1 . It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War Ⅰ. German, British, and French soldiers already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized (打得火热) with “the enemy” along two-thirds of the Western Front. German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches (战壕) with signs, “Merry Christmas.”

“You no shoot, we no shoot.” Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man’s land filled with dead bodies. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, and even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced (拥抱) men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the Generals (将军) forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

It shocked the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this peacemaking to be wrong. Fifteen million would be killed.

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played “Christmas in the Trenches” several times and was surprised by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. “Some callers even telephone the host deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, ‘What the hell did I just hear?’”

You can probably guess why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, “This really happened once.” It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, ou of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial (微不足道的) and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

1. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?

A．Troops celebrated their victories.	B．Generals forced their army to fight back.
C．Soldiers made peace with their enemies.	D．Soldiers decided to give in to their enemies.

2. What would the soldiers’ actions result in according to the passage?

A．A fierce war.

B．Many deaths.

C．A peaceful world.

D．Many heroes.

3. Why were the callers in tears?

A．They experienced the war.	B．They lost loved ones in the war.
C．They valued the life in peace.	D．They desired to protect their motherland.

4. What do the TV and newspaper stories probably convey?

A．Being against wars.	B．Cherishing today’s happiness.
C．Remembering heroes.	D．Showing no respect for life.

2 . Three days before the Christmas in 1968, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders had adventured out to the moon, becoming the first human beings to reach and orbit our closest neighbor in the space. On the Christmas Eve, they pointed a TV camera out of the window of Apollo 8 and showed a global audience (观众) of 1 billion the ancient moon moving slowly below their spaceship. As that movie played, Anders began reading, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth...”

“I didn’t choose it,” he said last October, when all three astronauts met to mark the 50th anniversary (周年) of their moon flight, at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, where their spaceship is displayed.

When the three men returned to earth on December 27, they were surrounded by a sea of joy. That kind of collective (集体的) joy—born of collective effort—can seem beyond us now. From the factory floor to the three men in the spaceship, an estimated (估计) 400,000 people had a hand in making the moon flight possible. Behind the joy there was also a dark danger Apollo 8 might face. If the astronauts made it into the moon orbit but their engine failed to fire when it was time to return, rescue would be impossible. They would circle the moon forever. But the astronauts did come home, and in the process they gave the world another gift: the celebrated photograph that came to be known as Earthrise.

Even fifty years later, Borman and Lovell continued to play jokes on Anders, 85 then.

“I’m still trying to figure out who did it,” said Borman, with a wink (眨眼睛).

“You did it, I think,” Lovell answered.

“Bill did it,” Borman admits.

He didn’t want me to take it at first,” Anders said.

“I have never said it before publicly,” said Borman, “but I’m just proud that I was able to fly with these two talented guys. You did a really good job.”

1. The men pointed a camera out of the window of Apollo 8 ________.

A．to show the moon to the world

B．to read some sentences to the audience

C．to do some research into the ancient moon

D．to record what they were doing in the spacecraft

2. What danger might the Apollo 8 astronauts face?

A．Their engine might explode in the orbit.

B．They wouldn’t land on the moon successfully.

C．They might have no chance to return to the earth.

D．Their spaceship might catch fire in the returning journey.

3. How old was Bill Anders when he reached the space?

A．27.	B．30.
C．35.	D．50.

4. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 5 refer to?

A．The flight.	B．The earth.
C．The reading.	D．The picture.