In Canada and the United States, people enjoy entertaining (请客) at home. They often invite friends over for a meal, a party or just for coffee and conversation (谈话).
Here are the kinds of things people say when they invite someone to their homes:
“Would you like to come over for dinner this Saturday night?” “Hey, we’re having a party on Friday. Can you come?”
To reply (回答) to an invitation , either say ‘thank you’ and accept (接受), or say you’re sorry and give an excuse. “Thanks, I’d love to. What time would you like me to come?” or “Oh, sorry . I’ve tickets for a movie.”
Sometimes, however, people use expressions (习惯用语) that sound like invitations but which are not real invitations . For example; “Please come over for a drink sometime.” “Why not get together for a party sometime?” “Why don’t you come over and see us sometime soon?”
They are really just polite ways of ending a conversation. They are not real invitations because they don’t mention (提到) a certain time or date. They just show that the person is trying to be friendly. To reply to expressions like these, people just say “Sure, that would be great!” or “OK. Yes, thanks.”
So next time when you hear what sounds like an invitation, listen carefully. Is it a real invitation or is the person just being friendly?
Title: Real or not
Situations |
Answers |
Canadians and Americans often invite friends for |
Because they |
Someone says “I’ve two movie tickets, |
You want to go, and your answer should be “Thanks, I’d |
Someone invites you to dinner, but doesn’t mention the time or the |
You’d better answer “Sure, that would be |
They really mean to be |
|
So remember, next time when you hear something that sounds like an invitation, you should listen |
阅读理解A
Welcome to this short tour of London. In this square we are standing in the middle of London. Opposite 对面) is the National Gallery, a museum with lots of famous paintings. Go along the red street to Buckingham Palace. The queen (后) lives here.
Turn left and go to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Opposite you can see the London Eye. It takes you 135 meters above the River Thames. You can see most of London on a clear day.
When you are tired, the best way to see London is by boat. You can get the boat near Big Ben. As you go along the river, the London Eye is on your right, near the Railway Bridge.
Get off the boat at Tower Bridge. Then you can see the Tower of London next to the bridge. The Tower of London is the city’s oldest palace. It is nine hundred years old.
Take the boat back along the river. Get off the boat and go past the station and walk along the street. Opposite is the old fruit and vegetable market. They don’t sell fruit and vegetables now. There are stores and restaurants, and lots of street musicians. Turn left into King’s Street, and go past the church. You’re now back where you started, at the square. Now you finish your tour.If you go to visit the National Gallery, what will you find?
A.lots of lovely animals | B.lots of valuable plants |
C.lots of famous paintings | D.lots of interesting books |
Where can you get the boat?
A.Near Buckingham Palace. | B.Near Big Ben. |
C.Near Tower Bridge. | D.Near King’s Street. |
______ is London’s oldest palace.
A.The Tower of London | B.The National Gallery |
C.Buckingham Palace | D.The Houses of Parliament |
______ is the London Eye.
You will not go past ______ on your way back.
A.the station | B.the square |
C.the park | D.the church |
Look at the center circles of Diagram(图)A and Diagram B. Which of the centre circles looks larger?
Take a first look and you probably think that the centre circle in Diagram A is smaller than that in Diagram B. In fact, they are exactly the same size.
Then look at the picture on the left. What do you see? A vase? Or two faces?Does the picture change quickly from one to the other again and again? Maybe or maybe not, but you can never see them at the same time.
“What’s happening? Is something wrong with my eyes?” You may wonder at what you see. Don’t worry. Here is how it goes:
When we look at things, our eyes send messages to our brains and then our brains interpret(解读)the information. However, sometimes our brains interpret the received information in a wrong way. It seems that our eyes are playing a joke on us. This often happens and we call it “Visual illusion(视觉错误).
Movie makers often make use of illusions. They make the objects around actors much smaller or bigger than usual. This makes us believe that the actors are much larger or smaller than they usually are. The movies Jurassic Park and Honey I shrunk the kids just make use of illusions. Why does the centre circle in Diagram A look smaller than that in Diagram B?
A.something is wrong with our eyes |
B.the two circles are not the same size |
C.our brains interpret the information in a wrong way |
D.the two pictures change quickly from one to the other |
What’s the right order according to the passage?
a. We look at things with our eyes.
b. Our brains interpret the messages.
c. Our brains tell us what we have seen.
d. Our eyes send messages to our brains.
A.a-c-d-b | B.c-a-b-d | C.a-d-b-c | D.b-c-a-d |
What do movie makers make use of visual illusions for ?
A.To help the actors look better. |
B.To make the actors much braver. |
C.To help the actors become stronger. |
D.To make the actors seem different in size. |
In the picture on the right, it seems that Line AB is shorter than Line CD, but in fact Line AB is as long as Line CD. Which paragraph can explain what has happened to our eyes?
A. The second one. B. The third one.
C. The fifth one. D. The sixth one.Which magazine is the text probably taken from?
A.Art world | B.Amazing Science |
C.Health and Medicine | D.Daily news |
The BBC was founded in 1922, including radio and television services. It is based at Broadcasting House in London.
The BBC is controlled by some governors chosen by the government, but these people have complete freedom and the government can’t interfere. That is to say, the BBC is not the voice of the government. It has to be as fair as possible in giving radio and television time to, for example, political parties and religious groups.
There is a kind of interesting services in Britain--- rental services. Many people prefer to rent their television sets instead of buying them.
The rent for a black-white set is about 80 pence a week (in 1980). The rent of a color set is more than twice that of a black-white set. If the sets go wrong, people can have them mended free of charge or replaced at once.
Everyone who owns or rents a television set has to pay a yearly license. There is no advertising on BBC radio or television. It is from the sale of license that the BBC gets most of its money. A license for a black-white set cost 8 pounds, and for a color set 18 pounds a year.
There are four specialized radio channels, which broadcast different kinds of programs. Radio 1 is mainly pop music. Radio 2 is about light music, sports and other programs. Radio 3 broadcasts serious music, talks on serious subjects, etc. news broadcasts are mainly given by radio 4.
There are special programs for Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and certain parts of England. It also broadcasts programs about Britain--- in many different languages as well as in English to all parts of the world. The officials in charge of the BBC _________________.
A.must stay what the government wants to say |
B.should give more time to political parties than to religious groups |
C.are elected by the citizens from all over the country |
D.can decide things without the permission for the government |
How does the BBC get most of its money?
A.It gets money from all kinds of advertisements |
B.The BBC depends on the rent of TV sets |
C.The BBC gets money by mending TV sets that have gone wrong |
D.It gets its money mainly by selling license |
If he wants to watch TV at home, everyone____________.
A.has to buy a television set of his own |
B.must rent a TV set |
C.has to buy a license once a year |
D.can change his broken TV set for a new one without pay |
Which of the following is NOT true?
A.The BBC radio services includes 4 radio channels. |
B.The BBC broadcasts to foreign countries only in English. |
C.The programs of the four radio channels are not the same. |
D.The BBC special programs are not only for foreign countries but also for different areas in its own country. |
Here’s a test for young students each week. Here below is Frank’s completed test this week.
Weekly Test 1. I prefer to spend my spare time q(a) with my family þ (b) with my friends q (c) on my own. 2 If I have a problem, I prefer to þ (a) talk to my parents than to my friends. q (b) talk to my friends than to my family. q (c) solve it on my own. 3. I prefer to study q (a) at home with my family around. q (b) with my friends. þ (c) on my own. 4. For my birthday I would prefer to q (a) be with my family q (b)have a party with lots of friends. þ (c) go out with just my best friend. ·You get 1 point for each(a), 2 for each(b), and 3 for each(c) ·Go and find out what your score means on the right! |
Scores and their meanings: 4-6: Your family is very important to you. You enjoy being with friends but your family comes first. You are kind and always think more of others. 7-9: You have lots of friends and like to have fun. You are close to your family but your friends are quite important to you, too. You are easy-going and generous. 10-12: You probably have one or two close friends, but you’d rather relax with a good book than go to a party. You are confident and like to do things for yourself. ·You can e-mail us at weeklytest@teens.com and tell us whether your result has described a REAL you. |
How many points did Frank get in the week’s test?
A.8 | B.9 | C.10 | D.11 |
From Frank’s result, we may know that .
A.he has many friends and they are the most important to him. |
B.his family comes first although he loves being with friends |
C.both his family and his friends are very important to him |
D.he is a confident young student with only a few close friends |
We can probably find the test in a __________.
A.tourist guide | B.Teens newspaper |
C.science magazine | D.story book |
A short Chinese man seems to be the tallest in the world right now. Jack Ma (Ma Yun), 50, is executive chairman (董事局主席) of Alibaba(阿里巴巴) Group. On Sept 19, Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange (纽约证券交易所), raising $25 billion through an IPO (首次公开发行股票), the biggest in US history. Ma, a former English teacher, has become the richest man on the Chinese mainland.
Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Ma grew up as a happy kid. At the age of 12, he wanted to learn English. Every morning, he woke up at 5 am, cycled 40 minutes to a hotel near the West Lake where he could chat to foreign tourists. He did it for nine years, rain or shine.
In a 1995 trip to the US, Ma was showed the Internet for the first time. He searched Yahoo using the word “Beer”, and found that there was nothing in there about China. Seeing the chance, Ma returned to China and set up a website called China Pages without even knowing much about computers.
Four years later, 18 people including Ma, his wife and his friends founded Alibaba in Hangzhou. He believed in the Internet business potential (潜力) when few other Chinese did. Now, Alibaba has developed into the world’s largest e-commerce (电子商务) company, owning popular shopping websites like Taobao and Tmall. It makes more profit than Amazon and e-Bay combined. We can tell from the first paragraph that _____.
A.Ababa Group is the biggest company in China |
B.Alibaba’s IPO has raised $25 billion |
C.Jack Ma used to be a math teacher |
D.Jack Ma is the richest man in the world |
When did Ma and his team found Alibaba?
A.In 1995. | B.In 1998. |
C.In 1999. | D.In 2014. |
Which is the world’s largest e-commerce company?
A.Alibaba. | B.Taobao. | C.Amazon. | D.e-Bay. |