George Williams, one of Scottsdale’s last remaining cowboys, has been raising horses and cattle on his 120 acres for 20 years. The cattle go to the slaughterhouse, the horses to rodeos. But Mr. Williams is stomping mad. His problems began last year when dishonest neighbours started to steal his cattle. Then other neighbours, most of them newcomers, took offence at his horses roaming on their properties.
Such grumbles are common in Arizona. The most recent Department of Agriculture census shows that 1 213 of Arizona’s 8 507 farms closed down between 1997 and 2002. Many cattlemen are moving out to remoter parts of the state.
Doc Lane is an executive at the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, a trade group. He says Arizona’s larger ranch owners are making decent profits from selling. It is the smaller players who are the victims of rising land values, higher mortgages and stiffer city council rules. What happens all too often is that people move in next to a farm because they think the land pretty. But soon they start complaining to the council. In Mr. Williams’s case it was the horses that annoyed them. Other newcomers don’t like the noise, the pesticides and the smell of manure.
Locals worry about the precious, dwindling cowboy culture. Arizona’s tourism boards like to promote a steady interest in all things about cowboy and western. Last year more British and German tourists came than usual, and many of them were looking precisely for that. Arizona’s Dude Ranch Association fills its $ 350-a-night luxury ranches most of the year; roughly a third of the guests are European.
Many of the ranchers themselves see all this tourism as a cheeky attempt to commercialise a real and vanishing culture. In Prescott, estate agents promote "American Ranch-style" homes with posters of horse riders. On the other side of the street is Whiskey Row, a famous strip of historic cowboy bars. But in Matt’s Saloon on Saturday night, real cattlemen could not be found.
Farm folk like Mr. Knox and Mr. Williams are weighing up their options. Many will migrate to remoter places where land is cheaper and not crowded with city people. Younger ones take on side-jobs as contractors and are cattle-hands part-time. Older cowboys aren’t sure what to do.
From the first two paragraphs, we learn that ______.

A:George Williams is a cowboy in Arizona. B:more and more farms will be closed down in the near future. C:newcomers are not as honest as cowboys. D:the mode of life of cattlemen in Arizona is being destructed.

George Williams, one of Scottsdale’s last remaining cowboys, has been raising horses and cattle on his 120 acres for 20 years. The cattle go to the slaughterhouse, the horses to rodeos. But Mr. Williams is stomping mad. His problems began last year when dishonest neighbours started to steal his cattle. Then other neighbours, most of them newcomers, took offence at his horses roaming on their properties.
Such grumbles are common in Arizona. The most recent Department of Agriculture census shows that 1 213 of Arizona’s 8 507 farms closed down between 1997 and 2002. Many cattlemen are moving out to remoter parts of the state.
Doc Lane is an executive at the Arizona Cattlemen’s Association, a trade group. He says Arizona’s larger ranch owners are making decent profits from selling. It is the smaller players who are the victims of rising land values, higher mortgages and stiffer city council rules. What happens all too often is that people move in next to a farm because they think the land pretty. But soon they start complaining to the council. In Mr. Williams’s case it was the horses that annoyed them. Other newcomers don’t like the noise, the pesticides and the smell of manure.
Locals worry about the precious, dwindling cowboy culture. Arizona’s tourism boards like to promote a steady interest in all things about cowboy and western. Last year more British and German tourists came than usual, and many of them were looking precisely for that. Arizona’s Dude Ranch Association fills its $ 350-a-night luxury ranches most of the year; roughly a third of the guests are European.
Many of the ranchers themselves see all this tourism as a cheeky attempt to commercialise a real and vanishing culture. In Prescott, estate agents promote "American Ranch-style" homes with posters of horse riders. On the other side of the street is Whiskey Row, a famous strip of historic cowboy bars. But in Matt’s Saloon on Saturday night, real cattlemen could not be found.
Farm folk like Mr. Knox and Mr. Williams are weighing up their options. Many will migrate to remoter places where land is cheaper and not crowded with city people. Younger ones take on side-jobs as contractors and are cattle-hands part-time. Older cowboys aren’t sure what to do.

A:George Williams is a cowboy in Arizona. B:more and more farms will be closed down in the near future. C:newcomers are not as honest as cowboys. D:the mode of life of cattlemen in Arizona is being destructed.

As one approaches some crossroads, one comes to a sign which says that drivers have to stop when they come to the main road ahead. At other crossroads, drivers have to go slow, but they do not actually have to stop (unless, of course, there is something coming along the main road); and at still others, they do not have either to stop or to go slow, because they are themselves on the main road.
Mr. Williams, who was always a very careful driver, was driving home from work one evening when he came to a crossroads. It had a "Slow" sign, so he slowed down when he came to the main road, looked both ways to see that nothing was coming, and then drove across without stopping completely.
At once he heard a police whistle, so he pulled in to the side of the road and stopped. A policeman walked over to him with a notebook and pencil in his hand and said, "You didn’t stop at the crossing."
"But the sign there doesn’t say ’Stop’," answered Mr Williams. "It just says ’Slow’, and I did go slow."
The policeman looked around him, and a look of surprise came over his face. Then he put his notebook and pencil away, scratched his head and said, "Well, I’ll be blowed! I am in the wrong street!/

A:there was a stop sign that Mr Williams ignored B:the police was not sure whether Mr Williams had a driving license C:the police thought that he was at a different crossroads with a stop sign on it D:there was a slow sign that Mr Williams ignored

Would you like to spend all evening reading a lovely story with beautiful illustrations and make $35,000 at the same time Millions of people all over the world tried to do just that. Only one succeeded. The book is called Masquerade, and was written by British painter Kit Williams. Within its pages are clues to the location of a golden jewel, and whoever figured out the clues could find and keep the treasure.
Some years ago, Williams was asked to write a children’s book. Wanting to do something no one else had done before, he decided to bury a golden treasure and tell where it was in the book. He began painting without a clear idea of what the story would be about, where he would bury the treasure, or even what the treasure would be. As he painted, he decided that in the story a hare, or rabbit, would travel through earth, air, fire and water to deliver a gift from the moon to the sun.
After three years, he finished the paintings and then wrote the story. The treasure became an 18carat gold hare, adorned with precious stones, and it was made by Kit Williams himself. This beautiful jewel, worth around $35,000, depending on gold prices, was buried somewhere in Britain, free to anyone who could decipher the clues. Williams’s book kept people of all ages amused trying to solve the mystery of Masquerade.
The rabbit was finally found in the spring of 1982, by a 48-year-old design engineer. It was buried in a park about thirty-five miles from London.
We can conclude from the passage that ______.

A:the clues in Masquerade are easy to decipher B:Kit Williams has many artistic talents C:many people bury treasures in Britain D:Kit Williams said he would pay $35,000 to whoever found the treasure

Would you like to spend all evening reading a lovely story with beautiful illustrations and make $35,000 at the same time Millions of people all over the world tried to do just that. Only one succeeded. The book is called Masquerade, and was written by British painter Kit Williams. Within its pages are clues to the location of a golden jewel, and whoever figured out the clues could find and keep the treasure.
Some years ago, Williams was asked to write a children’s book. Wanting to do something no one else had done before, he decided to bury a golden treasure and tell where it was in the book. He began painting without a clear idea of what the story would be about, where he would bury the treasure, or even what the treasure would be. As he painted, he decided that in the story a hare, or rabbit, would travel through earth, air, fire and water to deliver a gift from the moon to the sun.
After three years, he finished the paintings and then wrote the story. The treasure became an 18carat gold hare, adorned with precious stones, and it was made by Kit Williams himself. This beautiful jewel, worth around $35,000, depending on gold prices, was buried somewhere in Britain, free to anyone who could decipher the clues. Williams’s book kept people of all ages amused trying to solve the mystery of Masquerade.
The rabbit was finally found in the spring of 1982, by a 48-year-old design engineer. It was buried in a park about thirty-five miles from London.
We can conclude from the passage that ______.

A:the clues in Masquerade are easy to decipher B:Kit Williams has many artistic talents C:many people bury treasures in Britain D:Kit Williams said he would pay $35,000 to whoever found the treasure

Would you like to spend all evening reading a lovely story with beautiful illustrations and make $ 35,000 at the same time Millions of people all over the world tried to do just that. Only one succeeded. The book is called Masquerade, and was written by British painter Kit Williams. Within its pages are clues to the location of a golden jewel, and whoever figured out the clues could find and keep the treasure.
Some years ago, Williams was asked to write a children’s book. Wanting to do something no one else had done before, he decided to bury a golden treasure and tell where it was in the book. He began painting without a clear idea of what the story would be about, where he would bury the treasure, or even what the treasure would be. As he painted, he decided that in the story a hare, or rabbit, would travel through earth, air, fire and water to deliver a gift from the moon to the sun.
After three years, he finished the paintings and then wrote the story. The treasure became an 18- carat gold hare, adorned with precious stones, and it was made by Kit Williams himself. This beautiful jewel, worth around $ 35,000,depending on gold prices, was buried somewhere in Britain, free to anyone who could decipher the clues. Williams’s book kept people of all ages amused trying to solve the mystery of Masquerade.
The rabbit was finally found in the spring of 1982 ,by a 48-year-old design engineer. It was buried in a park about thirty-five miles from London.

A:the clues in Masquerade are easy to decipher B:Kit Williams has many artistic talents C:many people bury treasures in Britain D:Kit Williams said he would pay $ 35,000 to whoever found the treasure

Passage Four

A:the clues in Masquerade are easy to decipher B:Kit Williams has many artistic talents C:many people bury treasures in Britain D:Kit Williams said he would pay $35,000 to whoever found the treasure