Jack used to curse(咒骂) the front yard as if it were a living thing. He was the man who lived with my grandmother for thirty years. He was not my grandfather, but an Italian who came down the road one day, selling fruit in Florida.

Jack stopped at my grandmother’s house to sell her some oranges just a stone’s throw from downtown Miami, and he was delivering her whiskey a week later. He stayed for thirty years. Jack hated the front yard because he thought it was against him. There had been a beautiful lawn(草坪) there when Jack came along, but he let it wander off into nothing. He refused to water it or take care of it in any way.

Now the ground was so hard that it gave his car flat tires(轮胎) in the summer. The yard was always finding a nail to put in one of his tires or the car as always sinking out of sight in the winter when the rains came on. The lawn had belonged to my grandfather, who lived out the end of his life in an insane hospital. It had been his pride and joy and was said to be the place where his powers came.

It can be inferred that the real reason Jack had problems with the yard was that _______.

A. he didn’t like the lawn.

B. the author’s grandfather was against Jack working on the lawn

C. the lawn was full of living things

D. he himself did not take care of the lawn

We can learn from the passage that when the lawn belonged to the author’s grandfather, it had been _______.

A. beautiful              B. worn out        C. wasted           D. full of nails

What do we know about Jack and the author’s grandfather?

A. They both hated the front lawn.

B. Jack was jealous of the author’s grandfather.

C. They sold fruit in Florida.

D. They came from Italy and lived together.

One of Britain’s bravest women told yesterday how she helped to catch suspected (可疑的) police killer David Bieber — and was thanked with flowers by the police. It was also said that she could be in line for a share of up to ￡30,000 reward money.

Vicki Brown, 30, played a very important role in ending the nationwide hunt. Vicki, who has worked at the Royal Hotel for four years, told of her terrible experience when she had to walk silently into Bieber’s bedroom and to watch him secretly. Then she waited alone for three hours while armed police prepared to storm the building.

She said: “I was very nervous. But when I opened the hotel door and saw 20 armed policemen lined up in the car park I was so glad they were there.”

The alarm had been raised because Vicki became suspicious (怀疑) of the guest who came at 3 pm the day before New Year’s Eve with little luggage and wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face. She said: “He didn't seem to want to talk too much and make any eye contact .” Vicki, the only employee on duty, called her bosses Margaret, 64, and husband Stan McKale, 65, who phoned the police at 11 pm.

Officers from Northumbria Police called Vicki at the hotel in Dunston, Gateshead, at about 11:30 pm to make sure that this was the wanted man. Then they kept in touch by phoning Vicki every 15 minutes.

“It was about ten past two in the morning when the phone went again and a policeman said ‘Would you go and make yourself known to the armed officers outside?’. My heart missed a beat.”

Vicki quietly showed eight armed officers through passages and staircases to the top floor room and handed over the key.

“I realized that my bedroom window overlooks that part of the hotel, so I went to watch. I could not see into the man’s room, but I could see the passage. The police kept shouting at the man to come out with his hands showing. Then suddenly he must have come out because they shouted for him to lie down while he was handcuffed (戴上手铐).”

The underlined phrase “be in line for” (paragraph 1) means________.

A. get    B. be paid           C. ask for          D. own

Vicki's heart missed a beat because ________.

A. the phone went again              B. she would be famous

C. the policemen had already arrived    D. she saw 20 policemen in the car park

David Bieber was most probably handcuffed in ________.

A. the passage B. the man's room

C. Vicki's bedroom       D. the top floor room

The whole event probably lasted about ________ hours from the moment Bieber came to the hotel to the arrival of some armed officers.

A. 6              B. 8              C. 11           D. 14

The man as well as his horse ____ crossed the river ____ from Tokyo.

A. which; come    B. that; comes    C. who; came    D. that; come

A new hotel is set to open in a faraway village in northern Sweden，which intends to change the simple treehouse into a world—class hotel for travelers who enjoy special designs．

       Treehotel，which lies in Harads about 60 km south of the Arctic Circle，will be made up of four rooms when it opens on July 17th：the Cabin，the Blue Cone，the Nest and the Mirrorcube．

       Two more are due to open in October—the UFO and A Room With a View．

       “Our goal in five years is to have 24 rooms from 24 different architects(建筑师)，”says Treehotel co-founder Kent Lindvall，who came up with the idea along with his wife Bfitta．

       The first six rooms were designed by five different architects. The Mirrorcube which stands four meters high and four meters wide has drawn widespread attention as it will be connected to a singletree．

       ‘‘It’s an interesting building．You cannot find anything like this in the world today．It’s really special，”says Lindvall，as he stands next to the room’s mirrored outer wall．

       ‘‘Everything will reflect(映照)in this—the trees，the birds，the clouds，the sun，everything．So it should be invisible nearly in the forest．’’

       Lindvall says a special film will be put onto the glass which will be seen by birds。

       ‘‘This is untouched forest and—we want to leave it as it is．"says Selberg，another co-founder．

       She adds．’’If we’re lucky we might see a bear．I think what’s exciting here is that we’re just 60 km below the Arctic Circle which means there’s a good possibility to have the northern lights in the winter and during the during the summer of course you have the midnight sun.”

The aim of Treehotel is “feel free in a tree” and the experience will cost up to 4,200 Swedish crowns ($555,50)for two guests in the Mirrorcube, which is designed to hold up to four guests.

What do we know about Treehotel in Harads from the text?

      A．The hotel will provide six rooms in July.

      B．It’s 60 km away from t11e Arctic Circle.

      C．It is specially designed by one architect．

      D．It was once all ordinary family treehouse．

Why is the Mirrorcube kown by many people?

      A．It will be joined to one tree only.

      B．It is in a distant village in Sweden．

      C．It’s designed by a famous architect.

       D．Its outer wall is covered with mirror.

A special film will be used to

       A．take in light    B．protect birds  C．seize animals         D．keep off bears

What is the text mainly about?

       A．A modem building．      B．A Swedish village．

       C．A faraway village． D．A special treehouse．

阅读下面短文,并按照题目要求用英语回答问题.

Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart（购物手推车）. They will, in a lifetime, push the chrome-plated contraptions many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who it was that invented them.

Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers lugging（吃力地携带） groceries around in baskets they had to carry.

One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.

On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention.

But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.

After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied.

But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only he could persuade people to give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market and pretend they were shopping! Seeing this, the real customers gradually began copying the phony（假冒的） customers.

As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. But not only did more people come—those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers unconsciously bought a greater number of items than before.

Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s original model. Perhaps that’s one reason Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did before 1937—before the coming of the shopping cart.

1.The underlined words “chrome-plate contraptions” in Paragraph 1 refer to ______.

（No more than 3 words）

2.What was the purpose of Goldman’s invention? （No more than 10 words）

3.Why was Goldman disappointed at first? （No more than 10 words）

4.Why did Goldman hire people to push carts around his market? （No more than 10 words）

5.What do you think of Goldman? Please give your reasons. （No more than 20 words）