For a 400-year-old art form，opera(歌剧) had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people's mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. Because young people don't or won't come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera's choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions(剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer's production is Hansel ＆Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75^th anniversary(周年) this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists' Training Program.

1.    Which is the main idea of this passage？

A.    Opera is famous for its long history.

B.    Opera is only performed for rich people.

C.    Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.

D.    Young people are not interested in opera.

2.    The underlined phrase in the second paragraph means __________.

A.    breaking up the old rules

B.    changing the dresses

C.    making the audience at ease

D.    advertising themselves

3.    From the passage we can infer that __________.

A.    the tickets for operas are very expensive

B.    operas are performed in a difficult language

C.    operas are not so popular an art form today

D.    students enjoy performing operas very much

B
For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.
But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.
Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.
The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   
45．Which is the main idea of this passage?
A．Opera is famous for its long history.                                  
B．Opera is only performed for rich people.
C．Young people are not interested in opera.                              
D．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.
46．The underlined phrase “loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes” (paragraph 2) means ______.
A．breaking up the old rules                      B．changing the formal suits
C．making the audience at ease                  D．advertising themselves
47．The San Francisco Opera Company employs student actors in order to ______.
A．celebrate its 75th anniversary                B．reduce the cost
C．attract young people                             D．make Cinderella popular
48．From the passage we can infer that ______.
A．the tickets for operas are very expensive                               
B．operas are performed in a difficult language
C．operas are not so popular an art form today                           
D．students enjoy performing operas very much

Young people are not_________ to stand and look at works of art; they want art they can participate in.

  A.content         B. generous         C. confident            D. conservative

单词拼写（共10小题，每题0.5分，共5分）

1.Sport and ____________ (娱乐) have always been part of university life.

2.Young people are not ____________(满足) to stand and look at works of art; they want art they can participate in.

3.Is English a ____________ (必修) subject in your school?

4.I had a holiday in America for a ____________ (两周) last year.

5.Both poets drew their ____________ (灵感) from the countryside.

6.Everyone has his own ____________ (弱点).

7.We are so disappointed that he gave us an ____________ (模棱两可的) answer.

8.As a result, the government has strengthened r__________________ protecting these historic sites.

9.She offered me practical a____________ with my research.

10.I’ve met her on several o_______ recently.

Zoo elephants don’t live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to cause debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Buma. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life expectancies twice than or more of their relatives in zoos.
Animal care activists have urged in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group.
The researchers found that the median life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya’s Amboseli Park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life expectancy there to 35.9 years. For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Burma Timber Enterprise. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer.
There is some good news, though. The life expectancies of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, but “Protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos.”
There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population. One amazing thing was that Asian elephants born in zoos had shorter life spans that those brought to the zoos from the wild.
Zoos usually lack large areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of 8 to 12 animals. In Asian elephants, baby death rates are two to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, and then, in adulthood, zoo-born animals die young. People are not sure why.
【小题1】What is argued about in this passage?