Americans plan parties for many reasons. As in other cultures, many Americans attend parties for weddings and religious or national holidays. But some parties are especially American. For example, a group of neighbors may gather on their street to eat food, play music and visit with one another. This is called a block party. A woman might invite a group of women to a party called a baby shower for a friend who is about to give birth. Guests bring presents for the new baby.
Americans also attend tailgate parties. A tailgate is the back end of a truck or other vehicle that opens down. The tailgate parties are a big part of sports culture in the United States. Friends bring food and drink to a sports event. They eat together in the parking area of the sports stadium.
Birthday parties are also very popular. Many parents organize a party for their child around a theme. Birthday parties usually include gifts and a birthday cake with candles. In many parts of the United States, cupcakes have become a popular replacement for cakes.
Birthday parties can be low cost or very costly. Some parents take their children’s birthday parties very seriously, even when the child is too young to fully understand the celebration.
One group of parents started a website called Birthdays Without Pressure. They decided that some parents were under too much social pressure to plan costly parties for their children. The group sees this movement as an example of America’s culture of “too much stuff”. The group’s website gives suggestions on how to keep birthday celebrations simple, meaningful and fun without spending a lot of money. Their advice may be very helpful during this period of economic recession (萧条)．What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Reasons for parties | B．Birthdays without pressure |
| C．Different parties in the world | D．American parties |
How many kinds of parties does the passage mention?
| A．5. | B．7. | C．6. | D．8. |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Birthday parties are the most popular in America. |
| B．Some parties in America are the same as in other countries. |
| C．There’s a party for the mother before her new baby is born. |
| D．Block party is especially American |
The purpose of Birthdays Without Pressure is to advise people to _________.
| A．relieve people’s pressure |
| B．make birthday parties meaningful and costly |
| C．have meaningful birthday parties with low cost |
| D．spread America’s culture |
Every people has their own way of saying things, their own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are based on colors.
Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery (炽热的，暴躁的) taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.
Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.
Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song—Mood Indigo—about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: "You aren't blue till you've had that Mood Indigo." Someone who is blue is very sad.
The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling in stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.
Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.
The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations. If you had your wallet stolen while doing some shopping, you may call it __________.
| A．a white day |
| B．a black day |
| C．a red day |
| D．a green day |
Suppose Mr. Brown says he is very happy because his three children are all in the pink, this means all his children are __________.
| A．lucky and wealthy |
| B．gentle and modest |
| C．fit and healthy |
| D．creative and energetic |
When she got home and found nothing had been done by her husband, Jane was really __________.
| A．red hot |
| B．green |
| C．blue |
| D．black |
In the following paragraph, the writer might tell the reader something about __________.
| A．unpopular organizations in the world |
| B．people's response towards a black day |
| C．the influence of the traditional blues |
| D．more words about a color, such as brown |
One day last September, as Britney Spears was about to board a flight to Los Angeles from London,a blue bottle fell out of her purse. She quickly put it back in，but not before the paparazzi recorded the event. Neither Spears nor her spokesman was willing to comment on the contents of the bottle, but the next morning London's Daily Express published a page of pictures under the headline "EXCLUSIVE：POP PRINCESS SPOTTED AT AIRPORT WITH POT OF SLIMMING TABLETS. ” Spears was apparently carrying Zantrex-3, one of the most popular weight-loss pills now sold in the United States. The pill，which is sold at about fifty dollars for a month's supply, contains a huge amount of caffeine, some green tea，and three common South American herbs that also act as stimulants (兴奋剂） It hit the U. S. market last March and has had a success that would be hard to overstate. Millions of bottles have been sold, and during the Christmas season it was dis-played in the windows of the nation's largest chain of vitamin shops, G. N. C. (It is so highly sought after that many of the stores keep it in locked counters. )Zantrex-3 is also sold at CVS, Rite Aid, Wal-Mart,and other chains, and over the telephone and on the Internet. If you type “ Zantrex ” into Google, more than a hundred thousand pieces of information about it will appear. At any moment, there are scores of people sell the stuff on eBay.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the success story of Zantrex-3, however, is that it is far from unique. There are hundreds of similar products on the market today，and they are bought by millions of Americans. And though Zantrex 's producer makes some exciting statements (“ the most advanced weight control compound period "), so do the people who sell Stacker 2 and Anorex along with those who sell Carb Eliminator and Fat Eliminator. Almost all of these compounds suggest that they can help people lose weight and regain lost energy, and often without diet, exercise, or any other effort. Which of the following is also a kind of weight-loss pill?
| A．CVS. |
| B．Rite Aid. |
| C．Wal-Mart. |
| D．Anorex. |
The underlined part of the sentence in the first paragraph is most likely similar in meaning to __________
| A．it is difficult to say how successful Zantrex-3 is |
| B．you can't overstate the success of Zantrex-3 |
| C．you can't think too highly of the success of Zantrex-3 |
| D．Zantrex-3 is not very successful |
The text mainly tells us __________.
| A．when Britney Spears was found taking weight-loss pills with her |
| B．how Zantrex-3 became successful in the USA |
| C．weight-loss pills are very popular in the USA |
| D．Zantrex-3 is forbidden to be sold on the US market |
Most mornings, the line begins to form at dawn：scores of silent women with babies on their backs,buckets balanced on their heads, and in each hand a bright-blue plastic jug. On good days, they will wait less than an hour before a water tanker goes across the dirt path that serves as a road in KesumPurbahari, a slum on the southern edge of New Delhi. On bad days, when there is no electricity for the pumps, the tankers don't come at all. “That water kills people, w a young mother named Shoba said one recent Saturday morning, pointing to a row of pails filled with thick, caramel-colored liquid. "Whoever drinks it will die. ” The water was from a pipe shared by thousands of people in the poor neighbourhood.
Women often use it to wash clothes and bathe their children, but nobody is desperate enough to drink it.
There is no standard for how much water a per-son needs each day, but experts usually put the mini-mum at fifty litres. The government of India promises (but rarely provides) forty. Most people drink two or three litres—less than it takes to flush a toilet. The rest is typically used for cooking and bathing. Americans consume between four hundred and six hundred litres of water each day, more than any other people on earth. Most Europeans use less than half that. The women of KesumPurbahari each hoped to drag away a hundred litres that day—two or three buckets' worth. Shoba has a husband and five children, and that much water doesn't go far in a family of seven, particularly when the temperature reaches a hundred and ten degrees before noon. She often makes up the difference with bottled water, which costs more than water delivered any other way. Sometimes she just buys milk； it's cheaper. Like the poorest people everywhere, the people of New Delhi's slums spend a far greater percentage of their incomes on water than anyone lucky enough to live in a house connected to a municipal system of pipes. The underlined word “slum” most likely means __________
| A．a village |
| B．a small town |
| C．an area of a town with badly-built, over-crowded buildings |
| D．the part of a town that lacks water badly |
Sometimes the water tanker doesn't come because __________.
| A．the weather is bad |
| B．there is no electricity |
| C．there is no water |
| D．people don't want the dirty water |
Which of the following statements is wrong?
| A．A hundred litres of water a day is enough for Shoba's family. |
| B．Americans uses the largest amount of water each day. |
| C．InKesumPurbahari milk is cheaper than bottled water. |
| D．Shoba has a family of seven people. |
The passage mainly tells us __________.
| A．how women in KesumPurbahari gets their water |
| B．how much water a day a person needs |
| C．that India lacks water badly |
| D．how India government manages to solve the problem of water |
A Southampton University team found that people who were vegetarians by 30 had recorded five IQ points higher on average at the age of 10. Researchers said it could explain why people with a higher IQ were healthier as a vegetarian diet was linked to lower heart disease and obesity rates. The study of 8，179 people was reported in the British Medical Journal.
Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970，366 of the participants said they were vegetarians — although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.
Men who were vegetarians had an IQ score of106，compared with 101 for non-vegetarians； while female vegetarians averaged 104, compared with 99for non-vegetarians. There was no difference in the IQ scores between strict vegetarians and those who said they were vegetarians but reported eating fish or chicken.
Researchers said the findings were partly related to better education and higher class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.
Vegetarians were more likely to be female, to be of higher social class and to have higher academic or vocational qualifications than non-vegetarians. How-ever, these differences were not reflected in their annual income, which was similar to that of non-vegetarians.
Lead researcher Catharine Gale said，"The findings that children with greater intelligence are more likely to report being vegetarians as adults, together with the evidence on the potential benefits of a vegetarian diet on heart health, may help to explain why a higher IQ in childhood or adolescence is linked with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease in adult life. ”
But Dr. Frankie Phillips of the British Dietetic Association said，“ It is like the chicken and the egg . Do people become vegetarians because they have a very high IQ or is it just that they are clever enough to be more aware of health issues?" What's the result of the research mentioned in the text?
| A．Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life. |
| B．Children with a higher IQ are less likely to have heart disease later in life. |
| C．Intelligent children tend to belong to higher social class later in life. |
| D．Children with a healthier heart tend to have a higher IQ later in life. |
It was found in the research that __________.
| A．most of the participants became vegetarians 20years after the IQ tests were carried out |
| B．vegetarians who ate fish or chicken were of similar intelligence with strict vegetarians |
| C．female vegetarians were more likely to have higher annual income than non-vegetarians |
| D．vegetarians were more likely to have higher annual income than non-vegetarians |
What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?
| A．Intelligence is linked to not just being a vegetarian but to many factors. |
| B．The rate of getting heart disease is linked to your lifestyle. |
| C．The link between a high IQ and being a vegetarian is still uncertain. |
| D．The link between a healthy heart and diet remains to be proved. |
What's the best title for the text?
| A．Get more IQ points! |
| B．Be a vegetarian, please! |
| C．Vegetarian diet cuts heart risk. |
| D．A high IQ is linked to being a vegetarian. |
Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One studypublished this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for 10 to 15 minutes a day,and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60to 70 minutes a day — which really is pretty much for handwriting.
Many adults remember learning that way — by copying letters over and over again. Today's thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all，that is why we write.
Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency — writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.
But not everyone masters these skills.Teachers commonly report that about one fourth of their kids have poor handwriting.Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.
But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive,which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board,which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive. Which of the following is WRONG for traditional handwriting in the USA?
| A．The students are taught by practicing a long period. |
| B．The letters are repeated many times. |
| C．Handwriting includes two skills. |
| D．To write in cursive is taught first. |
The underlined word “legibility” in Paragraph 3 means “ __________ ”
| A．easy to read |
| B．complex |
| C．unexpected |
| D．unreadable |
The best title for the passage is __________.
| A．How to improve handwriting in school |
| B．Right or wrong ： the death of handwriting |
| C．Handwriting involves two skills |
| D．Handwriting lessons are on the way out |
The author's attitude towards whether still to learn handwriting in school is __________.
| A．negative |
| B．objective |
| C．critical |
| D．optimistic |