I was sleeping in my room when my bed started shaking and a loud noise was heard. I woke up and my mom was screaming my name. Next moment I was running along with my younger sister, mom and dad. Before I ran out of the door, I realized my elder sister hadn’t come out yet. So I screamed her name at the top of my voice. My mom said she had gone to her class. Then the four of us, along with many others, were running on the staircase. We lived on the seventh floor, so I thought we would not be able to make it and the building would fall before we managed to reach even the fourth floor. My dad’s head was injured by something falling down. I did try to put my hand over his head. When we reached the sixth floor, the building split into two. We had no way to get down.

The next thing I remember is silence. There were around 30 people on the staircase and none could react. Five minutes later, someone opened the door of the sixth-floor flat. We all went in. We were wondering how would get down. From the balcony of the sixth-floor flat, I saw people standing on the ground floor. All eyes were stuck on us. I could see my elder sister crying.

Our first hope of surviving came when a worker climbed a rope to where we were. That was the first time we thought maybe we could get down. Half an hour passed and we were still trapped. Finally RSS people arrived with ropes. They got people down one by one. My biggest worry was how my dad would get down. Finally after two and a half hours, we all got down.

That day we saw the power of nature. It has taken more than two years to build the flats and it took just one and a half minutes to destroy the structure.

1.What is this passage mainly about?

2.When the building split into two, the writer and his family ____________.

3.The first time the writer thought they would probably survive was when            .

4.The earthquake made the writer realize that                       .

“Choo, Choo!” Here comes the Chunnel train. Get aboard if you want to learn more about this underground transportation system. This is an unusual form of transportation, because it is a tunnel that trains travel through and not an actual form of transportation.

The Chunnel is actually the English nickname for the Channel Tunnel. In French, it is called le tunnel sous la Manche. It is a rail tunnel beneath the English Channel at the Straits of Dover. It connects Cheriton in Kent, England with Sangatte in northern France. It is the second longest rail tunnel in the world.

Did you know that the British and the French had a race whi1e they were building the Chunnel? The race was to see who could get to the middle of the tunnel first. The British won by a little bit. It took 15,000 workers over seven years to dig the tunnel. The tunnel was finished in 1994.

The completed Chunnel cost about $ 21 billion. But it all paid off, because it became very popular, very quick. Millions of people use it. Now it is getting even more popular.

There are three complete tunnels in the Chunnel. The two outside ones are the passenger trains. The small inner one is a guidance train. The guidance train is not used for transportation. Each track is exactly parallel to each other.

There are four different train systems in the Chunnel. The Eurostar is a high speed passenger service that connects London, Paris, Brussels, and Lille. The Eurotunnel shuttle is a rail ferry service. These shuttles carry cars. These are railcars that allow drivers to drive their vehicles on and off. There are also two Eurotunnel goods service trains.

Now you know more about the Chunnel. Everybody off, this is the last stop.

1.The Channel Tunnel links ______ with _______.

A. Dover; Kent          B. London; Paris      C. Lille; Brussels        D.Cheriton; Sangatte

2.Which of the following shows the structure of the tunnels in the Chunnel?

3.The Eurotunnel shuttle is intended to carry _________.

A. passengers                 B. drivers and their vehicles

C. goods              D. staff members of the Chunnel

4.The text can most probably be __________.

A. found in a textbook                                               B. read in a magazine

C. broadcast on a train                                           D. heard in a railway station

根据汉语提示写出正确单词，每空一词（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

1.We are looking for someone who is __________ (可靠的) and hard-working.

2.We should remain __________ (冷静的) even in face of danger.

3.It took a long time for him to __________ (恢复) from a bad cold.

4.She speaks __________ (流利的) though not very correct English.

5.All these goods here will be __________ (运输) abroad by ship within 3 days.

6.When people use words and __________ (词语；表达) different from the “standard language”, it is called a dialect.

7.He __________ (毕业) from Harvard University last year.

8.Now she’s planning our __________ (时间表) for the trip.

9.He went __________ (直接) to Shanghai, without stopping in Beijing.

10.Everyone should take a positive __________ (态度) towards life.

It took me a long time before I was able to fully appreciate what they _____ for me.

A. had done   B. did    C. would do   D. were doing

 It took us quite a long time to get to the amusement park. It was        journey.

A. three hour       B. a three-hours      C. a three-hour       D. three hours