【2011·贵州遵义七校联考】A

　O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the readers’ surprise.

41.   In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.

b. Worked in a bank.

c. Traveled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.

e. Had a newspaper job.

f. Learned to write stories.

A. e, c, f, b, d, a                                              B. c, b, e, d, a, f

C. e, b, d, c, a, f                                              D. c, e, b, d, f, a

42.   People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because _____.

A. they had surprise endings                       B. they were easy to understand

C. they showed his love for the poor                  D. they were about New York City

43.   What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

A.      He was well-educated.

B.      He was very good at learning.

C.      He was devoted to the poor.

D.     He was not serious about his work.

44.   Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?

A. His life inside the prison.                        B. The newspaper articles he wrote.

C. The city and people of New York.           D. His exciting early life as a boy.

 
第二部分阅读理解（共两节，满分50分）
第一节：阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并将答案写在答题卡上。（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）
A
O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.
41. In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.        c. Travelled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper job.      f. Learned to write stories.
A. e. c. f. b. d. a       B. e. b. d. c. a. f.        C. c. e. b. d. f. a    D. c. b. e. d. a f.
42. O. Henry went to prison because ___________.
A. people thought he had stolen money from the newspaper
B. people thought he had taken money that was not his
C. he wanted to write stories about prisoners
D. he broke the law by not using his own name
43. What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?
A. He was very good at learning.                     B. He was not serious about his work.
C. He was devoted to the poor.                  D. He was well-educated.
44. Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?
A. His life inside the prison.                  B. The newspaper articles he wrote.
C. His exciting early life as a boy.       D. The city and people of New York.

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank. O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.
【小题1】 In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.       c. Travelled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.     f. Learned to write stories.

       Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.

       All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.

       However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.

       There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.

1.The new products become more and more time-saving because          .

       A. time is limited                                            B. our love of speed seems never-ending     

       C. the prices are increasingly high                      D. the manufacturers boast a lot

2.What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

       A. Simple life in the past.                                 B. Imaginary life.                              

       C. Times of inventions.                                     D. Time for constant activity.

3.What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?

       A. Objective.                B. Critical.                   C. Optimistic.               D. Negative.

4.What does the passage mainly discuss?

       A. Machinery and human beings.                       B. The present and past times.                    

C. Imaginations and inventions.                         D. Modern technology and its influence.

O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise.

1.In which order did O. Henry do the following things?

a. Lived in New York.   b. Worked in a bank.      c. Traveled to Texas.

d. Was put in prison.    e. Had a newspaper Job.      f. Learned to write stories.

A．c. e. b. d. f. a                           B．e. c. f. b. d. a

C．e. b. d. c. a. f.                           D．c. b. e. d. a f

2.People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because __________.

A．they had surprise endings

B．they were easy to understand

C．they showed his love for the poor

D．they were about New York City

3.O. Henry went to prison because_____________.

A．people thought he had stolen money that was not his

B．he broke the law by not using his own name

C．he wanted to write stories about prisoners

D．people thought he had taken money from the newspaper

4.What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?

A．He was well-educated.                   B．He was not serious about his work.

C．He was devoted to the poor.               D．He was very good at learning.