Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. He was the oldest of five children in his family. His father was a wool weaver. He helped his father with the weaving, but he always wanted to sail the seas.

He didn’t get to school very much, but he learned to read and write Spanish during his travels. He also taught himself Latin because all the geography books were written in Latin. Some people thought he was trying to prove the world was round, but this is not true. He wanted to find a short way to get to the Indies by ship.

He was a Christian and wanted to tell the story of Christ to the people he would find in the far-away lands. He also wanted wealth for himself and for Spain, and he wanted to be famous. He tried for eight years to get King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to supply him with ships and money.

They left Spain on August 3, 1492 and sailed toward the west. After many days, the sailors had covered a long distance on the sea and were ready to turn around for home when they saw land, an island Columbus named San Salvador. He thought he had found the Indies and called the people he saw there “Indians”. When they got to Cuba, he thought he was in Japan. The world was a lot larger than he thought.

On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria was wrecked near Haiti. Columbus built a fort(城堡) and left 40 men to hunt for gold. Then he returned to Spain on the Nina. The people of Spain welcomed him as a hero. He made three more voyages across the ocean. His 13-year-old son, Ferdinand, went with him on the fourth voyage.

Columbus did not become rich as he had hoped. At the end of his life he only had a pension the king and the queen had given him because he was the first to reach the New World. He spent the last few months of his life in bed because of the pain of arthritis(关节炎). Columbus not only discovered a New World, but he led the way for other explorers.

1.Columbus taught himself Latin because _______.

2.How was Columbus able to make his voyage to the west?

3.Why did Columbus call the local people in Salvador “Indians”?

4.From the fifth paragraph we can infer that “Santa Maria” and “Nina” must be the names of_________.

5.From the text we know that ________.

Eleven-year-old Angela was attacked by a rare   21  affecting her nerve system. She was unable to walk and her movement was    22  in other ways as well. The doctors did not hold much    23   of her ever recovering from this illness. They    24  she'd spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.They said that few, if any, were able to come back to    25 after suffering from this disease .The little girl was   26 . There, lying in her hospital bed, she would swear that she was   27  going to be walking again one day.

She was moved to a specialized    28 hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. All   29  that could be applied to her case were used. The doctors were moved by her undefeatable spirit. They taught her about imaging about seeing herself walking. If it would do   30 else, it would at least give her hope and something   31 to do in the long waking hours in her bed. Angela would work as hard as possible in physical treatments, and in exercise sessions. But she worked just as hard lying there faithfully doing her   32  , visualizing herself moving, moving, moving!

One day,   33 she was attempting, with all her might, to imagine her legs moving again, it seemed as though something  34  happened: the bed moved! It began to move around the room! She    35 out, "Look what I'm doing! Look! Look! I can do it”. I moved! I moved!"

Of course, at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming, too, and running to a   36 place. People were screaming, equipment was  37 and glass was breaking. You see, it was the terrible San Francisco earthquake.  38 don't tell that to Angela. She    39  that she did it.

And now only a few years later, she's back in school, on her own   40  . No crutches, no wheelchair. You see, anyone who can shake the earth between San Francisco and Oakland can defeat a little disease, can't they?

1.                A．problem        B．disease         C．accident  D．error

2.                A．spread         B．avoided         C．limited   D．forced

3.                A．thought        B．idea           C．opinion   D．hope

4.                A．predicted       B．prepared       C．admitted  D．decided

5.                A．active          B．normal         C．alive D．simple

6.                A．fearless        B．peaceful        C．patient   D．stainless

7.                A．probably        B．approximately    C．sincerely  D．certainly

8.                A．recovery       B．experiment      C．practice  D．exercise

9.                A．schedules       B．instructions      C．supports  D．treatments

10.               A．something      B．anything        C．nothing   D．everything

11.               A．.admirable      B．interesting      C．optimistic  D．appropriate

12.               A．training        B．imaging         C．expectation    D．performance

13.               A．however       B．after           C．just   D．as

14.               A．useful          B．regretful        C．surprising  D．disgusting

15.               A．screamed       B．laughed        C．spoke D．sang

16.               A．beautiful       B．safe           C．dangerous D．dirty

17.               A．accelerating     B．running        C．appearing  D．falling

18.               A．For            B．So             C．But   D．Or

19.               A．believed        B．denied         C．realized   D．accepted

20.               A．parts          B．legs           C．body D．role

PART THREE: READING COMPREHENSION

Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.

A

“San Francisco, open your Golden Gate, ”sang the girl in the theatre. She never finished her song. The date was 18th, 1906.

The earth shook and the roof suddenly divided, buildings crashed to the ground and people rushed out into the streets. The dreadful earthquake destroyed the city that had grown up when men discovered gold in the deserts of California. But today the streets of San-Francisco stretch over more than 40 steep hills, rising like huge cliffs above the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The best way to see this splendid city, where Spanish were the first to make their homes, is to take one of the old cable cars which run along the nine main avenues. Fares are cheap; they have not risen for almost a hundred years.

You leave the palm trees in Union Square------the heart of San-Francisco and from the shop signs and the faces around you, you will notice that in the city live people from many nations—Austrians, Italians, Chinese, and others, giving every part of the city a special character. More Chinese live in China Town than in any other part of the world outside China. Here, with Chinese restaurants, Chinese post-boxes, and even odd telephone-boxes that look like pagoda(宝塔), it is easy to feel you are in China itself.

Fisherman’s Wharf, a place all foreigners want to see, is the end of the ride. You get out, and then set out to find a table in one of gay little restaurants beside the harbor. As you enjoy the fresh Pacific sea food, you can admire the bright red paint of the Golden Gate Bridge in the harbor and watch the traffic crossing beneath the tall towers on its way to the pretty village of Tiberon. When you finish your meal, you may decide to take a boat-trip around the bay to look at the sights. You can stare at the famous , now empty, prison of Alcatraz. Then why not go to the fishing village of Sansalito—a little like London’s Chelsea or New York’s Greenwich Village—to see people painting and to look at their pictures. You will be able to enjoy a view of the city from the sea and take pleasure in the soft red and blue Spanish-type houses shining in the bright Pacific light. If you have time you might like to go by bus to Carmel, a hundred miles south of San-Francisco, where you will discover a wild and wonderful coast with high cliffs.

1. The first two paragraphs tell the readers that________.

A. everybody will be attracted by the beauty of San-Francisco.

B. this fantastic modern travel city was built by many hard-working people.

C. San-Francisco has experienced so much before it became a modern international city.

D. There are so many entertainments in attractive San-Francisco

2. How many means of transportation are suggested in the passage?

A. One          B. Two           C. Three         D. Four

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. The origin city of San-Francisco is created by Spanish people.

B. More Chinese live in San-Francisco than in any other part of the world outside China.

C. Alcatraz used to be a prison but now is deserted.

D. San-Francisco lies near the blue waters of the Pacific.

4.Which is the right order of the travel route given in the passage?

A. Union Square—Fisherman’s Wharf—the Golden Gate Bridge—Tiberon—prison of Alcatraz—Sanalito.

B. Union Square—the Golden Gate Bridge—Tiberon--prison of Alcatraz—Sanalito--Fisherman’s Wharf.

C. Union Square—Fisherman’s Wharf—the Golden Gate Bridge—Tiberon--Chelsea—Greenwich Village.

D.Union Square—the Golden Gate Bridge—Tiberon—Chelsea—Greenwich Village—Fisherman’s Wharf.

5.Which of the following can be the best title?

A. San-Francisco—a prosperous city after the earthquake.

B. San-Francisco—a charming travel city of America.

  C. San-Francisco—a city to open her Golden Gate.

D. San-Francisco—a harbor stretching over steep hills.

Many people say pennies are not worth saving. After all, a penny is only worth a cent. But one unusual penny turned out to be worth a lot more when a coin collector paid $1.7 million for it earlier this month.

The coin is one of a kind. It is the only penny that the Denver mint(铸币厂) made out of copper, instead of steel, in 1943. Because it is unique, it is also very valuable. No penny has ever sold for so much money.

The Changing Penny

The Lincoln penny first appeared in 1909. For 34 years, the one-cent coin was made out of copper. Then, in 1943, the penny changed. World War II was going on, and copper was needed for equipment. So for one year, pennies were made out of steel instead. At least most of them were.

Only a few coins were made out of unused copper. There are three main mints, or places where coins are made, in the United States. Of the known copper pennies from 1943, twelve were made in the Philadephia mint, and five were made in the San Francisco mint. Only one was made in the Denver mint.

Nobody knows for sure why a copper penny was made at the Denver mint in 1943, coin dealers Andy Skrabalak told Time for Kids. “There is a rumor that a mint employee made the coin in the middle of the night.”

A Special Set

The coin collector who bought the $1.7 million penny wants to remain unknown. But the reason for the trade is known. He already had two copper pennies from 1943 – one from the San Francisco mint and one from the Philadephia mint. To complete the set, he needed the Denver penny. The three coins will go on display at a coin exhibition in Tampa, Florida.

The collector who sold the penny is also keeping his name a secret. It took four years to convince him to give up the rare coin. Now that he has finally donating all of the money to charity.

1.Why is the Lincoln penny worth over one million dollars?

A. Because it has a history of thirty-four years.

B. Because it was made out of a rare material.

C. Because it was made on one night of 1943 by the Denver mint.

D, Because it was the only coin Denver mint made out of copper in 1943.

2.Before the Lincoln penny was sold, people thought one-cent coins __________.

3.At least how many copper coins were made in 1943?

4.What can we learn about the collector who sold the penny?

Jean is a bright young lady who comes from a rich and famous family. She goes to a good university and has everything that money can buy. Well, almost everything is good. But the problem is that Jean’s family are so busy that they can hardly find time to be with her. So Jean spends a lot of time on her QQ. She likes being anonymous(匿名), talking to people who do not know about her famous family and her rich life. She uses the name Linda on QQ and has made a lot of friends who she keeps in touch with quite often.

Last year Jean made a very special friend on QQ. His name was David and lived in San Francisco. David was full of stories and jokes. He and Jean had a common interest in rock music and modern dance. So it always took them hours to talk happily on QQ and sometimes they even forgot their time. Of course, they wanted to know more about each other. David sent a picture of himself: He was a tall, good looking young man with big, happy smile. As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other.

When Jean’s father told her that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday. She would take him the latest DVD of their favorite rock singer. But when she knocked on David’s door in San Francisco, she found that her special friend was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim!

1.Jean spends a lot of her time on QQ because she is _________.

A．rich              B．young            C．lonely            D．talkative

2.The reason why they even forgot their time is that they _________.

A．talked in delight on QQ

B．hated study

C．fell in love with each other

D．had similar hobbies

3.Why did Jean leave her home for San Francisco?

A．To amaze David.

B．To be on a business trip.

C．To be invited to Jim's birthday party.

D．To send some gifts to Jim.

4.The following states are true about Jean EXCEPT that _________ according to the passage.

A．she is a university student

B．she was born in a wealthy family

C．she made a friend named Jim younger than her

D．she uses her family name on her QQ

5.We could believe that Jean was _________ when seeing Jim himself instead of David at his door.

A．delighted          B．disappointed       C．regretful          D．confused