Having driven almost thirty hours, I decided to stay in South Carolina for a few days. The next morning, I purchased a three-day fishing license and bait (饵料) before heading to the lake.

Opening my trunk, I carefully took out my fishing gear (用具), put it on the lake’s edge, baited up and began to fish.

 “Good morning,” said someone, walking up from behind me.

Turning around, I saw a game warden (猎场管理员) with a clip-board.

 “Good morning,” I said, nodding my head.

 “Catch any fish?” he asked.

 “No sir, just relaxing and killing time.”

 “Can I see your fishing license?”

I handed him the license I had purchased at the bait shop.

 “Can I see your driver’s license, too?” he requested.

 “I see the name on the driver’s license is spelled Kiser and the name on the fishing license is Kaiser,” said the warden.

 “The gentleman at the bait shop must have written it wrong,” I told him.

 “Well, I’m afraid I’ll have to write you up for fishing with an invalid license and take away your fishing gear.”

 “You’ve got to be kidding,” I responded, with a surprised look on my face.

Sure enough I was written up and my fishing gear taken away. I was told that I would have to pay a fine and that my stuff would be sold at auction（拍卖）.

I stood there almost in tears as he drove away. Those rods and reels were very special to me. I had used them over twenty years, fishing with my friends, who were now all dead.

After returning home in Georgia, I telephoned South Carolina trying to explain the situation, but no

one would listen. I was told that the Department of Fish and Game had a “zero tolerance” for fishing and hunting violations. Finally, in tears I paid the fine and gave up the fight.

Nine months later, I received a letter. I had no idea who it was from as there was no return address. On a plain piece of notebook paper was written “Auction for the Department of Fish and Game held this Saturday at 11:00 am.”

On Saturday, at six in the morning I headed to South Carolina. By ten o’clock I had found the auction. There were numerous boats and piles upon piles of fishing equipment. All at once, there it was—my wonderful stuff all thrown in a pile as if it was worth nothing.

As the auction began I took my seat. In my wallet was twenty-seven dollars. For more than an hour I waited for my property to be brought to the auction block.

 “We have three rods and reels here. I guess we will sell this as a unit,” said the auctioneer.

 “50 dollars,” yelled someone in the crowd.

 “51 dollars,” yelled another man.

I rose from my seat and walked out of the auction.

“66 dollars,” I heard as the bidding continued.

 “100 dollars,” came another bid. The auction became silent.

“100 dollars once, 100 dollars twice, 100 dollars three times. Sold for 100 dollars,” went the auctioneer.

I walked to my truck, got in and just sat there. Suddenly I heard something hit the side of my truck. Turning around, I saw the back of a man putting my three rods and reels into my truck. It was the same game warden who wrote me the ticket almost a year ago!

As I got out of the truck he stuck out his hand and said, “I wasn’t wrong. It’s the law that is wrong.”

I shook his hand, thanked him and drove away. I cried as I crossed the South Carolina Georgia state line.

Who wrote a letter to the writer telling him about the auction?

A. The Department of Fish and Game.                  B. The game warden.

C. A person unmentioned in the passage.                      D. The auction organizers.  

Why did the writer walk out of the auction while it was going on?

A. He realized he was unable to get back his fishing gear.

B. He was too nervous to stay inside till the auction ended.

C. He couldn’t bear hearing people selling his fishing gear.

D. He knew the game warden was waiting for him outside.

What did the game warden mean by saying “It’s the law that is wrong”?

A. It didn’t make any sense to prohibit people from fishing freely in South Carolina.

B. The writer did break the law by fishing with an invalid license whatever the reason.

C. The writer should have been allowed a chance to explain and get his things back.

D. The auction should not have been held to sell the boats and fishing equipment.

People turn to magic chiefly as a form of insurance—that is, they use it along with actions that actually bring results. For example, hunters may use a hunting charm (咒语). But they also use their hunting skills and knowledge of animals. The charm may give hunters the extra confidence they need to hunt even more successfully than they would without it. If they shoot a lot of game (猎物), they credit the charm for their success. Many events happen naturally without magic. Crops grow without it, and sick people get well without it．But if people use magic to bring a good harvest or to cure a patient, they may believe the magic was responsible.

People also tend to forget magic’s failures and to be impressed by its surface successes. They may consider magic successful if it appears to work only 10 percent of the time. Even when magic fails, people often explain the failure without doubting the power of the magic. They may say that the magician made a mistake in reciting the spell or that another magician cast a more powerful spell against the magician.

Many anthropologists (人类学家) believe that people have faith in magic because they feel a need to believe in it. People may turn to magic to reduce their fear and uncertainty if they feel they have no control over the outcome of a situation. For example, farmers use knowledge and skill when they plant their fields. But they know that weather, insects, or diseases might ruin the crops. So farmers in some societies may also plant a charm or perform a magic rite (仪式) to ensure a good harvest．

1. From the passage, we can learn that the writer of the passage may be _______.

A. a hunter                                                               B. a farmer

 C. a magician                                                   D. an anthropologist

2. Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage?

A. Magic And Hunting.

B. Magic And Farming.

C. Why Magic Works?

D. Why People Believe in Magic?

3. The underlined word “spell” (Paragraph 2) most likely means ______.

A. magic words                                      B. magic events 

C. words or expressions                 D. magicians

4. People believe in magic because________.

A. magic powers are greater than natural powers

B. magic can turn dreams into reality

C. they are not sure of themselves

D. magic can bring good results

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

A. Even though magic fails, believers in magic will explain the reason.

B. Believers in magic usually overstate the power of magic.

C. People use magic to reduce their uncertainty and give them extra confidence.

D. Magic can solve problems people can’t deal with in a natural way.

We like to consider ourselves the superior race, and we are. It’s true that we are getting to know more and more, and we actually live in “the information age”. Our human vanity(虚荣心) makes us believe that we really have to know everything! Surprisingly, we do not have this ability. The question “what is happening in the Bermuda Triangle” is the very proof.

Where is the Bermuda Triangle located? The mysterious triangle is believed to be situated between Florida, Bermuda and Puerto Rico, where too many unusual events have happened.

On December the 5^th 1945, five U.S. military planes took off from Florida on a clear day only to disappear over Bermuda. Furthermore, some other disappearances took place; in 1947, an American C54 plane simply disappeared at 100 miles from Bermuda; at 80 miles, a Star Tiger plane disappeared in 1948.

Even Columbus had trouble in Bermuda. Some of his journals were about the strange happenings there: “the waters are changing their colors” and “compasses are going wild”.

Maybe it’s why it is called the Devil’s triangle or the Atlantic cemetery.

Many hypotheses were stated in order to explain the strange events. In spite of these attempts, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle remains unsolved.

Some people get to say that maybe aliens are involved in it. Other imaginative scientists relate the happenings in Bermuda to Einstein’s theory, saying that the missing ships and planes are translated to another dimension of space and time and taken into another world.

Maybe we will just have to wait to go to Heaven and ask the One who made it. The answer will surely be a satisfying one!

1.The writer may probably think that______.

2. Columbus’ journals told us that in Bermuda _______.

3.The underlined word “hypotheses” in the 6^th paragraph probably means______.

4.The purpose of the writer is to______.

Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.” How right they were!

       “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste that helps you hang on there when the going gets tough. It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!” It took years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.

      We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, pianist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, joy would reappear in his eyes. As author and poet Samuel Ulman once wrote, “Years wrinkle(使皱) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

     Enthusiastic people also love what they do, without being affected by money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl, retired director of the Missouri Repertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father, long ago, told me, ‘I never made a penny until I stopped working for money.’”

      If we cannot do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that troubled her for at least 30 years and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “I am tempted into a genius.”

   We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”．We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses—finding pleasure in the sweet smell of a back-yard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.

The author mainly wants to say that _________

A. enthusiastic people will never get old

    B. enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life

    C. enthusiasm is more important than experience

    D. enthusiasm can give people more success and fame

Which of the following can best explain the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?

    A. Enthusiasm can give you courage and strength in difficult times.

    B. If you don’t have enthusiasm, you can achieve nothing.

    C. Enthusiastic people never consider money and fame.

    D. Enthusiastic people can gain great fame and honor.

The author mentions cellist Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that____

    A. music can arouse people’s enthusiasm

    B. enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed

    C. enthusiasm can make people feel young

    D. enthusiasm can keep people healthy

How many examples are given in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

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

When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously（同时的）about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what' s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen -- they can' t do both -- and they don' t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships -- not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.

During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group,  they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.

Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.

There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls' mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond the brain bias of their children. Since a girl' s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short grunts in reply.

1.While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they       

2. After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours in order to              .

3.What does the author want to tell us most?

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?