Customs are social habits. They have been handed down through generations (代) among groups, social classes, etc. Customs can be described as ways of doing things. They are particularly (特别) strong in social practices on the occasions (场合) of births, marriages and deaths.
In China, these days, some people in cities are learning from Western customs. For example, some brides dress in the long white dress that is usual bridal wear in many Western countries.
Every people (民族) has special customs for New Year. The Han people have many interesting Spring Festival customs. And now, quite a number of people living in the cities have followed the Western customs of sending New Year greeting cards for January 1st.
One interesting custom in China is that mothers wrap (包) up their babies tightly (紧紧的).This is not the custom in Western countries, where babies are usually dressed in loose garments.
6. It is true that customs .
A. have been formed during a short time
B. have been formed little by little
C. have been quickly formed and changed
D. have never been changed
7. In this passage, the word “garment” is .
A. a kind of food B. a bed
C. a sort of clothes D. a room
8. How do the Chinese young people learn from Western countries at their marriages?
A. The brides（新娘）have on the white clothes.
B. Men wear the white coats.
C. Their parents all have attended their marriages.
D. Their marriages are only held in the men’s homes.
9. From this passage we know .
A. the people all over China spend New Year in the same way
B. people in the villages and cities send New Year greeting cards to each other
C. each people has his special custom for New Year
D. most of Chinese people take Spring Festival seriously
10. The difference about clothing between Chinese and Western babies is that .
A. Chinese babies are usually dressed in new clothes
B. Chinese mothers are used to dressing their babies in colourful clothes
C. Western babies are dressed in bigger clothes while Chinese babies are usually wrapped
D. Western babies have more clothes than Chinese babies
Hallmark arrived in my hometown of Calcutta, India when I was 16. On Valentine's Day, I waited in line with many other teenagers just for a chance to get into the store. I remember wishing two things. One of them is that the good-looking boy whom I could see through the store window was picking out a gift for me. Unfortunately, Valentine's Day passed and I received nothing but a lecture from my father on how Western capitalism (资本主义) was ruining our culture.
The next Valentine's Day, I still didn't have a boyfriend, but I did receive a greeting card from a secret admirer. I can't remember what it exactly said inside the card, but it hardly mattered. I know I'm not the only one who's had the blues because of being single on Valentine's Day.
It's not just on Valentine's Day that I'm reminded of these feelings. One night, my friend and I were at the subway station in New York City waiting for the local to arrive. The station was mostly full of college students, and later an older couple walked in. Just at that moment, a street musician started playingShe's only a Woman to Me. The couple began dancing around the station and was lost in their own world. On the train. I found myself recalling the time when I was with a date at the subway station, and there he picked me up in his arms like I was a ballerina(芭蕾舞女演员).
My view of romance has changed from when I was 16 in Calcutta to now, 23, and living in Manhattan. This year, I won't focus all my romantic expectations on one particular day. I'll spend Valentine's Day with friends in New York City. But I won't try to hide somewhere or turn off my cellphone. Instead, I'll help my coupled-up friends pack for their weekend trips to Rome.The underlined word "Hallmark" in Paragraph 1 probably refers to a ______.
| A．city |
| B．street |
| C．store |
| D．man |
According to Paragraph 2, if someone has the blues, he is probably ______.
| A．lonely |
| B．angry |
| C．excited |
| D．sad |
Who made the writer recall her romantic experience at the subway station?
| A．One of her friends. |
| B．The college students. |
| C．The dancing couple. |
| D．The street musician. |
What is implied in the passage?
| A．The writer now has a boyfriend. |
| B．The writer now is afraid of Valentine's Day. |
| C．The writer will go to Rome with her coupled-up friends. |
| D．The writer's attitude towards Valentine's Day has changed. |
Teachers battle student stress
Teachers of Anna University participate in a workshop on helping students deal with stress. How do you handle an adolescent who refuses to speak, even about his project, or a student who is very attentive in class but fails to perform in examinations?
Two months the before a new group of students enter engineering colleges, lecturers and professors of Anna University are being advised on how to handle students and help them handle stress better.
In a series of workshops organized by the Centre for Empowerment of Women, Anna University, the lecturers are trained in specific ways to help students understand personal and academic stress.
"Students come here from varied backgrounds and the biggest challenge is to get them to open up and speak boldly," said HemaAchyuthan, director of Centre for Empowerment of Women.
The workshop on Friday was handled by Counsellor PrabhaArun who said that students tend to approach only those teachers who make them feel relaxed. Lecturers assume that college students are more responsible but the transition from school often takes time.
"Observing students' behaviour helps a lot, "said teachers. Y. Vidhya Lakshmi, a physics lecturer, said, "We might observe a student behaving differently but only when we talk to hostel wardens do we get a better picture of his recent activities. Also, the fact that teachers keep changing every semester does not allow students to establish longer relationships with them."
Teachers say that the 45 minutes allocated every week for counselling students is hardly adequate to understand their problems. Also, teachers are expected to shoulder more responsibilities, such as handling additional programs and submitting research papers. This leaves them with very little time to communicate with students. Teachers of Anna University attend the workshop so that they can help students _______.
| A．have the ability to speak |
| B．fight with their stress |
| C．adapt to the university life well |
| D．gain higher grades in exams |
We can know from the passage that _ _
| A．two months after the new students enter the college, teachers will be trained in workshops |
| B．the biggest difficulty for the new students entering the college is to speak freely and boldly |
| C．PrabhaArun is a physics lecturer and also a director in Anna University |
| D．lecturers think that school takes up more responsibility for the students' stress |
Students have difficulty in setting up longer relationships with teachers because _______.
| A．teachers are not always available at any time |
| B．teachers keep changing every semester |
| C．students are busy with their project all the time |
| D．students are bearing too much pressure |
The underlined' word in the last paragraph probably means "______".
| A．set aside |
| B．put down |
| C．set up |
| D．cut out |
News One
Much of Pakistan faces more storms in the coming days. Heavy rains have already caused more than two weeks of record flooding. Health officials worry about disease spreading because of a lack of clean drinking water. The United Nations wants four hundred and sixty million dollars to provide immediate help for fourteen million people affected by the flooding. About l,600 people have died because of the floods.
The Pakistani ambassador(大使) to the UN says the floods could limit his country's economic growth this year. The cotton industry has been hit especially hard. Pakistan has cancelled official Independence Day celebrations that were set for Saturday.
News Two
Russian officials are reporting progress against wildfires that have blackened parts of the country and polluted the air. Russia has requested technical assistance. President Obama called President Dmitri Medvedev on Thursday to tell him that American firefighting equipment is on the way.
A girl in Moscow wears a mask to protect herself from thick smoke caused by wildfires last week. The fires are not the only problem. President Medvedev says Russia has lost about one-fourth of its grain crops this year because of heat and dry weather. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has banned grain exports until the end of the year. Russia is a major wheat exporter. But crops have been hit hard by the record heat this summer. During the past week, bread prices in Russia have jumped by twenty percent.
But skies cleared over Moscow after days of heavy pollution, and there were cooling rains. The city set a new record for itself when temperatures reached thirty-nine degrees Celsius on July 30.
News Three
American scientists reported on Friday that this July was the second warmest worldwide in records dating back to 1880. The government report said the average temperature for January through July was the warmest on record. Global warming keeps the temperature growing year by year.What does News One talk about?
| A．The record floods happened in Pakistan. |
| B．The celebrations of Independence Day. |
| C．The reason of the floods. |
| D．The trouble of Pakistan caused by wildfires. |
It is implied in News One that _____
| A．Pakistan is often hit by heavy storms |
| B．the floods have caused a loss to Pakistan's economy |
| C．many countries are willing to help Pakistan |
| D．most people in Pakistan are threatened by diseases |
What does the underlined word "assistance" in News Two mean?
| A．Help. |
| B．Information. |
| C．Skill. |
| D．Guide. |
From the passage we know that the wildfires in Russia ______.
| A．were started by human activities |
| B．have been put off by cooling rains |
| C．have affected the prices of bread in the country |
| D．caused the country to import wheat from other countries |
A Bite of China, a food documentary series that hastriggered online shopping crazes for the various dishes shown in the program, has also bitten into the lives of the people it covered. One of those, Huang Guosheng, 59,is a farmer who makes and sells yellow steamed buns with his wife in Suide County, Shaanxi Province.
Following the airing of the documentary, he was approached by JiaGuolong, the owner of Xi Bei Northwest Dishes in Beijing.
Jia was hoping to convince the farmer to join his team and make his special buns for customers in his popular restaurant chain, which is characterized by cuisine from the northwestern Chinese countryside.
"I told Huang my idea. The farmer, simple andhonest as he seemed in the documentary, said he didn't really understand what I was doing, "Jia said.
"So I invited him to Beijing to visit the restaurant's outlets."
But an Internet buzz was raised soon. While some netizens said Jia made a smart move to promote his brand and help Huang lead a better life, others argued it was a clear publicity stunt and a commercial "abduction".
"I won't deny the publicity issue. Thedocumentary has been enormously popular and Huang has become more celebrated, "Jia said.
"But as a businessman, there is nothing wrong with grabbing a chance to boost my business," he said. Despite the publicity, Jia said that what really mattered was that his intentions were lOO-percent good.
"From the documentary, you can tell Huang's life is far from rich. He works hard and walks miles to the town to sell his steamed yellow buns, but his earnings are very limited," Jia said.
"I want him to have a better life. If there is a chance that could enable him to enhance his life by doing the same thing he used to do, why not take it,"Jia said.
Jia disagreed with the term" abduction" and said Huang would make a decision for himself.
"To those who mentioned the word ‘abduction’, how do you know Huang doesn't want to change his life," Jia said. The underlined word in the first paragraph probably means _________.
| A．force | B．arouse |
| C．rise | D．forbid |
JiaGuolong invited Huang Guosheng to Beijing mainly to __________.
| A．let Huang understand what Jia is doing with his restaurant |
| B．show Huang around the places of interest in Beijing |
| C．convince Huang to join him in dealing with his restaurant |
| D．help him lead a happier and richer life than ever |
From the passage, we can infer that_________.
| A．not all the netizens think highly of Jia's move |
| B．Jia denied his publicity issue of his move |
| C．Huang makes a lot of money from selling his buns |
| D．Jia agreed with the term "abduction" |
Jia's words ill the last paragraph probably mean that____，
| A．Huang will not agree to join him in his team |
| B．Huang has shown his willingness to join him |
| C．Jia believes it is likely that Huang will want to join him |
| D．Huang's life has already changed in a positive way |
Chinese students get annual stress test
More than nine million people sit the exams.known as the gaokao and it seems that the wholecountry keeps a respectful distance-even the carhorns are banned near the exam halls.
About 280, 000 police officers are put on securitytraffic detail during the exams. There are 106roadblocks around the exam halls in Beijing alone.
People need a bit of help around exam time andthere are large crowds around the Buddhist temples.At Yaoshan in Henan Province, authorities areallowing candidates to "hug the feet" of their 200-metre tall Buddha there for free during theexaminations to bring good luck.
The candidates' chances of getting into college are better than ever — the 9.15 million students are competing for 6.85 million places, and the numbers are falling: they are down l.4 million since 2008.
The education ministry said this was because the graduation-age population has fallen and becausemore students want to study abroad. There is also a feeling that the safe job in the public sector-the"iron rice bow"— which many students are hoping to achieve after graduation,is not the draw it used to be as the private sector becomes more alluring.
Every year at this time, teachers are on thelookout for increasingly inventive cheats. Earlier this week, police in Jiangxi Province discovered a group of people making exam-cheatingequipments, and arrested 63 people.
One 83-year-old man took the exams for the12th time this year, saying everyone needs theirdream. "He needs a better dream," one personquipped on the net. "Don't take a place away from a young person." From the passage we can infer that ____________.
| A．the car whistles are completely cancelledduring the college entrance exam |
| B．the college entrance exam is considered awesome by all the country |
| C．about 280, 000 police officers are put on security traffic detail in Beijing during gaokao |
| D．"hugging the feet"of the Buddha must bring good luck to the candidates |
The number of the students sitting the college entrance exam in 2008 is ________.
| A．more than 10. 5 million |
| B．less than l. 4 million |
| C．9.15 million |
| D．6. 85 million |
Which of the following statements is not the reason for the falling candidate number?
| A．The graduation-age population has fallen. |
| B．More students want to study abroad. |
| C．The "iron rice bowl" is not the draw. |
| D．The cost of attending the college is high. |
The underlined word in the last paragraphprobably means in Chinese.
| A．嘲讽 |
| B．关心 |
| C．担忧 |
| D．装备 |