Why do Chinese people love hot pot so much? As the winter months begin to settle in, I find myself wondering what it is about this traditional meal, which has existed for more than 1. 000 years, that makes it a Chinese food favorite. But it seems that the answer lies beyond the dish itself.
Hot pot isn't just designed to keep you warm during the cold months; it's also a social experience. It's a "theater” cuisine that turns a meal into an event. There is a lot of fun for everyone to have in adding ingredients to the hot pot.
Hot pot is eaten over two to three hours. For this reason, it is often, considered an evening's entertainment, and time to spend with friends and family. However, many westerners would be put off by the idea of other people sticking chopsticks in their food. When we come to eat at the table in the UK, we tend to have our own individual portions （份额）, although the experience is still a social one.
A similar experience to the hot pot one can be found in Korean barbecue restaurants, which let you cook your own meat. This allows people to have their meat done however they want.
For most Westerners, the idea of going to a restaurant to cook their own food is bizarre（古怪的）. But having given hot pot a time, I find it's now one of my favorite meals in Beijing. The steam from the pot left my clothes smelling of food when I got home, but perhaps this is also part of the experience. When the chilly （刺骨的） wind is blowing outside, just grab some chopsticks, some good friends, and dig in. For me it's like throwing a dinner party where my taste buds（味蕾）and my appetite are equally satisfied in the warm company of friends.
| A．it is a fun social experience |
| B．it has been developing for over 1,000 years |
| C．it involves many unique ingredients |
| D．it keeps people warm in winter and it is creative |
| A．prefer a Korean barbecue to Chinese hot pot |
| B．find it interesting to cook their own food in restaurants |
| C．don't like sharing food with others |
| D．don't mind the smell of food staying on their clothes after dinner |
| A．Appreciative | B．Longing |
| C．Humorous. | D．Serious. |
Think of London and you will probably remember the bright red double-decker buses. Think of Thailand’s capital city, Bangkok, and the noisy tuk-tuks may come to mind. Think of San Francisco and you might see the city’s cable cars. 
Imagining what these cities would look like without those is difficult. They are symbols of these cities that make them different. However, these city symbols are not always so well loved by their city leaders. City leaders want what is best for their city, which often means the most modern transport.
In Bangkok, city leaders have banned(禁止)tuk-tuks because they consider them noisy and polluting. However, the ban has largely been unsuccessful as it has not changed Thai people’s love for the cheap tuk-tuks over taxis.
In London the city’s first ever mayor(市长)removed the red double-decker buses, which he thought were old fashioned. His plan worked, but Londoners were unhappy to lose the nice old buses they believed represented the best of their city. They made their unhappiness felt when the mayor came up for re-election. Most Londoners voted for his competitor, who promised to bring the bus back.
As for San Francisco, several cable cars are still in use but mainly as tourist attractions. They are too slow to be used for anything other than scenic trips.
City transport symbols may have a place in their city people’s hearts, but it seems they are increasingly out of step with the modern world. As Londoners have proved, their continued life depends on people’s willingness to fight for their survival. What’s the author’s purpose of writing the first paragraph?
| A．To introduce some city transport symbols. |
| B．To explain why some cities are popular. |
| C．To talk about modern transport in some cities. |
| D．To attract more tourists to visit some cities. |
The London double-decker bus is returning mainly because .
| A．the new mayor loves it |
| B．Londoners fought for it |
| C．it is an improved transport |
| D．it is popular with tourists |
Which proves the old city transport symbols are not loved by city leaders?
| A．Only a few cable cars are still in use in San Francisco. |
| B．Bangkok city leaders tried to remove the cheap tuk-tuks. |
| C．The mayor who sold double-decker buses lost the re-election. |
| D．The new mayor will bring back improved double-decker buses. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Modern cities should remove old city transport symbols. |
| B．The writer thinks highly of the old city transport symbols. |
| C．Old city transport symbols face the problem of survival. |
| D．Tourist cities will lose their attraction without the symbols. |
A. The introduction of Paris
B. The culture of Paris
C. The population growth in Paris
D. The production of Paris
E. The education in Paris
F. The industries in ParisParis, the capital and the largest city of the country, is in north central France. The Paris metropolitan area contains nearly 20% of the nation’s population and is the economic, cultural, and political center of France. The French governments have historically favored the city as the site for all decision-making, thus powerfully attracting nearly all of the nation’s activities.
Paris has grown steadily since it was chosen as the national capital in the late 10th century. With the introduction of the Industrial Revolution, a great number of people moved to the city from the country during the 19th century. The migration was especially stimulated by the construction of railroads, which provided easy access to the capital. After World WarⅡ, more and more immigrants arrived.
The city is the centralized control point of most national radio and television broadcasting. It is a place of publication of the most important newspapers and magazines and an international book publishing center. With more than 100 museums, Paris has truly one of the greatest concentrations of art treasures in the world. The Louvre, opened as a museum in 1793, is one of the largest museums in the world.
In the late 1980s about 4. 1 million pupils annually attended about 47, 000 elementary schools. In addition, about 5. 4 million students attended some 11, 200 secondary schools. Approximately 1. 2 million students were enrolled annually at universities and colleges in France in the late 1980s. French centers of learning have served as academic models throughout the world.
Paris is the leading industrial center of France, with about one quarter of the nation’s manufacturing concentrated in the metropolitan area. Industries of consumers’ goods have always been drawn to Paris by the enormous market of the big population, and modern, high technology industries also have become numerous since World WarⅡ. Chief manufactures are machinery, automobiles, chemicals and electrical equipment.
The Cambodian government says more than 378 people died and hundreds more were injured in a stampede(踩踏)during the celebrations of the annual Water Festival late Monday in Phnom Penh. 
Less than 24 hours after the tragedy(悲剧), Cambodia’s most serious loss of life in decades(十年), the government founded an organization to investigate(调查)how so many died on what was meant to be one of the nation’s most joyous occasions.
Most of the victims(牺牲品)were young people in their teens and twenties. They were some of the estimated(估计)two million who had flooded to Phnom Penh for the Water Festival, which marks the end of the rainy season.
Most suffocated on the bridge, which thousands of people were using to leave Diamond Island, an entertainment(娱乐)area in the middle of the river. Others drowned(溺水)after jumping from the bridge into the water.
Buot Panha, 19, said shortly after 9: 30 on Monday evening he ended up trapped(围困)with his friends in the middle of the bridge, fighting to breathe while terrified people struggled all around him.
Being tall saved his life, since he could stretch(伸出)his neck to take in oxygen(氧气). Shorter people were unable to do that, he says, which may be why two-thirds of the victims were women.
He tried to help a woman who was trapped with two children near him. She was screaming for people to help. Being tall, Buot Panha grabbed(抓住)one child and pushed him above the crowd to help him breathe.
But then some of the young men were told to jump off the bridge into the river to make room. So he handed back the child, squirmed his way to the edge, and jumped.
Some like Buot Panha were fortunate, jumping into the river below and swimming for the shore. But many simply could not move, and died where they lay.
Buot Panha says his first Water Festival will be his last. He vows(发誓)never to come back. The passage is mainly about .
| A．Water Festival celebrations |
| B．a stampede in Cambodia |
| C．a teenager, Buot Panha |
| D．a woman and her children |
What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?
| A．It is the biggest tragedy in decades in Cambodia. |
| B．It is the most serious loss of life in decades in Cambodia. |
| C．The government ordered an investigation. |
| D．Water Festival is Cambodia’s most joyous occasion. |
The underlined word “suffocated” (in Paragraph 4)probably means .
| A．breathed in |
| B．felt uncomfortable |
| C．died from too little oxygen |
| D．left in a hurry |
Which of the following is TRUE about Buot Panha according to the passage?
| A．His being tall saved him in the river. |
| B．He struggled through the crowd to save one child. |
| C．It was his first time to attend the Water Festival alone. |
| D．He will never come back to Phnom Penh for the Water Festival. |
Most tourist destinations around China are witnessing travel peaks during the eight-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that run through Sunday. In Beijing, the Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, attracted 182, 000 tourists on Tuesday, the biggest number on a single day, as millions of visitors arrived in the national capital. “We saw absolutely nothing but people’s heads. ”said Guo Zhijun, 42, of Henan province. “We wanted our 11-year-old son to learn something from the trip, but we only ended up very tired. ”
Earlier, from Sunday noon to midday Monday, garbage collected at Tian’ anmen Square in the heart of the city amounted to 7. 9 tons, a quarter more than that in the same period of last year.
In the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, its top five major tourist sites attracted more than 200, 000 visitors on Tuesday.
Yesterday, thousands of cars jammed two 20-kilometer mountain roads winding to and out of the Lushan Mountain scenic area in the eastern province of Jiangxi. The area, with about 3, 000 car parking spaces, was unable to contain at least 8, 000 inbound cars, said head of the Lushan Mountain public security bureau.
The Lushan Mountain tourism administration temporarily stopped selling entrance tickets to prevent the traffic from growing on Tuesday afternoon. Similar measures could be taken during the rest of the holidays, a police officer said.
Emergency measures have been taken at other scenic sites. Crowded visitors overwhelmed the capacity(承载量)of the cable cars at Huashan Mountain, in Shaanxi province, leaving tens of thousands of stuck at the peak late into Tuesday night. According to China Central Television, restless visitors demanded refunds from the tourism committee, and a lot of visitors had to give up and walk down the mountain.
Chen Li, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department, said on his micro blog that more than 300 policemen and government officials climbed up the mountain to help trapped visitors. Fearing that tourist sites might become too crowded, many people are staying at home, going shopping or making short suburban trips. A resident Mr. Wang in Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, canceled long-distance travel plans after learning of heavy traffic on many highways during the first two days of the holidays. Instead, Mr. Wang, his wife and son went fishing in the suburbs before having a picnic. What happened in the Forbidden City that Tuesday?
| A．There were far more visitors coming than expected. |
| B．A large number of zones were opened to the visitors. |
| C．Over 7. 9 tons of garbage was collected. |
| D．More than 200, 000 visitors gathered there. |
What does the underlined word “overwhelmed” mean in Paragraph 6?
| A．Showed up. | B．Added to. |
| C．Reached beyond. | D．Filled in. |
The writer wrote this article to .
| A．advise traveling to different places to learn something |
| B．warn people not to climb those mountains on holiday |
| C．encourage people to change the travel plans according to the traffic |
| D．suggest we stay at home or go shopping during those holidays |
Which of the following might be the best title?
| A．Experiences from Different Travel Plans |
| B．Travel Peaks in China’s Tourist Sites |
| C．Floods of People to the Forbidden City |
| D．Problems with Traveling on Holiday |
You may be fascinated with pictures of animals in the wild. You might have imagined yourself taking pictures of animals that are rarely seen in the city. If you do get that chance, you may want to consider the following tips or rules. 
First of all, a lot of professional photographers give respect to these animals and the environment they are in. Just remember that you should respect the animals and the environment in case these animals bite or hurt you.
Keep in mind that you are taking pictures of real, live, wild animals. A wild animal may bite to protect itself. You must be sensitive while taking their pictures and be gentle in all your movements. Do not feed the animals, or interact with animals that are sleeping or caring for their young.
If you are going to a place where it is privately(私人)owned, you’d better get the owner’s permission first before you start taking pictures.
Change the flash of your camera to natural light, so the animals will not be frightened or surprised when you start shooting. Animals do not react well when they are surprised.
Be very patient. Make sure you are aware of the changes in behavior of the animal and its moods. Be familiar with the animals’ natural habitat.
Now if those rules are clear, it is time for planning. Consider the weather; some animals do not go out when it is raining while some animals love the rain. Therefore, a little research on the weather will not hurt. You should consider taking pictures after sunrise and before sunset. Now if the animal is nocturnal(夜间活动的), then you should prepare to battle not only the wild but also the darkness.
An adventure in the wild will make you very excited. However, you should be well equipped, have experts to back you up, and also a permit for doing the photo shoot. If you do not have any of these, then maybe you should consider visiting the zoo instead. The main purpose of the author in writing this passage is .
| A．to call for us to protect animals |
| B．to show where to buy pictures of animals |
| C．to explain how to get along with wild animals |
| D．to give us tips on taking pictures of animals in the wild |
Which of the following aspects is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Respecting the animals. |
| B．Making gentle movements. |
| C．Making the animals happy. |
| D．Changing the flash of your camera to natural light. |
If the animals are on a farm owned by a person, we should .
| A．ask the owner to take pictures for us |
| B．ask for the owner’s permission first |
| C．make sure the owner is present when we take pictures |
| D．take pictures when the owner is feeding animals |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．most animals love being taken pictures of |
| B．we have to finish the pictures before sunset |
| C．we’d better take pictures when the animals are sleeping |
| D．we should pay attention to the animals’ moods when taking pictures |
What preparation should you do before going to take pictures of wild animals?
①Preparing some food to feed the animals.
②Asking experts for advice.
③Knowing the weather in the animals’ habitat.
④Getting a permission for taking pictures of wild animals.
| A．①②④ | B．②③④ | C．①②③ | D．①③④ |