English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary — perhaps as many as two million words.
However, let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes (探讨它的矛盾), we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.
And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects (反映) the creativity of human beings. That’s why, when stars are out, they are visible (能看见的); but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
1. According to the passage ______.
A. sweet-meats and sweetbreads are different things
B. there should be egg in an eggplant
C. pineapples are the apples on the pine tree
D. boxing rings should be round
2. Which of the following is the correct plural?
A. Beeth. B. Geese. C. Meese. D. Tooth.
3. Which of the following includes two items which have the similar meaning?
A. A wise man and a wise guy. B. Overlook and oversee.
C. Quite a lot and quite a few. D. Hot as hell and cold as hell.
4. The underlined words “wind up” in the last paragraph probably mean “______”.
A. blow B. roll up C. get hurt D. finish
5. Through the many paradoxes in the English language, the writer wants to show that human beings are ______.
A. clever B. crazy C. lazy D. dull
In a time of low academic (学术的) achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. however, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents (答问卷者) listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.
In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondents chose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. 62 percent of the more individually oriented (强调个性发展的) Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.
Like in America, there is diversity (多样性) in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential (潜力) development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools.
Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children’s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.We learn from the first paragraph that many Americans believe ________.
| A．Japanese parents pay more attention to preschool education than American parents |
| B．Japan’s economic success is a result of its scientific achievements |
| C．Japanese preschool education emphasizes academic instruction |
| D．Japan’s higher education is better than theirs |
Most American respondents believe that preschools should also attach
importance to ________.
| A．problem solving | B．group experience |
| C．parental guidance | D．individually oriented development |
In Japan’s preschool education, the focus is on ________.
| A．preparing children academically | B．developing children’s artistic interests |
| C．tapping children’s potential | D．shaping children’s character |
Why do some Japanese parents send their children to university-based kindergartens?
| A．They can do better in their future studies. |
| B．They can gain more group experience there. |
| C．They can be individually oriented when they grow up. |
| D．They can have better chances of getting a first-rate education. |
The impression you make at the beginning of an interview is very important. Employers often decide to hire someone in the first three minutes of the interview. They judge you by your appearance, attitude (态度) and manners.
A friendly smile when you walk into the room is important. A smile shows a confident (自信的) and positive attitude.
When you introduce yourself, make eyes contact with the interviewer. Some interviewers offer a handshake. Others don’t.
Try to be as natural as possible. But pay attention to your body language. The way you sit, walk, gesture, use your voice and show feeling on your face are all parts of your body language. It makes the interviewer know how you feel about yourself and the situation you are in. Are you feeling positive about yourself? Your abilities? Your interest in the job?
Speak clearly and loudly enough. Show interest and enthusiasm in your voice. When you speak, look at the interviewer. Also don’t say negative things about yourself, or former employers.
Listen to questions carefully. If you don’t understand a question, ask the interviewer to repeat or explain.
"I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch that."
"I’m not sure exactly what you mean."
Almost everyone is nervous in a job interview. Interviewers know that. They don’t expect you to be totally calm and relaxed. But they expect you to try to control your nervousness. They expect you to show confidence in your ability to do the job.
At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for her or him. It’s a good idea to send a short thank-you letter right after the interview, or deliver it by hand.
Phone the company if you have not heard anything after one week. Ask if they have make a decision about the job.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．you should always put on a smile when meeting the employer |
| B．you should stand still with respect before the employer |
| C．the first impression is very important in an interview |
| D．employers understand and like employees’ nervousness |
Why should we pay attention to our body language?
| A．Because it can help us win the employer’s positive impression. |
| B．Because it can help us feel about the employer. |
| C．Because it is needed by our employer. |
| D．Because we need it to improve our feeling. |
The main purpose of the passage is ________.
| A．to give you some advice on the art of finding a job |
| B．to tell from wrong about job interviews |
| C．to explain why we should do something about an interview |
| D．to suggest not being shy in an interview |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Friendly Smile | B．Making a Good Impression |
| C．Don’t Be Nervous | D．Sending a Thank-You Letter |
Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men's minds decline more than women's, according to the results of a worldwide survey.
Certain differences seem to be inherent in male and female brains: Men are better at maintaining and dealing with mental images (useful in mathematical reasoning<推论；说服> and spatial <空间的>skills), while women tend to excel (擅长) at recalling information from their brain's files (helpful with language skills and remembering the locations of objects).
Many studies have looked for a connection between sex and the amount of mental decline (衰退) people experience as they age, but the results have been mixed.
Some studies found more age-related decline in men than in women, while others saw the opposite or even no relationship at all between sex and mental decline. Those results could be improper because the studies involved older people, and women live longer than men: The men tested are the survivors, "so they're the ones that may not have shown such cognitive（认知的；认识的） decline," said study team leader Elizabeth of the University of Warwick in England.
People surveyed completed four tasks that tested sex-related cognitive skills: matching an object to its rotated（旋转的） form, matching lines shown from the same angle, typing as many words in a particular category (范畴) as possible in the given time, e.g. "object usually colored gray", and recalling the location of objects in a line drawing. The first two were tasks at which men usually excel; the latter are typically dominated(占有主导地位的) by women.
Within each age group studied, men and women performed better in their separate categories on average. And though performance declined with age for both genders（性别）, women showed obviously less decline than men overall（全部地）. The underlined word in the second paragraph means_________.
| A．natural | B．great | C．obvious | D．absolute |
According to the passage, which of the following can Not be typed into the same category?
| A．cloud | B．sheep | C．trees | D．goose |
Which of the following statements is true according the article?
| A．Men do better than women when it comes to learning English. |
| B．Women stand out at remembering people’s names. |
| C．Men excel at typing as many words in a particular category as possible in the given time. |
| D．Women excel at dealing mathematic problems. |
One important factor that affects the correctness of the results is that _________.
| A．the old men tested may not have shown such cognitive decline | |
| B．people surveyed are all old | |
| C．people taking part in this test came from all over the world | D．women live longer than men |
The author aims to tell us that __________.
| A．women’s minds perform better than men’s |
| B．men’s minds decline more with age |
| C．everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older |
| D．a survey on human’s mind decline was done recently |
Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an expensive French restaurant in Denver. The ice cream he was serving fell onto the white dress of a rich and important woman.
Thirty years have passed, but Odland can’t get the memory out of his mind, nor the woman’s kind reaction(反应).She was shocked, regained calmness and, in a kind voice, told the young Odland. “It’s OK. It wasn’t your fault.”When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO(总裁) with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.
Odland isn’t the only CEO to have made this discovery. Rather, it seems to be one of those few laws of the land that every CEO learns on the way up. It’s hard to get a dozen CEOS to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule. They say how others treat the CEO says nothing. But how others treat the waiter is like a window into the soul.
Watch out for anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like,“I could buy this place and fire you.”or “I know the owner and I could have you fired.”Those who say such things have shown more about their character(人品) than about their wealth and power.
The CEO who came up with it, or at least first wrote it down, is Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson. He wrote a best-selling book called Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management.
“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person,” Swanson says. “I will never offer a job to the person who is sweet to the boss but turns rude to someone cleaning the tables.”What happened after Odland dropped the ice cream onto the woman’s dress?
| A．He was fired. |
| B．He was blamed. |
| C．The woman comforted him. |
| D．The woman left the restaurant at once. |
Odland learned one of his life lessons from _______.
| A．his experience as a waiter | B．the advice given by the CEOs |
| C．an article in Fortune | D．an interesting best-selling book |
According to the text, most CEOs have the time opinion about _______.
| A．Fortune 500 companies | B．the Management Rules |
| C．Swanson’s book | D．the Waiter Rule |
From the text we can learn that _______.
| A．one should be nicer to important people |
| B．CEOs often show their power before others |
| C．one should respect others no matter who they are |
| D．CEOs often have meals in expensive restaurants |
Anna Koumikova was born on June 7th, 1981 in Moscow. Her parents' names are Allah and Sergel. When she was 5 years old, her parents sold their TV to buy her the first tennis bat for Christmas. She played in a club near her place until aged 11. Then she moved to Bradenton, Florida(USA) to train with Nick Bollitierri. At 14, she represented Russia in a Fed Cup match and became the youngest player ever to win a Fed Cup match.
Kournikova made her WTA first show at 15 years old at the US Open where she finally lost against player Steffi Graf. But she made it to the double quarter finals that same match. In 1996, Kournikova won the Rookie of the Year award and the next year. She improved very much to even make it to the semi - finals in Wimbledon. She lost to world number one Martina Hingis at the French Open and at Wimbledon. In 1999 she won her professional title at Midland, Miehigon, an international Tennis Federation match. She was 5th favourite in Illinois the same year and won her 2nd career ITF match. She won her first grand slam(大满贯) title ill 1999 with Martina Hingis in doubles at the Australia Open. Since then, they have played regularly together and have quickly become one of the 'best pairs. Aim in 1999,she made her first career WTA final in key Biscayne against Venus Williams in a tough 3 set match. She alto won her first doubles tile with Monica Seles in Tokyo.
At present Kournikova is more successful on the net than at the net. She remains the "most searched" and "most download (网上下载)" on the internet, three times more popular than the NO. 2 sports figure, Michael Jordan. She is still very young and she seems to have a great future ahead ! Which of the following is right?
| A．Kournikova beat Steffi Graf at the US Open when she was 15. |
| B．Kournikova won the Rookie of the Year award in 1999. |
| C．Koumikova is now more lucky at the net than on the Internet. |
| D．In 1997, Kournikova worked hard to make it to the semi - finals in Wimbledon. |
Kournikova won her first grand slam title in doubles at the Australia Open with .
| A．Steffi Graf | B．Venus Williams | C．Martina Hingis | D．Monica Seles |
From the text we can know Kournikova won her professional title in an ITF match .
| A．at Midland | B．in France | C．in Australia | D．at Biscayne |
What can we learn about Kournikova?
| A．She has a lot of fans on the Internet. |
| B．Her parents gave her much support. |
| C．She beat Martina Hings in 1996. |
| D．She played tennis for her home country Russia. |