The very wealthy English Baron Fitzgerald had only one child,a son,who understandably was the apple of his eye.His wife died when the child was in his early teens.So Fitzgerald devoted himself to fathering the kid.Unfortunately the son died in his late teens.

Meanwhile,Fitzgerald’s wealth greatly increased.He spent a lot on art works of the masters.Later Fitzgerald himself because seriously ill.Before his death,he had carefully prepared his will as to how his wealth would be settled—to sell his entire collection at an auction(拍卖).

Because of the large quantity and high quality of his collection,a huge crowd of possible buyers gathered for the auction.Many of them were museum directors and private collectors eager to bid(出价).Before the auction,the art works were shown,among which was a painting of Fitzgerald’s son by an unknown artist.Because of its poor quality,it received little attention.

When it was time for the auction,the auctioneer gaveled(敲槌) the crowd to attention.First the lawyer read from Fitzgerald’s will that the first art work to be auctioned was the painting of his son.

The poor-quality painting didn’t receive and bidders...except one—the old servant who had served the son and loved him,and who for emotional reasons offered the only bid.

As soon as the servant bought the painting for less than one English pound,the auctioneer stopped the bidding and asked the lawyer to read again from the will.The crowd became quiet,and the lawyer read from the will:“Whoever buys the painting of my son gets all my collection.”Then the auction was over.

The English Baron Fitzgerald was ______.

A.a museum director                                        B.a master of art

C.an art collector                                              D.an art dealer

Why did the old servant bid for the painting of Fitzgerald’s son?

A.He was devoted to the family.

B.He saw that no one bid for it.

C.He knew the content of the will.

D.He found it cheap for him to buy.

Fitzgerald’s will showed ______.

A.his desire to fool the bidders

B.his invaluable love for his son

C.his sadness at the death of his son

D.his regret of having no children to take over his wealth

In October 1961 at Crowley Field in Cincinnati Ohio an old deaf gentleman named William E. Hoy stood up to throw the first ball of the World Series. Most people at Crowley Field on that day probably did not remember Hoy because he had retired(退休) from professional baseball 58 years earlier in 1903. However he had been an outstanding player and the deaf people still talk about him and his years in baseball.

William E. Hoy was born in Houckstown Ohio on May 23, 1862. He became deaf when he was two years old. He attended the Columbus Ohio School for the deaf. After graduation he started playing baseball while working as a shoemaker.

Hoy began playing professional baseball in 1886 for Oshkosh(Wisconsin) of the Northwestern League. In 1888 he started as an outfielder(外场手) with the old Washington Senators. His small figure and speed made him an outstanding base runner. He was very good at stealing bases during his career. In the 1888 major league season he stole 82 bases. He was also the Senators’ leading hitter in 1888. Hoy was clever and he threw right-handed and batted left-handed. On June 19,1889 he threw out three batters(击球手) at the plate from his outfield position.

The arm signals used by judges today to show balls and strikes began because of Hoy. The judge lifted his right arm to show that the pitch was a strike and his left arm to signal that it was a ball.

For many years people talked about Hoy’s last ball game in 1903. He was playing for Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast Winter League. It was a memorable game because Hoy hit a wonderful ball which won the game. It was a very foggy day and therefore very hard to see the ball. In the ninth inning(棒球的一局) with two men out, Hoy managed to catch a fly ball to make the third out in spite of the fog. Los Angeles defeated their opposition and won the game.

After he retired Hoy stayed busy. He ran a dairy farm near Cincinnati for 20 years. He also became a public speaker and traveled giving speeches. Until a few years before his death he took 4-10 mile walks several mornings a week. On December 15, 1961 William Hoy died at the age of 99.

In which order did the following things happen in Hoy’s life?

a. Hoy worked as a shoemaker.

b. Hoy began to run a diary farm.

c. Hoy played a memorable game in the heavy fog.

d. Hoy threw the first ball of the World Series.

e. Hoy became deaf.

A. d e a c b            B. e a c b d            C. d a e c b            D. e a b c d

We can infer from the last paragraph that Hoy _______ in his late years.

A. became famous                       B. led a relaxed life

C. traveled around the world        D. was in good physical condition

This passage is mainly about _______.

A. a deaf player devoted to the game of baseball

B. baseball game rules and important players

C. the rise in the social position of the deaf people

D. where the baseball judge hand signals came from

What can be inferred from this passage?

A. Hoy was the greatest baseball player in his time.

B. Speaking and listening are not necessary in baseball games.

C. The judge had to study the hand signals very seriously.

D. Hoy’s family encouraged him to become a baseball player.

As poets go, Robert Frost was no longer young when he published his first book of poems, A Boy's Will, in 1913. Though born in San Francisco, he came of a New England family which returned there when he was ten. Like many other writers, he had a brief brush with college and then supported himself by trying different jobs. However, he had been brought up on a farm and he liked farming. Most of all, he liked to write but he could not support himself by writing. In his late 30s he moved to England, where he produced his first book.

At the outbreak of World War I, Frost went back to farming in New Hampshire. Thereafter, although he made many journeys elsewhere, he considered the farm to be his home and its activities became the focus of his poetry.

Frost's verses(诗, 诗体) are a part of a great tradition, shaped by the Roman poet Vergil, whose poetry was mainly about farming. However, though he used farm situations in much of his poetry, he gave them a wide application. He might write about stepping on a rake(耙子) and describe the feeling when it hit him, but he used the incident to show how life gave us lessons.

Some talents in poetry are used up early, but not Frost's. He continued to publish fine poetry for fifty years. He reached the height of his popularity after World War II. If America had a national poet in the 20th century, it was Frost. He was chosen to read one of his poems at the inauguration（就职典礼）of the late President John F. Kennedy, the first poet ever so honored.

The 1.__________ of Robert Frost

October 31, 2009, California
Tsien Hsue-shen, PhD'39, one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died on October 31, He was 98.
Tsien, born in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, graduated from the National Qinghua University in 1934 and in August of 1935 he left China to study at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. In 1936 he went to the California Institute of Technology to commence graduate studies .Tsien obtained his doctor degree in 1939 and would remain at Caltech for 20 years, becoming the Goddard Professor and establishing a reputation as one of the leading rocket scientists in the United States.
In 1943, Tsien and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the Second World War, he was amongst the other scientists participated the "Manhattan Project" .After World War II he served as a consultant to the  United States Army Air Force. During this time, Conlonel Tsien worked on designing an intercontinental space plane. His work would inspire the X--20Dyna-Soar which would later be the inspiration for the Space Shuttle. In1945 Tsien Hsue--shen married Jiang Ying, the daughter of Jiang Baili--one of the Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai--shen's leading military strategists. But in 1950, the Chinese-born scientist was accused of harboring Communist sympathies and stripped of his security clearance.
In September 1955 he was permitted to leave for China, where Tsien resumed his research, founded the Institute of Mechanics, and went on to become the father of China's missile program, a trusted member of the government and Party's inner circle, and the nation's most honored scientist, Tsien retired in 1991 and has maintained a low public profile in Beijing, China. The PRC government launched its manned space program in 1992 and used Tsien's research as the basis for the Long March rocket which successfully launched the Shenzhou V mission in October of 2003.The elderly Tsien was able to watch China's first manned space mission on television from his hospital bed.
In his late years, since the 1980s, Tsien devoted himself to spirituality research, and advocated scientific investigation of traditional Chinese medicine, Qigong and "special human body functions".
【小题1】The underlined word "commence" in this passage probably means ____

 Though he is in his late sixties, the well-known biologist begins each day ____ a sense of adventure and a sense of curiosity.

            A. in                      B. with                        C. of                   D. at