With a determined(坚定的) look on his face, Chicago’s Michael McCarthy held on to the banister(扶手) and climbed to the top of the Willis Tower not long ago. The Tower stands 1,451 feet(442 meters) tall, the 21 building in the US.
As he got to the last step, McCarthy 22 fell down, but that didn’t stop him. The 14-year-old boy finally finished climbing the 2,109 steps and arrived at the top, where he 23 cheers from many people.
“I just want to show people that  24 a kid with no legs can do it, anyone can do it,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy, who was born without legs, has to wear prosthetic legs(假肢) and use a stick to walk. But McCarthy has a strong 25 . He believes having a disability(残疾) shouldn’t stop anyone  26  achieving his or her success.
He has been in a special school  27  he was four. When he decided to climb the Willis Tower, his teacher, Jeff Kohn, was   28  by his determination(决心) and offered to help train him. They   29  more than ten hours practicing climbing stairs and keeping balance with the prosthetics and sticks on the steps every day. “  30  seems that he never knows how difficult it is.  31  I was so tired that I asked him to rest for a day,”said Kohn. “But he said he was still full of energy and wanted more  32 .”
Kohn always walked with McCarthy for the climb. “I   33   the last 10 floors, he went faster,” said Kohn. “He’s the most craven sportsman I’ve ever trained.”
McCarthy said he was   34  of himself and that the tower now holds special meaning. “When I’m older, I’ll   35  to the building and say ‘Look at this building I climbed’,” he said.
【小题1】A. largest  B. highest            C. earliest    
【小题2】A. seldom     B. hardly           C. almost
【小题3】A. enjoyed   B. needed            C. made      
【小题4】A. while      B. though                C. if        
【小题5】A. heart     B. hope              C. body      
【小题6】A. by                 B. for                 C. from
【小题7】A. as                 B. since               C. until       
【小题8】A. pleased    B. beaten           C. moved      
【小题9】A. used               B. spent               C. took        
【小题10】A. Here                  B. There               C. It
【小题11】A. However B. Sometimes          C. Then
【小题12】A. friends       B. helpers              C. exercise
【小题13】A. tried     B. saw              C. did        
【小题14】A. thinking   B. talking             C. proud
【小题15】A. point   B. go                     C. turn        

Amazed zoo visitors watch as an orangutan(猩猩) named Bonnie swings along cables way above their heads. She’s not making a great ape escape; she’s taking a “highway” to higher learning.

Bonnie is traveling on the Orangutan Transit System, called the O-Line, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The O-Line stretches from the Great Ape House, where Bonnie lives, to an exhibit called Think Tank. There she and other orangutans participate in a study trying to answer the questions: Do animals think?  If so,  how?

    Think Tank scientists look for clues that an animal is thinking. A baby orangutan following its mother is probably not thinking. But an orangutan using a stick to reach honey in a beehive probably is thinking. It’s figuring out how to obtain a sweet treat.

    To learn more about what the orangutans are thinking, Think Tank scientists are teaching orangutans a language of symbols. The apes don’t actually speak. They point to the symbols to show their thoughts.

    Each symbol stands for a word. Different categories of the symbols have their own shapes. Food symbols, for example, are rectangles(矩形); object symbols are circles; and verbs are diamonds.

    Computers help the orangutans learn the symbolic language. After the apes are shown an apple, for example, their task is to touch the apple symbol on a computer screen. They can do so. All six orangutans have learned a few symbols, but only Azy and Indah have learned eight symbols and can use the computer.

    Azy and Indah choose to live at Think Tank. The others commute(往返) from the Great Ape House on the O-Line. All attend Think Tank sessions, though none are made to do so. “They’re eager to learn”, one of the scientists says. “They never turn me down!”

What is the main idea of the passage?

Scientists are doing research on whether animals can think and how they think.

Biologists have found that orangutans are more intelligent than other animals.

Orangutans at the National Zoo can be taught to communicate with humans easily.

Animals are being taught by scientists to speak to one another at the National Zoo.

     The Orangutan Transit System refers to _____.

a way that can teach animals to learn things and communicate quickly

a place for various animals in the National Zoo to participate in the study

a walkway for the orangutans to travel to different sections of the zoo

a line for the orangutans to travel between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank

     According to the passage, scientists use a system of symbols to help _____.

find out which orangutan can learn the symbolic language fast

attract all the orangutans to live together at Think Tank

communicate with the orangutans and understand them better

understand whether animals can learn a language and express themselves by using it

     It can be inferred from the passage that _____.

a baby orangutan has his own intention though following his mother

many animals in the wild can learn symbolic languages to express their thoughts

the cleverer the animals are, the more knowledge they would like to learn

orangutans can form mental images in their minds when they see objects

I ran across an old photo of him the other day, thinking of some old things. He’s been dead for 25 years. His name was Rex.
36  was his favorite recreation(娱乐). He had so much 37 in the water as any person I have known. You didn’t have to throw a stick in the water to 38 him to go in. Of course, he would bring back a stick to you if you 39 throw one in.
That 40 me of that night, 41 he brought back a small box that he found somewhere--- how 42 nobody ever knew. Since it was Rex, it 43 easily have been half a race. The box wasn’t a good one. It was just a 44 old piece that somebody 45. Still it was something he wanted, probably 46 there was some difficulty in transportation（运输）. And that he thought could test his courage. We first knew about his achievement when, deep in the night, we 47 him trying to get the box up onto the porch(门厅). It sounded 48 two or three people were trying to tear the house 49 . We came downstairs and turned on the 50 light. Rex was on the top step trying to pull the thing up, but it had 51somehow. And he was just holding his own(坚持着). I suppose he would have held his own 52 dawn if we hadn’t helped him. The next day we carried the box miles away and threw it out. If we had thrown it out in a 53 place, he would have brought it home again, as a small token(象征)of his strength in such matters. 54, he had been taught to carry heavy wooden objects about and he was 55 of his skill.