Theslaverydrama12YearsaSlavewo-优题课

Can trees talk? Yes — but not in words. Scientists have reason to believe that trees do
communicate with each other. Not long ago, researchers learned some surprising things. First a willow tree attacked in the woods by caterpillars（毛毛虫）changed the chemistry of its leaves and made them taste so terrible that they got tired of the leaves and stopped eating them. Then even more astonishing, the tree sent out a special vapor—a signal causing its neighbors to change the chemistry of their own leaves and make them less tasty.
Communication, of course, does not need to be in words. We can talk each other by smiling, raising our shoulders and moving our hands. We know that birds and animals use a whole vocabulary of songs, sounds, and movements. Bees dance their signals, flying in certain patterns that tell other bees where to find nectar for honey. So why shouldn’t trees have ways of sending messages?
1．It can be inferred from the passage that caterpillars do not feed on leaves that .
A．have an unpleasant taste
B．are lying on the ground
C．have an unfamiliar shape
D．bees don’t like
2．According to the passage, the willow tree was able to communicate with each other by .
A．waving its branches B．giving off a special vapor
C．dropping its leaves D．changing the color of its trunk
3．According to the passage, bees communicate by .
A．touching one another B．smiling one another
C．making special movement D．making unusual sound
4．The author believes that the incident described in the passage .
A．cannot be taken seriously B．seems completely reasonable
C．should no longer be permitted D．must be checked more thorough

The Migration of Birds
Here is a scientific experiment on the homing of birds, the fact of which are quite certain. A few years ago seven swallows were caught near their nests at Bremen in Germany. They were marked with a red dye on some of their white feathers, so that they could easily been seen. Then they were taken by plane to Croydon, near London. This is a distance of 400 miles.
Then the seven swallows were set free at Croydon. Five of them flew back to their nests at Bremen. How did the birds find their way on that long journey, which they had never made before? That is the great puzzle. It is no good saying that the swallows have a sense of direction. These are just words and explain nothing. We want to know exactly what senses the animals use to find their way, how they know in which direction to go until they can see familiar landmarks. Unfortunately practically no scientific experiments have yet been made on this question.
Perhaps migrating birds are the greatest mystery of all. Swallows leave England in August and September, and they fly to Africa, where they stay during our winter. The swallows return to England in the late summer for the south. A lot has been found about the journeys of migrating birds by marking the birds with aluminum rings put on one leg. An address and a number is put on the ring.
Swallows from England go as far as South Africa and as many as fourteen birds, marked with rings in England, have been caught again in South Africa. From England to South Africa is a journey of 6,000 miles. And the birds not only return from Africa to England next spring, but often they come back to the nests in the very same house where they nested the year before.
17．The seven swallows were marked on some of their feathers because .
A．they would be taken away by plane
B．they would be free in London
C．Croydon was 400 miles away
D．they could easily be seen for the red colour
18．Which of the following is true? .
A．Seientists have found why the animals can see their nests.
B．No one knows why the swallows can fly back to their familiar landmarks.
C．It’s very simple that the birds use sense of direction.
D．Many experiments have been made on how birds can fly their way home
19．Swallows like to spend ”our winter” in .
A．England B．London C．Africa D．Germany
20．When do the birds return from South Africa to England every year?
A．summer B．spring C．winter D．Both A and B

Husband and wife by Arrangement
Some Japanese still get married by parents’ arrangement. Yoshio and Hiromi Tanaka, a young Japanese couple living in the United States, told the story of their arranged marriage. “We didn’t marry for love in the western sense. We got married in the traditional Japanese way. Our parents arranged our marriage through a matchmaker（媒人）. In Japan we believe that marriage is something affecting the whole family rather than a matter concerning only the young couple. So we think it is very important to match people according to their social background, education and so on. When our parents thought it was time for us to get married, they went to a local matchmaker and asked her for some suggestions. We discuss the details and looked at the photos she sent, and then our parents asked her to arrange a marriage interview for the two of us.
A Japanese marriage interview is held in a public place, such as a hotel or a restaurant, and is attended by the boy and the girl, their parents and the matchmaker. Information about the couple and their families is exchanged over a cup of tea or a meal. Then the boy and the girl are left alone for a short time to get to know each other. When they returned home they have to tell the matchmaker whether they want to meet again or not.
Yoshio continued, “When our parents realized we were serious about each other, they started to make arrangements for our wedding. My family paid the marriage money to Hiromi’s. This is money to help pay for the wedding ceremony and for setting up the house afterwards. We also gave her family a beautiful ornament to put in the best room of their house, so everyone knew that Hiromi was going to marry.”
13．The Japanese think of the marriage of a young couple as .
A．a sign showing the love between them
B．an opportunity for their parents to show their love for their children
C．a private affair for the boy and the girl
D．an important matter having influence on the whole family
14．In arranging a marriage in Japan, the matchmaker plays all of the following roles except .
A．making arrangements for the wedding
B．providing the information the family need
C．arranging the marriage interview
D．attending the marriage interview
15．According to the passage, the best time to make arrangement for the wedding is .
A．when the young couple agree to meet again
B．when the young couple are sincere about their relation
C．when the parents think it is time for their children to get married.
D．when the parents are well-informed about each other’s family
16．According to the passage, what plays the most important role in the matching of young people in Japan? .
A．Their parents’ attitude B．Their family background
C．Their occupationD．Their love for each other

Culture is one of the most challenging elements of the international marketplace. This system of learned behavior patterns characteristic of the members of a given society is constantly shaped by a set of dynamic variables: language, religion, values and attitudes, manners and customs, aesthetics, technology, education, and social institutions.』① To cope with this system, an international manager needs both factual and interpretive knowledge of culture. To some extent, the factual knowledge can be learned; its interpretation comes only through experience.
　　The most complicated problems in dealing with the cultural environment stem from the fact that one cannot learn culture—one has to live it. Two schools of thought exist in the business world on how to deal with cultural diversity. One is that business is business the world around, following the model of Pepsi and McDonald’s. In some cases, globalization is a fact of life; however, cultural differences are still far from converging.
　　The other school proposes that companies must tailor business approaches to individual cultures. Setting up policies and procedures in each country has been compared to an organ transplant; the critical question centers around acceptance or rejection. The major challenge to the international manager is to make sure that rejection is not a result of cultural myopia or even blindness.
　　Fortune examined the international performance of a dozen large companies that earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas. The internationally successful companies all share an important quality: patience. They have not rushed into situations but rather built their operations carefully by following the most basic business principles. These principles are to know your adversary, know your audience, and know your customer.
8. According to the passage, which of the following is true?
　A. All international managers can learn culture.
　B. Business diversity is not necessary.
　C. Views differ on how to treat culture in business world.
　Ｄ. Most people do not know foreign culture well.
9. According to the author, the model of Pepsi .
　Ａ. is in line with the theories of the school advocating the business is business the world around
　Ｂ. is different from the model of McDonald’s
　Ｃ. shows the reverse of globalization
　Ｄ. has converged cultural differences
10. The two schools of thought .
　　Ａ. both propose that companies should tailor business approaches to individual cultures
　　Ｂ. both advocate that different policies be set up in different countries
　　Ｃ. admit the existence of cultural diversity in business world
　　Ｄ. Both Ａ and Ｂ
11. This article is supposed to be most useful for those .
　　A. who are interested in researching the topic of cultural diversity
　 B. who have connections to more than one type of culture
　　C. who want to travel abroad
　　D. who want to run business on International Scale
12. According to Fortune, successful international companies .
　Ａ. earn 20 percent or more of their revenue overseas
　Ｂ. all have the quality of patience
　Ｃ. will follow the overseas local cultures
　　Ｄ. adopt the policy of internationalization

　 Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.
Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact and build relationship. These are a few of recently recognized features of email, say experts, that should cause individual and organizations to rethink the way they use email.
“Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits, ”says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect a growing unconcern to the way we write.
Baron argues that we should not forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in emails. “ The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.
Others say that despite its poor prose(文字), email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.
“Email is a critical new communication technology,” says Ian Lancashire, a University of Toronto professor of English.“It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”
Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech.“ It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says.
Still, he accepts that this newfound freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble.“Almost everyday I get emails that apologies of previous emails,” he reports.
In the US, the number of emails sent in a day exceeds(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.
5.The passages mainly shows us that .
A people should stop using email to communicate
B experts hold different opinions about email
C Americans only use email to communicate
D email makes people lose interest in English
6. In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because_____.
A. it can be used all over the world
B. it is the fastest way to communicate
C. we can express ourselves in a free way
D. we can save a lot of paper
7. Which of the following is NOT true about email?
A. It is changing the way of communication.
B. It is used more than letters in the US.
C. It helps us write better.
D. It causes us to write more.

A．GeminiJef and Pauljohnson	B．Pauljohnson and Dominionator
C．GeminiJef and Dominionator	D．Pauljohnson and Apols