One cold night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco．There I was walking home around one o’clock in the morning after a   31  practice at the theatre. With the opening night only a week away, I was still learning my lines by heart. I was having   32  handling my part-time job at the bank in the daytime and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about  33  both acting and San Francisco. I had  34  too much of city life.

As I walked down the  35  streets under the tall buildings, I felt very small and cold, so I began  36  both to keep warm and to keep away from any possible robbers. Very few people were still out  37  a few homeless people under blankets.

About a block from my  38 , I heard a sound behind me. I   39  quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me  40  so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I   41  what the noise had been. It had been my wallet  42  to the sidewalk.

Suddenly I wasn’t cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to where I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk   43  for 15 minutes, my wallet was   44  to be found.

Just as I was about to quit the  45  , I heard the garbage truck stop to the sidewalk next to  46  . When a voice came from the inside, “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? The door opened and out jumped a small blonde(金发碧眼的) man with an  47  look in his eyes. “Is this  48  you’re looking for?” He asked, holding up something like a wallet.

It was already 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I couldn’t get much sleep, but I had got my wallet back. I also had got back some  49  of city life. I realized the city couldn’t be a bad place  50  people were willing to help each other.

In the late nineteenth century, ^5,000 pianos were sold in the United States each year and, with over half a million youths learning to play the instrument, there was a huge demand for sheet music （活页乐谱）．Indeed the demand was so huge that publishers rushed to enter the profitable market．During the last fifteen years of the century, many publishers began to set up shops in New York, the center for the production of the musical arts

       By the turn of the nineteenth century many important publishers had their offices on 28^th Street between Broadway and 5th Avenue, and this Is the area that became known as Tin Pan Alley．It was here that publishers adopted new, aggressive business practices and marketing techniques to achieve great sales．

       How it became to be known by that name is unclear, but the general opinion is that it is down to a visiting journalist by the name of Monroe Rosenfeld．He described the area as being drowned in the noise coming from the producers' offices, sounding as though hundreds of people were hitting tin pans（锡锅）．He used it several times in his newspaper articles in the early twentieth century and the term stuck．With time this name was popularly embraced and many years later it came to describe the U．S．music publishing industry in general．

       The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885,．but the end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear-cut ．Some date it to the start of the Great．Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph（留声机） and radio replaced sheet music, as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into thel950s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged （抢风头） by the rise of rock & roll．

       There's a plaque（纪念匾牌）on the sidewalk on 28th Street in honor of the influence of Tin Pan Alley on American popular culture, but the buildings that were home to the legendary Tin Pan Alley publishers and songwriters are up for sale and may be torn down to make room for modern high-rise buildings．

What．is the passage mainly about ?                     

       A．American popular music．

       B．Tin Pan Alley's future。 

       C．American music Industry．

       D．The history of Tin Pan Alley．

In the early 20th century．Tin Pan Alley was used to refer to ____．

       A．the American popular culture．    B．the American printing media

       C．the American rock-music center              D．the American music publishing industry．

In the nineteenth century, the driving force of American popular music was:____．

       A．rock & roll                         B．sheet music

       C．country music                        D．phonographs and radios

When visiting Tin Pan Alley , Rosenfeld probably felt it was ____．

       A．very noisy      B．very quiet           C．wide           D．narrow

We can learn from the passage that ______．

       A．the term " Tin Pan Alley" was perhaps first used by Rosenfeld．

       B．the old shops of Tin Pan Alley will be well protected．

       C．Tin Pan Alley got its name in the early nineteenth century．

       D．there were once some factories in Tin Pan Alley

The noise was so ______ that he was so ______ that he stayed awake the whole night.

1. A.
   disturbing; disturbed
2. B.
   disturbed; disturbing;
3. C.
   disturbing; disturbing
4. D.
   disturbed; disturbed

Some scientists say that animals in the oceans are increasingly threatened by noise pollution caused by human beings.

The noise that affects sea creatures comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions, ocean drilling, and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.

Decibels (分贝) measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of one hundred and twenty decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of one hundred and ninety－five would have the same effect.

Some scientists have suggested setting a noise limit of one hundred and twenty decibels in the oceans. They have observed that noises at that level can frighten and confuse whales（鲸鱼）.

A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals.

The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales' ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed and become infected(被感染的).

Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds are against a limit of one hundred and twenty decibels. They say such a limit would mean an end to important industrial and scientific research.

Scientists do not know how much and what kinds of noises are harmful to ocean animals. However, many scientists don’t think that noise is a greater danger than they believed. They want to prevent noises from harming creatures in the ocean.

36．According to the passage, which of the following is increasingly dangerous to sea creatures?

A. The sound of cars.

B. The sound of voices.

C. Man-made noise pollution.

D. The sound of steps.

37．According to the passage, natural sounds include all of the following EXCEPT________.

A. sounds made by animals themselves               B. ocean drilling

C. underwater earthquakes                                D. the breaking of ice fields

38．Which of the following is discussed in the third paragraph?

A. The same noise level produces a different effect on land and in the ocean.

B. Different places may have different types of noises.

C. The decibel is not a right unit (单位) for measuring underwater noise.

D. Different ocean animals may have different reactions to noises.

39． Which of the following is true of whales?  

A. They won't be confused by noises.

B. They are deaf to noises.

C. Their ability to reproduce will be lowered by high-level noises.

D. Their hearing will be damaged by high-level noises.

40．According to the passage, what will scientists most probably do in the future?

A. They will work hard to reduce ocean noise pollution.

B. They will protect animals from harmful noises.

C. They will try to set a limit of 120 decibels.

D. They will study the effect of ocean noise pollution.

Simmons quietly went out of his house. He wanted to “talk” to an owl settling for the night at the end of his garden. He made owl cries like a real wild owl (猫头鹰)and was happy to hear the bird “hooting (大声叫嚣)” back to him.

Last year Fred Cornes moved in next door. He heard an owl hooting and answered back. For 12 months the neighbors got into the back gardens of their homes, thinking they were talking with nature. Mr. Simmons kept a diary of all his talks with his bird friend. They would both be out again tonight if it wasn’t for a chance talk between their wives.

Mr. Simmons said. “My wife Kim was telling Fred’s wife Wendy about my owl watching and described how I got the birds to boot back. She said, ‘That’s funny — that’s just what Fred has been doing.’ Then the penny dropped, I felt such a fool when I found out. The trouble is that owl calls aren’t exactly the same and it’s easy to make a mistake.”

Mr. Cornes said, “I’m really flattered (过奖). I didn’t know I sounded so real. I love nature and I couldn’t resist hooting at the owls. I was very excited when they hooted back. I’m sorry that I was fooling my neighbor who was fooling me.”

After the talk between the wives, the two men would probably _________ .

A．stop observing owls            B．not stay up hooting again

C．not enter the back garden again   D．make no mistakes about wild owl cries

“Then the penny dropped.” most probably means “Then __________.”

A．I understood                     B．everybody knew about it

      C．I heard the noise                  D．no money was paid

Mr. Simmons felt upset about the whole thing because __________.

A．all his efforts seemed to be meaningless

B．his wife let out his secret by chance

C．garden owls hooted so differently

D．Fred had been doing the same