_______ for several weeks, the city was short of food and clothing.

1. A.
   As having flooded
2. B.
   As flooding
3. C.
   Having been flooded
4. D.
   To flood

For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words. In  1  a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend  2   can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are   3   readers. Most of us develop poor reading  4    at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency   5  in the actual stuff of language itself ——words. Taken individually, words have  6   meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs.    7  , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing（退回） to  8    words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over   9  you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which  10   down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as  11    reads.

　　To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an  12  , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined（预先确定的） speeD．The bar is set at a slightly faster rate  13   the reader finds comfortable, in order to “stretch” him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast,    14  word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization（默读）practically impossible. At first  15  is sacrificed for speeD．But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster,   16    your comprehension will improve. Many people have found  17   reading skill drastically improved after some training. 18  Charlce Au, a business manager, for instance, his reading rate was a reasonably good 172 words a minute  19   the training, now it is an excellent 1,28 words a minute. He is delighted that how he can   20  a lot more reading material in a short period of time.  

1．  A．applying B．doing       C．offering   D．getting

2．  A．quickly    B．easily       C．roughly    D．decidedly

3．  A．good       B．curious    C．poor        D．urgent

4．  A．training   B．habits      C．situations        D．custom

5．  A．lies   B．combines        C．touches    D．involves

6．  A．some       B．a lot        C．little        D．dull

7．  A．Fortunately     B．In fact      C．Logically        D．Unfortunately

8．  A．reuse       B．reread      C．rewrite     D．recite

9．  A．what        B．which      C．that D．if

10．A．scales      B．cuts C．slows       D．measures

11．A．some one        B．one   C．he    D．reader

12．A．accelerator      B．actor        C．amplifier D．observer

13．A．then        B．as     C．beyond    D．than

14．A．enabling B．leading    C．making    D．indicating

15．A．meaning B．comprehensionC．gist    D．regression

16．A．but   B．nor   C．or     D．for

17．A．our   B．your        C．their        D．such a

18．A．Look at    B．Take        C．Make       D．Consider

19．A．for   B．in     C．after        D．before

20．A．master     B．go over     C．present     D．get through

For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   

Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

       A．Opera is famous for is history.                                   

       B．Opera is only for rich people.

       C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.                            

       D．Young people are not interested in opera. 

The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means          .

       A．breaking up the old rules       B．changing the dresses

       C．making the audience at ease    D．advertising themselves

Opera companies prefer to perform smaller versions because         .

       A．they can be performed  in public libraries

       B．short versions are easy to perform

       C．it is hard to find long versions

       D．they can make people interested

The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to        .

       A．attract young people               B．reduce the cost

       C．celebrate its 75^th anniversary   D．make Cinderella popular

What can you infer from the passage?

       A．The tickets for opera are very expensive at present.

       B．Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand.

       C．Opera is not so popular an art form today.

       D．Students enjoy performing operas very much.

    Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless, “he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire. 

    It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.

    The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s School of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits(成就).Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.

     Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’” Saunders says.

     In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.

     Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.

     This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1,800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.

56. The turning point in Saunders’ life came when _____

A. he started to play ball games                                B. he got a mountain bike at age 15

C. he ran his first marathon at age 18                        D. he started to receive Ridgway’s training

57. We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.

A. dismissed Saunders’ dream as fantasy                    B. built up his body together with Saunders

C. hired Saunders for his cold-water experience         

D.won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic

58. What do we know about Saunders?

A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.

B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.

C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.

D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.

59. The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_____.

A.  Excited                        B. Convinced                      C. Delighted                D. Fascinated

60. It can be inferred that Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.

A. was accompanied by his old playmates                  B. set a record in the North Pole expedition

C. was supported by other Arctic explorers                 D. made him well-known in the 1960s

For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people's mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. Because young people don't or won't come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera's choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas” shortened versions(剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer's production is Hansel ＆ Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists' Training Program.

Which is the main idea of this passage？

A.    Opera is famous for its long history.

B.    Opera is only performed for rich people.

C.    Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.

D.    Young people are not interested in opera.

The underlined phrase in the second paragraph means ______.

A.    breaking up the old rules      B.       changing the dresses

C.    making the audience at ease    D. advertising themselves

Opera companies prefer to perform short versions because ______ .

A.    they can be performed in public libraries

B.    short versions are easy to perform

C.    it is hard to find long versions 

D.    they can make more people come to opera

The San Francisco Opera employs students in order to ______.

A.    celebrate its 75th anniversary         B.    reduce the cost

C.    attract young people                           D.    make Cinderella popular