2、Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis Cricket―anything with a round ball, I was useless, “he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.

It was a mountain bike he received for his 15^th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.

The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits(成就).Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.

Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’” Saunders says.

In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.

Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.

This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.

46. The turning point in Saunders’ life came when _____

A.      he started to play ball games      

B. he got a mountain bike at age 15

C.      he ran his first marathon at age 18  

 D. he started to receive Ridgway’s training

47. We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.

A.      dismissed Saunders’ dream as fantasy   

B.      B. built up his body together with Saunders

C.  hired Saunders for his cold-water experience

D. won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic

48. What do we know about Saunders?

A.      He once worked at a school in Scotland.

B.      He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.

C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.

D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.

49. The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_____.

A.  Excited   B. Convinced   C. Delighted    D. Fascinated

50. It can be inferred that Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.

A.      was accompanied by his old playmates   

B.      set a record in the North Pole expedition

C.  was supported by other Arctic explorers  

D. made him well-known in the 1960s

1、Man has always wanted to fly. Some of the greatest men in history have thought about the problem. One of these, for example, was the great Italian artist, Leonardo da Vince. In ____36____ sixteenth century he made designs for machines ____37   could fly. But they were never built.

Throughout history , other less famous men __38_____(want) to fly. An example was a man in England 800 years ago. He made a pair of wings from  chicken feathers. Then he fixed them to his body and jumped into the air from a tall building. He did not fly very far. He fell to the ground and broke every bone in _____39    body.

The first real steps took place in France in 1783. Two brothers, the Mongol fliers, made a very large “ hot air balloon”. They knew that hot air rises. Why not ____40    a balloon with it? The balloon ___41___ (make) of cloth and paper. In September of that year, the King and Queen of France came to see the balloon. They watched it ___42____ (carry) the very first air passengers into the sky. The passengers were a sheep and a chicken. We do not know ____43   they felt about the trip. But we do know that the trip lasted eight minutes and that the animals landed ___44___ (safe). Two months later, two men did the same thing. They rose above Paris in balloon of the same kind. Their trip _____45  twenty-five minutes and they traveled about 8 kilometers.

36、An average of 130,000 Chinese ____ abroad for studies every year over the past few years, improving exchanges in the educational fields.

     A. was going                                       B. have been going  

     C. has been going                                 D. are going

35、She’s hoping to be out of hospital_______ to celebrate her birthday at home.

   A. at a time     B. at times     C. at one time    D. in time

34、I’ve _______ all my papers but I still can’t find the contract.

   A. looked into   B. dipped into   C. broken through   D. looked through

33、―If he ____ , he ____ that food.

―Luckily he was sent to the hospital immediately.

A. was warned; would not take                 B. had been warned; would not have taken

C. would be warned; had not taken           D. would have been warned; had not taken

32、----Where did you meet Mr Green?

----It was in the street ___ he lives.

A.    that                     B. which                     C. where                     D. when

31、He got well-prepared for the job interview, for he couldn’t risk _______ the good opportunity.

A. to lose            B. losing                C. to be lost           D. being lost

30、There was an explosion in London but up to now nobody has ______ responsibility for it.

       A. declared            B. announced         C. claimed             D. required