Alia Baker is a librarian in Iraq. Her library used to be a  1  place for all who loved books and liked to share knowledge. They   2   various matters all over the world. When the war was near, Alia was  3  that the fires of war would destroy the books, which are more __4__ to her than mountains of gold. The books are in every language — new books, ancient books,   5   a book on the history of Iraq that is seven hundred years old.

She had asked the government for  6  to move the books to a  7  place, but they refused. So Alia took matters into her own hands.  8  , she brought books home every night,  __9  her car late after work. Her friends came to  10  her when the war broke out. Anis who owned a restaurant __11  to hide some books. All through the  12_ , Alia, Anis, his brothers and neighbours took the books from the library,  13  them over the seven-foot wall and __14  

them in the restaurant. The books stayed hidden as the war  15  . Then nine days later, a fire burned the  16  to the ground.

One day, the bombing stopped and the  17__ left. But the war was not over yet. Alia knew that if the books were to be safe, they must be  18  again while the city was  19  . So she hired a truck to bring all the books to the houses of friends in the suburbs(½¼Çø). Now Alia waited for the war to end and   20   peace and a new library.

1. A. meeting           B. working          C. personal         D. religious

2. A. raised            B. handled          C. reported         D. discussed

3. A. worried           B. angry                C. doubtful         D. curious

4. A. practical         B. precious         C. reliable         D. expensive

5. A. then              B. still                C. even             D. rather

6. A. permission        B. confirmation     C. explanation          D. information

7. A. large         B. public               C. distant              D. safe

8. A. Fortunately       B. Surprisingly     C. Seriously            D. Secretly

9. A. starting          B. parking          C. filling              D. testing

10. A. stop         B. help             C. warn             D. rescue

11. A. intended     B. pretended            C. happened         D. agreed

12. A. war          B. night                C. building         D. way

13. A. put              B. opened           C. passed               D. threw

14. A. hid              B. exchanged            C.burnt             D. distributed

15. A. approached       B. erupted          C. continued            D. ended

16. A. restaurant       B. library              C. city             D. wall

17. A. neighbours       B. soldiers         C. friends              D. customers

18. A. sold         B. read             C. saved                D. moved

19. A. occupied     B. bombed           C. quiet                D. busy

20. A. dreamed of       B. believed in          C. cared about          D. looked for