It was 1:30 a.m. Monday at London's Savoy Hotel and, with autograph books and cameras, a group of brighteyed tennis fans of all ages were waiting for just a glimpse of Maria Sharapova .     The 17-year-old girl defeated champion Serena Williams  6-1 6-4 in the Wimbledon final on Saturday in London to become the first Russian to win a single title at the championships.     A silver lining to a depressing, rain-hit Wimbledon, she has raised heated passion.     Nobody was complaining, though, for the 1.83-metre Sharapova has created a welcome wave of interest in tennis, something missing in recent years.     Not even Anna Kournikova evoked  such passion when she broke on to the scene. To look good on court is one thing, but Sharapova can actually play the game too. Extremely well.     She proved it over 13 days at the world's most prestigious tournament. Playing tennis of the highest quality throughout, the Russian's triumph not only lifted the tournament from fits of rain-induced depression but also salvaged(;) the season for the woman's tour.      Sharapova was given no easy ride in the tournament, having to beat 1999 champion Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals and twice-champion Serena Williams for the title. Neither caused her much concern.     "I don't remember too much about the final," Sharapova giggled. "I was in my own place."     She will find it increasingly hard to find any place to call her own from now on after advertisers identified her as the most marketable woman in sport.     In Russia she is sensational news. She headlined the news bulletins and was telephoned by former Russian President Boris Yeltsin after her triumph.    Sharapova will return to her adoptive Florida home knowing life will never be the same again.     But the girl who arrived in the US aged seven with her father and just US$700 is determined not to let fame and riches detract from her number one love, tennis.     "I know things will start coming up and that many more things will want to get involved, but I want to keep my... Before Sharapova, there was(were)   _   Russian(s) who had won the title. A) Four. B) Two. C) One. D) No.
D

After a 15-year ban on the sale of fireworks in Beijing, Kang Guoliang, 51, was able to start his old trade again yesterday. As a salesman in Xinhui store in Dongcheng District, he is happy about the increasing number of buying fireworks wrapped in red paper -- a color standing for happiness and good luck. "Fireworks are available for the first time in town for more than a decade," Kang said happily."People will buy them." The store has 300 boxes of fireworks piled up and is open 24 hours at the moment.Residents are buying the fireworks and firecrackers for the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on February 18. Citywide, 2,116 registered stores and retailers, 585 in the centre and 1,600 on the outskirts are trading fireworks in the Chinese capital.Sales of fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road started yesterday and will last until March 4, Xinhua reported.Among the stores, 117 stores are permitted to operate 24 hours.About 600,000 boxes of firecrackers worth more than 100 million yuan have been carried to registered stores. The Chinese capital began a ban in 1993 to reduce fireworks-related deaths and fires during the holiday season.Last September the ban was removed in response to residents' fondness for fireworks when celebrating Spring Festival. According to new rules, Beijing residents are allowed to set off fireworks within the Fifth Ring Road all day on Lunar New Year's Eve and Lunar New Year's day, from 7 a.m.to midnight every day from February 19 to March 4. "Spring Festival without fireworks is not Spring Festival," said Sheng Hefei, who was buying fireworks in the store."It was fun to light the firecrackers when I was little," he said."The sound and view of fireworks make a real holiday." However, not all residents welcome the return of firecrackers because of injuries, pollution and noise."My child is scared of the sudden sound of firecrackers, and it is annoying to hear it all night long," complained Lu Jun, a local resident. (China Daily02/11/2008) The passage is likely to belong to a(n)  _  ? A) description B) argument C) advertisement D) news report
D

Having learned much about the War of Resistance against Japan, Mao Jingxin didn't like the Japanese when she was a child. "I thought they were cruel and rude," said the 18-year-old girl from Hebei Province. But she began to change her mind after she met some Japanese teenagers in a history museum six years ago. These fashionable high school students looked seriously at the history displays and talked to Mao in a friendly way. "I found that they are not bad as I thought," she said. Like Mao, many Chinese teenagers' are caught up in this confusion. A survey by 21st Century Teens shows about 51 per cent of Chinese teenagers say they dislike Japan. But most of them still want to have a Japanese friend. Also, Japan lies third on their list of Asian countries that they want to visit, following Singapore and South Korea. Teens did a survey just before the 60th anniversary of the victory day of the War of Resistance against Japan, which fell on September 3. The survey aimed to encourage understanding and communication between young Chinese and Japanese. Teens also wanted to understand Chinese teenagers' attitudes towards Japan, and how much they actually know about the country. As Teens found, more than 60 per cent of Chinese teenagers learn about Japan through the media or books. Only 16 per cent have ever met a Japanese person. "Most of my friends hate Japan for what it did to China during World War II. But people should not live in hatred. I think the best way to figure it out is to have contact with the Japanese people myself," Zhang Yuyuan, a Senior 2 girl, told us in the survey. "Japan has done wrong to Asian countries including China and it has caused pain to everyone," said Hikaru, a 17-year-old girl in Kawasaki  . Having visited China four times and learned much, she understands the importance of communication between the two peoples. She plans to join in an exchange programme with Chinese youth. "Welcome to Japan, my Chinese friends!" She says it with a smile. The passage is written to   _  . A) give a brief introduction to the history of the War of Resistance against Japan B) report what Chinese teenagers think about Japan C) provide information about Japanese teenagers D) encourage Chinese teenagers to meet the Japanese

B