Holiday News
Vacancies (空位) now and in the school holidays at a country hotel in Devon. This comfortable, friendly home-from-home lies near the beautiful quiet countryside, but just a drive away from the sea. The food is simple but good. Children and pets are welcome.
Reduced prices for low season.
The Snowdonia Center
The Snowdonia Center for young mountain climbers has a mountain 1068.The beginners’ costs are ￡57 for a week, including food and rooms. Equipment is included except walking shoes, which can be hired at a low cost.
You must be in good health and prepared to go through a period of body exercises. This could be the beginning of a lifetime of lifetime of mountain climbing adventure.
The World Sea Trip of a Lifetime
Our World Sea Trip of 2008 will be unlike any holiday you have ever been on before. Instead of one hotel after another, with all its packing and unpacking waiting and traveling, you just go to bed in one country and wake up in another.
On board the ship, you will be well taken care of. Every meal will be first-class and every cabin like your home.
During the trip, you can rest on deck(甲板), enjoy yourself in the games rooms and in the evening dance to our musical team and watch our wonderful play.
You will visit all the places most people only dream about – from Acapulco and Hawaii to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
For a few thousand pounds, all you’ve ever hoped for can be yours.What can you do if you like to go on holidays with pets?
| A．Choose the holiday in Devon. |
| B．Go to the Snowdonia Centre |
| C．Join the World Sea Trip of 2008 |
| D．Visit Acapulco and Hawaii |
In what way is the Snowdonia Centre different from the other two holidays?
| A．It provides chances of family gatherings. |
| B．It provides customers with good food. |
| C．It offers a sport lesson. |
| D．It offers comfortable room. |
What is special about the World Sea Trip of 2008?
| A．You can have free meals on deck every day. |
| B．You can sleep on a ship and tour many places. |
| C．You will have chances to watch and act in a play. |
| D．You have to do your own packing and unpacking. |
How many novels written by Fitzgerald are mentioned in the passage?
| A．5. | B．6. | C．7. | D．8. |
Which of the following is the correct order to describe Fitzgerald’s life according to the pas sage?
a. He became addicted to drinking.
b. He studied at St. Paul Academy.
c. He published his first novel This Side of Paradise.
d. The Great Gatsby won high praise.
e. He failed to reorder his life.
f. He joined the army and met Zelda.
| A．f-c-e-a-b-d | B．b-e-a-f-c-d | C．f-d-e-c-b-a | D．b-f-c-d-e-a |
We can infer from the passage that Fitzgerald .
| A．had made some money when he met Zelda in Alabama. |
| B．was well educated and well off before he served in the army |
| C．would have completed more works if his wife hadn’t broken down |
| D．helped his friend get rid of drinking while his wife was in hospital |
passage is probably followed by a concluding paragraph about .
| A．Zelda’s personal life |
| B．Zelda’s illness and treatment |
| C．Fitzgerald’s friendship with Graham |
| D．Fitzgerald’s contributions to the literary world |
Disease, poverty, hate, love—Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy(遗产) was far greater than just “great literature”
February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A white Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas”—not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today. In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day – unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.
Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth –“ home enjoyments, affections and hopes”.
In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “ Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickensian” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian (the period during British Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901) London.
He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy（官僚作风） in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about deprivation in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”, but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”.What is the main idea of the article?
| A．An introduction to Charles Dickens’ classic novels. |
| B．Charles dickens’ impact on the world. |
| C．Charles Dickens’ amazing characters. |
| D．Why Charles Dickens is popular across the world. |
Why is Dickens called “the man who invented Christmas”?
| A．Because he created the religious festival. |
| B．Because many of his novels have something to do with Christmas. |
| C．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations. |
| D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas. |
According to the article, the phrase “red tape” refers to _______.
| A．rules or procedures that are required to accomplish a task |
| B．a situation in which poor members of society are hurt. |
| C．conflict between people in power and weaker people |
| D．pointlessly time-consuming official procedures |
Without any hesitation, he said, “I’d be better off dead.” Hearing those words come out of my best friend’s mouth tore my heart apart. He has repeated that phrase more than once, and my mind continually plays it over like a voice recording.
I met him about three years ago. After knowing me for six months, he told me about his struggles with depression. Sadness was not the only emotion that came over me; I was shocked. He seemed so outgoing and happy all the time. I soon learned that he was physically and emotionally abused as a young child, causing him to have suicidal thoughts.
He refuses to talk to others about his depression because he now distrusts adults, especially those in his family. Nevertheless, he feels as if I understand him and that I know the right words to speak. Therefore, when it comes to helping him, convenience is not in my vocabulary. It does not matter where I am or what I am doing, for he always comes first.
Many students at his school laugh at him when they notice scars on his arms from cutting. As he sees it, other kids have every right to make fun of him. But no one holds such a right, so I encourage him to ignore the heartless kids who treat him badly. When he feels the weight of judging eyes or hateful voices, I always remind him that I care about him unconditionally. Just hearing me say I will always be his best friend seems to give him the security he needs to keep on going.
My best friend once told me that if he had not had me, he would not be alive. He said that my encouraging words convinced him not to take his life. Our friendship has taught me that a single kind word can influence someone’s life. With the fragility of life as it is, I believe in the necessity of encouragement.According to the first paragraph, what the author’s friend said made the author feel ______.
| A．puzzled | B．heart broken. | C．frightened | D．hopeless |
By saying “convenience is not in my vocabulary”, the author means ______.
| A．he is always ready to help his friend. |
| B．he hardly spares time to help his friend. |
| C．he has no good excuse for refusing his friend. |
| D．he is not good at communicating with his friend. |
From the passage we learn that the author’s friend ________.
| A．had a happy childhood but everything changed later |
| B．wanted to share his story but no one listened. |
| C．took it for granted that he was made fun of |
| D．was always of sad appearance |
What does the author learn from his experiences?
| A．How to make a big difference to others. |
| B．The importance of encouragement. |
| C．How to get rid of depression |
| D．The necessity of security |
Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney, Jr. a professor at the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine infected six student volunteers with virus, the most common cause of colds. A few days later, when they were coughing and sneezing, he gathered 37 more people and divided them into three groups. Group 1 members spent three days and nights in the same room with one of the infected students, separated by a screen so they couldn't touch one another. Group 2 sat around a table while an infected volunteer talked, coughed and sang to them. Group 3 held hands with an infected student for ten seconds, and then touched their own noses or eyes.
Although most scientists at the time, the mid-70s, believed colds were spread by virus-laden droplets spread through the air when infected people coughed or sneezed, Gwaltney suspected physical contact might play an important role. Sure enough, of the 15 people who had touched a student volunteer, 11 became infected—compared with only one of those who had been sitting at the table, and none who had spent three days and nights together.
"The best evidence we have is that hand-to-hand contact is the most efficient way of transmitting virus," says Gwaltney. The study was one of a series that helped establish Gwaltney's reputation as a leading authority. Dr. Robert Couch says, "It would not be inappropriate to call him Mr. Common Cold."
When Gwaltney is asked how close scientists are to finding a cure, he replies: "If you mean ‘get rid of’, I don't think we're going to be able to do that with cold viruses any time soon. But if you look in the dictionary, you'll see that 'cure' is explained as a successful treatment. And we're not just getting more effective at treating the symptoms (症状)—we're getting at the root cause too. "Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney conducted the experiment in order to__________.
| A．find out the most common cause of colds |
| B．infect the student volunteer |
| C．find out the role physical contact plays in the common colds |
| D．find out the role virus-laden air plays in the infection of colds |
The result of the experiment shows that ___ plays an important role in the infection of colds.
| A．sneezing at the infected person |
| B．touching the infected person |
| C．sitting together with the infected person |
| D．talking with the infected person |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Dr. Gwaltney was sure that hand-to-hand touch is the cause of the common cold. |
| B．Only one of the people who had spent three days and nights together became infected. |
| C．Dr. Gwaltney conducted many an experiment as to the cause of colds. |
| D．Dr. Gwaltney tested altogether 43 volunteers to see how they could develop colds. |
Mr. Common Cold is______.
| A．a newly-found virus |
| B．a nickname (绰号) of respect to Dr. Gwaltney |
| C．a method to cure colds |
| D．a way by which the other scientists laughed at Dr. Gwaltney |
When Dr. Gwaltney gives a reply in the end of the passage, he means that______.
| A．they have found the fundamental cause of colds |
| B．they have managed to wipe out the cold viruses |
| C．they have meant to experiment more |
| D．they have made much progress in dealing with colds |
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns(酒馆), and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor (前身) of the modern fridge, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox as not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary(未发展的). The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price(高价) for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.Where was ice used after the Civil War?
| A．In refrigerating freight cars and households. |
| B．In hotels, taverns and hospitals |
| C．In families of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. |
| D．In fresh meat, fish and butter by city dealers. |
What was essential to to make an icebox efficient according to the passage?
| A．Keeping the ice from melting |
| B．Knowledge of the physics of heat. |
| C．Balance of insulation and circulation |
| D．Making efforts to reduce the use of ice |
The second paragraph is mainly about_____
| A．the deveopment of icebox |
| B．the theoretical foundation of icebox |
| C．the wrong ideas about icebox |
| D．the way of using icebox |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Thomas Moore is the inventor of modern fridge |
| B．The butter produced by Thomas Moored is better in quality than other famers’ |
| C．Knowledge of the physics of heat plays an important part in inventing a good icebox |
| D．Before 1880, most of the sold ice was used for family use. |
Without an ice box, farmers had to go to the market at night ________.
| A．to sell their produce at high price |
| B．to go home earlier |
| C．to keep their produce fresh |
| D．to win more customers than their competitors |
We once had a poster competition in our fifth grade art class.
“You could win prizes,” our teacher told us as she wrote the poster information on the blackboard. She passed out sheets of construction paper while continuing, “The first prize is ten dollars. You just have to make sure that the words on the blackboard appear somewhere on your poster.”
We studied the board critically. Some of us looked with one eye and held up certain colors against the blackboard, rocking the sheets to the right or left while we conjured up our designs. Others twisted their hair around their fingers or chewed their erasers while deep in thought. We had plans for that ten-dollar grand prize, each and every one of us. I’m going to spend mine on candies, one hopeful would announce, while another practiced looking serious, wise and rich.
Everyone in the class made a poster. Some of us used parts of those fancy paper napkins, while others used nothing but colored construction paper. Some of us used big designs, and some of us preferred to gather our art tidily down in one corner of our poster and let the space draw the viewer’s attention to it. Some of us would wander past the good students’ desks and then return to our own projects with a growing sense of hopelessness. It was yet another grown-up trick of the sort they seemed especially fond of, making all of us believe we had a fair chance, and then always—always—rewarding the same old winners.
I believe I drew a sailboat, but I can’t say that with any certainty. I made it. I admired it. I determined it to be the very best of all of the posters I had seen，and then I turned it in.
Minutes passed.
No one came along to give me the grand prize, and then someone distracted me, and I probably never would have thought about that poster again.
I was still sitting at my desk, thinking, What poster? when the teacher gave me an envelope with a ten-dollar bill in it and everyone in the class applauded for me.What was the teacher’s requirement for the poster?
| A．It must appear in time. |
| B．It must be done in class. |
| C．It must be done on a construction sheet. |
| D．It must include the words on the blackboard. |
The underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.
| A．formed an idea for |
| B．made an outline for |
| C．made some space for |
| D．chose some colors for |
After the teacher’s words, all the students in the class________.
| A．looked very serious |
| B．thought they would be rich |
| C．began to think about their designs |
| D．began to play games |
After seeing the good students’ designs, some students________.
| A．loved their own designs more |
| B．thought they had a fair chance |
| C．put their own designs in a corner |
| D．thought they would not win the prize |
We can infer from the passage that the author________.
| A．enjoyed grown up tricks very much |
| B．loved poster competitions very much |
| C．felt surprised to win the competition |
| D．became wise and rich after the competition |