The Banquet has been described as a loose adaptation(节选)of "Hamlet", featuring royal conflicts(冲突) and revenge（复仇）which is set in 10th century China. The new Emperor (Ge You) has usurped(篡夺) the throne（帝位）by murdering the previous Emperor. He marries the Empress (Zhang Ziyi), wife of the previous Emperor and stepmother to the Crown Prince (Daniel Wu).
At first, the Empress seeks only to protect herself, but as the new Emperor grows suspicious(疑心) of all those around him, she realizes that only by helping the Crown Prince kill him can she hope to survive. Together with the Chief Minister (Ma Jingwu)，she tries to carry out this plot, but when the Prince is destroyed by hesitation, she thinks out a new plan and seeks the throne for herself. As the plot move towards its climax(高潮), the Emperor calls for a plentiful royal banquet, where each will seek the end of their enemies.
The Banquet differs from Hamlet in that it does not focus on the prince, but examines the feelings of each character. According to director Feng Xiaogang: "If Hamlet is about a prince who must make a choice involving life and death, then The Banquet is about how each character must face a choice of life or death... All are motivated by desire, but as soon as they have begun their plans must grow more extreme, and they move step-by-step towards the abyss(深渊)... They do not intend evil, but turn to it out of self-preservation and ever-growing ambition（野心）."
1. As far as we can tell from the text, the Empress ________.
A. She is just the wife of the new Emperor.
B. She is the later mother of the Crown Prince.
C. She helps her own son to kill the Emperor.
D. She takes the place of the Emperor finally.
2. The author wants to tell us the following EXCEPT that _______.
A. The new Emperor feels doubt about the affairs around him.
B. The Empress does all she could to survive herself.
C. The Crown Prince shows uncertainty in action.
D. The new Emperor owns the authority all the way.
3. Feng Xiaogang’s words imply（暗示）that ___________.
A. The Banquet is about royal conflicts.
B. The Banquet’s characters are full of desire.
C. The Banquet involves life and death.
D. The Banquet is different from the Hamlet.
4. Which of the following is the best title for this text?
A. The Banquet differs from the Hamlet.
B. The main characters in the play.
C. The plot（情节）of the Banquet.
D. The ambition of each character.
Children are our future, and it’s up to us to arm them with the tools to succeed. Sadly, today’s children are being armed with more dangerous tools like weapons （武器）, drugs and gangs. Once a relatively peaceful environment, many schoolyards of today are becoming unsafe for both students and teachers.
Home schools are available to give you choices. Home schooling provides top-quality education, flexibility, and freedom to create your own schedule （日程表）. At Heritage Home School we believe the choice should be yours.
Thanks in part to modern technology, home schooling information is becoming readily available across our nation. A recent study by the ITBS（Iowa Tests of Basic Skills）and TAP（Tests of Achievement and Proficiency）shows us that students of home schools do particularly well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject at every grade level, students of home schooling scored obviously higher than those in public and private schools.
If you’re new to home schooling, you may be asking yourself, “Will home schools really work for my children? ”
Fact: A nationwide study using a random（任意）selection of 1,516 families found students of home schooling to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement test.
Note: The national average on standardized achievement tests is the 50th percentile.
Collectively, the staff（全体职员）at Heritage Home School brings 65 years of experience in home schooling curriculum（全部课程）. We’ve placed students in the top 2% of the nation in math and many are successfully moving on to college.
One study found that of the home schooled adults, 2% were unemployed, 2% were on welfare（福利）and 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons.
For more home schooling information, call us today toll free at 1（877）532-7665. We can learn from the first paragraph that _______.
| A．many schools armed their students with weapons |
| B．violence and crime exist in many schoolyards |
| C．students use weapons to defend their schoolyards |
| D．weapons are more dangerous than drugs |
All of the following are true of home schools EXCEPT that _______.
students are free to choose their courses
B. students do well in important national tests
C. they help students find jobs
D. they help students to be independent What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To give information about different schools. |
| B．To compare home schools with other schools. |
| C．To suggest a new method of school education. |
| D．To persuade people to choose home schools. |
The advertisement is mainly aimed at _______.
| A．students | B．parents | C．teachers | D．adults |
Students of home schooling get higher scores than those in public and private schools ____ .
| A．in some subjects at every grade level | B．in part subjects at every grade level |
| C．in few subjects at every grade level | D．in all subjects at every grade level |
Edward Wilson is America's, if not the world's, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world's natural resources. How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.
Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today's Walden Pond with that of Thoreau's day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Can the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?
Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species(物种) are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.
At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may as well read and act on the ideas in this book.We learn from the text that Wilson cares most about .
| A．the environment for plants |
| B．the biodiversity of our earth |
| C．the waste of natural resources |
| D．the importance of human values |
How many species are most important to our present food supply?
| A．Twenty | B．Eighty | C．One hundred | D．Ten thousand |
Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to .
| A．learn how to farm scientifically |
| B．builds homes for some dying species |
| C．makes it clear what to eat |
| D．use more species for food |
We can infer that the text is
| A．description of natural resources |
| B．a research report |
| C．a book review |
| D．an introduction to a scientist |
The best example of something is often called the "gold standard." It sets the standard against which other things are measured. In economics, the term describes how major trading nations once used gold to set currency values and exchange rates. Many nations continued to use the gold standard until the last century.
In the United States, people could exchange paper money for gold from the eighteen seventies until nineteen thirty-three. Then-President Richard Nixon finally disconnected the dollar from the value of gold in nineteen seventy-one. From time to time, some politicians call for a return to the gold standard.
In 1978, the International Monetary Fund ended an official gold price. The IMF also ended the required use of gold in transactions with its member countries. Since that time, gold prices have grown and continued to be high. But people keep buying. Some people are "gold bugs." These are investors who say people should buy gold to protect against inflation(通货膨胀).
People have valued gold for thousands of years. The soft, dense metal polishes to a bright yellow shine and resists most chemical reactions. It makes a good material for money, political power -- and, more recently, electrical power. If you own a device like a mobile phone or a computer, you might own a little gold in the wiring.
The gold standard was the subject of one of the best-known speeches in American political history. William Bryan wanted the country to use both gold and silver as money. The idea was to devalue the dollar and make it easier for farmers to pay their debts. So he delivered a speech, which made him famous. He was a presidential candidate three times. But he never won.The underlined word “transactions” probably means “”
| A．wars | B．trade | C．meetings | D．conflict |
After the IMF ended the official gold price, the gold prices .
| A．stayed the same | B．began to drop |
| C．increased | D．increased a little at first and kept drop |
What’s the fourth paragraph mainly about?
| A．The reason for valuing gold | B．The history of the use of gold |
| C．New function of gold | D．How to obtain gold |
We can learn from the last paragraph that William Bryan .
| A．was once a farmer | B．loved to collect gold |
| C．was a famous political figure | D．was a good at giving speeches |
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, four or five of whom lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has to take care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.
This important change in women's life-patterns has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls took a full-time job after they left school. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen; many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry older, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.At what age did most women marry around the 1890 according to the passage?
| A．At about twenty-five | B．In their earl fifties |
| C．At the age of fifteen | D．At any age from fifteen to forty-five |
Many girls, the passage claims, are now likely to_______.
| A．give up their jobs for good after they are married |
| B．leave school as soon as they can |
| C．marry so that they can get a job |
| D．continue working until they are going to have a baby |
When she was over fifty, a late nineteenth-century mother ______.
| A．was usually expected to die fairly soon |
| B．would expect to work until she died |
| C．would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs |
| D．was less likely to find a job even if she wanted to |
Nowadays, a husband tends to_______.
| A．play a greater part in looking after the children |
| B．help his wife by doing much of the housework |
| C．feel dissatisfied with his role in the family |
| D．take a part-time job so that he can help in the home |
My brother Ron joined the US army a few years ago. Most girls, especially those who are my age, are thrilled by anything that has to do with the “army”. It’s a novelty to them to shoot a gun, jump out of a plane, and wear uniform.
Now I know you’re thinking that I must find it really cool to know a solider, who’s my brother. That’s wrong, before I found out that my brother joined the army, I was crazy about the army. Firstly, I wanted to go to college, knew that joining the army was probably the only way I could get it as my parents couldn’t afford it. Additionally there were all the other points of the army that grabbed my heart. I wanted the challenge, I wanted the discipline and I wanted the feeling that I would be doing something beyond the ability of average citizen.
But as soon as my brother joined the army, all those things fell away. All I saw were dead people, guns shooting, tanks turning into a ball of fire, tents burning, and lots of blood. It was so horrible. When Ron went to Iraq, I freaked out whenever I didn’t hear from him for more than a week. I kept up with the news, reading the latest newspaper and listening to the hourly reports. And every time I heard that an American solider was killed, I prayed, it’ wasn’t Ron.
I’m proud of my brother for serving our country, and his willingness to devote his life to something he finds important. It’s great to see how discipline and mature he’s got, and I’m glad he has his college paid for. But although I am proud, I gladly give up the “coolness” of having a brother in the army. I would be perfectly all right if I had never seen that uniform on him, and he was just a plain old “boring” brother.
I love my brother, and I’m proud of him, but I want him back home!What did the writer think of the army before Ron joined?
| A．Joining the army was more beneficial than going to college. |
| B．Joining the army was a good choice for those who couldn’t afford college education. |
| C．Joining the army was meant risking one’s life for something important, |
| D．Joining the army did more harm than good. |
After Ron joined the army, the writer .
| A．decide to join the army one day |
| B．became afraid of seeing soldiers |
| C．often showed off Ron in front of friends |
| D．became aware of the danger of joining the army |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Peace or war? |
| B．Life in the army |
| C．Having a soldier in the family |
| D．A choice between your life and your dream |