People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years．The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals．They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill．Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain．No one knows why they were painted there．Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals．Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures．

       About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing．They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language．The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet．

       The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture-writing and pictures together．When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried．Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories．It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip．But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power．So they did not try to make their way of writing simple．The ordinary people could not understand it．

       By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing．The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system．This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language．The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet．The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world．

       These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures．But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams．We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work．Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting．

1．Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ______．

       A．the hunters wanted to see the pictures

       B．the painters were animal lovers

       C．the painters wanted to show imagination

       D．the pictures were thought to be helpful

2．The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that _______．

       A．the former was easy to write

       B．there were fewer signs in the former

       C．the former was easy to pronounce

       D．each sign stood for only one sound

3．Which of the following statements is TRUE?

       A．The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet．

       B．The Egyptians liked to write comic-strip stories．

       C．The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one．

       D．The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians．

4．In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ___________．

       A．should be made comprehensible

       B．should be made interesting

       C．a(chǎn)re of much use in our life

       D．have disappeared from our life

     For well over a thousand years，smallpox was a disease that everyone feared．The disease killed much of the native population in South America when the Spanish arrived there in the early sixteenth century．By the end of the eighteenth century，smallpox was responsible for about one in
ten deaths around the world．Those who survived the disease were left with ugly scars on their sjun．
It had long been well known among farmers that people who worked with cows seldom caught smallpox；instead，they often caught a similar but much milder disease called cowpox (牛痘) ．A Bridsh doctor called Jenner was extremely interested in this，and so he studied cowpox He believed that，by vaccinating (給接種疫苗) people with the disease，he could protect them against the much worse disease smallpox．In 1796，he vaccinated a boy with cowpox and，two months later，with smallpox．The boy did not get smallpox．In the next two years，Jenner vaccinated several children in the same way，and none of them got the disease．
News of the success of Jenner’s work soon spread．Vaccination soon became a common method to protect people against other diseases caused by virus，such as rable (狂犬病)，and vaccines (疫苗) were sent across the world to the United States and India．
It took nearly two centuries to achieve Jenner’s dream of getting free of smallpox from the whole world．In 1967，the world Health Organization (WHO) started a great vaccination program，and the last known case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977．The story of vaccinations does not end there，however．There are many other diseases that kill more and more people every year．Besides，many new diseases are being discovered．The challenge for medical researchers will，therefore，probably continue for several more centuries
【小題1】Smallpox was so serious that       by the end of l8th century

A．its death rate was up to ten percent

B．those who caught it were certain to die

C．one in ten people in the world died of smallpox

D．one in ten deaths in the world was caused by smallpox

【小題2】Edward Jenner discovered that vaccination with cowpox could      

A．make smallpox much milder

B．stop people from getting smallpox

C．protect people against any disease

D．prevent people’s scars after smallpox

【小題3】Which of the following statements is not true?

A．The first experiment with cowpox was made by a British doctor

B．After 1977 smallpox disappeared around the world according to WHO．

C．Vaccination had existed among ordinary farmers before being discovered

D．Vaccination can be used to protect people in the world against not only smallpox

【小題4】The author of the passage thinks that      

A．vaccinations bring many new problems

B．vaccinations end the spread of diseases

C．there is a long way to go to fight against diseases

D．there is along way to go to discover new diseases