阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

　　The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of September 2 th, 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 among them.

　　Samuel Pepys, 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 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.

1．The fire began in ________.

[　　]

2．The underlined word “family” in the second paragraph means ________.

[　　]

3．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

4．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.

5．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.

[　　]

When I was six, Dad brought home a dog one day, who was called “Brownie”, My brothers and I all loved Brownie and did different things with her. One of us would walk her, another would feed her, then there were baths, playing catch and many other games.Brownie, in return, loved each and every one of us. One thing that most touched my heart was that she would go to whoever was sick and just be with them. We always felt better when she was around.

One days, as I was getting her food, she chewed up(咬破) one of Dad’s shoes, which had to be thrown away in the end. I knew Dad would be mad and I had to let her know what she did was wrong. When I looked at her and said, “Bad girl.” She looked down at the ground and then went and hid. I saw a tear in her eyes.

    Brownie turned out to be more than just our family pet. She went everywhere with us. People would stop and ask if they could pet her. Of course she' d let anyone pet her. She was just the most lovable dog. There were many times when we'd be out walking and a small child would come over and pull on her hair. She never barked (吠) or tried to get away. Funny thing is she would smile. This frightened people because they thought she was showing her teeth. Far from the truth, she loved everyone.

    Now many years have passed since Brownie died of old age. I still miss the days when she was with us.

What would Brownie do when someone was ill in the family?

A. Look at them sadly.                B. Keep them company.

C. Play games with them.             D. Touch them gently.

We can infer from Paragraph 2 that Brownie ________.

A. would eat anything when hungry         B. felt sorry for her mistake

C. loved playing hide-and-seek             D. disliked the author's dad

Why does the author say that Browrnie was more than just a family pet?

A. She was treated as a member of the family.  

B. She played games with anyone she liked.

C. She was loved by everybody she met.      

D. She went everywhere with the family.

Some people got frightened by Brownie when she__________.

A. smiled       B. barked      C. rushed to them    D. tried to be funny

Which of the following best describes Brownie?

A. Shy.        B. Polite.            C. Brave.            D. Caring.

In the more and more competitive service industry, it is no longer enough to promise customer satisfaction. Today, customer “delight” is what companies are trying to achieve in order to keep and increase market share.
It is accepted in the marketing industry, and confirmed by a number of researches, that customers receiving good service will promote business by telling up to 12 other people; those treated badly will tell their tales of woe to up to 20 people. Interestingly, 80 percent of people who feel their complaints are handled fairly will stay loyal.
New challenges for customer care have come when people can obtain goods and services through telephone call centers and the Internet. For example, many companies now have to invest(投资)a lot of money in information technology and staff training in order to cope with the “phone rage”—caused by delays in answering calls, being cut off in mid-conversation or let waiting for long periods.
“Many people do not like talking to machines,” says Dr. Storey, Senior Lecturer in Marketing at City University Business School. “Banks, for example, encourage staff at call centers to use customer data to establish instant and good relationship with them. The aim is to make the customer feel they know you and that you can trust them —the sort of comfortable feelings people have during face-to-face chats with their local branch manager.”
Recommended ways of creating customer delight include: under-promising and over-delivering (saying that a repair will be carried out within five hours, but getting it done within two); replacing a faulty product immediately; throwing in a gift voucher(购物礼券)as an unexpected “thank you” to regular customers; and always returning calls, even when they are complaints.
Aiming for customer delight is all very well, but if services do not reach the high level promised, disappointment or worse will be the result. This can be eased by offering an apology and an explanation of why the service did not meet usual standards with empathy (for example, “I know how you must feel”), and possible solutions (replacement, compensation or whatever fairness suggests best meets the case).
Airlines face some of the toughest challenges over customer care. Fierce competition has convinced them that delighting passengers in an important marketing tool, while there is great potential for customer anger over delays caused by weather, unclaimed luggage and technical problems.
For British Airways staff, a winning telephone style is considered vital in handling the large volume of calls about booking and flight times. They are trained to answer quickly, with their name, job title and a “we are here to help” attitude. The company has invested heavily in information technology to make sure that information is available instantly on screen.
British Airways also says its customer care policies are applied within the company and staff are taught to regard each other as customers requiring the highest standards of service.
Customer care is obviously here to stay and it would be a foolish company that used slogans such as “we do as we please.” On the other hand, the more customers are promised, the greater the risk of disappointment.
【小题1】We can learn from Paragraph 2 that__________.

Forty-three years seems like a long time to remember the name of a person．I have forgotten the name of an old lady who was a（n）   36   on my paper route when I was a twelve-year-old boy．Yet it seems like just yesterday that she taught me a lesson in   37 ．One afternoon, a friend and I were   38   rocks onto the roof of the old lady’s house   39   her backyard．The object of our play was to observe how the rocks changed to missiles as they   40   to the roof’s edge and shot out into the   41  ．

       I found myself a perfectly smooth rock and sent it for a ride．The stone was too smooth, however, so it   42   from my hand as I let it go and headed   43   for a small window on the old lady’s back wall．

      I was too scared about getting   44   that first night to be concerned about the old lady with the broken window．However, a few days later,   45   I was sure that I hadn’t been discovered, I started to feel   46   for her misfortune．

       I made up my mind that I would   47   my paper delivery money, and in three weeks I had the seven dollars that I   48   would cover the cost of her window．I put the money in an envelope with a（n）   49   explaining that I was sorry for breaking her window and hoped that the seven dollars would cover the   50   for repairing it．

       I waited until it was dark, then put the envelope through the letter slot in her door．

       The next day, I   51   the old lady her paper and was able to   52   the warm smile that I was   53   her．She thanked me for the paper and said, “Here, I have something for you．” It was a bag of cookies．I thanked her and ate the cookies as I   54   my route．

       After several cookies, I   55   an envelope．When I opened the envelope, I was shocked．Inside was the seven dollars and a short note that said, “I’m proud of you．”

A．assistant       B．customer       C．adviser         D．neighbour

A．selfishness    B．cleverness      C．carefulness      D．forgiveness

A．picking       B．kicking         C．throwing       D．striking

A．from         B．under               C．by              D．around

A．flowed     B．rolled               C．dropped        D．fell

A．yard          B．kitchen         C．room         D．sky

A．stepped        B．stopped         C．skipped         D．slipped

A．right         B．slow          C．straight          D．fast

A．caught       B．trapped        C．lost             D．hurt

A．but          B．when        C．before          D．though

A．guilty       B．nervous        C．anxious         D．safe

A．borrow    B．save         C．transfer         D．move

A．used         B．earned         C．chose           D．calculated

A．book        B．notice          C．note         D．article

A．period      B．distance       C．size            D．cost

A．handed    B．showed        C．left           D．sold

A．witness    B．bring        C．return           D．wear

A．comparing toB．receiving from C．learning about D．playing with

A．continued   B．forgot         C．followed      D．chose

A．tore        B．felt         C．bought       D．marked

A few days ago I got a call from my old college friend whom I haven’t seen for a very long time. The topic, which was about all the good old times that we had changed to a touching story when he started talking about his father.　　

His father’s declining health made him stay at the hospital. Because of his illness, his father suffered from insomnia (失眠) and often talked to himself. My friend, who had not been able to sleep for a few days as he had to keep watching his father’s condition, became irritated and told his father to keep silent and try to get some sleep. His father said that he really wanted to sleep well because he was very tired and told my friend to leave him alone in the hospital if he did not want to keep him company.　　

After his father finished talking, he fell unconscious (失去知觉). My friend was very sorry for speaking the ill words towards his father. My friend, whom I knew as a tough person, cried as a baby on the other end of the telephone. He said that from that moment on, he prayed every day, asking God to let his father wake up from his coma. He promised himself that whatever words came out from his father’s mouth after he regained his consciousness, he would gladly take them. His only hope for God was to give him a chance to rectify his past mistake.　　

Often, we complain when we have to accompany or watch over our parents for years, months, days, hours or even minutes. But do we realize that our parents keep us company and watch over us for as long as we (or they) live? From the day we were born to our adulthood, and even when deaths come to us, they are always at our side.

    Imagine how sad our parents will be when they hear a seemingly innocent word of “no” come out from our mouths. We can make promises to ourselves that from now on there will be no more complaints that come out from our mouths when we have to watch over or accompany our parents. No more complaints come out from our mouths when we feel that our parents have treated us like little children. There are so many unlucky ones who have neither fathers nor mothers. They long to have the things that we most complain about, but never have them.

    Actually, it takes only a second to think and light the lamp that will bring us to a place where peace is dwelling.

1.Which of the following word can be used to describe the writer’s friend?

A. Sad      B. Sorry      C. Regretful        D. Pitiful

2.What does the underlined word “rectify” mean in Para. 3?

A. put…right    B. recite…by heart   C. realize    D. recognize

3.What does the writer want to tell us in the passage?

A. Your parents will keep talking to themselves when they are old.

B. Be good to your parents when you still have the chance.

C. You will regret in your life if you don’t show your kindness to your parents.

D. It is not easy to take good care of sick old parents.