答案：A

　　15．A.east B．north

　　C．west D．south

　　解析：根据常识，旧金山是在美国西部。

　　答案：C

　　16．A.learn from B．know

　　C．study D．honour

　　解析：因为他的父亲想纪念这位将军。

　　答案：D

　　17．A.teacher B．writer

　　C．painter D．leader

　　解析：由下文"how to become a writer"可知这里应该是问的另一位美国作家。

　　答案：B

　　18．A.quickest B．worst

　　C．best D．hardest

　　解析："(当作家)最好的事情是......"，陈述条件。

　　答案：C

　　19．A.exciting B．interesting

　　C．unlucky D．unhappy

　　解析：根据下文最后一句可知"(当作家)最好的事情是有不幸的(unhappy)童年"。

　　答案：D

　　20．A.great B．poor

　　C．young D．gifted

　　解析：由句意知"他童年时代的不幸把他造就成为一名伟大的作家"。

　　答案：A

　　Ⅵ.阅读理解

　　 Whitman was one of the most original and inspiring American poets well known for his art and his role as a poet. He devoted himself to poetry praising the native American experience. As America's first epic poem，Leaves of Grass ran nine editions with more than 400 poems all written in free forms that is poetry without a fixed beat or regular rhyme scheme. The tide implies rebirth renewal or green life. As Whitman once said "Leaves of Grass was the outcropping of my own emotional and other personal nature-an attempt from first to last to put a person，a human being freely，fully and truly on record."

For Whitman science democracy(民主) and spirituality(灵性) were the three things that underlay the structure of modern poetry. Whitman tried to combine the world of science，the democracy and the spiritual feeling of life into his poetry. For Whitman the poetic form should be free. Therefore，he threw aside the traditional form and had his own form. Both the form and content of his poems are revolutionary. With its frequent use of oral language and everyday events ，his poem represented a turning point in the history of American poetry-poetry fashioned out of