When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at ‘bed and breakfast’ houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought ‘VACANCIES’ meant ‘holidays’, because the Spanish word for ‘holidays” is ‘vacaciones’. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word ‘DIVERSION’ means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more. coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.
| A．learning English | B．finding places to stay in England |
| C．driving their car on English roads | D．going to England by car |
I suggested that they stay at bed and breakfast houses because ______.
| A．they would be able to practise their English |
| B．it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels |
| C．it would be convenient for them to have dinner |
| D．there would be no problem about finding accommodation there |
“NO VACANCIES” in English means ______.
| A．no free rooms | B．free rooms |
| C．not away on holiday | D．holidays |
If you see a road sign that says ‘Diversion’, you will ______.
| A．fall into a hole |
| B．have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself |
| C．find that the road is blocked by crowds of people |
| D．have to take a different road |
When someone offered me more coffee and I said ‘Thank you’ in French,
I ______.
A didn’t really want any more coffee B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away
C. really wanted some more coffee D. hadn’t finished drinking my coffee
A good relationship between students and teachers makes the classroom a very inviting place. When you like your teachers, it’s easier to pay attention to their explanations and improve your marks. When you consider your teachers as friends, you’ll certainly have more respect for them. When your teachers consider you to be a friend, they’ll feel more open in class and that will probably influence the classroom in a positive way. Now here are some tips to develop a friendly relationship with your teachers:
Ask questions. If you have any questions about that subject, ask them. Show them that you’re interested in their subjects. That will make them notice you. But never ask questions that you already know the answers to. If your teachers realize that you are not asking real questions, they might think that you’re not actually trying to learn, but only trying to make an impression.
Talk about non-school subjects. When you see one of your teachers in the hall, greet him/her and ask if he/she is going to that concert or if he/she has seen that movie. That way you’ll show that you consider him/her as a reined. Some teachers don’t like to have friendly relationships with students, but most of them are happy to chat with their students. After a while, they may start to talk with you about non-school subjects in the classroom.
The rest is totally up to you; it is very easy to develop a friendly relationship with any of your teachers. If you want to be friends with your teachers, just treat them as friends, but don’t forget that no matter how good friends you are, they will still be your teachers and deserve your respect.What does the first paragraph mainly tell us?
| A．How to make friends with your teachers in or out of class. |
| B．How important a good teacher-student relationship is. |
| C．How to make yourself pay attention to your teachers in class. |
| D．Some tips for developing a friendly relationship with your teachers. |
When you ask a teacher questions you already know the answers to, __________.
| A．you may make a fool of yourself trying to be smart |
| B．it means that you should not be above asking questions |
| C．you are actually trying to make fun of your teachers |
| D．it shows that you’re trying to pretend to know everything |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．What a good teacher-student relationship is. |
| B．How to make friends with your classmates at school. |
| C．How to make the classroom a very inviting place. |
| D．How to develop a good relationship with your teachers. |
You wake up in the morning, the day is beautiful and the plans for the day are what you have been looking forward to for a long time. Then the telephone rings, you say hello, and the drama starts. The person on the other end has a depressing tone in his voice as he starts to tell you how terrible his morning is and that there is nothing to look forward to. You are still in a wonderful mood? Impossible!
Communicating with negative people can wash out your happiness. It may not change what you think, but communicating long enough with them will make you feel depressed for a moment or a long time.
Life brings ups and downs, but some people are stuck in the wrong idea that life has no happiness to offer. They only feel glad when they make others feel bad. No wonder they can hardly win others’ pity or respect.
When you communicate with positive people, your spirit stays happy and therefore more positive things are attracted. When the dagger(匕首) of a negative person is put in you, you feel the heavy feeling that all in all, brings you down.
Sometimes we have no choice but to communicate with negative people. This could be a co-worker, or a relative. In this case, say what needs to be said as little as possible. Sometimes it feels good to let out your anger back to the negative person, but all this does is to lower you to that same negative level and they won’t feel ashamed of themselves about that.
Negativity often affects happiness without even being realized. The negative words of another at the start of the day can cling to(附着) you throughout the rest of your day, which makes you feel bad and steals your happiness. Life is too short to feel negative. Stay positive and avoid negativity as much as possible.The purpose of the first paragraph is to_______.
| A．make a comparison | B．offer an evidence |
| C．introduce a topic | D．describe a daily scene |
How can negative people have effect on us?
| A．By influencing our emotion. |
| B．By telling us the nature of life. |
| C．By changing our ways of thinking. |
| D．By comparing their attitudes to life with others. |
Some negative people base their happiness on ______.
| A．other people’s pity for them |
| B．making other people unhappy |
| C．building up a positive attitude |
| D．other people’s respect for them |
According to the passage, to reduce negative people’s influence on us, we are advised to ______.
| A．change negative people’s attitudes to life |
| B．show our dissatisfaction to negative people |
| C．make negative people feel ashamed of themselves |
| D．communicate with negative people as little as possible. |
US researchers have found traces of an ancient lake on Mars recently, increasing hopes of discovering evidence that billions of years ago the Red planet hosted life.
The lake, which dates back some 3.4 billion years, appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep, said the team from the University of Colorado.
“This is the first clear evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars,” said Boulder’s research associate, Gaetano Di Achille, in a study published in the latest edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
“The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago.”
Analysis of the images has shown the water carved out the canyon (溪谷) in which it was found, which then opened out into a valley depositing (使淤积) sediment (沉积) which formed a delta(三角洲).
“Finding shorelines is a great discovery to us,” said assistant professor Brian Hynek, adding it showed the lake existed at a time when Mars was thought to have been cold and dry.
Scientists believe the oldest surfaces on Mars formed during the wet and warm era known as the Noachan epoch, about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago.
The newly discovered lake is believed to date from the Hesperian era and postdates the end of the warm and wet period on Mars by 300 million years, according to the study.
Scientists believe deltas next to the lake may well hold secrets about past life on Mars as such places on Earth have become the natural deposits of organic carbon and other markers of life.The size of the lake found on mars is_____.
| A．80 square miles | B．1,500 square miles |
| C．3.4 billion square miles | D．300 million square miles |
When the lake existed, the weather on Mars was_____.
| A．hot and wet | B．wet and warm | C．cold and dry | D．cold and wet |
Why do scientists think deltas near the lake may hold secrets about past life on Mars?
| A．Because similar places on Earth have become natural deposits of markers of life. |
| B．Because someone has put secrets about past life on Mars there. |
| C．Because past life has been found in other deltas on Mars. |
| D．Because some people are said to have already seen life marks there. |
Which of the following statements is Not true according to the passage?
| A．The Noachan epoch was a wet and warm era. |
| B．The lake might have existed 3.4 billion years. |
| C．The discovery can’t fully prove that the Mars once hosted life. |
| D．The lake traces prove that there exists life on Mars now. |
I was reading these interesting stories behind a group of great logos (标志) in the world. Personally Nike is my favorite one—it’s so simple. And I liked the stories behind them, which made me forget all other things. McDonald’s, Apple, Mercedes Benz and Adidas own great logos as well, and they are among my favorites.
Nike
In the Greek myth, Nike is the goddess of victory and the source of inspiration for soldiers. This logo represents the wing in the famous statue of the Greek goddess. Nike’s logo was designed by Carolyn Davidson in 1971 for $ 35, and was registered as a trademark in 1995.
McDonald’s
The logo was designed in 1962 by Jim Schindler to resemble the archshaped(拱形的) signs on the side of the company’s then walk-up hamburger stand. Later on, the two golden arches were combined together to form the M. The McDonald’s name was added to the logo in 1968.
Apple
There are different stories behind Apple’s logo. The first logo was a reference to the religious story of Adam and Eve, in which the apple represented the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. One year later, the second logo was designed in 1977 by Steven Jobs and Ronald Wayne, and it described Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. This logo didn’t stay long. One year later it was replaced almost immediately by graphic designer Rob Janoff’s “ rainbow apple”, a rainbow- colored silhouette (轮廓) of an apple with a bite taken out of it. And then the rainbow- colored apple was replaced by the one- colored logo in 1998. It has not been changed so far.
Mercedes Benz
The Mercedes Benz logo, which was originally created by Gottlieb Daimler in 1909, consists of a simple description of a three- pointed star that represents its rule of the land, the sea and the air. The company was founded by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Marcedes is the name of Maybach’s elder daughter, while Benz came as a result of a combination with Benz, Cie.and DMG in 1926.
Adidas
The Adidas logo, which was created by the founder of the company Adi Dassler, represents mountains, pointing towards the challenges that are seen ahead and goals that can be achieved. The logo was used for the first time in 1976.What does the author think of the stories of the great logos?
| A．They are boring | B．They are out of date. |
| C．They are attractive | D．They are practical |
What does Nike’s logo stand for?
| A．The goddess of victory |
| B．The source of inspiration for soldiers |
| C．The statue of the Greek goddess |
| D．The wing of the Greek goddess. |
We can learn that Apple’s present logo is______.
| A．the religious story of Adam and Eve |
| B．a bitten apple with only one color |
| C．Newton’s sitting under an apple tree |
| D．the rainbow- colored bitten apple |
Which of the following time orders describes the births of the great logos?
| A．Mercedes Benz – McDonald’s – Nike – Apple. |
| B．Nike – McDonald’s – Apple – Mercedes Benz. |
| C．McDonald’s – Apple – Nike – Mercedes Benz. |
| D．Nike –Mercedes Benz –McDonald’s – Apple, |
I appreciate how biking to work allows me to be outside for at least a small part of my day. I’m a senior program director. If I didn’t bike to work, I’d spend my weekdays almost entirely indoors—underground tunnel. On the bike, I get trees, air and a great way to get to know city neighborhoods. Of course, I also get bad weather and city traffic. But it’s worth the trade-off. The weather’s not often bad, and rain and snow have their charms.
I’ve been cycling to work since the late 1990s. I started when the city was doing some construction in the subways and rerouting passengers, which would have lengthened my trip considerably. I tried riding my sister- in- law’s bike to work one day and liked it, so I bought my own. Even though I hadn’t biked since I was a child, I got back into it right away.
I bike during all four seasons. In summer, I wear shorts and a T- shirt and carry a messenger bag over my shoulder for my lunch and anything else I need. Once at the office, I change into business- casual clothes. In winter, I wear layers and a thin hat under my helmet. A cold winter day can be the best time to be on a bicycle. When the air is clear, free of oppressive summer haze, the city can look beautiful.
Biking to work also comes in handy during the workday itself. I have a rack (网架) on the back of my bike that accommodates panniers that allow me to pick up groceries. During work hours, a colleague will occasionally need to send or retrieve documents by messenger. If I have the time, I volunteer. Pedaling 30 blocks and back is a nice way to take a break from work—and to save the office a few bucks on messenger fees.
I’m sure that some people thinking my mode of transportation might be afraid of Midtown traffic. I’m no hero; I don’t want to get hurt riding to work. It just takes time getting used to it. There’s a risk, but all travel has risks. They’re worth it to me.Which is the reason for the author cycling to work?
| A．To save money | B．To lose weight |
| C．To smell the roses outside | D．To protect the environment |
What made the author began to ride a bike to work?
| A．The author bought his own bike. |
| B．His sister- in- law lent him a bike. |
| C．There were few bikes on the street then. |
| D．The subway construction in the city was under way. |
The underlined phrase “come in handy” most probably means ______ ?
| A．useful | B．available | C．valuable | D．economical |
In the last paragraph, the author implies that _______.
| A．He is not a hero. |
| B．He will go on cycling to work. |
| C．All travel has risks. |
| D．He is afraid of Midtown traffic. |