An Englishman was showing a foreign visitor around London. “What’s that strange building?” asked the visitor. “That’s the Tower of London.” “I see. How long did it take to build it?” “About 500 years.” “In my country we can build it in five months,” Shortly after that they came to St. Paul’s Cathedral(大教堂). “Very interesting!” said the visitor. “How long did it take to build it?” “Near forty years.” said the Englishman. “In my country we can finish it in forty days at most,” said the visitor. This went on all day.

They visited most of the best known buildings in the city. Every time they saw a new one, the visitor asked what it was and how long it took to build it. Then he said that they could do the same thing much faster in his country.

At last the Englishman got angry with the visitor though he tried not to show it. Several days later they came to the House of Parliament(议会)and the visitor asked his usual question, “What is that?” The Englishman answered, “ I have no idea. It wasn’t there last night.”

1.The Englishman showed the foreign visitor around _______ one day.

A. The Tower of London

B. St. Paul’s Cathedral

C. Some famous buildings in the city

D. The whole city of London

2.The visitor said that in his country it would take them ____ to build the Tower of London.

A. less than half a yearB. forty daysC. five hundred yearsD. fifty days

3.It took them a few days to see ______.

A. some of the best known buildings in England

B. several best known places in England

C. many famous houses in the city of London

D. most of the best known buildings in London

4.The Englishman was angry by the end of the day, but he ______.

A. didn’t want to say anything

B. tried to show it to the visitor

C. had no time to tell the visitor

D. tried not to show it to the visitor

5.The Englishman’s answer to the question of the last place showed_____.

A. he was sorry that he hadn’t seen the building before

B. he could say nothing because he didn’t know anything about it

C. he was angry and didn’t want to tell the visitor its name

D. he didn’t know how to tell the visitor the name of the building

Many textbooks are not written in the kind of English that we speak every day. In fact, sometimes the reading is so difficult that it almost seems like a foreign language. In a way, it is—the language of science. You should not expect to be able to read a difficult science passage the same way you read an interesting story; you should not expect to read it easily and all at once. Instead, you may have to read it several times through, catching on the meaning of difficult words, going back over difficult sentences, and finally putting the whole thing together. Do not be discourages if the whole passage don’t make sense to you at first. You need to pick it apart patiently until you can understand it.
These are the steps to follow when you are reading something difficult:
1. Start to read normally until you run into a sentence that doesn’t make sense to you.
2. When a sentence doesn’t make sense, go back and read it again more slowly.
3. Look for any word you don’t know in the sentence. Try to understand their meanings using word parts and context clues(上下文线索). If necessary, look them up in the dictionary.
4. Look at the next few sentences to see if they explain more about the sentence you are working on. Do not read very much farther ahead until you understand what is being said.
5. Finally, read the sentence again. Try to put it into simpler words.
6. Read through the passage once. Try to understand all the hard parts well. Then read the whole passage once more at a usual speed. This helps you to put all ides together.
The stops sound a lot harder than they are. It is really just the normal way good readers understand anything that is difficult to read. After you have done the best you can this way, you should always feel free to ask for help from your teacher, if you have one.
【小题1】The underlined phrase “run into” means ___________.

Do you still remember the disaster(灾难)several years ago? In Indonesia (印度尼西亚) thousands of people were killed by the tsunami(海啸) that washed people out to sea and pulled children out of their parents’ arms. “The weather was fine with no clouds .There was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city. In some parts the water was as high as two meters.” a man in the city said. “Sadli, an official at the hospital, said many of the dead in the city were children under the age of ten.” “Maybe the children were being carried by their hold but they fell over in the water and couldn’t hold on to their children .All the dead children drawed.” said Sadli. Officials said hundreds of houses had been swept away the force (力量) of five –meter –high waves across Aceh, which lies on the northern tip (末端)of Sumatra Island . “Tens of people saw the rushing water and didn’t run to high ground .Instead, they kept watching it .Several of my workmates are missing.”  Lelana said by telephone.
【小题1】According to the passage, ______were missing in the tsunami.

Many textbooks are not written in the kind of English that we speak every day. In fact, sometimes the reading is so difficult that it almost seems like a foreign language. In a way, it is—the language of science. You should not expect to be able to read a difficult science passage the same way you read an interesting story; you should not expect to read it easily and all at once. Instead, you may have to read it several times through, catching on the meaning of difficult words, going back over difficult sentences, and finally putting the whole thing together. Do not be discourages if the whole passage don’t make sense to you at first. You need to pick it apart patiently until you can understand it.

    These are the steps to follow when you are reading something difficult:

²  1. Start to read normally until you run into a sentence that doesn’t make sense to you.

²  2. When a sentence doesn’t make sense, go back and read it again more slowly.

²  3. Look for any word you don’t know in the sentence. Try to understand their meanings using word parts and context clues(上下文线索). If necessary, look them up in the dictionary.

²  4. Look at the next few sentences to see if they explain more about the sentence you are working on. Do not read very much farther ahead until you understand what is being said.

²  5. Finally, read the sentence again. Try to put it into simpler words.

²  6. Read through the passage once. Try to understand all the hard parts well. Then read the whole passage once more at a usual speed. This helps you to put all ides together.

The stops sound a lot harder than they are. It is really just the normal way good readers understand anything that is difficult to read. After you have done the best you can this way, you should always feel free to ask for help from your teacher, if you have one.

1. The underlined phrase “run into” means ___________.

    A. work out             B. come across  C. look into        D. pass by

2. From the passage, we can know _________.

    A. we should look up new words before reading

    B. it is sometimes difficult to read a science passage

    C. the six steps are helpful in learning spoken English

    D. interesting stories help readers to improve their English

3. The massage is mainly about _________.

    A. steps of studying science                B. difficulties in reading science

C. ways of reading science passages         D. researches on science and English