初中英语拓展阅读(7)

初中英语拓展阅读(7)你知道牛仔裤的由来吗?知道电影中特技是怎么回事吗?来这看看吧!AGood evening, ladies and gentlemen. I’m Roy Darby, and this is my show. This is a television show for all the families, and I know you’re going to enjoy it.Let’s start with a story I heard the o ther day about a very proud pig. This pig lived on a farm with a lot of other animals. And of all the animals on the farm, he thought he was the most important. But it was not enough that he himself thought this way. He had to be sure that the other animals thought so, too. So he went up to one of the chickens and asked, “Who is the most important animal on the farm?” Straight away, the chicken answered, “You are, master.” Then he asked one of the farm dogs, and he got the same reply.Next, he asked a cow. When the cow seemed uncertain of the right answer, the pig looked angry and showed his teeth. “Oh, you are, of course, master pig,” said the cow. “Of course,” the pig said. “There is no doubt about it.”At last, the pig asked a big horse, “Who is the most important animal on the farm?” The horse lifted one foot, rolled the pig over, and placed his foot on the pig’s head. “All right,” said the pig, “you don’t have to do that just becaus e you don’t know the answer.”Choose the best answer for each question.( )1. Roy Darby’s show is ___________________.A. a funny story about a pigB. for ladies and gentlemen onlyC. about life on the farmD. a family show on the television( )2. When the pig put his question to the chicken, the chicken ________________.A. gave him the answer that he wantedB. went up to him and answered himC. said that she was more importantD. said that the pig was as important as the chicken( )3. The dog ____________.A. answered in the same way as the chickenB. did not understand the questionC. asked the same question as the pig’sD. received the same reply as the chicken’s( )4. The pig was angry with the cow because _____________________.A. the cow showed her teethB. the cow did not give the answer he wanted straight awayC. the cow gave him the wrong answerD. he had to tell the cow the right answer( )5. It is clear that the big horse thinks __________is the most important animal on the farm.A. the pigB. the cowC. he himselfD. the dogHelp: uncertain adj. 不确定的BLevi Strauss, a young man from Germany, arrived in California in 1850. It was the time of the Gold Rush.Thousands of people were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi Strauss came to sell canvas to these gold miners. Canvas was a heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the miners might need it to mend tents.One day Strauss heard a miner said he couldn’t find clothes strong enough for the work he was doing. Strauss got an idea. He quickly took some of his canvas and made it into trousers. These trousers were just what the miners needed. In one day he sold all the trousers he had made.Strauss wanted to make better trousers. So he bought the fabric that was softer than canvas but just as strong. This fabric came from Nimes, a city in France, so the miners called it “denim” and bought more trousers from Strauss.However, denim had no color. Because of this the denim trousers did not look very nice, and they got dirty easily. To solve this problem, Strauss dyed the denim blue.Strauss started a company. Today the company is known around the world and its trousers are popular with many people from teens to the old. And the trousers are thought not only strong but also pretty. This is how jeans came out. Mark these statements with “T” (true) or “F” (false).( )6. In 1850, many people went to California to buy trousers made of denim.( )7. Levi Strauss was born in Germany, but did business in America.( )8. Denim first came f rom Levi Strauss’s hometown.( )9. A lot of people like to wear jeans in the world.( )10. The earliest jeans were blue.Help: Gold Rush 淘金热miner n. 矿工fabric n. 布CYou are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit each other with chairs. And it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!Of course, he isn’t really dead. With luck he isn’t even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains are professionals. They do these for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. However, they do not fall onto hard ground, but onto empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress. And, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood, and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, he has to jump out of the range of the explosion just at the right moment.Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute failed to open, and he was killed.Choose the best answer for each question.( )11. From the passage, we know that stuntmen are those who _____________.A. often dress up as actorsB. prefer to lead dangerous livesC. often perform seemingly dangerous actionsD. often fight with each other( )12. Stuntmen earn their living by __________________.A. playing their dirty tricksB. selling their special skillsC. jumping out of high windowsD. jumping from fast moving trains( )13. ___________ is the main factor of a successful performance.A. StrengthB. ExactnessC. SpeedD. Trick( )14. What can be inferred from the example of the Norwegian stuntman?A. Sometimes an accident may occur to a stuntman.B. The percentage of serious accidents is high.C. The cliff is too high.D. Parachutes must be of good quality.Help: crash v. 碰撞stuntman n. 替身演员trick n. 骗局cardboard n. 纸板mattress n. 床垫parachute n. 降落伞Key: 1-5 DAABC 6-10 FTFTF 11-14 CBBA。