Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.
But holidays are expensive and，for those on low wages or living on benefits,theyare often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents，the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks，there is a need to spread this across the year.Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some，this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment.The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large inNottinghamand many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in safeguarding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays，much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK，many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a fiveterm year，Nottingham City Council(委员会)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a twoweek break.We believe this will give real “down time” for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff，particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.The passage is probably written by ________.
| A．an experienced teacher |
| B．a working parent |
| C．an inspired student |
| D．a city council member |
The underlined word “they” in the second paragraph refers to “________”．
| A．environments |
| B．holidays |
| C．wages |
| D．benefits |
It is suggested in the passage that the summer break be reduced to ________.
| A．2 weeks |
| B．4.5 weeks |
| C．5 weeks |
| D．6 weeks |
The plans for a shorter summer holiday will help students ________.
| A．obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs |
| B．get a chance to spend six weeks a term with teachers in school |
| C．benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment |
| D．have more school days to receive free school meals |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．working parents can enjoy a fiveweek break to care for their children |
| B．the suggested plans for a fiveterm school year can hardly be carried out |
| C．the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real “down time” |
| D．some school staff will say “No” to the plans for a shorter summer holiday |
The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.
When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country's rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.
With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.
When movies began to be popular in the 1920s,the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.
Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade's “Cowboy Craze”.While this didn't last long, it made modern country/western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.
In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing—somewhere between ballad singing country boy and barroom fighter—there's one thing for sure, you can't keep the cowboy down. During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, _______.
| A．the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales |
| B．the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East |
| C．cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen |
| D．country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country |
By saying “you can't keep the cowboy down”,the writer means that _______.
| A．cowboys are real people in history | B．cowboys still fascinate people |
| C．you can't make cowboys unhappy | D．you can't grasp the cowboy spirit |
Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?
| A．The cowboy has been presented in different lights in different eras. |
| B．Cowboys are gun-shooting hooligans, without doubt. |
| C．Cowboys have always been a passing phenomenon. |
| D．Cowboys enjoy Italian foods, for example, spaghetti. |
If you've been joining in chat room conversations, or trading e-mail with Web pals, you have become one of the millions who write in a peculiarly short form of English.
And you've got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF(="sense" of humor failure) to describe Internet newcomers who don't understand you.
Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are “talking” online—many of them are talking at the same time.
It's fast: try talking to six people at once. It's brief: three or four words per exchange. It takes wit, concentration, and quick fingers.
And it requires tremendous linguistic economy. There's neither time nor space for explanations. Why consume precious key-strokes telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB(="be" right back) will do? Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI(="pardon" me for jumping in). Interested in whom you're talking to? Type A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal's age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal.
If something makes you laugh, say you're OTF(="on" the floor),or LOL(="laughing" out loud),or combine the two into ROTFL(="rolling" on the floor laughing).
And when it's time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG(="got" to go) or TTYL(talk to you later).
People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters are left in the dust, except when expressing emotion, as it takes more time to hold down the “shift” key and capitals. Punctuation is going, too. In order to talk to several people at the same time on the Internet_______.
| A．you have to speak fast and fluently |
| B．you have to express your ideas in a brief way |
| C．you should speak with wit and humor |
| D．one should pay much attention to the accuracy of the words |
If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, it means_______.
| A．the person on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine |
| B．you are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York |
| C．you are talking to 17 girls who are from New York |
| D．the person who are talking to you is a 1.7-foot tall New York girl |
To save time on the Internet_______.
| A．some people leave their letters in the dustbin |
| B．some people never use “shift” in their writing |
| C．many people leave the capital and punctuation |
| D．people seldom use capital letters or punctuation |
Methods of training animals have changed greatly in recent years. Zoo keepers have always had problems getting the animals to leave their cages in order for the cages to be cleaned, and also training them to move indoors when appropriate. Another problem was that many of the large animals became listless and bored. In the last twenty years, scientists have done research on dolphins and whales, training them to obey commands. The scientists found they could get animals to obey by rewarding them with food and affection when they responded correctly.
Proper training allows the animals to receive the care they need. It was very difficult to get untrained animals, especially the larger ones, to stay still when they needed medical attention. Now they can be trained, on command, to remain still and even to allow blood samples to be taken and shots administered. All this is accomplished through positive reinforcement, without the use of any force. Affection training, as this process is called, has been used with great success on a wide variety of zoo animals. Animal behavior experts have taught zoo keepers to train bears, tigers, monkeys, and many other species to behave in a way that provides for better animal-keeper interaction. This training also keeps the animals from becoming bored and inactive.
Although some people proclaim(谴责) that this training is inhumance and cruel to animals, results have shown that captive(猎获的)animals who previously were not doing well flourish under the new training procedures.The word “listless” means _______.
| A．countless | B．obedient |
| C．inactive | D．mysterious |
Which of the following is valid conclusion based on this passage?
| A．It is safe to pet any animal. |
| B．Many animals respond favorably to rewards and affection. |
| C．Animals in the wild can be trained. |
| D．Animals should not be kept in zoos. |
The writer's purpose is to _______.
| A．persuade people not to feed animals in the zoo |
| B．show how easy it is to train animals |
| C．explain method of training animals through rewards |
| D．criticize zoo keepers |
Which of the following is an opinion?
| A．Zoo keepers had problems in getting animals to leave their cages. |
| B．Training is cruel to animals. |
| C．Animals obey commands if they are trained to do so. |
| D．Many animals can be trained, on commands, to remain still. |
A weather map is an important tool for geographers. A succession of three or four maps presents a continuous picture of weather changes. Weather forecasters are able to determine the speed of air masses and fronts. They are also able to determine whether an air mass is retaining its original characteristics or taking on those of the surface over which it is moving. Thus, a most significant function of the map is to reveal an synoptic picture(气象图) of conditions in the atmosphere at a given time.
All students of geography should to interpret a weather map accurately. Weather maps contain an enormous amount of information about weather conditions existing at the time of observation over a large geographical area. They reveal in a few minutes what otherwise would take hours to describe. The United States Weather Bureau issues information about approaching storms, floods, frosts, droughts and all climate conditions in general. Twice a month it issues a 30-day “outlook” which is a rough guide to weather conditions likely to occur over broad areas of the United States. These outlooks are based on an analysis of the upper air levels.
With the use of electronic instruments and satellites, enormous gains have taken place recently in identifying and tracking storms over regions which have but few meteorological stations(气象站).Experiments are also in progress for weather modification studies, although few successful results such as artificial rainmaking have been achieved so far.Which is not mentioned in this passage in the following about one characteristic of weather?
| A．Fronts. | B．Temperature change. | C．Wind speed. | D．Frost. |
The observation of weather conditions by satellites is advantageous because
_______.
| A．it is modern and sophisticated |
| B．it used electronic instruments |
| C．it enables man to alter the weather |
| D．it gives the scientists information not obtained readily otherwise |
The word “interpret” in Paragraph 2 most probably means _______
| A．explain | B．present | C．modify | D．illustrate |
In Europe people hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right throughout the meal, a system that is generally agreed to be more efficient than the American zigzag（曲折的）method. Americans hold both the fork and the knife in their right hands throughout the meal, so they continually change their forks to the left hand when they have to cut their meat. It seems to be funny for the Europeans to see Americans busy changing their dinner sets, making a lot of noises. A few explanations for this American style are as follows:
(1)Americans are practical and efficient. Since most of us are right-handed, it is reasonable to keep our working tools at all times in the right hand that can use them most efficiently.
(2)Americans, the master of the New World are rebels（叛逆者）.They use the zigzag method to break the rules in the Old World and in this way they are thumbing their nose at Mother England. Americans are a restless kind. They do not like to sit in one spot for very long when dining.
(3)Forced to do so, they respond by “playing” with the silver.
Whatever the reason for the practice, it is now certainly as American as apple pie. Europeans recognize this and are quick to attack it as evidence of American innocence（无知）of form. Arguments against the zigzag method rest not only on grounds of efficiency but also on those of tradition. In Old World dining, the knife is held in the right hand continually because it can serve as an instant defense against the uninvited intruders（入侵者）.However, such alertness（警觉） is out of place in the New World, as every American believes that this is the home of the brave. Americans juggle their silverware, perhaps, to show that they are not afraid and that one of them holding a fork is worth any number of them holding blades（刀）.Americans use _______ to hold their fork to pick up the salad.
| A．the right hand | B．the left hand |
| C．both hands | D．either of the two hands |
As the masters of the New World, Americans use a different cutting method from that in the Old World to _______.
| A．show their independence of Mother England |
| B．show their disrespect to Mother England |
| C．add a new tradition to those in Mother England |
| D．show off their creativeness to Mother England |
In the sentence, the word “juggle” probably means _______.
| A．hold | B．play with | C．pick up | D．lay down |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．European people hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand. |
| B．The zigzag eating method is related to American characteristics. |
| C．The zigzag eating method has become an American feature. |
| D．European people will use the American method because of its efficiency. |