A little old couple walked slowly into McDonald ’ s on one cold winter evening. It seemed that

they didn' t come to the right place with the young families and young couples eating that night.

The little old man walked right up to the cash register, placed his order with no hesitation and then paid for their meal. The couple took a table near the back wall and started taking food off the tray. There was one hamburger, one order of French fries and one drink. The little old man unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half. He placed one half in front of his wife. Then he carefully counted out the French fries, divided them in two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife. He took a sip at the drink and then set the cup down between them.

As the man began to eat his few bites of hamburger, the crowd began to get restless. You could tell what they were thinking, “That poor old couple. All they can afford is one meal for the two of them. ”

As the man began to eat his French fries, one young man stood and came over to the old couple ’ s table. He politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple to eat. The old man replied that they were just fine. They were used to sharing everything.

As the little old man finished eating and was wiping his face neatly with a napkin，the young man could stand it no longer. Again he came over to their table and offered to buy some food.

After being politely refused again，he finally asked a question of the little old lady，" Ma ’ am, why aren' t you eating? You said that you share everything. What is it that you are waiting for?"

She answered, "The teeth.,’

   According to the 1st paragraph, the old couple  .

A.  enjoyed the scene outside the McDonald' s

B.  didn, t look suitable for the surroundings

C.  loved being with young families and couples

D.  liked the food in McDonald' s

   The little old man cut the plain hamburger in half because  .

A.  he couldn' t finish eating it with one bite

B.  he was very careful with his food

C.  he ordered more than he could consume

D.  he wanted to share it with his wife

   The young man who offered to buy the old couple food was    .

A. impolite B. stubborn C. sympathetic  D. doubtful

   From the old lady' s answer, we know that   .

A. she was not interested in the food   B. the couple suffered a terrible toothache

C. the couple did share everything  D. she gave an irrelevant answer

A young man named Charles Lyell had different ideas .He wrote a book about them called Principles of Geology .The earth ,according to Lyell ,was not only thousands of years old ,it was millions of years old .As to（关于）the common belief that changes in the earth's surface happen suddenly because of a single earthquake or flood ,he said that this might happen once in a while ,but usually these changes took place very slowly .He believed that the surface of the earth had been changing from the beginning of time .The changes ,he said ,were caused by the long-term action of the winds and seas ,and by forces such as volcanoes breaking out under the earth's surface .Once in a great while he thought ,a mountain might appear for the first time after an earthquake .But usually mountains would rise slowly and steadily.? Professor Henslow was interested in Lyell's ideas ,but he did not actually believe them .Charles Darwin could not make up his mind about them .But they set him thinking along lines which would later change the beliefs of thoughtful people all over the world.?

At Cambridge ,Charles Darwin studied just enough to pass the examination ,and received his college degree in 1831.During this time ,he had become more and more interested in geology .At the end of the school year ,he went to North Wales with one of his teachers to examine the rock formations（构成） and to search for fossils（化石）.Fossils are the remains of ancient living things .They are usually found fixed in rocks in the earth's crust（地壳）.Fossils may be of animals ,such as fish ,insects ,birds ,or humans .They may be of plants from tiny leaves to huge trees.? When a living creature dies ,it usually decays（腐烂）or is eaten by animals .However ,if it sinks into a riverbed or is quickly covered by the blowing sands of a desert storm ,the bones are kept up in the earth. Over many years the soft inner parts of a bone disappear ,leaving the inside hollow. Water containing mineral enters into the hollow. Slowly the mineral hardens and makes the bone hard and heavy,like stone.

1.According to Charles Lyell, it is mainly _______ that the earth has been formed like today's shape.?

A.from the beginning of time

B.past some experiences of big flood?

C.over a very long period of years

D.because of several big earthquakes

2.Charles Lyell believed the fact that a mountain is formed_______.?

A.more by seas than by volcanoes

B.more slowly than suddenly?

C.more by an earthquake than by winds

D.more steadily than quickly?

3.Unlike Professor Henslow ,Charles Darwin_______.?

A.never thought Lyell's ideas were right?

B.did made up his mind not to accept Lyell's ideas?

C.thought about what the world were then thinking about?

D.thought over Lyell's ideas and developed them?

4.The main purpose of Darwin's going to North Wales was to_______.?

A.make a study of fossils

B.appreciate the rock information?

C.do research work into dead animals

D.look for plants from tiny leaves to huge trees

A lesson in caring
It was a cold evening. My daughter and I were walking up Broadway. I didn’t notice a guy sitting inside a cardboard box. But Nora    36    . She wasn’t even four, but she   37    at my coat and said, “That man’s cold. Daddy, can we take him home?”
I don’t remember my   38    . But I do remember a sudden   39    feeling inside me. I had always been delighted at how much my daughter noticed in her   40     , whether it was     41    flying or children playing. But now she was noticing   42    and beggary.
A few days later, I saw an article in the newspaper about volunteers who picked up a food package from a nearby school on a Sunday morning and   43     it to an elderly person. It was quick and easy. I signed us up. Nora was   44    about it. She could understand the importance of food, so she could easily see how   45    our job was. When Sunday came, she was ready, but I had to    46    myself to leave the house to fetch the food package. On my way to the school, I fought an urge (强烈愿望) to turn    47    . The Sunday paper and coffee were waiting for me at home. Why do this?   48    , we phoned the elderly person we’d been appointed. She   49    us right over.
The building was in a bad state. Facing us was a silver-haired woman in an old dress. She took the package and asked us to come in. Nora ran inside. I unwillingly followed.   50     inside, I saw that the department belonged to someone poor. Our hostess showed us some photos. Nora played and when it came time to say goodbye, we three hugged. I walked home    51    .
Professionals call such a(n)   52    “a volunteer opportunity”. They are opportunities and I’ve come to see. Where else but as volunteers do you have the opportunity to do something    53     that’s good for others as well as for yourself? Nora and I regularly serve meals to needy people and   54     clothes for the homeless. Yet, as I’ve    55     her grow over these past four years, I still wonder—which of us has benefited more?

A modern-day love story of a man spotting the girl of his dreams across a New York subway train and tracking her down over the Internet has failed to have a fairytale ending with the relationship over.
For Web designer Patrick Moberg, then 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he spotted a woman on a Manthttan train last November. But he lost her in the crowd so he set up a website with a sketch picture to find her—www.Nygirlofmydreams.com.
Unbelievably in a city of 8 million people, it only took Moberg 48 hours to track down the woman, with his phone ringing non-stop and email box overflowing. New Yorkers took sympathy on the subway Romeo and joined his hunt.
The mysterious girl was named as Camille Hayton, from Melbourne, Australia, who was working at the magazine Black Book and also lived in Brooklyn. One of her friends spotted the sketched picture on the Web site and recognized her.
But after finding each other, appearing on TV and getting international press, the couple took their romance out of the public eye, with Moberg closing down the Web site and with both refusing to make any more comments—until now.
Hayton told Australian newspaper The Sunday Telegraph that she dated Moberg for about two months but it just didn’t work out.
“I say we dated for a while but now we’re just friends,” Hayton, now 23, told the newspaper. Hayton said she is still recognized about three times a week on the streets of Manhattan as “that girl” and the question is always the same: “So what happened?”
“I think the situation was so intense that it linked us,” she said, adding, “it linked us in a way that you could mistake, I guess, for being more romantic than it was. I don’t know. But I wanted to give it a go so didn’t wonder what if, what if?”
Hayton told The Sunday Telegraph that she is enjoying single life in New York, keeping busy with acting classes, working in two clothing stores. Last week she had a small role as a waitress in the long-running daytime soap As the World Turns.
“I just can’t believe it happened. It feels like a long time ago,” said Hayton. Moberg, however, was still refusing to comment on the relationship.
【小题1】After Moborg lost the girl in the crowd he set up a website with       .

                              A

George had stolen some money, but the police had caught him and he had been put in prison. Now his trial was about to begin, and he felt sure that he would be found guilty and sent to prison for a long time.

Then he discovered that an old friend of his was one of the members of the jury at his trial. Of course, he did not tell anybody, but he managed to see his friend secretly one day. He said to him, "Jim, I know that the jury will find me guilty of having stolen the money. I cannot hope to be found not guilty of taking it —— that would be too much to expect. But I should be grateful to you for the rest of my life if you could persuade the other members of the jury to add a strong recommendation for mercy to their statement that they consider me guilty."

“Well, George,”answered Jim. “I shall certainly try to do what I can for you as an old friend, but of course I cannot promise anything. The other eleven people on the jury look terribly strong-minded to me.”

George said that he would quite understand if Jim was not able to do anything for him, and thanked him warmly for agreeing to help.

The trial went on, and at last the time came for the jury to decide whether George was guilty or not. It took them five hours, but in the end they found George guilty, with a strong recommendation for mercy.

Of course, George was very pleased, but he did not have a chance to see Jim for some time after the trial. At last, however, Jim visited him in prison, and George thanked him warmly and asked him how he had managed to persuade the other members of the jury to recommend mercy.

"Well, George," Jim answered, "as I thought, those eleven men were very difficult to persuade, but I managed it in the end by tiring them out. Do you know, those fools had all wanted to find you not guilty!"

1.56. We are told that George expected Jim to help _____.

2.57. Which of the following is true about Jim?

3.58. The passage suggests that _____.

4.59. The title for this passage is ______.