It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr.Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.
Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.
Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena.” The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.
Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs, which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”, In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.The author mentions Dr.Johnson’s comment to show that________.
| A．most commentators agree with Dr.Johnson |
| B．Dr.Johnson is famous for his weather observation |
| C．the comment was accurate two hundred years ago |
| D．English conversations usually start with the weather |
What does the underlined word “obsession” most probably refer to?
| A．An emotional state |
| B．An unknown phenomenon. |
| C．A historical concept. |
| D．A social trend. |
According to the passage, Jeremy Paxman believes that________.
| A．Bill Bryson has little knowledge of the weather |
| B．English people talk about the weather for its uncertainty |
| C．the English weather attracts people to the British Isles |
| D．there is nothing special about the English weather |
What is the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To convince people that the English weather is changeable. |
| B．To analyze misconceptions about the English weather. |
| C．To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman. |
| D．To explain what English weather-speak is about. |
When I was 11, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings(缺点). Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. In the end, I became so angry that I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could—and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to fairly clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Dad. He refused to take it.” That’s just for you,” he said.
“You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”
Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint?
| A．He told her not to pay any attention to what her” enemy” had said. |
| B．He criticized (批评) her and told her to overcome her shortcomings. |
| C．He told her to write down all that her” enemy” had said about her and pay attention only to the things that were true. |
| D．He refused to take the list and have a look at it. |
What does “Week by week her list grew” mean?
| A．Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious. |
| B．She had made a list of my shortcomings and she kept on adding new ones to it so that it was growing longer and longer. |
| C．I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on. |
| D．Week by week she discovered more shortcomings of mine and pointed them out to me. |
Why did her father listen to her quietly?
| A．Because he wasn’t quite sure which girl was telling the truth. |
| B．Because he had been so angry with his daughter’s shortcomings that he wanted to show this by keeping silent for a while. |
| C．Because he knew that his daughter would not listen to him at that moment. |
| D．Because he believed that what her daughter’s “enemy” said was mostly true. |
Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?
| A．The Best Advice I’ve Ever Had |
| B．Not an Enemy,but the Best Friend |
| C．My Father |
| D．My Childhood |
Water is very important to living things. Without water there can be no life on the earth. All animals and plants need water. Man also needs water. We need water to drink, to cook our food and to clean ourselves. Water is needed in offices, factories and schools. Water is needed everywhere.
There is water in seas, rivers and lakes. Water is found almost everywhere. Even in the desert part of the world, there is some water in the air. You can not see or feel it when it is a part of the air. The water in the seas, rivers and lakes is a liquid, the water in the air is a gas, and we call it water vapour (蒸气).
Clouds are made of water. They may be made of very small drops of water. They may also be made of snow crystals(结晶体). Snow crystals are very very small crystals of ice. Ice is frozen water. It is a solid. There can be snow and ice everywhere in winter.
Water may be a solid or a liquid or a gas. When it is a solid, it may be as hard as a stone. When it is a liquid, you can drink it. When it is a gas, you can not see or feel it.Where can we find water?
| A．We can find water when it turns into vapour. |
| B．Water is only in seas and rivers. |
| C．We can see water in deserts here and there. |
| D．Water can be found almost everywhere. |
We can drink water when it is
| A．a solid | B．aliquid | C．in the air | D．turned into ice |
Clouds are made of
| A．seas, rivers and lakes |
| B．blocks of ice |
| C．very small drops of water or snow crystals |
| D．solid, liquid and gas |
Water has three states(状态). They are
| A．solid, liquid and gas |
| B．solid, vapour, snow |
| C．drops of water, blocks of ice and crystals of water |
| D．ice, snow and air |
Modern man has cleared the forests for farmland and for wood, and has also carelessly burned them. More than that, though, he has also interfered （干涉） with the invisible bonds between the living things in the forests. There are many examples of this kind of destruction. The harmfulness of man’s interference can be seen in what happened many years ago in the forest of the Kaibab plateau （凯亚巴布高原） of northern Arizona. Man tried to improve on the natural web of forest life and destroyed it instead.
The Kaibab had a storybook forest of large sized pine, Douglas fir, white fir, blue and Engelmann spruce. In 1882 a visitor noted, "We, who ... have wandered through its forests and parks, have come to regard it as the most enchanting region it has ever been our privilege （特权） to visit.” This was also the living place of the Rocky Mountain mule deer. Indians hunted there every autumn to gather meat and skins. The forest also had mountain lions, timber wolves and bobcats that kept the deer from multiplying too rapidly.
Then, in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt made the Kaibab a national game preserve. Deer hunting was forbidden. Government hunters started killing off the deer’s enemies. In 25 years’ time, 6,250 mountain lions, wolves and bobcats were killed. Before the program, there were about 4,000 deer in the Kaibab, by 1924, there were about 100,000.
The deer ate every leaf and twig they could reach. But there was not nearly enough food. Hunting of deer was permitted again. This caused a slight decrease in the deer herd （鹿群），but a far greater loss resulted from starvation （饥饿） and disease. Some 60 percent of the deer herd died in two winters. By 1930 the herd had dropped to 20,000 animals. By 1942 it was down to 8,000.The destruction of the environment of the Kaibab resulted from
| A．interfering with natural cycle of forest life |
| B．turning the forest into cultivated land |
| C．forest fires caused by man’s carelessness |
| D．cutting the trees for building materials |
"Engelmann spruce"（Para. 2） is most likely the name of .
| A．an animal | B．a tree | C．a mountain | D．a game |
The number of the deer in the Kaibab had increased enormously in years’ time.
| A．25 | B．6 | C．12 | D．18 |
Years later, large numbers of deer in the Kaibab died mainly because of .
| A．the cold | B．the organized kill |
| C．the poor management | D．the shortage of food |
The clock struck eleven at night. The whole house was quiet. Everyone was in bed except me. Under the strong light, I looked sadly before a huge pile of troublesome stuff they call “books”.
I was going to have my examination the next day. "When can I go to bed?" I asked myself. I didn’t answer, in fact I dared not.
The clock struck 12."Oh, dear!" I cried, "ten more books to read before I can go to bed!” We pupils are the most wretched（可怜的） creatures in the world. Dad does not agree with me on this. He did not have to work so hard when he was a boy.
The clock struck one. I was quite hopeless now. I forgot all I had learnt. I was too tired to go on. I did the only thing I could. I prayed, “Oh, God, Please help me pass the exam tomorrow. I do promise to work hard afterwards, Amen.” My eyes were heavy, so heavy that I could hardly open them. A few minutes later, with my head on the desk, I fell asleep.When the author was going over his lessons, all the others in the house were_____ .
| A．working in bed | B．asleep |
| C．outside | D．quietly laughing at him |
Reviewing his lessons didn’t help him because ________.
| A．it was too late at night |
| B．he was very tired |
| C．he hadn’t studied hard before the examination |
| D．his eyes lids were so heavy that he couldn’t keep them open |
What do you suppose happened to the author？
| A．He failed in the exam |
| B．He passed the exam by luck |
| C．He went to a church to pray again |
| D．He was punished by his teacher |
The best title for the passage would be __________ .
| A．The Night Before the Examination |
| B．Working Far into the Night |
| C．A Slow Student |
| D．Going Over My Lessons |
Want to stay away from colds? Put on a happy face.
Compared to unhappy people, those who are cheerful and relaxed are less likely to suffer from colds, according to a new study. It’s possible that being happy helps the body fight illnesses, say the researchers from New York University.
“It seems that positive(积极的) feelings may reduce (减少)the danger of illness,” said the study’s chief researcher Sheldon Cohen.
In an earlier study, Cohen found that people who were cheerful and lively caught coughs and colds less often. People who showed feelings were also less likely to tell their doctors that they felt ill.
In this study, Cohen’s interviewed 193 adults every day for two weeks. During the interviews, the people told researchers about were given colds by doctors and had to stay alone in a room for six days.
The results showed that everyone in the study was equally(相等地) likely to get ill. Buy for people who said they felt happy during the research period, their illness are less serious and lasted for a shorter time.
Cohen believes that when people experience positive feelings, their body may produce a chemical that helps fight illness and disease. So if you are worried abut your health, look on the bright side more often.What did the study find?
| A．People who felt happy never got ill. |
| B．People’s feelings didn’t influence their health. |
| C．People with good feelings became ill more easily. |
| D．People with positive feelings had less serious illnesses.. |
According to Cohen, which of the following may help fight illness?
| A．Eating. | B．Crying. | C．Laughing. | D．Sleeping. |
This passage is a/an.
| A．advertisement | B．newspaper report |
| C．story | D．scientist’s diary |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Smiles can fight colds |
| B．Cause of colds found |
| C．The danger of colds |
| D．How people get sick |