A king in Africa had a close friend with whom he had grown up. The friend had a habit of looking at every bad situation that occurred in his life and   1 , “This is good!”

One day the king and his friend were out on a hunting   2 . The friend would   3   the guns for the king. But this time he had   4  done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.

Examining the   5  the friend remarked as usual, “This is good!” to which the king replied, “No, this is NOT good!” and   6  imprisoned his friend.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area where he should have known not to hunt. Cannibals(食人者)   __7 him and took him to their village. They tied his hands, set up a wooden post and   8  him to it. As they came close to set fire to burn the king, they   9  that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So  10  the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was   11  of the event that had taken his thumb and felt sorry for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the  12  to speak with his friend. “You were right,” he said, “it was good that my thumb was blown off.” Then he  13  to tell the friend all that had just happened.

“I feel  14  for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.”

“No,” his friend replied, “this is good!”

“What do you mean? How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?”

“If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you, and I would have been ___15  !”

1.                A．joking          B．remarking       C．announcing    D．whispering

 

2.                A．expectation     B．experience      C．expedition D．experiment

 

3.                A．prepare        B．arrange         C．carry D．hold

 

4.                A．deliberately     B．apparently      C．naturally  D．specially

 

5.                A．thumb         B．king            C．gun  D．situation

 

6.                A．angrily         B．calmly          C．regretfully D．joyfully

 

7.                A．caught         B．warned         C．robbed   D．hunted

 

8.                A．connected      B．related         C．wrapped  D．fastened

 

9.                A．observed       B．understood      C．noticed   D．complained

 

10.               A．untying         B．forgiving        C．overlooking    D．beating

 

11.               A．recalled        B．accused        C．informed  D．reminded

 

12.               A．house          B．jail            C．village D．kingdom

 

13.               A．stopped        B．hesitated       C．continued D．refused

 

14.               A．fortunate       B．foolish         C．guilty D．painful

 

15.               A．burnt          B．cooked         C．fired  D．eaten

 

 

B

　　Thanksgiving Day is a very special day for people in the United States. In that country they celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians also celebrate Thanksgiving Day,but they do it on the second Monday of October. In Britain,where this fesival is called“Harvest Festival”,people celebrate earlier in the year,in September.

　　A harvest is the fruit you take from the trees and the crops you take from the ground. In North Ametica, Europe,and England,harvest time for most fruit and crops is in the special day of the year. They thank God for the good things that have happened during the year and for the good harvest they have had. People usually take small boxes of fruit,flowers,and vegetables to their churches to show their thanks.

　　The first thanksgiving service in North Ametica took place on December 4,1610 when 38 English people arrived in America to make their home in the new country. They held this service not to thank God for the harvest, but to thank God for their safe journey. They next year,many more English people arrived. They had a bad winter,but fortunately the harvest was good. They decided to celebrate with a big meal. They shot and killed small animals to eat and cooked everything outside on large fires. About 90 Indians also came to the meal. Everyone ate at tables outside their houses and played games together. The festival lasted three days.

　　A Thanksgiving Day celebration was held every year for a long time,but not always on the same day of the year. Then,in 1789,President George Washington named 26 November as the Day of Thanksgiving. Almost a hundred years later,President Abraham Linvcoln changed the date,and said that the last Thursday in November should be Thanksgiving Day.

　　Nowadays,North Americans around the world get together with their families on this day to eat good food and have a happy time.

　　1．The story is about________.

　　A．festivals

　　B．an American festival

　　C．English people in America

　　D．giving thanks for everything

　　2．The fourth Thursday in November is________.

　　A．a festival in every country in the world

　　B．Thanksgiving Day in the United States

　　C．the day farmers pick fruit from the trees

　　D．the day the first English people came to America

　　3．On Thanksgiving Day people________.

　　A．plant their crops

　　B．celebrate a safe journey

　　C．thank God for a good harvest

　　D．harvest their fruit and crops

　　4．At the first thanksgiving service in North Ametica,the people________.

　　A．shot a lot of small animals

　　B．thanked God for a safe journey

　　C．thanked God for a good harvest

　　D．had a big dinner outside their houses

　　5．The date of Thanksgiving Day________.

　　A．is always in December

　　B．has always been the same

　　C．is the same all over the world

　　D．is always in November in the U. S.

 

 (10·陕西C篇)

The 1900 house

  The bowler family was one of more than 400 families who applied to 1900 house, a reality TV shout which took a typical family back a hundred years to se how people lived in the days before the internet, computer games and even electricity.

  The bowler family spent three months in a London home without a telephone, computers, TV, or fast food. The bowlers wore clothes from 1900, are only food available in English at that time, and cooked their meals on a single stove. Paul bowler still went to work every day in a then uniform. The children changed their clothes on the way to and from school and their classmates didn’t know about then unusual home life. Joyce stayed at home, cooking and cleaning like a typical housewife of the time, though everything took three times as long.

 So does Joyce think that people’s lives were better in the old days?

 “I think people in the old days had just ad many troubles and worries,” Joyce said.

And I don’t think their life was better or worse, there were lots of things back then that

I’m happy I don’t have to deal with nowadays, but on the other hand life was simpler.” “We had a lot more time with our family, and it was hard being nice to each other all the time,” eleven-year-old Hilary said.

   So what did the Bowler family miss most about modern life while living in the 1900 house?

   Paul, 39:” telephone and a hot shower”

   Joyce, 44:” a quick cup of tea from a kettle you could just turn on”

   Hilary, 11:” rock CD”

   Joseph, 9:” hamburger and computer games”

54. While the Bowler family was living in 1900 house, _____.                         

A the mother spent more time on housework

B the two children wore the then clothes for school

C they prepared their meals together on a stove

D they ate simple foods they had never seen

55. According to Paragraph 4, what’s Joyce’s opinion about life in 1900?               

A There were fewer problems for the family

B Life was simpler but worse than it is now

C There were things she liked and disliked

D The family had more time to stay together

56. What would Hilary expect most from modern life in the three months?              

A To play computer games             B. To make phone calls

C To listen to music                  D. To chat on the Internet   

  

【2011·河南许昌新乡平顶山第三次调研】

A

In many cultures, the wealthy hired servants or kept slaves to take care of their children．This is a true story of an ex-slave．

My mother was a cook in the house for about twenty-two years．She cooked for from twenty-five to thirty—five, taking the family and the slaves together．The slaves ate in the kitchen．After my mistress's （女主人） death, my mother was the only woman kept in the house．She took care of my master's children, some of whom were then quite small, and brought them up．One of the most trying senses I ever passed through, when I would have laid down my life to protect her if I had dared, was this: after she had raised my master's children, one of his daughters, a young girl, came into the kitchen one day, and for some unimportant things about the dinner, she struck my mother, who pushed her away, and she fell on the floor．Her father was not at home．When he came, which was while the slaves were eating in the kitchen, she told him about it．He came down, called my mother out, and, with a wooden stick, he beat her fifteen or twenty strokes, and then called his daughter and told her to take her satisfaction of her, and she did beat her until she was satisfied．Oh! It was dreadful, to see the girl whom my poor mother had taken care of from her childhood, thus beating her, and I must stand there, and did not dare to protect her．

56．From the second sentence in the second paragraph we can know _____．

       A．the age Curry's mother was when she was a cook．

       B．the number of people Curry's mother cooker for．

       C．the years during which Curry's mother cooked．

       D．a system of measurement not used nowadays．

57．Which word can best replace the underlined one "trying” ?

       A．Troublesome．                                       B．Daring．          

       C．Secure．                                           D．Painless．

58．By saying "take her satisfaction of her", the author means "_____"．

       A．please her                                   B．punish her until contented

       C．show her the correct way                  D．calm her

The 1900 house

  The bowler family was one of more than 400 families who applied to 1900 house, a reality TV shout which took a typical family back a hundred years to se how people lived in the days before the internet, computer games and even electricity.

  The bowler family spent three months in a London home without a telephone, computers, TV, or fast food. The bowlers wore clothes from 1900, are only food available in English at that time, and cooked their meals on a single stove. Paul bowler still went to work every day in a then uniform. The children changed their clothes on the way to and from school and their classmates didn’t know about then unusural home life. Joyce stayed at home, cooking and cleaning like a typical housewife of the time, though everything took three times as long.

 So does Joyce think that people’s lives were better in the old days?

 “I think people in the old days had just ad many troubles and worries,” Joyce said.

And I don’t think their life was better or worse, there were lots of things back then that

I’m happy I don’t have to deal with nowadays, but on the other hand life was simpler.” “We had a lot more time with our family, and it was hard being nice to each other all the time,” eleven-year-old Hilary said.

   So what did the Bowler family miss most about modern life while living in the 1900 house?

   Paul,39:” telephone and a hot shower”

   Joyce,44:” a quick cup of tea from a kettle you could just turn on”

   Hilary,11:” rock CD”

   Joseph,9:” hamburger and computer games”

1.While the Bowler family was living in 1900 house,_____.                         

A the mother spent more time on housework

B the two children wore the then clothes for school

C they prepared their meals together on a stove

D they ate simple foods they had never seen

2. According to Paragraph 4, what’s Jovce’s opinion about life in 1900?              

A There were fewer problems for the family

B Life was simpler but worse than it is now

C There were things she liked and disliked

D The family had more time to stay together

3.What would Hilary expect most from modern life in the three months?            

A To play computer games             B To make phone calls

C To listen to music                  D To chat on the Internet