63．What is the passage mainly about?

　　　 A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.

　　　 B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.

　　　 C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.

　　　 D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.

62．Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A．How to Choose a Christmas Tree　　　　　 B．No More Christmas Tree for Us

C．Dark Moments of Life　　 D．Christmas Without Trees

(C)

Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.　

So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress(国会) in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail-and passengers, too.

Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.

It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach(马车) would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.

Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.

One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.

The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.

The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”

61．When the writer said " my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain", he means ____.

　　 A．she bought the tree at a cheap price　　 B．she didn't really want to buy it

　　 C．she had to bargain hard with the salesman　　 D．she couldn't afford a more expensive one

60．We can learn from the passage that the writer would like to _____.

　　 A．forget about Christmas stories　　 B．get the neighbors to put up their trees

　　 C．buy a better tree to celebrate Christmas　　 D．make other decorations rather than Christmas trees

59．The darkest moments in the writer's family were with the fact that _____.

　　 A．the family bought big Christmas trees B．they had problems decorating their Christmas trees

　　 C．they had problems picking suitable Christmas trees

　　 D．they had problems finding carpenters for putting up Christmas trees

54．A．cares　 　　　　　　　 B．pains 　　　　　　　　 C．delights 　　　　　　 D．minds

53．A．joy 　　　　　　　　　　 B．progress 　　　　　　 C．effort 　　　　　　　　 D．work

52．A．even if 　　　　　　　 B．although 　　　　　　 C．unless 　　　　　　　 D．if

51．A．so 　　　　　　　　　　 B．even though 　　　 C．because 　　　　　　 D．although