For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   

1.Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

         A．Opera is famous for is history.                                   

         B．Opera is only for rich people.

         C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.                            

         D．Young people are not interested in opera. 

2.The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means          .

         A．breaking up the old rules          B．changing the dresses

         C．making the audience at ease    D．advertising themselves

3.Opera companies prefer to perform smaller versions because         .

         A．they can be performed  in public libraries

         B．short versions are easy to perform

         C．it is hard to find long versions

         D．they can make people interested

4.The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to        .

         A．attract young people                 B．reduce the cost

         C．celebrate its 75^th anniversary   D．make Cinderella popular

5.What can you infer from the passage?

         A．The tickets for opera are very expensive at present.

         B．Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand.

         C．Opera is not so popular an art form today.

         D．Students enjoy performing operas very much.

For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.

Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.

The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.   

Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?

       A．Opera is famous for is history.                                   

       B．Opera is only for rich people.

       C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.                            

       D．Young people are not interested in opera. 

The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means          .

       A．breaking up the old rules       B．changing the dresses

       C．making the audience at ease    D．advertising themselves

Opera companies prefer to perform smaller versions because         .

       A．they can be performed  in public libraries

       B．short versions are easy to perform

       C．it is hard to find long versions

       D．they can make people interested

The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to        .

       A．attract young people               B．reduce the cost

       C．celebrate its 75^th anniversary   D．make Cinderella popular

What can you infer from the passage?

       A．The tickets for opera are very expensive at present.

       B．Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand.

       C．Opera is not so popular an art form today.

       D．Students enjoy performing operas very much.

.
Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.
Dr．J．Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887．He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental impairment （损伤） , such as in autism or retardation.  At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people．The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory.
One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr．Benjamin Rush, an American doctor．His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds．Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write．
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5 ,000 musical pieces beautifully．
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment．Yet not all brain impairment leads to savant skills．Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However,few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.
48．What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．Idiot savants have areas of outstanding abilities．
B．Human Beings have complicated thinking process．
C．The brains of the idiot savants are partly impaired．
D．The reasons why people have wonderful skills vary．
49．Which of the following can be done by Rain Man?
A．He can play wonderful pieces of classical music．
B．He can guess out exactly the length of a man's life．
C．He can memorize the contents of the pictures fast．
D．He can count matches dropped on the floor quickly．
50．What can you infer from the passage?
A．Idiot savants have real talents for art and math．
B．Dr．Down is the first person who found idiot savants．
C．Few people wish to risk becoming savants by brain operations．
D．Intentional left brain impairments will surely lead to idiot savants．

Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. But many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings.
The expression “to be in hot water" is one of them. It is a very old expression. “Hot water” was used 500 years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle.
That no longer happens. But we still get in “hot water”．When we are in “hot water”, we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble—serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother. if he walks in the house with dirty shoes.
Being in “deep water” is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who cannot swim being thrown in water over his head.
You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you do not have the ability to solve. The problem is too deep. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market.
“To keep your head above water” is a colorful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job.
“Water over the dam” is another expression about a past event. It is something that is finished. It cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water that has flowed over a dam cannot be brought back again.
【小题1】Which of the following two expressions have almost the same meaning?

At least 77 were wounded when hundreds of army soldiers and anti-government protesters (抗议者) clashed（冲突）in Bangkok early Monday morning, 14 hours after Thai PM (总理) declared a state of emergency in the capital city, Thai media reports.

The Nation quoted（引用）hospital reports as saying at least 77 people suffered injuries mainly from teargas, with five seriously injured.

At around 7:20 a.m., the government announced it was in control of the situation at Din Daeng, The Nation said on its website.

Some protesters had been arrested, and Army Spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd earlier said “Similar operations will be carried out in other areas.”

The clash occurred around 4:30 a.m. Monday (21:00 GMT Sunday) when some 300 so-called red-shirted protesters used a seized bus to crash soldiers at Din Daeng District in north Bangkok, Army spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd told TPBS.

Soldiers fired warning shots into the air and used teargas to disperse the protesters after failing to persuade the red shirts to stop, Sansern said.

Earlier the Health Department of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced a total injury number of 68.

Army Chief General Anupong Paojinda refused to comment on the incident, adding that he will learn more about it first.

At about 6:15 a.m. Monday (23:15 GMT Sunday), former premier Thaksin Shinawatra told the Red-shirted protesters to continue fighting in a phone conversation with a main leader of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared on Sunday afternoon a state of emergency in Bangkok and some districts of five provinces nearby.

The latest round of the anti-government protests led by UDD has entered its 19th day. Red-shirted protesters on Saturday forced the summits canceled (取消).

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2009)

What is the main idea of the passage?

  A. Soldiers used teargas to disperse the protesters.

  B. The ASEAN summits have been cancelled.

  C. At least 77 were wounded during the crash between soldiers and protesters.

  D. Thai Prime Minister announced a state of emergency.

What can you infer from the passage?

  A. About 300 protesters seized a bus and crashed soldiers.

  B. The Army Chief General refused to comment on the incident.

  C. Soldiers didn’t persuade the red shirts to stop.

  D. The clash is connected with the former premier Thaksin.

Which of the following is TRUE?

  A. Five protesters died in the clash.

  B. The latest round of protests started in March, 2009.

C. It’s officially said on the morning of Sunday that the situation was out of control.

  D. It is most likely that the army is against the government.

What does the underlined word “disperse” probably mean?

  A. 驱散                   B. 开枪                       C. 劝说                       D. 谈判