When tea was first brought to England between 1652 and 1654, it was so expensive that only the rich could buy it. It was said that an old couple had some sent to them as a great treat. But they did not know how it ought to be used. Eventually they boiled the leaves, put some of them on a piece of bacon for dinner, ate the leaves, and threw the tea soup away. However, tea quickly proved popular enough to replace ale（麦芽酒）as the national drink of England after King Charles II and his Portuguese wife began to follow this foreign tea tradition.
Before the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals — breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread and beef. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day. It was no wonder that Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788 — 1861) experienced a “sinking feeling” in the late afternoon. So she invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o’clock in her castle. The menu centered around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, and, of course, tea. This summer practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking the fields”.
The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses. A common pattern of service soon came into practice. The first pot of tea was made in the kitchen and carried to the lady of the house who waited with her invited guests, surrounded by fine porcelain（瓷器）from China. The first pot was warmed by the hostess from a second pot (usually silver) that was kept heated over a small flame. Food and tea was then passed among the guests, the main purpose of the visiting being conversation.The story of the old couple in Paragraph 1 is to show ____________.
| A．how impolite the old couple were |
| B．how English people cooked tea |
| C．how difficult it was to introduce tea to England |
| D．how little English people knew about tea in those days |
The underlined phrase “sinking feeling” in Paragraph 2 refers to a feeling of ____________.
| A．hunger | B．loneliness |
| C．thirst | D．anger |
According to the passage, the key factors of a typical afternoon tea include ____________.
a. cakes and bread
b. a massive meal
c. tea d. ale
e. fine porcelain
f. silver tea pot
g. a small flame
| A．a, b, c, d, f | B．a, c, e, f, g |
| C．a, b, e, f, g | D．a, c, d, e, g |
We can know from the passage that afternoon tea ____________.
| A．leads to the wide planting and large production of tea in England |
| B．helps bring King Charles II and his wife together in their childhood |
| C．is not only an additional afternoon meal but helps bring people together |
| D．contributes to the increasingly high price of tea and porcelain in England |
IN the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen’s apple and falls victim to a curse; in Shakespeare’s novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pills that contained mercury, believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.
Poison has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?
An exhibition, The Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison. The exhibition will continue until Aug 2014, reported The New York Times.
The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars, frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren’t much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered in a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.
The exhibition also features interactive activities. In an iPad-based game, visitors are presented with three puzzling illnesses and asked to identify the poisons based on symptoms. In one case, for example, a pet dog is found sick in a backyard and visitors have to figure out whether it was the toad (蟾蜍), the leaky batteries in the trash or the dirty pond water that did it.
“Poisons can be bad for some things,” Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. “Yet they can also be good for others.”
This is what visitors learn from the last part of the exhibition, which displays how poisons can be used favorably by humans, including for medical treatment.
The blood toxins of vampire bats, for example, can prevent blood from clotting (凝结), which may protect against strokes. A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol. One chemical in the venom of Gila monsters can lower the blood sugar of its victims, so it has been used to treat diabetes.
The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances that we regularly take in – chili, coffee and chocolate, etc. – owe their special flavors or stimulating effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects.By mentioning Snow White and Romeo at the beginning of the story, the author intends to.
| A．show that poison has long been involved in literature |
| B．show that poison is always linked with evil and death |
| C．draw readers’ attention to the topic of the article |
| D．get readers to think of more examples of the use of poison in stories |
What is the main purpose of the exhibition The Power of Poison?
| A．To give people more in-depth knowledge about poison. |
| B．To teach people how to handle poisonous animals. |
| C．To inform people about which animals are the most poisonous. |
| D．To show how poison has been used for medical treatment. |
Which of the following statements about the exhibition is TRUE according to the article?
| A．The exhibition will lead visitors to a real rainforest. |
| B．Golden poison frogs are the most poisonous animals on display. |
| C．Those who visit the exhibition can join in some iPad-based interactive games. |
| D．Visitors can listen to lectures on recent studies of poisonous animals. |
Harvard University in the United States has been ranked as the university with the best "reputation" in the world.
The Times Higher Education magazine has listed 200 top universities all over the world based on how they are regarded by a group of international college teachers. That is to say the list measures how universities are regarded, rather than how they actually performed.
A subjective, word-of-mouth（口碑的）quality such as "reputation" has genuine economic value for universities, said Simon Marginson, professor of higher education at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
"Reputation is not just an impression, though it might be not as reliable as performance by objective indicators（客观指标）," said Prof Marginson.
Based on the views of 13,000 college teachers around the world, it confirms the power of the big US universities, which dominate this list. Seven of the top 10 are US universities, headed by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Furthermore, 14 of the top 20 are from the US. Cambridge is the highest ranking UK university in the list, in third place, with Oxford ranked as sixth.
For students applying to university, reputation might be hard to quantify, but was an important part of the attractiveness, said the president of Cambridge University's students' union, Rahul Mansigani.
"Reputation makes a huge difference. If there is an idea that somewhere is great, it will get lots of good people applying whether it's true or not. Factors such as a sense of history and the presence of outstanding college teachers were part of the reputation of Cambridge," he said. The underlined word “dominate” in Paragraph 5 probably means __________.
| A． affect | B． decide |
| C． control | D． improve |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．No Asian universities are among the Top 10. |
| B．At least five UK universities are among Top 20. |
| C．The Times Higher Education magazine is from the US. |
| D．Reputation affects students’ decisions when choosing universities. |
Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Turning ideas into reputation |
| B．World’s best universities ranked in order of reputation |
| C．The top 200 universities in the USA |
| D．Reputable Universities attractive to more students |
Whatsonstage.com is the UK’s biggest and best online guide to the performing arts including theatre, opera, classical music, dance and so on.
◆The Lion King
Musical: The stage adaptation of the Disney film taken from an original African story. A young lion grows up and learns that taking over the pride requires wisdom and maturity(成熟).
Place: Lyceum Theatre, Wellington Street, London
Telephone: 0870 243 9000
Date: Friday, 18 Nov. 2013
Ticket price:￡37.5
◆Oliver
Musical: Dickens’ story of a boy in a London workhouse and his adventures on the way to discovering his family. The songs include Food glorious food, You’ve got to pick a pocket or two， Who will buy this wonderful morning，I am reviewing the situation and Consider yourself at home.
Place: Theatre Royal, Catherine Street, London
Telephone: 020 7494 5061
Date: Thursday, 17 Nov. 2013
Ticket price: ￡25 but now save 20%
◆Jersey Boys
Musical: It tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: the blue-collar kids from New Jersey formed a singing group and became famous. The musical features many of the group’s popular songs such as Big girls don’t cry, Oh, What a night and Can’t take my eyes off you.
Place: Prince Edward Theatre, Old Compton Street, London
Telephone: 0870 850 9191
Date: Saturday, 9 Nov. 2013
Ticket price:￡22.5
◆All’s Well That Ends Well
Play: A romantic story. Helena, daughter of a poor physician, loves Bertram, son of a Countess(女伯爵).
Place: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Park Street, London
Telephone: 020 7401 9919
Date: Sunday, 20 Nov. 2013
Ticket price: ￡40.5 If Mary is available on Friday, which of the following should she call to buy a ticket?
| A． 0870 850 9191 | B． 020 7494 5061 |
| C． 0870 243 9000 | D． 020 7401 9919 |
If you want to buy a ticket at a discount, you should go to __________.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre B. Theatre Royal
C. Prince Edward Theatre D. Lyceum Theatre
THIS is an excerpt（摘录）from therapist Laura Trice’s speech at TED in 2008:
Hi. I'm here to talk to you about the importance of praise, admiration and “thank you”s, and making them specific and genuine.
The way I got interested in this was, I noticed that when I was growing up, and until about a few years ago, I would want to say thank you to someone. I would want to praise them. I would want to take in their praise of me and then I'd just stop myself. I asked myself: why? I felt shy. I felt embarrassed. And then my question became: am I the only one who does this? So I decided to study that question.
I'm fortunate enough to work in a rehab facility, so I get to see people who are facing life and death with addiction. Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as their core wound is how their father died without ever saying he's proud of them. But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybody else that he was proud, but he never told the son. It's because he didn't know that his son needed to hear it.
I used to take my bike into the bike store and they'd do something called "truing（校正）" the wheels. The guy said: "You know, when you true the wheels, it's going to make the bike so much better." I get the same bike back, and they'd have taken all the little warps out of those same wheels I've had for two and a half years, and my bike would feel like new. So, I'm going to challenge all of you. I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to hear. What do you need to hear? Go home to your wife and ask her: “What do you need?” Go home to your husband and ask him what he needs. Go home and ask those questions and then help the people around you.
It's simple. But why should we care about this? We talk about world peace. How can we have world peace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts in each of our households. So, let's make things right in our own backyards.Why did Laura mention truing the wheels of her bike in the speech?
To thank the staff of the bike shop.
To show the importance of praise and admiration.
To advise readers to get their bike wheels trued, too.
To remind readers to renew their relationships with the people around them.The purpose of the speech is most likely to ___________.
| A． surprise | B． persuade |
| C． describe | D． entertain |
Fahad Azad, an engineer in India, invented a robot named DuctBot．The toy-car sized DuctBot measured 23 centimeters in length, 19 centimeters in width and 9 centimeters in height and weighs just two kilograms．
The robot is designed to snake through dark, narrow air conditioning ducts （管道） and clean them．A pair of LEDs fitted on the robot light up the dirty scenery, so it can be captured （抓拍） by a camera．
In order to control it more easily, Mr. Azad chooses to fix DuctBot on wheels．The robot can clean off lots of dirt, as well as dead pigeons and insects．Keeping indoor air in good quality and monitoring carbon-dioxide levels in buildings with central air conditioning is a challenge．It is important in some places where clean air can mean a difference between life and death, such as hospitals．Dirty air has a bad influence on people's health．
EPSCO, a Dubai-based company which specializes in improving indoor air quality, read about Mr. Azad's invention in a national newspaper after he had won an international robotics competition．EPSCO had cleaning equipment, but it needed someone to get into those ducts to do the dirty, dangerous work．Across India, for example, the task still falls to children．They are small enough to go through those ducts．
In 2005, Mr. Azad who was still at university decided to do something about it．Six years later his own company, Robosoft Systems, has Bluestar, EPSCO and the Indian Navy, some leading air condition makers, as partners．
Mr. Azad and his ten employees are currently exploring robot designs to examine oil tanks or sewage （污水）pipes．Their biggest challenge is to make the robots user-friendly enough．Mr. Azad hopes that the robot could eventually be operated not by engineers but by workers．There will be lots of difficulties they need to overcome in the future．What can we learn about Ductbot?
| A．It is a toy car and popular with children． |
| B．It is designed to move like a snake in the ducts． |
| C．many LEDs are fitted on it to tell its location． |
| D．It is actually a camera to capture dirty scenery． |
The underlined word "it" in Paragraph 2 refers to "____"．
| A．the camera | B．the conditioning duct |
| C．the LED light | D．the dirty scenery |
What can the Ductbot do for us?
| A．Clean off the dirt in the ducts． |
| B．Control the central conditioning． |
| C．Reduce carbon-dioxide in buildings． |
| D．Protect more animals in city． |
According to the text, EPSCO____．
| A．has won an international robotics competition |
| B．hired children to clean the dirty ducts in the past |
| C．is the only partner of Robosoft Systems |
| D．specializes in improving people's health |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Only engineers can operate the Ductbot now． |
| B．New ways have been found to examine oil tanks． |
| C．Azad's difficulties are impossible to overcome． |
| D．Azad's team are working to improve their robot designs． |