1 . Gettysburg National Military Park was established in 1895, 32 years after the deadly battle. Gettysburg is the most-visited of the Civil War battlefields.
Many visitors start their visit at the Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War. The museum has the world’s largest collection of Civil War objects. The museum has more than 1 million items, from soldiers’ private notebooks and uniforms to original maps of the battlefield. The museum also houses the Gettysburg cyclorama (风景画幕) painting, showing the final attack in the Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett’s Charge. George Pickett was a Confederate general. On July 3, 1863, he led a charge against stronger Union forces. It was a disaster for the Confederate soldiers.
French artist Paul Phillippoteaux and a team of 20 artists created the painting in the 1880s. Phillippoteaux and his team visited the battlefield. It took more than one year for the huge painting to be complete. The cyclorama is 114 metres long and almost 13 metres tall. It has long been one of the most popular parts of the Gettysburg experience. But by the 1990s, the painting was in poor condition. Experts warned that if the cyclorama was not repaired, the painting could be lost.
A restoration project began in 2003. The painting was cleaned and separated into its 14 parts, and later moved into the new centre. There, the original canvas (帆布) was sewn onto new cloth made in China. Park service officials say China was one of the few countries able to produce cloth in the sizes needed. Then each part was hung and sewn together.
A team of cyclorama experts from Poland worked on the project in Gettysburg. The repair work of the Gettysburg Cyclorama marked one of the largest art conservation effort ever in North America.
After the museum, tourists can visit the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, where many of the Union soldiers who died during the Battle of Gettysburg are buried. The cemetery was dedicated on November 19, 1863, the same day President Lincoln gave his “Gettysburg Address”. Historians agree that Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address defined Americans as a people who believed in freedom, democracy and equality.
1. What is displayed in the Gettysburg cyclorama painting?| A．Several battlefield sites. |
| B．Supplies during the American Civil War. |
| C．The speech delivered by President Lincoln. |
| D．The intense scene of the final battle of Gettysburg. |
| A．The repair material for the project. |
| B．The country producing the canvas. |
| C．The key steps of the entire repair process. |
| D．The comment of the park service officials. |
| A．France. | B．China. | C．Poland. | D．The US. |
| A．To tell a historical event. |
| B．To introduce a travel destination. |
| C．To explain American culture. |
| D．To remember Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. |
2 . When you think of a typical American, who do you picture? A pretty blond white American like Taylor Swift? Or a handsome black American like basketball star Kobe Bryant? In fact, there was a time when the average American looked like neither of these people.
Back in the year 1500, the average American was a brown-skinned hunter-gatherer who probably rode a horse and wore clothing made from animal skins. Today, these people－who usually identify themselves based on their individual tribes such as Iriquois, Apache and Navajo－are broadly referred to as “Native Americans”, “American Indians” or simply “Indians”.
There’s a chance that you’ve never even heard of American Indians. That‟s because there aren’t very many left. When the European settlement of North America began, there were fierce conflicts between the settlers from overseas and these native peoples. After the British government and military were expelled (驱逐) in the Revolutionary War, conflicts with natives continued as the states were created that would later make up the US. In these conflicts, millions of natives were killed.
In 1830, president Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. This act required all Indians to migrate to the west of the Mississippi River to allow for the expansion of the US. American Indians were treated as a military “enemy” until 1924, when the few Indians still alive at that point were granted （准予）US citizenship. That was the first time that the US government formally recognized the rights of Indians.
While the story of the American Indians has been a sad one, these peoples’ legacies (遗产) are still felt every day in the US. Many US geographical names come from Indian languages, such as Ohio, Topeka, Kansas, and the Potomac River. At the same time, there are numerous successful academics and other important US leaders who are descended（是……的后裔）from Indians. And nowadays, more and more history classes in US public schools are educating students about how Indians suffered during the settlement of the US.
Although what happened cannot be undone, we can learn at least one thing from the sad history of the Indians: If we want a better future, we must look carefully and honestly at the past.
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．The history of the settement of the US. |
| B．What a typical American is like. |
| C．The sad story of American Indians. |
| D．American Indians‟ economic impact on the US. |
| A．were driven from the US by the British government |
| B．were regarded as a military “enemy” of the US |
| C．were finally granted US citizenship |
| D．were required to live along the Mississippi River. |
| A．There are few influential American Indians in US history. |
| B．Some of their languages are still used today. |
| C．The majority of them lived in the states of Ohio and Kansas. |
| D．American youths are becoming more informed of the suffering of the Indians. |
| A．It’s miserable to be reminded of it. |
| B．It’s important to learn from it. |
| C．He doesn’t have much interest in it. |
| D．Every school should teach classes about it. |
3 . On 20th July 1969, millions of people saw Neil Armstrong take his first steps in space on television. Armstrong got out of the spacecraft Apollo 11, touched the ground of the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
A conspiracy(阴谋)theory has existed since the night of his lunar handing. Armstrong’s achievements were considered amazing, but people wondered if it really happened. Many people believe that the scene on the moon wasn’t real. Rumours spread throughout coffee shops, street comers, and newspapers, but it soon died down.
But theories resurfaced in 2001 Suspicion began when an American television network aired a program called Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? The show argued that NASA did not have the money for such a voyage, and that the whole scene was probably filmed in a movie studio. Many critics say that there were no stars in the background during the lunar landing, so it must have been a fake. They also point out that the American flag that was posted was waving. How could that be if there is no wind on the moon?
NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)has denied these rumours many times. They explained that now photographers can capture the brightness of the astronauts with the dimness of the stars behind them. Also, they said that the flag was waving because the astronauts were pulling it back and forth trying to get it deeper into the rock. NASA also points out that the television program fails to mention that Armstrong and his team brought back 800 pounds of rock from the moon.
Nell Armstrong is seen as a national icon in the US and his lunar landing is one of the most historic events in the country’s history. But either way, this conspiracy theory still exists today.
1. What didn’t the TV program Did We Land on the Moon? mention?| A．money | B．stars |
| C．the flag | D．rocks |
| A．It showed great anger | B．It had to accept the rumor |
| C．It turned a deaf ear to the rumor | D．It gave explanations against the rumor |
| A．the wind | B．the astronauts’ pulling |
| C．the gravity | D．the camera’s moving |
