Few other nations are so much interested in horseracing as the English．The famou

Few other nations are so much interested in horseracing as the English．The famous races Ascot are held every year and followed by sports fans all over England．The king or the queen also attends   36   and presents the winner with a gold cup．To  37   this gold cup is the dream of every owner of a racehorse．All newspapers．great and small，are full of detailed description of the  __38  ，and the name of the   39   winner of the Ascot cup is pronounced by everyone   40   of a great hero．

It happened once，however，some seventy years ago，that the gold cup was stolen a few days before the race! The police   41   for it all over the country but could not find it．

Just at the time，Mark Twain，the witty American writer，  42   England．He was  43     by an England Literary Society to be   44   at a dinner given in his honor．After dinner the president of the society rose to   45   a toast to Mark Twain's health and praise   46   the talent of the famous American．Mark Twain   47   started his speech with the following words：

“Gentlemen，I thank you for the great honor you   48   me，  49   I very much doubt whether all your countrymen join you in your warm welcome．When I arrived at Dover yesterday，and    50   my foot in ‘Merry Old England’，the first thing I saw was a newspaper poster and on it，  51    my great surprise．I read two   52   printed in big red letters：

MARK TWAIN ARRIVES!  

ASCOT CUP STOLEN!

These two announcements stood so closely together that it   53   seemed，gentlemen，as if some people in this country   54   sure that my arrival had something to do with the disappearance of the gold cup!”

This witty speech of the famous American author   55   a shout of laughter．

试题答案

36．A    37．B     38．C       39．D    40．B    41．A    42．C     43．D    44．A     45．C    

46．B    47．A     48．D        49．D    50．A    51．B    52．D    53．A     54．A    55．D