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England has been the birthplace of most of the great English-language theater written throughout history. Most of the plays in England that are truly famous have something in common. They usually come from a playwright(劇作家) with several famous plays.
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is considered the most famous British playwright. Shakespeare has a large catalog(目錄) of tragedies, comedies and history plays, and each category is home to some of the most famous plays ever written. Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Julius Caesar are all tragedies and performed in theaters around the world every year. Famous comedies include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. In the history category, Richard Ⅲ and Henry Ⅴ are very famous.
Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw
Several hundred years after Shakespeare, English people began to enjoy the works of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Wilde’s plays are still popular now, and The Importance of Being Earnest is both performed and studied extremely frequently. A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband are among his other famous works. Shaw and Wilde were born within a few years of each other, but Shaw was a much more productive writer. His most famous plays include Pygmalion and Candida. Shaw’s plays are loved so much that an entire theater company is devoted to performing his work in Niagara-on-the-Lake in southern Ontario.
Harold Pinter
The plays of Harold Pinter certainly have an international presence. His writing was so widely recognized for its importance that he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005. Pinter is especially known for his style of writing. Many of his plays such as Betrayal, The Dumb Waiter and his first play, The Room, are extremely well known.
【小題1】The writer wrote this passage to       .

A．a(chǎn)dvise us to spend more time enjoying plays

B．explain why England has so many wonderful plays

C．tell us about some famous British playwrights and their works

D．tell us the differences among some British playwrights

【小題2】What do the works in the underlined part in Paragraph 2 have in common?

A．They are all Shakespeare’s early works.

B．They are all tragedies written by Shakespeare.

C．They are all Shakespeare’s famous comedies.

D．They all belong to the history category of Shakespeare’s plays.

【小題3】Which of the following plays were most probably written in the same period of time?

A．The Dumb Waiter and A Woman of No Importance.

B．Richard Ⅲ and A Woman of No Importance.

C．An Ideal Husband and Candida.

D．Candida and Betrayal.

【小題4】Who was mentioned in this passage that he had received the Nobel Prize because of his writing?

A．William Shakespeare.	B．Oscar Wilde.
C．George Bernard Shaw.	D．Harold Pinter.

Johann Gutenberg, who worked as a goldsmith (金匠), took what had already been discovered, and created a small invention that changed history. He created a machine that allowed him to move small blocks of letters in such a way that written material could be printed and mass-produced. Few people could read before Guttenberg made the invention, but once books became less expensive, more Europeans could read and write.
Block printing existed long before Gutenberg. The Chinese had been using wood blocks to print books as early as 868, but a new set of woodcuts (木刻印版) had to be made for each book. Producing one book was not easy; producing all kinds of books was more difficult.
Writing ink dates from about 2500 BC in Egypt and China. Gutenberg used an oil-based printing ink that would last longer than other inks used in his time. We don’t know much about Gutenberg because he was not famous during his lifetime. He was born in Germany about 1400. In 1448, Gutenberg developed signatures for each number, letter, and punctuation mark (標(biāo)點(diǎn)符號). He then built the molds (模型) to hold the signatures in place. Gutenberg published the first mass-produced book: a 1,282 page Bible. To this day, more copies of the Bible have been printed than any other book.
Copies of Gutenberg’s invention spread throughout Europe, but the German goldsmith did not get rich from his invention. Some officials denounced the invention of printing because they feared that it would spread bad ideas. By 1500 there were 1,700 printing presses in Europe. The presses had already produced about 20 million volumes (冊) of 40,000 different books.
【小題1】What happened after Johann Gutenberg’s invention?

A．People could afford to read books.

B．People became interested in inventing.

C．It was still difficult to print all kinds of books.

D．Punctuation mark began to be used in printing.

【小題2】 Compared with block printing in China, Johann Gutenberg’s method _____.

A．was difficult to run

B．needed harder paper

C．used a new kind of ink

D．was put into use earlier

【小題3】The underlined word “denounced” in the last paragraph means _____.

A．fought against	B．a(chǎn)ccepted
C．laughed at	D．supported

【小題4】What is the best title for the text?

A．A famous 1,282 page Bible

B．The life of a famous inventor

C．An invention that changed history

D．The development of printing

Terra-cotta Warriors
As the greatest archaeological findings of the 20th century, Terra-cotta Warriors has a really long history．In 246 BC, Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to prepare for his mausoleum which took 11 years to finish to defend him in the afterlife．There are over 7,000 pottery soldiers, horses, bronze chariots, and even weapons found in it now．Terra-cotta Warriors was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as one of the world cultural heritages and it has made Xi’an a famous city for tourists．
Big Wild Goose Pagoda
The Big Wild Goose Pagoda has a history of over 1,300 years and is a typical ancient Chinese building．It is located in the south of Xi’an City．Because Master Xuanzang stored his classics brought from India in the pagoda, it is also a holy place for Buddhists．As a National Key Cultural Relic Preserve, it won the title of an AAAA Tourist Attraction as well．
Xi’an Ancient City Wall
As one of the landmarks of Xi’an, Ancient City Wall still stretches round the old city today, dividing the city into the inner part and the outer part．Ancient City Wall was originally built during the old Tang Dynasty (618 — 907) and then enlarged by Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, thus forming the modern Xi’an City Wall．After the extension, the wall now stands 12 meters tall, 12-14 meters wide at the top and 15-18 meters thick at the bottom．
【小題1】What is The Big Wild Goose Pagoda most famous for?

A．It has a history of over 1,300 years．

B．It is a typical ancient Chinese building．

C．It is a holy place for Buddhists．

D．It won the title of an AAAA Tourist Attraction．

【小題2】When was the modern Xi’an City Wall formed?

A．In the Tang Dynasty．	B．In AD907．
C．In modern times．	D．In the Ming Dynasty．

【小題3】Who are the text written for?

A．Archaeologists．	B．Scientists
C．Tourists．	D．Artists

The air bag is a piece of safety equipment in cars. It was first designed by John W. Hetrick in 1952. Like many inventions, he came up with the idea as a result of an event that had occurred in his life. He says:
“In the spring of 1952, my wife, my seven-year-old daughter, Joan, and I were out for a Sunday drive in our 1948 Chrysler Windsor. About three miles outside Newport we were watching for deer jumping across the road. Suddenly, there was a large rock in our path. I hit the brakes and we went into a ditch(壕溝).
“As I applied the brakes, both my wife and I threw our hands up to keep our daughter from hitting the car. There was soft mud in the ditch, so the car wasn’t damaged, and no one was hurt.”
“During the ride home I couldn’t stop thinking about the accident. I asked myself,‘Why couldn’t some object come out to stop you from striking the inside of the car?’As soon as I got home that night I drew some sketches(草圖). Each evening for the following two weeks, I’d add or reduce something from the sketches.”
Hetrick applied an event he had observed while in the Navy to the design of the air bag. He was repairing a torpedo(魚雷) which had a cloth covering. When the compressed（壓縮的） air that was in the torpedo was let out, the covering was suddenly filled with air and was shot to the ceiling.
With this knowledge, he developed his design until he was able to obtain a patent on the invention on August 5, 1952. The idea was similar to the air bag designs of today. Compressed air is stored in a container and when a traffic accident occurs and the car slows down at a rapid enough rate, the air will be released into the air bag. The idea was ingenious, but Hetrick’s air bag never would have functioned properly. It was really a breakthrough, but it would require years and years of designing and testing by some top car designers before it could be used.
【小題1】The car accident Hetrick was involved in ________.

A．damaged his car	B．happened in 1948
C．was caused by a deer	D．caused no harm to his family

【小題2】Hetrick’s experience in the Navy________.

A．turned out to be dangerous	B．was helpful to his invention
C．involved designing torpedoes	D．inspired him to design an air bag

【小題3】The underlined word “ingenious” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to _______.

A．creative

B．ridiculous

C．crazy

D．complex

【小題4】What do we know about the air bag Hetrick designed?

A．It came into use in the 1950s.	B．It performed perfectly in car accidents.
C．It prepared the way for air bags nowadays.	D．It took Hetrick about two months to develop it.

【小題5】The text is mainly about ____.

A．the great inventor Hetrick	B．The invention of air bags
C．a(chǎn) terrible car accident	D．road safety in the 1950s

ABORIGINAL is a term used to describe the people and animals that lived in a place from the earliest known times or before Europeans arrived. Examples are the Maori in New Zealand, the Aborigines in Australia and the Indians in America. They all share the fact that they were pushed off their land by European settlers.
Maori
The Maori were the first people to go to New Zealand, about 1,000 years ago. They came from the islands of Polynesia in the Pacific. They brought dogs, rats and plants with them and settled mainly on the Northern Island. In 1769, Captain James Cook from Britain took possession of the Island and from that time British people started to settle. The Maori signed an agreement on land rights with these settlers, but in later years there were arguments and battles between them.
Aborigines
The native people of Australia came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. They lived by hunting and gathering. Their contact with British settlers began in 1788. By the 1940s almost all of them were mixed into Australian society as low-paid workers. Their rights were limited. In 1976 and 1993 the Australian Government passed laws that returned some land to the Aborigines and recognized their property rights.
American Indians
Long before the Europeans came to America in the 16th and 17th century, the American Indians, or Native Americans, lived there. It is believed that they came from Asia. Christopher Columbus mistook the land for India and so called the people there Indians. The white settlers and American Indians lived in peace at the beginning, but conflicts finally arose and led to the Indian Wars (1866-1890). After the wars, the Indians were driven to the west of the country. Not until 1924 did they gain the right to vote.
【小題1】The similarity among Maoris, Aborigines and American Indians is that _________.

A．they lost their vote right after European settlers’ arrival

B．they lost their land after European settlers’ arrival

C．they were driven out of their country after European settlers’ arrival

D．they were not treated as citizens until recently

【小題2】Before European settlers arrived, we can infer that the Aboriginals had lived _________ life.

A．a(chǎn) miserable

B．a(chǎn) bitter

C．a(chǎn) peaceful

D．a(chǎn) troublesome

【小題3】Which of the following was first interrupted by the Europeans?

A．Maoris.

B．Aborigines.

C．American Indians.

D．Not mentioned.

【小題4】The passage mainly tells us _______.

A．the war between aboriginal people and white settlers

B．the history of Maoris, Aborigines and American Indians

C．the present unfair treatment to aboriginal people of the world

D．European settlers were the enemy of all aboriginal people

From the beginning of human history, wild animals provided food, clothing and sometimes medicine. We may not depend as much on wild animals now. But we hear about them every day. Americans use the names of animals in many ways. Automobile manufacturers(制造商) and gasoline companies especially like to use big cats to sell their products. They like lions, tigers and wildcats. When Americans say wildcat, they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. So wildcats represent something fast and fierce.
An early American use of the word wildcat was quite different. It was used to describe members of Congress(國會) who declared war on Britain in 1812. A magazine of that year said the wildcat congressmen went home. It said they were unable to face the responsibility of having involved their country in an unnecessary war.
Wildcat also has been used as a name for money in the 1800s. At that time, some states permitted banks to make their own money. One bank in the state of Michigan offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. Some banks, however, did not have enough gold to support all the paper money they offered. So the money had little or no value. It was called a wildcat bill or a wildcat bank note. The banks who offered this money were called wildcat banks. A newspaper of the time said those were the days of wildcat money. It said a man might be rich in the morning and poor by night.
Wildcat then was also used for an oil well or gold mine that had almost no oil or gold in it. Dishonest developers would buy such property. Then they would sell it and leave town with the money. The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas that are not known to have oil.
【小題1】 What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Wildcats and their stories.

B．Wildcats and their characters

C．Varieties of animal species.

D．Relationship between animal and humans.

【小題2】From the passage we can know that______.

A．wildcats represent the state of Michigan

B．the use of wildcat was not always the same

C．wildcats are the best friend of human beings

D．honest developers never buy wildcat oil wells

【小題3】 The underlines words “a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat” in Paragraph 1 may refer to “      ”.
A. gasoline companies                    B. automobile manufacturers
C. names of wildcats                     D. brands of automobile
64. Which of the following would people like to have or trust according to the passage?
A. Wildcat congressmen.                  B. Wildcat oil wells.
C. Wildcat banks.                        D. Wildcat cars.
【小題4】 It can be inferred that during the days of wildcat money_________.

A．people couldn’t buy anything with the money

B．people didn’t know how to save money.

C．the rich invested too much on oil wells.

D．people complained and suffered a lot

A group of 1,309 passengers boarded the MS Balmoral on Sunday, in Southampton, England, on a voyage to retrace (重走) the path of the Titanic. The Titanic was the biggest ship in the world when it sailed on its ill-fated first voyage on April 10, 1912. Of the 2,227 passengers and crew aboard, more than l,500 died. The ship, which was headed for New York City, carried the rich and famous on its first voyage. It also carried immigrants who were seeking a better life in America.
Relatives of people who sailed on the Titanic, historians, authors and people fascinated by the story of the unsinkable ship were on the Balmoral. They wanted to remember the Titanic and those who died on her first and last voyage.
The Balmoral was following Titanic’s original route from Southampton. First, the modern-day cruise liner docked (進(jìn)港) in the port of Cherbourg, France, where the Titanic had picked up more passengers. On Monday afternoon, the Balmoral stopped in Cobh, Ireland, the Titanic’s last port of call before sailing to New York.
The Balmoral then sailed the North Atlantic Ocean to the location where the Titanic hit an iceberg. On Sunday, April 15, at 2:20 a.m. — the time the Titanic went down － passengers and crew held a memorial service. The next two days were spent in Halifax, Canada, where many victims of the Titanic are buried. Then, the Balmoral reached its final destination in New York City, where the Titanic was supposed to dock — but never did.
So far, several teams of divers have explored the site. They have recovered items such as dishes and silverware and put them on public display. And the Titanic and its passengers and crew have been remembered in books, movies and TV programs. But there’s a much more important contribution that the Titanic has given us. After she sank, lawmakers and ship builders made ships safer. It took a terrible tragedy to make ship travel safer for all.
【小題1】We learn from the first paragraph that _____.

A．the Titanic sank on its second voyage

B．a(chǎn)bout 700 passengers of the Titanic survived

C．less than 2,000 passengers boarded the Titanic

D．a(chǎn)ll the passengers’ hopes of the Titanic lay in America

【小題2】Which of the following shows the correct route of the Balmoral?
a. Halifax  b. New York City   c. Cobh   d. Southampton e. Cherbourg

A．d-e-c-a-b

B．e-d-a-b-c

C．e-c-a-b-d

D．d-c-e-a-b

【小題3】What might be the most important contribution of the Titanic?

A．Its site attracts many exploration teams.	B．It has made later ships more secure.
C．Some of its items are on public display.	D．More trips are planned to its site.

【小題4】What would be the best title for the text?

A．The unsinkable ship	B．The Titanic today
C．The Titanic’s route	D．Sailing through history

Flags have existed for over 3000 years. The earliest flags were wooden or metal poles topped with a carving. About 2000 years ago pies of fabric were added to some poles for decoration. Over the next 500 years the free-flying part of the flag became more important.
Every country today has its own flag. Many groups and organizations also have a flag which stands for, or symbolizes, the aims of the group.
The flag depicts (描繪) a world map, centered on the north pole. The map is surrounded by an olive (橄欖) wreath (花環(huán)) symbolizing peace and co-operation. The flag is blue and white.
【小題1】Flags have been in existence for _________.

A．500 years	B．more than 3000 years
C．a(chǎn)bout 2000 years	D．between 500 and 2000 years

【小題2】A very old flag is likely to _________.

A．be made of fabric	B．have a map on it
C．have white shapes on it	D．be made of carved wood

【小題3】An olive wreath is used to stand for _________.

A．peace

B．purity

C．justice

D．equality

The modern Olympic Games, founded in 1896, began as contests between individuals, rather than among nations, with the hope of promoting world peace through sportsmanship. In the beginning, the games were open only to amateurs. An amateur is a person whose involvement in an activity---from sports to science or the arts---is purely for pleasure. Amateurs, whatever their contributions to a field, expect to receive no form of compensation ; professionals, in contrast, perform their work in order to earn a living.
From the perspective of many athletes, however, the Olympic playing field has been far from level. Restricting the Olympics to amateurs has precluded（妨礙） the participation of many who could not afford to be unpaid. Countries have always desired to send their best athletes, not their wealthiest ones, to the Olympic Games.
A slender and imprecise line separates what we call “financial support” from “earning money.” Do athletes “earn money” if they are reimbursed（補(bǔ)償） for travel expenses? What if they are paid for time lost at work or if they accept free clothing from a manufacturer or if they teach sports for a living? The runner Eric Liddell was the son of poor missionaries; in 1924 the British Olympic Committee financed his trip to the Olympics, where he won a gold and a bronze medal. College scholarships and support from the United States Olympic Committee made it possible for American track stars Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph and speed skater Dan Jansen to train and compete. When the Soviet Union and its allies joined the games in 1952, the definition of amateur became still muddier. Their athletes did not have to balance jobs and training because as citizens in communist regimes, their government financial support was not considered payment for jobs.
In 1971 the International Olympic Committee(IOC) removed the word amateur from the rules, making it easier for athletes to find the support necessary to train and compete. In 1986 the IOC allowed professional athletes into the games.
There are those who regret the disappearance of amateurism from the Olympic Games. For them the games lost something special when they became just another way for athletes to earn money. Others say that the designation of amateurism was always questionable; they argue that all competitors receive so much financial support as to make them paid professionals. Most agree, however, that the debate over what constitutes an “amateur” will continue for a long time.
【小題1】 One might infer that _______________________.

A．developing Olympic-level skills in athletes is costly

B．professional athletes are mostly interested in financial rewards

C．a(chǎn)mateurs does not expect to earn money at the sport that is played

D．a(chǎn)mateurs have a better attitude than professionals do

【小題2】 The statement “the Olympic playing field has been far from level” means that__________.

A．the ground the athletes played on was in bad condition

B．the poorer players were given some advantages

C．the rules did not work the same way for everyone

D．a(chǎn)mateurs were inferior to the professionals in many ways

【小題3】 The financial support given to athletes by the Soviet government can best be compared to ________________.

A．a(chǎn) gift received on a special occasion, such as a birthday

B．money received from a winning lottery ticket

C．a(chǎn)n allowance paid to a child

D．money from charity organization

【小題4】 One can conclude that the Olympic Organizing Committee _________________.

A．has held firm to its original vision of the Olympic games

B．has struggled with the definition of amateur over the years

C．regards itself as an organization for professional athletes only

D．did nothing but stop allowing communists to participate

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden change in pronunciation started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with people from around the world. This means that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Spelling and grammar became fixed and the dialect （方言）of London became the standard. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published.
The numbers of words in Early Modern English and Late Modern English differ. Late Modern English has a lot more words because of two main factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire covered one quarter of the earth’s surface, and the English language took in foreign words from many countries.
From around 1600, the English colonization(殖民地化)of North America resulted in the creation of American English. Some English pronunciation and words froze when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English. Some expressions that the British call “ Americanisms” are in fact original （原先的）British expressions that were preserved (保存) in the colonies but were lost in Britain. Spanish also had an influence on American English, with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English. French words and West African words also influenced American English.
Today, American English is the most influential(有影響力的). But there are many other kinds of English around the world, including Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English , Indian English and Caribbean English. They have differences.
【小題1】What can we know from Paragraph 1?

A．The dialect of London became the standard in the year 1604.

B．Vowels were pronounced longer towards the end of Middle English

C．The first English dictionary was published in the early 17th century.

D．Many new words entered English because many people moved to Britain.

【小題2】From Paragraph 2, we know that the Industrial Revolution __________.

A．required spelling and grammar to be fixed

B．required a greater number of English words

C．caused many old English words to be useless

D．led to the English colonization of North America.

【小題3】The underlined word “froze” in Paragraph 3 shows that some English words in America___________.

A．became longer	B．greatly changed
C．a(chǎn) little changed	D．stayed as they were

【小題4】What will the paragraph following this passage most probably discuss?

A．The development of Modern English

B．How the English vocabulary became larger

C．Differences among the different kinds of English

D．Differences between Middle English and Modern English