Chris Jones recently completed a very unusual journey. Our reporter Mary Owen met him at his home in the south of London and be told her all about the trip.

   Reporter: What gave you the idea to make a trip around India on an elephant, Chris?

   Chris: Well, it all started the idea two years ago when I was planning a trip to India. I visited a photo exhibition of elephants and I realized that the only enjoyable way to make a trip around India was on an elephant.

   Reporter: What did you do next?

   Chris: I flew to New Delhi and started looking for an elephant, I needed an elephant trained to carry people. I didn’t know anything about elephants, so I asked an expert(专家) for help. He taught me how to ride an elephant. He also helped me find an elephant.

   Reporter: How long did it take you to find a suitable elephant?

   Chris: Not too long. I bought a famale elephant called Tara for about 6.000 dollars.

   Reporter: Can you tell me about the journey?

   Chris: Tara and I set off from New Delhi a week later. We were going to Sonepur in northern India. There is a big elephant market there and I could sell Tara easily. And what a ride! Elephants can travel at about 6 miles an hour and Sonepur is more than 1,200 km away. It took us 64 days to complete the journey.

   Reporter: Did you have any problems on your journey?

   Chris: Yes, a few. But nothing serious. On the third day. Tara hurt her foot. But that got better quickly. Also, there was a lot of heavy rain during the first week and we got very wet!

   Reporter: What happened when you reached Sonepur?

   Chris: My plan was to sell Tara. But I was very fond of her. I couldn’t take her back to Britain and I didn’t want to sell her at the market. I happened to meet some people who wanted an elephant for their national park in southern India. I knew that Tara would be safe with them, so I gave her to them. I was very sad to say goodbye.

1.Chris got the idea to make a trip around India on an elephant from ______

A. a visit to a zoo

B. an elephant expert from India

C.the photos of elephant

D. an old friend who lived in India

2.The elephant expert told Chris ______

A. when to buy an elephant

B. how to feed an elephant

C.where to sell his elephant

D. how to ride an elephant

3.Chris decided to go to Sonepur because ________

A.it is a very interesting place

B. he would be able to sell Tara there easily

C.elephants cannot be sold anywhere else

D. it would take only a short time to get there

4.When Chris arrived at the market in Sonepur,__________

A.he realized that he did not really want to sell Tara

B.he visited some shopkeepers

C.he sold Tara to a national park

D.he decided to take Tara home with him.

I’d like to find _________ to read on the journey, and _________ will do.

I           about the journey         my husband yesterday.

?     A. quarreled, with   B. quarrel, to    C. quarreled, to    D.quarrelled, with

London, May 5, 2003  Emma Richards of Britain has become the first woman and the youngest person to finish the Around Alone, which is a round-the-world sailing race. The journey started in New York last September and went east around South Africa to New Zealand. It crossed the Pacific Ocean and went around South America, ending up yesterday in Rhode Island, the smallest state in America. In the end, the trip covered over 46,000 kilometres. The same sea route was taken in the past by many famous travelers who wanted to learn about the world.
Emma, a 1996 graduate (毕业生) of the University of Glasgow, finished the race at the age of twenty-eight. The race requires competitors to sail alone. Emma said that actually it was very difficult to be all by herself for such a long time even though she’s really into sailing. Her worst moment was when she had to climb the high mast (船桅) in a bad storm to fix some broken parts. She sailed hundreds of kilometres away from land and the wind was blowing very hard. Only her strong willpower kept her going to make it all the way. These days, Emma is happy to be home with her parents and sleep in a bed that stays still.
【小题1】The first paragraph is mostly about       .

Venice is an attractive city in Italy. Tourists throughout the world love traveling to Venice. But sometimes you’ll have such strange experiences. One moment you walk across the Rialto Bridge, and there’s nothing special. Unfortunately, when you come back to the bridge an hour later, it’s underwater and everyone’s wearing rain boots.
That’s just the way it has always been, which may be considered seriously by Italian government. Before the sea comes to Venice, the government has decided to build the MOSE gates. Actually(实际上), there were many kinds of gates that were built to stop the floods, but all the gates were just built on the ground. Besides, the flooding was becoming worse. Industrial(工业的)factories built nearby on the mainland also made the condition get worse, causing the city to sink about 0.75 feet in the 20th century.
So the Italian government asked some of Italy’s biggest construction and engineering companies to build the MOST project, which was planned to be built under the sea water to stop floods. Now the government are using 3 000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion euros(欧元) on it. The MOSE gates are being built at the inlets(海湾).Each MOST gate is 197 feet long ,28.5 to 37 feel tall, and weight up to 22 tons. It’s nearly the size of a 20-story building. Before the gates are in use, under the sea full of water. When the flood comes, the water in the gates will be poured out, and then the gates will be filled with air. So the gates can go up with the sea water. Once they’re in the right place, they will stop the sea water pouring into Venice. These gates will be able to deal with floods up to 10feet,and as long as the sea level(平面)rises no more than two feet in the next 100 years, the MOSE will work as expected.
The MOSE project is now two-thirds done. The head engineer, Giovanni Cecconi, said, “This is a war. During the war, it’s not important that you win. It’s important that you’re alive. We’ve alive.” Anyway, this project is saving Venice from falling.
根据短文内容选择最佳答案。
【小题1】The underlined word “construction” in the passage means “_______”in Chinese.
A.建筑  B. 农业  C. 交通
【小题2】Before building the MOSE gates, the Italian government _______ to stop the floods.
A. never built gates on the ground
B. built many kinds of gates on the ground
C. built some gates which were under the ground
【小题3】When the flood comes, _______ can describe the working steps of the MOSE gates.

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The Italian government ate using 3000 people and expect to spend nearly five billion dollars on the MOSE.
B. The MOSE project is half done now.
C. Each MOSE gate is 197 feet long, 28.5 to 37 feet tall, and weighs up to 22 tons.
【小题5】The best title for this passage should be _______.
A. The Journey to Venice
B. The MOSE Project in Venice
C. Several Kinds of Floods in Venice