Afterherparentsseparated,thing-优题课

Everyone knows that the Frenchmen are romantic, the Italians are fashionable and the Germans are serious. Are these just stereotypes or is there really such a thing as national character? And if there is, can it affect how a nation succeed or fail?
At least one group of people is certain that it can. A recent survey of the top 500 entrepreneurs(企业家) in the UK found that 70% felt that their efforts were not appreciated by the British public. Britainis hostile to success , they said. It has a culture of jealousy. As a result, the survey said , entrepreneurs were “unloved ,unwanted and misunderstood.” Jealousy is sometimes known as the “green eyed monster” and the UK is its home.
Scientists at Warwich University in the UK recently tested this idea. They gathered a group of people together and gave each an imaginary amount of money. Some were given a little, others a great deal. Those given a little were given the chance to destroy the large amount of money given to others—but at the cost of losing their own. Two thirds of the people tested agreed to do this.
This seems to prove that the entrepreneurs were right to complain. But there is also conflicting evidence. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently reported that the UK is now the world’s fourth largest economy. That is not bad for people who are supposed to hate success. People in the UK also work longer hours than anyone else in Europe. So the British people are not lazy, either.
“It is not really success that the British dislike,” says Carey Cooper, a professor of management at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. “It’s people using their success in a way that seems proud or unfair or which separates them from their roots.”
Perhaps it is the entrepreneurs who are the problem. They set out to do things in their ways. They work long hours. By their own efforts they become millionaires. But instead of being happy they complain that nobody loves them. It hardly seems worth following their example. If they were more friendly ,people would like them more. And more people want to be like them.
68.The best title for this article can be ______
A. Be more Modest and We Will Love You More
B. Proud Entrepreneurs
C. The Frenchmen are Romantic While The British are Hostile
D. Only Pains but no gains
69.Most entrepreneurs surveyed believe that____
A .the British people hate success
B. the British people are hardworking
C. love of success is British’s national character
D. they are considered as “green eyed monsters”
70.What does the results of the Warwich University’s test show?
A. Two thirds of the people tested didn’t love money
B.Most people would rather fail than see others succeed
C. An imaginary amount of money does not attract people
D.Most people are willing to enjoy success with others
71.The writer of the passage seems to suggest that____
A .jealousy is Britain’s national character
B.British entrepreneurs are not fairly treated
C.the scientists at Warwich University did a successful test
D.the entrepreneurs in the UK do not behave properly

Expressions about water are mostly as common as water itself.
The expression “to be in hot water “is one of them. It is a very old expression. Hot water was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble . One story says it got that meaning from the custom of throwing extremely hot water down on enemies attacking a castle. That no longer happens. But we still get “in hot water”. When we are in hot water, we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble , serious or not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A young boy can be in hot water with his mother if he walks in the house with dirty shoes.
“Being in deep water” is almost the same as being in hot water . When you are in deep water, you are in a difficult position. Imagine a person who cannot swim being thrown in water over his head. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you don’t have the ability to solve. You can be in deep water, for example , if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market.
“To keep your heads above water” is a colorful expression that means staying out of debt. A company seeks to keep its head above water during economic hard times. A man who loses his job tries to keep his head above water until he finds a new job.
“Water over the dam” is another expression about past events. It is something that is finished, and cannot be changed . The expression comes from the idea that water has floated over a dam and cannot be brought back again. When a friend is troubled by a mistake he or she has made , you might tell him or her to forget about it. You say it is water over the dam.
Another common expression “to hold water” is about the strength or weakness of an idea or opinion that you may be arguing about . It probably comes from a way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong and has no holes in it. If your argument can hold water, it is strong and does not have any holes；if it does not hold water, then ,it is weak and not worth debating.
“Throwing cold water” also is an expression that deals with ideas or proposals. For example, you want to buy a new car because the old one has some problems, but your wife throws cold water on the idea because she says a new car costs too much.
64.Don’t cheat in this exam! Or you’ll____ if you’re caught cheating by the teacher.
A.be in hot water B.have to hold water
C.be in deep waterD.keep your head above water
65.The expression using water in paragraph ____has almost the same meaning as “things done cannot be undone.”
A.3 B.4 C.5 D.6
66.We can see from this passage that many of the expression using water have_____meanings.
A. funny B. unpleasant C. close D. moral
67.The best title for this passage should be_______.
A.The history of the water B.Cold water or hot water
C.Water and its culture D.Expression and their stories

Girls really do prefer pink and boys prefer blue, recent research shows.
The reasons could have its origins in the hunt for food on the African savannah(稀树草原) thousands of years ago. Evolution may have developed women’s preference for pink, perhaps because it helped them to find ripe fruit and healthy men with reddish faces, while both men and women have a natural desire for blue, according to scientists at Newcastle University.
“Everyone in today’s western culture, from parents to toy manufactures, seems to assume that little girls like pink.” Said Prof. Anya Hulbert, who wanted to find out whether the reason was cultural or to do with biology.
A love of salmon, fuchsia and coral does seem to be rooted into females, rather than picked up from their mothers.
The participants in the study were Chinese and British. The Chinese students showed a marked preference for red. “Culture may contribute to this natural female preference.” Said Pro. Hulbert.
In her experiments, 208 young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred color. Hulbert and her colleague Dr. Yazhu Ling marked the results and found that while men preferred blue, women tended to choose pink.
Hulbert said she could only infer about the preference for blue: “Here again, I would favor evolutionary arguments. Going back to our savannah’s days, we would have a natural preference for a clear blue sky, because it signaled good weather. Clear blue also signals a good water source.”
60.The passage mentions “the African savannah” to show that____.
A.the ancient Africa was a beautiful place.
B.human beings lived in African at first.
C.women and men have different color preferences.
D.Color preference has its historical origins.
61.It can be inferred that the underlined word “fuchsia”_____.
A.is probably a kind of toy
B.is probably pink in color
C.can be only found in Africa
D.hardly causes men’s interest
62.By saying “The Chinese students… for red.” in paragraph 5, the writer means______.
A.red is the Chinese student’s favorite color
B.the Chinese prefer red more than the British
C.culture influences people’s color preferences
D.the study was carried out by two nations
63.What can we know from the last paragraph?
A.Hulbert thinks evolution explains why people prefer blue
B.Hulbert has a strong desire for “savannah” days
C.Blue is a natural signal of many good things
D.While boys like blue, girls like pink.

第三部分阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer. The training I received, though excellent, did not tell me how it was to work with a real student, however. When I began to discover what other people’s lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.
My first student Marie was a 44-year-old single mother of three. In the first lesson, I found out she walked two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she didn’t know which bus to take. When I told her I would get her a bus schedule, she told me it would not help because she could not read it. She said she also had difficulty once she got to the supermarket because she couldn’t always remember what she needed. Since she did not know words, she could not write out a shopping list. Also, she could only recognize items by sight, so if the product had a different label, she would not recognize it as the product she wanted.
As we worked together, learning how to read built Marie’s self-confidence, which encouraged her to continue in her studies. She began to make rapid progress and was even able to take the bus to the supermarket. After this successful trip, she reported how self-confident she felt. At the end of the program, she began helping her youngest son, Tony, a shy first grader, with his reading. She sat with him before he went to sleep and together they would read bedtime stories. When his eyes became wide with excitement as she read, pride was written all over her face, and she began to see how her own hard work in learning to read paid off. As she described this experience, I was proud of myself as well. I found that helping Marie to build her self-confidence was more rewarding than anything I had done before.
As a literacy volunteer , I learned a great deal about teaching and helping others. In fact, I may have learned more from the experience than Marie did.
56.What did the author do last summer?
A.She worked in the supermarket.
B.She helped someone to learn to read.
C.She gave single mothers the help they needed.
D.She went to a training program to help a literacy volunteer.
57.Why didn’t Marie go to the supermarket by bus at first?
A.Because she liked to walk to the supermarket.
B.Because she lived far from the bus stop.
C.Because she couldn’t afford the bus ticket.
D.Because she couldn’t find the right bus.
58.How did Marie use to find the goods she wanted in the supermarket?
A.She knew where the goods were in the supermarket.
B.She asked others to take her to the right place.
C.She managed to find the goods by their looks.
D.She remembered the names of the goods.
59..Which of the following statements is true about Marie?
A.Marie could do things she had not been able to do before.
B.Marie was able to read stories with the help of her son.
C.Marie decided to continue her studies in school.
D.Marie paid for her own lessons.

Romantic comedies have long been regarded as the perfect movie for a first date. But according to a study, romantic comedies such as Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill could be bad for your love life.
Rather than being harmless entertainment, 'rom-coms' give people unrealistic and potentially unhealthy expectations about real-life relationships, scientists say.
Researchers found that those who watched romantic comedies were more likely to believe in predestined love (缘份) than those who preferred other kinds of movie.
They were also more likely to believe that perfect relationships happen instantly, and were less likely to believe that couples need to work at relationships.
Watching just one romantic comedy is enough to sway people's attitudes to romantic love, they found.
Dr Bjarne Holmes, who led the research, said: "We are not killing joys -- we are not saying that people shouldn't watch these movies. But we are saying that it would be helpful if people were more aware and more critical of the messages in these films. The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced than we realize."
For the first part of the study, Dr Holmes and colleagues at the Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, studied 40 box office hits from 1995 to 2005.
Most of those comedies described couples falling instantly in love and promoted the idea of fate --the belief that there is just one perfect companion out there, they found.
"There's a belief of destiny and couples in romantic comedies immediately understand each other," said Dr Holmes. "If you think that's how things are, you are setting yourself up to be disappointed."
In a second study, Dr Holmes asked around 100 student volunteers to watch Serendipity -- the 2001 romantic comedy starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack, while 100 watched a David Lynch drama.
In a questionnaire after the film ended, students watching the rom-com were far more likely to believe in fate and destiny than those who had watched the 'straight' film.
72. According to the passage if you are fond of watching romantic comedies, you ____.
A. are more likely to believe in future love
B. must be influenced by films
C. may expect a perfect relationship in your love life
D. may fall instantly in love with one of your classmates
73. The underlined word "destiny" most probably means __ .
A. fate B. love C. beauty D. romance
74. The purpose of Dr Bjame Hohnes' research is __ .
A. to promote the idea of fate
B. to ask us to keep away from romantic comedies
C. to show how romantic comedies have influence on our life
D. to remind us of the negative effect of watching romantic comedies
75. It is implied in the passage that .
A. watching comedies is harmful to a stable marriage
B. it is necessary for couples to work at their relationship
C. couples falling instantly in love end up with an unhappy marriage
D. we should watch more 'straight' films instead of romantic comedies