题目内容：

短篇小说

The Stolen Bacillus

(1) “This again,” said the Bacteriologist (病毒学家), slipping a glass slide under the microscope, “is the celebrated Bacillus of cholera (霍乱) -the cholera germ.”

(2) The pale-faced man peered down the microscope. He was evidently not accustomed to that kind of thing. “I see very little.” he said.

(3) “Touch this screw,” said the Bacteriologist, “perhaps the microscope is out of focus.”

(4) “Ah! now I see.” said the visitor “Not so very much to see after all. Little streaks and shreds of pink. And yet those little particles might multiply and devastate a city! Wonderful!”

(5) He released the glass slip and held it towards the window. “Scarcely visible,” he said. Staring at the preparation, he hesitated, “Are these-alive?”

(6) “Those have been stained and killed.” said the Bacteriologist. “I wish, for my own part, we could kill and stain every one of them in the universe.”

(7) “I suppose,” the pale man said with a slight smile, “that you don’t have such things in the living-in the active state?”

(8) “Actually, we have to.” said the Bacteriologist. “Here, for instance-” he took up one sealed tube, “is a cultivation of the actual living disease bacteria. Bottled cholera, so to speak.”

(9) A slight gleam of satisfaction appeared momentarily in the face of the pale man. “It’s a deadly thing to have in your possession.” he said, devouring the little tube with his eyes. The Bacteriologist watched the morbid pleasure in his visitor’s expression. This man, who had appeared with a note of introduction from an old friend, interested him deeply. Nothing about his look, expression, manner and his keen interest resembled that of the ordinary scientific worker whom the Bacteriologist was familiar with. It was perhaps natural, though.

(10) He held the tube in his hand thoughtfully. “Yes. Only break such a little tube as this into a supply of drinking water, and death full of pain and indignity would be released upon this city. He would take the husband from the wife, the child from its mother and the statesman from his duty. He would follow the watermains, creeping along streets, picking out and punishing a house where they did not boil their drinking-water, creeping into the wells of the mineral-water makers, getting washed into salad, and lying dormant in ices. Once start him at the water supply, he would have wiped out the metropolis before we know.”

(11) He stopped abruptly. He had been told rhetoric was his weakness.

(2) The eyes of the pale-faced man shone. “These Anarchists (无政府主义者) -rascals are blind fools to use bombs when this kind of thing is available.”

(13) A gentle knock was heard at the door. The Bacteriologist opened it. “Just a minute, dear.” whispered his wife.

(14) When he returned, his visitor was looking at his watch. “I had no idea it’s been an hour. I have an engagement at four and I must leave now.”

(15) The Bacteriologist accompanied him to the door, and then returned thoughtfully to his laboratory. He was still thinking about his visitor. “How fascinated he was by those disease-germs!” Then a disturbing thought struck him. He turned to the bench and then his writing-table. He felt hastily in his pockets, and then rushed to the door.

(16) “Minnie!” he shouted hoarsely in the hall.

(17) “Yes, dear.”

(18) “Had I anything in my hand when I spoke to you just now?”

(19) Pause.

(20) “Nothing, dear, because I remember-”

(21) “Blue ruin!” cried the Bacteriologist and rushed to the front door and into the street.

(22) Minnie, hearing the door slam violently, ran to the window Down the street a slender man was getting into a cab (马车). The Bacteriologist, hatless and in his slippers, was running and gesticulating wildly towards this group. One slipper came off unnoticed. The slender man, glancing round, seemed shocked. He pointed to the Bacteriologist and said something to the cabman. The cabman swished his whip and in a moment the cab disappeared around the corner.

(23) Minnie was dumbfounded. “Of course, he is out of his mind,” she thought, “but running about London-in the height of the season, in his socks!” A happy thought struck her. She hastily put on her hat, shoes and coat, and stopped a cab that passed by. “Drive me up the road and round Havelock Crescent and see if we can find a gentleman running about in a velveteen coat and no hat.” “Very good, ma’am.” And the cabman whipped up at once in the most matter-of-fact way.

(24) Some few minutes later, the little group of cabmen at the cabmen’s shelter were startled by the passing of a cab with a several ginger-colored horses driven furiously.

(25) Must be an emergency, they said. Moments later, they were stunned to see another cab racing by.

(26) “It’s Old George,” said one, “and he’s driving a lunatic, as you say.”

(27) The group became excited. “Go George! It’s a race! You’ll get him!”

(28) The sight of a third cab flying by aroused more curiosity. Minnie went by in a perfect roar of applause. She did not like it but she felt that she was doing her duty. She fixed her eyes on the animated back of Old George that was driving her husband.

(29) The man in the foremost cab sat crouched in the comer, with the little tube gripped in his hand. He felt a mixture of fear and exultation. Chiefly he was afraid of being caught before he could accomplish his purpose but behind this was a vaguer but larger fear of the awfulness of his crime. But his joy far exceeded his fear. No Anarchist before him had ever approached this. All those distinguished persons whose fame he had envied became insignificant. He had only to break the little tube into a well. How brilliantly he had planned it, faked the letter of introduction, and got into the laboratory. How brilliantly he had seized his opportunity! The world should hear of him at last. All those people who had sneered at him and neglected him should consider him at last. Death! They had always treated him as nobody. All the world had been in a conspiracy to keep him under. He would teach them yet what it is to isolate a man. He stuck his head out of the cab. The Bacteriologist was scarcely fifty yards behind. That was bad. He would be caught and stopped yet. He felt in his pocket for money and found half a sovereign. This he waved the money in the cabman’s face. “More,” he shouted, “if only we get away.”

(30) The money was snatched out of his hand. The cab swayed as it sped up. The Anarchist put the hand containing the little glass tube on the bench to preserve his balance. He felt the tube cracked and saw what it contained flow onto the cab floor. He let out a curse and stared dismally at the two or three drops of moisture on the apron.

(31) He shuddered.

(32) “Well! I suppose I shall be the first. Anyhow. I shall be a Martyr. That’s something But I wonder if it hurts as much as they say.”

(33) He picked up the broken end of the tube, where there was still a little drop inside. And he drank that to make sure. He would not fail.

(34) Then it dawned upon him that there was no further need to escape. In Wellington Street he told the cabman to stop and got out. He slipped on the step. His head felt queer. It was rapid stuff this cholera poison. He stood on the pavement with his arm folded upon his breast awaiting the arrival of the Bacteriologist. There was something tragic in his pose. The sense of death gave him a certain dignity. He laughed.

(35) “You are too late, my friend. I have drunk it. Long live anarchy!”

(36) The Bacteriologist from his cab beamed curiously at him. “You have drunk it! An Anarchist! I see now.” He was about to say something more but stopped. He opened the cab door as if to get off. The Anarchist waved him a dramatic farewell and strode off to Waterloo Bridge, carefully bumping his infected body against as many people as possible. The Bacteriologist was so shocked that he didn’t notice Minnie appearing on the pavement with his hat and shoes and overcoat. “Very good of you to bring my things.” he said and remained lost in his thoughts.

(37) “You had better get in,” he said. Minnie felt convinced now that he was mad and directed the cabman home. The cab began to turn, hiding the black figure in the distance from the Bacteriologist’s eyes. Then suddenly something strange struck him and he laughed. Then he remarked, “It is really very serious though.”

(38) “You see, that man came to my house to see me and he is an Anarchist. No-don’t faint, or I cannot possibly tell you the rest. And I wanted to astonish him, not knowing he was an Anarchist, and took up a cultivation of that new species of Bacterium I think caused the blue patches upon various monkeys. Like a fool, I said it was Asiatic cholera. And he ran away with it to poison the water of London, and he certainly might have made things look blue for this civilized city. And now he has swallowed it. Of course, I cannot say what will happen, but you know it turned that kitten blue, and the three puppies-in patches, and the sparrow-bright blue But the bother is, I shall have all the trouble and expense of preparing some more.”

(39) “Put on my coat on this hot day! Why? Because we might meet Mrs. Jabber? My dear! Mrs. Jabber is not a draught. But why should I wear a coat on a hot day because of Mrs. -? Oh! Very well.”

A. one who suffers greatly or is killed, esp. due to political or religious beliefs

B. clever language that sounds good but is not sincere or meaningless

C. someone who wishes to destroy the existing government and laws

D. a substance that has been specially prepared for use as a medicine

E. to look at something with great interest and enthusiasm

F. to show, express or direct through movement

G. to eat all of something quickly and eagerly

前5个小题根据小说内容，判断表述是否正确，正确的请选A，错误的选B。第6-10个小题,请在A-G选项中找出五个单词在文中的正确英文释义，其中有两个是多余选项。最后一个小题, 根据小说内容用完整句子回答问题。

1.The visitor, with the help of the Bacteriologist, saw the living disease bacteria on the glass slip.

2.Minnie chased after her husband to bring him the coat and shoes he needed.

3.Seeing the tube broken and its content spilt, the Anarchist felt angry and disappointed first.

4.By saying “it is really very serious though”, the Bacteriologist showed his care about the Anarchist.

5.The Bacteriologist knew who the visiting man was and played a trick on him.

6.preparation (Para. 5)

7.devour (Para. 9)

8.rhetoric (Para. 11)

9.gesticulate (Para. 22)

10.Marty (Para. 32)

11.What is the theme of this story, and how is it relevant to today’s society and culture?