要求：1.词数80左右。

2．开头已写好。

3．参考词汇：荒地wasteland；沙尘暴sandstorm；袭击strike

A letter to the editor

Dear editor,

  In the past my hometown used to be a beautiful place._____________________________.

You may have heard of snipers (狙击手), or seen snipers in movies and computer games. They are people who can shoot and kill from a long distance. But do you know that we have real snipers in our police?

Early this month, a man kidnapped a little girl with a knife in Beijing. Police came to talk to him, but he didn’t let the girl go and was hurting the girl. A sniper shot him dead.

In Beijing, there are over 300 police snipers. They work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to protect the capital.

How do snipers get trained? What are their lives like? An expert（专家） with the Beijing sniper team shares some of the team’s secrets with us.

Q: How do you choose snipers?

A: We choose snipers from the Beijing police. There are no strict rules about the height and weight of our snipers, but they must have very good eyesight. The weapon(武器) they use is around 3.5kg. Sometimes snipers need to hold it for hours. So, snipers need to have a strong body. They also need to pass written psychology (心理) tests.

Q: What is the most important quality of a sniper?

A: A good state of mind. Snipers need to be calm all the time. Sometimes, they may get ready for shooting for a whole day. They cannot talk, eat or drink during that time.

Q: What kind of training do snipers usually get?

A: The practice they often get is 100 meters distance shooting. They practice shooting in all kinds of weather, including windy and snowy days.

Q: Is it possible that a sniper may miss his target (目标)?

A: That is not possible. The only standard（标准）for being a sniper is to take a life with one bullet (子弹).

However, snipers are not killers. They only pull the trigger (扣动扳机) when they have to.

71.Which of the following is NOT true about the snipers?

A. They are professional(专业的) killers.      B. They can shoot very far.

C. They protect our country.                        D. They are in our police force.

72. A good sniper should have the following except _____.

A. a strong body      B. good eyesight            C. a certain height  D. good state of mind

73. The underlined word “quality” means _____.

A. 质量                  B. 品质                       C. 性格                D. 性质  

74. The most practice the snipers get is _____.

A. holding the gun for a whole day                B. doing push-ups and sit-ups

C. 100m distance shooting                           D. jumping over high walls

75. The snipers’ work is ____.

A. hard and important                                  B. interesting and exciting

C. boring but comfortable                                   D. funny but unimportant

本文为纪实性报导，作者目击了国际重大悲剧惨案，因而思绪万千．读后会激发学生：学习兴趣，用英文了解国际事件，外国朋友的心态．

　　One of the things I always believe is that no matter how bad something is, you can take something positive out of it. The one time I wasn't sure of that was on September 11.

　　I usually wake up at 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning. That day, I happened to wake up earlier. I turned on the TV and I saw that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. My first reaction was that it was a terrible accident. Then I saw another plane fly into the South Tower and I realized that I was witnessing an act of terrorism.

　　My wife and I spent the day watching the terrible pictures over and over again. When I watched family members looking for their loved ones, the pain in their eyes was something I would never forget. I couldn't understand how something this terrible could have happened.

　　It wasn't until a few weeks after September 11 that I began to see that perhaps some good did come from this tragedy. People seem different now, more understanding, more tolerant. Little things that seemed to be such a trouble before are no longer big things. Personally, I am more tolerant than I was. I realize life is too short, and too precious, to let myself get worried over small things. I've learned also that you can't take things for granted. Things change in the blind of an eye. People go to work and don't come back. One moment they're living and the next minute they're not. And, it doesn't matter who you are, there is nothing you can do about it. We never know when our time here will be over, so we all need to make the most of every minute we have.

　　You try to learn from what happened. You can't be used up by it. You can't live by it. All you can do is just live.

　　注：crash撞击　　reaction反应　　witness目击　　tragedy悲剧　　tolerant宽容的　　precious珍贵的　　take…for granted认为……是当然的

1．The word “positive” in the passage probably means ________.

[　　]

2．What did the writer see after he turned on the TV that morning?

[　　]

3．From September 11, the writer has realized that ________.

[　　]

A．people should make the most of every minute they have

B．he has become less tolerant towards others

C．he should get worried about little things

D．life is too short to care about others

4．What's the best title(题目) of this passage?

[　　]

A．A Report about September 11

B．The Tragedy of September 11

C．September 11 and My Family

D．September 11 and My Turn