On July 4,1986, Americans celebrated the Staue of Liberty’s 100th birthday. Parades, speeches, fireworks, and other activities contributed to the great joy of the event. The celebration caused reporters and the local people to look back a century to the similar great joy that marked the official opening of the statue. The Statue of Liberty was completed in 1886, but the story began earlier. The idea for a statue was first suggested at a dinner party by Edouard de Laboulaye, a French historian. A guest at the party was Frederic Bartholdi, a young sculptor.

Most people who attended the dinner party soon forgot the idea, but Laboulaye and Bartholdi remembered it. In 1871, Bartholdi came to the United States to interest Americans in a statue that would link France and the United States in friendship. Many people in France had already been persuaded and contributed money to the project. Americans were also persuaded to build a fund (基金) for the statue. Much of the money came from schoolchildren.

After the idea had been accepted, Bartholdi set to work. He worked hard for many years. His friend Laboulaye died before the statue was completed. At last, in 1885, the statue was sent to the United States. It had to be shipped in sections and then put together for its weight and size.

Ever since then, 1886, the Statue of Liberty has stood as a symbol of freedom to millions of immigrants entering New York harbor.

1．Bartholdi made his first trip to the United States to talk about the Statue of Liberty in        .

       A．1986                   B．1871                   C．1885                   D．1886

2．The Statue of Liberty was shipped in sections because          .

       A．it was too large and heavy to move to USA as a whole

       B．USA had better means of putting it together than France

       C．the completed statue was a symbol of friendship for Americans

       D．putting it together cost less money and labour in USA

3．From the content, we may feel that the writer is        when he is writing the passage.

       A．calm                   B．curious                C．worried               D．modest

4．Which of the following titles best summarizes the content of the passage?

       A．Laboulaye and Bartholdi: Makers of the Statue of Liberty

       B．How People Made the Statue of Liberty Possible

       C．The 100 th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty

       D．The True Story of the Statue of Liberty

On a sunny day last August, Tim heard some shouting. Looking out to the sea carefully, he saw a couple of kids in a rowboat were being pulled out to sea.

Two 12-year-old boys, Christian and Jack, rowed out a boat to search for a football. Once they'd rowed beyond the calm waters, a beach umbrella tied to the boat caught the wind and pulled the boat into open water. The pair panicked and tried to row back to shore. But they were no match for it and the boat was out of control.

Tim knew it would soon be swallowed by the waves.

         "Everything went quiet in my head," Tim recalls (回忆). "I was trying to figure out how to swim to the boys in a straight line."

Tim took off his clothes and jumped into the water. Every 500 yards or so, he raised his head to judge his progress. "At one point, I considered turning back," he says. "I wondered if I was putting my life at risk." After 30 minutes of struggling, he was close enough to yell to the boys, "Take down the umbrella!"

        Christian made much effort to take down the umbrella. Then Tim was able to catch up and climb aboard the boat. He took over rowing, but the waves were almost too strong for him.

"Let's aim for the pier (码头)," Jack said. Tim turned the boat toward it. Soon afterward, waves crashed over the boat, and it began to sink. "Can you guys swim?" he cried. "A little bit," the boys said.

         Once they were in the water, Tim decided it would be safer and faster for him to pull the boys toward the pier. Christian and Jack were wearing life jackets and floated on their backs. Tim swam toward land as water washed over the boys' faces.

“Are we almost there?" they asked again and again. "Yes," Tim told them each time.

         After 30minutes, they reached the pier.

1.Why did the two boys go to the sea?

A. To go boat rowing.                                               B. To swim in the open water.

C. To get back their football.                                  D. To test the umbrella as a sail.

2.What does "it" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A. The beach.                                                         B. The wind.                        

C. The boat.                                                             D. The water.

3.Why did Tim raise his head regularly?

A.To check his distance from the boys.      

B.To consider turning back or not.

C.To take in enough fresh air.    

D.To ask the boys to take down the umbrella.

4.How did the two boys finally reach the pier?

A. They were carried to the pier by Tim on his back.

B. They swam to the pier all by themselves.

C. They were washed to the pier by the waves.

D. They were dragged to the pier by Tim. 

A qualified doctor who rarely practiced but instead devoted his life to writing. He once said: “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my lover.” Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, was a great playwright and one of the masters of the modern short story.

When Chekhov entered the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, he started to publish hundreds of comic short stories to support his family. After he graduated, he wrote regularly for a local daily newspaper.

As a writer he was extremely fast, often producing a short story in an hour or less. Chekhov’s medical and science experience can be seen through the indifference(冷漠) many of his characters show to tragic events. In 1892, he became a full time writer and published some of his most memorable stories.

Chekhov often wrote about the sufferings of life in small town Russia. Tragic events control his characters who are filled with feelings of hopelessness and despair.

It is often said that nothing happens in Chekhov’s stories and plays. He made up for this with his exciting technique for developing drama within his characters. Chekhov’s work combined the calm attitude of a scientist and doctor with the sensitivity(敏感) of an artist.

Some of Chekhov's works were translated into Chinese as early as the 1940s. One of his famous stories, The Man in a Shell, about a school teacher’s extraordinarily orderly life, was selected as a text for Chinese senior students.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov ________.

A. had a lawful lover      B. was an illegal writer

C. used to be a lawyer     D. was a competent doctor

In 1880, Chekhov ________.

A. became a full-time writer

B. studied medicine in Moscow University

C. practiced medicine in his hometown

D. published his most memorable stories

Which of the following adjectives can’t be used to describe Chekhov?

A. Sensitive.                           B. Cool.

C. Quick-minded.                       D. Warm-hearted.

Which of the following is the right order of the events?

a. became a doctor

b. became a full time writer

c. started to publish comic short stories

d. wrote regularly for a local daily newspaper.

e. entered the Moscow University Medical School

A. e→c→a→d→b  B. d→a→b→c→e  C. e→c→b→a→d   D. a→e→c→b→d

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.

Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.

1.We know from the text that      .

2.The underlined words “the other two” in the 5 th paragraph refer to      .

3. What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?

In 1989 an 8.2 earthquake almost flattened America, killing over 30,000 people in less than four minutes. In the middle of complete damage and disorder, a father rushed to the school where his son was supposed to be,   36   that the building was   37  .

After the unforeseeable shock, he   38   the promise he had made to his son: “No matter   39  , I’ll always be there for you!” And tears began to   40   his eyes. As he looked at the pile of ruins , it looked hopeless, but he kept remembering his   41  to his son. He rushed there and started   42   through the ruins.

As he was digging, other helpless parents arrived,   43  : “It’s too late! They’re all dead!

  44  , face the reality, there’s nothing you can do!” To each parent he responded with   45  : “Are you going to help me now?” No one helped. And then he continued to dig for his son, stone by stone.

Courageously he went on alone because he needed to know   46  : “Is my boy   47   or is he dead?” He dug for 8 hours...12 hours...24 hours...36 hours...then, in   48  hour, he pulled back a large stone and heard his son’s   49  . He creamed his son’s name, “ARMAND!” He heard back, “Dad! It’s me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you’d   50  me and   51  you saved me, they’d he saved. You promised, ‘No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you!’ You did it, Dad!”

“What’s going on in there?” the father asked.

“There are 14 of us   52     53   33, Dad. We’re scared, hungry, thirsty and thankful you’re here.  When the building collapsed, it made   54  , and it saved us.”

“Come, out, boy!”

“No, Dad! Let the other kids out first,   55   I know you’ll get me! No matter what happens, I know you’ll always be there for me!”

A．only discovering                      B．only to discover      

            C．only realizing                        D．only to realize

A．as flat as a pancake                   B．as high as a mountain

            C．as strong as an ox                      D．as weak as a kitten

A．memorized    B．forgot               C．kept            D．remembered

A．what          B．what happen         C．which           D．who

A．fill            B．fill in               C．come           D．burst

A．picture        B．promise             C．present         D．encourage

A．digging        B．digging through       C．digging out      D．digging into

A．to say         B．said                C．and saying      D．saying

A．Come out      B．Come again          C．Come on       D．Come off

A．one word      B．one sound         C．one row        D．one line

A．for himself    B．of himself           C．by himself      D．to himself

A．live               B．living               C．alive            D．lively

A．38            B．the 38               C．38 th         D．the 38 th

A．sound         B．voice               C．noise           D．tone

A．will save       B．would save           C．save            D．would have saved

A．when          B．because             C．even if          D．thought

A．remained       B．missing             C．left            D．gone

A．for            B．behind              C．out of           D．over

A．a promise      B．space             C．room          D．a triangle

A．because        B．though              C．when           D．even though