For the first time in Hong Kong’s history, an entertainer has been written into

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For the first time in Hong Kong’s history, an entertainer has been written into middle school textbooks. He is considered one of the best actors in Hong Kong. Yes, he is Chow Yun-fat.
The example of his long hard struggle for success has been used in a chapter in a Hong Kong middle school textbook. Using his experience, students can learn to make the most of their time and to grab every opportunity to succeed．
On hearing about this, Chow said happily, “I really hope that my experiences can make young people understand that one should not be afraid of difficulties and setbacks (挫折), for they are the only way to success.”
Indeed, Chow has travelled a long and difficult path to reach his success. In 1955, he was born into a poor family in Hong Kong. When he was 17, he had to leave school. He worked in a number of jobs—as a postman, camera salesman and taxi driver. These experiences paved (铺路) the way for him to play all kinds of roles later in life.
Chow broke into the film industry in the late 1970s. He was one of the hardest working actors and starred in a number of popular TV dramas and films including “Shanghai Bund”(《上海滩》) and “A Better Tomorrow”. Since 1985, he has won many awards including Taiwan"s Golden Horse Awards and Hong Kong Film Awards.
In 1995, he went to Hollywood. Although he was already over 40, he had to learn English. He even put chopsticks in his mouth to practise pronouncing certain sounds. His film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, began to gain him more fame and recognition around the world. In 1998, the mayor of Chicago set aside January 12 as “Chow Yun-fat Day”.
小题1:Chow Yun-fat has been written into middle school textbooks mainly because ________.

A．he plays best in Hong Kong

B．he keeps on struggling for success

C．his experiences are very special

D．he is well thought of

小题2:Chow felt ________ when he learned that he had been written into middle school textbooks.

A．surprised

B．shy

C．sad

D．happy

小题3:What can we infer from the passage?

A．Chow Yun-fat is proud of his success.

B．Chow Yun-fat prefers to make a living by selling cameras rather than by performing.

C．Chow Yun-fat has won more awards than other actors.

D．Chow Yun-fat is popular both at home and abroad.

小题4:The underlined sentence (in paragraph 6) suggests ________.

A．chopsticks is of great help to practise English pronunciation

B．Chow Yun-fat is willing to struggle with difficulties

C．Chow Yun-fat has suffered a lot before he went to Hollywood

D．it is hard for a person who is over 40 years old to learn spoken English

小题5:The author wrote this passage to ________.

A．introduce Chow’s films

B．praise Chow for his excellent performance

C．call on people to learn from Chow

D．show why Chow is popular

答案

小题1:B
小题2:D
小题3:D
小题4:B
小题5:C

解析

小题1:细节题。结合第二段可知周润发被写进中学课本重要是因为他为了成功而作出的漫长而刻苦的奋斗（his long hard struggle for success）。
小题2:细节题。结合On hearing about this, Chow said happily可知答案。
小题3:推断题。结合His film, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, began to gain him more fame and recognition around the world. 可知答案。
小题4:句意理解题。划线句子的意思是说周润发为了练习发音甚至把筷子放进嘴里，这表明了周润发的奋斗精神，故选B。
小题5:写作目的题。文章主要写了周润发作为为追求成功而刻苦奋斗的例子入选中课本，作者显然是希望人们学习他这种精神。

举一反三

Most people consider skydiving (高空跳伞) a product of the 20th century, but its history actually goes further back than that. The Chinese attempted to parachute (跳伞) in the 10th century, a thousand years before we did. The Chinese did what we would today call base diving; that is, they jumped off a place that would allow them to float from a height to the ground.
The first person to attempt to parachute was a Frenchman named Jacques Garnerin. He jumped from his hot-air balloon at the end of the 18th century and did tricks on the way down and stupefied the crowds by landing safely on the ground. At the end of the 19th century, Kathie Paulus, a brave German woman, became famous for her skydiving skills.
Once the airplane was invented, skydiving took on a whole new form. The airplane made it possible to dive from greater heights at greater speeds, allowing for more range in the movements in the air. A woman named Tiny Broadwick became the first woman to jump from a plane in 1913 and dive free fall in 1914.
Skydiving was not called skydiving until the middle of the 1950s, when Ronald Young invented the word. It had been called parachuting before this and was mainly used by the military (军事) to land troops in inland locations, or for pilots to jump out of their planes when necessary. Once World War I was over, parachuting became a sport, which we now call skydiving.
After World War II, this activity became more a hobby than a military action. Soldiers were trained in parachuting and enjoyed the thrill so much that they continued on for fun. From this, teams and competitions were formed. Skydiving schools appeared in the late 1950s and now it is a recognized extreme sport enjoyed by many.
小题1:The underlined word “stupefied” in paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.

A．disappointed

B．encouraged

C．surprised

D．attacked

小题2:Who was the first woman to jump from a plane?

A．Jacques Garnerin.

B．Kathie Paulus.

C．Tiny Broadwick.

D．Ronald Young.

小题3:Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The Chinese attempted different skydiving skills in the 10th century.

B．Skydiving became popular after the airplane was invented.

C．The word skydiving was first used in a military action.

D．There were no skydiving schools until the late 1950s.

小题4:What can we infer from the passage?

A．Skydiving is not a military action any more.

B．Kathie Paulus is famous for her skydiving skills.

C．The first person who parachuted was from Germany.

D．The history of skydiving is longer than that of parachuting.

小题5:What would be the best title for this text?

A．The history of skydiving	B．The popularity of skydiving
C．What is skydiving?	D．Why is skydiving an extreme sport?

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London has already hosted the Olympics twice before and the 2012 Olympics will make it the first city in history to have held three Olympic games．
The first London Olympics in 1908
These games were going to be held in Rome but, because of a volcano, Rome wasn"t ready．London agreed to stage the games and the White City Olympic Stadium was built in just 10 months．What was new at these Olympics was the opening ceremony where athletes paraded（列队行进） with their teams behind their national flags．Only 22 countries took part and the profits were just over ￡21,000!
The second London Olympics
Because of the Second World War, the 1944 Olympics were cancelled．Four years later the war was over and London was able to hold the Games in 1948．Things were very different in London during these Olympic Games and many years of war had left the UK poor and hungry．People called them the "Austerity Games"．But there were still some great sports and some exciting events!
59 countries took part, more than at any other Olympics before and the USA won the most medals with 84．For the first time, cameras filmed the games and broadcast them on television so that people could watch them in their own homes．
The third London Olympics in 2012
The Games this year are going to be bigger, better and more exciting than ever before． There will be more than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries taking part!
London wants to make sure that the benefits of the Olympics don"t just last for a few weeks in summer but go on much longer．The buildings have been designed and constructed so that they can be used for different things when the Games are over．

小题1:The text is mainly about _____．

A．London will host the Olympics again

B．London"s Olympic history

C．London"s Olympics will last much longer

D．London is ready for the Olympics

小题2:London hosted the Olympics in 1908 instead of Rome because _____．

A．London could build a stadium in 10 months

B．only 22 countries took part

C．there was a volcano eruption in Rome

D．London could make more profits than Rome

小题3:The second London Olympic Games were called the "Austerity Games" because _____．

A．the UK were poor and hungry then

B．there were some great sports

C．the previous Olympic Games was jcancelled

D．about 59 countries took part

小题4:The underlined word "them" refers to _____．

A．the 59 countries	B．the 84 gold medals
C．all the athletes	D．the games

小题5:According to the text, we know that _____．

A．the benefits of the Olympics used to last for months afterwards

B．the 2nd London Olympics attracted more countries than any other Olympics

C．the buildings for the 3rd London Olympics have more functions for future use

D．the 2nd London Olympics were cancelled because of the Second World War

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Before Nicholas Clapp got there, he had half hoped that he might run into some of Ubar’s ruins sticking(凸出) out of the sand. But finding the city wasn’t that easy. During the summer, he and his 40 helpers dug at 35 different spots. The only things they found were ground spiders, giant ticks, and deadly snakes.
Just before Thanksgiving says Clapp, “We were within a whisker of total failure.”
But then Clapp’s team looked at the high-tech maps again and saw something surprising. Many of the caravan routes(沙漠商队路线)on the high-tech maps came together on the same spot marked “Omani Marketplace” on Ptolomy’s map. Two maps, made almost 2000 years apart, pointed the team toward the same area!
In December 1991, Clapp arrived at the spot where, according to the maps, the caravans met. Clapp had a handheld instrument that could detect(探测) objects below the ground. It showed ruins under the sand! He and his team started digging. And then they found it! A tower buried in the sand. They slowly unearthed a giant, eight-sided fortress(堡垒). It had nine towers and many rooms. People had lived in this fortress 2000 years ago. Outside its walls, they had found buried remains of nearly 40 campsites. They seemed to be camping areas for traders(商人).
More digging found shards, or pieces of pottery(陶瓷) from ancient Rome, Greece, China, Egypt, and Syria. Diggers and scientists agree that people were here for about 5000 years. Clapp and his team were excited as they continued to discover more pieces of the past that seemed to prove that it was the lost city of Ubar.
“We started with this hopeless myth(神秘),” says Clapp, “and then finally found the truth behind the myth.” But is this unearthed site really the once-great Ubar? Experts aren’t totally persuaded.
Donald Whitcomb is an archeologist(考古学家) at the University of Chicago. He doubts that Clapp really discovered Ubar. “There’s probably some truth to this myth,” he says. “But Ubar is described as a place with walls all made of gold, and the rubies and emeralds(宝石).” No gold or precious stones have been found by Clapp.
“I’m not sure whether they discovered Ubar because I’m not sure if Ubar really existed,” Whitcomb says.
小题1:The following statements are true according to the reading EXCEPT_____.

A．Clapp made this discovery with the help of caravan routes on the maps

B．Clapp made this discovery with the help of some high technology

C．Clapp was not sure that he had found Ubar

D．Donald Whitcomb was not sure if Clapp had found Ubar

小题2:Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined part?

A．We were ready for any failure

B．We were on the point of giving up hopes

C．We would never stop digging though there was difficulty.

D．We decided that we had failed to find Ubar.

小题3:It can be inferred from the reading that Nicholas Clapp is _____

A．a person of courage

B．a person of determination

C．a very young person

D．a person who is good for nothing

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A long time ago, in an Italian city, the people there built a tower which was admired by everyone passing through. A little further down the road, in a neighboring city, they had built a tower of similar beauty. The two towers were equally well known. The people of the second city, envious (妒忌的) and filled with pride, planned to destroy the neighboring tower so it wouldn’t take attention away from their own. One night, they came to the tower and began to quietly undermine its foundations(地基).
The next morning, the tower was leaning(倾斜) slightly ,but nobody noticed. The same happened for the following few days, until a little girl who was passing by pointed up at the tower and said: “ I think the tower is going to fall down.” And everyone around looked closely, and could see that she was right .Nervousness spread through the city. And they tried many methods to try to straighten the tower, but nothing seemed to work. That was, until one day when the same little girl was walking up again, and she put her arm on the side of the tower to rest. She felt the tower shaking slightly. When she took her hand off it, the movement stopped. And when she put it back on again, the same thing happened. The girl spent a while doing this, until she was completely certain of what she had discovered: “ The tower is ticklish ( 怕痒的) ！” She ran to get some plants, and she planted them right next to the tower. Now if the tower leant over any further it would be tickled by the leaves of those plants. Being a ticklish tower, it would then return to where it had been. In this way, the girl managed to make sure that the tower didn’t fall down, but still kept it leaning a little.
The fact that it was leaning made it even more famous, and this taught a fine lesson to the envious people of the neighboring city.
小题1:Why did the people of the second city plan to destroy the neighboring tower?

A．Because the tower blocked the way of their tourists.

B．Because the tower had the same building style as theirs.

C．Because they hoped that the tower could lean slightly.

D．Because they hoped that visitors just liked their own tower.

小题2:The underlined word“undermine”（in Paragraph1）probably mean “_________”．

A．test

B．raise

C．damage

D．strengthen

小题3:When local people heard the news that their tower was going to fall down, they were _________.

A．very anxious

B．very happy

C．very ashamed of themselves

D．angry at the people in the neighboring city

小题4:What lesson can we learn from the practice of the envious people in the neighboring city?

A．All that ends well is well.

B．Every dog has his day.

C．A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

D．A friend is never known till a man has need.

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The famous car Rolls-Royce has been largely hand-made and always one of the most expensive cars on the market.
In fact, Rolls-Royce is made up of two men’s names, Charles S. Rolls and Henry Royce. They came from very different backgrounds, received very different educations and when they met; their careers were going in very different directions.
In 1903, Royce bought a second-hand France Decauville car. He found the car unreliable, difficult to start and overheated. Royce decided he could do better himself and set about building two-cylinder (双杠发动机) car of his own design. The first of these, built almost completely by Royce himself, was a success in almost every way: it started easily, ran smoothly and was very reliable. It never failed to impress everyone who saw it rode in the car, including Rolls.
While he was a university student at Cambridge, Rolls acquired a French Peugeot. It was the first automobile seen at Cambridge and by the time Rolls finished his studies, he was probably the most skilled driver in Britain. In 1902, Rolls went into the business of selling cars and became a leading automobile distributor. He was looking for a British car to market when he was told that Henry Royce had designed and built a two-cylinder automobile.
In 1904, Royce and Rolls joined together to build and sell motor car. They combined their talents—Royce the engineer and Rolls the salesman and businessman.
And, just two years later, the partnership produced the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, a milestone car acclaimed (盛赞) by many by the time as the “ best in the world”. Over the years the automaker built a legendary reputation.
小题1:The Rolls-Royce is expensive for its ______ .

A．procedure	B．engine
C．function	D．impression

小题2:The underlined word “distributor” in Paragraph 4 probably means ______ .

A．boss	B．producer
C．buyer	D．seller

小题3:According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A．The Rolls-Royce car is the most expensive car in the world.

B．The two cylinder car built by Royce failed to impress people.

C．When Rolls graduated from Cambridge University, he didn’t do well in driving.

D．In 1906 the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was popular with many people.

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