阅读理解

Dear Irene,

   Many thanks for your letter of 20th December to Waiming and me. Waiming’s mother sent it to us here in England. I thought I had better reply myself since, as you know, your brother is not very good at writing letters.

   You asked whether Waiming’s application (申请) for a scholarship (奖学金) had been successful. Well, as you can see by now, it was. He is doing a one-year postgraduate course in world history here at Lancaster University. The little house we live in is near the university. We have to buy a used car which is necessary because the bus service here is poor.

   We arrived in England at the beginning of September, and stayed in London for three weeks with my cousin Kwok, who owns a large restaurant there. This was the first time he had met my husband. Then we went to Cambridge for a week, where Waiming had to attend a meeting, and after that we came  up to Lancaster and had two weeks to find somewhere to live and generally got organ iced before Waiming’s course began.

   The weather has been quite a change from home. Last week we had some snow, the first we had ever met.

   We get on very well with most of the English people we have met, although we had some difficulty at first understanding the northern accent.

   Well, that’s about all our news. Waiming’s course is going well, and if he passes his exams we will be free to return home in July.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  Love,

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   Sally

1．Which of the following refers to different person from the other three?

A. Waiming　　　　　　　　　　    B. Irene’s brother

C. Sally’s cousin　　　　　　　　    D. The writer’s husband.

2．We can infer (推论) from the first paragraph that Irene　　   .

A. does not like writing letters very much

B. does not live with her mother now

C. was in England when she wrote her letter

D. does not particularly like Sally

3．When Irene wrote the letter she knew that　　   .

A. Waiming and Sally were in England

B. Waiming had applied for a scholarship

C. Waiming’s application for a scholarship had been successful

D. Waiming was doing a one-year postgraduate course in would history

4．When Sally wrote her letter. Waiming had been living in Lancaster for about　　   .

A. three months　　　　　　　　 B. three weeks

C. five months　　　　　　　　    D. five weeks

Dear Irene,

   Many thanks for your letter of 20th December to Waiming and me. Waiming’s mother sent it to us here in England. I thought I had better reply myself since, as you know, your brother is not very good at writing letters.

   You asked whether Waiming’s application (申请) for a scholarship (奖学金) had been successful. Well, as you can see by now, it was. He is doing a one-year postgraduate course in world history here at Lancaster University. The little house we live in is near the university. We have to buy a used car which is necessary because the bus service here is poor.

   We arrived in England at the beginning of September, and stayed in London for three weeks with my cousin Kwok, who owns a large restaurant there. This was the first time he had met my husband. Then we went to Cambridge for a week, where Waiming had to attend a meeting, and after that we came  up to Lancaster and had two weeks to find somewhere to live and generally got organ iced before Waiming’s course began.

   The weather has been quite a change from home. Last week we had some snow, the first we had ever met.

   We get on very well with most of the English people we have met, although we had some difficulty at first understanding the northern accent.

   Well, that’s about all our news. Waiming’s course is going well, and if he passes his exams we will be free to return home in July.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  Love,

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   Sally

1．Which of the following refers to different person from the other three?

A. Waiming　　　　　　　　　　    B. Irene’s brother

C. Sally’s cousin　　　　　　　　    D. The writer’s husband.

2．We can infer (推论) from the first paragraph that Irene　　   .

A. does not like writing letters very much

B. does not live with her mother now

C. was in England when she wrote her letter

D. does not particularly like Sally

3．When Irene wrote the letter she knew that　　   .

A. Waiming and Sally were in England

B. Waiming had applied for a scholarship

C. Waiming’s application for a scholarship had been successful

D. Waiming was doing a one-year postgraduate course in would history

4．When Sally wrote her letter. Waiming had been living in Lancaster for about　　   .

A. three months　　　　　　　　 B. three weeks

C. five months　　　　　　　　    D. five weeks

Many people will remember the flight of the space shuttle （航天飞机）Challenger , in June, 1993．The achievement of Sally Ride, America’s first woman astronaut to fly into space, made this flight especially memorable．Students from two high schools in Camden, New Jersey, however, are likely to remember Norma rather than Sally whenever they think about the flight．

       Norma didn’t travel alone．She brought about 100 companions along with her．Norma was an ant, a queen ant who, with her subjects, made up the first ant colony （群体） to travel into space．The ants were part of a science experiment designed by the students to test the effects of weightlessness on insects．

       The equipment designed by the students for their colony functioned perfectly throughout the long space trip．The young scientists and their teachers were very sad to find that their insect astronauts had all died at some point before the container was returned to the school and opened．The problem did not occur in space, but on the ground after Challenger had landed．The container remained in the desert for nearly a week before the ant colony was removed．The hot, dry desert air dried out the colony’s container and the ants died from lack of moisture （水分）．

       The project was termed a success because it did provide useful information．Students will continue their efforts to find out exactly what went wrong．They will try to prevent the same difficulties from recurring （再发生） on future missions ．They don’t want to be discouraged either by the death of the ants or by the $10,000 shuttle fare they will have to pay to send the next colony of ants into space．

The story is mainly about        ．

       A．Sally Ride’s first ride    

       B．space equipment for insects

       C．a space experiment with ants

       D．going to school in New Jersey

The project wasn’t a failure because        ．

       A．some important things were learned     

       B．dead ants are better

       C．everything went as expected  

       D．students wrote about it

The ants died because        ．

       A．weightlessness harmed them  

       B．space caused too much pain   

       C．no one fed them in space      

       D．they dried out in the desert

On the next space trip , ants        ．

       A．will be sent without people   

       B．should not be left in the desert too long

       C．will have to pay double fare  

       D．will escape the trip completely

Many people will remember the flight of the space shuttle （航天飞机）Challenger , in June, 1993．The achievement of Sally Ride, America’s first woman astronaut to fly into space, made this flight especially memorable．Students from two high schools in Camden, New Jersey, however, are likely to remember Norma rather than Sally whenever they think about the flight．
Norma didn’t travel alone．She brought about 100 companions along with her．Norma was an ant, a queen ant who, with her subjects, made up the first ant colony （群体） to travel into space．The ants were part of a science experiment designed by the students to test the effects of weightlessness on insects．
The equipment designed by the students for their colony functioned perfectly throughout the long space trip．The young scientists and their teachers were very sad to find that their insect astronauts had all died at some point before the container was returned to the school and opened．The problem did not occur in space, but on the ground after Challenger had landed．The container remained in the desert for nearly a week before the ant colony was removed．The hot, dry desert air dried out the colony’s container and the ants died from lack of moisture （水分）．
The project was termed a success because it did provide useful information．Students will continue their efforts to find out exactly what went wrong．They will try to prevent the same difficulties from recurring （再发生） on future missions ．They don’t want to be discouraged either by the death of the ants or by the $10,000 shuttle fare they will have to pay to send the next colony of ants into space．
【小题1】The story is mainly about       ．

第二节 完型填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分，满分30分）

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36—55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

With a heavy heart Sally arrived early on the morning of the auction (拍卖). It was almost a year since her dear grandmother passed away in this house.   36   the family business had failed and left them with heavy debts. So the bank had  37  the family to have an auction sale to repay their debts．  38  the past several weeks, she had managed to save $450 in order to bid（出价）on the  39   that her grandmother liked very much. Surely this would be enough, she had thought．

Now the  40  moment arrived．Looking around, Sally was surprised to see so many people had   41  ．As the auction began, Sally waited．Finally, the time came to bid on the quilt．She held her   42  tightly and listened．The first bid was $45. She was  43  . It was so high．Quickly other people bid and soon the bidding   44  $85. Sally cried out “$450!” For a moment there was silence．Hope   45  her. She glanced again at the quilt, thinking how   46  her grandmother would have been with her at this moment．Just then, from the back, another person shouted “$475!” She lost her   47  ．Suddenly she couldn’t help wondering   48  so many  people would be interested in that old, dirty quilt．Finally the quilt was sold for $500 to a complete   49  .

　　 After the sale, she went to the counter to pay for the few items that were now hers．The woman at the cash desk handed her the quilt．“There must be some  50  ．Someone else has got it.” she said．A hand-written   51  was pinned to the quilt, which   52  :

Dear Madam,

　　 I noticed you admiring the quilt．Clearly, it was 53  to you．Please accept this quilt as my  54  . I don’ t expect any repayment from you, but do a   55   favor in the future for a stranger who happens to cross your path．

Yours,

                                                            A stranger

36．A．Naturally　　 B．Unfortunately　        C．Luckily　    D．Probably

37．A．hoped             B．waited      C．expected D．forced

38．A．With      B．At    C．By    D．Over

39．A．house             B．present     C．furniture           D．quilt

40．A．interesting      B．necessary     C．big            D．sad

41．A．turned over            B．turned up              C．turned back   D．turned on

42．A．purse    B．picture      C．book            D．quilt

43．A．glad       B．frightened         C．moved     D．shocked

44．A．rose       B．climbed     C．reached         D．raised

45．A．told        B．helped       C．filled         D．gave

46．A．pleased          B．anxious     C．angry       D．familiar

47．A．thought          B．chance      C．way          D．money

48．A．whether         B．what          C．how          D．why

49．A．relative          B．customer           C．friend       D．stranger

50．A．reason            B．secret       C．mistake               D．fun

51．A．check    B．wallet        C．address          D．note

52．A．read       B．wrote        C．spoke       D．showed

53．A．wonderful              B．basic          C．pretty            D．important

54．A．honor              B．respect     C．gift             D．thank

55．A．particular       B．common        C．major            D．similar