nickname is a shortened form of a person's name. A nickname also can be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing. Many American cities have nicknames. These can help establish an identity, spread pride among citizens and build unity.
A few years ago, some marketing and advertising experts were asked to name the best nickname for an American city. The winner was the nation's largest city, New York. The top nickname was The Big Apple.
You might wonder how New York got this nickname. In the early nineteen seventies, the city had many problems. The number of visitors was falling. So a campaign was launched to give the city a new image. The head of the New York Conventions and Visitors Bureau decided to call the city, The Big Apple.
There are several explanations for where this name came from. Language expert Barry Popik studied the question and wrote about it on his Web site. He says John Fitz Gerald, a writer for a New York newspaper, used the name The Big Apple to mean New York in the nineteen twenties. Mister Fitz Gerald wrote about horse races. He heard the name used by men who worked at a racetrack in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Mister Fitz Gerald wrote: "The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York."
In horse racing, the expression meant "the big time," the place where large amounts of money could be won. The Big Apple became the name of a night club in the Harlem area of New York City in nineteen thirty-four. It also was the name of a popular dance and a hit song in the nineteen thirties.
But it is not the only nickname for America's largest city. Barry Popik's web site lists almost one hundred nicknames that describe New York. The best known are The Capital of the World. Empire City. Gotham. The City So Nice They Named it Twice. And, The City That Never Sleeps. You can hear about the city in the song, "New York, New York," by Frank Sinatra. Why do many American cities have nicknames?（回答词数不超过15个）
What did John Fitz Gerald write about for the New York newspaper?（回答词数不超过5个）
Besides “The Big Apple”, how many best known nicknames that describe New York are listed according to Barry Popik's web site?（回答词数不超过2个）
It seems that politicians around the world are thinking about the health of their countries. While in China, Chen Zhu has announced his plans for a universal（全体的，普遍的）health service and reform across health services. Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, has also announced he is planning to make some changes in our health service.
The crux（关键）of Mr. Brown's proposals are related to giving the NHS (National Health Service) a greater focus on prevention, rather than just curing patients.
He is planning to introduce increased screening for common diseases such as heart disease, strokes（中风）, and cancer, for example, breast cancer. In Britain there are 200,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and strokes, many of which might have been avoided if the condition had been known about.
Initially, the diagnostic (诊断的) tests will be available for those who are vulnerable, or most likely to have the disease. One example is a plan to offer all men over 65 an ultrasound test to check for problems with the main artery (动脉), a condition which kills 3,000 men a year.
The opposition have criticized Mr. Brown's proposals, saying that they are just a trick, and claiming that there is no proper timetable for the changes. They also say that Mr. Brown is reducing the money available for the treatment of certain conditions while putting more money towards testing for them.
The NHS was founded in 1948, and is paid for by taxation. The idea is that the rich pay more towards the health service than the poor. However in recent years there has been a great increase in the use of private healthcare, because it’s much quicker. NHS waiting lists for operations can be very long, so many people who can afford it choose to pay for medical care themselves.The underlined word vulnerable in the fourth paragraph probably means ________.
| A．sick | B．weak | C．wounded | D．old |
All the following statements are true except that _________.
| A．all people should pay for their healthcare at the NHS. |
| B．some people are against the reform of the healthcare. |
| C．the writer is likely to come from Britain. |
| D．more money will be spent on testing people than before. |
Which of the following is the reason for the increasing private healthcare?
| A．People are paying more attention to their own health. |
| B．People are well off enough to pay their healthcare. |
| C．The NHS was not available for most of the people. |
| D．It’s not so convenient for people to go to the NHS for their healthcare. |
According to the passage, the purpose of the health reform plan in the UK is to _______
| A．encourage more private healthcare. |
| B．focus on the prevention rather than on curing the patient. |
| C．deal with the main artery problems. |
| D．fight against the opposition in the UK. |
The author of this passage intends to tell us _________.
| A．the NHS should be reformed right away. |
| B．more and more people are dying from diseases. |
| C．the plan to reform the NHS in the UK. |
| D．the criticism of Mr. Brown's proposals. |
Hunting
The days of the hunter are almost over in India. This is partly because there is practically nothing left to kill, and partly because some steps have been taken, mainly by banning tiger-shooting, to protect those animals which still survive.
Some people say that Man is naturally a hunter. I disagree with this view. Surely out earliest forefathers, who at first possessed no weapons, spent their time digging for roots, and were no doubt themselves often hunted by meat-eating animals.
I believe the main reason why the modern hunter kills is that he thinks people will admire his courage in overpowering dangerous animals. Of course, there are some who truly believe that the killing is not really the important thing, and that the chief pleasure lies in the joy of the hunt and the beauties of the wild countryside. There are also those for whom hunting in fact offers a chance to prove themselves and risk death by design; these men go out after dangerous animals like tigers, even if they say they only do it to rid the countryside of a threat. I can respect reasons like these, but they are clearly different from the need to strengthen your high opinion of yourself.
The greatest big-game hunters expressed in their writings something of these finer motives(动机).One of them wrote.
“You must properly respect what you are after and shoot it cleanly and on the animal’s own territory(领地)。You must fix forever in your mind all the wonders of that particular day. This is better than letting him grow a few years older to be attacked and wounded by his own son and eventually eaten, half alive, by other animals, Hunting is not a cruel and senseless killing – not if you respect the thing you kill, not if you kill to enrich your memories, not if you kill to feed your people.”
I can understand such beliefs, and can compare these hunters with those who hunted lions with spears(矛) and bravely caught them by the tail. But this is very different from many tiger—shoots I have seen, in which modern weapons were used.The so—called hunters fired from tall trees or from the backs of trained elephants. Such methods made tigers seem no more dangerous than rabbits. There is no more hunting in India now partly because___.
| A．it is dangerous to hunt there |
| B．hunting is already out of date |
| C．hunters want to protect animals |
| D．there are few animals left to hunt |
The author thinks modern hunters kill mainly____.
| A．to make the countryside safe |
| B．to earn people’s admiration |
| C．to gain power and influence |
| D．to improve their health |
What do we learn about the big-game hunters?
| A．They hunt old animals |
| B．They mistreat animals |
| C．They hunt for food |
| D．They hunt for money |
What is the author’s view on the tiger-shoots he has seen?
| A．Modern hunters lack the courage to hunt face-to-face |
| B．Modern hunters should use more advanced weapons |
| C．Modern hunters like to hunt rabbits instead of tigers |
| D．Modern hunters should put their safety first |
The Best of Friends
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past.” We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seen to be about their families,” said one member of the research team.” They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends.” My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall.” I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.”Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees.”Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework ,I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers’ rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments,” Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in out social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.” What is the popular images of teenagers today?
| A．They worry about school | B．They dislike living with their parents |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles | D．They quarrel a lot with other family members |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___
| A．share family responsibility | B．cause trouble in their families |
| C．go boating with their family | D．make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years age, today’s parents___.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children | B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．care less about their children’s life | D．give their children more freedom |
According to the author, teenage rebellion____.
| A．may be a false belief | B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s | D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Negotiation in family | B．Education in family |
| C．Harmony in family | D．Teenage trouble in family |
Dogs may help save the day in the Philippines, as they use their noses to smell out survivors buried by Friday’s mudslide(泥石流). The team of dogs arrived in the Philippines from Spain, and this Tuesday they were just beginning their work. Search officials told CNN they hope the recent rain will wash away the smell of rescue teams so the dogs can do their job more accurately.
The dogs were brought in after sound equipment found sounds coming from deep inside the ruins, at a place where a school stood before the mudslide covered it. The sounds could mean people are still alive under all the mud or it could just be the earth resettling.
On Monday, rescue workers worked at the school site until three in the morning, trying to locate survivors, and they will begin digging again as soon as the dogs think they find someone.
Human teams from the US, Malaysia, and Australia are all trying to help, too. But so far they have yet to locate any survivors. Rescue workers told CNN that an earlier report that 50 survivors had been found was false.
How did all that mud bury the village in the first place? On Friday, 2,400-foot Mt Kanabag turned into a mudslide after two weeks of constant rain weakened it. The mountain crumbled and the mud fell onto the village Guinsaugon, burying the 1,800 people who lived there . Out of the 300 houses in the village, only 3 were not covered by the mud . The village is on a southern Philippine Island called Levte. Rescue efforts have been difficult because the village takes six hours to reach from the nearest airport. Hopefully, the dogs can help their human friends find survivors.According to the search officials’ words in the first paragraph, we can learn that_________
| A．the smell of rescue teams can disturb the dogs |
| B．the dogs can follow the smell of rescue teams |
| C．the gods can’t smell the rescue teams |
| D．the dogs can tell the differences between people and rescue teams |
The main purpose of this passage is probably_______.
| A．to show the way to rescue the victims in the ruins |
| B．to introduce the instruments to save victims in a disaster |
| C．to tell readers that dogs can smell out victims buried in the ruins |
| D．to show how to train dogs to save victims in a mudslide |
How many survivors were found by the dogs?
| A．50. | B．Only a few. | C．1,800. | D．None. |
The reason why the rescue work wasn’t going smoothly was probably that_______.
| A．the rain was heavy |
| B．so many people were buried |
| C．it was difficult to reach the village |
| D．these is little chance to save the survivors |
The underlined word “crumbled” in the last paragraph can be replaced by______.
| A．broke | B．shook | C．fell | D．moved |
Now let’s talk about doing well by doing good—many people who have ever been volunteers for the community find their place in relative jobs or even make their way to be corporate(团体的)leaders.
Consider the case of Kimberly Mulcahy. Throughout her career, Mulcahy has actively volunteered in her community, profession and industry. Though she put in long hours as Vice President at a Fortune 500 company, she also found time to professional and community organizations.
Then last year, the unexpected thing happened. The company where she’d worked for more than 20 years was bought out and she was laid off.
On hearing the news, those who she served were quick not only to offer her support—but actual jobs! In the end, Mulcahy was hired by a PR agency—she used to work as a director of her industry association. And she brought with her several accounts based on relationships she had formed through volunteering.
Volunteering was a godsend(天赐之物)to Todd, who has been a mid-level manager at the same company for many years. After he was out of work, he felt old and disappointed. But Todd knew he needed a change. Todd became involved in community service. He joined his town’s volunteer fire department and was soon appointed to the finance committee.
Sometimes volunteering helps you bring passion to your work, other times it can turn your life’s passion into your work. Cape Cod Baseball League President Judy Scarafile is a registered pharmacist(药剂师)whose love of the game led her to volunteered as league publicist(宣传员), secretary and deputy commissioner woman to hold the top post.
Whether you are to enter the workforce, build your resume, or follow your passion, volunteering is good for the soul and the career. By saying “doing well by doing good” in Paragraph 1, the author wants to_____.
| A．encourage us just to do it, and it will be better |
| B．encourage us to try as hard as possible |
| C．tell us not to give up |
| D．tell us that people who have volunteered their way into |
Which of the following is NOT true about Mulcahy according to the passage?
| A．Mulcahy put in long hours as Vice President at a Fortune 500 company. |
| B．Mulcahy becomes a famous football player. |
| C．Mulcahy brought with her several accounts based on relationships she had formed through volunteering. |
| D．Mulcahy was hired by a PR agency. |
Which of the following words can best describe Todd?
| A．Learned | B．Lucky | C．Rude | D．Realistic |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Volunteer Work Can Boost Your Career. |
| B．Mulcahy’s Voluntary Work Experience. |
| C．It’s a Good Chance to Be a Volunteer. |
| D．Volunteer Work. |