For shopoholics, the post-Christmas period means only one thing ---- sales! Across the country, prices are reducing sharply on clothing, electronics and home furniture, but London is the place for serious shopping, and you can certainly pick up some amazing bargains.
The sales start on Boxing Day — 26th December, and continue for the month of January, but the keenest bargain hunters get there early to be first through the doors. In Oxford Street queues formed outside shops ahead of before-dawn openings for the start of their sales. At Brent Cross, in north London, more than 1,000 people were queuing at 3.30 am for the ‘Next’ clothing store’s sale which began at 4 am. Some eager individuals even camped outside the shops to be first in the line.
Consumers who hit the shops were rewarded with discounts of as much as 80% as department stores joined the bargain sales. The shops are very crowded as the sales reached the boiling-point, with more than half a million people gathering on London’s West End.
Famous sales include the biggest, most popular shops such as Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty and John Lewis. Department stores are always a good bet — you’re likely to find everything you need under one roof, including much-needed food and drinks!
It’s a good time to stock up on cheap small tools, and there’s no better time to invest in some designer clothes.
Some people are taking their partners shopping with them, and buying their Christmas presents in the sale----a practical but unromantic way of making sure you get the gift you really want. For a less exciting but less stressful shopping experience, online sellers are also getting in on the act with January sales of their own.
The most organized of all are those who are already doing their present shopping for next Christmas, in the January sales!
In the sales, people can buy, at a very low price, all of the following except ______.
| A．fashionable clothing | B．bestseller |
| C．TV sets | D．bookcases |
We can learn from the passage that the sales ______.
| A．actually start before the end of December | B．generally last for two months |
| C．basically benefit none of the people | |
| D．are a time to buy Christmas gifts in a romantic way |
“Hit the shops” in the third paragraph means to ______.
| A．attack the shops | B．arrive at the shops |
| C．affect the shops | D．find the shops |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．January Sales | B．Sales in London at Christmas |
| C．Practical but Unromantic Shopping | D．Shopping under One Roof |
Come October and everybody is busy making Christmas plans. The most important thing other than making decisions on buying gifts is decorating your Christmas tree.
Decorating Christmas trees involves every member in the family to contribute and do whatever they can to help with the decorations. Decorating Christmas trees is a fun activity that everyone in the family enjoys doing. Therefore, for innovative (创新的) ideas, it is best to get the whole family together after dinner and have a brain storming
session for new ideas. Children are really innovative and can come up with great suggestions. Well here are some additional ideas that can be beneficial and help you create that new look for your Christmas tree this year.
For decorative purposes it is better that you get an artificial tree. Select a unique theme and look for ideas to create your own decorations. The Internet is a good source for unique ideas and themes. Go in for light decorations that are truly different. Start your shopping early to look for those special lights especially at your local stores. You can even have a personalized Christmas tree theme where you have all your family members' photos hung
from various branches. Hang out of the world decorative pieces that truly stand out. Search for these at your local store or even your attic where you are sure to find some of those long forgotten decorative pieces that have been handed down to you by your grandmother. You can even use dried flowers or make some of your own artificial flowers as decorations.
If you feel you cannot come up with any great ideas, there is no reason to worry. The Internet is full of them. Make a thorough search and you are sure to find a good idea. You can then try innovating on that idea by making your own unique decorations. Enjoy yourself!
44．What is mainly talked about in the passage?
A．Process to celebrate Christmas.
B．Ways to decorate Christmas trees.
C．Places to buy Christmas gifts.
D．Get－together for family members.
45．Why does the author suggest getting children involved in the decoration?
A．Because they like Christmas very much.
B．Because they wish to get more gifts.
C．Because they can come up with new ideas.
D．Because they are more innovative.
46．In order to make Christmas tree theme personalized, you can ________.
A．hang photos of your family members on the branches
B．get an artificial tree from the local shop
C．hang some colored lights on it from home
D．use long forgotten decorative pieces in the attic
47．From the passage we can infer that ________.
A．nothing is more important than decorating the Christmas tree
B．fresh flowers is the best choice to decorate the Christmas tree
C．most of the people shop their Christmas tree on the Internet
D．people begin making preparations for Christmas long before it begins
If you've been joining in chat room conversations, or trading e－mails with net pals (网友), you have become one of the millions who write in a special, short form of English.
Throughout the world, every night children and their elders are “talking” online－many of them are talking at the same time.
It's fast: trying talking to six people once. It's convenient: three or four words per exchange. It takes cleverness, concentration and quick fingers.
And it requires very simple language. There's neither time nor space for explanations. Why waste valuable time telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB (be right back) will do?
Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI (pardon me for jumping in)．
Interested in whom you're talking to? Type A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal's age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a reply from your pal.
If something makes you laugh, say you're OTF (on the floor), or LOL (laughing out loud), or join the two into ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing)．
And when it's time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG (got to go) or TTYL (talk to you later)．
People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing feeling, as it takes more time to hold down the “Shift” key and use capitals. Punctuation (标点) is going too.When people are online, they talk by ________.
| A．using body language |
| B．drawing some strange pictures |
| C．making phone calls |
| D．making use of an especially short form of English |
The underlined sentence in Para. 4 means that ________.
| A．people should use words properly |
| B．people should know what time it is when they are talking |
| C．people online have to express themselves in a simple way |
| D．people should communicate in a funny way |
If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means________.
| A．the people on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine |
| B．you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York |
| C．you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York |
| D．the people you are talking to is a 17－foot tall New York girl |
Which of the following is a way to save online time?
| A．People seldom use capital letters or punctuation marks. |
| B．Many people draw pictures. |
| C．People only use the mouse instead of the keyboard. |
| D．People never use the “Shift” key. |
The lights dimmed，the musical hall grew quiet and out walked the conductor (指挥) shiny and white and 4 feet and 3 inches tall.
ASIMO, a robot designed by Honda Motor Co., met its latest challenge Tuesday evening: Conducting the Detroit Symphony (底特律交响乐团), in a performance of “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha”．
“Hello, everyone，” ASIMO said to the audience in a childlike voice, then waved to the orchestra. As it conducted, it perfectly mimicked (模仿) the actions of a conductor,
nodding its head at various sections and gesturing with one or both hands. ASIMO took a final bow to excited shouts from the audience. Later, cellist Yo－Yo Ma joined ASIMO onstage to receive an award for his efforts in music education.
Honda spokeswoman Alicia Jones says it is the first time ASIMO has conducted an orchestra, and it may be the first time any robot has conducted a live performance. But ASIMO has its limits. ASIMO's engineers programmed the robot to mimic Charles Burke, the Detroit Symphony's education director, as he conducted the piece in front of a pianist about six months ago. But it can't respond to the musicians.
“It's not a communicative device. It simply is programmed to do a set of gestures，” said Leonard Slatkin, the orchestra's musical director. “If the orchestra decides to go faster, there's nothing the robot can do about it. Hopefully, I keep that under control.”
But several musicians also said ASIMO was more realistic than they expected. “The movements are still a little stiff (僵硬的), but very humanlike, much better than I thought，” Hutchinson said.What's the audience's response to ASIMO's performance?
| A．Disappointed. | B．Moved. |
| C．Excited. | D．Astonished. |
Whose conducting was ASIMO made to copy?
| A．Yo－Yo Ma's. | B．Charles Burke's. |
| C．Leonard Slatkin's. | D．Alicia Jones's. |
We can learn from the passage that ASIMO ________.
| A．was designed and trained by Yo－Yo Ma |
| B．can communicate with the audience freely |
| C．only performs according to the designed programs |
| D．can change its conducting style freely |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Detroit Symphony gives a good performance |
| B．Honda robot conducts Detroit Symphony |
| C．“The Impossible Dream” from Detroit Symphony |
| D．Cooperation between Honda and Detroit Symphony |
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is also the most neglect (忽视). Common reasons for not eating breakfast include having no time, not feeling hungry, traditional dislike and dieting.
Breakfast simply means “break the fast’’. Your body spends at least 6 to 12 hours each night in a fasting state. In the morning your body needs energy for the day’s work ahead.
A good breakfast should provide 1/3 of your total calorie(卡路里)needs for the day. On average, we eat 400 less calories for breakfast than for dinner. If breakfast doesn’t appeal (吸引) to you in the morning, try eating a lighter dinner earlier in the evening or save half of your dinner for breakfast in the morning.
If you still aren’t hungry in the morning, start with something small like juice or toast or have a nutritious (有营养的) mid-morning snack (小吃) later when you are hungry.
So, you say you are on a diet. Some people fear that eating breakfast will make them hungrier during the day and they will eat more. It is true that eating breakfast is likely to make you feel hungry throughout the day. That is because your body is working correctly. Although you may feel as if you are eating more all day long, in reality you are probably not.
Not eating breakfast can also cause you overeat, since a fall in blood sugar often makes you feel very hungry later. To make matters worse, since your body is in a slow state, it will not be able to burn those extra calories very efficiently (有效). If you feed your body healthy snacks and meals throughout the day, you are less likely to become hungry and stuff (填饱) yourself as soon as you begin to eat.
Since breakfast is the first and most important meal of the day, choosing the right food is important. The best breakfast foods are fruits, juice, lean meat and grain products such as bread, rice, noodles and cereals. What is the meaning of the word “fast” in the phrase “break the fast”?
| A．movement | B．going without food |
| C．quickness | D．certain kind of food |
If you don’t want to have breakfast in the morning, according to the writer’s suggestion, you should________.
| A．see a doctor to have an examination |
| B．have a little supper |
| C．go to a restaurant to enjoy a good meal |
| D．have a good supper |
Eating breakfast, in fact, makes your body_________.
| A．work out of order | B．produce too much energy |
| C．work well | D．feel hungry quicker |
Not eating breakfast will_________.
| A．save a lot of money | B．do harm to your health |
| C．do good to your health | D．help you keep in shape |
In the last paragraph the writer mainly_________.
A. persuades us to have a good breakfast
B. tell us what food isn’t suitable for breakfast
C describes when and how we should have our breakfast
D .tell us what food we should have for breakfast
Doctors have known for a long time that extremely loud noises can cause hearing damage or loss. The noise can be the sound of a jet airplane or machines in factories of loud music or other common sound at home and at work. A person only needs to hear the noise for little more than one second to be affected.
An American scientist has found that using aspirin (阿斯匹林) increase the temporary (暂时的)hearing loss or damage from loud noise. He did an experiment using a number of students at a university who all had normal hearing. He gave them different amounts of aspirin for different periods of time, then he tested their hearing ability. He found that students who were given four grams of aspirin a day for two days suffered much greater temporary hearing loss than those who did not use aspirin. The hearing loss was about two times as great.
The scientist said millions of persons in the U.S. use much larger amounts of aspirin than were used in his experiment. He said these persons face a serious danger of suffering hearing loss from loud noise.Doctors have long known that__________.
| A．one may lose his hearing when he hears a terribly loud noise. |
| B．one may become deaf when he hears a loud noise. |
| C．loud noises can cause damage to the hearing of the young people only |
| D．common sounds at home are not harmful to the ear |
This passage suggests that one’s hearing________.
| A．will be damaged even if he has heard a loud noise for only little more than one second |
| B．will be damaged even if he has heard a loud noise less than one second |
| C．will not be damaged if he has heard a loud noise for only little more than one second |
| D．will not be damaged if he has little more than one second to get ready |
One conclusion you can draw from the passage is that aspirin________.
| A．makes hearing damage from loud noise worse |
| B．should never be taken more than four grams |
| C．can damage one’s hearing when it is given more than four grams daily |
| D．always increases hearing loss by two times |
Millions of Americans are in danger of suffering hearing loss because they__________.
| A．take too much aspirin |
| B．often take air trips |
| C．like listening to loud music |
| D．have too much loud noises at home and at work |
The American scientist did his experiment in order to find ________.
| A．how much aspirin would affect a person’s hearing |
| B．how much aspirin should be given in the treatment of the patients with hearing damage from loud noise |
| C．whether aspirin would increase the temporary hearing damage from loud noises |
| D．whether the people who had hearing damage should use aspirin |