The Fourth "21th Century Cup" National English Speaking Competition is to be held in Shanghai.

　　Organizers: China Daily and Shanghai Broadcasting Network.

　　Co-ordinater: China University English Speaking Association （CUESA）.

　　Co-sponsors （联办单位）: English Speaking Union （ESU）, Lotus Software （China）Co. Ltd. , Times Publishing Group of Singapore, Hilton Shanghai, Pearson Education, Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.

　　Date: March 26 （ Friday）, 1999.

　　Place: Hilton Shanghai.

　　Competition Format （形式） : Each student will present a prepared speech on the given topic, followed by a three -minute off - hand speech and a three - minute question and answer period with the judges.

　　Prepared speech period: six minutes.

　　Q & A period: three minutes.

　　Speech topic: People and Nature: In search of harmony （和谐）in a new age ＋ your personal opinion. （Topice for the off hand speech will be given on the day of competition）.

　　Prizes: Besides books and certificates （证书）, the top two winners will be offered scholarships（奖学金） to travel to the annual international English -speaking competition which will be held by the English Speaking Union in London in May, 1999. The third and fourth place winners will be offered a study trip to Singapore, sponsored by the Times Publishing Group. The fifth through 10th place winners will be offered cash prizes. All the competitors will receive certificates from the English Speaking Union and book prizes provided by Pearson Education and Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press. The teachers of the top winners will also receive a one - year membership to the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language（IATEFL）

　The main purpose of this passage is ________.

　　A. to invite you to take part in the competition

　　B. to tell you some information of the competition

　　C. to help to improve your spoken English

　　D. to show you how to win the competition

　　Which of the following is NOT mentioned about the Shanghai English Speaking Competition?________.

　　A. Where and when it will take place.

　　B. Its program.

　　C. What each winner will be offered.

　　D. The number of its competitors.

　　Suppose you get the sixth place, you'll________ .

　　A. travel to London for free.

　　B. become a one - year member of IATEFL

　　C. get some money , some books and a certificate

　　D. get a chance to study in Singapore

　An "off- hand speech"is________.

　　A. a speech not longer than three minutes

　　B. a speech without preparation

　　C. a speech with a piece of paper in hand

　　D. a speech which is well prepared

　　An explosion on Thursday killed one and injured 21 in a busy street in Tongren, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province.

　　The bomb was hidden in a rubbish bin in the city’s commercial hub（商业中心），where lots of shops and restaurants are concentrated.

　　The ear-splitting blast was heard around 12∶50 p.m.，said a local newspaper, citing witnesses. The power of the blast shattered（使粉碎）nearby shop windows and ripped the stainless（不生锈的）steel rubbish can to pieces.

　　One passer-by，identified（确认）only as Zhang，said she was shocked by the noise and saw a lot of pedestrians lying on the ground when she got to the scene.

　　Thirteen of the injured were taken to a local hospital after the explosion. A doctor there said five were in serious condition but already out of danger after emergency treatment. The others were just slightly hurt.

　　The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, said an officer with the Tongren police, but refused to speculate as to the cause.

　　It can be inferred from the passage that ________.

　　A. All the injured were taken to a hospital

　　B. 8 of the injured were not taken to a hospital

　　C. The rubbish bin with a bomb was in a restaurant

　　D. The rubbish bin with a bomb was in a shop

　　Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

　　A. One passer- by, indentified only as Zhang, saw the man throwing a bomb into a bin.

　　B. Some customers in restaurants were injured.

　　C. The writer didn’t get to the scene.

　　D. All customers in shops got hurt.

　　In the last paragraph the underlined word“ speculate” probably means ________.

　　A. tell　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. guess

　　C. discuss　　　　　　　　　　　　D. talk

　　What of the follwing can be the best title for the passage?

　　A. Bomb Hidden in a Rubbish Bin

　　B. The Cause of the Explosion

　　C. A Terrible Thing

　　D. Market Blast Kills 1 ,Injures 21

阅读下列短文，根据所读内容在短文后的表格中填入恰当的单词。注意：表格的每个空格只填一个单词。
Educating girls quite possibly yields a higher rate of return than any other investment （投资）available in the developing world. Women's education may be unusual territory for economists（经济学家）, but enhancing women's contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics（经济因素）, with its emphasis on incentives, provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived（剥夺）of an education.
　　Parents in low-income countries fail to invest（投资）in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else's family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and art kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school - the prophecy （预言) becomes self- fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
　　An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy.
Few will dispute that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.
Topic: The significance of female【小题1】       in developing countries

Opinion	Educating girls in more【小题2】    than any other investment.
Families	From low-income families	From educated mothers’ families
Attitudes	Girls are of less【小题3】          than boys.	Development should be for all【小题4】        .
【小题5】	There is【小题6】    invests ment in daughters. Girls are made to may at home, 【小题7】       housework.	Girls and boys have【小题8】        chances.
Significance	Educating girls【小题9】     to social benefits, conceit advantages and health practices, including faruly planning.
【小题10】	Educating girls in developing countries is important and rewarding.

 

It was eleven o'clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from his night out. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.

　　He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, showed so little interest in things which concerned him and valued so little his conversation.

　　Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the candies and peanuts that he had promised the boys. Still, he loved them very much and went into the room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs.

　　Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit his cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.

　　Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had made him sick. Mr. Pontellier was too well familiar with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was burning with fever at that moment in the next room.

　　He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying home to see that no harm done to them. He talked in a dull, repeated and insistent way.

　　Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out, he went to bed, and in half a minute was fast asleep.

　　Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her nightdress. She went out on the porch, where she sat down and began to rock herself in the chair.

　　It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. There was no sound except the hooting of an old owl and the everlasting voice of the sea, which broke like a mournful lullaby (催眠曲) upon the night.

　　The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her nightdress no longer served to dry them. She went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms.

　　She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as had just happened were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance (充足) of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be self-understood.

　　An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with vague pain. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly scolding her husband, expressing sadness about Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself.

　　The mosquitoes succeeded in driving away a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer.

　　The following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the carriage which was to convey him to the ship. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would not see him again at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his calmness, which seemed to have been somewhat weakened the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked forward to a lively week in the financial center.

1.Mr.Pontellier comes back home from his night out in a/an ______state of mind.

A. excited                   B. confused                                   C. depressed            D. disappointed

2. The writer would most likely describe Mr. Pontellier’s conduct during the evening as ______.

A. impatient and generous                                                  B. enthusiastic and responsible

C. concerned and gentle                        D. inconsiderate and self-centered

3.In paragraphs 8 to 13, Mrs. Pontellier’s reactions to her husband’s behavior suggest that ______.

A. she accepts unquestioningly her role of taking care of the children

B. this is one of the times she has acknowledged her unhappiness with her husband

C. her relationship with her husband is not what has made her depressed

D. she is angry about something that happened before her husband left