Standing on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a police officer saw a car moving slowly at 18 MPH. He  _36_  to himself, “This driver is just as  _37   as a speeder!” So __38 _ he turned on his lights and pulled the driver over.   39   the car, he noticed that   40   were five old ladies — two in the front seat and __41__three in the back, their eyes wide and faces white as ghosts. The driver, obviously   42_ , said to him, “Officer, I don’t understand. I was  _43__ exactly the speed limit!  _44__ seems to be the problem?” “Ma’am,” the officer replied, “You weren’t  _45__, but you should know that driving  _46__  than the speed limit can also be a(n) __47   to other drivers.” “Slower than the speed limit? No, sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly…Eighteen miles per hour!” The old woman said a bit __48_ . The police officer, trying to  _49_  a laugh, explained to her that “18” was the route number, _ 50_  the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the old woman smiled and thanked the officer for  _51_  out her error. “But before I let you  _52_ , Ma’am, I have to ask if everyone in this car is all right? These women seem very  _53_  and they didn’t make a single sound the whole time.”The police officer asked. “Oh, they will be all right  _54   a minute, officer. We just  _55__  Route 128.”

1.A. turned             B. thought         C. came            D. agreed

2.A. dangerous          B. well            C. silly           D. soon

3.A. tightly            B. immediately     C. privately       D. deadly

4.A. Suspecting         B. Blaming         C. Starting        D. Approaching

5.A. those              B. they            C. there           D. these

6.A. other              B. more            C. else            D. another

7.A. confused           B. worried         C. delighted       D. excited

8.A. increasing         B. reaching        C. lowering        D. doing

9.A. How                B. What            C. When            D. Where

10.A. running           B. breaking        C. speeding        D. concentrating

11.A. slower            B. safer           C. faster          D. higher

12.A. guide             B. demand          C. aid             D. danger

13.A. nervously         B. proudly         C. roughly         D. constantly

14.A. control           B. give            C. make            D. show

15.A. or                B. but             C. not             D. and

16.A. pointing          B. speaking        C. taking          D. squeezing

17.A. drive             B. go              C. laugh           D. run

18.A. united            B. exhausted       C. worried         D. tolerated

19.A. in                B. after           C. for             D. with

20.A. sped up           B. left out        C. broke down      D. got off

 

The very first capsule hotel to be opened in Shanghai has attracted many budget travelers with its prices, even though it is not fully operational yet.

The hotel consists of 68 "capsules", each 1.1-meters high, 1.1-meters wide and 2.2-meters long. The basic rate is 28 Yuan ($4.22) per person, plus an additional 4 Yuan an hour. The hotel also offers a package of 68 Yuan for 10 hours and 88 Yuan for 24 hours.

All of the capsules are imported from Japan where capsule hotels originated，and each is equipped with independent sockets, clocks, lights, TV and wireless Internet service. The hotel also has a public lavatory(洗手间)，shower room, smoking room and shared guest room.

"This is a huge bargain compared with other budget hotels in Shanghai," said Ta Zan, the owner of the hotel. Ta used to stay at capsule hotels in Tokyo during his undergraduate years and worked at a capsule hotel while he was doing his MBA in Japan in 2005, so he knows how they work and how to make guests feel comfortable.

He based the hotel on capsule hotels in Japan but he has made some special changes based on Chinese guests' habits. "In Japan capsule hotels are usually equipped with bathtubs, but in China people are more willing to take a shower, so we have the shower room," he said. He has also separated the capsules into three snoring (打鼾的) zones so that guests who often snore won't disturb others. Like most of capsule hotels in Japan, the one in Shanghai is for men only.

But the idea of staying in such a compact space is not appealing to everyone. "I feel the idea is like putting a person in a coffin (棺材), and the price is also not that appealing. A bed at a youth hostel in Shanghai costs about 60 Yuan per night," said Wang Lei, a student from Beijing.

1.The first capsule hotels in the world appeared in        .

A. Shanghai           B. Japan               C. Beijing          D. America

2.If you stay in the capsule hotel in Shanghai for 8 hours， you will have to pay       yuan.

A. 28                            B. 60                  C.68                D.88

3.What does the underlined word "compact" mean?

A. Dear                   B. Cheap.                    C. Close.            D. Clean.

4.The capsule hotel in Shanghai differs from those in Japan in that           .

A. it serves men as well as women

B. its capsule is much larger

C. it has a shower room

D. it has no snoring zones

5.We can know from the passage that            .

A. everybody considers the capsule hotel a nice place to stay

B. all the capsules of the hotel were made in China

C. each capsule of the hotel has a private lavatory

D. no guest has ever stayed in the capsule hotel in Shanghai

 

I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding（有回报的）.

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．I was waiting for good fortune.

B．I was trying to find an admirable job.

C．I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

2.The author decided to write a novel ______ .

A．to finish the writing course

B．to realize her own dream

C．to satisfy readers’ wish

D．to earn more money

3.How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A．Disturbed.

B．Ashamed.

C．Confident.

D．Uncertain.

4.What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A．It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B．Hard work can lead to success.

C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something.

 

　　"Mark Twain" was the name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) when he wrote books. His father was a lawyer, but a poor one, who lived at Florida, Missouri. The family was so poor that Samuel did not receive much teaching. He had to learn all that he could from the people whom he met. His father died when he was very young, and then there was even less money than before.

　　Many of the men in this part of America worked in the ships on the great River Mississippi, and he did this himself at one time (1857).

　　Where did he find the name "Mark Twain"? It came from the great river itself. It was part of one of the cries used by men who worked in the ships. When a man called "By the mark twain!"  he meant that the river was "two marks deep" there, that is to say, six feet deep ( "Twain" is an old form of the work "Two".) Samuel Clemens often heard these words when he was young, and he used them as a penname all his life.

　　During his work on the Mississippi he met travelers of all kinds, and this helped him a great deal when he started to write. But the number of travelers became smaller when war started in America in 1861. Many of the great ships on the river stopped work. Samuel left then and went to Nevada with his brother, who was at that time Governor of Nevada. There, near the town of Carson, Samuel became a gold miner, but he never made much money at the time. He soon saw that life in the gold mines was not for him. He also tried writing for the newspapers in Nevada, and this seemed more hopeful. He found that he could write.

　　He went to Europe in 1867 and visited France and Italy. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon, and two years later he was spending nearly all his time writing. Among his books is his own story (1908).

　　He is now always known as Mark Twain, and many people do not even know that his family name was Clemens. He traveled in America and in England, and went to Oxford in 1907. He was one of  the great American writers of the time, and could make his readers laugh – a thing which few writers can do. He died in 1910.

"Mark Twain" was _________.

      A. a famous American writer  B. name of a book

      C. a great river in America  D. a large ship

As a child, Samuel did not get much education because _________.

A.his father died too early

B.the family was very poor

  C. he disliked school very much

D. he could learn what he liked from the people he met

What gave him a great deal when he started writing? _______

A. His poor childhood     B. The Mississippi river 

C. All kinds of travelers he met  D. His brother

We can infer from the passage that ________.

A. Samuel loved writing from his early age

B. Samuel did not love writing at the beginning

C. his writings to the newspaper were successful

D. his brother encouraged him to write more

According to the writer of the passage, a good writer could _________.

A. write a lot for his readers

B. make a lot of money for his family

C. cause his readers to laugh

D. travel everywhere he wanted

Emanuel’s father liked to declare he’d spent ages by the sea, breathing seawater. Now, away from the sea, in the hospital, his body just looked like a beached fish. His condition went from bad to worse. The doctor came from saying, “He’ll be home in a day,” “He’ll be home in a week,” to “He will be home in a month.”

When Emanuel was a teenager, if he ever seemed bored with the pier(码头), his father would shout, “What ? This isn’t good enough for you?” And later, when he suggested Emanuel take a job at the pier after high school, the boy almost laughed, and his father again said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And before Emanuel went to war, when he talked of marrying Maggie and becoming an engineer, his father said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?”

And now, here he was, Emanuel helped out at the pier, working evenings after his taxi job, doing his father’s labor.

Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. It is not until much later that children understand: their stories and all their accomplishments sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers.

One night his father, lying in hospital, was practically too weak to speak. Others comforted him. “Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.”

When the news came that his father had died, Emanuel felt heart-broken.

In the following weeks, Emanuel’s mother lived in a confused state. She spoke to her husband as if he were still there .She yelled at him to turn down the radio. She cooked enough food for two .One night, when Emanuel offered to help with the dishes, she said. “Your father will put them away.” Emanuel put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma,” he said softly, “Dad’s gone.”

“Gone where?” murmured Mum.

1.Which of the following shows the right order of the story?

a．Emanuel’s father fell ill.         

b．Emanuel helped out at pier.

c．Emanuel went to the war.

d．Emanuel wished to be an engineer.

e.  Emanuel’s mother lived in a confused state

A．bacde            B．dcabe            C．bceda            D．decba

2.In Paragraph 4, the writer inplies that       . 

A．Children can never understand how much their parents have devoted to them

B．Children wouldn’t have achieved so much without their parents’ support

C．Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents

D．Children like moving away from their parents

3.The underlined phrase “pull through” can probably be replaced by ________

A．wake up          B．give up           C．pick up           D．get up

4.The last paragraph mainly tells us that      . 

A．Emanuel’s mother was at a loss at her husband’s death.

B．Emanuel often helped his mother to wash the dishes.

C．Emanuel lived with his mother and often comforted her.

D．Emanuel’s mother doesn’t like to listen to the radio.