On the 36th day after they had voted, Americans finally learned Wednesday who would be their next president: Governor George W. Bush of Texas.

Vice President Al Gore, his last realistic avenue for legal challenge closed by a U. S. Supreme Court decision late Tuesday, planned to end the contest formally in a televised evening speech of perhaps 10 minutes, advisers said.

They said that Senator Joseph Lieberman, his vice presidential running mate, would first make brief comments. The men would speak from a ceremonial chamber of the Old Executive office Building, to the west of the White House.

The dozens of political workers and lawyers who had helped lead Mr. Gore’s unprecedented fight to claw a come-from-behind electoral victory in the pivotal state of Florida were thanked Wednesday and asked to stand down.

“The vice president has directed the recount committee to suspend activities,” William Daley, the Gore campaign chairman, said in a written statement.

Mr. Gore authorized that statement after meeting with his wife, Tipper, and with top advisers including Mr. Daley.

He was expected to telephone Mr. Bush during the day. The Bush campaign kept a low profile and moved gingerly, as if to leave space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next steps.

Yet, at the end of a trying and tumultuous process that had focused world attention on sleepless vote counters across Florida, and on courtrooms form Miami to Tallahassee to Atlanta to Washington the Texas governor was set to become the 43d U. S. president.

The news of Mr. Gore’s plans followed the longest and most rancorous dispute over a U. S. presidential election in more than a century, one certain to leave scars in a badly divided country.

It was a bitter ending for Mr. Gore, who had outpolled Mr. Bush nationwide by some 300000 votes, but, without Florida, fell short in the Electoral College by 271votes to 267—the narrowest Electoral College victory since the turbulent election of 1876.

Mr. Gore was said to be distressed by what he and many Democratic activists felt was a partisan decision from the nation’s highest court.

The 5-to –4 decision of the Supreme Court held, in essence, that while a vote recount in Florida could be conducted in legal and constitutional fashion, as Mr. Gore had sought, this could not be done by the Dec. 12 deadline for states to select their presidential electors.

James Baker 3rd, the former secretary of state who represented Mr. Bush in the Florida dispute, issued a short statement after the U. S. high court ruling, saying that the governor was “very pleased and gratified.”

Mr. Bush was planning a nationwide speech aimed at trying to begin to heal the country’s deep, aching and varied divisions. He then was expected to meet with congressional leaders, including Democrats. Dick Cheney, Mr. Bush’s ruing mate, was meeting with congressmen Wednesday in Washington.

When Mr. Bush, who is 54, is sworn into office on Jan.20, he will be only the second son of  a president to follow his father to the White House, after John Adams and John Quincy Adams in the early 19th century.

Mr. Gore, in his speech, was expected to thank his supporters, defend his hive-week battle as an effort to ensure, as a matter of principle, that every vote be counted, and call for the nation to join behind the new president. He was described by an aide as “resolved and resigned.”

While some constitutional experts had said they believed states could present electors as late as Dec. 18, the U. S. high court made clear that it saw no such leeway.

The U.S. high court sent back “for revision” to the Florida court its order allowing recounts but made clear that for all practical purposes the election was over.

In its unsigned main opinion, the court declared, “The recount process, in its features here described, is inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary to protect the fundamental right of each voter.”

That decision, by a court fractured along philosophical lines, left one liberal justice charging that the high court’s proceedings bore a political taint.

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an angry dissent:” Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the law.”

But at the end of five seemingly endless weeks, during which the physical, legal and constitutional machines of the U. S. election were pressed and sorely tested in ways unseen in more than a century, the system finally produced a result, and one most Americans appeared to be willing at lease provisionally to support.

The Bush team welcomed the news with an outward show of restraint and aplomb. The governor’s hopes had risen and fallen so many times since Election night, and the legal warriors of each side suffered through so many dramatic reversals, that there was little energy left for celebration.

The main idea of this passage is

[A]. Bush’s victory in presidential election bore a political taint.

[B]. The process of the American presidential election.

[C]. The Supreme Court plays a very important part in the presidential election.

[D]. Gore is distressed.

     What does the sentence “as if to leave space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next step” mean

[A]. Bush hopes Gore to join his administration.

[B]. Bush hopes Gore to concede defeat and to support him.

[C]. Bush hopes Gore to congraduate him.

[D]. Bush hopes Gore go on fighting with him.

     Why couldn’t Mr. Gore win the presidential election after he outpolled Mr. Bush in the popular vote? Because

[A]. the American president is decided by the supreme court’s decision.

[B]. people can’t directly elect their president.

[C]. the American president is elected by a slate of presidential electors.

[D]. the people of each state support Mr. Bush.

     What was the result of the 5—4 decision of the supreme court?

[A]. It was in fact for the vote recount.

[B]. It had nothing to do with the presidential election.

[C]. It decided the fate of the winner.

[D]. It was in essence against the vote recount.

     What did the “turbulent election of 1876” imply?

[A]. The process of presidential election of 2000 was the same as that.

[B]. There were great similarities between the two presidential elections (2000 and 1876).

[C]. It was compared to presidential election of 2000.

[D]. It was given an example.

I feel very excited at the thought that in another week I shall be with you again on holiday. I have enjoyed my stay in England very much indeed. Mr Brown and classmates are nice to me, but, as they say in England, “There’s no place like home.” and I think you feel this above all at Christmas time.

I am leaving here early on Thursday, the 23rd, and I shall arrive in Basle on Friday morning, so I shall be home somewhere about lunchtime. Can you meet me at the station, as I shall have a lot of luggage?

In some of my earlier letters I have told you all about the other students here. Well, I want to ask my Polish friend Jan to come and spend Christmas with us. Will that be all right? His father and mother died last year, he can go home for Christmas, and he has no friend in England except the Browns. He is a nice boy. I know you all like him, and I feel sure he will enjoy Christmas with us. It is very short notice, but you are always pleased, I know, if we bring our friends home. however, I have not yet invited him, as I thought it was better to ask you first. Please let me know as soon as possible if it will be all right.

The writer was very excited at the thought that ________.

A. she would be back home with her new friend

B. she would be with her parents in another week

C. her parents wanted to see her very much

D. she would go on staying in England

She wanted some one to meet her because ________.

A. she was told to do so                          B. she would be tired out after the trip

C. she would carry a pile of things            D. she didn’t know where the station was

The underlined sentence “There’s no place like home” means ________.

A. There is not a place that the writer likes     

B. There is no place that the writer can live in

C. The writer’s home is not in London in fact   

D. East and west, home is best

These paragraphs are taken out of a ________.

A. magazine              B. letter                  C. book                  D. newspaper

It was early spring. The sun was strong and warm. I went over the hillside fields behind my village,    36    buntings and linnets, the birds I loved most.

I turned along a bush between two fields where I had seen the birds before, but on this fine day almost the first birds that I saw were winter visitors. I was    37    not to see a bunting straightaway, but I went on, stopping occasionally to look at the black-thorn (黑刺李) flowers in the bush, and    38    I did hear a bunting singing. Or was it? Was I not perhaps turning a note of skylark (云雀) song into that of the song I was hoping to hear?

But the bunting’s song was pretty clear, and within a few minutes I was proved

   39   . The song was coming from the bush, and as I approached    40    I saw the brown bird resting in a small tree. It opened its mouth, and    41    once more. Then it flew off. It was the only one I saw that day, but at least I had found one of the birds I had

   42   .

It was not until I was on my way back home that I caught sight of some    43   . I saw five of them gathering on the ground when I was just coming back beside the

   44    where I had found the bunting. As I came nearer, they flew up, spreading their tails so that their white edges    45    to look like a white fan in the sky. Then, to my

   46   , some big pigeons suddenly came flying and joined the linnets.

A moment later they had all    47   — but I had fulfilled my hopes for the day.

A. looking at  B. looking for C. looking up  D. looking after

A. disappointed      B. dismissed   C. dissatisfied D. disturbed

A. directly      B. gradually   C. suddenly    D. immediately

A. proper       B. right C. useful        D. true

A. sadly  B. hurriedly   C. proudly     D. quietly

A. danced       B. ate      C. sang    D. shouted

A. observed   B. noticed       C. expected     D. described

A. linnets       B. skylarks     C. pigeons     D. buntings

A. bush B. road   C. grass   D. black-thorn

A. widened     B. enlarged     C. lengthened  D. expanded

A. knowledge        B. pleasure     C. amusement       D. honour

A. gathered     B. lost     C. missed       D. gone

Driving to a friend's house on a recent evening, I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just above my friend’s rooftops. I stopped to watch it for a few moments, thinking about what a pity it was that most city people? Myself included? Usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives indoors.　　

My friend had also seen it. He grew up living in a forest in Europe, and the moon meant a lot to him then. It had touched much of his life.

I know the feeling. Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of northern India with some friends. We stayed in a forest rest-house with no electricity or running hot water. Our group had campfires outside every night, and indoors when it was too cold outside. The moon grew to its fullest during our trip. Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys. Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard. It was one of the quietest places I have ever known, a bottomless well of silence. And above me was the full moon, which struck me deeply.　　  

Today our lives are filled with glass, metal, plastic and fibre-glass. We have televisions, cell phones, pagers, electricity, heaters and ovens and air-conditioners, cars, computers.

Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day, most of it spent indoors, I thought: before long, I would like to live in a small cottage. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains And perhaps write, but not in anger. I may become an old man there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons. But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touch the moon.

【小题1】The best title for the passage would be______.

A. Touched by the moon        B. The pleasures of modern life

C. A bottomless well of silence   D. Break away from modern life

【小题2】 What impressed the writer most in the mountainous jungle of northern India?

A. No modern equipment       B. Complete silence.

C. The nice moonlight          D. The high mountains

【小题3】Modern things (Paragraph 4) are mentioned mainly to______.

A. show that the writer likes city life very much

B. tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life

C. explain that people have less chances to enjoy nature

D. show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them

【小题4】The author wrote the passage to_______.

A. express the feeling of returning to nature

B. show the love for the moonlight

C. advise modern people to learn to live

D. want to communicate longing for modern life