Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.
What to Expect
The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.
Accommodation Zones
Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones 2, 3 and 4 of the transport system. Most hosts do not live in the town centre as much of central London is commercial and not residential (居住的). Zones 3 and 4 often offer larger accommodation in a less crowded area. It is very convenient to travel in London by Underground.
Meal Plans Available
* Continental Breakfast
* Breakfast and Dinner
* Breakfast, Packed Lunch and Dinner
It’s important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast. Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal (谷物类食品), bread and tea or coffee. Cheese, fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in England. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by desert, fruit and coffee.
Friends
If you wish to invite a friend over to visit, you must first ask your host’s permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.
Self-Catering Accommodation in Private Homes
Accommodation on a room-only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long-stay student. However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practise English at home quite as much. The passage is probably written for ________.
| A．host willing to receive foreign students |
| B．foreigners hoping to build British culture |
| C．travelers planning to visit families in London |
| D．English learners applying to live in English homes |
Which of the following will the host provide?
| A．Room cleaning. | B．Medical care. |
| C．Free transport. | D．Physical training. |
What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?
| A．Zone 4 is more crowded than Zone 2. |
| B．The business centre of London is in Zone 1. |
| C．Hosts dislike traveling to the city centre. |
| D．Accommodation in the city centre is not provided. |
According to the passage, what does continental Breakfast include?
| A．Dessert and coffee | B．Fruit and vegetables. |
| C．bread and fruit juice | D．Cereal and cold meat. |
Why do some people choose self-catering accommodation?
| A．To experience a warmer family atmosphere. |
| B．To enrich their knowledge of English. |
| C．To entertain friends as they like. |
| D．To enjoy much more freedom. |
Students in many countries are learning English. Some of these students are small children. Others are teen-agers. Many are adults. Some learn at school, others by themselves. A few learn English by learning the language over the radio, on TV, or in film. One must work hard to learn another language.
Why do all these people want to learn English? It is difficult to answer this question. Many boys and girls learn English at school because it is one of their subjects required for study. They study their own language and maths and English: Some people learn it because it is useful for their work. Many people learn English for their work. Many people learn English for their higher studies, because at college or university some of their books are in English. Other people learn English because they want to read newspapers or magazines in English.People learn English _______.
| A．at school | B．over the radio |
| C．on TV | D．not all in the same way |
Different kinds of people want to learn English _______.
| A．together with other subjects | B．for different reasons |
| C．for their work | D．for higher studies at colleges |
From this passage we know that _______.
| A．we can learn English easily |
| B．English is very difficult to learn |
| C．English is learned by most people in the world |
| D．English is a useful language but one must work hard to learn |
Which of the following is right?
| A．We don’t need to learn any foreign languages. |
| B．We can do well in all our work without English. |
| C．English is the most important subject in schools. |
| D．We should learn English because we need to face the world. |
America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect （影响） American society in many ways — education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society— one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior（行为）is suitable （合适）at various ages. A person's age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There's no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school ,get a job, or stop working isn't as strong as it used to be. It doesn't surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the firs time. Public ideas are changing. Many people say, 'I am much younger than my mother - or my father - was at my age.' No one says ‘Act your age’ anymore. We've stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways. It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America_________ .
| A．has made people feel younger |
| B．has changed people's social position |
| C．has changed people's understanding of age |
| D．has slowed down the country's social development |
The underlined word ‘one’ refers to_________.
| A．a society | B．America | C．a place | D．population |
‘Act your age’ means people should_________.
| A．be active when they are old |
| B．do the right thing at the right age |
| C．show respect for their parents young or old |
| D．take more physical exercise suitable to their age |
If a 25-year-old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it ______.
| A．normal | B．wonderful | C．unbelievable | D．unreasonable |
JINTAN, JIANGSU: The 20 students — 18 boys and 2 girls —had a thousand reasons to be proud of themselves. They had just climbed their way to the top rung（阶梯）out of 4 million students taking part in the Fifth National Hua Luogeng Gold Cup Mathematics Contest（竞赛）on Tuesday evening. The 20 gold medal winners are all primary and middle school students under the age of 14. ‘Many of the problems are of college level and these pupils can figure them out. It is just unbelievable!’said a teacher from Guangdong province. Named after China's most famous mathematician, Hua Luogeng, the contest started in 1986,one year after his death. In less than 10 years, it has been recognized by the State Education Commission（国家教委） as the country's biggest and best contest of its kind. This news story is mainly about________ .
| A．when the contest started |
| B．how the contest got its name |
| C．the 20 pupils who have won gold medals in the contest |
| D．the 5th National Hua Luogeng Gold Cup Mathematics Contest |
This news story most probably appeared in a newspaper in ________.
| A．1986 | B．1987 | C．1995 | D．1997 |
It can be inferred from the text that the teacher from Guangdong province ________.
| A．felt proud of the gold medal winners |
| B．wondered if the students were honest |
| C．thought that the problems were too difficult for the students |
| D．believed that the twenty winners could go to study at university |
The underlined phrase ‘figure out’ in the text means_________.
| A．work out | B．add up | C．guess | D．study |
Dear Guys,
I’d like to talk to you about the shame you subjected me to last night. Let me first refresh your memory: You, a group of fit, young men, were playing soccer on the field across from my apartment building. I, a better-than-average looking young woman, was walking along the sidewalk with my groceries. That’s when your ball came flying over the fence and landed in front of me.
One of you approached and asked politely if I would throw the ball back to you. Fighting the urge to drop my bags and run screaming down the street, I reluctantly (勉强地) agreed.
Before I continue, let me explain something that I didn’t have a chance to mention last night: I hate sports. More specifically, I hate sports involving balls. This results from my lack of natural ability when it comes to throwing, catching and hitting. I’m bad at aiming too. So you can understand why I’d be nervous at what I’m sure seemed to you like a laughably simple request.
However, wanting to appear agreeable, I put my bags down, picked up the ball and, eyes half-shut, threw it as hard as I could.
It hit the middle of the fence and bounced back to me.
Trying to act casually, I said something about being out of practice, then picked up the ball again. If you’ll remember, at your command, I agreed to try throwing underhand. While outwardly I was smiling, in my head, I was praying, Oh God, oh please oh please oh please. I threw the ball upward with all my strength, terrified by what happened next.
The ball hit slightly higher up on the fence and bounced back to me.
This is the point where I start to take issue with you. Wouldn’t it have been a better use of your time, and mine, if you had just walked around the fence and took the ball then? I was clearly struggling; my smiles were more and more forced. And yet, you all just stood there, motionless.
Seeing that you weren’t going to let me out of the trouble, I became desperate. Memories of middle school softball came flooding back. I tried hard to throw the ball but it only went about eight feet, then I decided to pick it up and dash with ball in hand towards the baseline, while annoyed thirteen-year-old boys screamed at me that I was ruining their lives. Children are cruel.
Being a big girl now, I pushed those memories aside and picked up the soccer ball for the third time. I forced a good-natured laugh while crying inside as you patiently shouted words of support over the fence at me.
“Throw it granny-style!” one of you said.
“Just back up a little and give it all you’ve got!” another offered.
And, most embarrassing of all, “You can do it!”
I know you thought you were being encouraging, but it only served to deepen the shame.
Anyway, I accepted your ball-throwing advice, backed up, rocked back and forth a little, took a deep breath and let it fly.
It hit the edge of the fence and bounced back to me.
I surprised myself-and I’m sure you as well-by letting out a cry, “DAMN IT!!!” I then willed myself to have a heart attack and pass out in front of you just so I’d be put out of my misery.
Alas, the heart attack didn’t happen, and you continued to look at me expectantly, like you were content to do this all night. I had become a sort of exhibition for you. I could feel your collective thoughts drifting through the chain-link: “Can she really not do it? But I mean, really?”
Unfortunately for you, I wasn’t really game to continue your experiment. Three failed attempts at a simple task in front of a group of people in a two-minute period was just enough blow for me for one night. I picked up the ball one last time, approached the fence and grumbled, “Please just come get the damn ball.”
And you did. And thanks to you, I decided at that very moment to never throw anything ever again, except disrespectful glances at people who play sports.
Sincerely, Jen CorderyThe writer agreed to throw the ball because ______.
| A．she needed to have a relax carrying the heavy groceries |
| B．she wanted to refresh her childhood memories |
| C．she could not refuse the polite request from the young man |
| D．she had fallen in love with the young man at first sight |
Why did the writer mention her middle school memory?
| A．To explain why she failed the attempts to throw the ball back. |
| B．To complain that she had not mastered the ball throwing skills. |
| C．To show how cruel those 13-year-old boys were. |
| D．To express her dislike towards softball. |
What the boys said before the writer’s third attempt actually made the writer _______.
| A．inspired | B．encouraged | C．embarrassed | D．depressed |
What happened to the ball at last?
| A．The writer managed to throw the ball back. |
| B．The boy got the ball back by himself. |
| C．The writer threw the ball away out of anger. |
| D．The boys got angry and left without the ball. |
It was eleven o'clock that night when Mr. Pontellier returned from his night out. He was in an excellent humor, in high spirits, and very talkative. His entrance awoke his wife, who was in bed and fast asleep when he came in. He talked to her while he undressed, telling her anecdotes and bits of news and gossip that he had gathered during the day. She was overcome with sleep, and answered him with little half utterances.
He thought it very discouraging that his wife, who was the sole object of his existence, showed so little interest in things which concerned him and valued so little his conversation.
Mr. Pontellier had forgotten the candies and peanuts that he had promised the boys. Still, he loved them very much and went into the room where they slept to take a look at them and make sure that they were resting comfortably. The result of his investigation was far from satisfactory. He turned and shifted the youngsters about in bed. One of them began to kick and talk about a basket full of crabs.
Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needed looking after. Then he lit his cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it.
Mrs. Pontellier was quite sure Raoul had no fever. He had gone to bed perfectly well, she said, and nothing had made him sick. Mr. Pontellier was too well familiar with fever symptoms to be mistaken. He assured her the child was burning with fever at that moment in the next room.
He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying home to see that no harm done to them. He talked in a dull, repeated and insistent way.
Mrs. Pontellier sprang out of bed and went into the next room. She soon came back and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning her head down on the pillow. She said nothing, and refused to answer her husband when he questioned her. When his cigar was smoked out, he went to bed, and in half a minute was fast asleep.
Mrs. Pontellier was by that time thoroughly awake. She began to cry a little, and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her nightdress. She went out on the porch, where she sat down and began to rock herself in the chair.
It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. There was no sound except the hooting of an old owl and the everlasting voice of the sea, which broke like a mournful lullaby (催眠曲) upon the night.
The tears came so fast to Mrs. Pontellier's eyes that the damp sleeve of her nightdress no longer served to dry them. She went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, her arms.
She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as had just happened were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against theabundance (充足) of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be self-understood.
An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with vague pain. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly scolding her husband, expressing sadness about Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself.
The mosquitoes succeeded in driving away a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer.
The following morning Mr. Pontellier was up in good time to take the carriage which was to convey him to the ship. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would not see him again at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his calmness, which seemed to have been somewhatweakened the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked forward to a lively week in the financial center.Mr.Pontellier comes back home from his night out in a/an ______state of mind.
| A．excited | B．confused | C．depressed | D．disappointed |
The writer would most likely describe Mr. Pontellier’s conduct during the evening as ______.
| A．impatient and generous | B．enthusiastic and responsible |
| C．concerned and gentle | D．inconsiderate and self-centered |
In paragraphs 8 to 13, Mrs. Pontellier’s reactions to her husband’s behavior suggest that ______.
| A．she accepts unquestioningly her role of taking care of the children |
| B．this is one of the times she has acknowledged her unhappiness with her husband |
| C．her relationship with her husband is not what has made her depressed |
| D．she is angry about something that happened before her husband left |