Babysitter(保姆)WantedIamseeking-优题课

What’s delicious to eat and comes in a variety of colors? Eggplant! And no, it has nothing to do with chickens! This strangely named vegetable is, however, as versatile as an egg．It can be steamed, fried, and baked．It can be eaten by itself or combined with meats and other vegetables．
Eggplant was first grown in India in the 5th century BC．Its popularity soon spread to China and then throughout Asia．Finally, during the Middle Ages the vegetable made its way to Europe．At that time, eggplant was not the shiny purple vegetable most people know today．Instead, it’s like a white egg．Due to this egg - like appearance, eggplant got its name．In its early days, the vegetable was so bitter that people often called it a “mad apple.” This nickname started because people believed its bitterness was bad for one' s health．People actually thought eggplant could cause madness and cancer．
Fortunately today people know that eggplant doesn't cause insanity or cancer．In fact eggplant is so healthy that it may prevent cancer．In addition, the brain and the heart benefit from this super vegetable．Since it's high in fibre, eggplant can improve digestion．
Italy, Turkey, Egypt, China and Japan are the leading growers of eggplant in the world today．Depending on its location, eggplant may be purple, green, orange or yellow - white．And it can be as small as a tomato or as large as a cucumber．Dish varieties range from simple to complex, with all of them being delicious．
Today, thousands of people gather in Loomis, Calif, for the annual Loomis Eggplant Festival．The main activity at the festival is eating delicious eggplant dishes．There is plenty more to do and see, though．Recipe contests, arts and crafts, performers, races and children's activities all “egg – cite” festival - goers．Most people at the festival would agree—eggplant is an “egg—cellent” vegetable．
Eggplant got its name because of its _____．

A．appearance

B．taste

C．color

D．value

Which of the following does NOT belong to the qualities of eggplant?

A．It can be cooked in various ways．	B．It is easy to digest．
C．It can prevent cancer．	D．It is valuable and priceless．

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Eggplant can be eaten to cure cancer

B．Eggplant used to taste bitter．

C．India produce the most eggplant in the world today．

D．Eggplant has a history of nearly 1,000 years．

Most people come to the Loomis Eggplant Festival to_____．

A．see arts and crafts	B．enjoy food with eggplants
C．take part in recipe contests	D．promote eggplant

When Frida Kahlo's paintings were on show in London, a poet described her paintings as “ a ribbon （丝带）around a bomb”. Such comments seem to suggest Kahlo had a big influence on the art world of her time. Sadly, she is actually a much bigger name today than she was during her time.
Born in 1907 in a village near Mexico City , Kahlo suffered from polio（小儿麻痹症）at the age of seven. Her spine （脊柱）become bent as she grew older. Then, in 1925, her back was broken in several places in a school-bus accident. Throughout the rest of her life, the artist had many operations, but nothing was able to cure the terrible pain in her back. However, the accident had an unexpected side effect. While lying in her bed recovering, Kahlo taught herself to paint.
In 1929, she got married to Diego Rivera, another famous Mexican artist. Rivera’s strong influences on Kahlo’s style can be seen in her early works, but her later works from the 1940s, known today as her best works, show less influence from her husband.
Unfortunately, her works did not attract much attention in the 1930s and 1940s, even in her home country. Her first one-woman show in Mexico was not held until 1953.For more than a decade after her death in 1954, Kahlo’s works remained largely unnoticed by the world, but in the 1970s her works began to gain international fame at last.
What does the phrase “a much bigger name” in paragraph 1 most nearly mean?

A．a far better artist	B．a far more gifted artist
C．a much stronger person	D．a much more famous person

The terrible pain Kahlo suffered was caused by .

A．polio	B．back injuries
C．the operations she had	D．her bent spine

Kahlo’s style had become increasingly independent since the .

A．1950s

B． 1930s

C．1940s

D．1970s

What is author’s attitude toward Kahlo?

A．Devotion

B．Sympathy

C．Worry

D．Encouragement

However urban life strikes you, cities worldwide have been growing ever more rapidly. Some of this growth has occurred in the developed world, but the most dramatic increase has been in the Third World. Almost all the world’s population growth over the next 30 years will take place in the cities of developing countries
By the year 2030, for the first time in history, 60 percent of the world’s people will be living in cities.
This is actually good news in some ways. “Cities are the fundamental building blocks of prosperity,” says Marc Weiss, chairman of the Prague Institute for Global Urban Development, “ both for the nation and for families.” Industrial and commercial activities in urban areas account for between 50 and 80 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in most countries of the world“ there’s the crazy notion that the way to deal with a city’s problems is to keep people out of them,”Weiss continued. “But the problems of the rural life are even more serious than those of the city.” For better or worse, urban-watchers are clear on one point: The quality of life for most people in the future will be determined by the quality of cities. Those cities will be bigger than ever. And yet, population numbers by themselves don’t determine a city’s prospects; after all, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Hamburg, Germany, have the same population. Nor is explosive growth necessarily the determining factor. “City problems,” one authority points out, “mostly have to do with weak, ineffective, and usually unrepresentative city governments.”
The passage mainly discusses ______________.

A．Big cities.

B．City life.

C．Population.

D．Gross Domestic Product.

According to the passage, in the year of 2030 _______.

A．there will be 21 cities having a population of more than 10 million.

B．rural area will be extinct.

C．most people will live in cities.

D．the third world will keep abreast with the developed world.

In the author’s opinion, _________.

A．better city, better life

B．both urban and rural areas have a larger population

C．the larger population, the faster a city develops

D．both urban and rural areas have larger gross domestic products

Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The developing countries develop faster than the developed countries.

B．Cities contribute more to the GDP than the villagers.

C．Some problems are more easily solved in cities than in country.

D．It’s impossible to solve urban problems by getting people out of cities.

The last paragraph implies that ____________.

A．Public services are ineffective.

B．Cities are increasing too fast.

C．Population is not linked with development.

D．Government should be responsible for the problems in the cities.

“Long time no see” is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend’s email, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.
Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation of the Chinese greetings with a ruled English grammar and structure! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too thrilled to believe her. Her words could not convince me at all. So I did a research on google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing “Long time no see.” This sentence has been widely used in emails, letters, newspapers, movies, books, or any other possible places. Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Ironically, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.
Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan’s movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a world wide famous Chinese detective named “Charlie Chan” on wide screens. Detective Chan likes to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. “Long time no see” was his trademark. Soon after Charlie Chan, “Long time no see” became a popular phrase in the real world with thanks to the popularity of these movies.
Some scholars refer to America as a huge pot of stew. All kinds of culture are mixed in the stew together, and they change the color and taste of each other. American Chinese, though a minority ethnic(少数民族的成员) group in the United States, is also contributing some changes to the stew! Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed stew.
You can have some other examples than adoptions from Chinese, such as pizza from Italian, susi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French etc. There is a long list! Americans do not just simply borrow something from others. They will modify it and make it their own, so you would not be surprised to find a tofu and peanut butter hamburger in a restaurant, or to buy a bottle of iced Chinese green tea with honey in a grocery store. Since Americans appreciate Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way the American stew keeps adding richness and flavor.
The writer himself felt surprised at ______.

A．the Chinglish expression “Long time no see”

B．“Long time no see” used as standard American English

C．so many literal translation of the expressions used in America

D．finding out Americans use the expression every day

The word “stew” in the 4^th paragraph probably means ______.

A．mixture literature	B．Confucius’ words
C．a kind of cooked dish	D．American changing cultures

According to the passage, it can be inferred that ______.
A. detectives translate the phrase “Long time no see”
B. Hollywood made “Long time no see” popular
B. “Long time no see” used as standard American English
D. cultures can be changed in the huge pot of stew
The main idea of the passage is that ______.

A．some Chinese expressions are introduced into English

B．you’ll not be surprised at a tofu in a restaurant in America

C．some American expressions can be used in China

D．American English keep being enriched from different cultures

According to the passage, which of the following statements is not true?

A．Informal language sometimes doesn’t go with grammar and structure.

B．Languages are always ruled by grammar and structure.

C．Long time no see” has been used in at least four media mentioned in the passage.

D．There are four languages mentioned to be adopted in the American stew.

While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitirs, it is nice to watch an underdog.
From the passage we can learn that the young man.

A．made his turn to start back pitifully

B．was skillful in freestyle in the game

C．swam faster than the average swimmer

D．was not capable enough to win the medal

The crowd changed their attitudes because.

A．they felt sorry for the young man

B．they were moved by the young man’s courage

C．they wanted to show their sympathy

D．they meant to please the young man

According to the passage, “it is nice to watch an underdog” probably means.

A．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself

B．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills

C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors

D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals

Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．The event started with three men, two of whom were disqualified later.

B．The crowd started to laugh at the athlete’s arms waving in an attempt at freestyle.

C．The athlete, as well as the author, is an expert swimmer.

D．The swimming event is a show of courage rather than a fierce competition.

What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Compete for Gold!	B．Try again!
C．Break a Record!	D．Go for it!