People travel for a lot of reasons．Some tourists go to see battlefields or religious shrines (宗教圣地)．Others are looking for culture，or simply want to have their pictures taken in front of famous places．But most European tourists are looking for a sunny beach to lie on．
Northern European are willing to pay a lot of money and put up with a lot of inconveniences for the sun because they have so little of it．People of cities like London，Copenhagen，and Amsterdam spend a lot of their winter in the dark because the days are so short，and much of the rest of the year in the rain．This is the reason why the Mediterranean has always attracted them．Every summer，more than 25 million people travel to Mediterranean resort and beaches for their vacation. They all come for the same reason：sun!
The huge crowds mean lots of money for the economies of Mediterranean countries. Italy’s 30，000 hotels are booked every summer．And 13 million people camp out on French beaches，parks and roadsides．Spain’s long sandy coastline attracts more people than anywhere else．37 million tourists visit yearly，or one tourist for every person living in Spain．
But there are signs that the area is getting more tourism than it can handle．The Mediterranean is already one of the most polluted seas on earth．And with increased tourism，it’s getting worse, The French can’t figure out what to do with all the garbage left by campers around St．Tropez．And in many places，swimming is dangerous because of pollution.
None of this，however，is spoiling anyone’s fun．The Mediterranean gets more popular every year with tourists．Obviously，they don’t go there for clean water and solitude(独居)．They bear traffic jams and seem to like crowded beaches．They don’t even mind the pollution．No matter how dirty the water is，the coastline still looks beautiful．And as long as the sun shines，it’s still better than sitting in the cold rain in Berlin，London，or Oslo．
51．The writer seems to imply that Europeans travel mostly for the reason that ．
A．they want to see historic remains or religious spots
B．they are interested in different cultural traditions and social customs
C．they would like to take pictures in front of famous sites
D．they wish to escape from the cold，dark and rainy days back at home
52．In paragraph2，cities like London，Copenhagen，and Amsterdam are mentioned.
A．to show that they are not good cities in terms of geography and climate
B．to tell us how wealthy their people are
C．to suggest that these cities lack places of historic interest and scenic beauty
D．to prove that they have got more tourism than they handle
53．According to the passage，which of the following countries attracts more tourists than the others?
A．Italy B．Spain C．Greece D．France
54．The latter half of the last sentence in paragraph 3，“or one tourist for every person living in Spain”means ．
A．all the 37 million people living in Spain are tourists
B．every year almost as many tourists visit Spain as there are people living in that country
C．every person living in Spain has to take care of a tourist
D．every Spanish is visited by a tourist every year
55．According to the passage，which of the following factors might spoil the tourists’fun at
Mediterranean resorts and beaches?
A．Polluted water． B．Crowded buses．
C．Traffic jams． D．Rainy weather．
One of the greatest contributions to the first Oxford English Dictionary was also one of its most unusual. In 1879, Oxford University in England asked Prof. James Murray to serve as editor for what was to be the most ambitious dictionary in the history of the English language. It would include every English word possible and would give not only the definition but also the history of the word and quotations (引文)showing how it was used.
This was a huge task. So Murrary had to find volunteers from Britain, the United States, and the British colonies to search every newspaper, magazine, and book ever written in English. Hundreds of volunteers responded, including William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor was an American Surgeon who had served in the Civil War and was now living in England. He gave his address as "Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire," 50 miles from Oxford.
Minor joined the army of volunteers sending words and quotations to Murray. Over the next years, he became one of the staff's most valued contributors.
But he was also a mystery. In spite of many invitations, he would always decline to visit Oxford. So in 1897， Murray finally decided to travel to Crowthorne himself. When he arrived, he found Minor locked in a book-lined cell at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally insane.
Murray and Minor became friends, sharing their love of words. Minor continued contributing to the dictionary, sending in more than 10,000 submissions in 20 years. Murray continued to visit Minor regularly, sometimes taking walks with him around the asylum grounds.
In 1910, Minor left Broadmoor for an asylum in his native America. Murray was at the port to wave goodbye to his remarkable friend.
Minor died in 1920, seven years before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. The 12 volumes defined 414,825 words, and thousands of them were contributions from a very scholarly and devoted asylum patient.
| 1． |
According to the text, the first Oxford English Dictionary.
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| 2． |
How did Dr. Minor contributed to the dictionary?
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| 3． |
Why did Dr. Minor refuse to visit Oxford?
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| 4． |
Prof. Murray and Dr. Minor became friends mainly because.
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| 5． |
Which of the following best describe Dr. Minor?
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What does the text mainly talk about?
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The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen. What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?
| A．To seek help for Nauru’s problems. |
| B．To give a warning to other countries |
| C．To show the importance of money |
| D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war. |
What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
| A．Rich and powerful | B．Modern and open |
| C．Peaceful and attractive | D．Greedy and aggressive |
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from _______.
| A．soil pollution | B．phosphate overmining |
| C．farming activity | D．whale hunting |
Which of the following was a cause of Nauru’s financial problem?
| A．Its leaders misused the money |
| B．It spent too much repairing the island |
| C．Its phosphate mining cost much money |
| D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war. |
What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?
| A．The ecological damage is difficult to repair. |
| B．The leaders will take the experts’ words seriously. |
| C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans |
| D．The phosphate mines were destroyed |
If you are looking for an animal to take the title of “most violent fish in the sea”, then the tiger puffer (河豚) fish would have to be a strong contestant. Not only is it deadly poisonous --- though that doesn’t stop people trying to eat it --- but it is also able to scare off enemies by inflating itself to become much larger than normal, when it is young it even chews on its own brothers and sisters.
Tiger puffer fish attach their eggs to rocks near the bottom of the sea, often at the mouths of bays. Then the larvae (幼鱼) move to the entries of rivers and lakes once they have grown a little. Then, having put on a lot of weight, they head out to sea. There’s no innocent childhood for the puffer fish, as Shin Oikawa of Kyushu University in Japan and his colleagues found out when they put the larvae of tiger puffer fish in the lab and monitored them for two months. They found that the larvae went through three steps in which their metabolic(新陈代谢) rates increased dramatically when they reached body weights of 0.002g, 0.01g, and 0.1g. When a larva went through one of these steps, its behavior also changed. For instance, once a larva had passed the first level it would have grown its first tooth and could start attacking larvae that had not yet reached that stage. Similarly, any larva that had reached the 0.01g or 0.1g levels would start attacking lighter larvae.
The researchers noted that the baby fish had a “relatively small mouth”, so rather than swallowing their brothers and sisters whole, they would bite pieces out of them. Despite this limitation, the fish caused plenty of deaths --- up to 12 per cent of the deaths that happened in the lab each day.
Those fish that grew fast enough to be able to chew on their fellows had an advantage. The extra food accelerated their growth and development. Tiger puffer fish are likely to be faster and swifter, so they can deal better with enemies.
As the name suggests, puffer fish can inflate to make themselves seem much larger than they really are, thus scaring off enemies. They do this by filling their stomachs, which are extremely elastic(弹性的), with water. If that’s not enough of a threat, the tiger puffer fish --- like most of the other puffer fish in the family --- carries a deadly toxin(毒素). Eat one puffer fish and the poison will paralyze (瘫痪) your muscles, including the muscles responsible for breathing, so death is usually caused by a lack of oxygen. Famously, the fish is a delicacy in Japan, where highly qualified chefs produce dishes that contain the safe level of the poison. Interestingly, the puffer fish does not go to the trouble of producing the poison itself. Instead, it hosts bacteria (细菌) that produce the stuff. It obtains these bacteria from its diet, so the youngest adult fish are not poisonous.All of the following statements account for the violence of puffer fish except that_____.
| A．they are very difficult to catch |
| B．they can become larger to threaten enemies away |
| C．they kill their younger companions as they grow up |
| D．they are deadly poisonous |
We can learn from the second paragraph that puffer fish _____.
| A．can only grow to a weight of 0.1g |
| B．do not change their behavior as they grow up |
| C．like to find a safe place to hatch the next generation |
| D．begin to grow teeth when they reach the third level |
Where does the poison in the puffer fish’s body come from?
| A．Its inner organs. | B．The air it breathes in. |
| C．The diet it eats. | D．The bacteria around it. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Puffer fish can only produce poison when they face danger. |
| B．People like eating puffer fish even though they are poisonous. |
| C．The larvae are more aggressive than adult puffer fish. |
| D．Young puffer fish taste better than adult puffer fish. |
There are four types of persons who go to work part-time. These include retirees who want a bit more income or socialization, parents who want to spend more time with their children, college and high school students and temporary agency workers who want more experience. Many people enjoy the advantages of working part-time, but benefits are rarely offered to part-time employees.
Most people are hoping for health insurance and retirement benefits when taking a job. Traditionally, companies only offer benefits to employees who work 30 hours or more a week. This is only a 25% reduction in hours, so it doesn’t free up a lot of time for the employee who needs part-time hours. Even when a part-timer is offered health benefits, he is rarely offered paid time off and retirement benefits. Dental benefits are almost never offered to part-time employees.
Many businesses hire part-time employees for the simple reason of saving money. If they work less than a certain number of hours, the employers don’t need to pay for benefits. There are companies, however, that are beginning to offer benefits to part-time employees. This includes benefits for health, paid time off and retirement plans. Some companies have begun to offer this in order to take in high quality, trained professionals who just want part-time hours. If a company wants a qualified employee, it will have to compete with other companies. People who may only want to work part-time may be forced to take a full-time job to get the benefits. Companies who offer benefits to part-timers have an advantage by offering more choices to their employees in terms of hours.
Conducting an Internet search is probably the quickest way to find companies that provide benefits for part-time employees. Many large corporations like Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and Whole Foods offer benefits to part-time employees among other things. Look for companies that offer a team approach to their employees. Employees are given choices and part of decision-making in the business. Businesses that allow employee input are more likely to offer benefits to part-timers.People prefer to work part-time mainly because they __________.
| A．don’t want to spend more time on work |
| B．have so many household and social affairs |
| C．hope to have more money, time and experience |
| D．only expect to make more friends |
From the second paragraph we can learn that part-timers _______.
| A．can enjoy as many benefits as full-timers |
| B．prefer retirement benefits to health insurance |
| C．often retire without enjoying any benefit |
| D．often enjoy fewer benefits than full-timers |
What’s the advantage of hiring part-time employees?
| A．They don’t need the insurance. |
| B．They can save employers some money. |
| C．They have no choice but to work hard. |
| D．They can be also changed into full-timers. |
We can infer from the last paragraph that _________.
| A．it’s easy to find companies providing benefits |
| B．companies not allowing employee input don’t offer any benefit to part-timers |
| C．Starbucks in England doesn’t provide benefits to full-timers |
| D．employees are often forced to choose their jobs |
Children’s Storybooks and Tales: This site is dedicated to Children’s Story Books and how to tell Children’s Stories. If you enjoy a child’s story or have kids of your own then please browse (浏览) this site to find some great stories and how to read them.
The Cat in the Hat---Dr. Seuss
In the first book featuring the character (The Cat in the Hat, 1957), the Cat brings chaos (混乱) to a household of two young children on one rainy day while their mother is out. Bringing with him two creatures appropriately named Thing One and Thing Two, the Cat performs all sorts of tricks to amuse the children, with mixed results. The Cat’s tricks are vainly opposed by the family pet, who is a conscious goldfish. The children (Sally and her older brother) finally prove good ones, capturing the Things and bringing the Cat under control. He cleans up the house on his way out, disappearing seconds before the mother comes back.
The Famous Fire---Enid Blyton
The Famous Fire is Enid Blyton’s most popular and celebrated series of children’s books. The sequence (顺序) began life in 1942, when the first book, Fire on a Treasure Island was published and it has won great praise from both fans and critics. The series has gone on to become amongst the best-loved stories ever to have been written for children.
Tom and Pippo in the Garden---Helen Oxenbury
In 1988 Helen Oxenbury created a series of books featuring Tom, a naughty young boy, and his beloved stuffed monkey, Pippo. Ms. Oxenbury remarked that Tom was very much like her son “when he was a little boy”. Like Tom, her son would often blame his misdeeds on his trusted buddy, the friendly family dog.
The BFG---Roald Dahl
The story is about an orphan girl named Sophie. One night when Sophie cannot sleep during the “witching hour” and sees a giant blowing something into bedroom windows down the street. The giant sees her, and although she tries to hide in the bed, he reaches through the window and carries her away to his home.It can be inferred from the The Cat in the Hat that ________.
| A．the goldfish likes to keep company with the cat |
| B．all tricks performed by the cat are not amusing |
| C．Sally has to clean up the house before her mother comes back |
| D．the cat finally takes control of the Things |
From the book Tom and Pippo in the Garden, we know ________.
| A．Pippo is a naughty dog causing trouble in the family |
| B．Tom likes to keep a pet dog at home |
| C．Ms. Oxenbury complained about her son’s dishonesty |
| D．Pippo always gets the blame for everything that goes wrong |
According to the book The BFG, “the witching hour” may refer to a time ________.
| A．when magic things can happen | B．when a girl can’t fall asleep |
| C．when a person dreams a nightmare | D．when a child can be taken away |
For whom is the passage most likely intended?
| A．Children. | B．Parents. | C．Teachers. | D．Writers. |