Our quarrel with efficiency is not that it gets things done, but that it is a thief of time when it leaves us no leisure to enjoy ourselves, and that it strains our nerves when we try to get things done perfectly. In building bridges, American engineers calculate so finely and exactly as to make the two ends come together within one-tenth of an inch. But when two Chinese begin to dig a tunnel from both sides of a mountain both come out on the other side. --The Chinese’s firm belief is that it doesn’t matter so long as a tunnel is dug through, and if we have two instead of one, why, we have a double track to boot.

　　The pace of modern industrial life forbids this kind of glorious and magnificent idling. But, worse than that, it imposes upon us a different conception of time as measured by the clock and eventually turns the human being into a clock himself. (This sort of thing is bound to come to China, as is evident, for instance, in the case of a factory of twenty thousand workers. The luxurious prospect of twenty thousand workers coming in at their own sweet pleasure at all hours is, of course, somewhat terrifying.)Nevertheless, such efficiency is what makes life so hard and full of excitement. A man who has to be punctually at a certain place at five o’clock has the whole afternoon from one to five ruined for him already. Every American adult is arranging his time on the pattern of the schoolboy - three o’clock for this, five o’clock for that, six-thirty for change of dress, six-fifty for entering the taxi, and seven o’clock for arriving at the destination. It just makes life not worth living.

The writer objects to efficiency mainly on the grounds that it ____.

　　 A. gives us rights to have too much leisure time

　　 B. urges us to get things done punctually

　　 C. robs us of leisure time

　　 D. imposes on us a perfect concept of time

In the eyes of the author, the introduction of industrial life gives rise to ____.

　　 A. the excitement of life

　　 B. magnificent idling of time

　　 C. more emphasis on efficiency

　　 D. terrifying schoolboy

The passage tells us ____.

　　 A. Chinese workers come to work when it is convenient

　　 B. all Americans are forced to be efficient against their will

　　 C. Chinese engineers are on better terms with the management

　　 D. Americans ought not to work so hard for efficiency

The author believes that relaxing the rule of punctuality in factories would lead to ____.

　　 A. great trouble                       B. increased production

　　 C. a hard and exciting life                D. successful completion of a tunnel

-- Mum, I've been studying English since 8 o'clock ________ I go out and play with Tom for a while?

-- No, I'm afraid not. Besides, it's raining outside now.

[　　]

阅读理解

　　The police in a big city were searching for a thief. At last they caught him. But while they were taking photos of him from the front, from the left, from the right, with a hat, without a hat, he suddenly hit the policeman and ran away. They tried to catch him. But he got away.

　　Then a week later, the telephone rang in the police office, and somebody said, “You are looking for Bill Cross, aren't you?”

　　“Yes.”

　　“Well, he left here for Waterbridge an hour ago.”

　　Waterbridge was a small town about 100 kilometers away from the city. The city police at once sent four different photos of the thief to the police in Waterbridge.

　　Less than twelve hours later they got a telephone call from the police in Waterbridge.

　　“We have caught three of the men,” they said proudly, “and will catch the fourth this evening.”

1．The police in the big city took ________ photos of the thief.

[　　]

2．Bill Cross was the name of ________.

[　　]

A．the thief

B．the man who phoned the police

C．a policeman

D．a bridge between the city and the town

3．The police were told that the thief had gone to Waterbridge ________.

[　　]

A．a week before

B．an hour before

C．twelve hours before

D．by twelve o'clock

4．Which of the following is true?

[　　]

A．The city police gave the wrong information.

B．The city police gave the wrong photos.

C．The town police caught three thieves.

D．The town police caught three people.

5．From this story we know that the police in Waterbridge ________.

[　　]

阅读理解

　　It is ten o'clock at night and you are outside. You can see many stars in the sky. Each star is another sun. The sky is big, and it hag many suns.

　　Our sun is near to us. It warms us and gives us light in daytime. The stars are not near. We can see their light only at night, and they do not warm us.

　　The stars are not all the same. Many stars are quite like our sun. They are the same size, and they have the same colour, yellow. Other stars are bigger or smaller. A “giant(巨人)” star is very, very big. A “dwarf(侏儒)”is a small star—smaller than the sun.

　　Stars have different colours, too. They can be blue, orange, yellow, white or red. There are giants and dwarfs in all these colours. All stars are, of course, very hot. The hottest stars are the blue ones. White stars come next, they are less hot. Then yellow and orange stars are less hot again. Red stars are the least hot, and they are also the oldest stars.

　　Light moves very quickly across the sky, eighteen million (18,000,000)kilometers in a minute. Our nearest star is a red dwarf. Its name is Proxima Centauri ( proxima ＝ nearest), and it gives a weak, red light. We can just see this light. It left Proxima Centauri 4.25 years ago, and now tonight, it is reaching cur eyes. Think about it! In one minute, 18,000,000 kilometres. So, in 4.25 years—well, how many kilometers? You can find the answer yourself.

　　I will just say this: Proxima Centauri is a long way from us.

1．According to the temperatures on stars, the right order from the lowest temperature to the highest is ________.

[　　]

A．red→yellow→white→blue

B．orange→red→blue→white

C．blue→white→yellow→red

D．white→blue→orange→red

2．All the following am right except ________.

[　　]

A．a “dwarf” is smaller than the sun

B．there are dwarfs in different colours

C．a “dwarf” is a small star

D．dwarfs are the least hot

3．How far away is the star Proxima Centauri from us?

[　　]

A．40,208,400,000,000 kilometres.

B．9,460,800,000,000 kilometres.

C．679,140,000,000 kilometres .

D．279,225,000,000 kilometres .

4．When we say “The star Procyon is ‘ten light years’ away.”, we mean ________.

[　　]

A．we can reach the star in ten years

B．we first saw the star ten years ago

C．the light left Procyon ten years ago

D．Procyon has been that far away for ten years