1 . Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival takes place every year in late August or early September on the Lido in the historic Palazzo del Cinema, in Venice, Italy. Its main award is the “Leone d’Oro” (Golden Lion). Recently, a new award has been added, the San Marco Award for the best film.
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards are the most prominent film awards in the United States. The awards are granted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Academy Awards are nicknamed “Oscars”, which is also the nickname of the statuette（小雕像）. The name is said to have been born when Margaret Herrick saw the statuette on a table and said, “It looks just like my uncle Oscar!”
Berlin Film Festival
The Berlin Film Festival is one of the “A” festivals in Europe. The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the “Berlinale”, is held annually in February and started in 1951 after an initiative of the American, who occupied part of the city after World War Ⅱ. The jury（专家评奖团）always places special emphasis on representing films from all over the world, from the former Eastern Bloc（集团）Countries as well as from Western countries. The awards are called Golden and Silver Bears (as the bear is the symbol of Berlin).
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival is a famous international film festival. It has been held annually in Cannes, in the south of France, since 1946 with a few exceptions. Given massive media exposure, the Festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for movie producers to launch their new films and attempt to sell their works to the distributors who come from all over the world.
The most famous award given out at Cannes is the “Palme d’Or” (Golden Palm) for the best film; this is sometimes shared by multiple films in one year.
1. Which award can be shared by multiple films in one year?| A．Golden Lion. | B．Golden Palm. |
| C．Academy Awards. | D．San Marco Award. |
| A．It’s the nickname of Academy Awards. |
| B．It’s also the nickname of the statuette. |
| C．It got its name because Margaret said the statuette looked like his uncle. |
| D．It’s an award in France. |
| A．It looks like a bear. |
| B．It is made up of bear fur |
| C．The bear is the symbol of Berlin. |
| D．Bear is rare in Berlin. |
2 . Mark Twain, the famous American writer, liked to play jokes on others. But once a joke was played on him. One day Mark Twain was invited to give a talk in a small town. At lunch he met a young man, one of his friends.The young man said that he has an uncle with him. He told Twain that his uncle never laughed or smiled, and that nobody and nothing was able to make his uncle smile or laugh.
"You bring your uncle to my talk tonight, "said Mark Twain. "I'm sure I can make him laugh".
That evening the young man and his uncle sat in the front. Mark Twain began to speak. He told several funny stories. This made everyone in the room laugh.But the man never even smiled. Mark Twain told more funny stories, but the old man still kept quiet. Mark Twain told his funny stories. Finally he stopped. He was tired and quite disappointed(失望的)．
Some days later, Mark Twain told another friend of his about what had happened.
"Oh," said his friend. "I know that old man. He's been deaf(聋)for years."
1. Mark Twain liked to play jokes on_____.| A．himself | B．others | C．old men | D．Americans |
| A．a friend | B．a young man's uncle |
| C．a young girl | D．a deaf |
| A．spoke | B．talked | C．laughed | D．ate |
| A．thirsty | B．tired | C．angry | D．sleepy |
3 . Charlie is a teacher and his wife, Maria is an artist. The night before last, just before the longest day of the year, Charlie was sitting in a deckchair enjoying the warm summer air when Maria touched his shoulder and he could tell immediately she was a little worried about something. He asked her what the matter was and she replied that there was a strange thing on the jacket that was hanging in the bedroom. They had both lived in the West Indies (西印度群岛) and had seen a lot of strange creatures in their house before. But now they were living in England and so Charlie just laughed and said he would have a look at the “thing”.
He walked to the bedroom. He saw a jacket hanging in the bedroom and went up to it to have a closer look at the “thing”. The moment he touched it, the thing sprang into life. Now Charlie experiences fear like the rest of us but when this creature opened its wings, he jumped out of his skin and ran screaming from the room like a small child doing about 100 miles an hour.
For a moment the next-door neighbours thought that Charlie was murdering his wife because of the noise they could hear. In fact, it was a bat that frightened Charlie.
Eventually Charlie managed to trap the bat in a box and took it to the garden to let the bat fly. Maria, who had been playing the guitar while Charlie was upstairs, asked Charlie if he had found out what the thing was. “Oh, nothing to worry about”, he said casually hoping that the terror could not be seen in his eyes, “it was just a bat.”
1. Why was Maria a little worried one night?| A．Because she couldn't find her guitar. | B．Because she saw something strange. |
| C．Because it was too hot for her. | D．Because she had quarreled with her husband. |
| A．stood up | B．was very frightened |
| C．threw off his clothes | D．was very excited |
| A．It was killed by Charlie. | B．It was badly wounded. |
| C．It was set free by Charlie. | D．It was kept as a pet. |
| A．Charlie was afraid that his wife would laugh at him if she knew the truth |
| B．the neighbours would report to the police about Charlie murdering the bat |
| C．the bat wouldn't come to Charlie's room again because it was frightened |
| D．Maria heard her husband screaming downstairs and became frightened |
