On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery. The Civil War was still going on. There was much criticism of Presi-dent Lincoln at the time. He was not at all popular. He had been invited to speak at Gettysburg on-ly out of politeness. The principal speaker was to be Edward Everett, a famous statesman and speaker of the day. Everett was a handsome man and very popular everywhere.

　　It is said that Lincoln prepared his speech on the train while going to Gettysburg. Late that night, alone in his hotel room and tired out, he again worked briefly on the speech. The next day Everett spoke first. He spoke for an hour and 57 minutes. His speech was a perfect example of the rich oratory of the day. Then Lincoln rose. The crowd of 15,000 people at first paid little attention to him. He spoke for only nine minutes. At the end there was little applause. Lincoln turned to a friend and remarked,"I have failed again". On the train back to Washington, he said sadly, "That speech was a fiat failure, and the people are disappointed".

　　Some newspapers at first criticized the speech, but little by little as people redid the speech they began to understand better. (76) They began to appreciate its simplicity and its deep meaning. I.t was a speech which only Abraham Lincoln could have made.

　　Today, every American school child learns Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address by heart. Now everyone thinks of it as one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history.

　　第11题 In 1863, Abraham Lincoln was __________

　　A.very critical B.unpopular

　　C.very popular　　D.very courteous

　　答案：B

　　第12题　Lincoln was invited to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery because he was __________

　　A.a famous speaker B.a very handsome man

　　C.President of the country　　D.a popular statesman

　　答案：C

　　第13题　It can be inferred from the text that __________

　　A.Lincoln prepared his speech very carefully before he went to Gettysburg

　　B.Lincoln was very busy at the time and didn' t have much time to prepare his speech

　　C.Lincoln' s speech was full of rich words

　　D.Lincoln' s soeech was very long

　　答案：B

　　第14题　It was a fact that Lincoln' s speech was __________

　　A.an immediately success B.warmly applauded

　　C.a total failure　　D.not well-received at first

　　答案：D

　　第15题　Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

　　A.Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address has deep meaning.

　　B.Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address is simple in style.

　　C.Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address is memorized by every American school child.

　　D.Lincoln' s Gettysburg Address is the greatest speech ever delivered in the United States.

　　答案：D

　　Chokwe Selassie is on a mission to help drivers avoid potholes(路面坑洼)。The eighth-grader was inspired to kick off his mission on a recent morning， when his mother was driving him to school. Their car was damaged as it went over a huge pothole in the middle of the street in their hometown of Jackson， Mississippi. “I decided I was going to do something about the pothole problem in my city，” Chokwe says. His solution： an app that warns drivers when there is a pothole ahead.

　　Chokwe developed the app with his friends Rodriguez Ratliff and Emmanuel Brooks. “When the app detects a pothole， it is highlighted(突出显示)in red，” Chokwe says. “And if you get close to the pothole， your phone will warn you.” Drivers can also use the app to report any potholes they encounter， and to look for other routes they can take to avoid roads that have them.

　　The app relies on current available information about the streets of Jackson. “It works by using the city‘s 311 call system， soit uses information already stored in a database，” Chokwe says. Throughthe call system， citizens dial 3-1-1 to report non-emergency problems—which include potholes. Chokwe and his friends determined that focusing on the 10 busiest streets in Jackson would give them a large enough sample size to test the prototype(原型)。

　　Although the app isn‘t yet available for sale，Chokwe is already looking for ways to improve it. The prototype remains limited to 10 streets in Jackson， but he hopes to add more， so that it includes every street in the city. And then he wants to go even farther. “I want to keep working on the app until it’s nationwide，” Chokwe says.

　　第16题　Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

　　A. A Solution to Traffic Jams

　　B. An App to Detect Potholes

　　C. Pothole Problems in Big Cities

　　D. Poor Road Conditions

　　答案：B

　　第17题　The phrase kick off inParagraph 1 is closest in meaning to___.

　　A. leave B. invent C. begin D. shift

　　答案：C

　　第18题　People use the 311 call system to report____.

　　A. emergencies B. terrorist attacks

　　C. non-emergencies D. child abuse

　　答案：C

　　第19题　The prototype focuses on____streets in Jackson.

　　A. 10 B. 15 C. 20 D. 25

　　答案：A

　　第20题　According to the passage，which of the following statements is TRUE?

　　A. Chokwe developed the app all by himself.

　　B. People can buy this app from the online store.

　　C. His mother‘s car was once damaged over a pothole.

　　D. The app works by using thecity‘s 911 call system.

　　答案：C