The hands on my alarm clock are ______，so I can see what time it is in the dark.

A.exotic B.gorgeous C.luminous D.spectacular

It was __________ to continue the negotiation since both sides lack the sincerity.

A.fertile B.futile C.fugitive D.fussy

The 100 Aker Wood may look like a dark, forbidding place these days for Michael D. Eisner. That’s where Winnie the Pooh，Piglet，and Eeyore live, and the cartoon characters—which represent at least $ 1 billion a year in revenues for Eisner’s Walt Disney Co. —are in full revolt. A 12-years-old lawsuit, sealed in a Los Angeles court until January, has come to light, and a series of court rulings threaten the media giant with hundreds of millions in overdue license payments and possibly the loss of one of its most lucrative properties.How large a hit Disney will take is still in dispute. Disney is appealing two rulings, including one alleging that company executives knowingly destroyed important papers related to its licensing deals. The Pooh affair may seem minor at a time when Eisner is under attack for Disney’s chronically weak stock price and ABC’s anemic ratings, but the Disney chairman hardly needs more jostling from a Silly Old Bear. What’s more, the impact could be significant. After acknowledging to the Securities Exchange Commission on Aug. 9 that “damages could total as much as several hundred million dollars” or the loss of the licensing agreement, Disney was hit with new shareholder lawsuits.Disney wants to keep its grip on that bear and his honey jar. Pooh is Disney’s single largest property, says Martin Brockstein executive editor of The Licensing Letter. That adds up to about $ 100 million in operating earnings from royalties on Pooh T-shirts, backpacks, and other merchandise? Figures Gerard Klauer Matheson & Co. analyst Jeffrey Logsdon. Last year, Disney paid $ 352 million to one pair of heirs of Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne. But the family of Stephen A. Slesinger, a New York literary agent who bought the U. S. rights in 1930，says Disney owes them $ 200 million on licenses for T-shirts and other merchandise and has cut them entirely out of the lucrative videocassette and DVD arena. Headed by Shirley Slesinger Lasswell, an 80-year-old widow who travels with a Winnie-the-Pooh bear everywhere, the family contends it is owed close to $ 1 billion, say its lawyers. Disney, which says it pays the Slesingers $ 12 million a year, insists the $ 1 billion figure is a publicity stunt. “The 1930 contract says they get royalties on merchandise alone, not all exploitation,” says Disney attorney Daniel J. Petrocelli.The Slesingers also charge that Disney lost documents related to merchandise sales and destroyed others that extended the accord to DVDs and videotapes. On June 18，Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest M. Hiroshige rejected the audit by a forensic accountant he thought unduly favored Disney and found that Disney “misused the discovery process” by hiding the fact that it destroyed documents that might have expanded the licensing agreement to tapes and DVDs.Absent those documents—which include the papers of the late Disney Consumer Products chief Vincent Jefferds—the case may hinge on the “mommy memo.” That memo, written in 1983 by Slesinger daughter Patricia to her mother, Shirley, describes a meeting with Jefferds at the Beverly Hills Hotel at which Jefferds allegedly told Patricia “that videos and all these new things were covered and to shut up about it,” according to court documents. Because Disney destroyed Jefferds’ letters, Judge Hiroshige ruled that Disney is barred from “introducing evidence disputing” the family’s contention that they were entitled to royalties on videocassettes. Disney is appealing the ruling.Settlement seems unlikely among the parties. One obstacle: the still-simmering animosity toward Slesinger lawyer Bertram Fields, who won a $ 250 million settlement for former Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg in a hyper-charged 1999 case. This time, the character may be soft and fuzzy, but the payout could be bigger. For Eisner, Pooh is becoming one Very Big Bother.

1.The expression “in full revolt” in the sentence “That’s where Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore live, and the cartoon characters..., are in full revolt. ” (Para. 1) implies that ________.2.The word “anemic”

Those who welcomed the railway saw it as more than a rapid and comfortable means of passing. They actually saw it as a factor in world peace. They did not foresee that the railway would be just one more means for the rapid movement of aggressive armies. None of them foresaw that the more we are together — the more chances there are of war. Any boy or girl who is one of a large family knows that.Whenever any new invention is put forward, those for it and those against it can always find medical men to approve or condemn. The anti-railway group produced doctors who said that tunnels would be most dangerous to public health: they would produce colds，catarrhs （黏膜炎）and consumptions. The deafening noise and the glare of the engine fire would have a bad effect on the nerves. Further, being moved through the air at a high speed would do grave injury to delicate lungs. In those with high blood-pressure, the movement of the train might produce apoplexy （中风）. Thesudden plunging of a train into the darkness of a tunnel, and the equally sudden rush into full daylight, would cause great damage to eyesight. But the pro-railway group was of course able to produce equally famous medical men to say just the opposite. They said that the speed and swing of the train would equalize the circulation, promote digestion, tranquilize the nerves, and ensure good sleep.The actual rolling-stock was anything but comfortable. If it was a test of endurance to sit for four hours outside a coach in rain, or inside in dirty air, the railway offered little more in the way of comfort. Certainly the first-class carriages had cushioned seats; but the second-class had only narrow bare boards, while the third-class had nothing at all; no seats and no roof; they were just open trucks. So that third-class passengers gained nothing from the few modes except speed. In the matter of comfort, indeed they lost; they did, on the coaches, have a seat, but now they had to stand all the way, which gave opportunities to the comic （滑稽的）press. This kind of thing: A man was seen yesterday buying a third-class ticket for the new London and Birmingham Railway. The state of his mind is being enquired into. A writer in the early days of railways wrote feelingly of both second- and third-class carriages. He made the suggestion that the directors of the railways must have sent all over the world to find the hardest possible wood. Of the open third-class trucks he said that they had the peculiar property of meeting the rain from whatever quarter it came. He described them as horizontal shower-baths, from whose searching power there was no escape.

1.All boys and girls in large families know that______.2.According to those who welcomed the railway, the railway itself should include all the following except______.3.According to the anti-railway group, all the followings are true but_____.4.We may safely conclude that_____.5.What is the tone of this passage?

A.a boy and a girl usually fight when they are together B.people tend to be together more than they used to be C.a lot of people being together makes fights likely D.railway leads the world to peace问题2： A.the railway enables people to travel fast B.the railway brings comfort to people C.the railway makes the world peaceful D.the railway leads the world to war as well问题3： A.tunnels are dangerous to public health B.the noise and the glare of the engine fire may affect people’s nerves C.the rapid speed through the air does damage to people’s lungs D.to those with high blood-pressure, the rapid speed of the train causes them to die问题4： A.the author belongs to the anti-railway group B.the author belongs to the for-railway group C.the author speaks highly of the railway D.the author may never take train because of its potential dangers问题5： A.Practical. B.Satirical. C.Humorous. D.Exaggerated.

Scientists are searching for the oldest tree _______ because it can teach them a great deal about many issues related with climate change.

A.lively B.alive C.living D.live

Language, culture, and personality may be considered ______ of each other in thought, but they are inseparable in fact.

A.indistinctly B.separately C.irrelevantly D.independently