The railroad industry could not have grown as large as it did without steel. The first rails were made of iron. But iron rails were not strong enough to support heavy trains running at a high speed. Railroad officials wanted to replace them with steel rails because steel was ten or fifteen times stronger and lasted twenty times longer. Before the 1870s, however, steel was too expensive to be widely used. It was made by a slow and expensive process of heating, stirring, and reheating iron ore (礦石).

Then the inventor Henry Bessemer discovered that directing a blast of air at melted iron in a furnace (熔爐) would burn out the impurities (雜質(zhì)) that made the iron brittle (易脆). As the air shot through the furnace, the bubbling metal would erupt (噴發(fā)) in showers of sparks. When the fire cooled, the metal had been changed, or converted, to steel. The Bessemer converter made possible the mass production of steel, now three to five tons of iron could be changed into steel in a matter of minutes.

Just when the demand for more and more steel developed, prospectors discovered huge new deposits (礦床) of iron ore in the Mesabi Range, a 120-mile-long region in Minnesota near Lake Superior. The Mesabi deposits were so near the surface that they could be mined with steam shovels.

Barges and steamers carried the iron ore through Lake Superior to deposits on the southern shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. With dizzying speed Gary, Indiana and Toledo, Youngstown, and Cleveland, Ohio, became major steel manufacturing centers. Pittsburgh was the greatest steel city of all.

1．The best title for the passage is ____.

       A．The railroad Industry                           B．Famous Inventors

       C．Changing Iron into Steel                       D．Steel Manufacturing Centers

2．According to the passage, how did the Bessemer method make the mass production of steel possible?

       A．It directed air at melted iron in furnace, removing all impurities.

       B．It slowly heated iron ore, then stirred it and heated it again.

       C．It changed iron ore into iron, which was a substitute (替代物) for steel.

       D．It could be quickly found deposits of iron ore under the ground.

3．It can be inferred from the passage that the mass production of steel caused ____.

       A．a(chǎn) decline in the railroad industry      

       B．a(chǎn) revolution in the industrial world

       C．a(chǎn)n increase in the price of steel        

       D．a(chǎn) feeling of discontent among steel workers

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2012-2013學(xué)年陜西渭南希望高級(jí)中學(xué)高一下期期末考試英語(yǔ)卷（帶解析） 題型：填空題

根據(jù)下列各句句意和空白后的漢語(yǔ)提示詞，在答題卡指定的橫線上寫出對(duì)應(yīng)單詞的正確形式，每空只寫一詞。
【小題1】It’s kind of you to help the ________(無(wú)家可歸的) trap.
【小題2】To my __________（遺憾），I haven’t followed your advice. 
【小題3】He is _____ ( 曬黑 ) from a day on the beach.
【小題4】The _______(產(chǎn)量) of this factory in 2007 doubled what it was in 2006.
【小題5】The time is _________(靠近，臨近) when we must leave.
【小題6】The light wind gently brushed his _________(臉頰).
【小題7】She gave her son a _________(擁抱) and put him to bed.
【小題8】He made an ____（道歉）to me for stepping on my foot.　
【小題9】I don’t like the ________(主題) of the TV play. It’s too sad.
【小題10】The railroad station is in the ___ ( 中央  ) part of the city.

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2010年廣東省佛山市普通高中高一上學(xué)期教學(xué)質(zhì)量檢測(cè)英語(yǔ)卷 題型：完型填空


In every country there are times to celebrate, weddings, birthdays, religious festivals. Although the U.S.A is a multi-cultural society, where different groups celebrate their own traditional   21  , Christmas is the most popular holiday in the U.S.A. Some of the   22   of Christmas time are old and others are newer.
Already in the late 18th and the 19th centuries, people felt sentimental (眷戀的) about Christmases of the past. The American   23  , Washington Irving, wrote in 1819 about the old-fashioned Christmas he experienced in England. He was taken in a stagecoach (驛站馬車) full of happy people, food and presents, to an old house in the   24  . There, he found a crowd of happy farmers, lots of food and drinks, snow, games and ghosts.
The first Christmas card, which was printed in England, showed people eating and drinking   25  . It was sent in 1846, but Christmas cards did not become really   26   until the 1860s, when color printing became possible.
By this time, stagecoaches had   27   running, replaced by the railroad. More and more families   28   the country and were living in towns and cities, but the dream of the   29   Christmas remained. The loaded stagecoach driving along the country road through the snow still   30   on many Christmas cards today.

【小題1】
A．leftB．preferredC．a(chǎn)dmiredD．reached
【小題2】
A．a(chǎn)mazingB．newC．merryD．old-fashioned
【小題3】
A．turnsB．a(chǎn)ppearsC．putsD．gets

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：山西省大同五中2010屆高三下學(xué)期第二次模擬考試試卷（英語(yǔ)） 題型：完型填空


第二節(jié)  完形填空（共20小題；每小題2分，滿分40分）
閱讀下列短文，掌握其大意，然后從36—55各題的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)（A、B、C和D）中選出能填入相應(yīng)空白處的最佳選項(xiàng)。并將答案寫在答題卡上。
John Henry was a young man, and he was one of the best steel-drivers in the country,He cjould work for hours without missing a beat, People said he worked so fast that his  36    moved
Like lightening
One day,a salesman came to the work area with a new   37    machine by powered steam, He said it could drill holes    38   than twelve men working together, The railroad company  39 to buy the machine if it worked as well as the salesman said.
The supervisor(監(jiān)工頭) said,”I have the best steel-driver in the   40     , He can beat more than twenty men working together,”The salesman   41    the statements. He said the company could have the machine without cost   42    he was faster, The supervisor told John about it and said “How about a   43    ?” John Henry looked at the machine and saw   44    of the future, He saw machines taking   45    of America’s best laborers, He saw himself and friends   46   and standing by a road ,asking for food, He saw men losing their families and their    47    as human beings , John Henry told the supervisor he would never let the machine take his job, His friends all cheered.
The competition began, John Henry  48   his hammer and started working. At first, the steam-powered drill worked two times faster than he did,    49     he started working with a hammer in each hand. He worked faster and faster. In the mountain , the dust was so    50   that most men would have had trouble   51    . After a while , the machine was pulled from the tunnel , It had broken down, . But John Henry   52    working faster and faster. At last he became weak ,and his heart    53    . John Henry fell to the ground .”I beat them,” Then he took his 54    breath.
Soon, the steam drill and other machines replaced the steel-drivers ,.Many   55   left their families, looking for work, They took the only jobs they could find, As they worked, some sang about John Henry,
36.A  broom,           B  hammer          C hand         D sleeve
37.A washing            B drilling             C sewing        D flying
38. A quickly            B slower              C faster         D fast
39. A managed         B allowed             C refused       D planned
40 A family             B class               C film           D country
41. A doubted          B hated               C disagreed      D decided
42. A when             B if                   C unless          D despite
43. A lesson             B race                C unless         D despite
44.A images            B faces                C plans          D signs
45. A the place         B the room             C the space       D the air
46. A excited         B unemployed          C moved         D encouraged
47. A food             B rights              C wages       D houses
48.A touched           B kicked              C kissed        D stamped
49. A Otherwise         B But               C Then          D However
50. A thin               B big               C high          D thick
51. A laughing          B talking             C breathing      D singing
52.A stopped           B kept                C enjoyed       D suggested
53. A burst              B worked            C ran           D lived
54.A  own              B deep              C best          D last
55. A laborers          B women             C villagers       D salesmen

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2010-2011年安徽毫州渦陽(yáng)二中高二下學(xué)期期末英語(yǔ)試卷 題型：完型填空

Unexpected things may happen every day but no one can tell when and where. People usually get surprised or frightened by such things.
One day I 36 a taxi to go to a meeting. As it came near the corner, the taxi stopped suddenly.The 37       got out looking very puzzled(迷惑). A big 38  which had been following the taxi stopped, too. The taxi driver was now 39  at the corner looking up 40 the sky and the truck driver got out and 41  him. A number of cars behind them were 42  to stop as well and a large crowd of people had 43 at the corner.
The cause of all this 44  was a very strange noise. It 45  as if thousands and thousands of  46  were chirping（鳴叫）.The sound of so 47 birds toghter was quite surprising and many people looked 48 . The most extraordinary thing was that,except one or two  49 , there was not a bird in 50 . No one was able to know why — 51 two policemen arrived on the scene. They walked all around the area for a while and then went over near the railroad tracks beside a big board advertisement(廣告)for a 52  . Since the noise seemed to be coming from around there, they climbed up and found that two loudspeakers had been  53 behind the advertisement.The bird noises were being broadcast to 54  attention to the film advertisement.
The cinema that made this advertisement was 55 to take the loudspeakers away, because they caused trouble and people were tired of them.
【小題1】

A．ran B．droveC．tookD．rode
【小題2】
A．travellersB．passagersC．driverD．conductor
【小題3】
A．truckB．busC．carD．bike
【小題4】
A．ridingB．movingC．sittingD．standing
【小題5】
A．forB．a(chǎn)fterC．overD．a(chǎn)t
【小題6】
A．preventedB．joinedC．watchedD．left
【小題7】
A．toldB．orderedC．forcedD．driven
【小題8】
A．a(chǎn)ppearedB．gatheredC．a(chǎn)imedD．covered
【小題9】
A．a(chǎn)ccidentB．thingC．matterD．trouble
【小題10】
A．heardB．lookedC．feltD．sounded
【小題11】
A．a(chǎn)nimalsB．peopleC．birdsD．beasts
【小題12】
A．bigB．wildC．strangeD．many
【小題13】
A．disappointedB．frightenedC．wonderedD．worried
【小題14】
A．starsB．treesC．snakesD．sparrows
【小題15】
A．distanceB．snowC．sightD．silence
【小題16】
A．a(chǎn)fterB．untilC．a(chǎn)s D．since
【小題17】
A．shopB．filmC．factoryD．notice
【小題18】
A．hiddenB．keptC．brokenD．fixed
【小題19】
A．directB．payC．giveD．call
【小題20】
.
A．suggestedB．a(chǎn)dvisedC．orderedD．persuaded

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：河北省保定市第二中學(xué)2010屆高三考前強(qiáng)化訓(xùn)練試題集（五）（英語(yǔ)） 題型：閱讀理解


第三部分：閱讀理解（共20小題；每小題2分，滿分40分）
Before the mid 1860’s, the impact of the railroads in the United States was limited, in the sense that the tracks ended at this Missouri River, approximately the center of the country. At the point the trains turned their freight, mail, and passengers over to steamboats, wagons, and stagecoaches. This meant that wagon freighting, stagecoaching, and steamboating did not come to an end when the first train appeared; rather they became supplements or feeders. Each new “end of track” became a center for animal drawn or waterborne transportation. The major effect of the railroad was to shorten the distance that had to be covered by the older, slower, and more costly means. Wagon freighters continued operating throughout the 1870’s and 1880’s and into the 1890’s. Although over constantly shrinking routes, and coaches and wagons continued to crisscross the West wherever the rails had not yet been laid. The beginning of a major change was foreshadowed in the later 1860’s, when the Union Pacific Railroad at last began to build westward from the Central Plains city of Omaha to meet the Central Pacific Railroad advancing eastward from California through the formidable barrier of the Sierra Nevada. Although President Abraham Lincoln signed the original Pacific Railroad bill in 1862 and a revised, financially much more generous version in 1864, little construction was completed until 1865 on the Central Pacific and 1866 on the Union Pacific. The primary reason was skepticism that a Railroad built through so challenging and thinly settled a stretch of desert, mountain, and semiarid plain could pay a profit. In the words of an economist, this was a case of “premature enterprise”, where not only the cost of construction but also the very high risk deterred private investment. In discussing the Pacific Railroad bill, the chair of the congressional committee bluntly stated that without government subsidy no one would undertake so unpromising a venture; yet it was a national necessity to link East and West together. ?
61. The author refers to the impact of railroads before the late 1860’s as “l(fā)imited” because
A. the track did not take the direct route from one city to the next?
B. passengers and freight had to transfer to other modes of transportation to reach western destinations              C. passengers preferred stagecoaches
D. railroad travel was quite expensive
62. What can be inferred about coaches and wagon freighters as the railroad expanded?
A. They developed competing routes.
B. Their drivers refused to work for the railroads.?
C. They began to specialize in private investment.?
D. There were insufficient numbers of trained people to operate them.
63.  Why does the author mention the Sierra Nevada in line 17? ?
A. To argue that a more direct route to the West could have been taken.??
B. To identify a historically significant mountain range in the West.?
C. To point out the location of a serious train accident.?
D. To give an example of an obstacle faced by the central pacific.   
64.  The word “subsidy” in line 27 is closest in meaning to_____.?
A. persuasion             B. financing              C. explanation           D. penalty ?

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