Warner Brothers is an American company that produces movies and television shows. It started as a small family business operated by four brothers — Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. In nineteen-oh-three, the brothers began their business by traveling throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania showing movies using a projector (放映机). By nineteen-oh-seven, they opened a movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Within ten years, the Warner brothers started producing movies, and moved that part of the business to California.

　　In nineteen eighteen, their first complete picture was called “My Four Years in Germany.” The film was based on a book by the United States’ ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm. In nineteen twenty-five, they began to work to include the technology for sound in their movies.

　　Two years later, Warner Brothers Pictures released the first major movie with sound, or “talking picture.” It was called “The Jazz Singer” and it was a huge success. In the nineteen thirties, the company made several films that were highly praised, including “Little Caesar,” “The Public Enemy”, “The Gold Diggers” and “Forty-Second Street.”

　　The Warner Brothers’ success continued in the nineteen forties with movies like “The Maltese Falcon,” and “Casablanca.” Movies during this time starred popular actors like Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Bette Davis. The company continues to produce popular movies today.

　　By the nineteen seventies, the Warner Brothers studios had also become well set up in television. In nineteen ninety, Warner Communications combined with Time Incorporated to form Time Warner Incorporated.

In two thousand one, the company combined with America Online. The company now includes film production, cable television networks, music and publishing. This year, the company announced a deal with the CBS Corporation to form a new television broadcast network. The CW began broadcasting this month.

1.According to the text, at the beginning of their business the four brothers __________.

A．started a movie theater

B．started to produce films

C．were projectionists

D．settled their business in California

2.The Warner Brothers produced its first talking picture in ___________.

A．1918             B．1925             C．1927             D．1930

3.According to the text, which of the following is not sound film?

A．The Maltese Falcon

B．Casablanca

C．Forty-Second Street

D．My Four Years in Germany

4.We can see from the text that ___________.

A．The Warner Brothers has closed.

B．The Warner Brothers has expanded（扩张） its business greatly since it was set up.

C．The CW doesn’t belong to the Warner Brothers.

D．People in the U.S. can’t buy music records produced by the Warner Brothers.

阅读并选择最佳选项。（共5小题；每小题1分，计5分）
请阅读下面的短文，并从下列各题所给的A、B、C、D三个选项中，选择最佳选项。
U.S. billionaire Bill Gates went to watch a game of his friend, U.S. teen player Ariel Hsing, at the ExCel Centre while the girl was playing against Chinese Li Xiaoxia.
Gates wore an orange jacket and dark blue baseball cap. He sat in the front row of the spectators’ stand (观众看台) and applauded (鼓掌) for every point Hsing scored.
“I’m wishing her the best of luck, but the opposite player is really great,” Gates said.
Hsing was in her third match at London 2012. She had already beaten Mexico’s Yadira Silva and Luxembourg’s Ni Xia Lian.
Hsing is known in the U.S. as a close friend with billionaires Warren Buffett and Gates. She is close enough to call them “Uncle Warren” and “Uncle Bill”.
Buffett met Hsing when she was only 9. Two years later, he invited her to play against his friends. She has returned several times after that. Earlier this year after winning a position on the U.S. team, she took a few points off Buffett and Gates.
When asked whether he has won a point off Hsing, Gates said, “She beat me when she was nine. She has been nice to me.”
【小题1】Bill Gates went to the ExCel Centre to watch a game between Ariel Hsing and 　　　.

Ang Lee won the Best Director Oscar for his adventure film Life of Pi at the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 24, 2013.

　　Life of Pi shows a young Indian named Pi, who finds the world he knows swept away when his family sells their zoo and sets sail for Canada with a few animals. Only Pi escapes from the storm and floats in a lifeboat with a giant Bengal tiger.

　　“I really want to thank you for believing this story and sharing this unbelievablejourney with me,” Lee said in his speech. The film also won three other Oscars, for best original music, best cinematography(电影艺术) and best visual(视觉) effects. It won more awards than Lincoln and Argo which were also among the hottest nominees.

　　Coming from China's Taiwan, the 58-year-old Lee won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and another for Best Director in 2006 for Brokeback Mountain. He is the only person of Asian to win the directing award and one of the rare people who won that award more than once.

In an after-ceremony interview, Lee said he believed Asian films would come to the main stage of the world sooner or later. "I was born in Asia and grew up with Chinese education. It is natural for me to put Asian thinking into Western things." The film, which cost 120 million U.S. dollars, has earned nearly 600 million dollars worldwide. Lee said most of the earnings came from outside China. Lee said he felt warm that he won the award on the day of the Lantern Festival, a Chinese traditional festival on which families get together to solve puzzles on lanterns and eat Tang Yuan. He wished everyone a happy new year of the snake and everybody gets lucky.

1.What kind of film does Life of Pi belong to?

A．Comedies.                             B．Tragedies.

C．Detective films.                         D．Adventure films.

2.So far, how many Oscar directing awards has Ang Lee won?

A．One.                                 B．Two.

C．Three.                                D．Four.

3.How do Chinese people celebrate the Lantern Festival?

A．Families get together and have rice dumplings.

B．Children make lanterns out of big orange pumpkins.

C．People solve puzzles on lanterns and enjoy Tang Yuan.

D．Children go to the display of lanterns and receive red packets.

4.What can we know from the passage?

A．The 85th Academy Awards was held in Hollywood, California this year.

B．Pi was a young American who had an adventure trip with a tiger in India.

C．Lincoln and Argo won more awards than Life of Pi.

D．Asian films have come to the main stage of the world.

5.Which of the following about Life of Pi is true?

A．It was a great success as it won four Oscars.

B．It earned nearly 600 million dollars in China.

C．It describes Pi’s escape from a terrible earthquake.

D．It is the only successful film Ang Lee has ever made.

Several years ago, a television reporter was interviewing three of the most important people from local businesses. One was a very rich banker, another owned one of the largest companies in the world, and the third owned many buildings in the center of New York.
　　The reporter was talking to them about being important.
　　“How do we know if someone is really important?” the reporter asked the banker.
　　The banker thought for a few moments and then said, “I think anybody who is invited to the White House to meet the President is really important.”
　　The reporter then turned to the owner of the very large company. “Do you agree with that?” she asked.
　　The man shook his head, “No. I think the President invites a lot of people to the White House. You’d only be important if while you were visiting the President, there was a telephone call from the president of another country, and the President said he was too busy to answer it.”
　　The reporter turned to the third man. “Do you think so?”
　　“No, I don’t.” he said. “I don’t think that makes the visitor important. That makes the President important.”
　　“Then what would make the visitor important?” the reporter and the other two men asked.
　　“Oh, I think if the visitor to the White House was talking to the President and the phone rang, and the President picked up the receiver, listened and then said, ‘it’s for you.’”
【小题1】This story happened in ________.
A. U.N.             B. U.S.A.               C. U.K.      D. P.R.C.
【小题2】There are________in this passage.