Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821, on the island of St. Helena off the coast of Africa. He was 51 years old at the time. When doctors examined Napoleon's body, they said that the former emperor of France had died from cancer of the stomach. That was the cause of death recorded in the official report. However, other doctors disagreed. One doctor who was present during the examination of the body said that Napoleon died of hepatitis（肝炎）. Other historians and medical experts have suggested that Napoleon died of syphilis（梅毒）, tuberculosis（肺结核）, or perhaps malaria. Now, after careful research, a British chemist thinks that Napoleon might have been poisoned -- not by a person, but by his wallpaper.

    Napoleon was sent to the island of St. Helena in 1815 after he lost the battle of Waterloo. He was a prisoner on the island. Although he had servants to attend to him, he had to live in one small building. St. Helena is a very wet island, so the walls of the building were always covered with mold. Napoleon became ill from spending too much time inside his house. Almost constantly he had a fever, chills, and felt sick to his stomach. He often felt pain in his shoulders and in his side. His skin turned yellow. He got frequent headaches, and he would become dizzy and vomit. None of the medicine that the doctors gave Napoleon seemed to help. They were not sure what was the matter. Finally, Napoleon was too weak to leave the house. One night, while he was sleeping, he went into a coma （昏迷）and died.

Many doctors who later reviewed the reports of Napoleon's illness found that the symptoms did not show a man who suffered from stomach cancer. It seemed obvious that Napoleon had died from some other cause. In 1961, a Swedish doctor examined some of Napoleon’s hair and found a high level of arsenic（砒霜）, a chemical poison. Was Napoleon murdered? It is doubtful. Arsenic was used in many types of medicine during Napoleon’s time, so he might have taken the arsenic as a cure for his illness. Then, in 1982, Dr. David Jones from England began to look into the mystery and suggested that Napoleon might have breathed in arsenic which was in the air of his house. In the 1700s and 1800s, arsenic was used to make a kind of green paint used on cloth and wallpaper. If the paint was used on a wet wall, the arsenic would go into the air. A person in the room might breathe that air. After studying the wallpaper in the room where Napoleon died, Dr. Jones found high levels of arsenic in the green paint on the walls.

The passage says that                      .

    A. a British doctor thinks he has found the cause of Napoleon's death

    B. many doctors have tried to guess the cause of Napoleon's death

    C. Napoleon could have died from poison

    D. all of the above

Why did Napoleon live on St. Helena?

    A. He owned the island.          B.  He was a prisoner there.

    C. His family lived there.         D. He liked the island.

Napoleon suffered from the following symptoms except __________.

   A. chills         B. fever         C  dizziness     D. bleeding

The official report said that Napoleon died of____________.

   A. cancer        B. a coma        C. mold        D. poison

According to Dr. Jones, how did the arsenic probably get into Napoleon's body?

   A.  He ate it.                 B. He breathed it in.           

   C.  He touched it.             D.  He drank it.

Tristan da Cunha, a 38?square?mile island, is the farthest inhabited island in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is 1,510 miles southwest

 of its nearest neighbor, St.Helena, and 1,950 miles west of Africa. Discovered

by the Portuguese admiral（葡萄牙海军上将）of the same name in 1506, and settled

 in 1810, the island belongs to Great Britain and has a population of a few hund

red.

Coming in a close second—and often wrongly mentioned as the most distant land—is Easter Island, which lies 1,260 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcair

n Island, and 2,300 miles west of South America.

The mountainous 64-square-mile island was settled around the 5th century, supposedly by people who were lost at sea. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1,000 huge stone figures, called moai, for which the island is most famous.

On Easter Sunday, 1722, however, settlers from Holland moved in and gave the island its name. Today, 2,000 people live on the Chilean territory (智利领土).They share one street, a small airport, and a few hours of television per day.

1.It can be learned from the text that the island of Tristan da Cunha_______.

A.was named after its discoverer

B.got its name from Holland settlers

C.was named by the British government

D.got its name from the Guinness Book of Records

2.Which of the following is most famous for moai?

A. Tristan da Cunha.    B. Pitcairn Island.     C. Easter Island.   D. St. Helena.   

3. Which country does Easter Island belong to?

A. Britain.         B. Holland.         C. Portugal.         D. Chile. 

Tristan da Cunha, a 38 –square –mile island, is the farthest inhabited island in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. It is 1,510 miles southwest of its nearest, St. Helena, and I, 950 miles west of Africa. Discovered by the Portuguese admiral (上将) of the same name in 1506, and settled in 1810, the island belongs to Great Britain and has a population of a few hundred.

Coming in a close second –and often wrongly mentioned as the most distant land –is Easter Island, which lies 1,260 miles east of its nearest neighbor, Pitcairn Island, and 2,300 miles west of South America.

The mountainous 64 –square –mile island was settled around the 5th century，supposedly by people who were lost at sea. They had no connection with the outside world for more than a thousand years, giving them plenty of time to build more than 1,000 huge stone figures, called moai, for which the island is most famous.

On Easter Sunday, 1722, however, settlers from Holland moved in and gave the island its name. Today, 2,000 people live on the Chilean territory (智利领土). They share one street, a small airport, and a few hours of television per day.

It can be learned from the text that the island of Tristan da Cunha ________.

A. was named after its discoverer

B. got its name from Holland settlers

C. was named by the British government

D. got its name from the Guinness Book of Records

Which of the following is most famous for moai?

A. Tristan da Cuha.  B. Pitcairn Island.  C. Easter Island.  D. St. Helena.

Which country does Easter Island belong to?

A. Britain.   B. Holland.   C. Portugal.   D. Chile.

The opening scene of The King’s Speech was, in a word, terrifying. The moment King George VI—wonderfully played by Colin Firth—stepped up to the microphone at Wembley Stadium, a rush of nervousness came over me. It took me back to my school days, standing at my desk, having to read aloud to the class. I whispered to my wife, Jill, “A stutterer(口吃者) wrote this screenplay(剧本).

   I grew up with a stutter, really afraid of trying to get through simple sentences—knowing that I would then, or later, be laughed at. I still remember the reading when I was in 7^th grade at St. Helena’s: “Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen…” I remember reciting, “Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen.” The school teacher said, “Master B-B-B-Biden! What’s that word?” She wanted me to say gentlemen. But by then, I had learned to put my sentences into bite-size pieces and I was reading it: “gentle”｜breath｜“man”.

   Ninety-nine percent of the time, the teachers were great. I never had professional treatment but a couple of teachers taught me to put a regular rise and fall in my tone of speaking, and that’s why I spent so much time reading poetry. But even in my small, boys’ prep school, I got nailed in my class with the nickname Joe Stutterer. You get so desperate, you’re so embarrassed. I actually went and stood by the side of my house once, with a small round stone in my mouth, and tried to talk. Jill always thought I was kidding until she saw the movie and saw King George did the same thing.

   King George relied on the support his wife and the help of Lionel Longue, who, in describing working with other stutterers, said, “My job was to give them confidence in their voices and let them know that a friend was listening.” I was lucky enough to have more than a couple of Lionels in my life. Nobody in my family ever—ever—made fun of me or tried to finish my sentences. My mother would say, “Joey, you cannot let stuttering define you.” And because of her and others, I made sure it didn’t.

   Through hard work and determination, I beat my stutter in high school. I even spoke briefly at my graduation ceremony in 1961—the most difficult speech of my life. My fight against shyness and embarrassment at my early age has developed my ability to understand others’ feelings as Vice President of the country in public life. I still mark up all of my speeches the say way Firth’s character does in the movie, pencil-marking every line to remind myself to stop, to breathe, to pause—to beat back my stuttering as best as I can. I don’t stutter anymore, and most people who know me only late in my life are shocked that I ever did.

   By capturing exactly how a stutter feels, The King’s Speech has shown millions of people how much courage it takes for a stutterer to stand up and speak. Equally important, it has shown millions who suffer from the pain that it can be overcome, we are not alone, and with the support of those around us, our deepest fears can be conquered.

1.The writer whispered to his wife, “A stutterer wrote this screenplay”, because __________.

A. he desired to release his secret to his wife

B. he was reminded how it was as a stutterer on such occasions

C. he thought Colin Firth had a wonderful performance in the film

D. he wanted to make his wife realize why the film was so popular

2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 imply?

A. The writer would have a good fortune to get help from many people.

B. The writer should realize he had to stand up from his pain and defeat it

C. The writer could get enough confidence under his mother’s help

D. The writer must be happy that everyone in his family did not laugh at him.

3.What message is conveyed in the passage?

A. Whatever pain and fear we have, we can defeat them if we try hard.

B. The similar stories of the writer and King George VI gains great admiration.

C. The suffer we had at our early age will have a heavy influence on our future life.

D. Stuttering is such a pain for children that we should give help and encourage them.

Wednesday, October 29,2008.
The United States federal government had two young men in the state of Tennessee arrested on October 22 on unknown charges.
In court documents published on Monday, it came to light that the men had discussed attacking an African – American school and killing 14 of them.
Another crime was about planning to murder Presidential candidate Barack Obama. According to their affidavits (口供), the suspects’ “final act of violence” would be like this: when they attacked Obama they would wear white suits and top hats and drive “their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”
The two suspects are Paul Schlesselman, 18, of West Helena, Arkansas and Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee. According to the court papers, they met last month over the Internet through a friend. Schlesselman and Cowart are believed to share “very strong views” about White Power.
Schlesselman listed “being racist” as his occupation on his MySpace page. He further wrote: “I'm white. I'm proud. I get angry. I like guns.”
Cowart also had a MySpace page on which photos of guns were presented under a heading of “My Guns”. On his page he wrote, “Better to die quick fighting on your feet than to live forever begging on your knees.”
Some have questioned the pair's ability to carry out the charged plan, but authorities have been very concerned about Obama as the first black presidential candidate from a major party.
“We honestly don't know if they had the ability or the skill to carry out the kind of plan that they talked about.” said Malcolm Wiley, of the United Satates Secret Service in an interview with The New York Times. “But we take any threat seriously no matter how big or how small it is.”
Cowart and Schlesselman are scheduled to appear before a judge on Thursady.
【小题1】The passage is mainly about____________.