Almost every family buys at least one copy of a newspaper every day. Some people subscribe(訂閱) to as many as two or three newspapers. But why do people read newspapers?

　　Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings--battles lost and won, kings or rulers overthrown (****) or killed--took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate. Today we can read in our newspapers of important events that occur in far away countries on the same day they happen.

　　Apart from supplying news from all over the world, newspapers give us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, radios, television and film guides, book reviews, stories and, of course, advertisements. The bigger ones are put in by large companies to bring attention to their products. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for the advertising space, but it is worth the money, for news of their products goes into almost every home in the country. For those who produce newspapers, advertisements are also very important. Money earned from advertise- ments makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit.

　　Newspapers often have information on gardening, cooking and fashion as well as a small but very popular section on jokes and cartoons( 漫畫 ).

　　1. What is the text about?

　　A. Advertisements are the most important part in newspapers.

　　B. It introduces newspapers past and today and its contents.

　　C. There is a lot of useful information on newspapers.

　　D. People like newspapers very much.

　　2. The habit of reading newspapers is________.

　　A. uncommon in the world

　　B. not popular in U. S. A.

　　C. widespread in the world

　　D. found among a few families

　　3. The section on jokes and cartoons is________.

　　A. read only by children

　　B. of no value

　　C. not helpful

　　D. read by many people

　　篇章分析

　　本文是一篇說明文。文章開始提出問題：人們?yōu)槭裁醋x報?接著介紹了過去的報紙，然后說明了報紙上有很多信息，其中說明了報紙上廣告的價值。

　　答案及解析

　　1.B

　　【題型】主旨題

　　【解析】本文首先介紹了過去和現(xiàn)在的報紙，緊接著說了報紙的內(nèi)容，可知選B是最符合題意的。

　　2.C

　　【題型】推斷題

　　【解析】根據(jù)文章第一句Almost every family buys at least one copy of anewspaper every day.可知，看報紙的習慣在世界上很廣泛。

　　3.D

　　【題型】細節(jié)題

　　【解析】由文章最后一段…but very popular section on jokes arid car-toons.可知，笑話和漫畫很受歡迎，因此推斷有很多人看。