II. Reading comprehension: (2 × 10=20)
Directions: Read the following passages and make your proper choices.
(1)
Mount Ali has an elevation of some 3 000 metres above sea level. Here the temperature drops as one ascends higher and higher so that in a short couple of hours one can experience the weather changes in all the four seasons and admire the kind of scenery and plant life peculiar to the climate of, so to say, all the latitudes.
A light railway and a highway thread their way uphill through tree-clad slopes to the very summit of Mount Ali. The railway is 72 km long, beginning from the City of Jiayi and terminating at Zhaoping. On its way, the train has to cross 86 bridges, 66 tunnels and more than 30 gully crossings.
Travellers in the train crawling its way slowly up the mountain can have a real good time, feasting their eyes on the scenery and chatting to each other as the mood carries them. After the train leaves the North Gate Station of Jiayi, it runs on the plains at the foot of the mountain and one sees through the window lush green bamboo groves and fields of densely grown sugar cane.
As the train threads its way in the rugged hilly country crossing one clear stream after another, one would feel as though he had entered a world as ethereal as that in a Chinese landscape painting, passing now a woodland scene and now a secluded ravine with a quiet-flowing mountain brook. The peace of mind one enjoys while traveling in level country is suddenly shattered by the sight of precipitous cliffsides. While the train makes it way in this pictorial world of Mount Ali, travelers cannot help but marvel at the magic wonders of nature and the wisdom and courage of the railway builders.
16. Mount Ali is some 3 000 metres high, but it is easy to reach the peak because you can get there by______.
A. airplane
B. helicopter
C. coach
D. bicycle
17. Within a couple of hours visitors can see plant life that ______ four seasons.
A. experience
B. represent
C. attract
D. peculiar
18. The railway is 72 km long, passing a lot of______.
A. streams and caves
B. rivers and valleys
C. steep crossings
D. underground roads
19. The North Gate Station of Jiayi is______.
A. on the plains
B. at the foot of the mountain
C. in hilly place
D. in sugar cane fields
20. As the train threads its way in the rugged hilly country the visitors can enjoy______.
A. Chinese landscape paintings
B. the peace of mind
C. a quiet-flowing brook
D. a pictorial world of Mount Ali
