In Washington D.C., 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is a very special address. It is the address of the White House, the home of the president of the United States.
Originally the White House was gray and was called the presidential Palace. It was built from 1792 to 1800. At this time, the city of Washington itself was being built. It was to be the nation’s new capital city. George Washington, the first president, and Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer, chose the place for the new city. L'Enfant then planned the city. The president's home was an important part of the plan.
A contest was held to pick a design for the president's home. An architect named James Hoban won. He designed a large three-story house of gray stone.
President Washington never lived in the Presidential Palace. The first president to live there was John Adams, the second president of the United States, and his wife Mrs.Adams did not really like her new house. In her letters, she often complained about the cold. Fifty fireplaces were not enough to keep the house warm.
In 1812 the United States and Britain went to war. In 1814 the British invaded Washington. They burned many buildings, including the Presidential Palace.
After the war James Hoban, the original architect, partially rebuilt the president’s home. To cover the marks of the fire, the building was painted white. Before long it became known as the White House.
The White House is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States. Every year more than 1.5 million visitors go through the five rooms that are open to the public.The White House was built in Washington_____.
| A．because a French engineer was invited to design it |
| B．because President George Washington liked to live in it |
| C．because the British invaders lived in it in1812-1814 |
| D．because it was to be the nation’s capital city |
The president’s home and the city of Washington were______.
| A．built by the American army | B．built by the British troops |
| C．planed by George Washington | D．planned by the French |
The original home of the president needed to be rebuilt______.
| A．because John Adams’ wife did not like it |
| B．because it was cold in winter even with 50 fireplace |
| C．because it had been burned down during the war |
| D．because George Washington was not willing to live in it |
The new presidential home was painted white to ______.
A. cover the marks of fire B. attract tourist from France
D. to please Mrs. John Adams D. keep it warm in winter
You have some great ideas. But they don’t come out because of what your friends say or because you think that only a few people can be creative geniuses(天才). And, you, of course, think that you couldn’t be one of them. But actually, this is not true at all.
Anyone who is a creative genius will tell you that creativity is very much like a muscle that needs to be developed. If you don’t learn how to develop creative thinking, this skill, just like a muscle, will become poor and useless. On the other hand, keep working at it, and this skill will soon be ready for action whenever you need it. So how do you develop your own personal style of creative thinking?
You should realize that your brain has a greater capacity (容量) and a higher speed than the world’s biggest and fastest computer. So it’s important to get as much information as you can every day. Read, watch and listen to everything around you —good and bad. The more you know, the more you’ll want to know, and the more your brain will be exercised.
Try something new every day and let your experiences show you more about the world and people around you. You need to step out of your comfort zone (舒适地带) more and more each day.
Follow these suggestions, and begin thinking beyond your "limits" from today. You’ll soon have a life full of interesting and exciting adventures. Who knows, your idea might be the next great idea to change the world.Most people can’t be creative geniuses because they _______.
| A．don’t have great ideas |
| B．don’t want to develop their ideas |
| C．are too shy to talk about their ideas |
| D．don’t believe they can be |
The underlined word "it" in the second paragraph means ________.
| A．creative thinking | B．the muscle | C．personal style | D．great capacity |
What do we learn from the passage?
| A．No computer can store as much information as human’s brain. |
| B．It is not necessary to remember everything around you. |
| C．Try something new, as long as you are comfortable with it. |
| D．It is harder to exercise the brain than the muscles |
The passage is intended to tell readers _________.
| A．how they can learn from creative geniuses |
| B．about ways to develop their creative thinking |
| C．about the importance of exercising the muscles |
| D．the reasons why they can’t be creative geniuses |
The booking notes of the play “the Age of Innocence”:
Price: ＄10
BOOKING
There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:
------ in person
The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday, 10 a. m. -8 p. m.
------ by telephone
Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card
（Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted）
------ by post
Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.
------ on line
Complete the on-line booking form at www. Satanfiedtheatre. com
DICOUNTS:
Saver:＄2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.
Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.
Standby: best available seats are on sale for ＄6 from one hour before the performance for people eligible（suitable）for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other
customers.
Group Bookings:
there is a ten per cent discount for parties of twelve or more.
School: school parties of ten or more can book ＄6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.
Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. If you want to book a ticket, you CANNOT_____
| A．go to the Box Office on Sundays. |
| B．ring the booking number and pay for the tickets by credit card. |
| C．use the Internet. |
| D．complete a booking form and post it to the Box Office. |
If you make a group booking for a group of 14 adults, how much should you pay?
| A．＄120 | B．＄150 | C．＄140 | D．＄126 |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．There are only 8 wheelchair spaces in the theatre. |
| B．A school party of 15 students should pay 90 for the standby tickets. |
| C．A group of 12 persons can get 10 per cent discount. |
| D．The audience can‘t refund money if the performance is on show. |
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s. the sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.A good title for this reading passage is______.
| A．Popeye the Sailor |
| B．The Truth About Spinach |
| C．A Mistake with Numbers |
| D．Folic Acid Makes You Strong |
Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?
| A．People liked folic acid. |
| B．They thought Popeye was funny. |
| C．Spinach had a lot of iron. |
| D．They thought spinach made them strong. |
A research group told people that spinach______.
| A．made Popeye strong |
| B．was a green vegetable |
| C．had less iron than other green vegetables |
| D．had more iron than other green vegetables |
The reading passage says that perhaps Popeye got his strength from______.
| A．iron | B．spinach | C．folic acid | D．exercise |
Facebook is now used by 30 million people in the UK, around half the population. Joanna Shields, vice president of Facebook Europe, made the announcement this morning at a media conference in London.
Globally, Facebook has more than 500 million registered （注册的） users, a milestone it hit last summer. Last July it had 26 million registered UK users. In the last eight months, it has attracted four million extra UK users, bringing the UK total to 30 million.
Facebook, the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg while he was still studying at Harvard University, was launched in February 2004. The pace of its global growth has sped rapidly - Facebook had only 150 million registered users in January 2009.
One third of women aged between 18 to 34 check Facebook when they first wake up, before even going to the toilet, according to the research. 21% check Facebook in the middle of the night, while 42% of the same group think it is fine to post drunken photos of themselves onto the social network, a study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research found.
Shields was speaking this morning at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference about the power Facebook’s referrals （好友推荐）can bring to media sites, such as newspapers and TV services. She explained that the average Facebook user has 130 friends who they share links to media sites with regularly. “Media companies which take advantage of that are really seeing the benefits,” Shields said. Shields refused to be drawn on whether Facebook would develop its own mobile phone operating system and also said it was “silly” that Google had recently disabled the feature which allowed Google users to refresh their contacts with Facebook friends.Eight months ago the number of registered users of Facebook in UK was about ____.
| A．less than half of its population | B．30 million |
| C．4 million | D．500 million |
Shields talked at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conferences about the following EXCEPT ____.
| A．Facebook’s referrals |
| B．its plan on developing its own mobile phone operating system |
| C．its dissatisfaction with Google |
| D．its call for more media sites to take advantage of Facebook |
What does the underlined word “disabled” mean in the last paragraph?
| A．Invented | B．Strengthened |
| C．Added | D．Stopped |
What is the best title of the text?
| A．Facebook’s referrals bring benefits |
| B．Facebook: the brainchild of Mark Zuckergerg |
| C．Facebook: used by half the UK population |
| D．Facebook: women’s preference |
Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programmers are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.
There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This is started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music.This passage mainly talks about ____.
| A．American music | B．American popular music |
| C．three sorts of music | D．popular music singers |
The first three paragraphs mainly tell us ____.
| A．that Americans like popular music |
| B．that popular music is an important kind of music in America |
| C．how to become a national star as a pop singer in America |
| D．popular music in America is what every student like |
In American, as a pop singer, if you want to become a national star, you’ll have to ____.
| A．earn a lot of money |
| B．make a radio stations use your CDs or tapes |
| C．make many CDs or tapes |
| D．make all the young people love you and what you sing |