1. (2017·常州竞赛) 根据短文理解, 选择正确答案。

    Look! There are thousands of people waiting to buy tickets home in the railway station. Each time when Spring Festival comes, buying tickets of train trip would be very hard. And things seem to be getting worse and worse, although we have greatly increased the mileage(总里程) of railway network and speeded up trains. Why? It's because too many people want to go back home to spend Spring Festival with their family. Many people become angry with the Ministry(部)of Railways. They wonder why it is hopeless for them to get the tickets from the railway station. Instead, they sometimes can only buy them from ticket scalpers at much higher price.

    The Ministry of Railways estimated(估计) that about 216 million passengers would travel by train during the 40-day peak period(高峰期) during the 2010 Spring Festival holiday. The number of travelers will be 8％higher than that of 2009. This problem even attracted the President Hu Jintao's attention. He wrote a note to Liu Zhijun, Minister of the Ministry of Railways, asking him to make sure of a "smooth and safe" transportation. Afterwards, officials from the Ministry of Railways said they would try their best not to let any ticket-buyers spend Spring Festival at the railway station.

1. （1） What does the underlined word "scalper" in the first paragraph mean?

   A . 代售点 B . 售票员 C . 票贩 D . 赌徒
3. （2） Many people can't buy the tickets from the railway station, and they sometimes can only buy them from the scalpers          .

   A . expensively B . wrongly C . dangerously D . hardly
5. （3） How many people took the train trip during the peak period during the 2009 Spring Festival holiday?

   A . About 216 million. B . About 172 million.   C . About 200 million. D . About 233 million.
7. （4） What does the passage mainly tell us?

   A . People go home much more easily during the Spring Festival. B . It is very hard to buy tickets in the railway station during the Spring Festival. C . President Hu Jintao cares about the railway building problem. D . The Ministry of Railways felt sorry about the problem.