2. What could the girl in the ticket office do for the passengers without asking the computer?

A. She could sell a ticket.

B. She could write out a ticket.

C. She could answer the passengers’ questions.

D. She could do nothing.

1. The best title for the article is _______.

A. When the Computer Is Down　 B. The Most Frightening Words

C. The Computer of the Airport　　 D. Asking the Computer

5. A。推断题。根据第4段最后一句 but no help came 及最后一段的第一句 Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby 可推知地点是在寂静的农村，此题答案为A。

(2)

The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”

“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”

“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”

I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all you people do?”

“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”

“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”

“That’s good, sir.”

“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.

“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”

After the girl told me they had no backup(备用) computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”

“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”

“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.

“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”

“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”

“I wouldn’t know, ” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘It’ can’t tell me.”

By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.

4. C。词句理解题。根据其上文 …work on the boot lock 及下文 but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in 可推知此题答案为C。

3. C。细节题。根据第2段第一句…skidding on ice and hitting a bank 可推知答案为C。

2. B。细节题。根据第4段 Mr. Johnson 所说的话及他后面所做的事情可推知此题答案为B。

1. C。主旨题。根据第1段 Mr. Peter Johnson…escape from his trapped car…through the boot 可归纳出文章的标题为答案C。

5. It may be inferred from the passage that _______.　

A. the ditch was along a quiet country road

B. the accident happened on a clear warm day

C. the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch

D. Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended

[答案解析]

本文记述了Mr. Johnson由于车祸被困于水下车内半个小时，最后死里逃生的故事。

4. “Finally it gave” (Paragraph 5) means that _______.　

A. Luckily the door was torn away in the end

B. At last the wrench went broken

C. The lock came open after all his efforts

D. The chance was lost at the last minute

3. Which statement is true according to the passage?

A. Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.

B. Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.

C. Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.

D. Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat.