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。

1.The underlined word “construction” in the passage means “_______”in Chinese.

A.建筑  B. 农业  C. 交通

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

3.When the flood comes, _______ can describe the working steps of the MOSE gates.

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.

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

1.What worries Christ most?

    A. His grandchildren    B. His death        C. His diary notebooks      D. His case

2.What does Christ probably hope to happen to his diary?

    A. They can come out as an interesting book

    B. They can be made into a TV play or a film.

    C. His children will put them together with him after his death.

    D. His grandchildren will continue to write following his habit.

3.What does Action think of Christ’s diary?

    A. They supply good memories for others especially his grandchildren.

    B. They will educate the young to remember the hard life

    C. They can make his grandchildren make more money.

    D. They may help others learn more about the war.

4. What do the comments about an ordinary soldier’s war diary want to tell us?

    A. To remind Christ to write more about war.

    B. To show others will get help from Christ’s notebooks

C. To encourage Christ to write diaries like the brave soldier

D. To tell Christ social historians are interested in the soldier’s diaries.

5.Which of the following is mentioned in the page?

    A. Barrel doesn’t stop writing diaries.

    B. Action wants to remain the diaries as a record.

    C. Christ’s children don’t get along well with him.

    D. Christ’s grandchildren may show interests in his diaries.

If you have failed in the past to try to make big changes in life, try again now, one tiny step at a time.

     Every year it's the same. As December comes to an end, you think about the new year and all the ways you want to improve your life. But as you start to write down your hopes for the new year, you think about the last year. You excitedly write down all the changes you are going to make, but by the end of January those ideas get lost in your busy life.

Here's a suggestion: Forget the too big, hard-to-achieve goals and just think about the small ones. “We often think that we have to do everything in big steps, even though it's so hard for us to reach it.” said Robert Maurer, who recently wrote the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life. “What we try to do is to begin with such a small step that we can’t find any excuse not to do it.”

     “Kaizen”, a Japanese word, is used to mean to change behavior and attitudes (态度). During World War II, American factory managers were able to increase productivity by trying small, continuous improvements instead of sudden changes. After the war, the idea was brought to a rebuilding (重建) Japan. It made Japan develop fast. The Japanese called it “kaizen”, which means “improvement”.

Maurer studied the idea and did some experiments with it. “Kaizen” could possibly help people succeed in doing everything.

1.At the end of December, people usually ___________ .

A. plan for the last year           B. fail to make big changes

C. try to lose their ideas           D. think about the new year  

2.Robert Maurer wrote a book to tell us ___________ .

A. we should do everything in big steps

B. how to find a small step without any excuse

C. we should try a lot of sudden changes

D. how to change one’s life with one small step

3. The underlined part “increase productivity” in the passage means “___________ “.

A. 增加成本      B. 提高待遇       C. 提高生产率      D. 增加出口量

4. The writer of the passage suggests we should ___________ .

A. take a tiny step to achieve big goals

B. make changes at the end of the year

C. do few experiments with “kaizen”

D. do things with hard-to-achieve goals 

5. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. You can't find any excuse not to reach a big goal.

B. You can achieve your goals if you are not too busy.

C. ”Kaizen” was brought to Japan during World WarⅡ.

D. Robert Maurer studied “kaizen” and found it helpful.

Choose the words or expressions and complete the passage. (12分)

         People of all ages, especially young children, follow comic strips in newspapers, magazines and the movies. Who is your favourite superhero --- Spideman? Wonder Woman? These heroes have been around for a long time. Comics came out even earlier. In ancient times, people made funny drawings of animals _____ paper.

         Comic strips first came out during the 1800s and remain much the same style today. These comics are drawn in connected boxes. The boxes usually show a dramatic _________. Some comic strips are printed in newspapers, which often continue from day to day. Some people even read the comics before they read the front page.

         The comic books first _____ during the 1930s. It seemed that everyone wanted to read comic books. They loved reading about the adventures of The Man of Steel and Batman. During the 1940s, the nation was at war and some comic book characters, such as Captain America, reflected （反映）the times. Others, such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, made people laugh during this _______ time in history.

         After the war, people became __________ interested in old comic book characters, so new superheroes had to be made. The new superheroes, such as Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spideman, talked and acted more like real people. As time went on, comic books had to _________ TV because TV has offered a lot of fun to people.

         Comic strips are usually good for a laugh or at least a smile. But they have held a place in history. They take people away from their daily lives into another world. In this world, the hero always wins, and failure only comes to the bad guys.

1.A. with                      B. on                            C. without                   D. over

2.A. story                    B. copy                        C. collection                         D. picture

3.A. grew                    B. knew                       C. appeared                         D. finished

4.A. happy                  B. alone                       C. noisy                                 D. terrible

5.A. more          B. much                       C. less                                    D. little

6.A. link wih                B. compete with        C. talk with                           D. communicate with

Here is a story told an American general (将军) who was a very important figure in the American army during the First World War. Everybody in the Untied States knew him and many people wished to have a picture or something of his in their homes.

Soon after the war, the general returned to Washington. One day he went to a dentist (牙医) and had six teeth pulled out. A week later the general heard that his teeth were being sold in curiosity shops at $5 each. On each of the teeth there was a label (标签) with the name of the general and words, “Buy these teeth and show them to your friends at home.” The general got angry. He rushed to his office and ordered six officers to go around the city and buy all his teeth.

The officers went out and visited every curiosity shop in the capital. They were away from the office all day. In the evening they returned and put on the table in front of the general the teeth they had bought. They had collected 175 teeth.

( ) 1. The general’s teeth were sold in ____.

A. the museum

B. the special shops selling some rare and interesting things

C. the department store

D. the hospital

( ) 2. In the evening, the officers went back with all the teeth which cost _____.

A. $785 B. $1, 050 C. $157 D. $875

( ) 3. The general felt ____ when he heard his teeth were sold.

A. happy B. excited C. sad D. angry

( ) 4. There was the general’s name on the label of each tooth. This shows that _____.

A. the general’s name was known by most of the people in Washington

B. the shop-keeper wanted to have more customers buy the teeth

C. the shop-keeper tried to make the general more popular

D. Both A and C

( ) 5. The general ordered his men to____.

A. look for his teeth and buy all of them

B. arrest the dentist at once

C. make all the shops stop selling teeth

D. buy all the teeth in all the shops