Americans usually make allowance(宽容) for non-native-speakers who have some trouble understanding English. But they become annoyed when a person pretends to understand but doesn’t really and then creates problems because of misunderstanding what is said. No one wants soap when he asks for soup. So if you don’t understand what is said to you, admit it and politely ask the person to repeat or explain.
Second, it is quite rude to talk with a friend in your native language and leave your American friends standing there feeling stupid because they can’t understand the conversation. The Americans may also feel that you are talking about them or saying something you don’t want them to hear. If you must turn to your native language to explain something to a non-English-speaking friend, at least translate for your American friends so they don’t feel left out.
Learn just a few more polite English expressions, and you’ll be ready to face the world of Americans with confidence. The polite answer to a compliment(赞扬) about your looks or your works is “Thank you.” (A smile and a nod is not enough.) T
he response to “Thank you.” is, of course, “You’re welcome,” if someone asks “How are you?” don’t give your medical history. Just say “Fine, thanks. How are you?” Finally, what should you say when someone sneezes(打喷嚏)? It may not seem logical, but the correct response is “God bless you.” That’s about all there is to it. Now that you’ve learned this general knowledge of manners, in the U. S. A., you’ve ready to be polite in English. Let’s hope your American friends will be just as polite.In the first paragraph, the underlined word “annoyed” means .
| A．rather angry | B．very impolite | C．quite unfriendly |
D．fairly pleased |
The passage is mainly about in the U. S. A.
A. the importance of good manners B. the general knowledge of English
C. the skill in daily conversations D. the good manners in communication When you talk with someone in your native language, your American friend may feel .
| A．he should learn the language | B．you try to keep some secrets from him |
| C．you are angry with him | D．he becomes a fool |
（7）阅读理解
For many of us, printed books are satisfying in ways beyond the words they contain. Billions of printed books have been published, read and saved in the 600 years since movable type was invented, so why mess with a good things?
Sony Electronics is doing just that, betting that readers will be won over by the convenience of readability of its new electronic book devices. Sony's reader, the PRS-505, can hold 160 books in its fixed memory, enough to line the shelves on a good-sized wall in the average American home. The $299 device is about the size of a paperback book, but a half-inch thick and weighs less than a pound.
The Sony book reader is revolutionary not only in its storage capacity. The font（字体） is highly readable and adjustable by size. Unlike laptop computers, you can put the Sony in your purse, read it in direct sunlight and even bookmark the pages. And you can connect it to your PC to download books.
Surprisingly, though the reader has liberated the book from paper, electronic books aren't always a bargain. For example, David Baldacci's "Stone Cold" download retails（零售） for $15.19 at the Sony site, while Amazon（卓越网） will deliver a hard copy to your mailbox for $16.19.
The Sony reader also lets you store and play or display music. So what's not to like about the Sony? Well, for many bibliophiles, a lot. Book lovers like to have, hold and keep their volumes, which don't need charging. You can write notes in the margins, and enjoy the ambience they provide on your book shelves.
The need for electronic reading devices is likely to grow as more people worried about the billions of tons of paper used for printed material. Many believe the time will come when devices like the Sony reader are as common as printed newspapers and magazines today.
1．What would be the best title for the passage?
A. The age of the electronic book reader is coming
B. Printed books are out of date
C. The Sony reader meets many readers’ needs
D. The revolution in book readers
2．According to the passage, the Sony book reader _________.
A. is as light as a laptop computer
B. can hold more than 200 books
C. is convenient to carry around
D. cannot be connected to a PC
3．What is the author’s point when he mentions “Stone Cold”?
A. Amazon’s printed books are very cheap
B. “Stone Cold” can be got from the Sony site and Amazon
C. The Sony book reader is not very cheap to use
D. The Sony book reader can benefit its buyers a lot
4．The underlined word “bibliophiles” in Paragraph 5 refers to “__________”.
A. music lovers B. book lovers
C. electronic reading devices D. Sony readers
5．According to the author, what’s the future for the electronic reading devices?
A. They’ll replace printed newspapers and magazines
B. They’ll still be more expensive than printed newspapers
C. They’ll become a must in people’s daily life
D. They’ll become more popular as time goes on
（6）阅读理解
It is time for students to sell such things as chocolate bars and greeting cards to raise money for their school, class or club. It is inevitable that they will knock on your door and you will easily hand ever your cash for overpriced items that you really do not want. That is okay, though, because there are many reasons why children should be allowed to raise money for their schools and clubs.
Fundraising(自筹资金) is a great way to help children learn social skills. It is not easy to go up to a complete stranger and ask them for their money. They have to nicely ask for help, show the interested buyer what they have to offer and explain how it will help them in school. If someone refuses to buy an item, that child has to take the failure in stride（从容处理）, and that is a learning lesson as well.
Students can learn how to deal with money by fundraising. Of course, it might seem safer for us to take charge of our children’s earnings from their fundraising before it is turned in to the school. However, by making them keep track of it, count it, and make sure everyone pays the right amount, they are learning an important lesson. Dealing with money is important to know about when they are older.
Fundraising helps improve their schools. It is the child’s school. They have to learn there and grow there. Why not let them help in making it a better place? When one of our local schools lacked funding for sports, the students and parents joined hands to raise that money needed. When they succeeded, they felt they accomplished something important.
Fundraising allows for more life experiences for the child. Most fundraising is done for individual classes and clubs. The raised money is used towards things like parties, trips. The children receive the rewards for their hard work at raising the money. Without fundraising, these field trips and special school memories would be missed.
In a word, fundraising helps children a lot in many ways.
1. We can infer that the author is probably a .
A. manager B. student C. parent D. officer
2. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Children should be allowed to fundraise.
B. Fundraising is good for both families and children.
C. Children should learn to deal with money.
D. Children should be taught how to fundraise.
3. Which of the following is not the benefits of fundraising by students?
A. It’s a good way to gain social skills for students.
B. Students can master the skills in financing through it.
C. It can help students get high mark at school.
D. It gives students many valuable life experiences.
4. The author thinks that fundraising .
A. adds to the family’s burden B. wastes the learning time
C. cultivates the children’s character D. builds up the children’s bodies
5. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
CP: Central point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion
|
|
|
A
（5）阅读理解
Can you believe your eyes? A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.
Martin Doherty, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland, led the team of scientists. In this experiment, Doherty and his team tested the perception(观察力) of some people, using pictures of some orange circles. The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people. The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10, and the second group included 24 adults aged 18 to 25.
The first group of pictures showed two circles alone on a white background. One of the circles was larger than the other, and these people were asked to identify the larger one. Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time. Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.
Next, both groups were shown a picture where the orange circles, again of different sizes, were surrounded by gray circles. Here’s where the trick lies in. In some of the pictures, the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles — making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle, which was the real larger one. And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles — so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.
When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures, they weren’t fooled — they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before. Older children and adults, on the other hand, did not do as well. Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one, and adults got it wrong most of the time.
As children get older, Doherty said, their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context. In other words, they will begin to process the whole picture at once: the tricky gray circles, as well as the orange circle in the middle. As a result, they’re more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.
1．Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate .
A．children’s and adults’ eye-sight
B．people’s ability to see accurately
C．children’s and adults’ brains
D．the influence of people’s age
2．When asked to find the larger circle, .
A．children at 6 got it wrong 79 % of the time with no gray ones around
B．only adults over 18 got it right 95% of the time with gray ones around
C．children at 4 got it right about 79 % of the time with gray ones around
D．adults got it right most of the time with gray ones around
3．According to the passage, we can know that .
A．a smaller orange circle appears bigger on a white background
B．an orange circle appears bigger than a gray one of the same size
C．a circle surrounded by other circles looks bigger than its real size
D．a circle surrounded by bigger ones looks smaller than its real size
4．Visual context may work when children get older than .
A．4 B．6 C．10 D．18
5．Why are younger children not fooled?
A．Because they are smarter than older children and adults.
B．Because older people are influenced by their experience.
C．Because people’s eyes become weaker as they grow older.
D．Because their brain can hardly notice related things together.
The way people hold to the belief that a fun - filled, pain free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness then pain must be equal to unhappiness. But in fact, the opposite is true: more often than not things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably(不可避免的)brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment (义务), self - improvement.
Ask a bachelor(单身汉)why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure, excitement.
Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three - day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates（解放） time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
1. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because _______ .
A. he finds more fun in dating than in marriage
B. he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single
C. he is reluctant to take on family responsibilities
D. he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement
2. Raising children, in the author’s opinion is ________ .
A. a rewarding task B. a thankless job
C. a moral duty D. a source of inevitable pain
3. From the last paragraph, we learn that envy sometimes stems from ________
A. hatred B. ignorance C. prejudice D. misunderstanding
4. To understand what true happiness is one must ________ .
A. have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime
B. be able to distinguish happiness from fun
C. put up with pain under all circumstances
D. make every effort to liberate oneself from pain
5. What is the author trying to tell us?
A. It is important to make commitments
B. One must know how to attain happiness.
C. Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.
D. It is pain that leads to happiness.
Tired of Working in Your Country?
With over 500 instructors and 20 years of experience, we are the leader in the field of teaching foreign languages. We now have positions open in Osaka starting September/October 2009 for instructors of English, German, Spanish and French.
Teach many different kinds of classes using the latest technology in small classes of up to 3 students.
Accommodation (住宿), and other necessary documents (文件) will be ready before you leave.
Applicants will teach their first language only.
Excellent teacher training programs.
If you are young with a university degree and are willing to experience different cultures, apply (申请) now. Experience in teaching is an advantage but not specially required. Knowledge of the Japanese language is not necessary but good English skills and practical computer knowledge are basic requirements.
Apply with C. V. and send letters to:
NOVA France, Mr. Sampy (IHT3/2)
34, Bd. Haussmann, 75009 Paris, France
Fax: 33148014804
Or visit our website: www. teadyp. com
The manager expects to meet and talk with successful applicants in Paris in June and July.
1. What is the purpose of the 
text?
A. To introduce a language school in Japan.
B. To hire language teachers to work in Japan.
C. To describe working conditions in Japan.
D. To make clear the requirements for Japanese teachers.
2. We know from the text that those who are going to Japan will _______.
A. teach English only in Osaka
B. receive a degree from a university
C. have free accommodation
D. get trained for the job
3. Before going to Japan, you need _______.
A. to see the manager of NOVA France B. to take some computer courses
C. to write a letter to Japan D. to find a place to live
4. If you want to work in Japan you should _______.
A. have some working experience B. know how to use computers
C. present good teaching plans D. speak several languages