When his doctor told nine-year-old Michael Milton he would lose his left leg to bone cancer (骨癌) in
1982, one of the first questions he asked was: "Will I still be able to ski?"
         Soon, Milton, who grew up in a skiing family and had hit the hillside from the age of three, saw a video
of a one-legged skier that would change his life. After missing a winter of sport following his operation (手術(shù)),
the Australian young man gave it a try.
         By 14, Milton was skiing in his first international competition (國際比賽), the 1988 Winter Olympic
Games at Innsbruck, Austria. Just four years on, he became Australia's first gold medal (金牌) winner in France.
        But trying to make a living from the sport he loved seemed to be a far more icy matter. For year, Milton
had to do his best to make ends meet, mending cars, working as a gardener and in ski shops. At one point he
was so poor that he needed to win a place in an American skiing competition to win enough money for the plane
ticket home.
         But the skier who can hold his own in able-bodied speed-skiing events, thinks overcoming (克服) low
public expectations of what people with disabilities (殘疾) can do is a greater obstacle (障礙) than being poor.
It's a problem that he is meeting with all the time.
         He says most people with disabilities don't want to be treated differently than others. "It's the environment
around you that helps you to try. My biggest goal is to raise (提高) the expectations of the public as to what
people with disabilities can do."
         Milton has won 10 Olympic and 11 world championship (錦標賽) medals and in April last year became
the world's first disabled person to ski at more than 200 km/h, reaching a surprising 210.4 km/h. His next goal
is the record of 212.26 km/h held by Australia's fastest able-bodied skier, Nick Kirshner. He'll then be the fastest
Australian skier ever.

1. When did Michael Milton win his first gold medal?

A. In 1988.
B. When he was fourteen.
C. In 1992.
D. 8 years after his operation.

2. What is the biggest problem Milton met with in life?

3. Milton really wants _________ by skiing.

A. to become the fastest skier in Australia
B. to show he is different from other skiers
C. to help other disabled people stand up
D. to make the public give up wrong ideas

4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Milton is skiing for not only himself but also any disabled person.
B. Milton will give up skiing after he reaches more than 212.26 km/h.
C. Few people think that Milton's dream will come true in the end.
D. Thanks to Milton's work, the public environment has become better.

        Charles Chaplin, who died in 1977, is regarded as one of the greatest and funniest actors in the history of
the cinema. During his lifetime, he acted in 13 films, and he wrote, directed (導) and acted in 69 other films.
        Chaplin was born in London in 1889. When he was a poor boy, he was often seen waiting outside the
London theatres, hoping to get work in show business. He could sing and dance, and above all, he could make
people laugh. But he couldn't get work, so he wandered (徘徊) about the city streets. Sometimes he was sent
away to a home for children who had no parents.
        Charlie Chaplin first acted when he was five. He broke into show business because his mother, a music-
hall performer, lost her voice during the performance and had to leave the stage, and Charlie went on and sang
a well-known song. Halfway through the song a shower of money poured onto the stage. Charlie stopped
singing and told audiences he would pick the money first and then finish the song. The audiences laughed. This
was the first of millions of laughs in Charlie Chaplin's comedy (喜劇) life.
        Twenty years later the same Chaplin became the greatest and best loved comedian in the world. His dream
came true in the end. Chaplin became world-famous and almost a king in the world of the film.
        Even people who don't understand English can enjoy Chaplin's films because they are mostly silent. The
machine for adding sound to films had not yet been developed. The development of films with sound became a
problem for Chaplin, as he was uncertain about making films with dialogues. Instead, he continued to make films
without dialogue, but he added music, which he wrote himself. It isn't what he says that makes us laugh. His
comedy doesn't depend on (依靠) words. It depends on little actions which mean the same thing to people all
over the world.
        Chaplin's later films, however, were not well received. Chaplin lived most of his life in America and the
last years in Switzerland, where he was buried (被埋葬) at Christmas 1977, at the age of eighty-eight. There
was sadness all over the world at the news of his death.
         In his book, Chaplin tells us how to succeed in life. He says, "You have to believe in yourself. That's the
secret."

1. What does the underlined word "stage" mean in the passage?

A. It's a special time that something reaches while it grows or develops.
B. It's one of the parts in the process (過程) of something.
C. It's the raised area in a theatre which actors or singers stand on when they perform.
D. It's a place or an area of activity where something important happens.

2. Chaplin is regarded as a king of comedy mainly because __________.

3. The only secret of Charles Chaplin's great success is that ___________.

A. he can make all people, men and women, old and young laugh
B. he has full trust in himself
C. he is always active and hard-working all his life
D. though he is always in trouble, he never loses heart

4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. He was too shy to meet the managers of the theatres.
B. People won't stop laughing until tears run down Chaplin's face.
C. He wouldn't like to work at the theatre.
D. People all over the world can enjoy Chaplin's films without translation because most of them are silent.

Dear Joyce,
        I'm writing to tell you something about a Chinese American singer, Fei Xiang. His English name is Kris
Phillips. He is nearly two meters tall, with brown eyes, looking like an Asian. Though he was born in Taiwan,
he grew up speaking Chinese to his mother and English to his father and the students at Stanford University in
California.     1    .
        In 1986, Fei Xiang visited the mainland and became a pop star there.      2     , such as Fire in Winter,
Clouds of My Homeland, etc.
        He left the mainland for New York four years later.     3      . He lived a quiet life in New York, for only
a few people knew his name.
        Now Phillips has ended his six-year stay in the USA and returned to the mainland and his recording
career(生涯).      4     , including the song Maria from West Side Story.
        Now I think you have known a lot about Phillips.

A. There he worked as a menial (仆人的) worker
B. He was well-known among the young people and his songs were widely accepted
C. His new project (事業(yè)) is to introduce the mainland to the music of the Broadway stage
D. Later he returned from abroad to Taiwan and became a singer

5. Which of the following is true?

A. Fei Xiang's parents are both teachers.
B. Fe Xiang lived in the mainland for four years, later on he went to New York.
C. Fei Xiang is regarded as a pop star both in America and China.
D. Fei Xiang returned to the mainland in 1986.

      Marco Polo was a boy of about seventeen. Once, his father and uncle had just returned to their family
in Venice after a long journey. They talked about strange and beautiful lands in the East. They brought back
gold and jewels.
      Shortly after, the Polo brothers asked him to take a trip with them to the East. So it was how Marco
Polo's journey began. During three years of traveling to the Far East, he saw sights that were almost
unbelievable to a boy from Italy. He met people who had strange ways of living. Some spoke languages
that he did not even understand. At last they reached China. This was in the year 1275. The emperor made
a great feast in honour of (招待) the Polos and asked Marco to live in his court (庭院). Marco Polo learned
to read, write and speak new languages. 
      Once the emperor sent him to distant western and southern part of his empire. Marco Polo was given
many soldiers and servants for his journey. 
      Marco saw paper made by the Chinese. People in China had also discovered how to paint on paper, they
had many books and even used paper money! They burned little black rocks for heat.
      After three years, he wrote a book about his travels, which most people in Europe did not believe. But
many years later the world knew that this man had discovered a great Eastern country.

1. Marco Polo's father and uncle seemed to reach             .

A. China
B. several lands in the East
C. India
D. some islands in the East

2. The "black rocks" in the fourth paragraph means             .

3. In this passage we seem to know that             .

A. Marco Polo was a great inventor in Italy and he loved China
B. people in Venice all liked to travel to the east those days
C. the West fell behind the East those days
D. Marco Polo found the Far East first in Italy

4. The best title of the passage is             .

A. Marco Polo
B. Marco Polo and China
C. Marco Polo and the Emperor
D. The Polo's Family

         The workers who brought the girl to the orphanage (孤兒院) knew little about her. The street where
they found her had been her home for many years. Her parents were unknown. They left her long ago. At the
orphanage, the girl, like all the children there, was taught to read and write. While she was studying at the
orphanage, she learned something else to be independent (獨立). At twenty-one, she left the orphanage and
began to work as a secretary. And then, in 1975, while she was still working as an ordinary secretary,
something special happened. She entered the Miss Hong Kong Competition and won it. This was the turning
point in her life. Now her name, Mary Cheung, was known to everybody.
         Mary entered the competition because she wanted to show that orphanage girls could be something.
Winning the competition gave her the chance to start a new life. This led her first into television and then into
business as a manager. When she was working as a manager, she had trouble with her reports. "My English
just wasn't good enough," she says. Luckily, she had a boyfriend (who later became her husband) to help her. 
         Mary studied management (管理) at Hong Kong Polytechnic and graduated in 1980. She started her own
business in 1985. But she did not stop developing herself. She then studied at the University of Hong Kong.
Since 1987, she has spent a lot of time on photography (攝影). She has held several exhibitions (展覽) of her
works in many places-China, New Zealand and Paris. She still found time, however, to work on TV, write for
newspapers and bring up her family.
         The girl from the street has come a long way, but her journey has not finished yet.

1. Before Mary Cheung was brought to the orphanage, ______.

[     ]

A. she had lived with her parents whose names were not known
B. she had lived in the street for many years
C. the workers knew her well
D. she had learned to write and read by herself

2. The sentence "orphanage girls could be something" means that orphanage girls could be _____.

[     ]

3. When did her life change completely?

[     ]

A. In 1987.
B. In 1985.
C. In 1980.
D. In 1975.

4. This passage is probably taken from _____.

[     ]

A. a newspaper
B. a science magazine
C. a history textbook
D. a novel

5. According to the passage, which of the following sentences is true?

[     ]

A. All the children at the orphanage liked Mary.
B. Mary was not happy working as a secretary.
C. Mary's boyfriend was good at English.
D. Mary's life in the orphanage was difficult.

      On Easter, April 9th in 1939, more than 75,000 people came to the Lincoln Memorial (林肯紀念館)
in Washington, D.C. They heard the famous African-American singer Marian Anderson g             a free
open-air concert.
      Anderson had planned to sing at Washington's Constitution Hall (華盛頓憲法大廳), but a political
organization that helped manage the concert hall refused her the right to perform because she was
b             . With the help o              the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson's performance at the
Lincoln Memorial m              people greatly aware (意識到) of the p              of racial discrimination
(種族歧視) in America.
     Anderson had tired hard out of a p              childhood in South Philadelphia to become a world
f             singer. Even after her great appearance at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, it was not u              
1955 that she became the first African-American to be i              to perform at New York's Metropolitan
Opera House (紐約大都會歌劇院) Anderson died in Portland, Oregon, o              April 8, 1993.

     The programmes Sun Xiaomei hosts (主持) might be among the shortest (1)o              CCTV. "ON
screen Next Week" is on once a week for 15 minutes, and "TV you, He and I" comes on for five minutes
each (2)t             , once a week too.
     "(3)T              these programmes are short, I (4)h              many ideas to make them (5)l              for
the audience (觀眾)," she said.
      Sun was (6)i              in music in her childhood. She played the violin (7)s              the age of five
(8)u              she finished middle school.
      Her father wanted her to (9)e              a music school at first, but 16-year-old Sun Xiaomei (10)b              a
student in Beijing Broadcasting (廣播) College.