"S. H.E. is going to sing at the CCTV annual Spring Festival Evening Party, is that true?" cried out Peng Weiye, a Senior 2 girl in Shanghai and die-hard S. H.E. fan.

After checking it on the Internet, Peng quickly phoned friends to spread the news. For fans like her, S. H. E. ’s performance is perhaps the only part of the old fashioned evening to get excited about.

The Taiwanese band is made up of Selina, Hebe and Ella. Their name comes from the first letter of each of the singers' English names.

Last week S. H. E. announced they would perform in Las Vegas, US, over Christmas and then in Guangzhou on January 15.

At their Shanghai show on October 30, hundreds of parents waited outside the Hongkou Stadium. Inside, thousands of teenagers sang, cried and shouted as the band performed.

"I love their music, healthy image and everything related to them. Thank God that, although my parents don't understand why I love them so much, they still bought me a ticket for that show," said Peng about the Shanghai performance.

It is not just on the mainland that the three girls have made audiences much excited. In the past year the band has passed through Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Singapore and Malaysia.

When the three high school girls entered a singing contest in Taiwan in 2000, none of them ever dreamed of being a superstar. "We had never met before, and we didn't talk at all at the beginning," recalled Ella.

When asked about the secret of their success, she said, "Our average looks and not-so-expensive clothes keep us close to our fans. We are happy to be the girls next door, your singing sisters."

"It's really a magical journey, from day-dreaming high school girls to singers performing on the same stage as our idols(偶像). Nothing but magical," she said.

1. Why was Peng Weiye, a Senior 2 girl, so excited?

2.How did the Taiwanese band get the name?

3.What do you know about Peng Weiye?

4.Which is true about S. H. E. ?

5. Which do you think is NOT the reason for S. H. E’s popularity among their fans?

"S. H.E. is going to sing at the CCTV annual Spring Festival Evening Party.Is that true?" cried out Peng Weiye, a Senior 2 girl in Shanghai and die-hard S. H.E. fan.
After checking it on the Internet, Peng quickly phoned friends to spread the news. For fans like her, S. H. E. ’s performance is perhaps the only part of the old fashioned evening to get excited about.
The Taiwanese band （樂隊(duì)）is made up of Selina, Hebe and Ella. Their name comes from the first letter of each of the singers' English names.
Last week S. H. E. announced they would perform in Las Vegas, US, over Christmas and then in Guangzhou on January 15.
At their Shanghai show on October 30, hundreds of parents waited outside the Hongkou Stadium. Inside, thousands of teenagers sang, cried and shouted as the band performed.
"I love their music, healthy image and everything related to them. Thank God that, although my parents don't understand why I love them so much, they still bought me a ticket for that show," said Peng about the Shanghai performance（演出）.
It is not just on the mainland（大陸） that the three girls have made audiences much excited. In the past year the band has passed through Taiwan, Hong Kong and even Singapore and Malaysia.
When the three high school girls entered a singing contest in Taiwan in 2000, none of them ever dreamed of being a superstar. "We had never met before, and we didn't talk at all at the beginning," recalled Ella.
When asked about the secret of their success, she said, "Our average looks（長(zhǎng)相） and not-so-expensive clothes keep us close to our fans. We are happy to be the girls next door（鄰家女孩）, your singing sisters."
"It's really a magical journey, from day-dreaming high school girls to singers performing on the same stage as our idols(偶像). Nothing but magical," she said.
46. Why was Peng Weiye, a Senior 2 girl, so excited?
A. S.H.E. band will get the old fashioned evening exciting.
B. S. H.E. will perform in Las Vegas over Christmas.
C. Her parents bought her a ticket for S. H. E. Is Shanghai show.
D. S. H.E. will perform on the CCTV Spring Festival Evening Party.
47. How did the Taiwanese band get the name?
A. Their fans gave the name to them.
B. Their idols had a deep influence on them.
C. A singing contest gave their idea of the band name
D. The first letters of Selina, Hebe and Ella form the band name.
48. What do you know about Peng Weiye?
A. She stayed outside the Hongkou Stadium to listen to S. H. E. 's performance.
B. She will watch the performance in Guangzhou on January 15.
C. She pays close attention to everything about S. H. E.
D. She was grateful that her parents understood and supported her.
49. Which is true about S. H. E. ?
A. The secret to their success is their pretty faces and lovely clothes.
B. They were close friends when they entered a singing contest.
C. They caused a storm of excitement in Southeast Asia.
D. They have well prepared to perform with their idols.
50. Which do you think is NOT the reason for S. H. E’s popularity among their fans?
A. Their music and their healthy image.
B. They can make audience much excited.
C. Their success meets their fans’ day dream of becoming others’ idols.
D. Their average looks and not-so-expensive clothes keep them close to their fans.

The Western has been the favorite type for American adventure story since the nineteenth centu??ry. While the American West was being settled, newspapers and "dime novels" could depend on stories of the frontier settlements and tell tales about living in the untamed wilderness to sell. The public back East was eager to read about the West, even if the stories were more fiction than fact.

In 1902, Owen Wister published his novel The Virginian, which was one of the first novels to treat the Western as a serious literary form; the novel still sold well and had inspired several movies and a television series. In 1905, Bertha H. Bower and Zane Grey published their first novels, and the popular Western novels had continued to flourish from that day on, with current novels by Luke Short, Max Brand, and Louis L’ Amour carrying on the tradition.

The first Western movie appeared even earlier than these serious Western novels. Before the turn of the century, an associate of Edison’s had filmed Cripple Creek Barroom Scene, a few seconds of film showing the inside of a saloon, to help publicize the invention of the movie camera. In 1903 the Edison’ company filmed the first "full-length" Western — The Great Train Robbery. The film lasts less than fifteen minutes, but a story is told its entirety. In the movie, bandits (強(qiáng)盜) rob a train and its passengers, killing the engineer, and find themselves tracked down by a posse. Audiences loved the movie. Some theaters were actually opened for the single purpose of showing The Great Train Rob??bery and only later realized that they could do equally well showing other movies. The film was so suc??cessful that other companies, and finally even the Edison company itself, began producing copies and other versions of The Great Train Robbery. Ironically, in" an era when the West was still very real —-Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma were all territories rather than states in 1903 — The Great Train Robbery was filmed in New Jersey.  

9. The purpose of this passage is to________.

A. discuss the making of the movie The Great Train Robbery

B. discuss the early Western novels

C. discuss the art of movie making

D. trace the development of the Western as an American adventure story tradition

10. We can conclude from this passage that________.

A. people lost interest in the West after 1903

B. Owen Wister was an ex-cowboy

C. New Jersey was still "untamed wilderness" in 1903

D. films were fairly uncommon at the time The Great Train Robbery was made

11. The passage suggests that________.

A. Edison’s invention of the movie camera happened;by accident

B. movie houses didn’t make much-money in the early days

C. Easterners were fascinated by the " wild West"

D. The Great Train Robbery was poorly received by the public because it lacked a plot

12. As used in this passage, the word “l(fā)iterary” means________.

A. humorous                B. financial             C. appropriate to literature      D. amateur 

Every child has written their names on the beach at some point.
But whereas most people’s “handwriting” is washed away, one super-rich Arab sheikh(酋長(zhǎng)) has ensure that his graffiti(胡寫亂畫) will last a little longer.
Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, 63, has scrawled his name in sand on an island he owns with letters so big that they be seen from space.
The word “HAMAD” measures 1,000 meters high and is a staggering two miles long from the “H” to the “D” on the Al Futaisi Island.
And rather than allow the writing to be washed away by the ocean, the letters actually form waterways that absorb the encroaching(滲入) tide. The ruler’s name is even visible on Google’s map service.
Hamad dreamed up the idea and had his workmen work hard for weeks to craft the enormous piece of sand graffiti. It is not known how much it cost to make.
However, the sheikh boasts a personal fortune second to the Saudi king’s.
Hamad, also known as the “Rainbow Sheikh”, is a member of the Abu Dhabi Ruling Family.
He is understood to have some 200 cars including seven Mercedes 500 SELs painted in different colors of the rainbow which he stores in a giant pyramid.
The Arab sheikh had a taste for doing things on a large scale. He built the world’s largest truck—eight times the size of the Dodge Power Wagon, with four bedrooms inside the cabin.
Hamad constructed a motor home in the shape of a giant globe which is exactly 1 millionth the size of the actual earth.
Alongside his displays of wealth he has become a well-known philanthropist(慈善家) in medicine and supplied a complete Kinney stone operating theatre to a public hospital in Morocco where he continues to fund its stuff.
【小題1】Which of the following in NOT true according to the passage?