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 |
Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be a simple fact? Do you argue whether it’s cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit?
If you get into such arguments, try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant’s trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant’s side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal’s tusk. The fourth, who took hold of the elephant’s tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant’s legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of theelephant’s ears, said it was like a huge fan.
Each man’s idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a “simple fact”, it’s often because his experience in the matter is different from yours.
To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a “simple fact”, try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third. Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it’s hot.What makes people think about simple facts differently?
| A．The fact that simple facts differ from one another. |
| B．The fact that people have different experience in the same simple fact. |
| C．The fact that people often disagree with one another. |
| D．The fact that it’s hard to make up one’s mind about simple facts. |
The writer’s advice is that ________.
| A．we should never think about simple facts |
| B．we should never judge something with a one-sided view |
| C．we should not agree about simple facts |
| D．we must learn from the six blind men |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．People often judge something according to their own experience. |
| B．People often agree about simple facts. |
| C．It’s hard for a person to make up his mind about a simple fact. |
| D．Don’t care too much about simple facts. |
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all-whether rich or poor, clever or stupid-one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work, and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a profess-or, we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.From the passage we can conclude that______.
| A．education can settle all of the world's problems |
| B．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world |
| C．free education won't help to solve social problems |
| D．all the social problems can't be solved by education |
The writer wants to prove that _____.
| A．our society needs all kinds of jobs |
| B．our society needs free education for all |
| C．a farmer is more important than a professor |
| D．people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work |
According to the passage _____.
| A．work with hands is dirty and shameful |
| B．work with hands is low work |
| C．work with hands is the most important |
| D．we can't regard work with hands as low work |
The purpose of education is _____.
| A．to choose a system of education |
| B．to prepare children mainly for their future work |
| C．to let everyone receive education fit for him |
| D．to build a perfect world |
The passage tells us about _____.
system of education
B. means of education
C. value of education
D. type of education
We often find that weekends and holidays feel so short while classes and work feel so long. In reality, though, we know that this is not true. But we still wonder where that strange feeling comes from.
In fact, this is one of the ways that we're tricked by time, according to the website All That Is Interesting. The website lists several wrong impressions we often have about time. Let's have a look.
First of all, emotions affect our time-keeping abilities: Negative emotions, especially anxiety and boredom, make time seem longer because they make us concentrate more on the passage of time. However, when we are enjoying ourselves, we pay more attention to what we are doing and are likely to lose track of(失去对…的意识) time.
Here is another example. In 2007, a group of scientists carried out a test. In the test, people fell 50 meters into a safety net and were then asked about their experience. Although the experience took shorter than 3 seconds, the people thought it was much longer than it actually was.
This is because of the way our bodies reply to danger, according to the scientists. Our bodies produce a chemical called adrenaline(肾上腺素) when we are faced with danger. It allows us to concentrate better so that we can stay alive. As a result, we are able to remember far more details over a short period of time, which makes it seem like time is going more slowly.
Another occasion when we make mistakes about time is when we take afternoon naps(午觉). Have you ever had trouble telling what time it is after a long nap? That's because the best amount of time for a nap is 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you enter a new stage of sleep called slow-wave sleep. If you wake up mid-way in this stage, it will take a while before you can correctly perceive(感知) time again.
Yes, time can be mysterious and there is no way to control it So, perhaps the best thing to do is to make good use of every minute. How many examples of being tricked by time are mentioned in the article?
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Four | D．Five |
When people feel that an experience is longer than it really is, _________.
| A．a chemical called adrenaline is playing a role |
| B．they are concentrating on what they are doing |
| C．they are responding faster to the changes around them |
| D．they could be facing danger or feeling bored |
According to the passage, in which situation do we make mistakes about time?
| A．We have a math test when we fall down from a high place. |
| B．We have trouble telling what time it is after a 20 minutes’ nap. |
| C．We have many problems left in the test paper, but the time is up. |
| D．We go to school on the school bus as usual on weekdays. |
What is the article mainly about?
| A．How emotions affect time keeping abilities. |
| B．Tests which scientists carried out about time. |
| C．The best amount of time for an afternoon nap. |
| D．Mistakes that people make in their understandings of time. |
※Health, Wellness and the Politics of Food
9:00—9:45 a.m. Blue Tent
Panelists (成员)：Jami Bernard, David Kamp, Marion Nestle and Peter Singer.
Hosted by Denise Grady, science writer for the New York Times.
How does what we eat not only affect our bodies, but also the world？The food and nutrition experts debate the role that the diet plays in both personal and global health, and present a look at food politics.
※Sports Writing：For the Love of the Game
9:50—10:35 a.m. Blue Tent
Panelists：Christine Brennan, Ira Rosen, Joe Wallace and Joe Drape.
Hosted by William C. Rhoden, sports writer for the New York Times.
Whether catching that key moment of victory or defeat, or covering breaking news, sports writers are anything but audience. Listen as some professionals discuss the special experience in reporting of sports news.
※The Art of the Review
11:15—12:00 a.m. Green Tent
Panelists: John Freeman, Barry Gewen, David Orr, Celia McGee and Jennifer Schuessler.
Hosted by Sam Tanenhaus, editor for the New York Times Book Review.
How much of an effect does the book review have on book sales？Join this group of critics(评论家) as they discuss the reality of book review and bestseller lists, and how they choose books for review.
※New York Writers, New York Stories
3:00—3:45 p.m. Green Tent
Panelists: Cindy Adams, Richard Cohen, RicKlass and Lauren Redness.
Hosted by Clyde Haberman, columnist (专栏作家) for the City Section of the New York Times.
Join this inspiring group of New Yorkcentric writers as they talk about why New York is a gold mine of ideas for their work.If you are free in the afternoon, you can attend_____________.
| A．Health, Wellness and the Politics of Food |
| B．Sports Writing: For the Love of the Game |
| C．The Art of the Review |
| D．New York Writers, New York Stories |
All the four activities above ______________.
| A．are about writing | B．will last 45 minutes each |
| C．can be attended freely | D．will attract many readers |
We can learn from the text that______________.
| A．sports writers are a type of audience |
| B．the New York Times is popular |
| C．Denise Grady will discuss politics |
| D．book reviews may affect book sales |
The Hunan Satellite TV(HNTV) show “Where are we going, Dad?” is a big hit. Many famous stars brought their children to a strange village alone, and they had to spend 72 hours with their children there. The program fully showed us a modern version of the “how to be a good father”. As the young parents today are too busy to take care of their children, this new form of “Lost on the way” played by nanny Daddy and cute kids triggered（触发）a lot of people’s emotional resonance（共鸣）. Both the kids and their parents will find that their hearts are being drawn closer. But this kind of feeling has just proved that there is a big spiritual barrier between the modern parents and children.
The TV shows like “Children are hard to support!”, “Where are we going, Dad?”, “hot mom” and “cute kids” are becoming more and more popular. All of these show the new parents’ confusion in children’s education and the appeal for the balance between career and family.
In real life, on the one hand the young parents feel helpless because they are too busy to accompany their children under the pressures of work and life; on the other hand they continue to do so. The data collected by HNTV shows that nearly two-thirds of their audience are female, among whom 36% are aged from 25 to 34.We can imagine such a scene that one evening a young mother is watching the show with her young children, while her husband is still at work or trapped in socializing, or maybe is just playing computer games in the bedroom. The story of a child without the company of father is still going on. In fact, it is sometimes the same to mothers. In a modern family, it is often the old who take the responsibility of raising a child. The participation of mother in the children’s education is also very low.
It is just this kind of confusion where the parents have gone in the modern family education, and where the parents will guide their children to go that “Where are we going，Dad?” shows us. If a child wants to grow up healthily and safely into a modern citizen with independent personality and free spirit, it is very important for him or her to follow the parents who serve as their first teacher. Maybe this is the real reason why such kind of TV programs could get hot. The truth is that children will go where their parents go; and society will go where the children go. In raising a child in modern society, parents should ________.
| A．play computer games with their children |
| B．keep their children at home to avoid socializing |
| C．balance well between family and career |
| D．break down the barrier between children and teachers |
Which of the following can be inferred in the passage?
| A．Parents shouldn’t entirely leave the education of children to the old. |
| B．36% of the audience of the program are female aged from 25-34. |
| C．The program shows us the confusion where the parents and children will go to play. |
| D．In a modern family it is often mothers who are responsible for raising a child. |
Which one is the best title of the passage?
| A．Confusion Behind “Where are we going, dad?” |
| B．Modern Education is Important |
| C．Nanny Daddy and Cute Kids |
| D．New problems in Modern Children’s Education |
What attitude towards modern family education does the author express in the second paragraph?
| A．Proud. | B．Worried. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Indifferent. |