After a year without China I can tell you this: You can still live without it, but it’s getting costlier by the day. And a decade from now I may not be brave enough to try it again.
【小题1】 The best title for the text could be _______.