牛津上海版高二年级英语第一学期话题阅读(二)stories(有答案)

话题阅读（二）stories

(A)

Janet was employed a s a designer in an advertising company. She had worked there for two years, when she was offered a promotion to become head of her department. She was very happy when she heard of her promotion. However, she was also rather concerned as she had recently found out that she was pregnant. Later that day, she asked her husband what he thought she should do. He felt that she should first accept the promotion and then, a few months later, tell her employers about her pregnancy. Janet wasn't so sure this was a good suggestion, as she felt that it might be dishonest of her not to let her employers know about the change in her condition. She telephoned her best friend and asked for her advice. Cheryl, her best friend, asked her if she felt that she would be able to continue working as hard after the birth of her child as she had been working up to that point in time. Janet assured her that this was the case and so her friend told her to trust her husband's judgment.

A few months later, Janet told her employers about her pregnancy. At first, they

ongratulated her on her pregnancy and wished her all the best. Over the next few weeks, she felt that her workload was slowly increasing to the point that she could not handle. Later that month, she received a call from the personnel department and was told that due to her

inability to keep up with the demands of her job, they were going to have to let her go. Janet couldn't believe what she was hearing. She could understand why, if a few months earlier they had promoted her for her excellence, they had now decided to let her go.

W ord Bank

pregnant adj. 怀孕的personnel department 人事处

13. Where did Janet work according to the passage?

A.In a department store.

B.In an advertising agency.

C.In a trading company.

D.In a public service enterprise.

14. Why was Janet worried when she was offered the promotion?

A.Because she was not sure whether she was qualified for the new job or not.

B.Because she found it difficult to continue working after pregnancy.

C.Because she was afraid that her husband didn't like her to be promoted.

D.Because she was not sure what would happen if the company knew about her

pregnancy.

15. Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?

A.Janet finally took her husband's advice.

B.Janet's friend gave her the same suggestion.

C.Janet failed to keep her job despite her efforts.

D.Janet didn't work as hard after the promotion.

16. What did Janet think of the decision made by her employers?

A. Ridiculous.

B.

Acceptable.

C. Inevitable.

D. Sensible.

BDDA

(B)

A teenage girl from the State of Connecticut has won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search. The competition was known as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search until 1998. It is the oldest program in the United States that honors the science projects of high school students. The Intel Science Talent Search celebrated its sixtieth anniversary this year.

The winners receive money for a college education and a new computer. More than one thousand five hundred students entered projects for the competition. The students were from thirty-six states and the District of Columbia. Forty-nine percent were female and fifty-one percent were male. Their research projects involved every area of science, including chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, social science and biology.

Forty students were invited to Washington, D. C. for the final judging by well-known scientists. They judged the students on their research ability and creative thinking. They also questioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the top ten winners.

The first place winner was Mariangela Lisanti of Westport, Connecticut. She received one hundred thousand dollars for her college education. Her physics project involved the use of

single atoms to create electronic devices. She developed a new way to measure electron movement in tiny structures.

The second place winner was Nathaniel Jay Craig of Sacramento, California. He received seventy-five thousand dollars for his college education for a physics project. He developed a method for expressing the strength of specially prepared glass by describing the super cooled

liquid from which it was formed.

The third place winner was Gabriel Drew Carroll of Oakland, California. He received fifty thousand dollars for his college education. His mathematics project involved the partial order of numbers.

The president of Intel, Craig Barrett, praised all the finalists as future leaders. He said their understanding of science and mathematics is important for making sense of the technological

world today. And it is important for making the best decisions in the future.

1.How much is the top prize this year?

2. ____________________________________________________ students entered the final competition.

3.The top-prize winner has got the prize because of__________________________________________ .

4.Where was the final competition held?

Keys: 1. $100,000’S worth of scholarship

2. 40

3. a physics project

4. Washington D. C

(C)

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit

up in bed for an hour a day to take in fresh air. His bed was next to the room's only window. The

other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their

afternoon when the man in the bed next to the window could sit up, he would pass the time by

describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

broadened by all the activity and color of the outside world.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm among flowers of every color of the rainbow. A fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Unexpectedly, a strange thought entered his head:Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything?

Late one night, the man by the window began to cough. He was coughing badly. The other man, listening from across the room, did not move, nor did he push his own button, which would have brought the nurse running in. In less than five minutes, the coughing stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence—deathly silence.

The following morning a day nurse, called Mary, arrived to bring water for their baths.

When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the attendant to take it away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the man asked if he could be moved next to the window, Mary was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully and desperately, he lifted himself up to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He struggled to turn to look out of the window beside the bed.

A blank wall was all that he saw.

W ord Bank

on end 连续地picturesque adj. 风景如画的

A.their homes

B.the hospital room

C.in their involvement in the military service

D.some places where they spent their

holidays

2. What can be inferred from the story?

A.There were children sailing the model boats with ducks and swans.

B.The person who died had a beautiful mind.

C.The wall outside the window must be newly built.

D.The man near the window was actually murdered by his roommate.

A. excited

B. disappointed

C. guilty

D. on top of the

world

A. long for

B. pay for

C. stand for

D. make for

Keys: DBCA

(D)

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he has lived for 44 days without food on October 19. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of hunger experiment, which has become one of London's main tourist attractions.

Looking thinner and darker, 30-year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.

People are divided over that they think Blaine has achieved: some admire him; others just threw eggs at the glass box.

"Either he has done this for real so he is an amazing human being, or has cheated in which case he is a brilliant magician," said Jack Butler, 20, who saw the show.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed a getting a lot of attention.

"I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they're able to do what they can do," he said. "They don't realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation. "

But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.

Word Bank

magician n. 魔术师reintroduce v. 恢复

A.believing that he was able to survive

B.making a scientific experiment

C.Hoping to collect money for the poor

D.promoting tourism in London

A. people attend different class

B.people hold different opinions

C.people share the joys

D.people vote on the matter

A.as a top-class musician

B.for his devotion to the charity

C.for his deep interest in human endurance

D.with his astonishing magic and clever tricks

4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned about Blaine's health condition after he left the

box?

A.He lost his sense of pride.

B.He lost much weight.

C.He was blind sometimes and had serious back pains.

D.He was still in danger of death.

Keys: ABDA

(E)

In 1789 the US government passed a law which said that the land of the American Indians could never be taken from them without their agreement. One hundred years later, however, the Indians only had a very small part of the land that originally belonged to them. How did this great injustice occur?

After 1812 white settlers began to move west across North America. At first, the settlers and the Indians lived in peace. However, the number of settlers increased greatly every year, and slowly the Indians began to see the white settlers as a danger to their survival. To feed themselves, the settlers killed more and more wild animals. The Indians, who depended on these animals for food, had to struggle against starvation. The settlers also brought with them many diseases which were common in white society, but which were new for the Indians. Great numbers of Indians became sick and died. Between 1843 and 1854 the Indian population in one area of the country went down from 100,000 to 30,000.

More land was needed for the increasing number of white settlers. In Washington, the old respect for the rights of the Indians disappeared. The old promises to the Indians were broken; the government began to move groups of Indians from their original homelands to other poorer parts of the country. Some Indians reacted angrily and violently to this treatment. They began to attack white settlers, and the Indian war began. For 30 years, until the late 1880s, different groups of Indians fought against the injustices of the white man. They had a few famous successes, but the result of the struggle was never in doubt. There were too many white soldiers, and they were too powerful. Many Indians were killed; the survivors were moved from their homelands to different areas of the country. It was a terrible chapter in the history of a country that promised freedom and equality to everyone.

W ord Bank

injustice adj. 不公正

A.in the US there were many laws that provided the rights of American Indians

B.the law which was passed in 1789 by the US government was not successfully

carried out

C.in the 19th century no injustices were done against the Indians by the US

government

D.the majority of white settlers were openly opposed to the law passed in 1789

6. According to the passage which of the following is TRUE?

A.The Indians believed that killing too many wild animals had disturbed the

balance of nature.

B.The government began to have a better understanding of the Indians in the

fifties of the nineteenth century.

C.Between 1843 and 1854 about 70,000 Indians were killed in the battle.

D.The whites carried serious diseases into where the Indians

lived.

7. It is implied in the passage that .

A.the Indians had many great successes in the Indians wars

B.the Indians had no doubt that they would win the wars

C.after the war the Indians stayed where they were before

D.the Indians were too weak to win the struggle

8. What is the writer's opinion about the treatment that the Indians received from the US

government?

A.He believed that the government always respected the rights of the Indians.

B.He believed that the government can't be criticized for its treatment to the

Indians.

C.He believed that the government treated the Indians unjustly.

D.He believed that the government's unfair treatment against the Indians was not Keys: BDDC