When you practice reading with passages shorter than book length, do not try to take in each word separately, one after the other. It is much more difficult to grasp the broad theme of the passage this way, and you will also get the stuck on individual words which may not be absolutely essential to a general understanding of the passage. It is a good idea to skim through the passage very quickly first to get the general idea of each paragraph. Titles, paragraph headings and emphasized word can be a great help in getting this skeleton outline of the passage. It is surprising how many people do not read titles, introductions or paragraph headings. Can you, without looking back, remember the title of this passage and the heading of this paragraph?
Most paragraphs of a passage or chapter have a 'topic sentence' which expresses the central idea. The remaining sentence expand or support that idea. It has been estimated that between 60% and 90% of all expositive（说明的）paragraphs in English have the topic sentence first. Always pay special attention to the first sentence of a paragraph; it is most likely to give you the main idea.
Sometimes , though , the first sentence in the paragraph does not have the feel of 'main idea' sentence. It does not seem to give us enough new information to justify a paragraph. The next most likely place to look for the topic sentence is the last sentence of the paragraph.
Remember that the opening and closing paragraphs of a passage or chapter are particularly important . The opening paragraph suggests the general direction and content of the piece, while the closing paragraph often summarizes the very essence （精髓）.It is a good idea to skim through a passage quickly first ________.
| A．at about 350 w. P.m.(words per minute) |
| B．to get the general idea of each paragraph |
| C．so that you can take in each word separately |
| D．to make sure you get to the end at least once |
The topic sentence of an expository paragraph in English_______.
| A．usually comes in the middle |
| B．is most likely to be found at the end |
| C．is most often at the beginning |
| D．is usually left out in expository writing |
Most expository paragraphs in English have a clearly defined topic sentence. In such paragraphs the topic sentence comes first ________.
| A．in about 40% of cases | B．in about 80% of cases |
| C．in about 20% cases | D．very rarely |
Some times we know the first sentence is not the topic sentence because ________.
| A．it does not seem to give us enough new information |
| B．it is not long enough |
| C．it does not come at the beginning |
| D．it does not make complete sentence |
1 Day Fly-Fly Aboriginal Rock Tour
Tour Details
Operator: Adventure North Australia
Destination: Cooktown
Departs From: Cairns
Tour Description
Voted as one of Australia’s Must-Do-Experiences. Treat yourself to an amazing day out with Aboriginal Elder Willie Gordon.
Depart Cairns Domestic Airport for the Skytrans Flight to Cooktown. Flight departs Cairns at 6:45 a.m.
Enjoy a 45-minute flight with wonderful views from Cairns to Cooktown as you fly along the coast between the World Heritage rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. On arrival in Cooktown you will be met by Willie Gordon, the traditional storyteller of the Nugal-warra clan(部落).
Willie Gordon takes guests to his ancestral rock art sites, set high in the hills above Hope Vale, outside Cooktown. Here he shares the stories behind the art, and explains how the paintings speak of the most basic and important quality of life and the knowledge of his people.
The tour takes you through an impressive view of six rock art sites, including an ancestral Birth Cave and the Reconciliation Cave. This includes a 30-minute bush walk on generally easy terrian(地形). (Covered closed-on shoes must be worn.)
Return to Cooktown at 1:15 p.m. where Willie will take you to the Nature Power House Museum, Cooktown’s Visitor Information Centre. Lunch is included at the Verhandah Cafe.
The rest of the afternoon is free to explore historical Cooktown before your transfer to Cooktown airport and return flight to Cairns. Flight arrives at Cairns Domestic Airport at 6:40 p.m. Own arrangements on arrival in Cairns.
Prices
Adults: $ 549.00
Children: $ 390.00
Families(2 adults and 2 children): $ 1,869.00According to the passage, how will tourists arrive in Cooktown?
| A．By ship. | B．By car. | C．By air. | D．By train. |
What do we learn about Willie Gordon?
| A．He acts as the guide of the tour. |
| B．He is the owner of the Verhandah Cafe. |
| C．He works in the Nature Power House Museum. |
| D．He is the manager of Adventure North Australia. |
After viewing rock art, tourists will go to__________.
| A．the World Heritage rainforest | B．the Great Barrier Reef |
| C．rock art sites outside the town | D．the Nature Power House Museum |
We learn from the passage that the whole trip lasts about__________.
| A．six hours | B．eight hours | C．ten hours | D．twelve hours |
From the passage, the tour is designed to let the tourists__________.
| A．learn about the custom | B．enjoy the ancient art |
| C．taste the delicious snacks | D．experience the lifestyle |
When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said “VACABCUES”, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said “NO VACANCIES”, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word ‘DIVERSION’ on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris, when someone offered me some more coffee, I said “Thank you” in French. I meant that I would like some more. However, to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that “Thank you” in French means “No, thank you.” My Spanish friends wanted advice about __________.
| A．learning English |
| B．finding places to stay in England |
| C．driving their car on English roads |
| D．going to England by car |
I suggested that they stay at “bed and breakfast” houses because__________.
| A．they would be able to practise their English |
| B．it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels |
| C．it would be convenient for them to have dinner |
| D．there would be no problem about finding accommodation there |
“NO VACANCIES” in English means__________.
| A．no free rooms | B．free rooms |
| C．not away on holiday | D．holidays |
If you see a road sign that says “Diversion” in UK, you will__________.
| A．fall into a hole |
| B．have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself |
| C．find that the road is blocked by crowds of people |
| D．have to take a different road |
When someone offered me more coffee and I said “Thank you” in French, I__________.
| A．didn’t really want any more coffee |
| B．wanted them to take the coffee pot away |
| C．really wanted some more coffee |
| D．wanted to express my politeness |
Like all other mothers who have small children, I, too, have to steal time-from my own children at home and from the children who know me as their teacher-just to put a few words down on paper. Many times I’ve wanted to write for myself, for other women, for my parents, for my husband, and especially for my children. I would have liked to leave a legacy (遗产) of words explaining what it has meant to have twins. One reason that there is not a great deal written about being a mother of a new baby is that there is seldom a moment to think of anything else but the baby’s needs.
With twins, I did not have a spare hand to write with.
Before my twins were born, my days were long and I had nothing to write about. After the twins’ birth I did have something to write about, but I found myself facing not a pen and paper but milk bottles.
Some nights, friends would visit. They would leave at 11 p.m., heading for bed, and for us the night was only just beginning. With twins, there is really no night. Each feeding lasts a long time. At 1:00 a.m., each of them would begin crying from hunger. At 4:00am, when I finally put them down, I felt exhausted.
Two years have passed since then and we’ve managed to live through it all. My days are still very full and even now there isn’t one evening when I put the twins down for the night that I don’t have a break. At last a little time for myself.When did the writer have time but she didn’t feel like writing anything?
| A．Before the birth of her twins. |
| B．When she faced bottles of milk. |
| C．After her friends visited her home. |
| D．When she had to think about the babies’ needs. |
What does the writer mainly write about?
| A．Her role as a wife. | B．Her work as a writer. |
| C．Her experience as a mother. | D．Her feeling as a woman. |
Why did the writer say the night was just beginning (in the 4th paragraph)?
| A．Because her friends left her house too late. |
| B．Because she started to take care of the twins even at night. |
| C．Because her babies often cried and she woke up. |
| D．Because she could not sleep till four in the morning. |
This passage is probably from a(n) _________.
| A．blog | B．newspaper | C．guidebook | D．advertisement |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The writer was unhappy because of no time for writing. |
| B．The writer cared about her babies more than her own interests. |
| C．The writer hated to be a mother of twins. |
| D．The writer could steal a little time at night. |
You probably know you should say “please” and “thank you” at restaurants. You probably know the rules of a library. You know you should respect and be nice to your classmates. But do you have music manners?
Keep It Down! You have to notice the volume of your music. You should not play your music so loud that everyone around you can hear it. Some people might even get angry. Usually, when you play the music loud on an MP3 player, other people can’t hear the words of the song. They just hear a loud sound. No one wants to listen to this. Very loud music can also be bad for your ears. So even if you are alone when listening to our MP3 players, you shouldn’t turn it up too high.
Take Them Off! You need to know when to turn your MP3 off and put it away. Libraries, and schools don’t allow MP3 players. There are other places, like museums, that don’t have rules, but it would be rude to have your MP3 player on. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense to listen on your MP3 player at event. Why would you listen to music at a play, a movie or a sporting event? You would miss what is going on and others would wonder why you even came.
Take One Out! Once in a while it’s okay just to take out one earphone and not other. Imagine you are listening on your MP3 player when someone asks you the way. It would not be rude to take out one earphone, tell him the way, and put back the earphone and continue listening. You can also do this when you order food at a fast-food restaurant or when you answer 
the telephone and it’s not for you.
It’s Your Choice! There are times when you need to decide what is best. F
or example, some people can listen to music on their MP3 players when reading books, while others think it is disturbing. In cases like this, you need to do what seems right for you.The underlined word “volume” in Paragraph Two probably means “_________.”
| A．the type of music | B．the amount of a sound |
| C．the length of a song | D．the colour of an MP3 player |
No one wants to listen to_________from others’ MP3 players.
A. a loud sound B. sad stories
C. a long movie D. the words of a song
43. We should turn down the mu
sic when we are alone because loud music_________.
A. is not enjoyableB. makes us tired
C. is bad for MP3 players D. hurts our ears If we listen to our MP3 player a
t a play, _________.
| A．the theatre won’t allow it | B．the actors will get angry |
| C．others won’t hear the play well | D．we will miss part of the play |
We can take one earphone out when we _________.
| A．show others the way | B．talk to friends on the phone |
| C．watch a sporting event | D．have dinner with our parents |
There are various ways in which individual economic units can interact with one another. Three basic ways may be described as the market system, the administered system, and the traditional system.
In a market system individual economic units are free to interact among each other in the marketplace. It is possible to buy commodities from other economic units or sell commodities to them. In a market, transactions may take place via barter or money exchange. In a barter economy, real goods such as automobiles, shoes, and pizzas are traded against each other. Obviously, finding somebody who wants to trade my old car in exchange for a sailboat may not always be an easy task. Hence, the introduction of money as a medium of exchange eases transactions considerably. In the modern market economy, goods and services are bought or sold for money.
An alternative to the market system is administrative control by some agency over all transactions. This agency will issue commands as to how much of each good and service should be produced, exchanged, and consumed by each economic unit. Central planning may be one way of administering such an economy. The central plan, drawn up by the government, shows the amounts of each commodity produced by the various firms and allocated to different households for consumption. This is an example of complete planning of production, consumption, and exchange for the whole economy.
In a traditional society, production and consumption patterns are governed by tradition; every person’s place within the economic system is fixed by parentage, religion, and custom. Transactions take place on the basis of tradition, too. People belonging to a certain group or caste（阶级） may have an obligation to care for other persons, provide them with food and shelter, care for their health, and provide for their education. Clearly, in a system where every decision is made on the basis of tradition alone, progress may be difficult to achieve. An inactive society may result.What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To outline contrasting types of economic systems. |
| B．To explain the science of economics. |
| C．To argue for the superiority of one economic system. |
| D．To compare barter and money-exchange markets. |
In the second paragraph, the underlined word “real” could best be replaced by _______.
| A．valuable | B．concrete | C．absolute | D．reliable |
According to the passage, a barter economy can generate ______.
| A．rapid speed of transactions | B．misunderstandings |
| C．inflation | D．difficulties for the traders |
According to the passage, who has the greatest degree of control in the administered system?
| A．Individual households. | B．Small businesses. |
| C．Major corporations. | D．The government. |
Which of the following is not mentioned by the author as a criterion（标准）for determining a person’s position in a traditional society?
| A．Family background | B．Age |
| C．Religious beliefs. | D．Custom |