A husband-and-wife team from California reached the Pacific Ocean after a 4,900- mile-cross
-country walk, becoming the first to backpack the American Discovery Trail in one continuous
walk.
Marcia and Ken powers, of Pleasanton, started the travel across 13 states, through 14 national parks and 16 national forests on Feb. 27 from Cape Henlopen in Delaware. Nearly eight months later, the excited couple walked through water into the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, a day ahead of time.
“We are a little sad that a great adventure is over. It was a fantastic adventure. And now we go home and just do housework. It's really sad.” Marcia, who said she's in her 50s, and her 60-year-old husband traversed cities, desert, mountains and farmland before reaching the Pacifics alone with arms around each other' s backpacks.
They overcame deep snow in the East, a quicksand in Utah, close lightning strikes in the Mid- west and strong desert sandstorms in the West while averaging 22 miles a day and taking only four days off. But they enjoyed the French history of St. Louis' the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and the kindness of strangers they met along the way. They particularly remember two brothers ---- a
doctor and dentist-------who put them up in their homes, after terrible days, and a motorcyclist who gave them water after they failed to find any on Utah's lonely Wah Wah Desert.
“Americans are truly warm-hearted and wonderful people.” Marcia Powers said. “We got to meet people that we would never meet in our daily living at home. We got to touch it with our feet and hands and smell all its scents and hear its wildlife. It' s an amazing country,” she added.
【小题1】Which of the following about couple's walk is TRUE?
| A.The walk covered more than 13 states. |
| B.The walk lasted about half a year. |
| C.The walk didn't meet any desert. |
| D.The walk might end before October 27. |
| A.enjoy | B.move across, through or over |
| C.overcome | D.look at |
| A.were treated warm-heartedly by the local people |
| B.never stopped to have a rest |
| C.were ever caught in a heavy rain and became ill |
| D.felt the quicksand in Utah was very interesting |
| A.big rivers | B.desert | C.hills | D.fields |
(B)
British author JK Rowling was at the release of her latest Harry Potter book called “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” at the Natural History Museum in London, Friday July 20, 2007.
J.K. Rowling has been spotted at cafes in Scotland working on a detective novel, a British newspaper reported Saturday.
The Sunday Times newspaper quoted Ian Rankin, a fellow author and neighbor of Rowling's, as saying the creator of the "Harry Potter" books is turning to crime fiction.
"My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel," the newspaper quoted Rankin as telling a reporter at an Edinburgh literary festival.
"It is great that she has not abandoned writing or Edinburgh cafes," said Rankin, who is known for his own police novels set in the historic Scottish city.
Rowling famously wrote initial drafts of the Potter story in the Scottish city's cafes. Back then, she was a struggling single mother who wrote in cafes to save on the heating bill at home.
Now she's Britain's richest woman - worth $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine - and her seven Potter books have sold more than 335 million copies worldwide.
In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Rowling said she believed she was unlikely to repeat the success of the Potter series, but confirmed she had plans to work on new books.
"I'll do exactly what I did with Harry - I'll write what I really want to write," Rowling said.
46 What is JK Rowling famous for?
| A. detective novels | B. crime fiction | C. Harry Potter books | D. love stories |
| A. He is a writer famous for police novels. |
| B. Most of the stories in his novels happened in the historic Scottish city. |
| C. It was Rankin himself who witnessed JK Rowing writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novels. |
| D. He told the British newspaper The Sunday Times about JK Rowling’s novels. |
| A. Because she was a romantic woman and the atmosphere in the cafes gave her lots of inspiration. |
| B. Because she was a single mother at that time and she wanted to find a husband there. |
| C. Because her children were so naughty at home and she had to go to a quiet place for her writing. |
| D. Because she thought that writing in a cafes could help her save some money. |
| A. The seven Harry Potter series made JK Rowling a success. |
| B. JK Rowling had made enough money so she decided to stop writing. |
| C. Rowling planned to write new books because Harry Potter was not exactly what she wanted. |
| D. Ian Rankin and his wife earned money by telling reporters news about JK Rowling. |
| A. Harry Potter and JK Rowing | B. Ian Rankin, A Neighbour of JK Rowling |
| C. A Successful Woman JK Rowling | D. JK Rowling writing Detective Novels |
Ⅲ. 阅读(共两节,满分40分)
第一节:阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
阅读下面短文,掌握其大意,然后从41—55各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
(A)
We're all connected. You can send an e-mail message to a friend, and your friend can pass it on to one of his or her friends, and that friend can do the same, continuing the chain. Eventually, your message could reach just about anyone in the world, and it might take only five to seven e-mails for the message to get there.
Scientists recently tested that idea in a study involving 24,000 people. Participants had to try to get a message forwarded to one of 18 randomly chosen people. Each participant started by sending one e-mail to someone they knew. Recipients could then forward the e-mail once to someone they knew, and so on.
Targets, who were randomly assigned by researchers from Columbia University in New York, lived in 13 countries. They included an Australian police officer, a Norwegian veterinarian, and a college professor.
Out of 24,000 chains, only 384 reached their goal. The rest petered out, usually because one of the recipients was either too busy to forward the message or thought it was junk mail.
The links that reached their goal made it in an average of 4.05 e-mails. Based on the lengths of the failed chains, the researchers estimated that two strangers could generally make contact in five to seven e-mails.
The most successful chains relied on casual acquaintances rather than close friends. That's because your close friends know each other whereas your acquaintances tend to know people you don't know. The phenomenon, known as the strength of weak ties, explains why people tend to get jobs through people they know casually but aren't that close to.
So, start networking and instant messaging now. As they say in show business: It's all about who you know.
41. If you want to get into touch with a stranger in the world, how many e-mails might it take for the message to reach him/her?
| A. 5 to 7 | B. 18 | C. 13 | D. 384 |
| A. 24,000 people took part in the study and sent e-mails to people they knew. |
| B. The 18 targets were chosen by chance. |
| C. About 98.4% of the mails didn’t reach their goal because some people were too busy or they mistook the message for junk mail. |
| D. The targets come from 13 countries, such as Australia, Norway and New York. |
| A. make sure | B. suppose | C. think over | D. imagine |
| A. Because close friends don’t talk with each other so much. |
| B. Because casual acquaintances can help you know more people and make more friends. |
| C. Because close friends don’t spend so much time gathering together. |
| D. Because casual acquaintances are kinder and more willing to help others. |
| A. Culture | B. Entertainment | C. Information and Technology | D. Health |