For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.
As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “The Old Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.
However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.
That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.
This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.
In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.The passage mainly tells us something about ______.
| A．the past and present of British pubs |
| B．the decline of British pubs |
| C．the long history of British pubs |
| D．the importance of British pubs |
Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?
| A．The credit crunch. |
| B．The present closing time. |
| C．The ban of smoking. |
| D．Having no spare money. |
We can infer from the passage that ______.
| A．British people used to like drinking slowly |
| B．closing the pubs early will reduce social problems |
| C．binge drinking means drinking less beer |
| D．British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking |
We can see from the last paragraph that the author _______.
| A．is against the admission of too many women to the pubs |
| B．holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs |
| C．thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems |
| D．thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need |
Andrew Ritchie, inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle, once said that perfect portable bike would be “like a magic carpet... You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag". Then he paused: “But you'll always be limited by the size of the wheels. And so far no one has invented a folding wheel."
It was a rare --- indeed unique --- occasion when I was able to put Ritchie right. A 19th-century inventor, William Henry James Grout, did in fact design a folding wheel. His bike, predictably named the Grout Portable, had a frame(框架) that split into two and a larger wheel that could be separated into four pieces. All the bits fitted into Grout's Wonderful Bag, a leather case.
Grout's aim: to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train. Now doesn't that sound familiar? Grout intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel: his bike was a huge beast. And importantly, the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage: in Grout's day, tyres were solid, which made the business of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple. You couldn't do the same with a wheel fitted with a one-piece inflated tyre.
So, in a 21st-century context, is the idea of the folding wheel dead? It is not. A British design engineer, Duncan Fitzsimons , has developed a wheel that can be squashed(挤压)into something like a slender ellipse(椭圆 ) . Throughout, the tyre remains inflated.
Will the young Fitzsimons's folding wheel make it into production? I haven’t the foggiest idea. But his inventiveness shows two things. First, people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has reached its limit, except for gradual advances. It’s as silly a concept now as it was 100 years ago: there's plenty still to go for. Second, it is in the field of folding bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions. You can buy a folding bike for less than £1,000 that can be knocked down so small that can be carried on a plane -- minus wheels, of course --as hand baggage.
Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible. Have we yet got the magic carpet of Andrew Ritchie's imagination? No. But it's progress.
57. We can infer form Paragraph 1 that the Brompton folding bike____.
A. was portable B. had a folding wheel.
C. could be put in a pocket. D. looked like a magic carpet
58. We can learn from the text that the wheels of the Group Portable_______.
A. were difficult to separate. B. could be split into 6 pieces.
C. were fitted with solid tyres. D. were hard to carry on a train.
59. We can learn from the text that Fitzsimons`s invention_______.
A. kept the tyres as whole piece. B. was made into production soon.
C. left little room for improvement. D. changed our views on bag design.
60. Which of following would be best title for the text?
A. Three folding bike inventors. B. The making of a folding bike
C. Progress in folding bike design D. Ways of separating a bike wheel
The spread of worsening international financial crisis has seriously affected world economic growth and stability. The ongoing financial crisis is rarely seen in history. Countries and organizations have taken measures in response, and we hope these measures will produce the desired results soon. Countries in Asia and Europe are an important force for international financial stability and world economic growth. I suggest that we make greater efforts in the following aspects:
First, countries should run their own affairs well. In the face of the crisis, it is important for leaders to act in the fundamental and long-term interests of the people and use necessary monetary and regulatory tools to regain market confidence as soon as possible and maintain economic growth.
Second, set up coordination(调和) and cooperation among governments. The financial departments, central banks and financial regulators around the world should closely follow the development of the crisis and study its trend and impact.
Third, strengthen regional financial dialogue and cooperation. Members of the Eurozone have reached agreement on the basic principles to tackle the financial crisis. We in Asia are also exploring the possibility of expanding the size of bilateral currency swap( 互惠外汇信贷)arrangements under the 10+3 framework .
Fourth, push forward the reform of the international monetary and financial systems. The present crisis has exposed the weaknesses in the existing international financial system and governance structure. It important to do three things in this regard: first, increase the say and representation of developing countries in international financial organizations; second, expand the space of the regulation of the international financial system, and third, establish a reasonable global financial rescue mechanism（机制）.
71. According to the passage, members of the Eurozone reached agreement on _______.
A.how to deal with the financial crisis
B.how to regain market confidence
C.how to maintain economic growth
D.how to study the crisis trend
72. Facing the crisis, the first thing the countries should do is ________ .
A. to closely follow the development of the crisis.
B. to study the trend and impact of the financial crisis.
C. to do their own business well.
D. to increase the say and representation of developing countries in international financial organizations.
73. Which word has the same meaning with the underlined word maintain ?
A. mainly B. keep C. increase D. decrease 74.According to the passage, which of the following sentence is false?
A.Global issues included energy, food, the environment etc.
B.There has been no financial crisis more serious than this one in history.
C.Facing the crisis, the first thing the countries should do is to do their own business well.
D.Asian and European countries are an important force for the world economic growth. 75.The passage mainly talks about ________.
A.What we should do during the financial crisis.
B.We should draw serious lessons from the financial crisis.
C.Countries and organizations have taken measures in response to the financial crisis.
D.We should set up coordination and cooperation among governments.
Andreea,18,from Romania, sent a photograph of the view from her window and included a brief apology, “Sorry, this picture is plain and boring. No one would like it.”
At home in New Jersey, US, Coreen Burke,16, clicked on the same image on the internet. She saw a village with its rooftops and walls painted in reds and yellows, a distant chimney(烟囱) giving off smoke. “Isn’t this amazingly different from my country?” She thought to herself.
Burke, a teenager with a skill for computers, saw beauty in that photo. She posted it to her blog, Outside My Window, which features a daily snapshot(快照) of someone’s window view around the world.
The concept is simple: We can all relate to the act of staring through a piece of glass, onto the scene on the other side. “Maybe if we understood the way people from all over the world live,” she explained, “we would all get along better than we have been lately.”
With a click of a mouse, you can see Frederic’s window in the south of France, looking out on sailboats anchored (抛锚) in a peaceful harbor. Or Virginia’s view in Canada, a winter scene with trees laced in white.
Like most high school students, Burke has traveled the world. But she says someday she hopes to collect stamps in her passport, starting with Greece and India. Her recent break was devoted to launching the site with a blogger account and recruiting(招募) contributors from deviant ART, an online art community. She posted the first window view from Switzerland, a sunset photographed by an 18-year-old. Then others came flowing in by email, up to seven a day, from as far as Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Contributors are marked on maps pinned on her bedroom wall: a blue dot indicates their country and a pink dot shows their city, if they provide it. The most responses have come from Europe – Estonia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden, to name a few. She is crossing her fingers, thinking that she’ll receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica, which are unrepresented so far.
While she’s become a cyber crusader(网络革新者) for appreciating the beauty outside our own windows, get this: She has no windows in her bedroom. She has a nice skylight（天窗）, though.
66. What does Burke think of the picture she received from Andreea?
A. Boring B. Charming C. Strange D. Plain
67. Outside My Window is a blog intended to show_______.
A. the view from Burke’s window
B. pictures of rural New Jersey
C. photos of window views taken by people all over the world
D. beautiful scenes of famous places of interest
68. We can conclude from the article that Burke _______.
A. believes we should reach out to people of different cultures
B. has traveled around the world and taken many pictures
C. is a member of an online art community
D. has made a lot of money by selling beautiful pictures
69. Which of the following is not true?
A. Burke is likely to receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica.
B. Burke is a junior middle school student.
C. Burke has photos from many countries in the world, including Kazakhstan.
D. Burke wants a photo of window view from Africa or Antarctica.
70．What is the best title of this passage?
A. World Windows
B. Beautiful Pictures
C. Pictures on the Internet
D. Windows in Bedrooms
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman' s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls tool.
61. Stuntmen are those who ______.
A. often dress up as actors
B. prefer to lead dangerous lives
C. often perform seemingly dangerous actions
D. often fight each other for their lives
62. Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
A. playing their dirty tricks
B. selling their special skills
C. jumping out of high windows
D. jumping from fast moving trains
63. When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.
A. he needs little protection
B. he will be covered with a mattress
C. his life is unprotected
D. his safety is generally all right
64. Which of the following is the main factor (因素) of a successful performance?
A. Strength. B. Exactness. C. Speed. D. Carefulness.
65. What can be inferred from the author' s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
A. Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B. The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C. Parachutes must be of good quality.
D. The cliff is too high.
Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape. Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot.
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and jumped out of the ditch.”
His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
56. What is the best title for this newspaper article?
A. The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman
B. Car Boot Can Serve As The Best Escape Route
C. Driver Escapes Through Car Boot
D. The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident
57. Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?
A. The hammer. B. The coin. C.The screw. D. The horn.
58. Which statement is true according to the passage?
A. Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.
B. Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.
C. Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.
D. Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat.
59. “Finally it gave” (Paragraph 4) means that _______.
A. Luckily the door was torn away in the end
B. At last the hammer went broken
C. The lock came open after all his efforts
D. The chance was lost at the last minute
60. It may be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. the ditch was along a quiet country road
B. the accident happened on a clear warm day
C. the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch
D. Mr. Johnson had a tender wife and was well attended