Food festivals around the world
Stilton Cheese Rolling
May Day is a traditional day for celebrations, but the 2,000 English villagers of Stilton must be the only people in the world who include these rolling in their annual plans. Teams of four,dressed in a variety of strange and funny clothes , roll a complete cheese along a 50-metre course. On the way, they must not kick or throw their cheese, or go into their competitors' lane. Competition is fierce and the chief prize is a complete Stilton cheese weighing about four kilos (disappointingly, but understandably the cheeses used in the race are wooden ones). All the
competitors arc served with beer or port wine, the traditional accompaniment for Stilton cheese.
Fiery Foods Festival—The Hottest Festival on Earth
Every year more than 10,000 people head for the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They come from as far away as Australia, the Caribbean and China, but they all share a common addiction—food that is not just spicy ,but hot enough to make your mouth burn, your head spin and your eyes water. Their destination is the Fiery Eood and BBQ Festival which is held over a period of three clays every March. You might like to try a chocolate-covered habanero pepper—officially the hottest pepper in the world—or any one of the thousands of products that are on show. But one thing's for sure—if you don't like the feeling of a burning tongue, this festival isn't for you!
La Tomatina—The World's Biggest Food Fight
On the last Wednesday of every August, the Spanish town of Bunol hosts Ea Tomatina—the world's largest food fight. A week-long celebration leads up to an exciting tomato battle as the highlight of the week's events. The early morning sees the arrival of large trucks with tomatoes—official fight-starters get things going by casting tomatoes at the
crowd.
The battle lasts little more than half an hour, in which time around 50,000 kilograms of tomatoes have been thrown at anyone or anything that moves, runs, or fights back. Then everyone heads down to the river to make friends again—and for a much-needed wash!In the Stilton cheese rolling competition, competitors on each team must .
| A．wear various formal clothes |
| B．roll a wooden cheese in their own lane |
| C．kick or throw their cheese |
| D．use a real cheese weighing about four kilos |
Where is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival held?
| A．In New Mexico. | B．In the Caribbean. |
| C．In Australia. | D．In China. |
The celebration of La Tomatina lasts .
| A．three days | B．seven days |
| C．less than three days | D．more than seven days |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The chief prize for the Stilton cheese rolling competition is beer or port wine. |
| B．More than 10,000 Chinese take pail in the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival. |
| C．Thousands of spicy foods are on show in the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival. |
| D．An exciting tomato battle takes place at the beginning of La Tomatina. |
Embracing a 'naked marriage'
Zhang Yi, a 28-year-old editor at the fashion magazine Sunshine, imagined her boyfriend's proposal like this: In a nice restaurant, he gets down on his knees, flourishes a diamond ring and asks: "Will you marry me?"
She would then scream, and with tears of joy in her eyes, throw herse
lf into his arms.
But the reality was tota
lly different. Her boyfriend simply said: "My mother has asked us to register for the marriage certificate as soon as possible."
Zhang agreed – and that was it.
"I understand my husband has little money. Besides, I love things to be simple. So I agreed," Zhang says.
The couple took a day off and registered their marriage. Instead of a banquet, their wedding ceremony was a 100-yuan ($15) dinner at a small restaurant where they first met.
Wang Zhiguo, chief marriage consultant at China's largest matchmaking website baihe.com, believes “naked marriages” benefit society. "It teaches young people the core spirit of marriage - love each other deeply, no matter rich or poor," Wang says, adding that some newlyweds save marriage costs for other expenses like their children's education, traveling or charity.
Wang thinks, however, that naked marriages may affect a relationship's stability.
"If we see a marriage as a contract, it includes three items: love, responsibility and a material base. Any missing link will lead to some problems in the relationship between husband and wife."
Wang suggests that if a couple's financial situation does not permit them to build a solid material base, an exchange of tokens(象征) is necessary for a long-lasting relationship.
1. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Zhang is inconsiderate towards her husband.
B. There is no long-lasting relationship without any token of love.
C. Doing without a ring, apartment and car, is becoming more acceptable to young people who want to get married sooner ra
ther than later.
D. Newlyweds should save money for trav
eling or charity.
2. What is Wang’s attitude towards naked marriages?
A. positive B. negative C. indifferent D. neutral
3. What is a naked marriage?
A. Getting married without clothes on.
B. A simple marriage with little material support.
C. A contract including love, responsibility and a material base.
D. A marriage without love, responsibility or a material base.
4. The author arranges the article with .
A. stories and explanation B. facts and descriptions
C. examples and conclusion D. evidence and argument
Our plan was to drive into Cambridge, catch the 7:34 train to Liverpool Street Station, then to separate and meet again for lunch．We should have arrived at Liverpool at 9:19, but due to a typical London fog, the train had to move along so slowly that it wasn’t until 10:30 that it got there．In spite of our late arrival, Joan, my wife’s sister, decided that she would go to see the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London while we went shopping．It was only after her sister had disappeared into the fog that my wife realized that we hadn’t decided where we should meet for lunch．Since I had our three tickets for the concert in my pocket, this was indeed a problem．There see
med to be nothing we could do except taking a taxi to the Tower of London, and try to find her there．Needless to say, we didn’t find her.
It was now one o’clock, and the concert began at 2:30．“Perhaps she will think of waiting outside the concert hall,” suggested my wife hopefully．By this time the fog was so thick that road traff
ic had to stop, and the only way to get there was by underground railway．Hand in hand we felt our way along the road to where we thought the nearest station should be．An hour later we were still trying to find it．Just as I was about to lose my temper completely when we met a blind man tapping his way confidently through the fog．With his help we found Tower Hill tube station just fifty yards down the road.
By now it was far too late even to try to get to the concert hall before the performance began at 2:30, so we decided to return to Cambridge．It took seven long hours instead of the usual two to make that journey．Nor were we able to get any food and drink on the train．Tired and hungry we finally reached home at ten, opening the door to the sound of the telephone bell．It was Joan; she had seen t
he Crown Jewels, ha
d managed to get another ticket for concert, and had had a wonderful dinner at a 
restaurant near the hotel where she decided to stay for the night．Now she was ringing to discover whether we had had an equally successful day.
1．Why was Joan separated from her sister and her brother-in-law?
A．they could not see each other because of the fog.
B．Joan had not seen Crown Jewels.
C．They planned to do different things until lunch time.
D．The writer didn’t want to go to the concert.
2．What did the writer plan to do in the afternoon?
A．Go to the concert. B．See the Crown Jewels.
C．Return to Cambridge. D．Go shopping.
3．The reason why they didn’t all meet for lunch was that _______.
A．They lost their way in the fog
B．they forgot to make necessary arrangement
C．they waited at different places and didn’t meet each other
D．the couple couldn’t find the underground station
4．It’s quite clear that for Joan the trip to London had been ________.
A．spilt by the fog B．quite tiring
C．rather disappointing D．very enjoyable
第三部分阅读理解 (共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。
People enjoy taking trips．But what are the reasons they leave home? One reason is for education．People travel because they want to broaden their horizons to learn about other people and other places．They are curious about other cultures．When people are tourists, they get a quick look at different ways of living．Even a short look at another kind of lifestyle is an important lesson．On a 
trip, a person can learn directly by visiting museums and historic spots．What does a tourist learn who sees the art museums, visits the historical places and other scenic spots in Paris and shops along the River Seine? He gets a vivid picture, a real life of one of the French people．He learns about their attitudes, how they feel about business; beauty and history．What about the tourist who goes to Hong Kong? Does he get the same information that he could get from a book? He might read that Hong Kong is crowded, that there is less than 200 square meters of space for each person．But seeing and feeling the lack of space will impress him much more．He might read that there are nearly 200 vehicles for every kilometer of roadway．But the sight of so many vehicles parked along the roadside would be a much more vivid lesson．The tourist to Hong Kong will never forget the contrasts: the straight vertical lines of tall modern buildings and the moving lines of boats that people live in.
1．Why do people leave home to travel according to passage?
A．For education. B．For adventure.
C．To enjoy themselves. D．To look for a different lifestyle.
2．What do we learn from the passage about Paris?
A．It has a dense population.
B．It has many towering buildings.
C．There are 200 vehicles for every kilometer of roadway.
D．There are many museums and palaces.
3．What impression will a tourist get of Hong Kong?
A．It has many big and beautiful parks.
B．It is a city of contrasts.
C．It possesses many historical sites.
D．It is an important industrial center.
4．What does the passage tell us about traveling?
A．It makes our life more interesting.
B．It enables us to get first-hand knowledge.
C．It helps develop our personalities.
D．It brings about changes in our lifestyle.
Do you know about a series of books that say they are “for dummies”? These American self-help books have been translated into more than thirty-nine languages including Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French, German, Greek and Spanish.
“Dummy” is a word for a stupid person. The dummies books are not really for stupid people. They are designed to show people how to do something they may never have tried before, like painting a house or learning a language. The books all say in a funny way that they are for dummies, such as World History for Dummies, Rabbits for Dummies, Chinese Cooking for Dummies, and Wedding Planning for Dummies. The first such book, DOS for Dummies, was published in 1991. It helped people learn how to use the DOS operating system for computers. Since then, more than one hundred fifty million dummies books have been sold.
The dummies. com website explains the idea behind the books. It says that they show that people can be taught to do anything. Firs
t they can make fun of ideas that are difficult to understand. Then they show how the information can be interesting and easy. The publishers say that the books do not provide more information than necessary. They give readers just enough information to do what they want. They say that the dummies book
s give the best and easiest way to do something. And the books use simple and easy language.
There are more than one thousand different dummies books. A report in New York Times says that the top-selling dummies books are those that explain technology and personal finance.
The publishers say that the best-selling dummies books are those providing information many people need---like information about diseases, education and cooking. People interested in opera, car repair and wine can also find dummies books to help them. And there are even more dummies books to come. The publishers say that they publish about two hundred new dummies books every year.
1. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A. Books for Dummies
B. The Easiest, the Best
C. Books for Stupid People
D. New Ideas Behind the Books
2. The dummies books have been popular because ______.
A. they provide enough information on the concerning subject
B. they provide just what is needed and are easy to understand
C. people can learn to do anything with just one copy
D. people can save lots of money through self-teaching
3. According to New York Times, we know that books on ____ 
sell best.
A. diseases and education
B. opera and car repairing
C. 
technology and personal finance
D. cooking and world history
4. What can we learn from the passage?
A. The first dummies book was on Chinese cooking.
B. The simple language was intended for child readers
C. Fifty million different dummies books have been published.
D. The dummies books will continue to be popular.
Believe it or not, optical illusion(错觉) can cut highway crashes.
Japan is a case in point. It has reduced automobile crashes on some roads by nearly 75 percent using a simple optical illusion. But stripes, called chevrons(人字形), which are painted on the roads make drivers think that they are driving faster than they really are, and thus drivers slow down.
Now the American Automobile Association Foundation(基金会) for Traffic Safety in Washington D.C. is planning to repeat Japan’s success. Starting next year, the foundation will paint chevrons and other patterns of stripes on selected roads around the country to test how well the patterns reduce highwa
y crashes.
Excessive (too great) speed plays a major role in as much as one fifth of all serious traffic accidents, according to the foundation. To help reduce those accidents, the foundation will conduct its tests in areas where speed-related danger are the greatest curves, exit slopes, traffic circles, and bridges.
Some studies suggest that straight, horizontal bars painted across roads can cut the average speed of drivers in half at the beginning. However, traffic often returns to full speed within months as drivers become used to seeing the painted bars.
Chevrons, scientists say, not only give drivers the impression that they are driving faster than they really are but also make a lane appear to be narrower. The result is a longer lasting reduction in highway speed and the number of traffic accidents.
1. On roads painted with chevrons, drivers tend to feel that ______.
A. they should avoid speed-related hazards
B. they are driving in the wrong lane
C. they should slow down
their speed
D. they are coming near to the speed limit
2. The advantage of chevrons over straight, horizontal bars is that the former ______.
A. can keep drivers awake
B. can cut road accidents in half
C. will look more attractive
D. will have a longer effect on drivers
3. The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety plans to ________.
A. try out the Japanese method in certain areas
B. change the road signs across the country
C. replace straight, horizontal bars with chevrons
D. repeat the Japanese road patterns
4. The passage mainly discusses ________.
A. a new way of highway speed control
B. a new pattern for painting highways
C. a new way of training drivers
D. a new type of optical illusion