E

Britain’s 101-year-old Queen Mother , who died on March 30 , was famous for never giving interviews . However , her few publicized comments showed humor , a strong will and love for life .

In the 1920s , many men wanted to marry lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon . She only agreed to marry the future King George Ⅵ when he got down on bended knee for a third time to ask her . But she never forgave her brother Edward Ⅷ for stepping down from the throne（王位）in 1936 to marry divorced（离婚）woman Wallis Simpson . This meant that her shy husband became king. “Those last few days were like sitting on the edge of a volcano,” she said of the crisis.

The Queen Mother’s most famous role in British life was to try to boost（提高）Londoners’ morale（士气）during the World War II bombing（轰炸）, especially in the hardest-hit East End of London. When Buckingham Palace（白金汉宫）was hit by a bomb in 1940 , she said , “ I am glad we have been bombed . It makes me feel I can look the East End（people）in the face . ”

Famously , she refused suggestions that she and her children，the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret , should seek refuge（寻求避难）in Canada until the end of the war . “ The children won’t go without me , I won’t leave the king and the king will never go . ” she declared . “ I should die if I had to leave . ”

After better times returned，her love of expensive parties and high life continued，well into her old age . Her bank overdraft（透支）reached 4 million pounds .

She enjoyed fishing until well into her 80s but once choked（噎住）on a fishbone . After doctors removed the bone , she joked , “ After all these years of fishing , the fish are having their revenge（报复）. ”

In the end, she outlived the 20th century with energy and enthusiasm. “I love life, that’s my secret,” she told a friend when she was in her 80s . In a television interview last week, her grandson Prince Charles said, “She saw the funny side of life and we laughed until we cried.”

Hundreds of people have signed books of condolence（哀悼）across the country , including former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .

“She loved her country and in return her country loved her.” said Prime Minister Tony Blair.

72. The Queen Mother refused to seek refuge in Canada with her children because       .

A. she didn’t think it safe to stay in Canada

B. she wasn’t willing to go without her husband

C. she hoped to boost Londoners’ morale

D. she wanted to earn good fame through the war

73. When Queen Mother went into her old age, she______.

A. was tired of peaceful life

B. began to show interest in fishing

C. was very luxury（奢侈）

D. looked down upon many things people had done

74. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A. George VI became king of Britain when his wife was in her late thirties.

B. Queen Mother hadn’t expected her husband to become a king.

C. Buckingham Palace was burned to the ground during the World War II . 

D. Queen Mother showed bravery in face of the World War II.

75. From the passage we know that Queen Mother was______.

A. humorous and brave     B. talkative and humorous

C. talkative but shy               D. brave but shy

E
Britain’s 101-year-old Queen Mother , who died on March 30 , was famous for never giving interviews . However , her few publicized comments showed humor , a strong will and love for life .
In the 1920s , many men wanted to marry lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon . She only agreed to marry the future King George Ⅵ when he got down on bended knee for a third time to ask her . But she never forgave her brother Edward Ⅷ for stepping down from the throne（王位）in 1936 to marry divorced（离婚）woman Wallis Simpson . This meant that her shy husband became king. “Those last few days were like sitting on the edge of a volcano,” she said of the crisis.
The Queen Mother’s most famous role in British life was to try to boost（提高）Londoners’ morale（士气）during the World War II bombing（轰炸）, especially in the hardest-hit East End of London. When Buckingham Palace（白金汉宫）was hit by a bomb in 1940 , she said , “ I am glad we have been bombed . It makes me feel I can look the East End（people）in the face . ”
Famously , she refused suggestions that she and her children，the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret , should seek refuge（寻求避难）in Canada until the end of the war . “ The children won’t go without me , I won’t leave the king and the king will never go . ” she declared . “ I should die if I had to leave . ”
After better times returned，her love of expensive parties and high life continued，well into her old age . Her bank overdraft（透支）reached 4 million pounds .
She enjoyed fishing until well into her 80s but once choked（噎住）on a fishbone . After doctors removed the bone , she joked , “ After all these years of fishing , the fish are having their revenge（报复）. ”
In the end, she outlived the 20th century with energy and enthusiasm. “I love life, that’s my secret,” she told a friend when she was in her 80s . In a television interview last week, her grandson Prince Charles said, “She saw the funny side of life and we laughed until we cried.”
Hundreds of people have signed books of condolence（哀悼）across the country , including former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher .
“She loved her country and in return her country loved her.” said Prime Minister Tony Blair.
72. The Queen Mother refused to seek refuge in Canada with her children because       .
A. she didn’t think it safe to stay in Canada
B. she wasn’t willing to go without her husband
C. she hoped to boost Londoners’ morale
D. she wanted to earn good fame through the war
73. When Queen Mother went into her old age, she______.
A. was tired of peaceful life
B. began to show interest in fishing
C. was very luxury（奢侈）
D. looked down upon many things people had done
74. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A. George VI became king of Britain when his wife was in her late thirties.
B. Queen Mother hadn’t expected her husband to become a king.
C. Buckingham Palace was burned to the ground during the World War II . 
D. Queen Mother showed bravery in face of the World War II.
75. From the passage we know that Queen Mother was______.
A. humorous and brave     B. talkative and humorous
C. talkative but shy               D. brave but shy

People often ask why“Uncle Sam”is a nickname（绰号）for the United Stated of America. The reason is strange but simple.

Once there was a man called Samuel Wilson. He was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1766. He was called“Uncle Sam”. When Sam Wilson was 14 years old, he joined the army and fought in several battles. At the end of the war, he went to live in Troy in the state of New York. He opened a meat-packing（肉食品包装）business there.

Sam Wilson worked hard and loved his country. Everyone in the city liked him. One day in 1812, a reporter from a newspaper visited his business. The reporter looked at some boxes of meat. He saw the letters“EAUS”on the sides of the boxes.

“What do those letters mean?”he asked one of the workers.

“The EA stands for ‘Edward Anderson’,”the workman replied.“The boxes of meat are for him.”“What about the letters US?”the reporter asked.

These letters really stood for “United States”, but the workman wanted to have a laugh.“Oh,”he said .“They stand for Sam Wilson. He owns this company. We call him ‘Uncle Sam’.”

The worker did not think that the reporter would believe him. But the reporter wrote a story about his visit to Sam Wilson’s business. He wrote that his workers called him“Uncle Sam”and that“Uncle Sam”meant the United States.

Many people liked using the name“Uncle Sam”as a nickname for the United States and soon everyone was using it. In 1961, almost 150 years later, the United States government made the nickname“Uncle Sam”official（官方的）.

1. This passage is mainly about_____.

A. why the USA is called“Uncle Sam”

B. how to carry boxes with goods to other countries

C. a businessman in Troy, New York State

D. why people called Sam Wilson“Uncle Sam”

2. Many people liked Samuel Wilson because_______.

A. a reporter wrote a story about him

B. his nickname was “Uncle Sam”

C. he worked hard and loved his country

D. he had a meat-packing business

3. The reporter became important in this story because he________.

A. visited Sam Wilson’s business

B. wrote about Sam Wilson and the letters“US”

C. was Sam Wilson’s best friend

D. was good at advertising Sam’s business

4. From this passage, we can infer that________.

A. most Americans don’t like the nickname“Uncle Sam”

B. the British soldiers liked calling Americans“Uncle Sam”

C. the reporter made Americans nicknamed“Uncle Sam”on purpose（故意地）

D. the United States government has agreed to use the nickname“Uncle Sam”

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first successful practical light bulb, created the very first strand (串) of electric lights. During the Christmas season of 1880, these strands were put around the outside of his Menlo Park Laboratory. Railroad passengers traveling by the laboratory got their first look at an electric light display. But it would take almost forty years for electric Christmas lights to become the tradition that we all know and love.

Before electric Christmas lights, families would use candles to light up their Christmas trees. This practice was often dangerous and led to many home fires. Edward H. Johnson put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882. Johnson, Edison's friend and partner in the Edison Illumination Company (灯具公司), hand wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree. Not only was the tree illuminated (照亮) with electricity, it also revolved (转动). However, the world was not quite ready for electrical illumination. There was a great mistrust(不信任) of electricity and it would take many more years for society to decorate its Christmas trees and homes with electric lights. In 1895, President Cleveland requested that the White House family Christmas tree be illuminated by hundreds of multi?colored electric light bulbs.

On Christmas Eve 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the country's celebration of Christmas by lighting the National Christmas Tree with 3,000 electric lights on the Ellipse located south of the White House.

Until 1903, when General Electric began to offer pre?assembled kits (组装好的设备)of Christmas lights, stringed lights were reserved for the wealthy and electrically savvy (有见识的). The wiring of electric lights was very expensive and required the hiring of the services of a wireman, our modern?day electrician. According to some, to light an average Christmas tree with electric lights before 1903 would have cost $2000 in today's dollars.

While Thomas Edison and Edward H. Johnson may have been the first to create electric strands of lights in 1880 / 1882, it was Albert Sadacca who saw a future in selling electric Christmas lights. The Sadacca family owned a different and unusual lighting company and in 1917 Albert, a teenager at the time, suggested that its store offer brightly colored strands of Christmas lights to the public. By the 1920s Albert and his brothers organized the National Outfit Manufacturer's Association (NOMA), a trade association. NOMA soon became NOMA Electric Co, with its members cornering the Christmas light market until the 1960s.

When Edward was 18，he bought a second-hand car for $200 so that he could travel to and from work more easily than by bus．It worked quite  1  for a year，but then it got so old and it was costing him  2  much in repairs that he decided he had better  3  it．

He asked among his friends to see if anyone was particularly  4  to buy a cheap car，but they all knew that it was falling to pieces，so  5  of them had any desire to buy it．

Edward's friend，Bruce，saw he was  6  when they met one evening，and said，“what's  7  ，Edward?” Edward told him and Bruce said， “Well，what about advertising it in the paper? You may  8  more for it than the cost of the advertisement!” Thinking that Bruce's 9  was sensible，he put an ad in an evening paper，which  10  ，“For sale：Small ear，uses very little petro．Bargain at $50．”

For two days after the ad first appeared，there was no  11  ．But then on Saturday evening he had an enquiry（询问）．A man rang up and said he would like to  12  him about the car．“All right，”Edward said，feeling happy．He asked the man whether ten o'clock the next morning would be   13  or not．“Fine，”the man said，“and I’ll  14  my wife．We intend to go for a ride in it to  15  it．”

The next morning，at a quarter to ten，Edward parked the car in the square outside his front door，  16  to wait there for the people who had  17  his advertisement．Even Edward had to 18  the car really looked like a wreck （残骸） ．Then，soon after he. had got the car as clean  19 it could be，a police car stopped just behind him and a policeman got out．He looked at Edward’s car and then said，“Have you reported this  20  to us yet，sir?”

1． A．directly                 B．safely                C．happily               D．well

2． A．so                 B．such              C．very                D．too

3． A．keep               B．repair             C．sell                 D．throw

4．A．anxious              B．lucky              C．fortunate            D．generous

5．A．some                B．all                 C．none                D．most

6． A．delighted            B．sad                C．calm                D．surprised

7．A．on                   B．up                C．in                  D．around

8．A．learn                   B．miss                C．get                  D． find

9．A． message        B．advice            C．request                 D．description

10． A． read              B．translated           C．wrote              D． appeared

11．A．doubt                B．help                C． point              D．answer

12． A．tell                  B．see                  C．agree                D． call

13．A．exact              B．suitable             C．early                D．late

14．A．follow              B．meet              C． bring              D．introduce

15．A．recognize           B．get                C．admire                 D．test 

16．A． happening           B．meaning             C．turning               D．failing

17．A．received             B．watched            C．answered                   D．placed

18．A．forget               B．show                    C．disagree              D．admit

19．A．as                    B．like                 C．than                 D．such

20．A．reason             B．sale                 C．accident            D．result