Here in the hills were buffaloes (野牛). I had even, in my very young days — when I could not live till I had killed one of each kind of African animal — shot a bull out there. Later on, when I was not so interested to shoot as to watch the wild animals, I had been out to see them again. But twice I had to go back without success.

But one afternoon as I was having tea with some friends outside the house, Denys came flying from Nairobi and went over our heads westwards; a little while after he turned and came back and landed on the farm. I drove down to the plane to bring him back, but he would not get out of his plane.

“The buffaloes are out feeding in the hills,” he said, “come out and have a look at them.”

“I cannot come,” I said. “I have got a tea-party up at the house.”

“But we will go and see them and be back in a quarter of an hour,” he said.

This sounded to me like the suggestions which people make to you in a dream. So I went up with him. It did not take us long to see the buffaloes from the air; we counted them as they peacefully mixed and separated on the open ground closed in by bushes. There was one very old big black bull, and a number of young ones; if a stranger had come near to them they would have heard or smelt him at once, but they were not prepared for something from the air. They heard the noise of our machine and stopped feeding, but they did not seem to be able to look up. In the end they realized that something very strange was about; the old bull first walked out in front of the others. Suddenly he began to go down the valley side and after a moment he broke into a run. The whole group now followed him, rushing hurriedly down into the buses. In a small wood of low trees they stopped and kept close together. Here they believed themselves to be out of sight. We flew up and away. It was like having been taken there by a secret unknown route.

When I came back to my tea-party the teapot on the stone was still so hot that I burned my fingers on it.

1.The writer drove to the plane ________.

2. Denys said it would only take a quarter of an hour to go and see the buffaloes ________.

3.When the buffaloes heard the noise of the plane, they ________.

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

Thirty-two people watched kitty Genovese being killed right beneath their windows. She was their neighbor. Yet none of the 32 helped her. Not one even called the police. Was this in gunman cruelty? Was it lack of feeling about one’s fellow man?
Not so, say scientists John Barley and Bib Fatane. These men went beyond the headlines to probe（探查） the reasons why people didn’t act. They found that a person has to go through two steps before he can help. First he has to notice that is an emergency(紧急情况).
　　Suppose you see a middle-aged man fall to the side-walk. Is he having a heart attack? Is he in a coma （昏迷） from diabetes（糖尿病）? Or is he about to sleep off a drunk?
Is the smoke coming into the room from a leak in the air conditioning? Is it steam pipes? Or is it really smoke from a fire? It’s not always easy to tell if you are faced with a real emergency.
　　Second, and more important, the person faced with an emergency must feel personally responsible. He must feel that he must help, or the person won’t get the help he needs.
The researchers found that a lot depends on how many people are around. They had college students in to be tested. Some came alone. Some came with one or two others. And some came in large groups. The receptionist started them off on the tests. Then she went into the next room. A curtain divided the testing room and the room into which she went. Soon the students heard a scream, the noise of file cabinets falling and a cry for help. All of this had been pre-recorded on a tape-recorder.
Eight out of ten of the students taking the test alone acted to help. Of the students in pairs, only two out of ten helped. Of the students in groups, none helped.
In other words, in a group, Americans often fail to act. They feel that others will act. They, themselves, needn’t. They do not feel any direct responsibility.
Are people bothered by situations where people are in trouble? Yes. Scientists found that the people were emotional, they sweated, they had trembling hands. They felt the other person’s trouble. But they did not act. They were in a group. Their actions were shaped by the actions of those they were with.
【小题1】The purpose of this passage is_________.

阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

　　There are 25,000 kinds of bees identified in the world. The most well-known are the honey bee. In the United States there are known 3,500 species. Most bees do not live in large groups, they are solitary(独居的)bees. The honey bee is not a native of the United States. The first bees were brought to the U.S. from Holland. Later other bees were brought from many other countries. South America had some honey bees, but they did not produce much honey.

　　When honey bees were brought to the United States, native American called them“white man's flies”. Soon bees became a known sight in America.

　　In Brazil, honey bees did not survive well and scientists brought African bees to Brazil. These bees were found to be aggressive(好斗的) and mistakenly escaped into the wild. These bees are very common in Brazil now.

　　Beekeepers raise bees for honey, but more often they raise them to pollinate crops. Pollination occurs when the bee lands on a flower and some of the pollen(花粉)gets stuck to the bees' hairy legs. The next time the bee lands, some of the pollen falls off her legs and onto another flower, allowing it to reproduce.

　　Beekeepers have been raising bees for their honey for thousands of years. The first beekeepers kept their bees in hollow logs or clay pots. Now they keep the bees in wooden hives. When beekeepers raise bees for honey, they must remove part of the hive to retrieve (获取) the honey. They must“calm”the bees by using a special smoker. The smoke is puffed out around the bees and the bees move slower and are not as aggressive.

1．What's the best title for the passage?

[　　]

A．An Introduction to Bees.　　　　　　B．Why Bees Are Kept.

C．The Great Use of Bees.　　　　　　D．Bees in the USA.

2．What's the meaning of the underlined word“pollinate”?

[　　]

A．Make something fertile (结果实的) with pollen.

B．Get pollen away from.

C．Plant.

D．Harm.

3．From the passage we can infer that _____.

[　　]

A．bees want their honey to he taken away in order to get more room

B．all bees are kept by raisers

C．bees don't want their honey to be taken away

D．it is easy to retrieve the honey

The Roman Emperor Claudius II was fighting many wars. He wanted a strong army, but many men did not want to be soldiers. Claudius thought the men wanted to stay at home to be with their wives and children instead of leaving to fight wars.

Claudius thought of an awful solution to his problem. He decided to cancel all marriages! No one in all of Rome could get married. Claudius thought that if the men couldn’t get married, the men would ignore the women and want to be soldiers.

Valentine, who was a priest (牧师), believed that people needed to get married. He thought it was wrong for people to live together without being married. So he secretly and illegally married couples anyway. He performed the weddings in secret places, so the Roman soldiers would not find out.

But they did find out. Valentine was arrested and brought before the Emperor. The Emperor thought Valentine was a well-spoken and wise young man, and encouraged him to stop being a Christian (基督徒) and become a loyal Roman. Valentine would not deny his beliefs, and he refused. He was sent to prison and was finally killed. While he was in prison, he sent out letters to his friends and asked to be prayed (祈祷) for by writing Remember your Valentine.

Valentine was killed on the 14th or the 24th of February in the year 269 or 270. We celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th in honor of St. Valentine.

The Emperor Claudius II wanted men to __________.     

A. live at home and work for the empire            

B. become loyal Roman citizens

C. go to other countries and raise families   

D. fight wars in other lands

The underlined word “awful” in the second paragraph probably means __________.

A. terrible       B. wonderful         C. possible         D. friendly

Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?     

A. Valentine believed in marriage and risked death to marry people.

B. Claudius wanted to stay at home with his wife.

C. Claudius thought Valentine was a man with a bright future.

D. Valentine broke the law.