One thing that British and Chinese cultures share is a love for fine tea. Today, when we think of Western tea culture, we often think of the English and beautiful china tea cups.
Afternoon tea
People believe that an English lady, Anna, first introduced the idea of afternoon tea. In the 18th and 19th centuries. the English ate only two main meals each day ,breakfast and a heavy supper that would last for several hours in the evening. As a result, people often got very hungry during the long wait between these two meals. To solve this problem, Anna came up with the clever idea of inviting some friends to join her for an afternoon meal between four and five o'clock. This meal included cakes and sandwiches. and tea was served(提供)to wash down the food. In order to make this afternoon meal important, fine china cups and plates, and silver teapots. knives, forks and spoons were used .Soon, afternoon tea parties became popular social occasions. Today, afternoon tea parties continue to play an important part in the social life in modern Britain.
Will you come for coffee?
Coffee also has an important role in British culture. People often use the words” Will you come for coffee?” to mean “Would you like to come to my home for a chat?” Normally, several different drinks such as tea, hot chocolate or a soft drink like orange Juice will be served as well as coffee. and you will be asked what you would like. However, you will not normally be offered wine at a "coffee" party.
Coffeehouses and the London Stock Exchange
In the 17th century London, coffeehouses were busy and noisy places. Businessmen and bankers went to coffeehouses to do their business, as well as to drink coffee. In fact, the London Stock Exchange(股票交易所) is believed to have started from these coffeehouses Anna introduced the idea of drinking afternoon tee because she _______.
| A.enjoyed chatting with her friends at home |
| B.loved fine tea and beautiful china tea cups |
| C.wanted to share nice food with her friends |
| D.found people felt hungry during the long wait between the two meals |
What does “social occasions” mean in Chinese?
| A.集体婚礼 | B.社交活动 | C.社区表演 | D.公共场合 |
If someone says to you “Will you come for coffee?”, you _______.
| A.will be offered coffee only |
| B.are asked what you would like to drink |
| C.will be asked to have a chat with him or her |
| D.are invited to take part in an afternoon tea party |
From the last paragraph (段落) we can see _______.
| A.a new business was started in coffeehouses |
| B.coffeehouses are still used by businessmen and bankers |
| C.businessmen and bankers went to coffeehouses just for coffee |
| D.most people wouldn’t like to go to coffeehouses because of the noise |
B
The neglected baby is crying alone. The young man, suffering from a lack of sleep, threatens suicide. The marriage fails because of the husband’s crazy behavior.
Is this just another story of social breakdown in the modern age? Not really. But they are the effects of a real social problem—Internet Addiction(沉溺), or, Internet Addiction Disorder.
The addiction is obvious from the popularity of one game alone: “Halo 2”. It’s a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios for the Xbox video game console. By early 2005, 1 million players worldwide had clocked up an amazing 100 million hours on the game, among which are 360, 000 Chinese players.
China has about 94 million regular Internet users. Of these, a survey suggested, 4.4 million are teenagers who are so addicted to it that they neglect anything else.
Video gamers who have gone too far show symptoms similar to those of alcohol and drug abusers. “The real world meant nothing to me when I was fully involved in online games. I lost track of time, space, hunger, pain, and everything,” explained Liu Pinyi, a 19-year-old college dropout. She has had treatment in Beijing for her addiction.
What makes it similar to drugs is that online game addicts also develop a chemical imbalance in their brains. Gaming stimulates the production of a chemical compound that produces delighted or pleasant feelings. When
they’re away from the screen, they suffer feelings of anxiety and headaches.
Experts
say young people are attracted to video games partly because th
ey are partly because they are pushed right into the center of the action. This allows them to overcome a lack of confidence which people at that age can often suffer from.
59. What’s the writer’s main purpose in writing the first paragraph?
A. To show his worries about Internet Addiction.
B. To show harm of Internet Addiction
C. To warn couples of the problem.
D. To introduce the topic of the passage.
60. How much time in total had Chinese game players spent on “Halo 2” by early 2005?
A. 1 million hours. B. 94 million hours
C. 100 million hours. D. 36 million hours
61. When video gamers get lost in a game, they do the following EXCEPT that _______.
A. They forget time, space, hunger and everything.
B. They drink a lot of alcohol and use drug.
C. They feel confident in the virtual games
D. Their brains produce a chemical which makes them delighted.
62. what is the passage mainly about?
A. Internet is bad for teenagers
B. Actions should be taken to deal with Internet Addiction
C. Web produces Internet Addiction Disorder
D. Teenagers should not play video games
IV.阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
The private automobile(私家车) has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobile is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has been affected in various ways. The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenage children have the use of the car, their parents can’t keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs—or is “showing off ” by speeding or breaking other traffic laws. Mothers of victims(受害者) of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). These women want to prevent further tragedies(悲剧). They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age. Students have formed a similar organization, SADD(Students Against Drunk Driving) and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.
56.Which of
the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
A. Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities.
B. Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics.
C. Cars have enabled people to live far from their place of work.
D. Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools.
57.What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?
A. Parents have paid more attention to their children.
B. Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving.
C. Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol.
D. University students have asked the government to solve the problem.
58.We can infer from the text that __________ in America.
A. it will be more difficult for people to get new cars.
B. parents will not allow their children to have their own cars.
C. the government will encourage people to use public transportation.
D. cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems.
Beijing had its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap (寒潮) since 1981. And freezing weather is hitting the Deep South, including Florida’s orange groves and beaches.
Whatever happened to global warming?
Such weather doesn’t seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn’t contradict global warming at all—it’s just a temporary phenomenon in the long-term heating trend. “It’s part of natural variability,” said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist. With global warming, he said, “we’ll still have record cold temperatures. We’ll just have fewer of them.”
Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes. But experts did not connect the current cold snap to climate change.
So what is going on?
“We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere”, Arndt said.
In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air restricted. But recently, this air flow has become bent into a zigzag (之字形) pattern, wandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.
But in the eastern United States, like
some other unlucky parts of the globe, Arctic air is coming from the north. And that’s how you get a temperature of 3 degrees in Beijing, a reading of minus-42 in mainland Norway, and 18 inches of snow in parts of Britain. The zigzag pattern arises naturally from time to time, but it is not clear why it’s so strong right now.What is the best title of the text?
| A.Freezing weather is hitting the Deep South. |
| B.We’ll still have record cold temperatures. |
| C.The air flow has become a zigzag pattern. |
| D.Cold snap doesn’t contradict global warming. |
With global warming, we will ______.
| A.also meet with severe cold snap |
| B.have more hot temperatures forever |
| C.never experience cold temperatures |
| D.have more cold temperatures |
According to experts, the current cold snap ______.
| A.suggests that the climate has changed greatly |
| B.is not related to the climate change |
| C.shows that the climate will turn cold |
| D.is affected by global warming |
Beijing had its biggest snowfall since 1951 because of ______.
| A.a fence from the Arctic | B.a cooling trend in climate |
| C.a big outbreak of Arctic air | D.its large population |
We can conclude that ______.
| A.not all the parts of the Northern Hemisphere are cold in face of the cold snap |
| B.the zigzag pattern arises naturally accidentally |
| C.Beijing will get cold weather next year |
| D.Washington state and Alaska will not face cold weather next year |
Rarely have I experienced a reaction like that which came about following the idea of banning private education. One of those who contacted me to disagree with the idea was 17 year old Anirudh Mandagere. He got 10 A*s at GCSE and is currently studying English, French, Math and History at a private school in Manchester. Here is his response:
For me, the idea that all private schools should be banned is not only ridiculous and unrealistic, but goes against the idea of liberty. We must have the freedom to choose between state-funded and privately educated schools. If parents pay taxes, surely they should be able to choose whether they send their children to a state-funded or a privately-funded school.
The economic impacts of abolishing private education are vast. Banning private schools would obviously contribute to a great transfer to state schools. Many state schools are already overburdened; do they really need more pupils? Abolishing private education would lead to higher taxes for taxpayers since more money would be needed to educate the 7% who were previously private educated. In the times of economic crisis, should the taxpayer need to fork out more money to pay for their education? There would also be a great rise in unemployment of the staff who works at private schools.
It is noted that, in general, private schools have better grades at GCSE and A level than state schools. Yet, why do people view this as a bad thing? The higher private school grades eventually force the government to endlessly improve state education so that the middle-classes do not totally abandon state education for private education. This competition creates reform and progress within state schools and eventually promote them! If the private schools did not exist, where would be the impetus for state school improvement?
Government should not simply ban a system which produces results. It should learn from it and use the private education model as a basis for the state education model. Abolishing a successful system will not help anybody, learning from a successful syste
m will.In the eye of Anirudh Mandagere, parents have the right to ______.
| A.criticize state-funded schools |
B.pay taxes for the promotion of private schools |
| C.choose the way their children receive education |
| D.advocate the competition between state schools and private ones |
According to the passage, banning private education will ______.
| A.obviously contribute to lower taxes |
| B.not cause the state schools to be overburdened |
| C.force the government to boost state education |
| D.lead to many people losing their jobs |
The underlined word “impetus” in the fourth paragraph probably means ______.
| A.motivation | B.prevention | C.participation | D.assessment |
Compared with state schools, private ones ______.
| A.educate a little fewer students | B.conduct better than all state ones |
| C.are better received by the public | D.are more competitive on the whole |
Which of the following statements will Anirudh Mandagere agree with?
| A.His wonderful performance results from the education his private school offers. |
| B.Without the existence of private schools, state ones wouldn’t get improved much. |
| C.Private education is a good system to make students successful in life. |
| D.Private schools are supposed to be sponsored more than state ones. |
Sleeping in on Saturday after a few
weeks of too little shuteye may feel refreshing, but it can give a false sense of security.
New research shows long-term sleep loss cannot be cured that easily. Scientists researched the effects of short- and long-term sleep loss and found that those who suffer long-term sleep loss may function normally soon after waking up, but experience steadily slow
er reaction times as the day goes by, even if they had tried to catch up the previous night.
The research has important safety significances in an increasingly busy society, not just for shift-workers but for the roughly one in six Americans who regularly get six hours or less of sleep a night.
“We know that staying awake 24 hours without sleep will affect
your performance to do all sorts of things, and this effect equals to drinking too much when driving,” said lead researcher Dr. Daniel Cohen of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. But when those who suffer long-term sleep loss become all-nighters, “the harm is increased ten times,” Cohen said.
The National Institutes of Health says adults need seven hours to nine hours of sleep for good health. Regularly getting too little sleep increases the risk of health problems, including memory impairment and a weakened immune system. More immediately, too little sleep affects reaction times; sleepiness is to blame for car crashes and other accidents.
It has critically important complicated and unexpected results for anyone who works “crazy hours” and thinks they are performing fine with a few hours of w
eeknight sleep, said Harris, director at New York’s Montefiore Medical Center. “Don’t think you can just bank up your sleep on the weekend, because it doesn’t work that way,” he warned.The text mainly advises people ______.
| A.to sleep more time | B.to sleep in on Saturday |
| C.to sleep scientifically | D.to sleep little on weekend |
People with long-term sleep loss ______.
| A.are quicker in thinking | B.may feel refreshed soon after waking up |
| C.are surely energetic | D.can have a strong sense of security |
What can we learn from the text?
| A.Most of the Americans get six hours or less of sleep a night. |
| B.Staying up is worse for those who suffer long-term sleep loss. |
| C.Traffic accidents have little to do with sleepiness. |
| D.One in six Americans are all-nighters. |
Which of the following is the immediate effect of long-term sleep loss?
| A.Health problems | B.Immune system |
| C.Reaction times | D.Memory impairment |
The underlined phrase “bank up” in the last paragraph most probably means ____.
| A.pile up | B.pick up | C.add up | D.build up |