Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in March 1952, educated at Brentwood School, Essex and St John's College, Cambridge where, in 1974 he gained a BA (and later an MA) in English literature.

He was the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy(《银河系漫游指南》), which started life as a BBC Radio 4 series in March 1978. Since then it has been transformed into a series of best-selling novels, a TV series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's success sent the book straight to Number One in the UK Bestseller List and in 1984 Douglas Adams became the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pan. He won a further two (a rare feat), and was nominated—though not selected - for the first Best of Young British Novelists awards.

He followed this success with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980); Life, The Universe and Everything (1982); So Long and Thanks for all the Fish (1984); and Mostly Harmless (1992). The first two books in the Hitchhiker series were adapted into a 6-part television series, which was an immediate success when first showed in 1982. Other publications include Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul (1988). In 1984 Douglas teamed up with John Lloyd and wrote The Meaning of Life and their second huge success, The Deeper Meaning of Life followed in 1990. One of Douglas’s personal favorites was written in 1990 when he teamed up with zoologist Mark Carwardine and wrote Last Chance to See an account of a world-wide search for rare and endangered species of animals.

Douglas sold over 15 million books in the UK, the US and Australia. He was also a best seller in German, Swedish and many other languages.

Douglas Adams died on Friday, May 11, 2001, in Santa Barbara, CA. He will be greatly missed by fans worldwide.

1.The main idea of this passage is           .

A．Douglas Adams, always loved by fans

B．Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

C．Douglas Adams and his works

D．Douglas Adams’s personal lives

2.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was first shown to the public as           .

A．a radio series       B．a movie           C．a TV series         D．a computer game

3.Which two books were adapted into a six-part TV series?

A．Life, The Universe and Everything and Mostly Harmless

B．The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, The Universe and Everything

C．The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

D．So Long and Thanks for all the Fish and Mostly Harmless

4. Last Chance to See is a book about          .

A．Some stories happening in a Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

B．the author’s personal favorites

C．a zoologist and his worldwide experiences

D．searching for rare and endangered species of animals

5.Which of the following statement is not true?

A．Douglas Adams died at the age of 49 and he was memorized by his fans.

B．Douglas Adams was the youngest author to be selected as one of the first Best of Young British Novelists.

C．John Lloyd was one of the authors of the two books, The Meaning of Lifeand The Deeper Meaning of Life.

D．Douglas graduated from Essex and St John's College and gained a Master’s Degree.

 

If you are looking for an animal to take the title of “most violent fish in the sea”, then the tiger puffer (河豚) fish would have to be a strong contestant. Not only is it deadly poisonous --- though that doesn’t stop people trying to eat it --- but it is also able to scare off enemies by inflating itself to become much larger than normal, when it is young it even chews on its own brothers and sisters.
Tiger puffer fish attach their eggs to rocks near the bottom of the sea, often at the mouths of bays. Then the larvae (幼鱼) move to the entries of rivers and lakes once they have grown a little. Then, having put on a lot of weight, they head out to sea. There’s no innocent childhood for the puffer fish, as Shin Oikawa of Kyushu University in Japan and his colleagues found out when they put the larvae of tiger puffer fish in the lab and monitored them for two months. They found that the larvae went through three steps in which their metabolic(新陈代谢) rates increased dramatically when they reached body weights of 0.002g, 0.01g, and 0.1g. When a larva went through one of these steps, its behavior also changed. For instance, once a larva had passed the first level it would have grown its first tooth and could start attacking larvae that had not yet reached that stage. Similarly, any larva that had reached the 0.01g or 0.1g levels would start attacking lighter larvae.
The researchers noted that the baby fish had a “relatively small mouth”, so rather than swallowing their brothers and sisters whole, they would bite pieces out of them. Despite this limitation, the fish caused plenty of deaths --- up to 12 per cent of the deaths that happened in the lab each day.
Those fish that grew fast enough to be able to chew on their fellows had an advantage. The extra food accelerated their growth and development. Tiger puffer fish are likely to be faster and swifter, so they can deal better with enemies.
As the name suggests, puffer fish can inflate to make themselves seem much larger than they really are, thus scaring off enemies. They do this by filling their stomachs, which are extremely elastic(弹性的), with water. If that’s not enough of a threat, the tiger puffer fish --- like most of the other puffer fish in the family --- carries a deadly toxin(毒素). Eat one puffer fish and the poison will paralyze (瘫痪) your muscles, including the muscles responsible for breathing, so death is usually caused by a lack of oxygen. Famously, the fish is a delicacy in Japan, where highly qualified chefs produce dishes that contain the safe level of the poison. Interestingly, the puffer fish does not go to the trouble of producing the poison itself. Instead, it hosts bacteria (细菌) that produce the stuff. It obtains these bacteria from its diet, so the youngest adult fish are not poisonous.
【小题1】All of the following statements account for the violence of puffer fish except that_____.

A．they are very difficult to catch

B．they can become larger to threaten enemies away

C．they kill their younger companions as they grow up

D．they are deadly poisonous

【小题2】We can learn from the second paragraph that puffer fish _____.

A．can only grow to a weight of 0.1g

B．do not change their behavior as they grow up

C．like to find a safe place to hatch the next generation

D．begin to grow teeth when they reach the third level

【小题3】Where does the poison in the puffer fish’s body come from?

A．Its inner organs.	B．The air it breathes in.
C．The diet it eats.	D．The bacteria around it.

【小题4】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Puffer fish can only produce poison when they face danger.

B．People like eating puffer fish even though they are poisonous.

C．The larvae are more aggressive than adult puffer fish.

D．Young puffer fish taste better than adult puffer fish.

A small piece of fish each, day may keep the heart doctor away. That’s the finding of a study of Dutchmen in which deaths from heart disease were more than 50 percent lower among those who consumed at least an ounce(英两) of salt water fish per day compared to those who never ate fish.

The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long-held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.

Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000 deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But previous research has shown that the level of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption average more than 3 ounces.

F  or 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish. At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.

During the next two decades, 78 of the men died from heart disease. The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese or Eskimos. This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol levels.

What is the author’s attitude towards the topic?

       A．Disappointed.   B．Sad.  C．Concerned.      D．Satisfied.

We can infer from the passage that there are fewer heart disease deaths in the countries      .

       A．that are highly developed       B．with a lot of fish

       C．with high consumption of fish D．where it is very cold

The underlined words “This relationship” refers to the connection between      and deaths from heart disease.

       A．the amount of fish   B．regular fish – eating

       C．the kind of fish eaten      D．people of different areas

The passage is mainly about         .

      A．the changes in people’s diet

       B．the effect of fish – eating on people’s health

       C．the high percentage of heart disease in some countries

       D．the daily fish consumption of people in different cultures

完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）

阅读下面短文，从短文后所给的四个选项A、B、C、D中,选出可以填人空白处的最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Once a group of tourists who were staying at a hotel in Birmingham were having dinner in the restaurant. Fish was brought in and while they were   16  it, some of them told interesting stories about  17  pearls and other   18   things inside fish.

An old gentleman, who up to now had   19   quietly to their conversation, at last said,

“ I’ve heard all your stories, now I’ll tell you   20  . When I was a young man I was working in a large importing factory in New York, and   21   is usual with young persons, I fell in   22   with a pretty young girl. Very __23__ we were engaged（订婚）. About two months __24___ our marriage was to take place, I was suddenly   25  to Birmingham on a very important business. I left my sweetheart,   26   to write to her. ”

“ I had to stay in Birmingham longer than I had   27  . At last my work was done and I could leave Birmingham. But just before I  28  New York, I bought a beautiful and very expensive diamond   29  , planning to give it to my sweetheart. ”

“ On my way to New York, I was__30___ the morning newspaper, which had been brought on board by the sailor. Suddenly I   31   an announcement of my sweetheart’s   32   with another. This made me so angry that I threw the ring overboard. A few days  33  , when I was eating fish, I bit(咬) on something   34  . What do you think it was ? ”

“ The diamond ring, ” cried his companions. “ No ” , said the old gentleman  35  , “ it was a fish-bone.”

16. A. eating         B. cooking           C. peeling         D. weighing

17. A. exchanging      B. tasting                  C. finding          D. searching

18. A. valuable                     B. terrible                  C. common                D. cheap

19. A. sat                     B. listened                 C. stood                      D. thought

20. A. one                        B. all                      C. some                 D. another

21. A. it                   B. which                          C. that                        D. as

22. A. trouble              B. debt                                C. quarrel                            D. love

23. A. quickly               B. fast                        C. soon                  D. lucky

24. A. when                     B. before                         C. after                  D. since

25. A. reported                    B. sent             C. caught            D. taken

26. A. promising                  B. agreeing               C. refusing                 D. wishing

27. A. regretted             B. wondered                  C. expected       D. finished

28. A. left for               B. left to                          C. returned back   D. returned from

29. A. watch                B. ring                        C. earring                            D. necklace

30. A. looking at        B. looking up                  C. looking through   D. looking for

31. A. looked               B. saw                        C. heard                     D. recognized

32. A. marriage                   B. fight                            C. talk                         D. agreement

33. A. before               B. later                           C. earlier               D. ago

34. A. hard                            B. sweet                         C. soft                         D. crisp

35. A. happily              B. loudly                     C. angrily              D. sadly 

 

Peter and Paul had a permission from their parents to camp in a field close to their farm. But, being adventurous boys, they know it would be more 36    to camp in the woods that lay beyond the river. Excitedly, the boys  37   with their tent and food.

Carrying their heavy 38  , the two brothers walked along the riverbank, hardly noticing the distance or the sun beating down. . They were eager to reach their 39  before lunchtime. As they entered the cool, shadowy woods, they began to search for a suitable camping spot. Peter wanted to 40  close to the river at the edge of the woods, 41  Paul, who was older, insisted that they camp further away. 42  Peter followed his brother deeper into the 43 . “This really is a wonderful setting!” said Paul in excitement. They 44 the tent , and settled down to eat the sandwiches they had made, then decided to find their way 45  to the river to catch some fish.

 “Are you sure that this is the right 46  ?” whispered Peter shakily. “I’m sure we passed that hollow tree just a while ago. ” Paul walked 47  silently. “Look, there it is again. We’re lost, aren’t we?” complained Peter. Paul had to admit that he didn’t know where they were. 48  , they were a long distance from where they were 49 to be. They were not even 50  of where they had set up their camp. They set in 51 for a few minutes until Peter had a bright idea. “Why don’t we look for clues（线索） the way trackers 52 in the movies? We weren’t careful about how we walked, so I’m sure we would have left 53 some broken tree branches and leaves. ”

Carefully, the boys 54 the marks that they had left, until finally they found their campsite. Hurriedly, they packed their belongings and set off 55 the direction of the river.

What would their parents think of their adventure?

36. A. surprising   B. exciting C. annoying D. frightening

37. A. went round   B. went back    C. went away    D. went though

38. A. load B. torn C. food D. storage

39. A. grassland    B. destination  C. field    D. river

40. A. live B. lie  C. wait D. stay

41. A. but  B. and  C. or   D. so

42. A. Unconsciously    B. Unfortunately    C. Unwillingly  D. Uninterestingly

43. A. woods    B. farm C. setting  D. camp

44. A. put off  B. put on   C. put down D. put up

45. A. forward  B. near C.  back   D. further

46. A. place    B. mark C. way  D. time

47. A. alone    B. about    C. in   D. on

48. A. After all   B. At last C. Above all   D. At first

49. A. discovered   B. encouraged   C. persuaded    D. supposed

50. A. afraid   B. sure C. informed D. reminded

51. A. enjoyment    B. satisfaction C. disappointment   D. imagination

52. A. appear   B. do   C. work D. behave

53. A. behind   B. out  C. aside    D. amount

54. A. fetched  B. watched  C. followed D. collected

55. A. for            B. to                C. at                 D. in