Passage Two
How can a single postage stamp be worth $ 16,800?
Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one in expensive' postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value.
The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony of Mauritius, a small is land in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer, and Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.
Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball (舞会) was planned at Mauritius' Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the de sign for the stamps. He accidentally inscribed the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid" on the sever al hundred stamps that he printed.
Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left--fourteen "One Penny Orange-Reds" and twelve "Two Penny Blues". Because of the Two Penny Blue's rareness (罕见) and age, collectors have paid as much as $ 16,800 for it.
36. A postage stamp's value to collectors is raised if ______.
A. there are few others like it
B. there are no errors on the stamps
C. a mistake is made in the ,printing
D. both A and C
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Passage Two
The lion may be the most famous of all the predators of Africa, but one of the most fascinating is the wild dog. Wild dogs are fairly small, averaging seventy pounds, with round, fanlike ears that look too big for their heads. They have shaggy brown coats with scattered patches of white. One of these animals by itself looks harmless or even comical. But when they band together, in packs of up to forty, the wild dogs become dangerous predators that tirelessly run down and kill animals that are many times their own size.
Wild dogs have to be good hunters in order to feed their large families; a single female can have as many as sixteen pups at a time. But usually only one female in a pack breeds at a time, and all the pack members help to care for the young. At first, the pups feed on their mother's milk. Then the other dogs begin to bring back meat from the kill, carrying it in their stomachs and throwing it up when the pups come running to them to beg for food. Finally, the young dogs begin to go along on hunts. At this time one of the most striking differences between wild dogs and lions can be seen. When a pride of lions makes a kill, the adult males always eat their fill first. But the wild dogs let the pups feed first, even when they are still too young to really help in making the kill.
36. A good title for this passage would be ______.
Africa's Wild Dogs
B. Killers of the Plains
C. Predators of Africa
D. The Greedy Lion
Passage Four
Dressing fashionably was very important in fourteenth-century Spain. This was especially true for any man who considered himself an aristocrat or dandy. Before going out, a well-dressed man would put on his finest boots, one of his embroidered caps and his favorite beard, dyed to match the color of his clothing.
Believe it or not, false beards were once as popular as neckties are today. Beards had for years considered a sign of strength and manhood, and the bigger and thicker they were, the better. Those unfortunates who had little facial hair were forced by custom into wearing false beards made of horsehair. Soon, however man in the Spanish fashion world was wearing them too, while many quite substantial real beards were shaved off to make way for the false variety.
By day, the fashionable dandy might wear a yellow or a crimson beard to impress his friends, but in the evening a long black beard was proper for serenading his senorita, Any color or shape of beard could be had.
However, as you can imagine, the growth of this unusual custom created many interesting problems. People with similar beards were mistaken for one another. Creditors could not find debtors, and police often arrested the wrong people, while the real villain escaped wearing their hairy disguises. The price of horsehair skyrocketed. Finally, King Philip IV of Aragon put a stop to all the foolishness by outlawing the wearing of false beards.
46. What is the passage mostly concerned with?
A. The size of beards.
B. The color of beards.
C. Varieties of false beards.
D. The custom of wearing false beards.
Passage Three
Did you know that a turtle can lay twelve eggs in one minute? A large sea turtle lays around 150 eggs at a time. She lays all these eggs in just a few minutes.
Large sea turtles live in the warm seas of the world. Except for when they lay their eggs, they spend their whole lives in water. When it is time to lay their eggs, the females swim to land. They usually return to the place where they themselves were born. How they find their way back there is a mystery.
When they reach shore, the big, heavy turtles crawl slowly up to the high water mark. Using their flippers, they pull themselves along the sand. They struggle like mountain climbers to attain their goal. When they finally reach dry sand, they rest before beginning the difficult task of laying eggs.
The turtles lay the eggs in deep holes and cover them with warm sand. The sand protects the eggs from harm. Then the females leave them. After a few weeks, if you happened to be walking along the beach, you might see the sand begin to shake in one spot. Then you would see tidy black balls coming out of the sand. The tidy heads of baby turtles!
Baby turtles have a build-in sense of direction. As soon as they are hatched, they head for the water. Once the babies swim out to sea, they don't touch shore again until it is time for them to lay their own eggs.
41. The first sentence lets us know that this passage is about ______.
A. turtles
B. oceans
C. time
D. eggs
Harry: (58) the people from Romania?
Susan: No, stupid. The Romans as in 'Julius Cesar'. You know, people from ancient Rome.