People of Burlington are being disturbed by the sound of bells. Four students from Burlington College of Higher Education are in the bell tower of the church and have made up their minds to    15   the bells nonstop for two weeks as a protest（抗议） against heavy trucks which run    16   through the narrow High Street.“They not only make it    17   to sleep at night, but they are doing damage（损害） to our houses and shops of historical   18  ,”

said John Norris, one of the protesters.

“ 19  we must have these noisy trucks on the roads,” said Jean Lacey, a biology student, “why don’t they build a new road that goes round the town? Burlington isn’t much more than a  20    village. Its streets were never meant for heavy traffic”.

　　Harry Fields also studying    21    said they wanted to make as much noise as possible to force the government officials to realize what everybody was having to stand. “Most of them don’t live here anyway,” he said, “they come in for meetings and the Town Hall is soundproof（隔音的）, so they probably don’t    22   . It’s high time they realized the problem.” The fourth student, Liza Vernum, said she thought the public were mostly on their side, and even if they weren’t they soon would be.

　　I asked if they were    23    that the police might come to stop them.

　　“Not really,” she said, “actually we are suitable bellringers. I mean we are assistant bellringers for the church. There is no    24    against practising.”

I left the church with the sound of the bells ringing in my ears.

One morning in August 1888，Bertha Benz and her two sons．Eugen and Richard，woke up early．They got dressed very quietly，so as not to wake up the head of the family，Karl Benz．They left a note that said，“We are going to visit Grandma．” They walked quietly put to Mr. Benz’s workshop，opened the door，and pushed out a three-wheeled car．

It was the fruit of Mr. Benz’s long and hard work--the first engine（发动机）car：a wooden construction（结构）more like a horse carriage（马车）than the cars we have now．The car had gone through a great deal of development，but Mr.．Benz felt it needed even more work and improvement．He believed that most people would not trust（信任）such a new thing enough to want to buy it．But his loving wife believed greatly in his abilities，and was certain that the fruit was ripe enough to be picked．Her plan was to make a long trip in the car to prove the reliability（可靠性）of her husband’s invention．

After pushing the car far away enough from their house，they jumped in and set off on their trip．It was a long and troublesome journey，65 miles from their home over the hills of the Black Forest to the children's Grandma's．The car failed many times on the way and there were no gas（汽油）stations，no repair workshops．They managed to solve（解决）all the problems themselves．

It was already dark as they arrived，tired and covered with dirt，but happy and pound．They had managed to make the first tong trip by car．The reliability of the horseless carriage had been proven．

1．Ms. Benz and her sons tried not to wake up Mr. Benz because _________．

A．it was too early

B．Mr. Benz was too tired

C．Mr. Benz got along badly with Grandma

D．Mr. Benz possibly wouldn’t allow them to drive the car

2．Ms. Benz and her sons made the trip mainly to _________．

A．visit Grandma                                          B．see the countryside

C．try a new way of travel                              D．test if the car was good enough

3．What does the underlined word “ripe”    in the second paragraph mean?

A．成熟的                B．硕大的                C．鲜美的                D．喜人的

4．In which way is the first engine car different from modern cars?

A．It was reliable．                                      B．It had three wheels．

C．It didn’t use gas．                                      D．It couldn't be repaired．

5．What's the best title of the passage?

A．The First Car                                          B．A Great Invention

C．The First Road Trip                                 D．A Trip to the Grandma's