第二部分阅读理解(共20小题。每小题2分，满分40分)
“ Fire! Fire!” What terrible words to hear when one wakes up in a strange house in the middle of the night! It was a large, old, wooden house and my room was on the top floor. I jumped out of bed, opened the door and stepped outside the house. There was full of thick smoke.
I began to run, but as I was still only half-awake, instead of going towards the stairs I went in the opposite direction. The smoke grew thicker and I could see fire all around. The floor became hot under my bare feet. I found an open    door and ran into a room to get to the window. But before I could reach it, one of my feet caught in something soft and I fell down. The thing I had fallen over felt like a bundle of clothes, and I picked it up to protect my face from the smoke and heat. Just then the floor gave way under me and I crashed to the floor below with pieces of burning wood all around me.
I saw a doorway in fire, then I put the bundle over my face and ran. My feet burned me terrible, but I got through. As I reached the cold air outside, my bundle of clothes gave a thin cry, I nearly dropped it in my surprise. Then I was in a crowd gathered in the street. A woman in a night-dress and a borrowed man’s coat screamed as she saw me and came running madly.
She was the Mayor’s wife, and I had saved her baby.
1. The author saved the baby _____.
A. because he was very brave.
B. because he liked the baby very much.
C. but he just happened to save it.
D. because it was the Mayor’s baby.
2. He ran in the wrong direction because he _______.
A. was a stranger there                      B. could see nothing
C. was not completely awake                 D. Both A and C
3. He put the bundle over his face and ran in order to ______.
A. save the baby   B. call for help   C. protect his face    D. run quickly
4. From which group of words can we learn the fire took place out of people’s surprise?
A. old and wooden house, a bundle      B. crashed to, fell down
C. terrible, half-awake                        D. bare feet, a borrowed man’s coat

“Fire! Fire!” What terrible words to hear when one wakes up in a strange house in the middle of the night! It was a large, old, wooden house and my room was on the top floor. I jumped out of bed, opened the door and stepped outside the house. There was full of thick smoke.
I began to run, but as I was still only half-awake, instead of going towards the stairs I went in the opposite direction. The smoke grew thicker and I could see fire all around. The floor became hot under my bare feet. I found an open door and ran into a room to get to the window. But before I could reach it, one of my feet caught in something soft and I fell down. The thing I had fallen over felt like a bundle of clothes, and I picked it up to protect my face from the smoke and heat. Just then the floor gave way under me and I crashed to the floor below with pieces of burning wood all around me.
I saw a doorway in fire, then I put the bundle over my face and ran. My feet burned me terrible, but I got through. As I reached the cold air outside, my bundle of clothes gave a thin cry, I nearly dropped it in my surprise. Then I was in a crowd gathered in the street. A woman in a night-dress and a borrowed man’s coat screamed as she saw me and came running madly.
She was the Mayor’s wife, and I had saved her baby.
【小题1】When the fire arose in the middle of the night, the author was _______.

The dream of flying like Buzz Lightyear never dies. For years, space-age inventors have tested one wearable jet pack after another. And time after time, the designs have been grounded by dangerous fuels, excessive weight, or very loud noise levels. Now a Canadian inventor has sidestepped those weaknesses with an aquatic jet pack. Designed for travel over lakes or oceans, it’s driven by pressurized water, not burning rocket fuel.

When Raymond Li first told the idea for the aquatic jet pack to his friends, they said he must be nuts. How could a jet pack carry that much water? Its thrust-to-weight rate would be so low and it would never become airborne. Thrust-to-weight rate is a measure of the forward force produced compared with the weight of the vehicle. A vehicle with a low thrust-to-weight rate is relatively heavy for the amount of force it generates.

Li's genius idea was to place the jet pack’s engine and its water pump in a separate boat. The pump would draw water from the lake the boat was floating on. It would then force the water under pressure through a hose connected to the jet pack. The hose would be long enough to let the pack go up as high as 8.5 meters (28 feet) in the air.

Today, Li's invention, the Jetlev-Flyer, is ready to go into production. The pack itself, complete with jet nozzles （管嘴） and handlebars, weighs just 14 kilograms. The boat is a floating pod. To take off, the operator hits a trigger on a handlebar, which starts the pump, and then turns the throttle. Two streams of high-velocity water shoot through the hose and out the nozzles, lifting the operator into the air. The operator hovers there or pushes down on the handlebars, zooming forward at speeds of up to 64 kilometers per hour, pulling the pod behind.

All the following factors contribute to the failure of inventing a wearable jet pack EXCEPT ______.

A. excessive water     B. unbearable noise    C. unsafe fuels   D. too much weight 

The underlined word “sidestepped” in Para. 1 most probably means ________.

  A. improved          B. reduced         C. avoided         D. solved

Raymond Li’s friends found his idea for the aquatic jet pack was ________.

  A. exciting           B. crazy          C. realistic         D. creative

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

  A. His friends encouraged him to do the invention.

  B. He put the engine and its water pump in the same boat.

  C. The success of his invention lies in his bravery.   

  D. His invention finally succeeded and will go into production.

Which is the right order to make the Jetlev-Flyer take off?

  a. The throttle is turned.                  b. The operator is lifted into the air.

  c. A trigger is hit.                       d. Two streams of water shoot out.

The pump is started.

A. c, e, a, d, b          B. c, e, a, b, d            C. e, c, d, b, a          D. e, a, c, d, b

One day, four lawyers were riding along a country road. There had been a(n)  36 , and the ground was soft. The lawyers rode  37 , talking and laughing. As they were passing through a  38 , they heard some noises in the grass.
“What’s the matter here?” asked one man.
“Oh, it’s only some old robins (知更鸟)!” said another one, “The  39  has blown them out of the nest. They are too young to  40  .”
“What a  41  ! They’ll die,” said the third one.
“Well! They’re nothing but  42  ,” said the first lawyer.
The three men looked down and saw the mother robin  43  to her mates. Then they rode on, talking and laughing as before. In a few minutes they had  44  the birds. But the fourth lawyer, whose name was Abraham Lincoln,  45  . He got down from his  46  and gently took the little ones up. They didn’t seem  47 , but chirped (唧唧叫) softly, as if they knew they were safe.
“Never  48 , my little fellows,” said Mr. Lincoln. Then he looked up to find the nest from which they had  49 . It was much higher than he could reach. But Mr. Lincoln could  50 . He put the birds softly, one by one, into their warm home.
In a few minutes, Mr. Lincoln  51  the others. He had torn his coat on the thorny (多刺的) tree. Then all three of them  52  heartily. They thought it so   53  that a strong man should take so much trouble just for some worthless young birds.
“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Lincoln, “I couldn’t have  54  tonight if I had left those helpless robins to die in the  55  grass.”
Abraham Lincoln afterwards became President of America.

Dick lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, "I'm going to fly to New York next week because I've got some work there." "Where are you going to stay there?" his wife asked. "I don't know yet." Dick answered. "Please send me your address from there in a telegram (电报)," his wife said. "All right," Dick answered.

He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the center of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.

In the evening he didn't have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out at nine o'clock and said, "Now I'm going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner."

He found a taxi (出租车) and the driver said, "Where do you want to go?" But Dick didn't remember the name and address of his hotel.

"Which hotel are my things in?" he said, "And what am I going to do tonight?" But the driver of the taxi did not know. So Dick got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, "Please send me my address at this post office."

Dick flew to New York because ___.

A. he went there for a holiday

B. he had work there

C. he went there for sightseeing (观光)

D. his home was there

Why did his wife want a telegram from him?

A. Because she didn't know his address yet

B. Because she wanted to go to New York, too

C. Because she might send him another telegram

D. Because she couldn't leave her husband by himself in New York

Where did Dick stay in New York?

A. In the center of the city.              B. In a hotel.

C. In a restaurant.                     D. At his friend's house.

Who would send him the name and address of his hotel?

A. The manager (经理) of his hotel.       B. The police office.

C. The taxi driver.                     D. His wife.

Which of the following is not true?

A. Dick stayed at a nice hotel in the center of the city.

B. Dick didn't work on the first night of his arrival.

C. Dick forgot to send his wife a telegram.

D. Dick wanted to go back to his hotel in a taxi.