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 impatiently¹ 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.

　　Standing² 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 yen³ 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 toward⁴ people
[ C ] unfamiliar⁵ 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 works⁶ 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 perfectly⁷ 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 vast⁸, 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 completely⁹ comfortable.