The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.?

When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country's rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.?

With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.

When movies began to be popular in the 1920s,the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.

Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade's “Cowboy Craze”.While this didn't last long, it made modern country/western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.?

In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing—somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar?room fighter—there's one thing for sure, you can't keep the cowboy down.?

During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, _______.?

A. the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales?

B. the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East?

C. cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen?

D. country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country

By saying “you can't keep the cowboy down”,the writer means that _______.

A. cowboys are real people in history   B. cowboys still fascinate people?

C. you can't make cowboys unhappy     D. you can't grasp the cowboy spirit?

Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?

A. The cowboy has been presented in different lights in different eras.?

B. Cowboys are gun-shooting hooligans, without doubt.?

C. Cowboys have always been a passing phenomenon.?

D. Cowboys enjoy Italian foods, for example, spaghetti.

The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.?

When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country's rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.?

With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.

When movies began to be popular in the 1920s,the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.

Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade's “Cowboy Craze”.While this didn't last long, it made modern country/western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.?

In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing—somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar?room fighter—there's one thing for sure, you can't keep the cowboy down.?

The purpose of this story is to _______.

A. introduce cowboy movies and novels?

B. introduce various productions associated with cowboys?

C. show the cowboy's everlasting charm ?

D. inform us about the cowboy's spirit?

Before they became cowboys, they _______.

A. served in the army    B. worked as bar-room fighters?

C. owned ranches      D. were adventurous explorers?

During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, _______.?

A. the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales?

B. the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East?

C. cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen?

D. country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country

By saying “you can't keep the cowboy down”,the writer means that _______.

A. cowboys are real people in history   B. cowboys still fascinate people?

C. you can't make cowboys unhappy     D. you can't grasp the cowboy spirit?

The olive is one of the oldest planted crops known to man and is still widely grown in the Mediterranean.An olive tree can have a life of 500 years and is strong enough to continue to grow if ever chopped to the ground.It takes up four years before the olive tree is ripe enough to bear fruit.
Olive trees originated in the Mediterranean region where there is the perfect climate for the olive tree planting.It is characterized by abundant sunshine year-round and hot,dry summers with an average temperature of 80°F.In winter,it rarely drops below 50°F.Olive trees were first planted by humans around 4000 BC in an area known as the Fertile Crescent.Before the areas became desert,countries such as modern-day Turkey and Iraq had a lush environment with soil that plants grow well.Archaeological findings suggest that farming began in the Fertile Crescent before 7000BC.Instead of living as hunter-gatherers,these early humans settled down and harvested native plants.They selected olive trees that produced larger and oilier olives than the wild trees.
Olives and olive oil became valuable trade items between societies and civilizations.People who moved from one place to another and traders from the Fertile Crescent introduced olive oil to Syria and Crete,which spread to Egypt,Greece,and Rome.It continued to migrate westward until olive trees were first introduced to Califomia between 1769 and 1785.
The olive tree and olive oil have important symbolism in each religion.In Christianity,a dove(鸽子)brought an olive branch to Noah as a symbol of peace and new life after God flooded the Earth.The Prophet Muhammad suggested the use of olive oil for medicinal(药用的) purposes and massage(按摩).
Olive oil has medicinal benefits.Olive oil has been used for health benefits.Regular eating olive oil can reduce the risk of cancers.It was used during the Spanish Civil War from 1808 to 1813 to treat cases of fever.In 1960,oleuropein(橄榄多酚)was removed from olive leaves,which helps with food poisoning.
【小题1】If an olive tree is chopped to the ground,______.

A.it can’t grow any more
B.it can produce more new ones
C.there is no doubt that it will die
D.it is able to grow back strongly
【小题2】What does the underlined word “lush”in para.2 probably mean?
A.Of bad climate.B.Changeable or unstable.
C.Extremely disadvantaged.D.Growing thickly and strongly.
【小题3】We can learn from the first two paragraphs that_____.
A.the olive tree can stand extreme cold
B.the olive tree enjoys the long sunshine
C.the olive is the oldest tree in the world
D.the climate of deserts suits the olive tree
【小题4】Which of the following is true according to the passage?
①Olive trees bear fruits every four years.
②Olive oil was a food production before 7000BC.
③In Muhammad,olive oil was used as medicine.
④Olive trees were introduced to California in the 18th century.
A.②③④          B. ①②③           C. ①③④           D. ①②④
【小题5】What is this passage mainly about?
A.The history of the olive tree.
B.The characteristic of the olive tree.
C.The origin and medicinal benefits of the olive tree.
D.The different symbols of the olive tree in each region.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families of their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金) price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.
【小题1】What does the passage mainly discuss?

A.The influence of ice on the diet.
B.The development of refrigeration.
C.The transportation of goods to market.
D.Sources of ice in the nineteenth century.
【小题2】According to the passage, when did the word “icebox” become part of the language of the United States?
A.in 1803B.sometime bore 1850
C.during the civil warD.near the end of the nineteenth century.
【小题3】The phrase “forward-looking” in line 3 is closest in meaning to______.
A.progressiveB.popularC.thriftyD.well-established
【小题4】The author mentions “fish” in the passage because _____.
A.many fish dealers also sold ice.
B.fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars.
C.fish dealers were among the early commercial users of ice
D.fish was not part of the ordinary person’s diet before the invention of the icebox.

The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place.Now it is an ecological disaster area.Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence-other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years,Polynesian people lived in the remote island of Nauru,far from western civilization.The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798.He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship.He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first.The whaling ships and other traders began to visit,bringing guns and alcohol.These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island.A ten-year civil war started,which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate(磷酸盐)on the island.In fact,it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate,which was a very important fertilizer for farming.The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground;it is a strip mine.When a company strip-mines,it removes the to player of soil.Then it takes away the material it wants.Strip mining totally destroys the land.Gradually, the lovely island or Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968,Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world.Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars.In addition,they used millions more dollars for personal expenses.Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem—their phosphate was running out.Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing.By 2000,Nauru was financially ruined.Experts say that it would take approximately$433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island.This will probably never happen.
【小题1】What might be the author's purpose in writing the text?

A.To seek help for Nauru's problems.
B.To tell a heartbreaking story of a war.
C.To show the importance of money
D.To give a warning to other countries
【小题2】What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
APeaceful and attractive             B.Modern and open
C.Rich and powerful                       D.Greedy and aggressive
【小题3】The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from
A.soil pollutionB.phosphate overmining
C.farming activity D.whale hunting
【小题4】Which of the following was a cause of Nauru's financial problem?
A.Its phosphate mining cost much money
B.It spent too much repairing the island
C.Its leaders misused the money
D.It lost millions of dollars in the civil war.
【小题5】What can we learn about Nauru from me last paragraph?
A.The leaders will take the experts' words seriously
B.The ecological damage is difficult to repair.
C.The island was abandoned by the Nauruans
D.The phosphate mines were destroyed

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