Early one morning the sub-inspector at a station at the other end of the town rang me. An elephant was damaging the town. Would I please come and do something about it? I did not know what I could do, but I got onto a horse and started out. I took my gun, maybe too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might scare him. Various local people stopped me on the way and told me about the elephant's doings. It was not, of course, a wild elephant, but a tame one. It had been chained up but last night it had broken its chain and escaped. Its owner had set out to run after it, but had taken the wrong direction. He was now twelve hours' journey away, and in the morning the elephant had suddenly appeared in the town. It had already destroyed somebody's bamboo hut (棚屋), killed a cow and turned over fruit¬stalls. I came round the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and grounded him into the earth. This was the rainy season and he was lying on his stomach in the soft mud, the peacebreaker standing beside, looking innocent. As I lifted my gun, I hesitated a few seconds. Then I fired. That was a shot for him. You could see the pain of it knocking the last strength from his legs. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, with a crash that shook the ground.
1.Which of the following statements about the author is TRUE?
A.He was an Indian. |
B.He knew elephants well. |
C.He was not a local villager. |
D.He was the owner of the elephant. |
2.The elephant made so much trouble because ________.
A.its owner treated him cruelly |
B.it got out of control |
C.it hated the village people |
D.it was a wild elephant |
3.The underlined words “the peacebreaker” in Paragraph 4 refer to ________.
A.the elephant |
B.the dead man |
C.the author |
D.the sub¬inspector |
4.It can be inferred that the author felt ________ when he shot the elephant.
A.excited |
B.sad |
C.frightened |
D.happy |
Last week, I bought an alarm system for about $ 450. It consisted of a control unit with three small units. I put the control unit in the sitting-room and fastened the other units by the front door, back door and living-room windows. The instructions told us to choose three numbers, so we chose 4, 9 and 1, the last three numbers of our telephone number.
Now I must explain how the alarm works:
l There is a power siren(警报器) in the control unit. It makes a very loud noise.
2 Each of the small units sends out beams or rays in different directions. If anything moves, it breaks a beam. This sends a signal to the control unit. The siren makes a noise which you can hear 50 meters away.
3. When we go to bed, I press the three buttons numbered 4, 9 and 1. Then we have 30 seconds to get out of the room before the alarm starts to work.
That night I slept soundly because I was sure that no burglar(夜贼) could get into our house. However, at about 2:10 a. m., I woke up and heard the siren. “There must be a burglar in the house,” Mary said. “What shall we do?”“I’ll go and see who’s there,” I said. “Stay here. Don’t make a noise.”I went downstairs quietly. When I reached the living-room, I switched on my torch and looked round the room. Then I turned the light on. I switched the siren off and searched the rooms downstairs. There was nothing wrong except that the back door was unlocked. I locked it, reset the alarm and went back to bed. About an hour later, the alarm started again. I jumped out of bed, fell over a chair in the dark and bumped into the bedroom door. Mary woke up and started hitting me with a torch. “Hey! Wait a minute!” I whispered. “It’s only me. I’m going downstairs to see what’s wrong.”I went down into the living-room and listened for a moment. The only sound I could hear was the siren. I turned on the light and then switched the siren off. As I did so, I glanced across at the curtains in front of the windows. I saw a house lizard (a kind of small animal) disappear behind the curtains.“Oh!” I said to myself. “That’s our burglar. ”When the lizard moved, it started the siren. I guessed that the alarm had been made in Europe, where there are no house lizards. Well. I won’t finish this story but if you want an alarm system free of charge, let me know. I’ll send you ours. We bought a dog this morning. It knows the difference between a lizard and a burglar.
1.The writer bought an alarm system to ________.
A.make sure that he got up early every day |
B.warn him when there were lizards in his house |
C.frighten burglars and tell him that somebody had got into the house |
D.make Mary feel safe to live in the large room |
2.The purpose of the three units was to________.
A.send a message to the control unit and start the siren |
B.sound their own sirens when the control unit told them so |
C.check that the control unit worked properly all the time |
D.give them enough light |
3.If the writer set the alarm and remained in the room for more than half a minute, _______.
A.nothing would happen |
B.the control unit would not work |
C.the siren would make a noise |
D.the dog would bark |
4.The purpose of the writer in writing the passage is to ________.
A.tell us that the alarm system doesn’t work |
B.tell us an interesting experience |
C.show us how the alarm system works |
D.make it clear that he wants to give away his alarm system |
An old man once had an argument with his only son. He tried to __36__ many times, but the young man would not __37__. The father never__38__ because he loved his son with all his heart, but the son would not give in, __39__ he was too blinded by his pride.
Years passed and as the man lay in his deathbed, he made a __40__ attempt to reconcile (和解) with his son, but __41__ he would not listen and so the father died with a heart full of __42__.
During this time the son too had a child who had now __43__ into a young adult. To this child he never __44__ his father and when the young man asked about his grandfather he __45__ tell him never to mention him again.
One day, they two were involved in a hot __46__ and his son fled away as he did many years ago. This made the man extremely__47__ and this time he had no __48__, but felt completely isolated. (孤立的)
He was afraid that he would__49__ his son forever and for the first time after many years he realized how his father must have__50__ many years back.
He remembered how he had __51__ his old man and only at that point he realized the extent of the hurt he had caused. The __52__ he thought the more he understood how unjust he was with his old father, the man who gave him everything __53__ his life.
With these sad thoughts he felt __54__ on the couch. The next morning when he opened his eyes he found __55__ lying in his bed and in front of him stood his son. The man could not believe his eyes, and the two hugged each other while they cried together.
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If you read fast every day, you ______ improve your English.
A.are bound to |
B.are bounded to |
C.bound |
D.bound to |
They were determined to carry out the plan at first, but then we ________ persuade them to change their minds.
A.would |
B.could |
C.were able to |
D.had to |
In many countries in the world, breakfast is a snack _______ a meal, but the traditional English breakfast is a full meal.
A.other than |
B.more than |
C.rather than |
D.less than |