徐州师范大学08级教育硕士英语试卷（五）.docVIP

徐州师范大学0级教育硕士英语试卷（） Part I Reading ComprehensionDirections :There are 4passages in this part. Each passage is followed by questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice. Passage One Every evening, some part of the British Commonwealth hears the chimes of Big Ben, largest of the bells in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. The tower is popularly called Big Ben, but it is this bell which chimes out the quarter hours to the people of London. For Britons at sea or living in distant lands, the sound of Big Ben is still a link with home, for the chimes are broadcast each evening by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Big Ben has been chiming out the quarter hours now for just a century. It started chiming on June 11, 1859. At that time, Parliament couldn’t decide what to name the bell. A light-hearted member of Parliament called attention, in a speech, to the impressive bulk of Sir Benjamin Hall, Queen Victoria’s Chief Lord of the Woods and forests. “Call it Big Ben”, said the speaker, and the name stuck. Big Ben is 9 feet in diameter, 7 feet 6 inches tall, and the thickness where the hammer strikes is 8.75 inches. The clock that regulates the chiming of Big Ben keeps good time. In 1939, the Royal Astronomer made a 290-day check on the performance of the clock. He found that during this test the margin of error was less than two-tenth of a second in 24 hours on 93 days and greater than one second only on 16 of the 290 days. There was an unexpected lapse on August 12, 1945, and consternation swept through the Ministry of works. On that dark day, the clock was five minutes slow. A flock starlings(燕八哥鸟) had roosted(栖息) on the minute hand. 1. Aside from popular usage, Big Ben is really the _______. clock tower of the Palace of Westminster great bell in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster exclusive radio signal of the BBC both A and B 2. The year 1959 was the _____