Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a small pool of water ahead on the path. I angled my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn't covered by water or mud. As I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked!

Yet I did nothing for the attack. It was so unpredictable and from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt though I had been struck four or five times. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't have found it amusing. And I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!

　　Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He charged towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but in vain. For a second time, I took a step backwards while my attacker paused. I wasn't sure what to do. After all, it’s just not everyday that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That's when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying.

　　Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it up on himself to attack me for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life. Should I have been careless enough to step on her? His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety seemed admirable. I couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.

　　Since then, I’ve used that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.

1.The writer changed his direction while walking down a path because he wanted_______.

A. to get close to a butterfly

B. to escape a sudden attack

C. to look over the bad situation

D. to avoid getting his shoes dirty

2.From the passage we can learn that the attacker _________.

A. struck the author four or five times and made him badly hurt

B. paused until the author took a step backwards

C. thought it was the author who caused the death of his mate

D. attacked the author for his mate’s safety and to accompany her for the last moments of life

3.From this experience the man learned_____.

A. butterflies are brave insects

B. the small can defeat the large

C. how to deal with challenges in his life

D. people should try their best to fight for everything

4.Which of the following words can best describe the butterfly?

A. caring     B. ambitious     C. courageous       D. aggressive

The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other for ever. He sent camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him.

　　The next morning he said to the men, "Have you provided me with that sunset? "

　　"No, Sir," the men answered.

　　The director was angry. "Why not? " he asked.

　　"Well, Sir, " one of the men answered, "we are on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise over the sea, if necessary, but not a sunset."

　　"But I want a sunset!" the director shouted. "Go to the airport, take the next flight to the west coast, and get one. "

　　But then a young secretary had an idea. "Why don't you photograph a sunrise, " she suggested, "and then play it backwards? Then it'll look like a sunset."

　　"That's a very good idea! " the director said. Then he turned to the camera crew and said, "Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea. "

　　The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay（海湾）. Then at nine o'clock they took it to the director. "Here it is, Sir, " they said, and give it to him. He was very pleased.

　　They all went into the studio（摄影棚）. "All right, " the director explained, "now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the 'sunset' behind them. "

　　The "sunset" began, but after a quarter of a minute, the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.

　　The birds in the file were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.

1.One evening, the director sent his camera crew out____.

　　A. to watch a beautiful sunset               B. to find an actor and an actress

　　C. to film a scene on the sea　　            D. to meet the audience

2.Why did the director want to send his crew to the west coast?

　　A. Because he changed his mind about getting a sunset             B. Because he was angry about his crew

　　C. Because it was his secretary's suggestion.　　                 D. Because he wanted to get a scene of sunset

3.Which of the following is NOT true?

　　A. The crew had to follow the secretary's advice.

　　B. If you want to see a sunrise, the east coast is a place to go.

　　C. The camera crew wasn't able to film the scene the first day

　　D. The director ordered his crew to stop filming the "sunset"

4.The director wanted to film a sunset over the ocean because_____.

　　A. it went well with the separation of the hero and heroine

　　B. when they arrived at the beach it was already in the evening

　　C. it was more moving than a sunrise

　　D. the ocean looked more beautiful at sunset

5.After the "sunset" began, the director suddenly put his face in his hands____.

　　A. because he was moved to tears

　　B. as he saw everything in the film moving backwards

　　C. as the sunrise did not look as beautiful as he had imagined

　　D. because he was disappointed with the performance of the hero and the heroine

Many people believe the glare from snow causes snowblindness. Yet, dark glasses or not, they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snowblindness, when exposed to several hours of “snow light”. The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snowblindness in troops in a snow-covered country. A man's eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of barren snow-covered terrain(地域). So his long look continually moves and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature offers this discomfort by producing more and more liquid which covers the eyeball. The liquid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until vision became not clear, and then is not easily seen and the result is total, even though not very long, snowblindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of solving this problem. Scouts, ahead of a main body of troops, are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their eyes focus on a bush and have something to see. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snowblind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is solved.
1. The first paragraph is mainly concerned with ________.
A. need for dark glasses      
B the whiteness from snow
C. headaches, watering eyes and snowblindness 
D. snow glare and snowblindness
2. According to the author, recent work on snowblindness shows that it is caused by ________.
A. exposure to bright light
B. failure to focus on an object
C. a loss of vision which doesn't last long
D. focusing on dark colored objects for a very long time
3. Suppose you walk across a completely snow-covered area, what should you do to solve the problem of snowblindness?
A. By wearing dark sun glasses.
B. By throwing an extra pair of black shoes ahead.
C. By asking the Army for help.
D. By walking backwards.
4. A suitable title for this passage would be ________.
A. Snowblindness and How to avoid it     B. Soldiers in Snow　　
C. Nature's Cure for Snowblindness       D. Snow Vision

Everyone has heard of the San Andreas fault （断层）, which constantly threatens California and the West Coast with earthquakes. But how many people know about the equally serious New Madrid fault in Missouri?

　　 Between December of 1811 and February of 1812, three major earthquakes occurred, all centered around the town of New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. Property damage was severe. Buildings in the area were almost destroyed. Whole forests fell at once, and huge cracks opened in the ground,  releasing some strong smell chemicals.

　　 The Mississippi River itself completely changed character, developing sudden rapids and whirlpools (激流和漩涡). Several times it changed its course, and once, according to some observers, it actually appeared to run backwards. Few people were killed in the New Marid earthquakes, probably simply because few people lived in the area in 1811; but the severity of the earthquakes are shown by the fact that the shock waves rang bells in church towers in Charleston, South Carolina, on the coast. Buildings shook in New York City, and clocks were stopped in Washington, D.C.

Scientists now know that America's two major faults are essentially different. The San Andreas is a horizontal boundary between two major land masses that are slowly moving in opposite directions. California earthquakes result when the two masses make a sudden move.

     The New Madrid fault, on the other hand, is a vertical fault; at some points, possibly hundreds of millions of years ago, rock was pushed up toward the surface, probably by volcanoes under the surface. Suddenly, the volcanoes cooled and the rock collapsed, leaving huge cracks. Even now, the rock continues to settle downwards, and sudden sinking motions cause earthquakes in the region. The fault itself, a large crack in this layer of rock, with dozens of other cracks that split off from it, extends from northeast Arkansas through Missouri and into southern Illinois.

　　 Scientists who have studied the New Madrid fault say there have been numerous smaller quakes in the area since 1811; these smaller quakes indicate that larger ones are probably coming, but the scientists say they have no method of predicting when a large earthquake will occur.

1.This passage is mainly about ___________.

A. current scientific knowledge about faults

B. the San Andreas and the New Madrid faults

C. the causes of faults 　　　　　　　

D. the New Madrid fault in Missouri

2.The New Madrid fault is __________.

A. a vertical fault

B. a horizontal fault

C. a more serious fault than the San Andreas fault

D. responsible for forming the Mississippi River

3.This passage implies that _________.　　　　　　.

A. horizontal faults are more dangerous than vertical faults

B. Vertical faults are more dangerous than horizontal faults

C. The volcanoes that caused the New Madrid fault are still alive

D. A lot of people would die if the 1811 New Madrid earthquakes happened today