Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers fried to conquer (征服) Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921, the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.
In the 1840s ,the main crop, potatoes was affected by disease and about 750, 000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.
For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.
The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly, Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.What does the author tell us in Paragraph 1?
| A．How the Irish fought against the English. |
| B．How Ireland gained independence. |
| C．How two “Irelands” came into being. |
| D．How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. |
The last paragraph is mainly about____.
| A．the Irish character | B．Irish culture |
| C．Irish musical instruments | D．a famous Irish writer |
We learn from the text that in Ireland _____.
| A．different kinds of old Irish songs are all sung with instruments |
| B．people are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countryside |
| C．it is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker |
| D．food shortages in the 1840s led to a decline in population |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．Life in Ireland | B．Ireland, Past and Present |
| C．A Very Difficult History | D．The Independence of Ireland |
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Hotel Amenities：Parking，Heated Pool, Television with Cable, and Coffee Maker in Room． Which hotel gives a promise?
| A．Beach Plaza Hotel． |
| B．Baymont Inn Ft . Lauderdale． |
| C．Baymont Inn Hotel． |
| D．Fort Lauderdale Plaza Hotel． |
In which hotel parking is the cheapest?
| A．Beach Plaza Hotel． |
| B．Baymont Inn Ft . Lauderdale． |
| C．Baymont Inn Hotel． |
| D．Fort Lauderdale Plaza Hotel． |
If you ______ , you will probably go to Beach Plaza Hotel．
| A．enjoy seeing films without leaving your hotel room |
| B．want to eat food cooked by yourself in the hotel |
| C．are fond of swimming in heated water |
| D．are a cigarette smoker |
Which of the following is NOT true to the ads?
| A．In Beach Plaza Hotel a 24-hour maid is available． |
| B．All of the three hotels provide television with cable． |
| C．You can keep your money in the room safe in Fort Lauderdale Plaza Hotel． |
| D．While staying in Fort Lauderdale Plaza Hotel, you can surf the Internet． |
While Jennifer was at home taking an online exam for her business law class, a monitor(监控器) a few hundred miles away was watching her every move.
Using a web camera equipped in Jennifer’s Los Angeles apartment, the monitor in Phoenix tracked how frequently her eyes moved from the computer screen and listened for the secret sounds of a possible helper in the room. Her Internet access was locked---remotely---to prevent Internet searches, and her typing style was analyzed to make sure she was who she said she was; Did she enter her student number at the same speed as she had in the past? Or was she slowing down?
In the battle against cheating, this is the cutting edge and a key to encourage honestly in the booming field of on line education. The technology gives trust to the entire system, to the institution and to online education in general. Only with solid measures against cheating, experts say, can Internet universities show that their exams and diplomas are valid---that students haven’t searched the Internet to get the right answers.
Although online classes have existed for more than a decade, the concern over cheating become sharper in the last year with the growth of “open online courses.” Private colleges, public universities and corporations are jumping into the online education field, spending millions of dollars to attract potential students, while also taking steps to help guarantee honesty at a distance.
Aside from the web cameras, a number of other high-tech methods are becoming increasingly popular. Among them are programs that check student’s identities using personas information, such as the telephone numbers they once used.
Other programs can produce unique exams by drawing on a large list of questions and can recognize possible cheaters by analyzing whether difficult test questions are answered at the same speed as easy ones. As in many university classes, term papers are scanned against some large Internet data banks for cheating. Why was Jennifer watched in an online exam?
| A．To correct her typing mistakes. |
| B．To find her secrets in the room. |
| C．To keep her from dishonest behaviors. |
| D．To prevent her from slowing down. |
The underlined expression cutting edge in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____.
| A．sharpening tool | B．advanced technique |
| C．effective rule | D．dividing line |
Some programs can find out possible cheaters by_________.
| A．checking the question answering speed |
| B．producing a large number of questions |
| C．scanning the Internet test questions |
| D．giving difficult test questions |
Buckingham Palace is where the Queen lives. It is the Queen’s official and main royal London home.Buckingham Palace was originally a splendid house built by the Duke(公爵) of Buckingham for his wife. George IV began changing it into a palace in 1826. It has been the official London home of Britain’s royal family since 1837. Buckingham Palace is also an office and used for the administrative work of the royal family.
When the Queen is at home you can see her royal flag (the Royal Standard) flying from the flag pole on top of Buckingham Palace.
The flag is divided into four equal parts. The first and fourth parts represent England and contain three gold lions waking on a red field; the second part represents Scotland and contains a red lion standing on a gold field; the third part represents Ireland and contains the gold coat of arms of Ireland on a blue field.
In flag protocol (礼仪), the Royal Standard which must only be flown from buildings where the Queen is present is supreme (至高无上的). It flies above the British Union Flag (the Union Jack ), and other British flags. It never flies at half mast.
The guards of the Palace wear red jackets and tall, furry hats. When the first guards come on duty, there is a ceremony called the Changing of the Guard. A familiar sight at Buckingham Palace is the Changing of the Guard ceremony that takes place in the open space in front of it each morning.
The Palace has around 750 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 78 bathrooms, 92 offices, a cinema and a swimming pool. It also has its own post office and police station. About 400 people work at the Palace, including servants, chefs, footmen, cleaners, gardeners, electricians, and so on. More than 50,000 people come to the Palace each year as guests to dinners, receptions and Royal Garden Parties. For whom was the original Buckingham Palace built?
| A．The Duke of Buckingham. |
| B．George IV. |
| C．The Duke of Buckingham’s wife. |
| D．George IV’s wife. |
According to the text, the Royal Standard_________.
| A．is flown at Buckingham Palace every morning |
| B．represents the four countries of the UK |
| C．flies at half mast only on a few occasions |
| D．flies higher than the British Union Flag |
When can a visitor see the Changing of the Guard ceremony?
| A．Every morning and evening. |
| B．Every morning. |
| C．When the Queen’s flag is flying. |
| D．When a flag is flying at the Palace. |
What is the last paragraph about?
| A．What you can see inside Buckingham Palace. |
| B．The royal parties at Buckingham Palace. |
| C．The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. |
| D．People living and working at Buckingham Palace. |
I clearly remember the day when my little brother was born: January 1, 1994. One of my favorite family photos shows me lying with my mother in the hospital bed, happy but un-aware of the small, sleeping baby in the background.
I stayed with my grandparents for the weekend of my brother’s birth, excited about my new brother but not yet aware of what having a little brother would mean. I didn’t truly realize what was going on until we were in the hospital room at Duke University----
coincidentally (碰巧地), the same room in which I had been born two years earlier.
When I looked at my brother for the first time, I felt a mixture of fear and interest. Little did know that small, pink creature would grow up to be one of my favorite people in the world.
In reality, though I am two years older than my brother, I am more often than not the real baby in the family. I am very lacking when it comes to common sense. Instructions constantly confuse me and I frequently find myself totally puzzled by things like knowing how to start the washing machine or manage the storage settings on my iPhone.
That’s where Gibson comes in. The poor kid has had to guide me through more tasks than I would care to admit, but he never complains. Though I should probably be told to figure it out myself, he always comes through.
I’m envious of his ability to readily answer the ever-present, “What do you want to do with your life?” question at family gatherings. “Be a doctor,” he says----a solid answer, completely opposite to my shaky one, “Well, I’m an English major, so...”
My brother truly is my best friend. No one understands me better, and there isn’t anyone else I would want to be stuck with in our family. I may not have a clear idea of where I’m headed, but he is stuck with me.How did the author feel when he saw his brother for the first time?
| A．Angry and sad. |
| B．Excited and moved. |
| C．Curious and scared. |
| D．Happy and interested. |
What does the underlined sentence in the fourth paragraph mean?
| A．My brother is the real baby in the family. |
| B．In fact, I seem to be less mature than my little brother. |
| C．My brother gets more love from the family than I do. |
| D．I am growing more slowly than my brother. |
What does the brother often help the author do?
| A．Help him deal with many daily tasks. |
| B．Help him with his studies. |
| C．Give him advice on how to choose a major. |
| D．Comfort him when he is in a bad mood. |
What is the best title for this text?
| A．My Strange Family Gatherings |
| B．The Real Baby in the Family |
| C．Stuck with Me----My Not-So-Little Little Brother |
| D．The Feeling of Having a Brother |
Researchers at the University of Kansas say that people can accurately judge 90 percent of a stranger’s personality simply by looking at the person’s shoes.
“Shoes convey a thin but useful piece of information about their wearers,” the authors wrote in the new study published in the Journal of Research in Personality. “Shoes serve a practical purpose, and also serve as nonverbal(非语言的) indications with symbolic messages. People tend to pay attention to the shoes they and others wear.”
Medical Daily notes that the details detected in the study include a person’s general age, sex, income, political affiliation(派别), and other personality characteristics, including someone’s emotional stability.
Lead researcher Omri Gillath said the judgments were based on the style, cost, color, and condition of someone’s shoes. In the study, 63 University of Kansas students looked at pictures showing 208 different pairs of shoes worn by the study’s participants. Volunteers in the study were photographed in their most commonly worn shoes, and then filled out a personality questionnaire.
So, some of the results were expected: People with higher incomes most commonly wore expensive shoes, and flashier footwear was typically worn by extroverts(外向者).
However, some of the more specific results are interesting. For example, “practical and functional” shoes were generally worn by more “agreeable” people, while ankle boots went more closely with “aggressive” personalities.
The strangers of all may be that those who wore “uncomfortable looking” shoes tend to have “calm” personalities.
And if you have several pairs of new shoes or take exceptional care of them, you may suffer from “attachment anxiety”, spending a large amount of time worrying about what other people think of your appearance.
There was even a political calculation in the mix with more liberal types wearing “shabbier and less expensive” shoes.
The researchers noted that some people will choose shoe styles to mask their actual personality characteristics, but researchers noted that volunteers were also likely to be unaware that their footwear choices were showing deep awareness into their personalities.According to Omri Gillath, a stranger’s personality can be judged by ___.
| A．he age and sex of the person |
| B．the personality questionnaire by the person |
| C．the emotional stability of the person |
| D．the shoes the person wears |
We can infer from Paragraph 2 that ___.
| A．a practical purpose is to wear shoes |
| B．people want to buy new shoes they pay attention to |
| C．shoes are vital to their wearers |
| D．the Journal of Research in Personality is a magazine |
The underlined word “agreeable” is closest in meaning to __.
| A．gentle | B．weak | C．generous | D．considerate |
Which might be the best title for the passage?
| A．Good Shoes, Good Character |
| B．Bad Shoes, Bad Personality |
| C．Shoes and Their Wearers’ Personality |
| D．Shoes Shape A Person’s Character |