第2篇

The Cherokee Nation

Long before the white man came to America, the land belonged to the American Indian nations. The nation of the Cherokees lived in what is now the southeastern part of the United States.
After the white man came, the Cherokees copied many of their ways. One Cherokee named Sequoyah saw how important reading and writing was to the white man. He decided to invent a way to write down the spoken Cherokee language. He began by making word pictures. For each word he drew a picture. But that proved impossible -- there were just too many words. Then he took the 85 sounds that made up the language. Using his own imagination and an English spelling book, Sequoyah invented a sign for each sound. His alphabet proved amazingly easy to learn. Before long, many Cherokees knew how to read and write in their own language. By 1828, they were even printing their own newspaper.
In 1830, the U.S. Congress passed a law. It allowed the government to remove Indians from their lands. The Cherokees refused to go. They had lived on their lands for centuries. It belonged to them. Why should they go to a strange land far beyond the Mississippi River?
The army was sent to drive the Cherokees out. Soldiers surrounded their villages and marched them at gunpoint into the western territory. The sick, the old and the small children went in carts, along with their belongings. The rest of the people marched on foot or rode on horseback. It was November, yet many of them still wore their summer clothes. Cold and hungry, the Cherokees were quickly exhausted by the hardships of the journey. Many dropped dead and were buried by the roadside. When the last group arrived in their new home in March 1839, more than 4,000had died. It was indeed a march of death.

1. The Cherokee Nation used to live
A) on the American continent.
B) in the southeastern part of the US.
c) beyond the Mississippi River.
D) in the western territory.

2. One of the ways that Sequoyah copied from the white man is the way of
A) writing down the spoken language.
B) making word pictures.
C) teaching his people reading.
D) printing their own newspaper.

3. A law was passed in 1830 to
A) allow the Cherokees to stay where they were.
B) send the army to help the Cherokees.
C) force the Cherokees to move westward.
D) forbid the Cherokees to read their newspaper.

4. When the Cherokees began to leave their lands,
A) they went in carts.
B) they went on horseback.
C) they marched on foot.
D) all of the above.

5. Many Cherokees died on their way to their new home mainly because
A) they were not willing to go there.
B) the government did not provide transportation.
C) they did not have enough food and clothes.
D) the journey was long and boring.

第3篇

Snow Ranger

The two things – snow and mountains – which are needed for a ski area are the two things that cause avalanches, large mass of snow and ice crushing down the side of a mountain—often called "White Death."
It was the threat of the avalanche and its record as a killer of man in the western mountains that created the snow ranger. He first started on avalanche control work in the winter of 1937 –38 at Alta, Utah, in Wasatch National Forest.
This mountain valley was becoming well known to skiers. It was dangerous. In fact, more than 120 persons had lost their lives in 1936 and another 200 died in 1937 as a result of avalanches before it became a major ski area.
Thus, development of Alta and other major ski resorts in the west was dependent upon controlling the avalanche. The Forest Service set out to do it, and did, with its corps of snow rangers.
It takes many things to make a snow ranger. The snow ranger must be in excellent physical condition. He must be a good skier and a skilled mountain climber He should have at least a high school education, and the more college courses in geology, physics, and related fields he has, the better.
He studies snow, terrain, wind, and weather. He learns the conditions that produce avalanches. He learns to forecast avalanches and to bring them roaring on down the mountainsides to reduce their killing strength. . The snow ranger learns to do this by using artillery, by blasting with TNT, and by the difficult and skillful art of skiing avalanches down.
The snow ranger, dressed in a green parka which has a bright yellow shoulder patch, means safety for people on ski slopes. He pulls the trigger on a 75 mm. Recoilless rifle, skis waist deep in powder testing snow stability, or talks with the ski area’s operator as he goes about his work to protect the public from the hazards of deep snow on steep mountain slopes.

1. The snow rangers are employees of
A) the Forest Service.
B) the Resource Bureau.
C) the Tourist Board.
D) the Sports Bureau.

2.A snow ranger himself must be
A) a college graduate.
B) a physicist.
C) a geologist.
D) a mountaineer.

3. A snow ranger uses very powerful guns
A) to warn skiers of an approaching avalanche.
B) to signal for help in an emergency.
C) to create an avalanche.
D) to communicate with the ski area’ operator.

4. What is the primary duty of the snow ranger?
A) To make sure ski area operators are following safety rules.
B) To predict and control avalanches in mountainous areas.
C) To check skis and repair them.
D) To forecast the weather.

5.The passage implies that a snow ranger
A) knows how to use a pistol.
B) must write lengthy reports on his work.
C) may travel many miles when he is on duty.
D) has a long working day.