Every year on April 1, April Fools’ Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. In France, it’s called Poisson d’Avril or “Fish of April.” In Scotland, the holiday is often called “Gowkie Day.” In Iraq, the holiday is called Kithbet Neesan or “April Lie.”
History experts say people have celebrated April Fools’ Day for a long time. Some believe the tradition comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago. It was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.
Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564, when King Charles changed the yearly calendar（日历）. He moved New Year’s Day from April 1 to January 1. Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems back then. Some people continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.
In the United States, April Fools’ Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. These kinds of jokes are also called pranks. These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting “April Fools’!”
Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common. But, major companies also get in on April Fools’ Day fun in a much bigger way. A few years ago, on April 1, Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes -- Plenta and Micra. The very large cups, bigger than a human head, remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee. According to Starbucks, the cups could be used as a rain hat, a pot for plants, or a lampshade（灯罩）.
It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank!
More and more, people use social media or smart phone apps（应用程序）to play pranks on their friends on April Fools’ Day. One very annoying smart phone app, Cat Facts, sends funny facts about cats to your friends’ phones, every day.What is not true about “April Fools’ Day”?
| A． It has been celebrated for a long time. |
| B． Its tradition comes from the ancient Romans. |
| C． French people celebrated it because of not knowing that King Charles changed the yearly calendar. |
| D． Different countries have different names for it. |
In the United States, April Fools’ Day is .
| A． a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. |
| B． a day when you can play jokes on any people. |
| C． a day when people can’t shout “April Fools’!” |
| D． a day when Starbucks introduced new coffee. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “pranks”(para4)?
| A． friends | B． methods |
| C． jokes | D． jokers |
共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
How can we all get more laughter into our lives? Here is what the experts suggest:
51. Nancy Alguire, a teacher in Clifton Park, N. Y., was once painfully shy and had a hard time laughing. Then she married a circus clown (小丑). “I became interested in the clowns,” she recalls “One day I put on a costume and paint my face. That afternoon my whole life changed. I learned to laugh and enjoy life in a way I had never done before.”52To this day, she still makes it a rule to be with people who enjoy life and laughing.
53It doesn’t take you too much time and can be easy. Collect favorite cartoons and jokes. Also, keep a paper for writing down humor you find in everyday life. “Good ideas come and go fast, you have to capture them quickly or they are gone,” says Virginia Tooper.
Laugh when you need it most. “ 54” says comedian Bill Cosby. “And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might by, you can survive it,” he insists.
Gray Alan, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota, claims that laughter is a skill we can all gain – because it comes naturally. 55 . Just remember: we are just here for a period, so get a few laughs.
| A．You can soften the worst blows through humor. |
| B．Mix with people who laugh. |
| C．Practise the art of laughing. |
| D．Keep a laughter file. |
E．He who laughs last laughs best.
F．But it’s also something that has to be developed.
G．People’s joy can affect those around them.
Avatar
Venue: Orient Pioneer Theater
Date: January 2
Price (￥): 150/180/240/300
Tel: 400 – 810 – 3721
Additional Information:
The film is directed by James Cameron. In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with its own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture. The fierce war unfolded …
Farewell My Concubine
Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts
Date: January 2
Price (￥): 50/80/100/300
Tel: 400 – 810 – 8271
Additional Information:
Peking Opera tells the story of XiangYu (232BC – 202BC), the self – styled Hegemon – king of Western Chu (modern provinces of Hubei, Huan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu) who battled to unify China with LiuBang, the final founder of the powerful Han Dynasty.
Guo Degang Cross Talk Show
Venue: Cultural Palace of Nationalities
Date : January 24 – 25
Price (￥): 100/200/300/500
Tel: 400 – 610 – 2270
Additional Information:
Guo Degang is a famous Chinese cross talk actor.
Confucius
Venue : Today Art Theater
Date : January 20
Price (￥): 100/120/150/180
Tel: 400 – 610 – 3721
Additional Information:
The film is about Confucius, who was a Chinese thinker and philosopher. His teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese though and life.
40．If you want to appreciate the Chinese traditional opera, you can call
A．Tel: 400 – 810 – 3721 B．Tel: 400 – 810 – 8271
C．Tel: 400 – 610 – 2270 D．Tel: 400 – 610 – 3721
41．What can we learn from four posters?
A．Avatar, directed by James Cameron, is a sci – fi movie.
B．Confucius can be seen in Oriental Pioneer Theatre.
C．You can enjoy Guo Degang’s cross talk on Jan. 20.
D．Xiang Yu finally founded the powerful Han Dynasty.
42．The underlined phrases “at odds” probably means
A．in harmony B．in disagreement C．in touch D．in common
Chen Yurong, 55, an average woman in Wuhan, Hubei province, who was diagnosed with a fatty liver (肝), walked 10 kilometers a day for seven months, despite wind an rain, so she could donate part of a healthy liver to her son. After wearing out four pairs of shoes and losing eight kilograms, her fatty liver condition disappeared. One doctor called it a “miracle” (奇迹).
|
Hear 31 – year – old son, Ye Haibin suffered from severe Wilson’s disease, a rare disorder that causes body to keep copper. Doctors said only a liver transplant could lengthen his life. Despite her age and the knowledge that about one in 1,000 liver donators die after the transplant, Chen said she did not hesitate to donate part of her liver.
“In order to give my young granddaughter a complete family, I’dC
When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek friends whose qualities illuminate（照亮）me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say:“Let’s start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories
that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changing into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.
When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend, He was in despair(失望)and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.
For almost four years I have had remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other’s dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think:“Yes, I must tell….”We have never met.
It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist（心理学家），who will only fill up the healing（愈合的）silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.
69. In the eighth grade, what the author did before developing proper social behavior was to ______.
A. become serious about her study
B. go to her friend’s house regularly
C. learn from her classmates at school
D. share poems and stories with her friend
70. In Paragraph 3, “We gave London to each other” probably means ______.
A. our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us
B. we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London
C. our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared
D. we parted with each other in London
71. According to Paragraph 4, the author and her friend _______.
A. call each other regularly
B. have similar personalities
C. enjoy writing to each other
D. dream of meeting each other
72. In the darkest moments, the author would prefer to ______.
A.need professional helpB. be left alone
C. stay with her best friend D. break the silence
B
More than 10 years ago, it was difficult to buy a tasty pineapple. The fruits that made it to the UK were green on the outside and, more often than not, hard with an unpleasant taste within. Then in 1996, the Del Monte Gold pineapple produced in Hawaii first hit our shelves.
The new type of pineapple looked more yellowy-gold than green. It was slightly softer on the outside and had a lot of juice inside. But the most important thing about this new type of pineapple was that it was twice as sweet as the hit-and-miss pineapples we had known. In no time, the Del Monte Gold took the market by storm, rapidly becoming the world’s best-selling pineapple variety, and delivering natural levels of sweetness in the mouth, up until then only found in tinned pineapple.
In nutrition(营养) it was all good news too. This nice-tasting pineapple contained four times more vitamin C(维生素C) than the old green variety. Nutritionists said that it was not only full of vitamins, but also good against some diseases. People were understandably eager to be able to buy this wonderful fruit. The new type of pineapple was selling fast, and the Del Monte Gold pineapple rapidly became a fixture in the shopping basket of the healthy eater.
Seeing the growing market for its winning pineapple, Del Monte tried to keep the market to itself. But other fruit companies 
developed similar pineapples. Del Monte turned to law for help, but failed. Those companies argued successfully that Del Monte’s attempts to keep the golden pineapple for itself were just a way to knock them out of the market.
65. We learn from the text that the new type of pineapple is ______.
A. green outside and sweet inside
B. good-looking outside and soft inside
C. yellowy-gold outside and hard inside
D. a little soft outside and sweet inside
66. Why was the new type of pineapple selling well?
A. It was rich in nutrition and tasted nice. B. It was less sweet and good for health.
C. It was developed by Del Monte. D. It was used as medicine.
67. The underlined word “fixture” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to something ______.
A. that people enjoy eating B. that is always present
C. that is difficult to get D. that people use as a gift
68. We learn from the last paragraph that Del Monte ______.
A. allowed other companies to develop pineapples
B. succeeded in keeping the pineapple for itself
C. tried hard to control the pineapple market
D. planned to help the other companies
