The Red Cross is an international organization which cares for people who are in need of help. A man in a Paris hospital who needs blood, a woman in Mexico who was injured in an earthquake, and a family in India that lost their home in a storm may all be aided by the Red Cross.

  The Red Cross exists in almost every country around the world. The world Red Cross organizations are sometimes called the Red Crescent, the Red Mogen Daid, the Sun, and the Red Lion. All of these agencies share a common goal of trying to help people in need.

  The idea of forming an organization to help the sick and wounded during a war started with Jean Henri Dunant. In 1859, he observed how people were suffering on a battlefield in Italy. He wanted to help all the wounded people regardless of which side they were fighting for. The most important result of his work was an international treaty called the Geneva Convention(日内瓦协定). It protects prisoners of war, the sick and wounded, and other citizens during a war.

  The American Red Cross was set up by Clara Barton in 1881. Today the Red Cross in the United States provides a number of services for the public, such as helping people in need, teaching first aid and providing blood.

A good title for this passage is     .

 A. People in Need of Help       B. Safety and Protection

 C. The International Red Cross   D. Forming an Organization to Help People

The word “aided ” in the first paragraph means     .

  A. needed                 B. helped               C. caught               D. protected

The author really tries to make the reader see that this organization     .

  A. costs very little money            B. works in many nations

  C. teaches first aid if necessary        D. is called the Sun

We may draw a conclusion (下结论)that      during a war.

  A. the Red Cross only protects the wounded

  B. the Red Cross only helps prisoners of war

  C. the Red Cross only helps citizens

  D. the Red Cross helps all the people in need no matter which side they are fighting for

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels of the 19th century. One of them is Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Bronte.

The Bronte family had three girls and a boy. Charlotte was born in 1816, Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. The children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated.  Branwell showed a great interest in drawing.  The girls took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes. The girls were determined to earn money for Branwell's art education.

As children, the girls had all written many stories.  Charlotte alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey.  After much difficulty, Anne and Emily found a publisher (出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte's book. ( It was not published until 1859. ) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her work. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.

Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of her book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis (肺结核) as her sisters had.

1.What did the Bronte sisters want to do for Branwell Bronte?

A. Help him write stories.

B. Help him get trained in art.

C. Teach him how to draw well.

D. Teach him how to educate himself.

2.We know from the text that

A. Jane Eyre was published in 1847

B. Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all

C. the Bronte sisters received good education

D. the father helped his daughters with their writing

3.The underlined words "the other two" in Paragraph 4 refer to ________.

A. Shirley and Villette

B. The Professor and Agnes Grey

C. Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights

D. The Professor and Wuthering Heights

4.What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?

A. Their novels interested few publishers.

B. None of them lived longer than 40 years.

C. Emily was the least successful of the three.

D. None of them had more than two books published.

 

The great   46   scientist, Charles Darwin, was born on February 12, 1809. His father was a well-known doctor, and   47   that his son also would become a doctor.

As a boy, Charles liked to go for walks in the fields and   48   ,   49   nature and comparing what he saw with everything he had read in natural science books. He was fond    50   collecting animal and plant specimens   51    insects, birds, flowers and leaves.

At sixteen, Charles   52    Edinburgh University   53  . But he was interested in 54     . Then he was sent to Cambridge University,    55    he graduated in1831.

56     he heard that the ship Beagle(贝格尔号) was   57   to South America and wanted a naturalist. His biology professor advised him to go. He said the journey would be just the thing for Charles. So the Beagle left England in December 1831, Charles Darwin was   58   .

The expedition   59   almost five years. The Beagle   60    the waters near the east and west   61    of South America, and many other places. He    62   all kinds of plants and animals, which he sent home from the    63    he visited.

After returning from the expedition, Darwin continued his studies of changes in nature. Darwin understood that plants and animals do not    64    the same, that they always change.

By 1859 Darwin had finished his famous book “The Origin of Species”. It made a great noise in the word of science. Darwin was attacked by the    65    and even by some scientists. But later, more and more scientists agreed with him.

Darwin tirelessly continued his scientific studies until he died on April 19,1882.

1.	A. American	B. British	C. German	D. Italian
2.	A. hoped	B. wanted	C. wished	D. required
3.	A. woods	B. forests	C. mountains	D. countryside
4.	A. noticing	B. watching	C. looking over	D. seeing
5.	A. at	B. of	C. with	D. in
6.	A. for example	B. like as	C. such as	D. like
7.	A. had been sent to	B. was sent to	C. was sent for	D. had been sent for
8.	A. to find machine	B. to study medicine	C. to make medicine	D. to study machine
9.	A. nature scene	B. social history	C. natural history	D. biological lives
10.	A. from where	B. in which	C. from which	D. at which
11.	A. Late	B. Later	C. After that	D. From then on
12.	A. going on a trip	B. traveling about	C. about to a journey	D. making a journey
13.	A. at board	B. in ship	C. on board	D. on trip
14.	A. was lasted	B. had lasted	C. lasted	D. had kept
15.	A. watched	B, studied	C. explored	D. researched
16.	A. parts	B. land	C. coasts	D. beaches
17.	A. got	B. collected	C. caught	D. fed
18.	A. ports	B. cities	C. places	D. towns
19.	A. remain	B. show	C. mean	D. make
20.	A. government	B. relatives	C. Church	D. professors

 

 

Nobel, who was born in Stockholm, is a great scientist famous for his dangerous experiments.

Nobel studied in the USA and then Russia between 1850 and 1859. After his return, he started researching into bombs. As is known, bomb is dangerous to life, but Nobel was working under that condition. Once a big explosion in his lab completely destroyed the lab and caused some deaths. After that he had to experiment on a boat in a lake. He received criticism and satire(讽刺), but he proceeded with the work rather than losing heart. From 1860s to 1880s, Nobel made many achievements and his inventions were first used in building roads and digging tunnels. Most of the bombs were safer and more possible to be controlled. Even at the end of the 20th century, we still used his methods.

Nobel had many patents in Britain and other European countries. He was quick to see industrial openings(机会) for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries. Indeed his greatness lay in his outstanding ability to combine the qualities of an original scientist with those of a forward­looking industrialist.

But Nobel’s main concern was never with making money or even with making scientific discoveries. Seldom happy, he was always searching for a meaning to life, and from his youth, he had taken a serious interest in literature and philosophy. His greatest wish, however, was to see an end to wars, and thus peace between nations, and he spent much time and money working for this cause. To follow his will, a fund was set up to encourage people to make great progress in physics, chemistry, physiology(生理学), medicine, literature and peace. That’s the Nobel Prize which means great honor to a scientist.

1.Through his early experimental work, it is evident that ________.

A．Nobel was a man of strong will

B．Nobel was a man of gift

C．Nobel seldom got on well with his work

D．Nobel had his heart in his work

2.In fact, his inventions were first used in ________.

A．a war to kill and injure his fellow men	B．building roads
C．digging tunnels	D．both B and C

3.Based on the passage, Nobel, as a scientist, ________.

A．took a single interest in science

B．took a serious interest in money

C．took no interest in literature

D．took a serious interest in literature as well as in science

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．His wonderful will surely provided other scientists with a large sum of money.

B．In leaving behind a well­meant will, Nobel succeeded in setting up a permanent monument for his interests and ideals.

C．Nobel made a glorious will so that he might be remembered and respected after his death.

D．Nobel expressed his wish in his will that a monument should be put up in memory of him.

 

Famous as “the king of chefs and the chef of kings,” Auguste Escoffier helped raise the position of cooking from a laborer’s task to an artist’s job. Escoffier was born on October 28, 1846, in the small village of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, France. Among the key figures in the boy’s life was his father, who worked primarily as a blacksmith（铁匠）. His grandmother, an enthusiastic cook, was perhaps more responsible than anyone for introducing the boy to an appreciation of the delights of cooking.
Young Escoffier attended the local school until age 12, upon which time his father thought it necessary that the boy learn a trade. In school he had shown a talent for drawing, yet he was told to regard this art only as a hobby, and to find his career in a more practical profession. Thus his father took him to Nice in 1859, where he would work as an apprentice（学徒）in his uncle’s restaurant, the respectable Le Restaurant Francais.
At Le Restaurant Francais, Escoffier was not treated as the close relative of the boss. Rather, he experienced a classically demanding apprenticeship. For this strictness of training he would later, in his memoirs（回忆录）, express gratefulness. During this time Escoffier also attended night school, and had to deal with his studies as well as the demands of a promising career.
When Escoffier was 19 and had taken on yet more responsibilities in his uncle’s restaurant, a customer recognized his skills and offered him work in Paris. This was the owner of Le Petit Moulin Rouge, one of the finest restaurants in Paris, where Escoffier was to become a sous-chef, ranking below the head chef. After three years in this position, he rose to the level of head chef, wearing the respected chef’s hat.
【小题1】It was his __________ who first influenced Escoffier to be interested in cooking.

A．father

B．mother

C．uncle

D．grandmother

【小题2】We can infer that as a schoolboy, Escoffier might hope to be __________.

A．a chef

B．a businessman

C．an artist

D．a blacksmith

【小题3】According to Paragraph 3, Escoffier __________.

A．was badly treated by his uncle	B．showed great interest in writing
C．disliked working as an apprentice	D．was thankful for the strict training

【小题4】Which of the following can best describe Escoffier?

A．Hard-working.

B．Honest.

C．Warm-hearted.

D．Modest.

【小题5】What is the text mainly about?

A．How to become a chef in France.	B．The influence of Auguste Escoffier.
C．What an apprentice is required to do.	D．The early life of a famous French chef.