单选题 Among characters of Leadville' s golden age were H. A. W. Tabor and his second wife, Eliza-beth McCourt. Their history is fast becoming one of the legends of the Old West. He went to Kansas in 1855. Perhaps he was lured by rumors of fortunes to be made in Colorado mines. So a few years later he moved west to the small Colorado mining camp known as California Gulch, which he later renamed Leadville when he became its leading citizen. "Great deposits of lead are sure to be found here. " he said. As it turned out, it was silver that was to make Leadville' s fortune and wealth. Tabor knew little about mining himself, so he opened a general store. It was his custom to "grubstake" prospective miners to supply them with food and supplies, or "grub", while they looked for ore, in return for which he would get a share in the mine if one was discovered. He did this for a number of years, but no one that he aided ever found anything of value. Finally one day in the year 1878, two miners came in and asked for "grub". Tabor had decided to quit supplying it for having lost too much money that way. They were persistent, however ,and Tabor was too busy to argue with them. "Oh help yourself. One more time won' t make any difference," he said and went on selling shoes and hats. The two miners took $17 worth of sup-plies, in return for which they gave Tabor a one-third interest in their findings. They picked a barren place and began to dig. After nine days they struck a rich vein of silver. Tabor bought the shares of the other two men, and so the mine belonged to him alone. This mine, known as the"Pittsburgh Mine," made $1,300,000 for Tabor in return for his $17 investment. Later Tabor bought the Matchless Mine on another barren hillside just outside the town for$117,000. This turned out to be even more fabulous than the Pittsburgh, yielding $ 35,000 worth of silver per day at one time. Leadville grew. Tabor became its first mayor, and later became lieu-tenant governor of the state.
单选题 Leadville got its name for the following reasons EXCEPT
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】细节题。文章第一、二段中讲到这～点时，提及了三个原因：A．因为塔波尔成为当地的居民代表人物；B．因为相信在Leadville有丰富的铅储量；D．因为Leadville是因为塔波尔重要而起的名，唯独C没有，因为到后来发现是银矿才给他带来巨富。故本题选择C。
单选题 The word "grubstake" in paragraph 2 means
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】词汇题。由文中第二段第三句可知，grubstake的意思是“供给探矿者资金、衣物、食品以及其他物品作为回报，供给者可以获得矿中资源的一定份额”。故本题选择D。
单选题 Tabor made his first fortune
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】细节题。由文章第三段可知，塔波尔第一次真正发财是因为他为两名矿工提供资助，为此他获得了他们矿资源三分之一的股份。后来塔波尔又将两人的股份全买下，这样，银矿属于塔波尔一个人所有，这个矿就是后来著名的匹兹堡矿。塔波尔用17美元的投资换来了130万美元的收获。故本题选择A。
单选题 The underlying reason for Tabor' s life career is
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。由原文可知，塔波尔的财产来源是有一定偶然性的，但是毕竟也是基于他开创的“grubstake”模式，所以A、D都不对，C更是没有根据，因为文中并没有提到第二位夫人在投资矿井过程中给他的帮助。分析塔波尔的做法，会得出B选项所示的结论。故本题选择B。
单选题 If this passage is the first part of an article, who might be introduced in the following part?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】推断题。如果本文是一篇文章的第一部分，那么在文章的第二部分将介绍谁呢?答案可以从文章第一句分析出来。在Leadville的黄金年代，塔波尔及其第二任妻子伊丽莎白·麦考特是值得大书特书的，接着，文章讲述了塔波尔发家致富的历史，如先买下匹兹堡矿，后又买下Matchless矿，最后成为市长、副州长等，涉及的全是男主人公，因此下边再讲的话，应会讲女主人公即伊丽莎白·麦考特。故本题选择B。