1 . Africa is often called the cradle(摇篮)of civilization. The first human beings appeared on the continent about 2 million years ago. Old civilizations grew along the banks of the Nile River. Thousands of years ago ancient Egypt became a powerful empire, to the south Nubia emerged(出现)in today’s Sudan. After 1000 AD, great empires emerged in Ghana and other areas in western Africa. City-states, including Mogadishu and Zanzibar, grew into powerful trading centers in East Africa. Towards the end of the Middle Ages the first Europeans came to Africa. From the early 1500s on, they made money by bringing slaves to North America. The British, Dutch and Portuguese set up trading posts along the western African coast where they searched for gold and ivory. In the 17th century, the Dutch set up a trading post at the Cape of Good Hope. It grew into a Dutch colony(殖民地)until the 19th century, when the British took over. At the end of the 19th century, Europeans ruled most of Africa. They saw the continent as a major source of raw materials that they could bring back to Europe for their emerging industries. As a result, the Industrial Revolution did not take place in Africa. Throughout the colonial period, European countries fought for influence and control in Africa. In the “Scramble(争夺)for Africa”, they divided the continent into areas of interest. Native Africans often resisted colonial governments and in many areas, they were killed in uprisings(起义).

One of the last countries to gain independence was Rhodesia, today’s Zimbabwe, where blacks fought for over a decade against the British. In South Africa, white Europeans gave up control of the country after Apartheid(种族隔离)ended in the 1990s.

Many African countries did not know how to deal with their newly gained independence, largely because they had no experience in administrating and governing a nation. As a result, civil wars, tribal(部落的)conflicts and power struggles broke out. They resulted in dozens of wars in Africa since the 1960s.

1. What can be inferred from Paragraph 1?

A．Nubia was then part of ancient Egypt.

B．Sudan was founded earlier than Egypt.

C．Africans were the earliest people on earth.

D．Areas along the Nile River greatly developed.

2. What’s the worst things the first Europeans to Africa did?

A．They sold low-quality items to the natives.

B．They treated the local Africans as goods.

C．They hurt and murdered the local people.

D．They seized local people’s fortune by force.

3. Why was Africa divided into many parts by Europeans?

A．To fight against the local people’s resistance.

B．To make parts of Africa into their control.

C．To develop the economy of the limited parts.

D．To prevent local people getting into other countries.

4. Why do so many countries get into fights after gaining independence?

A．They lack managing abilities.	B．They are short of resources
C．They want more free land.	D．They still have no civil rights.

2 . “I have travelled the world for 25 years in search of trouble,” admits Dr David Nott in his recent autobiography, War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line. “It is a kind of addiction, a pull I find hard to resist.” This pull has seen him use his surgical skills to help those in need by taking unpaid, month-long breaks from his “day job” as an NHS surgeon in the UK every year to work in conflict zones and disaster areas.

He first worked in Sarajevo in 1993 as a volunteer with the French charity Médecins Sans Froatières. The hospital be worked in had so many holes in its walls caused by bombing and sniper (狙击手) fire that it was called the “Swiss Cheese Hospital”. It was his first insight into the terrifying reality of treating patients in a war zone. The hospital suffered power cuts during operations and he and his team were regularly shot at.

But Nott found this exhilarating. “Going to Sarajevo, almost getting killed, I had never felt so wonderful. I really felt as though somebody bad injected me with something. I felt fantastic. I think to skirt death — and then to realize how close you are to death and that you survived it — is exciting. And that’s the experience I’ve had many times over.”

This attitude may seem reckless (鲁莽的), but it means that Nott has saved lives in desperate situations. In Gaza in 2014, he decided not to abandon a young girl in the middle of surgery despite being told that the hospital was about to be bombed. He carried on, no bombs fell and the girl survived. He has kept a photograph of them taken together three days later. In Yemen, he operated on the wife of a bomb-maker who had accidentally blown up his own house. Nott found a detonator (雷管) buried in her leg and bad to carefully dispose of it before continuing the operation.

1. What does the underlined word “It” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Travelling the world.	B．Working as a surgeon in a war zone.
C．Performing surgeries on his patients.	D．Taking month-long breaks from his day job.

2. When was the book War Doctor: Surgery on the Front Line, probably published?

A．In 1993.

B．In 2014.

C．In 2018.

D．In 2021.

3. What makes the experience thrilling according to Nott?

A．The feeling of narrowly escaping death.	B．The thought of saving lives.
C．The improvement of his surgery skills.	D．The difficulty of working in desperate situations.

4. Which of the following words can best describe Dr. David Nott?

A．Modest and courageous.

B．Generous and strict.

C．Careless and aggressive.

D．Adventurous and selfless.