56.The text is mainly about_______.

　 A. the whole life of Sacagawea　　　　　 B. the difficulties the Corps of Discovery met

　 C. American history in exploration　　　 D. Sacagawea’s contribution to the Corps of Discovery

71．What can we learn about Fan Yi from the passage?

A．She’s beliveed to be writing more bird stories.

B．Her Chinese version of Swordbird has been published in China.

C．She is learning how to write English poems from her parents.

D．She’s likely to become a full-time writer.

答案　 68.B　 69.B　 70.B　 71.A

Passage 9

(衡阳市八中2008届高三模拟试题A篇)

Sacagawea, the only woman on the Lewis and Clark expedition into the American West, was the daughter of a Shoshone chief. Around the age of 12, Sacagawea was captured by Hidatsa Indians, an enemy of the Shoshones. She was then sold to a French-Canadian trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau and became one of his wives.

In November 1804, an expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived there. Often called the Corps of Discovery, the expedition planned to explore newly acquired western lands and find a route to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau to serve as interpreter on their expedition. Even though she was pregnant with her first child, Sacagawea was chosen to accompany them.

She was killed at finding eatable plants. When a boat she was riding on turned over, she was able to save some of its goods, including important documents and supplies. She also served as a symbol of peace---a group traveling with a woman and a child were treated with less suspicion than a group of men alone.

Sacagawea also made a miraculous discovery of her own during the trip west. When they met a group of Shoshone Indians, she soon realized that its leader was actually her brother Cameahwait. It was through her that the expedition was able to buy horses from the Shoshone to cross the Rocky Mountains.

After reaching the Pacific coast in November 1805, they remained there until March of the following year. Sacagawea, her husband, and her son remained with the expedition on the return trip east until they reached the Mandan villages. And for her contribution to the Crops of Discovery, she was even featured on a dollar coin issued in 2000 by the US Mint.

70．Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Swordbird is an English adventure story.

B．One of her dreams made her begin to write Swordbird.

C．Swordbird only has an English version.

D．Swordbird is an excellent adult fiction.

69．Fan Yi’s book was related to the 9.11 terrorist attacks because　　　　 .

A．it was being written when the attacks happened

B．it expressed her desire for peace and an end to terrorism

C．they both involved fighting in the air

D．the attacks were mentioned in her book

68．The underlined words “rosefinches” and “bluejays” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to　　　 .

A．creatures from outer space　　　　　　　　　　　　　

B．different kinds of birds

C．different kinds of planes　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

D．people from different races

59．The best title of the story is　　　　 .

A．A poor girl　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

B．A dancer in the silent world　　

C．A beautiful dancer　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

D．The dance duringt the CCTV Spring Festival Gala

答案　 56.C　 57.D　 58.D　 59.B

Passage 8

(安徽省芜湖一中2008年高三5月最后一模D篇)

A 13-year-old Chinese girl, Fan Yi (Nancy), who had her primary education in the US, recently published her first fairy tale, Swordbird. The fairy tale written in English has appeared on the children’s fiction bestseller list in the US, the Shanghai Evening Post reported.

Fan Yi was greatly interested in observing birds ever since she was a little girl. In Hamilton, New York, where she lives, she often watches kingfishers and woodpeckers flying over her house from the small woods nearby. The inspiration for writing the book Swordbird actually came from one of her dreams. At that time, she was studying American history in school and happened to read many articles in magazines about the 9.11 terrorist(恐怖分子) attacks. One day, she had a dream in which some rosefinches and bluejays were controlled by some black birds and began to fight with each other. When she woke up, she decided to turn her dream into a story and to convey her message of peace to the public.

In order to get her book published in China, Fan translated the entire English version into Chinese.

“It is a learning process. Since I didn’t know many Chinese idioms, I had to get help from my mom and dad from time to time. For another thing, a lot of poems in the original story are written in rhyme, so when I translated them into Chinese, I wanted to make sure that they were in rhyme, too.” she said.

Fan Yi was born in Beijing in 1993. She stayed in Beijing until she finished her first grade of primary school. Then she moved with her parents to the United States when she was seven. Two years later, she started to write her English story.

In March this year, the book was published by HarperCollins Publishers. It was selected as the week’s bestseller of children’s fiction by the New York Times soon after it was published.

Fan Yi has said she will write more books in the future. It is expected that the sequel(续篇) to Swordbird will come out next year.

58．People could not forget Tai Lihua because　　　　 .

A．she was born mute and deaf and good at dancing

B．she used her mind more than the others and could use dance to express what she thought about life

C．she has been to many countries and now lives a happy life

D．though mute and deaf, she is beautiful and hard working and good at dancing

57．Which is the right order of the events to Tai Lihua?

a．She danced during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

b．She was a healthy girl.

c．She began to learn to dance.

d．She lost her hearing.

e．She went to a school for deaf and mute children.

f．She couldn’t speak.

g．She found she was different from the others.

A．abdfgce　　　　　　　　　 B．badfegc　　　　　　　　　 C．bdfegca　　　　　　　　　 D．bdfgeca

56．From the passage we know　　　 .

A．Tai Lihua was found deaf and mute by her father when she played a game with her classmates

B．Tai Lihua danced very well at the beginning of learning to dance

C．Tai Lihua never gave up when she was in trouble

D．Tai Lihua’s parents didn’t take good care of her

70．What would be the best title for the passage?

　　　 A．Work for free

　　　 B．Get experience, anyway you can

　　　 C．Experience ---the most important thing

D．How Fred became successful

答案　 68.D　 69.C　 70.B

Passage 7

(安徽省芜湖一中2008年高三5月最后一模A篇)

Many people could not forget the buautiful dance during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. The dance was performed by 20 disabled girls. They can’t hear or speak. But their performance is remembered by many people. The leading dancer of the dance is Tai Lihua. She is 28 years old. She is very beautiful.

Tai Lihua was born healthy. When she was two years old, she lost her hearing because of a fever. Not long after that, she became mute, too. From then on, her world was silent. But she didn’t know this at first. At five years old, when she played a game about sounds with her schoolmates she discovered that she was different from the others. She was very sad about it. Her father went to many places to look for best treatments for her illness. But nothing worked. When she was seven years old, she went to a school for deaf and mute children. In that school, she did well in her studies. Her teacher said she used her mind more than the others and was good at expressing her feeling through dance. She also began to love dance. She thought she could use dance to express what she　 thought about life.

When she was 15 years old, she began to learn to dance. At first, she couldn’t dance well. But she didn’t stop. She worked harder than the others. She also spent more time learning. Her efforts made her a very good dancer. She has been to many countries to perform and many foreigners like her style. She now lives a happy life with her family.