May : Happenings from the past  

May 5,1884

Isaac Murphy , son of a slave and perhaps the greatest horse rider in American history , rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby . He becomes the first rider ever to win the race three times .

May 9 , 1754

Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette produces perhaps the first American political cartoon （漫画）, showing a snake cut in pieces, with the words “ Join or Die” printed under the picture.

May 11,1934

The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl , the result of years of drought（干旱），blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington , D.C. .

May 19, 1994

Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis , former first lady and one of the most famous people of the 1960s , died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64 .

May 24, 1844

Samuel F.B. Morsr taps out the first message , “ What Hath God Wrought ,” over the experimental long-distance telegraph line which runs from Washington, D.C. , to Baltimeore , Md .

1. We know from the text that Buchanan is_____________.

A Isaac”s father                 B a winnning horse

C.a slave taking care if horses      D.the first racing horse in Kentucky

2. What is the title of the first American political cartoon ?

A.Join or Die                   B.Pennsylvania Gazette

C.What Hath God Wrought        D.Kentucky Derby

3. In which year did the former first lady Jacqueline die ?

A. 1934        B. 1960       C . 1964       D. 1994

4.Which of the following places has to do with the first telegram in history ?

A. Washington , D. C.             B. New York City

C. Kentucky.                    D.  Pennsylvania

Our listener question this week comes from Abdullahi Farah, who wants to know about the life and work of Doctor Benjamin Carson.

Doctor Carson is an internationally recognized doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He has been the director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the hospital for twenty-five years. At the age of thirty-three, he became one of the youngest doctors in the United States to hold that position. And he was the first African-American to have that position at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Ben Carson is known for his work as a brain surgeon for children. For example, in nineteen eighty-seven, he led a team of seventy doctors and nurses in an operation to separate two babies joined at the head. Earlier attempts by other surgeons on other babies had failed. Doctor Carson successfully performed the operation. Both babies were able to survive independently.

Doctor Carson has written four books. His first book, "Gifted Hands," tells the story of his life. Benjamin Carson was born in nineteen fifty-one in Detroit, Michigan.

As a boy, Ben was not a good student. In fact, he was the worst in his class. When his mother learned of his failing grades she asked her sons to read two library books every week. She limited the amount of time they watched television. And she told them to respect every person.

Ben Carson soon became the top student in his class. He went on to study at Yale University, one of the best universities in the country, and later to medical school at the University of Michigan.

Doctor Carson has received many awards and honors. Last year he received the nation's highest civilian honor. Former President George W. Bush presented Benjamin Carson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at a ceremony at the White House.

The passage is probably taken from _____.

A. a radio      B. a magazine       C. TV       D. a paper

What does the word “surgeons” in paragraph 3 mean?

A. nurses       B. doctors      C. hospitals    D. points

Benjamin Carson’s change in study was largely because of ______

A. his hard work        B. his teacher

C. his mother           D. his father

What’s the aim to write the passage?

A. To call on us to learn from Benjamin Carson.

B. To praise Benjamin Carson for his achievements.

C. To show us how Benjamin Carson succeeded

D. To introduce Benjamin Carson’s life and work

C
Our brains work in complex and strange ways．There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two．Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write．
Dr．J．Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887．He called these people idiot savants．An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment （损伤） , such as in autism or retardation．At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people．The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory．
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr．Benjamin Rush, an American doctor．His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724．It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds．Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write．
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s．Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical pieces beautifully．
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly．
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment．Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills．Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills．However few people wish to participate in such experiments．There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain．The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate．Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots．
63．What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities．
B．Human Beings have complicated thinking process．
C．The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired．
D．The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary．
64．Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A．He can play wonderful pieces of classical music．
B．He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life．
C．He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast．
D．He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly．
65．What can you infer from the passage?
A．Idiot savants have real talents for art and math．
B．Dr．Down is the first person who found idiot savants．
C．Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations．
D．Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants．
66．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

1—5refer to paragraph 1—5.

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17,1706 in Boston，America. In his life he built a successful printing and publishing business in Philadelphia；he conducted scientific studies of electricity and made several important discoveries；he was a diplomat (外交官) and statesman；he helped establish Pennsylvania’s first university and America’s first city hospital；he also organized the country’s first subscription library (收费图书馆)．

Franklin was also unequaled in America as an inventor until Thomas Edison. Ben had poor eyesight  and needed glasses to read. He got tired of always taking them off and putting them back on，so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of glasses cut in half and put half of them together. Today，we call them bifocals (双光眼镜)．Another invention of his，an iron stove，allowed people to warm their homes.

He loved to learn about new things. He also thought it was important to make life better with the things that he invented. Electricity was one of the things he experimented with when he retired from his business. Ben discovered that lightning (闪电) and electricity were the same thing. The lightning rod was an important invention that we still use today to protect buildings and ships from lightning damage.

Franklin preferred to have his inventions used freely for the comfort and convenience of everyone. Thomas Jefferson，the third president of America，called Benjamin Franklin “the greatest man of the age and country in which he lived”．To Benjamin Franklin there was no greater purpose in life than to “live usefully”．

1.Benjamin Franklin was NOT a________.

A．diplomat                              B．scientist

C．businessman                           D．president

2.The underlined word “unequaled” in Paragraph 2 means________.

A．better than any other                    B．worse than any other

C．the same as others                      D．confident as others

3.Which of the following is NOT Benjamin’s invention?

A．Bifocals.                              B．The iron stove.

C．Printing.                              D．The lightning rod.

4.What was Benjamin Franklin’s purpose in life?

A．To live comfortably every day.

B．To be useful to others.

C．To be a famous person in the world.

D．To earn a lot by inventing things.

In 1927 Benjamin Franklin founded one of the first adult-education organizations, ____ the Junto.

A、has been called  B、to call  C、a group called   D、which group called