2005年全国中学生英语能力竞赛(NEPCS)决赛初三年级组试题

C

Val Plumwood was exploring a river in Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. As her canoe went round a bend, she saw a stick in the water. When she got closer she saw that the stick had eyes―golden eyes. It was a crocodile!

Val tried to turn the canoe away but the crocodile hit it hard. Over and over again it hit the canoe. The bank of the river was very steep, so Val tried to jump into a tree. When she jumped, the crocodile grabbed her with its jaws and pulled her under the water.

Crocodiles kill an animal by rolling it around under the water until it becomes weak. This is called the“death roll”. They then hold the animal under the water until it drowns (淹死). The crocodile rolled Val around and around. Her head came out of the water and she took a deep breath, but the crocodile pulled her under again. After a second death roll, Val felt the crocodile’s jaws pull her under again. After the third death roll, Val pulled herself free and threw herself up the steep bank. At first she kept falling back toward the crocodile, but finally she was able to pull herself to the top of the bank.

Four hours later she was found and taken to hospital. She was badly hurt, but alive!

61. When Val first saw the crocodile, what did she think it was?

62. What happens to an animal when a crocodile holds it under the water?

63. How many times did the crocodile roll Val around in a “death roll”?

64. How did Val escape from the crocodile?

D

Read the dialogue and complete blank a, b, c and d.

A Can we watch this video cassette on the camera?

B Yes, of course. First, you have to put the cassette into the camera.

A Right, that’s easy.

B Now, open the LCD screen on the other side of the camera.

A OK. Now what?

B Turn the power switch (开关) from OFF to VCR.

It’s at the back, on the right.

A Where? Is it this switch?

B Yes, that’s it.

A OK. The LCD screen’s on. Now what?

B Press the rewind button.

A Is it this button at the top here?

B Yes, that’s it. Wait until it rewinds to the beginning of the tape.

A ... OK! What do I do now?

B Press the PLAY button. It’s next to the rewind button.

A Hey! Great! I can see the picture, but there’s no sound.

B Turn up the volume (音量) then. The knob (旋钮) is on the side of the LCD screen.

65. a ________ b ________

66. c ________ d ________

E

In the summer of 1917, two English schoolgirls, sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright and her cousin Frances Griffiths, spent many hours playing near a stream (溪流) in a place called Cottingley Glen. Frances, who was only nine, would often come home with her shoes and clothes wet. This annoyed her mother and her aunt, Elsie’s mother. They asked Frances why she kept going into the stream. Frances was silent for a moment, and then replied that she went to see the fairies (仙女). The two women didn’t believe her. Then Elsie said that she had seen the fairies too and that they would take photographs to prove it. So they borrowed Elsie’s father’s camera and went back to Cottingley Glen.

The girls produced a number of photographs of themselves with fairies. Mr Wright did not believe the fairies were real, but the girls’ mothers were not so sure. They didn’t think their daughters would trick them and, like many people at that time, they wanted to believe that fairies existed. They showed the photographs to other people, who studied them and argued about them. Many believed that the Cottingley Glen fairies were real, even the famous author Arthur Conan Doyle.

It wasn’t until 1983 that Elsie admitted to a journalist that the photographs were fakes (伪造品). The girls had drawn the fairies, cut them out and used pins to stand them up. Elsie said she couldn’t believe that their “little joke” had tricked so many people for so many years.

67. Where was the stream where Elsie and Frances used to play?

68. Why did Frances’s mother get annoyed?

69. Who was Arthur Conan Doyle?

70. How did the girls make the fakes?

III. 完形填空(Cloze)(共20小题,计20分)

A) 根据文章内容及首字母提示用最恰当的词完成下文。(答案写在答题纸上)

More and more young people are recognising (认识到) the advantages (有利条件) of living in (71) a ________ country and are deciding to study abroad. They realise it’s the best way to learn (72) a________ the customs and the way of life of other people. Student exchanges give teenagers the opportunity (机会) to live somewhere (73) e ________ for a school year.

(74) W ________ they are living abroad, they will eat new food, experience new traditions and (75) l ________ how people of their own age live from day to day.

Students (76) s ________ with carefully chosen host families (接待家庭) and attend a local (当地的) school. (77) E ________ student on the exchange programme has somebody who directly supports them the (78) w ________ time they are abroad. To qualify (79) a ________ an exchange student, you (80) m ________ be between 15 and 18 years old and be good at a foreign language.

B) 阅读短文,并用括号内所给动词的适当形式填空。(答案写在答题纸上)

Last month we (81)________(decide) to drive to Scotland for a few days for a short holiday. We(82)________(be) really looking forward to a quiet rest in the country. Unfortunately, lots of things (83)________(go) wrong. First of all, the car broke down just after we (84)________(leave) home, and we (85)________ (have) to phone a garage and then wait by the side of the road for hours. By the time the car (86)________(repair), it was too late to go on, so we went home. The next day we set off early (87) ________(avoid) the traffic, but we had forgotten that it(88) ________(be) a public holiday. Every single person in the country must have had the same idea, so we (89)________(find) ourselves in a long traffic jam. We decided that the best thing to do was (90)________(take) a different road, and look for a hotel.

IV. 句式转换 (Sentence pattern transformation)(共10小题,计10分)