Have you got any wonderful plans for your coming summer vacation? Here are some wonderful films for you to kill time.
| Away We Go With a baby on his way, a young couple, Burt and Verona, look at their lives and are puzzled about what they really want. So they hit the road and seek a place to call home. On their journey, they visit a handful of characters and learned a lot. It’s about taking the scenic route in life, preparing for the hope and excitement and fear of new beginnings, while never forgetting to look out of the window. |
Orphan Esther, a bright and well-behaved child, however, is not as innocent as she appears. Soon after being taken home, the peace of her adoptive family is completely changed You want a good horror film about a child from hell? Then you got one! Do not, in any cases, take children to see it. |
| 500 Days of Summer Tom is in love with Summer from the moment he sees her. Can he accept that she simply likes him for now, not for forever? The movie is about Tom wrestling with that reality. Tom remembers his love, Summer, as a series of joys and bafflements. But Summer is just herself and he cannot have her. Here is a rare movie that begins by telling us how it will end and is about how the hero has no idea why. |
2012 The director Roland Emmerich successfully dresses a corny story with an old Mayan prediction, which is believed by many to happen in the coming 2012 and as a result, attracts millions of people into the cinema. It’s just an entertaining Hollywood blockbuster(大片) with plenty of jokes, instead of a description of what the end of the world is really like. Don’t take it too seriously! |
45. This passage aims to __________.
A. make comments on films for a cinema B. advertise several films for a website
C. recommend several films for fun D. introduce films for a film corporation
46. If you bring your seven-year-old sister to the cinema, which of the following film should you avoid?
A. Away We Go. B. Orphan. C. 2012. D. 500 Days of Summer.
47. Among all the characters mentioned in the passage, who directed films in Hollywood?
A. Roland Emmerich B. Esther C. Burt and Verona D. Tom and Summer
48. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Orphan is a comedy about Esther adopted by a kind family.
B. 500 Days of Summer is a romance with a happy ending.
C. Away We Go shows beautiful scenery on the young couple’s journey.
D. The ancient Mayan prediction is going to happen in 2012.
Americans have taken over from the Indians many things besides their continent! Where did corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and maple sugar come from? The Indians. Who invented moccasins, snowshoes and hammocks? The Indians!
A list of the tools, plants, materials and designs we owe to the Indians would include hundreds of items. But there is something far more familiar, something that is always at hand. It is used daily by every American: a large vocabulary of Indian words.
Potato, tomato, chocolate, moccasin and hammock came into English from Indian languages. So did cocoa, tobacco, maize (an Indian word for corn) and succotash. Some words have changed on the way. Potato, for example, comes from a word that sounds like “batata”. Cocoa began as “cacahuatl”.
Some meanings have also changed. The long Indian word from which succotash comes means “something broken off in bits”. Indian women often varied their dishes by mixing bits of one food with another. White men who ate an Indian di
sh of mixed lima beans (青豆) and corn began using the Indian word to mean this particular mixt
ure.
Put on your moccasins and take a walk in the country. If it is a cold day and you wear a mackinaw, your jacket will be as Indian as your shoes. But mackinaw came from “michilimackinac”, the Indian name of a place where a fort (集市) served as a trading post. Bright-colored blankets or jackets bought at the post soon became known as “mackinaws”.
Early white visitors to the continent found Indian words useful for the things new to them. But some Indian sounds, such as the “tl” at the end of many words, were hard to say. That is why “coyotl” became coyote and “tomatle” became tomato.
Some words simply seemed too long. So, “musickwautash” became succotash and “rockahominy” became hominy.The first two paragraphs may serve as a(n) .
| A．explanation | B．introduction | C．comment | D．background |
Which of the following has been changed for easier pronunciation?
| A．Batata | B．Chocolate | C．Tomatle | D．Rockahominy |
Some words have changed because .
| A．they are too long |
| B．nobody can use them |
| C．the things they refer to have disappeared |
| D．they are too difficult for people to write |
What is the pass
age mainly about?
| A．How Indian traditions affect us. |
| B．Why Indian words were changed. |
| C．Things we owe to the Indians. |
| D．Indian words all around us. |
If you want to fully enjoy your vacation, then you’d better check the Durban City Tours! This is actually one of the best choices in South Africa today.
There is nothing more relaxing than to think about it that there is a place to go and relax, right? City life is stressful, but you can escape this situation and be in the place where there is noting but fun. Here in Durban you will get to see all the amazing tourist attractions. If you love animals and want to see some elephants wandering around the streets, then Durban is the place to go. You can even get to ride one if you want!
Here you will also get to taste all the delicious South African food. You can choose from Italian cooking to its native dishes. Durban is a great place to tour with your friends and family. You will learn a lot about its history through th
e landmarks you will see down the streets. Tourists and even the local villagers just can’t get enough of these treats!
However, it is important that you make the necessary arrangements. There are actually lots of tour guides that will help you as you make your journey along the streets of Durban. But if you prefer the best tour guides here in Durban, then you’d better settle for the Street Scene Tours. Their staff are all well-trained and professional. Th
ey will certainly make your stay here an unforgettable one. No wonder tourists prefer the Street Scene Tours when it comes to Durban City Tours.What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?
| A．Durban is a relaxing city. |
| B．City life means high pressure. |
| C．It is good to have a place to relax. |
| D．One can have fun riding elephants. |
If you walk in the stre
et of Durban, what will impress you most?
| A．Tourists from all over the world. |
| B．The buildings and many kinds of animals. |
| C．The streets and some wandering elephants. |
| D．The friendly local people and the scenery. |
. What does the last sentence in Paragraph 3 show?
| A．The food can’t satisfy them. |
| B．They are bored with the streets. |
| C．They are treated very well here. |
| D．They never get tired of the sights. |
The author wrote the last paragraph mainly to .
| A．attract tourists to Durban |
| B．help readers make arrangement |
| C．introduce the tour guides in Durban |
| D．persuade tourists to choose the Street Scene Tours |
The New York Times announced Wednesday that it intended to charge frequent readers for access to its Web site, a step being debated across the industry that nearly every major newspaper has so far feared to take.
Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers（订阅者） to the newspaper’s print edition will receive full access to the site.
But exec
utives(执行主管) of The New York Times Company said they could not yet answer fundamental questions about the plan, like how much it would cost or what the limit would be on free reading. They stressed that the amount of free access could change with time, in response to economic conditions and reader demand.
Still, publishers fear that income from digital subscriptions would not compensate for the resulting loss of audience and advertising revenue.
NYTimes.com is by far the most popular newspaper site in the country, with more than 17 million readers a month in the United States, according to Nielsen Online, and analysts say it is easily the lead
er in advertising revenue, as well. That may make it better positioned than other general-interest papers to charge — and also gives The Times more to lose if the move backfires.
The Times Company has been studying the matter for almost a year, searching for common ground between pro- and anti-pay camps — a debate mirrored in dozens of media-watching blogs — and the system will not go into effect until January 2011. Executives said they were not bothered by the prospect of absorbing barbs（冷嘲热讽） for moving cautiously.
“There’s no prize for getting it quick,” said 
Janet L. Robinson, the company’s president and chief executive. “There’s more of a prize for getting it right.”The first paragraph serves as a __________.
| A．conclusion | B．comment | C．lead-in | D．background |
We may know from the passage that __________.
A．non-paying readers will get no access to N YTimes.com |
| B．readers will be charged more to read more articles on NYTimes.com |
| C．visitors to NYTimes.com frequently will get more free online articles |
| D．subscribers to the print edition will enjoy free access to the site as well |
Which of the following best describes The Times Company's attitude towards its announcement?
| A．rude | B． serious | C．hurried | D．doubtful |
The passage is mainly about_________.
| A．the Times to offer free access to its web site |
| B．the Times to increase audience to its web site |
| C．the Times to attract advertisement to its web site |
| D．the Times to charge for frequent access to its web site |
What makes it rain? Rain falls from clouds for the same reason anything falls to Earth. The Earth's gravity pulls it. But every cloud is made of water droplets or ice crystal(冰晶). Why doesn't rain or snow fall constantly from all clouds? The droplets or ice crystals in clouds are extremely small. The effect of gravity on them is slight. Air currents move and lift droplets so that the net downward amount of water is zero, even though the droplets are moving constantly.
It can be seen that droplets and ice crystals behave somewhat like dust in the air in a beam of sunlight. To the casual observer, dust seems to act in a totally random fashion, moving about
without fixed direction. But in fact dust particles（分子） are much larger than water droplets and they finally fall. The average size of a cloud droplet is only 0.0004 inch in diameter（直径）. It is so small that it would take sixteen hours to fall half a mile in perfectly still air, and 
it
doesn't fall out of moving air at all. Only when the droplet grows to a diameter of 0.008 inch or larger can it fall from the cloud. The average raindrop contains a million times as much water as a tiny cloud droplet. The growth of a cloud droplet to a size larger eno
ugh to fall out is the cause of rain and other forms of precipitation. This important growth process is called "coalescence". Ice crystals do NOT immediately fall to Earth because.
| A．they are kept up by air currents |
| B．most of them change into steam |
| C．they combine with other chemicals in the atmosphere |
| D．their electrical charges draw them away from the earth |
The underlined word "random" in line 10 most probablymeans .
| A．unpredictable | B．strict | C．independent | D．abnormal |
What can be inferred about drops of water larger than 0.008 inch in diameter?
| A．They never occur. |
| B．They are not affected by the force of gravity. |
| C．In moving air they would fall to earth. |
| D．In still air they fall a speed of thirty-two miles per hour. |
How much bigger is the rain drop than a loud droplet?
| A．200 times bigger |
| B．1,000 times bigger |
| C．100,000 times bigger |
| D．1,000,000 times bigger |
Spring is just around the corner and it’s a time to get outside and enjoy the great outdoors. Here is a selection of festivals around the country that are a great excuse to get back in the spring sunshine.
ales to this part of the Pacific Ocean. Festivities include whale-watching, an arts festival and educational hands-on activities for the entire family. Prices start at $ 29 per adult and $ 19 for children. For more information, visit www.dpfestivalofwhales.com.
| A．$77 | B．$ 58 | C．$ 38 | D．$ 48 |
The underlined word “jockeys” in the second ad is closest in meaning to .
| A．judges | B．riders | C．children | D．travelers |
If you want to learn about the history of American colonial period, you can visit .
| A．Tulip Time | B．Houses and Gardens |
| C．Dana Point of the whales | D．Chandler Ostrich |
It can be concluded that .
A. All the festivals are held in March.
B. All the Festivals are concerned with animals
C. All the Festivals are held in the U.S.A.
D. All the Festivals surely interest children.