Simply, language is what people and animals use to communicate their thoughts, ideas and feelings. Of course, animals communicate with each other differently from humans, and each type of animal communicates differently. For example, a bee uses a dance to tell the rest of the bees in the hive (蜂窝) where there is food, while whales communicate through the use of pleasant-sounding sounds. One could say then, that animals use different languages.
Like animals, people also use different languages. Each culture has its own words and symbols that are used by people within that culture to communicate with others in the same culture. For example, a person living in Japan will use the Japanese language to communicate with other Japanese. Unlike animals though, some cultures use more than one language. People within these cultures are said to be either bilingual (双语的) or multilingual (多语的). One such place is Canada. It is very likely that a person living in Canada may speak both French and English. Likewise, a person living in Switzerland may speak Italian, German and French.
Not only do people use different languages to communicate, but languages also have different dialects. A dialect is a difference of a language which uses words and grammar somewhat differently from the standard form of the same language. For example, people who live in Manchester, England speak a dialect that is a little different from people who live in London, England; however, people in both cities speak English.
There are also some people who don’t use a spoken language at all. These people use their hands to communicate. This type of language is called sign language and is most commonly used by people who are deaf.
Now that we know how people communicate, we are faced with a question. Are we part of a certain culture because of the language we speak, or do we speak a particular language because we are part of that culture? To put it more simply, is a Chinese person Chinese because he speaks Chinese, or does he speak Chinese because he was born in China? What part does language play in the definition (定义) of culture? The examples of bees and whales are used to show ______.
| A．animal languages are simple to learn |
| B．people can understand animal languages |
| C．different animals use different languages |
| D．animals communicate with each other |
The main idea of the second paragraph is that ______.
| A．people communicate with those in the same culture |
| B．there can be different languages in the same culture |
| C．a culture can be expressed in several languages |
| D．the symbol of a culture is the language spoken by its people |
To judge whether a person speaks a dialect, you can depend on ______.
| A．what words and grammar he uses |
| B．whether he uses sign language |
| C．where he lives |
| D．who he communicates with |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The culture of different countries |
| B．The language in different cultures |
| C．The development of language |
| D．The meaning of the language |
A mouse looked through a hole in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Running to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, warning, “There is a mouse trap in the house; there is a mouse trap in the house.” The chicken with her head high, said, “Shut up, Little Ugly. This is a great concern to you, but it has nothing to do with me; I cannot be bothered by it.”
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,” said the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; you are always in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow, who said, “A mouse trap; am I in great danger, huh?”
So the mouse had to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.
That very night a sound was heard through the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital.
She returned home with a fever. It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever, so the farmer took his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow killed to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So next time someone is facing a problem, don’t say that has nothing to do with you.We could see from the passage that the mouse was______.
| A．good at cheating others | B．dishonest |
| C．kind and warm-hearted | D．foolish |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The others helped the farmer kill the cow. |
| B．The mouse trap was very practical. |
| C．The pig is more friendly than the other animals . |
| D．The farmer’s family had no friends at all |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Traps can always cause chain reactions |
| B．Sometimes when the least of us are threatened, we all might be at risk. |
| C．It is better to be safe than to be sorry. |
| D．To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us all. |
We’ve heard about radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan reaching American shores. Experts say so far there is no reason to worry, and point out that we meet radiation every day. Where and how? NPR’s Renee Montagne posed that question to Peter Caracappa, a radiation safety officer and professor of nuclear engineering.
MONTAGNE: How many things emit radiation?
Dr CARACAPPA: Well, radiation and radioactive material is a part of nature. So everything that’s living has some amount of radiation coming from it—a very small amout. Plus there’s radiation in the ground and the air.
So the extremes are uranium in the soil to bananas?
Yes.
By the way, why do bananas have radiation?
Bananas have a lot of potassium(钾). And a small amount of potassium naturally is called potassium 40, which is radioactive
What’s the difference between radiation that’s harmful and not harmful?
Well, the term radiation can apply to a lot of different things. But the harmful radiation is ionizing(离子)radiation. It has enough energy that it can make chemical changes in material. We could get ionizing radiation from an X-ray, for example. It’s the kind of radiation that causes cancer.
The broader definition of radiation includes a lot of things that we call non-ionizing radiation. That includes everything like radio waves and visible light and your microwave.
So what then is the largest contributor of ionizing radiation?
For the natural sources of ionizing radiation, actually the biggest chunk of that tends to come from radon(氡), which is a radioactive material that is present in the air. It can become a concern when it builds up in low-lying areas of homes like basements.
Would it be fair to say that most people do not need to worry about the danger of being exposed to radiation?
I would say that the everyday exposure to radioation that we meet contributes an extremely tiny risk to our life or to our health compared to all of the other risks that we meet in our day-to-day life.We can infer from the first paragraph that radiation is______.
| A．rare | B．powerful | C．dangerous | D．common |
The passage may be _______.
| A．an interview | B．an argument | C．a talk show program | D．a science report |
Whether radiation is harmful or not depends on______.
| A．whether it has a small amount of potassium |
| B．whether it changes chemical in materials. |
| C．whether it has energy to change materials |
| D．whether it is visible in life |
The purpose of writing this passage is to _______.
| A．advise on how to protect us from radiation |
| B．analyze what causes radiation in daily life |
| C．warn people of the danger of radiation |
| D．expect people not to fear everyday radiation |
If you are asked to name some national emblems of China, the dragon will probably be one of the famous images that pop into your head. We Chinese often consider ourselves "the descendants（后代）of the dragon." It is not unfamiliar to you that your parents hope that you "may become the dragon".
As a mythical（神秘的）creature, the dragon is deeply rooted in Chinese culture. Traditionally, dragons are considered to govern rainfall. They have the power to decide where and when the rain falls. In addition, the dragon is a symbol of imperial （帝王的）power. The emperors thought they were real dragons and the sons of the heaven.
But the creature is regarded differently in Western countries. In the Bible, dragons represent the devil（恶人）. Western people usually see dragons as cold-blooded reptiles（爬虫）, like snakes and cruel killers. In their eyes, dragons are also dishonest.
Dragons in Western literature are presented as monsters（怪物）. It is a common tale for a mediaeval knight（中世纪的骑士） to kill a dragon and save a princess and her country from its evil. Even the popular boy wizard Harry Potter has to battle against a dragon.
However, dragons are not all bad in the West. "Puff the Magic Dragon" is a well-known song. The lyrics(歌词) tell a bitter-sweet story of the dragon Puff and his playmate Jackie Paper, a little boy. When Jackie grows up, he loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff upset. Puff represents the innocence of a child's imagination, which is very positive for a dragon. The underlined word” emblems” in the first paragraph means “_______”.
| A．symbols | B．names | C．places | D．parks |
What is a dragon presented as according to Western literature?
A wizard B. A mediaeval knight C. A princess D. A monster The writer gave the example of “ Puff the Magic Dragon” to show_____.
| A．dragons can represent the innocence of child’s imagination |
| B．children don’t like to play with dragons |
| C．dragons are not all bad in the West |
| D．not all people in the West like dragons |
Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experiment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.
Opposite to(与.....相反) what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.During the test, those who were tested were given ________.
| A．no breakfast at all |
| B．very rich breakfast |
| C．little food for breakfast |
| D．different breakfast or none |
The results of the test show that ________.
| A．breakfast has great effect on work and studies |
| B．breakfast has little to do with a person’s work |
| C．a person will work better if he has a simple(简单的) breakfast |
| D．those working with brains needn’t have anything for breakfast |
The passage mentions that many people believe that if you don't eat breakfast, you will _________.
| A．lose weight |
| B．not lose weight |
| C．be healthier |
| D．gain a lot of weight |
Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
| A．Poor breakfasts affect those who work with brains. |
| B．Eating nothing in the morning may cause one to get fatter. |
| C．Reducing lunch and supper is of less use in weight losing. |
| D．Eating less in lunch and supper may help to lose weight. |
During the summer holidays there will be a revised(修改过的)schedule of services for the students. Changes for dinning-room and library service hours and for bus schedules will be posted on the wall outside of the dining-hall．Weekly film and concert schedules,which are being arranged(安排), will be posted each Wednesday outside of the student club.
In the summer holidays, buses going to the town center will leave the main hall every hour on the half hour during the day．The dining-room will serve three meals a day from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm during the week and two meals from noon to 7:00 pm on weekends．The library will continue its usual hours during the week, but have shorter hours on Saturdays and Sundays．The weekend hours are from noon to5:00 pm.
All students who want to use the library borrowing services must have a new summer card．This announcement will also appear in the next week’s student newspaper.The main purpose of this announcement is to .
| A．tell students of important schedule changes |
| B．tell students of new bus and library services |
| C．show the excellent services for students |
| D．ask students to renew their library cards |
Times for films and concerts are not listed in this announcement because .
| A．they are not to be announced |
| B．they are hard to arrange |
| C．the full list is not ready |
| D．the full list is too long |
At which of the following times will the bus leave the main hall?
| A．8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 |
| B．8:30, 9:30, 10:30, 11:30 |
| C．8:30,9:00, 9:30,10:00 |
| D．8:00, 9:30, 11:00, 12:30 |
In the summer holidays,the library will have .
| A．no special hours |
| B．special hours on weekdays |
| C．special hours on weekends |
| D．special hours both on weekdays and weekends |