59. Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined part?

A. We were ready for any failure

B. We were on the point of giving up hopes

C. We would never stop digging though there was difficulty.

D. We decided that we had failed to find Ubar.

58. The following statements are true according to the reading EXCEPT_____.

A. Clapp made this discovery with the help of caravan routes on the maps

B. Clapp made this discovery with the help of some high technology

C. Clapp was not sure that he had found Ubar

D. Donald Whitcomb was not sure if Clapp had found Ubar

57. It can be inferred from the passage that_____

A. the role of hospital environment is being recognized

B. hospital artists have done more than doctors

C. exhibitions attract more people in hospitals than in museums

D. the hospitals is a better place for people than the museum in Britain

E

Before Nicholas Clapp got there, he had half hoped that he might run into some of Ubar’s ruins sticking(凸出)out of the sand. But finding the city wasn’t that easy. During the summer, he and his 40 helpers dug at 35 different spots. The only things they found were ground spiders, giant ticks, and deadly snakes.

Just before Thanksgiving says Clapp, “We were within a whisker of total failure. ”

But then Clapp’s team looked at the high-tech maps again and saw something surprising. Many of the caravan routes(沙漠商队路线)on the high-tech maps came together on the same spot marked “Omani Marketplace” on Ptolomy’s map. Two maps, made almost 2000 years apart, pointed the team toward the same area!

In December 1991, Clapp arrived at the spot where, according to the maps, the caravans met. Clapp had a handheld instrument that could detect(探测)objects below the ground. It showed ruins under the sand! He and his team started digging. And then they found it! A. tower buried in the sand. They slowly unearthed a giant, eight-sided fortress(堡垒). It had nine towers and many rooms. People had lived in this fortress 2000 years ago. Outside its walls, they had found buried remains of nearly 40 campsites. They seemed to be camping areas for traders(商人).

More digging found shards, or pieces of pottery(陶瓷)from ancient Rome, Greece, China, Egypt, and Syria. Diggers and scientists agree that people were here for about 5000 years. Clapp and his team were excited as they continued to discover more pieces of the past that seemed to prove that it was the lost city of Ubar.

“We started with this hopeless myth(神秘),” says Clapp, “and then finally found the truth behind the myth. ” But is this unearthed site really the once-great Ubar? Experts aren’t totally persuaded.

Donald Whitcomb is an archeologist(考古学家)at the University of Chicago. He doubts that Clapp really discovered Ubar. “There’s probably some truth to this myth,” he says. “But Ubar is described as a place with walls all made of gold, and the rubies and emeralds(宝石). ” No gold or precious stones have been found by Clapp.

“I’m not sure whether they discovered Ubar because I’m not sure if Ubar really existed,” Whitcomb says.

56. After the improvement of the hospital environment, _____

A. patients no longer take drugs to kill their pains

B. patients don’t have to stay long in hospital

C. patients need fewer pain killers when they suffer from an illness

D. patients feel happy in hospital

55. Some best artists of Britain have been called in to_____

A. set up new hospitals　　　　　　　　 B. make the corners of hospital collect paintings

C. bring art into hospitals　　　　　　　　　　 D. help patients recover from serious illness

54. From the text, we can infer that the writer_____

A. would stop working at night　　　　　　　　　 B. would stay on in San Francisco

C. would make friends with cleaners. D. would give up her job at the bank

D

Bringing Art into Hospitals.

The medical world is slowly realizing that the quality of the environment in hospitals may play an important role in helping patients to recover(康复).

As part of a nationwide effort in Britain to bring art out of the museums and into public places, some of the country’s best artists have been called in to change older hospitals and to soften the hard, modern buildings. Of the 2500 national health service hospitals in Britain, almost 100 now have collections of art in passages(走廊), waiting areas and treatment rooms.

These recent movements were first started by one artist, Peter Senior, who set up his studio at a Manchester hospital in northeastern England during the early 1970’s. He felt the artist had lost his place in modern society, and that art should be enjoyed by more people.

A. common hospital waiting room might have as many as 5000 visitors each week. What a good place to hold exhibitions(展览)of art! Senior held the first exhibition of his own paintings in the waiting area of the Manchester Royal Hospital in 1975. Believed to be Britain’s first hospital artist, Senior was so much in demand that he was soon joined by a team of six young art school graduates.

The effect is amazing. Now in the passages and waiting rooms the visitors experience a full view of fresh colors, playful images(形象)and restful courtyards.

The quality of the environment may reduce the need for expensive drugs when a patient is recovering from an illness. A. study has shown that a patient who had a view onto gardens needed half the number of strong pain killers compared with(与……相比)patients who had no view at all or only a brick wall to look at.

53. In the fifth paragraph, why did the writer say she was dreaming?

A. Someone offered to take her back home

B. A. red-haired man came to see her. 　　　　 C. She heard someone call her name

D. Her wallet was found in a garbage truck

52. On her way home the writer_____

A. lost her wallet unknowingly　　　　　　 B. was stopped by a garbage truck driver

C. was robbed of her wallet by a man with a knife

D. found some homeless people following her

51. From the first paragraph, we learn that the writer was busy_____.

A. solving her problem at the bank　　　　　　 B. taking part in various city activities

C. learning acting in an evening school　　　　 D. preparing for the first night show

50. How did the writer feel when she was walking home after work?

A. Cold and sick　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. Lucky and hopeful

C. Satisfied and cheerful　　　　　　　 D. Disappointed and helpless