Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of each word you see or hear, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.
For example, if an American boy asks his mother what's for dinner tomorrow, she may say "I'll play it by ear", that means she doesn't have plans for dinner and she will decide later. "Play by ear" used to mean playing music using the sheet music, but now people often use it when they're not talking about music.
There're many idioms in English. If you learn to use them, your English will be more vivid and colorful. English idioms are more common in spoken English. They can be difficult to remember sometimes. Next time when you hear somebody saying to you, "Give me a hand", you don't necessarily stretch out your hand to him/her, but you do need to be helpful. And when the situation is out of hand, you usually can do very little to manage all that. What about a green hand? It's not about the color of your hand! You're a green hand when you are very new at your work and don't have much experience. If you and your partner always work together hand in glove, you two definitely work together very well.
Can you guess the meanings of some common English idioms to do with parts of your body?An idiom is _______.
| A．a phrase or a sentence that means exactly what the words say |
| B．a phrase or a sentence that doesn't mean exactly what every word says |
| C．so difficult that nobody can understand |
| D．something to do with parts of your body |
If a mother says "I'll play it by ear" to talk about the dinner, she means _______.
| A．she will cook dinner while listening to music at the same time |
| B．she doesn't hear what others are talking about. |
| C．she will play music using the sheet music instead of cooking dinner |
| D．She doesn't have plans for dinner and will decide later |
When one says "Can you give me a hand?", he means _______.
| A．he needs to hold your hand. |
| B．he works well with you |
| C．he needs your help |
| D．he is a new comer and can't help with the situation |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．People use English idioms more in spoken English than in written English. |
| B．To understand the culture behind an idiom is important in understanding the idiom. |
| C．Idioms make your English more vivid and colorful so they are easy to remember. |
| D．You may not understand an idiom even though you know the meaning of each word. |
Here are 4 common English idioms to do with parts of your body and their meanings. Can you match them?
1) to learn something by heart a. to depend on oneself
2) to have sticky fingers b. to know something very well
3) to stand on one's own feet c. to do something secretly
4) to go behind someone's back d. to have the habit of stealing
| A．badc | B．bdac | C．cbad | D．cdba |
Passage Sixteen (Mules)
Although the top men in smuggling business must work together, most of a syndicate’s small fry, especially the mules, know only their immediate contacts. If caught there is little they can give away. A mule probably will not even know the name of the person who gives him his instructions, nor how to get in touch with him. Usually he even does not know the person to whom he has to make delivery. He will be told just to sit tight in a certain hotel or bar until someone contacts him. In this way if he is blown, coming through airport customs he cannot unwittingly lead agents to the next link in the chain. All the persons at the receiving end do is to hang around the airport among the waiting crowd, and see that the mule comes through safely. If he does not, he is dimply written off as a loss. To make identification of mules easier, several syndicates have devised their own “club ties” so that a mule wearing one can immediately be picked out.
Mules often receive careful training before embarking on their first journey. One Beirut organization, for example, uses a room with three airline seats in it. There the trainee mules sit for hours on end wearing weighted smuggling vests beneath their clothes, so that they become accustomed to standing up after a long flight in a natural way, and without revealing what they are carrying. An outfit in Brussels maintained a comfortable apartment where the mules could relax and get a firm grip on themselves on the night before their first journey; they were helped to dress before setting out for the airport in the morning. More often than not a courier will not know precisely where he is going or what flight number is until he is actually handed his tickets at the airport. This prevents the careless boast in some bar or to a girl friend the night before.
Mules occasionally run off with the goods to keep the profit themselves. As insurance against this, a syndicate often sends a high-up on the same plane to keep a wary eye on couriers, particularly new ones. Even then things can go badly wrong. One international currency smuggler who was having trouble getting money out of Britain was offered help by a group of men who said they were in a position to “fix thing” – for a fee of course. Foolishly, the smuggler agreed to accept their help. When he got to London’s Heathrow Airport, he handed over to one of the men a black suitcase containing nearly $90,000 in cash, destined for Frankfurt. Just to keep an eye on things, the smuggler went along on the same plane. When they landed at Frankfurt he was handed back his suitcase. He beat a straight path to the men’s toilet, opened the case, and found only old clothes. The courier had switched suitcase en route, but the smuggler could hardly run to the police and complain that “the man who was smuggling money out of England for me has stolen it.”
1.What is a “mule”?
A.A person who sends smuggling goods for a syndicate is called mule.
B.A person in charge of smuggling goods is called mule.
C.A person who makes delivery for a syndicate is called mule.
D.A person who receives instructions from a smuggler is called mule.
2.The sentence “if he is blown” in line (6) is closest in meaning to
A.if he is arrested.
B.if he is recognized, but not necessarily arrested.
C.if he is recognized and arrested.
D.if he runs away.
3.Why does the author give an example in the last paragraph?
A.To show how a smuggler is caught.
B.To show a smuggler is afraid of the police.
C.To show to keep a wary eye on couriers is useless.
D.To show mules may keep the profit for themselves.
4.how does a mule work?
A.Jointly.
B.Independently.
C.consciously.
D.Separately.
Passage Fifteen (Contribution of Coeducation)
Imagining being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn’t be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children – conditions which they themselves wouldn’t put up with for one minute!
Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children’s heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of educations is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock.
A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is ( to give just a small example ) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girl or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its proper place.
But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don’t grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures – airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don’t grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobbly knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.
1.What is the best title for this passage?
A.only co-education can be in harmony with society.
B.people are in great need of co-education.
C.any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable.
D.co-education has many features.
2.what does co-education offer to children?
A.A society.
B.A true small model of society.
C.A real life.
D.True version of social condition.
3.According to the passage, what is one of the chief aims of education?
A.It is for students to acquire knowledge.
B.It is to equip future citizens with scientific technology.
C.It is to equip future citizens with what is required in getting a position in society.
D.It is for students to get academic achievements.
4.Why do boys and girls in co-education have no illusion about each other?
A.They live together and know each other too well.
B.Years of living together at school dismiss such illusion.
C.co-education encourage them to have an healthy attitude toward life.
D.They are familiar with each other’s problems.
Passage Fourteen(Antarctica and Environment)
Antarctica has actually become a kind of space station – a unique observation post for detecting important changes in the world’s environment. Remote from major sources of pollution and the complex geological and ecological systems that prevail elsewhere, Antarctica makes possible scientific measurements that are often sharper and easier to interpret than those made in other parts of the world.
Growing numbers of scientists therefore see Antarctica as a distant-early-warning sensor, where potentially dangerous global trends may be spotted before they show up to the north. One promising field of investigation is glaciology. Scholars from the United States, Switzerland, and France are pursuing seven separate but related projects that reflect their concern for the health of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – a concern they believe the world at large should share.
The Transantarctic Mountain, some of them more than 14,000 feet high, divide the continent into two very different regions. The part of the continent to the “east” of the mountains is a high plateau covered by an ice sheet nearly two miles thick. “West” of the mountain, the half of the continent south of the Americas is also covered by an ice sheet, but there the ice rests on rock that is mostly well below sea level. If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet disappeared, the western part of the continent would be reduced to a sparse cluster of island.
While ice and snow are obviously central to many environmental experiments, others focus on the mysterious “dry valley” of Antarctica, valleys that contain little ice or snow even in the depths of winter. Slashed through the mountains of southern Victoria Land, these valleys once held enormous glaciers that descended 9,000 feet from the polar plateau to the Ross Sea. Now the glaciers are gone, perhaps a casualty of the global warming trend during the 10,000 years since the ice age. Even the snow that falls in the dry valleys is blasted out by vicious winds that roars down from the polar plateau to the sea. Left bare are spectacular gorges, rippled fields of sand dunes, clusters of boulders sculptured into fantastic shapes by 100-mile-an-hour winds, and an aura of extraterrestrial desolation.
Despite the unearthly aspect of the dry valleys, some scientists believe they may carry a message of hope of the verdant parts of the earth. Some scientists believe that in some cases the dry valleys may soak up pollutants faster than pollutants enter them.
1.What is the best title for this passage?
A.Antarctica and environmental Problems.
B.Antarctica: Earth’s Early-Warning station.
C.Antarctica: a Unique Observation Post.
D.Antarctica: a Mysterious Place.
2.What would the result be if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet disappeared?
A.The western part of the continent would be disappeared.
B.The western part of the continent would be reduced.
C.The western part of the continent would become scattered Islands.
D.The western part of the continent would be reduced to a cluster of Islands.
3.Why are the Dry Valleys left bare?
A.Vicious wind blasts the snow away.
B.It rarely snows.
C.Because of the global warming trend and fierce wind.
D.Sand dunes.
4.Which of the following is true?
A.The “Dry Valleys” have nothing left inside.
B.The “Dry Valleys” never held glaciers.
C.The “Dry Valleys” may carry a message of hope for the verdant.
D.The “Dry Valleys” are useless to scientists.
Passage Thirteen (The Neutrality of American in the Early World War II)
The establishment of the Third Reich influenced events in American history by starting a chain of events which culminated in war between Germany and the United States. The compete destruction of democracy, the persecution of Jews, the war on religion, the cruelty and barbarism of the Nazis, and especially the plans of Germany and her allies, Italy and Japan, for world conquest caused great indignation in this country and brought on fear of another world war. While speaking out against Hitler’s atrocities, the American people generally favored isolationist policies and neutrality. The Neutrality Acts of 1935 and 1936 prohibited trade with any belligerents or loans to them. In 1937 the President was empowered to declare an arms embargo in wars between nations at his discretion.
American opinion began to change somewhat after President Roosevelt’s “quarantine the aggressor” speech at Chicago (1937) in which he severely criticized Hitler’s policies. Germany’s seizure of Austria and the Munich Pact for the partition of Czechoslovakia (1938) also aroused the American people. The conquest of Czechoslovakia in March, 1939 was another rude awakening to the menace of the Third Reich. In August,1939 came the shock of the Nazi-soviet Pact and in September the attack on Poland and the outbreak of European war. The United States attempted to maintain neutrality in spite of sympathy for the democracies arrayed against the Third Reich. The Neutrality Act of 1939 repealed the arms embargo and permitted “cash and carry” exports of arms to belligerent nations. A strong national defense program was begun. A draft act was passed (1940) to strengthen the military services. A Lend Act (1941) authorized the President to sell, exchange, or lend materials to any country deemed necessary by him for the defense of the United States. Help was given to Britain by exchanging certain overage destroyers for the right to establish American bases in British territory in the Western Hemisphere. In August, 1940 President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met and issued the Atlantic Charter which proclaimed the kind of a world which should be established after the war. In December, 1941, Japan launched the unprovoked attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Immediately thereafter, Germany declared war on the United States.
1.One item occurring before 1937 that the author does not mention in his list of actions that alienated the American public was
A.the burning of the Reichstag.
B.German plans for conquest.
C.Nazi barbarism.
D.the persecution of religious groups.
2.The Lend-Lease Act was designed to
A.help the British.
B.strengthen the national defense of the United States.
C.promote the Atlantic Charter.
D.avenge Pearl Harbor.
3.American Policy during the years 1935-1936 may be described as being
A.watchful.
B.isolationist.
C.peaceful.
D.indifferent.
4.The Neutrality Act of 1939
A.permitted the selling of arms to belligerent nations.
B.antagonized Japan.
C.permitted the British to trade only with the Allies.
D.led to Lend-Lease Act.
5.We entered the war against Germany
A.because Germany declared war.
B.because Japan was an ally of Germany.
C.after Germany had signed the Nazi-soviet Pact.
D.after peaceful efforts had failed.
Passage Twelve (We Should All Grow Fat and Be Happy)
Here’s a familiar version of the boy-meets-girl situation. A young man has at last plucked up courage to invite a dazzling young lady out to dinner. She has accepted his invitation and he is overjoyed. He is determined to take her to the best restaurant in town, even if it means that he will have to live on memories and hopes during the month to come. When they get to the restaurant, he discovers that this ethereal creature is on a diet. She mustn’t eat this and she mustn’t that. Oh, but of course, she doesn’t want to spoil his enjoyment. Let him by all means eat as much fattening food as he wants: it’s the surest way to an early grave. They spend a truly memorable evening together and never see each other again.
What a miserable lot dieters are! You can always recognize them from the sour expression on their faces. They spend most of their time turning their noses up at food. They are forever consulting calorie charts; gazing at themselves in mirrors; and leaping on to weighing-machines in the bathroom. They spend a lifetime fighting a losing battle against spreading hips, protruding tummies and double chins. Some wage all-out war on FAT. Mere dieting is not enough. They exhaust themselves doing exercises, sweating in sauna baths, being pummeled and massaged by weird machines. The really wealthy diet-mongers pay vast sums for ‘health cures’. For two weeks they can enter a nature clinic and be starved to death for a hundred guineas a week. Don’t think it’s only the middle-aged who go in for these fads either. Many of these bright young things you see are suffering from chronic malnutrition: they are living on nothing but air, water and the goodwill of God.
Dieters undertake to starve themselves of their own free will; so why are they so miserable? Well, for one thing, they’re always hungry. You can’t be hungry and happy at the same time. All the horrible concoctions they eat instead of food leave them permanently dissatisfied. Wonderfood is a complete food, the advertisement says. ‘Just dissolve a teaspoonful in water…’. A complete food it may be, but not quite as complete as a juicy steak. And, of course, they’re always miserable because they feel so guilty. Hunger just proves too much for them and in the end they lash out and devour five huge guilt-inducing cream cakes at a sitting. And who can blame them? At least three times a day they are exposed to temptation. What utter torture it is always watching others tucking into piles of mouth-watering food while you munch a water biscuit and sip unsweetened lemon juice!
What’s all this self-inflicted torture for? Saintly people deprive themselves of food to attain a state of grace. Unsaintly people do so to attain a state of misery. It will be a great day when all the dieters in the world abandon their slimming courses; when they hold out their plates and demand second helpings!
1.The best title for this passage is
A.On Fat.
B.We Should All Grow Fat and Be Happy.
C.Many Diseases Are Connected with Fat.
D.Diet Deprives People of Normal Life.
2.Why do they never see each other again?
A.Because it is a memorable evening.
B.Because she lets him eat as much fattening food as he wants.
C.Because she does not eat this and drink that.
D.Because eating fattening food is the surest way to an early grave.
3.Which of the following ways is NOT mentioned for diet?
A.Doing exercises.
B.Not eating sugar.
C.Not eating fat.
D.Taking sauna baths.
4.What is the author’s attitude toward diet?
A.Persuasive.
B.Critical.
C.Indifferent.
D.Adversative.