The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it chased the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.

   Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up -- how to catch wild elephants.

   Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life. "Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase," she says.

   But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. "My work," she says, "is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.

   The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant. "Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans," she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!

For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to             .

   A. get long lasting excitement              B. keep both man and elephants safe

   C. send them back to the jungle             D. make the angry elephants tame

Before Parbati studied in a boarding school,             .

   A. she spent her time hunting with her father

   B. she learned how to sing love songs

   C. she had already been called an elephant princess

   D. she was taught how to hunt tigers

Indian elephants are getting increasingly angry and they revenge because             .

   A. they are caught and sent for heavy work                

   B. illegal hunters capture them and kill them

   C. they are attacked and their land gets limited

   D. dogs often bark at them and chase them

The passage starts with an elephant story in order to explain that in India              .    

   A. people easily fall victim to elephants' attacks

   B. the man-elephant relationship is getting worse

   C. elephant tamers are in short supply

   D. dogs are as powerful as elephants

Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?

A. Both Parbati and his father are elephant tamers

B. Parbati spent much time living in the jungle to be an elephant tamer.

C. Devotion makes a great difference to an elephant tamer.

D. Parbati’s work is to rescue both elephants and man.

第三部分：阅读理解：（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

(A)

What makes a house a home? A home is a place of companionship with people in it who love each other, who are harmonious (和谐的) and closer with one another than with those in the workplace or with classmates at school. A home is a place that’s so magnetic（有吸引力的） that it’s difficult to leave. In a home there is love, sharing and appreciation, and the members help one another.

I have seen families on the street. But if they live, sleep, talk, and eat together, they are a family, even if they are poorly off. You don’t need a roof to make a home. The truly homeless are some of the rich people who build multi-million-dollar houses and are too busy to really live in them. The truly homeless are those who have turned their home into a hotel lobby. The parents work and the children misbehave. They don’t talk and eat together every day. They rarely see each other. The truly homeless people are those with babysitters, caretakers, gardeners and maids. However, people are unaware of this, as they are too busy making money outside the home that they don’t live in. This is another way of looking at the rich and the homeless. Who is to be pitied?

Control of the computer and the Internet is also important to make a house into a home. If the computer is on all the time, the house turns into an office, even if everyone is at home. Many homes these days are just offices. Human communication has stopped. The computer eats up all the time that one should be giving to others within the home. Using the computer moderately gives us time for play and communication, not with a screen, but with other people.

56. Which of the following may serve as the best title for this passage?

A. How to make a house a home?

B. What makes a house a home?

C. Who are truly homeless?

D. What is a home for?

57. The purpose of the first paragraph is to _________.

A. tell us that where there is home there is love

B. tell us what people think a home is

C. tell us the author’s concept（理解）of home

D. tell us how to have a happy home

58. The underlined word “those” refers to ________.

A. people who build multi-million-dollar houses

B. people who have lost their family members

C. people who don’t spend time with the family

D. homeless families living on the street in America

59. Which of the following is FALSE according to the passage?

A. A home is a place where you are willing to stay.

B. Even the poorest people can have a happy home.

C. Computers and the Internet are important for a happy home.

D. Sometimes it’s the rich that should be pitied.

Pingyao, in the center of Shanxi Province, is a famous historic cultural city of China and a world cultural heritage site (世界文化遗址). It’s 90 kilometers south of Taiyuan on the Fen River.

   People lived in Pingyao during the New Stone Age. Its long period as a country government seat has left Pingyao with lots of historic buildings and sites, with a 2,700-year history. Ninety-nine of them are under government protection, including Zhengguo Temple, Shuanglin Temple and Pingyao Ancient City.

   During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, businessmen organized commercial (商业的) groups that did business nationwide. Shanxi Province had some of the most important ones and Pingyao was their center. In 1823, a store, known as Rishengchang(Sunrise Prosperity), traded in bank checks rather than in silver or gold coins. It was the beginning of modern Chinese banking. Branch banks were soon set up in major cities in China and other parts of Asia, leading to great development in Pingyao. Its Lacquer ware (漆器) became well known.

   In Pingyao Ancient City are many traditional houses and commercial buildings, 3,797 of which are protected and more than 400 of which are in good condition. Not only do the houses in Pingyao show Shanxi’s history and culture, but this large number is valuable for studying its history, customs, and ancient buildings and art. Most of these houses are still used as homes and shops of local people.

In 1997, Ancient Pingyao City was listed in World Heritage List as “ World Culture Heritage Site”.

What does the underlined word “them”(in the 2^nd paragraph) refer to?

A. Historic buildings and sites.                        B. The three temples.

C. The country government seats.                  D. The 2,700-year history.

Which of the following about Pingyao is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. Its location (位置).                                B. Its tourism.

C. Its business.                                               D. Its history.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Pingyao was a leading center in __________.

A. agriculture                                         B. raising cattle

C. commercial trade                                       D. making gold coins

If you want to know about the history of banking in China, you’ll visit __________.

A. Sunrise Prosperity                                   B. Zhengguo Temple

   C. A lacquer ware store                                 D. A commercial house

The main idea of the passage is that______________.

   A. Pingyao was the center of commerce

   B. There are many ancient architecture in Pingyao

   C. Pingyao was listed in World Heritage List

   D. Pingyao is a historic cultural city

The world itself is becoming much smaller by using modern traffic and modern communication means. Life today is much easier than it was hundreds of years ago; but it has brought new problems. One of the biggest is pollution. To pollute mean to make things dirty. Pollution comes in many ways. We see it, smell it, drink it and even hear it.

Man has been polluting the earth. The more people, the more pollution. Many years ago, the problem was not so serious because there were not so many people. When the land was used up or the river was dirty in a place, men moved to another place. But this is no longer true. Man is now slowly polluting the whole world.

Air pollution is still the most serious. It’s bad to all living things in the world, but it is not only one kind of pollution. Water pollution kills our fish and pollutes our drinking water. Noise pollution makes us become angry more easily.

Many countries are making rules to fight pollution. They stop the people from burning coal in houses and factories in the city, and from blowing dirty smoke into the air.

The pollution of SO₂ is now the most dangerous problem of air pollution. It is caused by heavy traffic. It is sure that if there are fewer people driving, there will be less air pollution.

The earth is our home. We must take care of it. That means keeping the land, water and air clean. And we must keep careful of the rise in pollution at the same time.

1.Our world is becoming much smaller ___________.

2.Pollution comes in many ways. We can even hear it. Here “it” means ___________.

3. Air pollution is the most serious kind of pollution because __________.

4.Which of the following is not true?

Stepping into a pool of water is common enough, but who could ever imagine stepping into a pool of fish? In February of 1974, Bill Tapp, an Australian farmer, saw a rain of fish that covered his farm. How surprised he must have been when he heard many fish hitting against his roof!

　　 What caused this strange occurrence? This is a question that had long puzzled people who study fish. The answer turned out to be a combination of wind and storm.

　　When it is spring in the northern part of the world, it is fall in Australia. Throughout the autumn season, terrible storms arise and rains flood the land. The strong winds sweep over Australia like huge vacuum cleaners, collecting seaweed, pieces of wood, and even schools of fish. Strong winds may carry these bits of nature for many miles before dropping them on fields, houses, and astonished people.

　　Although they seem unusual, fish-falls occur quite frequently in Australia. When Bill Tapp was asked to describe the scene of fish, he remarked, “They look like millions of dead birds falling down.” His statement is not surprising. The wonders of the natural world are as common as rain. Nature, with its infinite wonders, can create waterfalls that flow upward and fish that fall out of the sky.

　　56. What is this passage about?

　　A. A sad story. 　　　　　　　　　　　　B. A rain of fish.

　　C. Australia’s northern part.　　　　　D. The damage done by floods.

　　57. Fish-falls occur in Australia_________ .

　　A. quite often 　　　　　　B. on large farms

　　C. only in winter　　　　　D. when the air is calm

　　58. It is a known fact that ________.

　　A. one should watch where one steps

　　B. Bill Tapp is a scientist who studies farming

　　C. the natural world can never create waterfalls that fall upward

　　D. the seasons in the southern part are different from those in the northern part

 　59. The word “infinite” is closest in meaning to _________.

　　A. easy 　　　B. difficult 　　　C. countless 　　　D. dangerous