If you are sitting at a table with people you don’t know, it is impolite to smoke without first asking if it will disturb them.
At American restaurants and coffee shops, cold water is usually served before you order. You may find the bread and the butter are free, and if you order coffee, you may get a free refill.
Most cities and towns have no rules about opening and closing time for stores and restaurants, though they usually do make rules for bars. Especially in big cities, stores may be open 24 hours a day.
Servings in restaurants are often large. If you can’t finish the meal but would like to enjoy the food later, ask the waiter or the waitress for a “doggie bag”(剩菜袋). It may have a picture of a dog on it, but everybody knows you are taking the food for yourself.
Tips are not usually added to the check. You should leave a tip of about 15% on the table when you leave. In some restaurants, a waiter or waitress often bring your check on a plate, and you can put your money there. Then the waiter or the waitress brings you your changes.______ is usually served before you order at American restaurants or coffee shops.
| A．Bread | B．Butter | C．Coffee | D．Cold water |
American people always ______ when servings are too large for them.
| A．take the food home for their dogs. |
| B．leave the food on the table and go away |
| C．take the food home in doggie bags for themselves. |
| D．ask the waiter or the waitress to keep the food for them. |
If you spend ＄120 for your meal, you’ll probably leave a tip of _____.
| A．＄10 | B．＄18 | C．＄30 | D．＄50 |
How can you give tips in America?
| A．They are usually added to the check. |
| B．They are added to the price of the meal. |
| C．A tip is usually 1/5 of the price of the meal. |
| D．You can leave them on the table when you leave. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．It’s bad manners to smoke if the people who sit at the same table mind it. |
| B．At American restaurants and coffee shops, bread, butter and coffee are all free. |
| C．American people never sit with people they don’t know. |
| D．Few cities and towns make rules for bars in American. |
“I had a Welsh speaking test. I'd had to memorize a paragraph in front of the whole class. I just couldn’t do it,” says 13-year-old Mary. “I pretended to be ill.” But Mary did not enjoy her day off. “I watched TV all day — it was boring. I wished I had gone to school.”
Mary’s story is not unusual in Britain. According to the latest government figures, pupil absences are rising, despite schools taking a hard line on truancy (逃学)．
Philippa James, a PhD researcher at Cardiff University’s school of social sciences, thinks she knows why: “The more schools improve methods of detection（检查）, the more children work out better methods of deception.” Teenagers told her it was now harder to skip a single lesson, so they’d miss whole days to avoid being caught.
For several years, James has researched student truancy of 60 teenagers, aged 13 and 14, including Mary, to see how the teenagers truant, for how long, and why.
Through online conversations and face-to-face interviews, she discovered that most truancy was “a response to factors within the school”. Truants are not necessarily less advanced or less intelligent. They complained of teachers who failed to engage them, and of “boring” lessons. “Many truants really enjoy school and believe in education, but drop out when aspects of it were ineffective.” James says.
The views of students like Adam, who believes that skipping lessons has little impact on his schooling, were common. “I only take-off for a lesson, or a couple of days. It doesn’t affect my education,” he told James.
James’ study concludes that schools need to address the question of why pupils want to leave in the first place. “Pupils need help from the start.” she says. “It’s a two-way process – schools must be responsive. We need to look at the reasons for truancy rather than the number, so that instead of walking away from school, students have the skills and chances to talk through problems and make a change.”What is one of the reasons for school truancy according to James’ study?
| A．Truants are fallen behind in their studies. |
| B．Truants have no interest in school subjects. |
| C．Truants have more interesting things to do. |
| D．Truants are not satisfied with the teachers. |
The underlined phrase “taking a hard line” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to“”.
| A．experiencing a problem with | B．having a strict attitude towards |
| C．finding it difficult to solve | D．having little success with |
By citing Adam's remark, James wants to show that.
| A．school education is not efficient and needs improvement |
| B．it’s a popular belief that occasional truancy won't cause much harm |
| C．school truancy is becoming more serious and needs more concern |
| D．even good students may sometimes need a break from school |
What is Philippa James’ suggestion to schools?
| A．Schools should solve the problem of teachers. |
| B．Schools should be more active in helping beginner truants. |
| C．Schools should have a better control of hidden truants. |
| D．Schools should find out who truant and how they it. |
With only fish and birds for company, Eric Erden has been rowing across the Pacific Ocean to Australia in his 23-foot-long boat since he left California on July 10, 2009.
But crossing the Pacific is only part of his incredible journey. Eric has decided to go all the way around the world using only his own energy. He will row, bike, and walk without help from any motors at all. Oh, and his plan includes climbing the tallest peak on six of the continents along the way, to honour the memory of a fellow climber.
He says he is doing this to show kids that they can achieve any goal, but he hopes to have some great adventures along the way.
As a solo traveller, Eric has already faced disappointments and challenges. Because he has to row about ten hours a day, he brought along an MP3 player to listen to music and pass the time. Unfortunately, the nearly daily tropical rain for several months has forced him to keep his player packed away where it's safe and dry.
Storms and huge wave wind regularly force him in the wrong direction and even threaten to overturn his boat. “Sometimes I really feel scared,” says a somewhat embarrassed Eric. “But that’s all part of the journey. I knew this wouldn’t be easy when I started. That's why I gave myself two years to finish.”
Protein bars（蛋白棒） give him energy, and he boils water to heat freeze-dried meals on a one-burner stove. A solar-powered machine removes salt from ocean water so he can drink it, but only when the sun shines. When that fails he sometimes tries to collect rainwater in buckets.
He’s not bothered by any of the hardships. Eric sees the world as a laboratory where there is much to learn. And when his trip around the world takes him across land, he enjoys meeting people - especially children. He has already visited several schools and shared his story.Why is Eric making this trip?
| A．To encourage children to reach for their goal. |
| B．To learn more about the world around us. |
| C．To have many great adventures in strange lands. |
| D．To honour the memory of a fellow climber. |
What does Eric plan to do on each of the six continents he will visit?
| A．Visit schools to share his story. |
| B．Study the culture of the local people. |
| C．Climb the tallest mountain. |
| D．Cycle from one end to the other. |
When does Eric expect to finish his journey?
| A．July 2009. | B．June 2010. |
| C．January 2011. | D．July 2011. |
Which of the following words best describes Eric’s character?
| A．Determined. | B．Intelligent. |
| C．Fearless. | D．Lonely. |
Fishing is a popular activity and every fisherman knows the rule: Keep the big ones, throw the smaller ones back. The idea behind Lt is simple - the larger fish are probably older. If you keep the smaller ones, they won’t be able to reproduce, and the fish population is in danger.
But fishing out the largest fish from a population has an unwanted effect: Over time, fewer adult fish get really big. If only the smaller fish reproduce（繁殖）, then future generations become smaller. This is an example of evolution（进化） in action.
One scientist, Dr David Conover has spent the last decade studying the effects of the “keep the big ones” rule and if they can be reversed（颠倒）.
To set up his experiment, Conover and his team caught hundreds of silverside fish and divided them into six groups. For two groups, Conover followed the “keep the large ones” rule and took out the biggest fish. For two other groups, he removed only the small fish.
For the last two groups, he removed fish at random (随意的).
After five years, he measured the fish in each group. In the two groups where the largest fish were regularly removed, the average fish size was smaller than the average size in the other groups. Here was evolution in action: If only small fish survive to reproduce, then future generations of fish will also tend to be small.
For the second five years of his experiment, Conover changed the rules and took fish randomly from each group. At the end of the experiment, he found that the fish that were in the “keep the large ones” group for the first five years had started to get larger again, although he calculated it would take at least 12 years for the fish in that group to return to their original size.
In other words, it takes less time to shrink(变小) than it does to recover. The underlined word “it” (Line 2) refers to “ ”
| A．the activity | B．the fish |
| C．the rule | D．the fisherman |
Why do many people follow the “keep the big ones, throw the small ones back” rule?
| A．It helps to protect fish numbers. |
| B．It helps to protect fish size. |
| C．It is the custom in most countries. |
| D．They will be punished if they don’t. |
What did Conover find after the first five years of his experiment?
| A．The “keep the big ones” rule made no difference to fish size. |
| B．The “keep the big ones” rule made fish smaller on average. |
| C．The “keep the big ones” rule made the fish bigger on average. |
| D．The “keep the big ones” rule affected all fish populations in the same way. |
What is the author’s intention in writing this article?
| A．To encourage people to fish more carefully. |
| B．To urge governments to change the rules of fishing. |
| C．To describe the results of a scientific experiment. |
| D．To introduce the rules of fishing to readers. |
For hundreds of years, Japan has been hit, from time to time, by enormous (巨大的) tsunamis（海啸）. These awful sudden risings of the sea are caused by earthquakes or underwater volcanic actions. The story of the boy Yuuki is the story of such a disaster.
Yuuki lived with his family in a seaside village, below a small mountain. One day, as he played on top of the mountain, Yuuki felt a small earthquake but it was not strong enough to frighten anybody and passed quickly. Soon after, however, Yuuki noticed the sea darken and begin running away from the shore very fast, leaving behind wide stretches of beach that had never been seen before.
With a grasp, Yuuki remembered reading that just before a terrible tsunami, the sea suddenly and quickly rolls backward. He ran to the beach, warning the villagers who had gathered to admire the new beach land.
“Get back!” shouted the boy, “There is a terrible danger!”
But no one listened. They laughed at him and continued playing in the new sand and watched the sea roll backward even more.
Desperate, Yuuki could think of only one thing to do. He lit a tree branch, raced to the rice fields and began burning the harvested rice. Then he called out, “Fire! Fire! Everyone run to the mountain! Now!”
When everyone reached the mountain-top, a villager cried out, “Yuuki is mad! I saw him set the fire.”Yuuki hung his head in shame, but said nothing as the villagers cursed him. Just then, someone shouted, “Look!”
In the distance what seemed to be a huge dark line was speeding towards the shore. As it got nearer the people realized the long thin line of darkness was the returning sea, towering like a mountain.
The villagers watched in terror as the water struck the shore, smashing over their homes then tearing out the land as it receded.
On the mountain everyone stared speechlessly at the destruction below.
“I'm sorry I burned the fields,”said Yuuki, his voice trembling.
“Yuuki,”village-chief answered. “You saved us all.”
The villagers cheered and raised Yuuki into the air. “We were going to
celebrate our rice harvest tonight,”said one, “but now we’ll celebrate that we’re all still alive!”Where was Yuuki when the earthquake struck?
| A．On the beach. |
| B．On the mountain. |
| C．In the rice fields. |
| D．At his family home. |
In what order did the following events take place?
a. Yuuki set fire to the rice fields.
b. The villagers laughed and played on the beach.
c. The land was torn away by the water.
d. Yuuki ran to warn the villagers.
e. The villagers stared at the destruction.
f. The people were cursing Yuuki.
| A．d, b, e, a, c, f |
| B．b, a, d, e, c, f |
| C．d, b, a, f, c, e |
| D．a, d, b, e, f, c |
How did Yuuki save the villagers from the disaster?
| A．He told them about the earthquake. |
| B．He explained why the sea was flowing out. |
| C．He told the village chief to warn the people. |
| D．He set fire to the rice field. |
What were the people planning to do before the tsunami struck their village?
| A．Harvest the rice crop. |
| B．Play on the beach. |
| C．Climb the mountain. |
| D．Celebrate the rice harvest. |
Young Music Scene Concert Young musicians from all over Germany perform at Young Scene Concert at Berlin’s famous Quasimodo music hall. The concert is part of the Berlin Festival.Time: 15—20 Nov. Place: 45, 18756 Berlin, Germany Cost: Various Email: info@quasimodo.de Phone: +34 (0) 45 839 5986 |
| Documentary Film Month Cinemas, schools and libraries across France and the French-speaking world take part in November’s Documentary Film Month. About 120, 000 visitors take part each year.  Time: 1—20 Mar.Place: 25 Road Pyramids, 75001 Paris Cost: Various Phone: +12 (0)1 43 38 19 73 Email: info@paris-touristoffice.com |
| Craft (工艺) Show You can come to the show twice a year, in spring and at Christmas. There are hundreds of artisans (手艺人) from across Canada selling jewellery, pottery, glass, ironwork and clothing. Time: 26 Nov.—7 Dec. Mon.—Fri. 11 am—10 pm Sat. 10 am—8 pm Sun. 9 am—6 pm Place: Direct Energy Centre Cost: $10 Phone: +7 658 198 3245  Email: askus@oneofakindshow.com |
|
People can enjoy music at Young Scene Concert from____________.
| A．1—20 Mar | B．15—20 Nov | C．26 Nov—7 Dec | D．1 Mar—20 Nov |
You can e-mail ____________if you want to see Documentary Film.
| A．info@mtccc.com | B．askus@oneofakindshow.com |
| C．info@paris-touristoffice.com | D．info@quasimodo.de |
You can buy ____________at the Craft Show.
| A．glass, ironwork and clothing | B．different kinds of flowers |
| C．classic music CDs | D．some books about film |
If two adults and two boys of 9 want to see Flower Show and Craft Show, it will cost them____________.
| A．$40 | B．$56 | C．$76 | D．$112 |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Young musicians from all over Germany perform at Quasimodo music hall. |
| B．Cinemas, schools and libraries across France take part in Documentary Film Month. |
| C．People can enjoy the Craft Show from 9 am to 6 pm on Sunday. |
| D．Toronto Garden and Flower Show is the world’s largest garden show. |
Email: info@mtccc.com