English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary — perhaps as many as two million words.
However, let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweetmeats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.
And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth? One goose, two geese — so one moose, two meese?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of human beings. That’s why, when stars are out, they are visible; but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
According to the passage __________.
| A．pineapples are the apples on the pine tree |
| B．there should be an egg in an eggplant |
| C．sweetmeats and sweetbreads are different things |
| D．boxing rings should be round |
The underlined words “wind up” in the last paragraph maybe means “__________”.
| A．blow | B．finish | C．get hurt | D．roll up |
Through the many paradoxes in the English language, the writer wants to show that human beings are ____________.
| A．lazy | B．crazy | C．clever | D．dull |
In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is about, It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich life--style of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories, He called it ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ because ‘Jones’ is a very common name in the United States.’ Keeping up with the Joneses’ came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are ‘Jonses’ in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.
| A．want to be as rich as their neighbours |
| B．want others to know or to think that they are rich |
| C．don’t want others to know they are rich |
| D．want to be happy |
It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.
| A．live outside New York City | B．live in New York City |
| C．live in apartments | D．have many neighbours |
The underlined word neighbourhood in the second paragraph means ________.
| A．a person who lives near another | B．people living in an area |
| C．an area near the place referred to | D．an area in another town or city |
Arthur Momand used the name ‘Jones’ in his series of short stories because’ Jones’ is ________.
| A．an important name | B．a popular name in the United States |
| C．his neighbour’s name | D．not a good name |
According to the writer, it is to keep up with the Joneses.
| A．correct | B．interesting | C．impossible | D．good |
Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects（受试者）were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almostall of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.” The aim of the two experiments is to________.
| A．explain when people can have a sixth sense |
| B．show how people act while being watched in the lab |
| C．study whether humans can sense when they are stared at |
| D．prove why humans have a sixth sense |
The underlined word “outcome” in the last paragraph most probably means________.
| A．value | B．result | C．performance | D．connection |
In the second experiment, the subjects _________.
| A．could tell when they were stared at and when they weren’t. |
| B．could tell when they were stared at but couldn’t tell when they weren’t. |
| C．couldn’t tell when they were stared at but could tell when they weren’t. |
| D．couldn’t tell when they were stared at or when they weren’t. |
What can be learned from the passage?
| A．People are born with a sixth sense. |
| B．The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea. |
| C．The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments. |
| D．People have a sixth sense in all places. |
Maybe you know some well-known buildings, such as the Great Wall, the Great Hall of the People, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But do you know the Royal Academy of Arts ?
Lying in the heart of London, the Royal Academy of Arts is an independent fine arts institution (机构) which supports modern artists and promotes interest in the arts through all kinds of exhibition programs. The Academy is completely independent. It is a self-funded (自筹资金的), organization which is governed by the Royal Academicians—eminent painters, printmakers, sculptors and architects who are elected to the position. The Academy has a long history and was founded in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first President. The Academy lies in Burlington House which itself has a long colorful history with parts of the original structure dating back to 1664. Today, the Academy attracts over one million visitors each year, making it one of London's top 10 attractions for paying visitors.
Air: Lond
on's City Airport. Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Luton Airport and Stansted Airport.
Rail: Underground: Piccadilly and Green Park or a short walk from Oxford Circus and Bond Street.
Road: Bus: Public services.
Contact Addresses:
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London WIJ OBD
Telephone: 020 7300 8000
Website: www.royalacademy.org.ukWhich of the following is TRUE about the Academy of Arts?
| A．It dates back to 1664. |
| B．You can't get there by underground. |
| C．It is much older than Burlington House. |
| D．It is one of London’s top 10 attractions. |
You can contact the Academy of Arts by all the following EXCEPT________________.
| A．sending an e-mail | B．writing a letter |
| C．visiting the website | D．making a call |
The main purpose of this passage is to_______________________.
| A．introduce the arts of England |
| B．introduce the well-known building of England |
| C．show the long history of England |
| D．attract more visitors to the Royal Academy of Arts |
Don’t you think it interesting that there were strange coincidences(巧合) in the deaths of President Kennedy and President Lincoln? For example, John Kennedy was elected president in 1960 while Abraham Lincoln in 1860, between which was a hundred years. Both men were killed from behind, on black Friday , and with their wives on the spot. The two men were born exactly one hundred years away, as were their murderers, Lee Oawald and John Booth. Perhaps the strangest coincidence is that President Kennedy’s secretary , whose name was Lincoln, advised the president not to go to Dallas, where the president was shot. President Lincoln’s secretary, named Kennedy, advised the president not to go to the Ford Theatre, where the president met his death.When President Lincoln and President Kennedy were killed, their wives were_______.
| A．at the cinema | B．at home | C．behind them | D．with them |
“Black Friday” means that ________.
| A．the American used to be in black on the two Fridays. |
| B．the two Fridays saw sad happenings |
| C．it was dark when the two men were killed |
| D．it was cloudy when the two men were killed |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Lincoln’s death had something to do with Kennedy’s |
| B．There were one hundred years between the two presidents’ deaths |
| C．There were one hundred years from Lincoln’s taking office to Kennedy’s |
| D．The two secretaries were born on the same day |
A small town in southwest Britain is banning (禁止) plastic bags in an attempt to help the environment and cut waste－a step that environmentalists believe is a first for Europe.
Shopkeepers in Modbury population 1,500, agreed to stop handing out disposable plastic bags to customers on Saturday. They said paper sacks and cloth carrier bags would be offered instead.
Last month, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to ban plastic grocery bags. Internationally, laws to discourage the use of plastic bags have been passed in parts of South Africa and Ireland, where governments either tax shoppers who use them or fine companies that hand them out. Bangladesh already bans them, and so do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.
Modbury, about 225 miles southwest of London, has also declared a bag ammesty (宽限期), allowing local people to hand in plastic bags that have piled up at home. They w
ill be sent for a recycling.
The Modbury ban was the idea of Rebecca Hosking, who saw the effect of bags on marine life while working in the Pacific as a wildlife camerawoman. She said response in the town so far had been “really positive”.
“Modbury is quite an old-fashioned town and a lot of people have wicker(柳条) baskets to go out shopping anyway, ”Hosking told Sky News Television.
The World Watch Institute, an environmental research agency, states that 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the United States alone. More than 500 billion are used yearly around the world.The underlined word “disposable” in the pas
sage probably means .
A．ac ceptable |
B．valuable | C．environmentally-friendly | D．long-lasting |
It can be inferred from the passage that .
| A．most of the people in Modbury continue to use plastic bags |
| B．fewer and fewer plastic bags will be used in the world |
| C．San Francisco is the first city to ban plastic bags in the world |
| D．most countries in the world have passed laws to ban plastic bags |
Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Environmental Protection | B．Big Cities Banning Plastic Bags |
| C．British Town Banning Plastic Bags | D．Effect of Plastic bags on Sea Animals |