问答题Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. He was the most (1) f____ westerner to visit China during the Middle Ages. He wrote a (2)____about his travels. He described all the things he saw and heard. Many people read the book, but (3)believed what he said.

Which of the following is true of the author?

A.He got no access to success.

B.He wrote back to his father at 12.

C.He was surk his parents loved him.

D.He whce asked his father about the letter.

A、it not have been

B、is not been

C、had it not been

D、has not been

Passage One

One of the well-known of American writers is Samuel Clemens, whose pen name is Mark Twain. Bom in 1835, Twain grew up in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. As did many other boys of his day,

Twain dreamed of traveling on river boats and of someday becoming a riverboat pilot. Twain used his memories of the life of a river town in his two most famous books, Huckleberry Finn and Torn Sawyer.

As a young man, Twain held many jobs. He was a printer, a good miner, and, for a time, he was a riverboat pilot. During his pilot days, he adopted the name Mark Twain. This was a term used by the boatmen to mean that the water measured two fathoms, or twelve feet, which was deep enough for safe passage.

Finally Twain became a successful writer. He traveled a great deal, writing and speaking, and became very popular both in the United States and in Europe.

Twain's style. of writing was simple and direct. Among the things he wrote about were superstitious (迷信的) people and people who were easily fooled. He used his unusual gift for humor to write about many things of importance.

36. Generally speaking, this article is about______.

A. a riverboat pilot

B. a printer

C. a gold miner

D. a famous writer

Passage One

Questions 21 to 25 are based on the following passage.

①Many of today’s most trusted sales techniques were invented over a century ago by a young merchant named Eaton in Toronto.21 When he was young, Eaton worked briefly with his brothers in small-town stores. In 1869, he set up his own shop in downtown Toronto. He had many competitors, but he was also ambitious and had a plan for success. He offered a unique style. of trade, but as was expected, all the other shopkeepers laughed at him, believing he would eventually fail. However, Eaton was not a man to be easily defeated; he came up with（To bring forth or discover ） a brand new notion of business – “Goods satisfactory, or money refunded.(to give back)” He sold all his goods at fixed prices and only for cash.23

②With a sharp sense of what the public wanted, he went out of the way(To inconvenience oneself in doing something beyond what is required.不怕麻烦地：超出要求之外做某事而使自己麻烦) to meet their needs. His business grew rapidly. He set up new branches and started mail order service that allowed people to buy from a list of his goods.

③Eaton’s list—advertisements of his day—was the first of its kind. It was distributed and read all over the country. It was the only way to access good-quality goods at reasonable prices for people living far away from big cites.25 It became part of their life. They even called it The Wishing Book. The secret of the list’s success was that Eaton gained the respect of these customers22; they trusted him for good prices and quality goods. Probably because he remembered his miserable early days in Ireland, Eaton thought much of the welfare of his employees: better working conditions, shorter weekday（除了周日或者除了周六周日）hours than his competitors and Saturday afternoons off in the summer. In all this, he was a leader.

21. The best description of Eaton is that ______.

A. he was the richest merchant in Toronto

B. he was a successful technical inventor

C. he introduced new sales practices

D. he changed people’s ideas about businessmen

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

James’s New Bicycle

James shook his money box again. Nothing! He carefully __36__ the coins that lay on the bed. $24.52 was all that he had. The bicycle he wanted was at least $90! __37__ on earth was he going to get the __38__ of the money?

He knew that his friends all had bicycles. It was __39__ to hang around with people when you were the only one without wheels. He thought about what he could do. There was no __40__ asking his parents, for he knew they had no money to __41__.

There was only one way to get money, and that was to __42__ it. He would have to find a job. __43__ who would hire him and what could he do? He decided to ask Mr. Clay for advice, who usually had __44__ on most things.

“Well, you can start right here,” said Mr. Clay. “My windows need cleaning and my car needs washing.”

That was the __45__ of James’s odd-job(零工) business. For three months he worked every day after finishing his homework. He was amazed by the __46__ of jobs that people found for him to do. He took dogs and babies for walks, cleared out cupboards, and mended books. He lost count of the __47__ of cars he washed and windows he cleaned, but the __48__ increased and he knew that he would soon have __49__ for the bicycle he longed for.

The day __50__ came when James counted his money and found $94.32. He __51__ no time and went down to the shop to pick up the bicycle he wanted. He rode __52__ home, looking forward to showing his new bicycle to his friends. It had been hard __53__ for the money, but James knew that he valued his bicycle far more __54__ he had bought it with his own money. He had __55__what he thought was impossible, and that was worth even more than the bicycle.