请听第9段材料，回答第14至17题。
14. What is the woman probably?
A. A TV show host.
B. A journalist for a website.
C. A newspaper journalist.
15. How many miles did the man and his brother cover on the second day?
A. 15 miles.
B. 20 miles.
C. 35 miles.
16. Why did the man and his brother go on the journey?
A. To raise awareness about a disease.
B. To draw attention to a research center.
C. To collect money for the man’s brother.
17. What helped the man and his brother complete the journey?
A. A research center’s encouragement.
B. The money they raised.
C. The support they received.
请听第10段材料，回答第18至20题。
18. What is the talk mainly about?
A. A great woman in American history.
B. The way women were treated in the past.
C. The way American women worked in the past.
19. When did Clara decide to work on opening a free public school?
A. In 1851.
B. In 1852.
C. In 1854.
20. What were the women’s lives at the patent office like?
A. They did the same work as men.
B. They didn’t perform well at work.
C. They were unfairly treated.
第二部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
A beautiful and very successful actress (女演员) was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the centre of the city, got some beautiful furniture (家具) and got a man to paint the rooms in new colours.
It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, w hen she got the painter’s bill (账单). At the bottom of it were these words: “ Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance: 3 pounds,” with this note: “After 5 p.m., I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”
21. The actress bought a house in the centre of the city because ______.
A. she liked to live in the busiest place
B. she didn’t like to live in the country
C. her home was far away from where she worked
D. she didn’t want to go back to her hometown any longer
22. In order to make the painter work better for her, the actress ________.
A. gave him two tickets for her show
B. sang and danced for him for hours
C. paid him 3 pounds
D. decided to pay him 15 shillings an hour
23. The actress got the pai nter’s bill ________.
A. to ask for the money of his painting work
B. to ask to pay for his watching her show