第三部分阅读理解

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑.

第一篇

　　It was 7 a.m. in Kyoto, Japan, and the taxi company had just called a second time to say they couldn' t find my house. Once again I spelt out directions even a blind person could follow, I glanced impatiently at my watch, and waited. Only two hours remained until my flight left and it was an hour-and-a-half trip to the airport.

　　Outside, heavy rains were pouring down. My house was so far north in the city that buses pass only three times a day.

　　The telephone rang again. "Terribly sorry," began the man at the taxi company. Then I rea-lized that the taxi company, flooded with calls, could only offer in-city runs. I had heard this happens when the weather gets bad. I shouted into the phone that I had a plane to catch and I would meet the taxi outside my house.

　　Standing in the wind-driven rain, I looked up and down the road. No taxi. A car went by,　driver and passenger staring at the crazy foreigner in the downpour.　Finally a white car appeared and pulled to a stop. A young man threw open the door, waving　for me to get in. Shaking with cold and anger, I climbed in.

　　In the most polite Japanese, the man said he was called Mike, with whom I had spoken three times that morning. He had left his post in the office and raced here in his personal car. He apologized again, but did not explain why a taxi would not pick me up. Delivering me straight to the airport, he refused the 2000 yen I pressed into his hand.

　　A few hours later, as the storm-delayed 727 took off, I opened the newspaper. On the second page my eyes caught the headline of a short article:" Taxi Strike Begins This Morning in Kyoto."

56. Why did the writer call a taxi early in the morning?
[ A ] There were few taxis in town.
[ B ] He was unable to find the airport.
[ C ] He wanted to catch a plane.
[ D ] All the buses stopped because of the rain.

57. What was the reason for the taxi company not being able to pick him up?
[ A ] The taxi drivers refused to work.
[ B ] The writer didn' t give the correct address. 
[ C ] More people were riding in taxis on rainy days.
[ D ] The taxi drivers didn' t like to drive long distance.

58. The writer got to the airport . 
[ A ] by getting a lift in a passing car
[ B ] with the help of Mike from the post office
[ C ] by riding in Mike' s car from the taxi company
[ D ] with the help of a taxi driver sent by his company

59. We can learn from the text that the driver is .
[ A ] quick-minded at taking actions
[ B ] warm-hearted toward people
[ C ] unfamiliar with the road
[ D ] a self-employed driver

第二篇
　　
　　She once said:"When people ask me if writing has been a hard or easy road I always answer with the famous saying, "the end is nothing; the road is all. ' That is what I mean when I say writing has been a pleasure. I have never faced the type-writer(打字机) with the thought that one more task had to be done. " 

　　Like most writers, Willa Cather did not write books for the money that they brought her, but rather for the pleasure that came in their writing. Her works were, like her, simple and full of the vigor( 活力 ) of her days in Nebraska, where she grew from childhood to young womanhood and where she developed a deep love for the treeless land of the Great Plains with its wild flowers, wheat fields and rivers.

　　"It' s a rather strange thing about the flat country," she wrote later. "It takes hold of you, or it leaves you perfectly cold. A great many people find it very dull; they like a church tower, an old factory, a waterfall, country all made to look like a German, Christmas card... But when I come to the open plains, something happens. I'm home. I breathe differently. "

60. Willa Cather wrote because she found writing .
[ A ] simple and lively 
[ B ] interesting and enjoyable 
[ C ] neither too hard nor too easy
[ D ]opened up a road to, success 

61. What did Cather mean by "the end is nothing ;the road is all"?
[ A ] Writing is the only path to successs.
[ B ] I feel happy when I finish writing a book.
[ C ] I enjoy writing whether it is hard or easy. 
[ D ] Writing itself, not its result, is important.

62. What was the place like where Cather grew up?
[ A ] It was cold, plain and without a church.
[ B ] It was a colorful world of wild flowers.
[ C ] It was like a German Christmas card
[ D ] It was vast, open, flat and wild.

63. When she said "It takes hold of you, or it leaves you perfertly cold", Willa Gather meant . 
[ A ] you either love the place or hate it
[ B ] you decide either to stay or to leave
[ C ] some find the place warm; others find it cold
[ D ] some find the place peaceful; others find it wild

64. What happens when Cather comes to the open plains?
[ A ] She breathes differently from others:
[ B ] She wants to make the place her home.
[ C ] She finds the place similar to her home.
[ D ] She feels completely comfortable.