She can hardly _____________ (承担得起) to wait for another hour.
How____________(累人的) it is to go hiking in such hot weather!
New types of energy produce little ____________(污染).
The Merchant of Venice is a play written by British author William Shakespeare. In the play a young man named Bassanio falls in love with a girl named Portia. He needs some money. So he turns to his friend Antonio for help. But Antonio doesn’t have enough money, either. He plans to borrow some money from a moneylender named Shylock. Shylock, who is heartless and greedy, agrees to lend the money, but only on one condition. What condition is it? Let’s read the following story together.
“Shylock!” yelled Antonio. “Are you going to lend us the money or not? Answer me!”
Shylock answered him slowly. “Do you remember all of those times that you insulted(侮辱) me in a loud voice that everyone could hear? You once spat on me and called me a dog. And now you want to borrow money from me, a dog!”
“Look! I’m not asking you a favor. You can charge me any interest(利息) you want. I don’t mind. My ships will arrive any day now.”
“All right, Antonio. I’m willing to lend you the money. I won’t even charge you any interest. Just pay me back on time.”
Antonio couldn’t believe his ears. “What did you say?”
“I said you didn’t know me. You always call me a cheapskate(守财奴), but I am not. I will help you. I won’t even charge you a single ducat. However, there’s something I’m worried about. What if you don’t pay me back?”
“Don’t worry, Shylock. I’ll pay you back.”
“Well, I need some kind of a promise, don’t I? Three thousand ducats is a lot of money. If you don’t pay me back on time, I want a pound of flesh. I’ll take a pound of flesh from any part of your body.”
Antonio didn’t like what Shylock said. “No. I’d rather pay some interest if I’m late on the payment.”
“I’m afraid that’s no good,” said Shylock as he laughed. “Do you think I’d take money from another moneylender? Besides, this agreement is only a joke! Do you think that any lawyer or judge (法官) would believe me? Would they really believe that I want a pound of your flesh? You don’t have to worry about anything!”
Antonio agreed to the condition. The three men went to a lawyer and signed an agreement.
(To be continued ...)
1.Which country does the author of The Merchant of Venice come from?
A.America. B.Britain. C.France. D.Italy.
2.Who is heartless and greedy according to the passage?
A.Bassanio. B.Portia. C.Antonio. D.Shylock.
3.What does the underlined word “condition” in the passage refer to?
A.Some interest. B.A pound of flesh. C.A single ducat. D.An agreement.
4.Which is the right order of what happened in the story?
a. Shylock wants some kind of a promise.
b. The three men went to sign an agreement.
c. Bassanio needs some money.
d. Antonio plans to borrow money from Shylock.
A.a b d c B.b a c d C.c d a b D.d c b a
5.The writer’s main purpose of writing the passage is________.
A.to show us the love of Bassanio with Portia
B.to introduce the friendship between Bassanio and Antonio
C.to let us know why and how Antonio reached an agreement with Shylock
D.to tell us how helpful the lawyer is
In the middle of a city, there was a museum that was decorated with beautiful marble tiles (大理石砖) and a huge marble statue (大理石像). Many people from all over the world visited the museum every day and admired the statue. One night, the marble tiles started talking to the marble statue.
Tiles: Hey statue. Don’t you think it’s unfair that everybody comes here to admire you while stepping on us?
Statue: My dear brothers. Don’t you remember that we are actually from the same place?
Tiles: Yes, we do. That is why we feel it is even more unfair. All of us were born from the same place, and yet the world treats us so differently now. This is so unfair!
Statue: Yes, you are right, my brothers. But do you still remember the day when the artist tried to work on you, but you refused him?
Tiles: Yes, we didn’t like him. We turned him away because we didn’t want to get hurt.
Statue: Well, since you refused his tools, he couldn’t work on you. When he decided to give up on you, he started working on me. I knew at once that I would be something different and special after his hard work. I bore (忍受) all the pain and allowed him to fashion (雕琢) me as he wanted!
Tiles: But it hurt quite a lot.
Statue: My brothers, there is a price for everything in life. Since you decided to give up halfway, you can’t complain about the world’s unfairness to you.?
The marble tiles became quiet and deep in thought. The harder the knocks you go through in life, the more you learn and can put to use in the future!
1.What made the marble tiles feel that they were being treated unfairly?
A.The statue was better looked after.
B.The statue looked down on them.
C.They no longer shone after people stepped on them.
D.They didn’t get as much admiration as the statue.
2.The artist gave up on the tiles because ________.
A.the tiles were too small to work on B.he hated to make tiles
C.the tiles refused to be hurt D.the statue offered a lower price
3.What might the marble statue have experienced?
A.It hurt a lot, but never complained. B.It complained about unfairness.
C.It couldn’t get along with the artist. D.It couldn’t bear the pain.
4.What lesson might the marble tiles learn from this?
A.Success only comes from struggle and hard work. B.Everybody should learn to bear unfairness.
C.No one should give up on their dreams. D.Failure is the mother of success.
People all over the world have some strange hobbies, and one of the most unusual in Britain is “trainspotting.” It's usually men over the age of 40, but not always. You'll see them standing around at railway stations and other places where trains pass by, and you'll see them taking photos and exchanging notes with each other. So, what are they doing?
Well, they're collecting information about trains — the numbers on the front of the trains, or the make and model of the“ locomotive (火车头)” —the part of the train which pulls all the other parts. In the same way that some people collect toys or stamps, these men collect and exchange all kinds of details about trains and railways.
The idea goes back as far as 1942. That year, a young man named Ian Allan was working at Waterloo rail-way station in London. It was his job to answer letters from people about trains, and quite a lot of the questions he received were very similar, so he had a word with his boss. He asked if he could write a booklet (小手册) giving the answers to the most frequently asked questions - an early version of the FAQs you see on websites nowadays. His boss said if he wanted to waste his time on such a project, he should do it in his own time.
So he did. The first 2,000 copies were all sold in days, and by the 1950s, a million copies of British Railways Locomotives were selling every year. Ian Allan went on to become a successful publisher, and got an Order of the British Empire (OBE,大英帝国勋章) from the Queen in 1995. He died in 2015, but his trainspotting hobby lives on.
1.What do trainspotters do?
A.They collect railway toys and stamps.
B.They observe the scenes at railway stations.
C.They gather and exchange details about trains.
D.They build and collect model trains based on photos.
2.When answering letters from people about trains, Iran Allan most probably felt________.
A.amazed B.impatient C.satisfied D.stressed
3.From the passage, we know that________.
A.his boss gave him a lot of help to publish his booklet.
B.his booklet wasn't popular when first introduced.
C.his work published in the 1950s is not popular anymore.
D.his project on train-related questions earned him great fame.
