普陀区初三英语第一学期期末质量抽查试卷

Answer the questions (根据短文内容回答下列问题): ( 12分)

Read this dialogue between Karen Lu and Alice Evans on a daily television talk show called "Our World". Alice has recently travelled around India on an elephant.

Karen: Welcome to the programme. First of all, Alice, what gave you the idea to travel around India on an elephant?

Alice: Well, it all started when I went to a photographic exhibition of elephants. Then, a few days later, I started reading a book about an Englishman travelling all the way to India on foot. I suddenly had the idea to travel on an elephant.

Karen: So what did you do next?

Alice: I rang a friend in India and told him 1 wanted to buy an elephant. He told me about the prices of elephants. He said that I would need two people to help me: one person to cut the animal's food, because elephants can eat up to 200kg of food each day, and another person to drive the elephant.

Karen: Is it expensive to buy an elephant?

Alice: We bought a female elephant called Tara for about US$6,000.

Karen: Well, Alice, you'd found your elephant. What did you do next?

Alice: Next, we had to plan our route. As we had to sell Tara at the end of the journey, we decided to travel to Sonepur in northern India where the world's oldest elephant market is located. The market lasts for two weeks every year and elephants can never be sold there before the special date of 23rd November. The whole journey would take about 64 days to complete.

Karen: I see. And did you have any problems on your journey?

Alice: Yes. a few, but nothing too serious. At the beginning, Tara hurt her foot. But that got better after a week. The weather was very bad as well. And we often found uninvited guests in our tents—snakes—which made sleeping rather difficult!

Karen: That sounds awful! And what finally happened when you reached the end of your journey?

Alice: I had grown very fond of Tara, and I didn't want to sell her, even though I knew I had to. Luckily, however, I met some old friends at the market. They were looking for an elephant for their national park. I knew that Tara would be safe in the national park, so I gave her to them. I was very sad to say goodbye.

93. Did Alice get the idea of traveling on an elephant from a film?

94. How many people did Alice need to help her travel on an elephant?

95. Why did they decide to travel to the elephant market in northern India?

96. Alice mentions three problems they had during the journey, doesn't she?

97. Where did Tara go at the end of the journey?

98. What do you think of Alice's experience?

青浦区初三英语第一学期期末质量抽查试卷

Answer the questions (根据短文内容回答下列问题)：(12分)

Steven Jobs was born on February 24,1955. When he was a boy, Jobs and his father always worked on electronics. Jobs had always been a clever thinker, but his school life was not successful. And he only spent six months in university before he gave up.

In 1975 Jobs joined a computer club. A member, Steven Woznizk, was trying to build a small computer. Jobs became interested in such a computer. In 1976, he and Wozniak set up their own company in Jobs' house. They called it the Apple Computer Company. They raised $1,300 to start the company by selling Job's little bus and Wozniak's calculator.

Jobs and Wozniak tried to make computers smaller and cheaper. The two designed a series of user-friendly personal computers, each computer sold for S666.66. Their first model, the Apple I, earned them $774,000. Three years after their second model, the Apple II, sales increased to $139 million dollars. Apple became successful, and Jobs became its CEO.

However, the next several products from Apple were not very good. Consumers (消费者) were disappointed with them. In 1985, Jobs resigned (辞职) as Apple's CEO to begin a new company called NeXT Inc.

In 1996, Apple bought NeXT for over $400 million. Jobs returned to work as Apple's CEO again. He put Apple back on track. His wonderful products caught the attention of customers once again. In the following years, Apple introduced such wonderful products as the Macbook Air, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Almost immediately after Apple released (发布) a new product, consumers rushed to its stores to buy the product.

On August 24, 2011, Jobs retired as CEO of Apple. He had health problem for the last few years. In October 5, 2011, he died. His death marked the end of an era (时代).

93. What did Jobs do with his father when he was a boy?

94. When did Jobs and Wozniak set up their own company?

95. Jobs began a new company called NeXT Inc in 1985, didn't he?

96. Please list three products of Apple's which are mentioned (#§.§.) in the passage.

97. Why did Jobs retire as CEO of Apple in 2011?

98. Do you agree that the death of Jobs marked the end of an era? Why?

松江区初三英语第一学期期末质量抽查试卷

Answer the questions (根据短文内容回答下列问题)：(12分)

Have you heard about teleworking? It means working from a distance, in other words, not working in an office but working at home. You use the computer and the Internet to keep in touch with your boss, but instead of being tired of an office work, you can work in your own comfortable room.

The idea sounds nice, doesn't it? You can do all your research on the World Wide Web, and send in all your work by e-mail. Well, that's exactly what my boss said to me two years ago. "Jenny, how would you like to work at home?" he said.

At first everything was great. My job was editing articles for a university, and so I spent most of my time sitting in front of a monitor and typing busily at the keyboard. Through the Internet I had access to all the information I could possibly want.

It was really good being at home, too. I didn't have to waste any time traveling, and I could stop and make myself a cup of coffee or a sandwich if I wanted to—I was quite free and happy.

But then things started to change. I put on weight, because I wasn't going out as much as I had before. I stopped wearing smart dresses, because a jogging suit (运动衣) and trainers were so much more comfortable. My friends stopped telephoning because I didn't meet them on the bus or in the cafe.

I knew something had to change. I needed to get back out into the world. So I telephoned my boss, "Please let me come back to the office—I'm going mad on my own!"

And then goodness, he did. If you want my personal opinion, teleworking may become popular in the future...but not for me!

93. What does the word "teleworking" in the passage mean?

94. What was Jenny's job?

95. How did Jenny feel when the boss told her to work at home at first?

96. Jenny had more time to enjoy herself when working at home, didn't she?

97. Why did Jenny put on weight?

98. What's your opinion about "teleworking"?