Question

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       One of the first things you will notice about Britain is that they drive on the left,and the steering wheel ( 方向盤) is on the right. This causes a strange feeling,but driving on the left is not as unusual as you might think; about a quarter of the countries in the world drive on the left. Most of them are former British colonies(殖民地) like Australia,South Africa,and Ireland,but Thailand,Japan and Indonesia also do so. This driving habit is strange to US,but there is a perfectly good reason for it: up until the late eighteenth century,everybody ?avelled on the left-hand side of the road because it was the best way for mostly right-handed people to protect themselves in violent societies. So when strangers passed on the road,they walked on the left to make sure that their sword (劍) arm was between them.

        After the French Revolution in 1789,howfever,the French government changed sides as part of a great social reorganisation. Later,Napoleon,the ruler of France,spread the change to the rest of Continental Europe. He did this because he was left-handed himself,and he wanted his armies to march on the right so that he could keep his left arm between himself and any enemy. From then on,any part of the world which became part of the British Empire marched on the left,and any part controlled by the French marched on the right.

After the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) , the US became independent and decided to make traffic drive on the right in order to cut its ties with Britain. Once America be.came the centre of the car industry,if you wanted a good car,you bought an American-made right-hand drive vehicle. From then on many countries changed out of necessity.

    Today,the EU would like Britain to be the same as the rest of Europe,but this is no longer possible. It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round. The last European country to convert to driving on the right was Sweden in 1967,but there were far fewer cars there,and the population was much smaller.

6. Why did people travel on the left before the late 18th century?

   A. They could be safer from attacks.

   B. The governments required them to do so.

    C. There were more left-handed people back then.

   D. They could prevent strangers passing by their left side.

7. What was Napoleon's attitude to walking on the left? 

     A.He was againstit

   B. He paid no attention to it.

   C.He couldn't understand it.

   D. He was uncertain about it.

8. For Americans,driving on the right was a way to show.

   A. the connection with France was broken

   B. die American Revolutionary War had ended

   C. America was the centre of the car industry   

   D. the US was no longer controlled by the UK

9. The underlined phrase “convert to” in the last

paragraph means .

   A. insist on      B. give up

   C. change into    D. disagree with

10. What would be the best title for the text?

   A. How did France influence Europe?

   B. How did Europeans travel on the road?

    C. Why do British people drive on the left?

   D. Why does the US make right-hand drive cars?

Answer 1

6. A 7. A 8. D 9. C

6. A.細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第一段中的up until the late eighteenth century,everybody travelled on the left-hand side of the road because it was the best way for mostly right-handed people to protect themselves in violent societies可知18世紀晚期之前習慣于靠左走是因為他們走路時可以用持劍的右手保護自己，這樣更安全。

7. A.推理判斷題。

8. D.細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段中 的 After the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) , the US became independent and decided to make traffic drive on the right in order to cut its ties with Britain可知，美國人選擇靠右行駛是為了表明他們已經(jīng)完全脫離了英國。

9. C.詞義猜測題。根據(jù)最后一段中的 It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round 和 there were far fewer cars there,and the population was much smaller可知，由于瑞典當時 車輛和人口較少，因此改成靠右行車

10.C。標題歸納題。本題解釋了英國人習慣靠左行駛的原因，也順便介紹了其他一些國家靠右行駛的來歷。C 項標題能夠起到統(tǒng)領(lǐng)全文的作用。