she was riding towards him. “There’s a badly burnt man on the farm,” the girl
shouted. “He saved my life. Please help me to save him.”
The girl was Cathy Henderson. She had been on horseback for two hours. She had to
jump over fallen trees that were still burning. Her pony had fallen with her twice.
She was thirsty and almost dead from want of sleep. But she rode back to the farm
with Jack immediately.
Joe Brook was unconscious when they reached him. They lifted him onto Jack’s horse.
The ride back to Borrogee was terrible. Cathy was so tired that Jack had to tie her
to her pony. The pony was tired too, but its courage was astonishing. It followed
Jack right to Borrogee Hospital. Nobody saw them arrive because it was night.
“I’ve never seen a horse like that pony,” Jack said. Cathy praised Jack Billabong,
but she refused to say anything about the pony, “Joe will write about her in his
story,” she said.
But she did say one thing: “If flame hadn’t returned to the farm that afternoon,
Joe and I would have died.”
16. Jack Billabong did not turn back because _____________.
A. he hadn’t found the bull yet B. he smelt a heavy smoke in the forest
C. he knew there was a burnt man there D. he saw something moving towards him
17. Why was the ride back to Borrogee terrible?
A. Because Joe was tired out.
B. Because the ride started late at night.
C. Because they didn’t have enough courage.
D. Because both Cathy and her pony were exhausted.
18. Cathy refused to talk to reporters about the pony when she was in Borrogee
Hospital because ____________.
A. she didn’t know what to say B. Jack asked her not to talk to them
C. she was too weak to say anything D. Joe would write about it in his writing
19. What does the word “flame” in the last paragraph refer to?
A. Jack. B. The pony. C. Jack’s horse. D. The fire. 20. Which of the following is the best title of the story?
A. Rescue of Joe Brook. B. Courage of Jack Billabong.
C. Love of a Young Girl. D. Heroism of a Lovely Pony.
Passage Two
The faces of elderly, happily-married people sometimes resemble each other. Dr. Aiken studied a
number of couples who had been married for at least twenty-five years. Each couple provided four
photographs—one photo of each partner at the time of their marriage and another photo of each
partner twenty-five or more years later. All background was cut from the photos to remove any
clues. The photos were then displayed in groups: a random grouping of the persons at the time of
their marriage and another random grouping of the same persons who took photographs later.
Some testees were asked to pick out the partners. They failed totally with the first group. Their
judgements were no better than chance. But with the photos taken twenty-five or more years after
the marriage, the testees were quite successful with the most happily-married couples.
Dr. Aiken believes there are several reasons why couples grow alike. One reason has something to
do with imitation. One person tends to copy or do the same as someone else without knowing it.
He says human begins to imitate the expressions of the faces of their loved ones. “Another
possible reason,” he says, “is the common experience of the couples.” There is a tendency for
people who have the same life experience to change their faces in similar ways. For example, if a
couple have suffered from a lot of sad experiences, their faces are likely to change in a similar way.
21. Dr. Aiken cut the background from the photos for the purpose of __________.
A. imitating the couples’ life B. grouping the couples again
C. leaving no trace for the testees D. giving the testees more chances
22. The underlined sentence “Their judgements were no better than chance” implies that the
testees __________.
A. did a good job in making their choices.
B. had difficulty in picking out the partners
C. had no chance to make the right judgements
D. did better with the first group than with the second
23. The underlined word “imitate” (in Para. 2) has a similar meaning to __________.
A. copy B. change C. know D. suffer
24. From the passage we can draw the conclusion that ___________.
A. couples who look alike can live longer
B. most partners have been proved to grow alike
C. the influence between partners can be quite strong
D. happily-married couples are often richer than others
25. The main purpose of the passage is to ___________.
A. explain why couples grow alike B. tell how couples like each other
C. discuss the function of marriage D. describe the life of happily married couples
Passage Three The three biggest lies in America are: (1) “The check is in the mail”, (2) “Of course I’ll respect
you in the morning”, and (3) “It was a computer error.”
Of these three little white lies, the worst is the third. It’s the only one that can never be true. Today,
if a bank statement cheats you out of $ 900 that way, you know what the clerk is sure to say,” It
was a computer error.” Nonsense. The computer is reporting nothing more than what the clerk
typed into it.
The most annoying case of all is when the computerized cashier in the grocery store shows that an
item costs more than it actually does. If the innocent buyer points out the mistake, the checker,
bagger, and manager all come together and offer the familiar explanation: “It was a compute
error.”
It wasn’t, of course that computerized cashier is really nothing more than an electric event. The
广东省学士学位英语历年真题 附答案
