Last April, on a visit to the new Mall of America near Minneapolis, I carried with me a small book provided for the reporters by the public relations office. It

included a variety of “fun facts” about the mall, for example, 140,000 hot dogs are sold each week, there are 10,000 full-time jobs, 44 sets of moving stairs and 17 lifts, 12,750 parking places, 13,000 tons of steel and $ 1 million is drawn weekly from 8 ATMs. Opened in the summer of 2005, the mall was built where the former Minneapolis Stadium had been. It was only a five-minute drive from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. With 4.2 million square feet of floor space ----- twenty-two times the size of the average American shopping center –the Mall of America was the largest shopping and family recreation center under one roof in the United States.

I know already that the Mall of America had been imagined by its designers, not only as a marketplace, but as a national tourist attaction. Eleven thousand articles, the small book informed me, had been written about the mall.  Four hundred trees had been planted in its gardens, $ 625 million had been spent to build it, and 350 stores were already in business. Three thousand bus tours were expected each year along with a half-million Canadian visitors and 200,000 Japanese tourists. Sales are expected to be at $ 650 million for 2008 and at $ I billion for 2009. Pop singers and film stars such as Janet Jackson and Amold Schwarzenegger visited the mall. It was five times larger than Red Square and it included 2.3 miles of hallways and used almost twice as Knott’s Camp Snoopy.

60. We know from the text that the Mall of America is _________.

A.near an old stadium                  B.close to an airport

C.higher than the Eiffel Tower          D.bigger than most American parks

61. Why are the pieces of information provided by the Mall of America referred to as “fun facts”?

A.They are largely imagined.          B.They are surprising figures（数字）

C.They give exact descriptions.        D.They make people feel uneasy.

62. Why does the author mention popular stars who have been to the mall?

A.To show its power of attraction.

B.To show that few rich people like to shop there.

C.To tell the public about a new movie being made about it.

D.To tell people that they have chances of meeting famous stars there.

63. We can infer from the text that _______.

A.Japanese visitors are most welcome to the mall

B.Canadian visitors would spend $ I billion at the mall

C.Knott’s Camp Snoopy was next to the Mall of America

D.the Mall of America was designed to serve more than one purpose（目的）

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in March 1952, educated at Brentwood School, Essex and St John's College, Cambridge where, in 1974 he gained a BA (and later an MA) in English literature.

He was the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy(《银河系漫游指南》), which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. Since then it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a TV series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's success sent the book straight to Number One in the UK Bestseller List and in 1984 Douglas Adams became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. He won a further two (a rare feat), and was nominated—though not selected - for the first Best of Young British Novelists awards.

He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); and Mostly Harmless (1992). The first two books in the Hitchhiker series were adapted into a 6-part television series, which was an immediate success when first showed in 1982. Other publications include Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). In 1984 Douglas teamed up with John Lloyd and wrote The Meaning of Life and their second huge success, The Deeper Meaning of Life followed in 1990. One of Douglas’s personal favorites was written in 1990 when he teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and wrote Last Chance to See an account of a world-wide search for rare and endangered species of animals.

Douglas sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. He was also a best seller in German, Swedish and many other languages.

Douglas Adams died on Friday, May 11, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA. He will be greatly missed by fans worldwide.

1.The main idea of this passage is           .

A．Douglas Adams, always loved by fans

B．Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

C．Douglas Adams and his works

D．Douglas Adams’s personal lives

2.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first shown to the public as           .

A．a radio series       B．a movie           C．a TV series         D．a computer game

3.Which two books were adapted into a six-part TV series?

A．Life, The Universe and Everything and Mostly Harmless

B．The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, The Universe and Everything

C．The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

D．So Long and Thanks for all the Fish and Mostly Harmless

4. Last Chance to See is a book about          .

A．Some stories happening in a Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

B．the author’s personal favorites

C．a zoologist and his worldwide experiences

D．searching for rare and endangered species of animals

5.Which of the following statement is not true?

A．Douglas Adams died at the age of 49 and he was memorized by his fans.

B．Douglas Adams was the youngest author to be selected as one of the first Best of Young British Novelists.

C．John Lloyd was one of the authors of the two books, The Meaning of Lifeand The Deeper Meaning of Life.

D．Douglas graduated from Essex and St John's College and gained a Master’s Degree.

Last April, on a visit to the new Mall of America near Minneapolis, I carried with me a small book provided for the reporters by the public relations office. It
included a variety of “fun facts” about the mall, for example, 140,000 hot dogs are sold each week, there are 10,000 full-time jobs, 44 sets of moving stairs and 17 lifts, 12,750 parking places, 13,000 tons of steel and $ 1 million is drawn weekly from 8 ATMs. Opened in the summer of 2005, the mall was built where the former Minneapolis Stadium had been. It was only a five-minute drive from the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. With 4.2 million square feet of floor space ----- twenty-two times the size of the average American shopping center –the Mall of America was the largest shopping and family recreation center under one roof in the United States.
I know already that the Mall of America had been imagined by its designers, not only as a marketplace, but as a national tourist attaction. Eleven thousand articles, the small book informed me, had been written about the mall.  Four hundred trees had been planted in its gardens, $ 625 million had been spent to build it, and 350 stores were already in business. Three thousand bus tours were expected each year along with a half-million Canadian visitors and 200,000 Japanese tourists. Sales are expected to be at $ 650 million for 2008 and at $ I billion for 2009. Pop singers and film stars such as Janet Jackson and Amold Schwarzenegger visited the mall. It was five times larger than Red Square and it included 2.3 miles of hallways and used almost twice as Knott’s Camp Snoopy.
60. We know from the text that the Mall of America is _________.
A.near an old stadium                  B.close to an airport
C.higher than the Eiffel Tower          D.bigger than most American parks
61. Why are the pieces of information provided by the Mall of America referred to as “fun facts”?
A.They are largely imagined.          B.They are surprising figures（数字）
C.They give exact descriptions.        D.They make people feel uneasy.
62. Why does the author mention popular stars who have been to the mall?
A.To show its power of attraction.
B.To show that few rich people like to shop there.
C.To tell the public about a new movie being made about it.
D.To tell people that they have chances of meeting famous stars there.
63. We can infer from the text that _______.
A.Japanese visitors are most welcome to the mall
B.Canadian visitors would spend $ I billion at the mall
C.Knott’s Camp Snoopy was next to the Mall of America
D.the Mall of America was designed to serve more than one purpose（目的）

In America,where labor costs are so high, do-it-yourself is a way of life.Many people  36 their own car,build their own garages,even rebuild their own  37 .Soon they may also be writing their own books.In Hollywood there is a company  38 publishes(出版) Children’s books  39  the help of computers.Although other book  40  also publish that way,this particular company is very  41  .It “personalizes”（使个性化）the book by having the computer make the reader the leading character in the story.Here is  42  they do it.Let us say your child  43  Jenny.She lives on Oak Drive in St. Louis,has a dog named Spot,a cat named Tabby,and three playmates  44  names are Betty,Sandy ,and Jody.The computer uses this  45 to fill out a story that has  46 been prepared and illustrated（发行）.The story is then printed（印刷） with standard equipment  47  a hard-cover book.A child who  48  such a book might say,”This book is about me”;the company therefore calls  49  the Me-book Publishing Company”.

Children like the Me-books because they like to see their own names in print and 50  of their friends and their pets.  51  more important ,”personalization” has been  52  to be important tool（工具） in   __53  enthusiasm（热情） for reading.So Me-books are helping   54  to learn how to read,   55  appealing to（吸引） that natural desire to see his own name in print.

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in March 1952, educated at Brentwood School, Essex and St John's College, Cambridge where, in 1974 he gained a BA (and later an MA) in English literature.
He was the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy(《银河系漫游指南》), which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. Since then it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a TV series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's success sent the book straight to Number One in the UK Bestseller List and in 1984 Douglas Adams became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. He won a further two (a rare feat), and was nominated—though not selected - for the first Best of Young British Novelists awards.
He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); and Mostly Harmless (1992). The first two books in the Hitchhiker series were adapted into a 6-part television series, which was an immediate success when first showed in 1982. Other publications include Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). In 1984 Douglas teamed up with John Lloyd and wrote The Meaning of Life and their second huge success, The Deeper Meaning of Life followed in 1990. One of Douglas’s personal favorites was written in 1990 when he teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and wrote Last Chance to See an account of a world-wide search for rare and endangered species of animals.
Douglas sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. He was also a best seller in German, Swedish and many other languages.
Douglas Adams died on Friday, May 11, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA. He will be greatly missed by fans worldwide.
【小题1】The main idea of this passage is           .