With the growth of the European Union and increased globalisation, English is increasingly the lingua franc a（通用语） in European businesses, and those who speak it have become the elite （精英）of the workforce．
In the past, only a few specialists in a company were needed to communicate with foreign businesses．However, in these days of multinational companies, where workers are required to communicate with other employees from several countries, a common language is essential and English has become the logical choice．
Nowadays, even blue-collar workers in many companies are required to speak English．For example, just over three years ago, a Dutch company．United Pan-European Communications （UPC）, was contracted to build a TV studio in Amsterdam．The job involved many electricians—more than the company could find in the Netherlands．There were plenty of qualified electricians in nearby France and Belgium, but the American and Dutch executives of UPC wanted everyone on the job to speak and understand the same language．So, the UPC hired British electricians and flew them to Amsterdam every Monday, accommodating them in hotels all over the city, and flying them home on Friday evenings．
Increasingly, workers who can speak English earn salaries 25-35% higher than those who can' t．They are also eligible （有条件被选中的） for a wider range of high-level jobs．
The problem is that, while the ability to speak English is fast becoming essential for getting a good job, there is a shortage of people who can speak it．According to a recent European Commission report, only about 41% of continental Europeans can speak English, and only 29% speak it well enough to carry on a conversation．Many companies are solving this problem by setting up English language schools within the workplace．English language schools all over Europe are expanding at a huge rate, and governments are looking at ways to improve English tuition in schools．
One result of this modem urge to learn English is that a generation gap is appearing． According to a European Union study, 67% of Europeans between 15 and 24 say they can speak English while only 18% of those over 55 say they can．Increasingly, all over Europe, it is the children who are leading the parents．In European companies, workers who speak English ________．
| A．find it easy to carry on a conversation | B．have an advantage over other workers |
| C．must be white-collar workers | D．travel to many different countries |
Why did the UPC hire the British electricians?
| A．There were not enough electricians in nearby France and Belgium． |
| B．British electricians were more qualified than those in the Netherlands． |
| C．The UPC wanted all the employees to speak English． |
| D．The UPC meant to show they were rich enough to accommodate and fly them． |
What can you learn from the passage about European people?
| A．More young people can speak English well than older people. |
| B．67% Europeans can speak English very well． |
| C．18% of the people over 55 can't speak English． |
| D．Over half the people can speak English． |
Besides calling 911, here is what to do in some life-threatening emergencies when no oneis
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around to help.
Lost in the wilderness
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Choking
Aim to hit the top of the chair against your stomach, in the soft part
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Severe bleeding
Use your hand or clean cotton, or paper towels, or a scarf,
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If you surprise a bear, don’t run away. That invites an attack.
Instead, stand up and back away slowly, without looking the| A．someone is bleeding | B．someone is choking |
| C．someone is lost | D．someone is attacked by a bear |
If you are still choking after six tries, you should .
| A．keep a sense of humor | B．call 911 and leave the line open |
| C．use your hand our clean cotton | D．lie down with your hands behind your neck |
Don’t tie around your bleeding leg tightly, or you could .
| A．stop bleeding | B．reduce stress |
| C．lose your foot | D．cause breathlessness |
The passage is mainly teaching us how to .
| A．survive the emergencies | B．avoid a bear attack |
| C．deal with a choke | D．find our way |
A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how risky it is to get a lift from a teenage driver. Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers is three times as likely to have a fatal accident as a teenager driving alone. By contrast, the risk of death for drivers between 30 and 59 decreases with each additional passenger.
The author also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight, with passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a late-night accident.
Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience. “The basic issue.” he says, “is that adults who are responsible for issuing licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled a task driving is.”
Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate (使……缓解)the problem is to have states institute so-called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a multistage process. A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself capable of driving in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with night of passenger restrictions, before graduating to full driving privileges.
Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies, About half of the states now have some sort of graduated licensing system in place, but only 10 of those states have restrictions on passengers, California is the strictest, with a novice (新手)driver prohibited from carrying any passenger under 20(without the presence of an adult over 25)for the first six months. Which of the following situations is most dangerous according to the passage?
| A．Adults giving a lift to teenagers on the highway after 10 p.m. |
| B．A teenager getting a lift from a stranger on the highway at midnight. |
| C．Adults driving with three or more teenage passengers late at night. |
| D．A teenager driving after midnight with passengers in the car. |
According to Robert Foss, the high death rate of teenage drivers is mainly due to ________.
| A．their frequent driving at night |
| B．their lack of driving experience |
| C．their improper way of driving |
| D．their driving with passengers |
According to Paragraph 3．which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The licensing authorities are partly responsible for teenagers' driving accidents. |
| B．Driving is a skill too complicated for teenagers to learn. |
| C．Restrictions should be imposed on teenagers applying to take driving lessons. |
| D．Teenagers should spend more time learning to drive. |
The most suitable measure to be taken to reduce teenagers' driving accidents is that ________ .
| A．driving in the presence of an adult should be made a rule |
| B．they should be prohibited from taking on passengers |
| C．the licensing system should be improved |
| D．they should not be allowed to drive after 10 p.m. |
Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes "the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don't seem to learn from history." Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can- not even understand why we are and where we are without history, much less (更不必说) try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio (录音机) tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. if, in doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplishe D．I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes. |
| B．Many people aren't clever enough to learn well from the past. |
| C．Many people feel it hard to understand history. |
| D．Many people have no interest in studying history. |
Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show ______________.
| A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil |
| B．people may also learn from bad historical figures |
| C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements |
| D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved |
What would be talked about in the following paragraph?
| A．How to teach history effectively. |
| B．How to get more people to study history. |
| C．Some negative reasons for studying history. |
| D．Some bad historical figures. |
The main purpose of this passage is to ____________.
| A．inspire the parents to teach their children history |
| B．show the importance of history in politics |
| C．explain the reasons why children study history |
| D．introduce the writer' s own way of teaching history |
Animals seem to have the sense to eat when they are hungry and they do not eat more than their bodies need．It has been demonstrated（证明）that rats will, when given a choice over a period of time, prefer water with vitamins(维生素) to water without vitamins even though there is no difference in taste or smell between the two water bottles．When a fragrant（香的）flavor（作料）was added to the vitamin-enriched water, the rats did seem to prefer it and kept drinking it ,even after the vitamins were switched to the clear water．In time, however, they broke the habit and went back to where the necessary vitamins were．
In a classic experiment, babies of 6 to 12 months old were placed in a cafeteria（自助） feeding arrangement, with a wide selection of baby food before them．They were given whatever food they pointed to or appeared interested in．We are told that at first they showed some unusual eating patterns, but that over a period of time they managed to select well-balanced diet．
So, in choosing food, rats and babies do seem to know and act on what's best for them．Apparently, there is a kind of “body wisdom”, which humans soon lose．Most of us do not eat as wisely as we could．Many of our food preferences are culturally determined and influenced by long-formed habits．Some people eat fox, dog and blackbirds, while we eat cows and pigs．So what people eat and how much they eat seems to be greatly influenced by what is going on around them．In the experiment on rats, a fragrant flavor was added to the rats’ drinking water to _____________ .
| A．encourage rats to drink vitamins-enriched water |
| B．test whether rats know which drink is good for them |
| C．find out rats’ preference in flavor |
| D．demonstrate the vitamins are tasteless |
According to the passage ,adults eating habits differ from those of babies because_________．
| A．adults know better than babies what kind of food are good for their health |
| B．adults usually cannot resist the temptation of various delicious foods |
| C．adults have more choices of food than babies in eating patterns |
| D．adults' eating habits are closely related to the social and cultural customs |
The author implied in the passage that most of us_________．
| A．eat a balanced diet |
| B．choose the food that is of nutrition |
| C．have the habits influenced by the surroundings |
| D．like to eat the food with a fragrant flavor． |
As far as their eating habits are concerned, babies and rats are similar in that_________．
| A．both prefer flavored food and drink |
| B．both have the wisdom to choose a balanced diet |
| C．both have the same eating patterns |
| D．both develop a taste for the same kinds of flavors |
China has input several billion yuan of money to stop the dirty water waste on the upper and middle area of the Pearl River from polluting the lowe
r reaches of the river, especially the Macao Special Administrative Region．
The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River has been rapidly urbanized（城市化）and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the damage of the land, rivers and atmosphere．
Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat rubbish to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis．
He Suping, a woman engineer with the water resources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area’s Karst terrain（喀斯特地形）and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more easily polluted．
The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong Province, provide
s fresh water for a n
umber of riverside cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat rubbish quickly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources．
The government 2001—2006 plan to spend billions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly provided by national debt payments and overseas investment．So far wastes treatment projects have received a total of 400 million yuan（48 million US dollars）from national debts and 60 million yuan（7．22 million US doll
ars）from overseas loans（贷款）．The main idea of the passage is __
| A．A large number of waterways have been polluted in China up to now． |
| B．Guangxi and Guangdong have taken the lead in making water clean． |
| C．China's rivers are badly in need of improvement． |
| D．China is making efforts to reduce pollution of the rivers． |
The main idea of the last paragraph is __
| A．The government has no ability to afford the expenses of treating wastes． |
| B．The government has a long-term plan to treat wastes． |
| C．National debt payments and overseas investment are taking an important part in developing China's economy． |
| D．A great deal of money is needed in dealing with wastes． |
The basic reason why the amount of urban rubbish rises in Guangxi lies in _____．
| A．the improvement of people’s living standard |
| B．people’s wasting too much |
| C．urbanization and industrialization |
| D．too many tourists’ coming |
The word “imperative” here probably
means _______．
| A．unnecessary | B．important | C．easy | D．unbelievable |
