Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. Or, in summer, they may think it is the heat. However, the real reason lies inside their bodies. At that time – about eight hours after you wake up – your body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleep habits in experiments where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern. They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.
In many parts of the world, people take naps(小睡) in the middle of the day. This is especially true in warmer climates(气候), where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate. A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind and therefore is good for health in general. In countries where naps are traditional, people often suffer less from problems such as heart disease.
Many working people, unfortunately, have no time to take naps. Though doctors may advise taking naps, employers do not allow it! If you do have the chance, however, here are a few tips about making the most of your nap. Remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time, try a short nap – even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.Why do people feel sleepy in the early afternoon according to the text?
| A．They eat too much for lunch. |
| B．They sleep too little at night. |
| C．Their body temperature becomes lower. |
| D．The weather becomes a lot warmer. |
If you get up at 6:30 am, what is the best time for you to take a nap?
| A．About 12:30 pm. | B．About 1:30 pm. |
| C．About 2:30 pm | D．About 3:30 pm |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Taking a Rest |
| B．Taking a Nap |
| C．A Special Sleep Pattern. |
| D．Taking Naps in Warmer Climate. |
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。
(2012年辽宁卷，C)If Confucius(孔子) were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake，there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day，few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal. Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past two decades，the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently，the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art，history and philosophy(哲学)．Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Western philosophy. Students in the United States，at the same time，are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever，and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker，he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West，even if his birthday is.The opening paragraph is mainly intended to ________.
| A．provide some key facts about Confucius |
| B．attract the readers' interest in the subject |
| C．show great respect for the ancient thinker |
| D．prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations |
We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students ________.
| A．have a great interest in studying Chinese |
| B．take an active part in Chinese competitions |
| C．try to get high scores in Chinese exams |
| D．fight for a chance to learn Chinese |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Forgotten Wisdom in America |
| B．Huge Fans of the Chinese Language |
| C．Chinese Culture for Westerners |
| D．Old Thinker with a Big Future |
The passage is likely to appear in ________.
| A．a biography |
| B．a history paper |
| C．a newspaper |
| D．a philosophy textbook |
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。
(2012年北京模拟)Employment practices often reflect the needs of employers several decades ago. Times have changed. And so too has the Canadian workforce. Yet many employment practices have not kept pace with this change. For example，some work environments and washrooms designed for able-bodied workers seldom accommodate people who use a wheelchair.
Modernizing these practices is what employment equality is about. For example，making sure work benches and washrooms are adapted for disabled people entering the workplace，paving the way for workers who become disabled on the job. By doing so，any given group of people－formerly discriminated against－now has access to better employment opportunities.
The objective，of course，is to make the workplace reflect Canadian society. However，this does not necessarily mean setting and enforcing quotas(实行配额)．Rather，it means identifying the barriers to employment and designing measures，with achievable goals and clear timetables，to remove them.
For example，according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees－Canada's largest union，it would be unrealistic in the short term to insist that because half of the working age population is women，that half of the employees of an engineering firm should be women. At this moment，there would not be enough qualified female engineers.
A reasonable numerical goal would be based on the number of women who actually are engineers(8%) and those who are studying to become engineers(25%)．A short term goal of 13% would be appropriate without running the risk of hiring unqualified people.
Equally important is to ensure people who have been disadvantaged the chance to become qualified for new opportunities. If aboriginal people(土著居民)，for example，can't qualify for certain jobs because they haven't had access to appropriate educational opportunities，then an employment equality program would have to address that problem with training programs.
Employment laws in this country cannot be considered displeasing if they guarantee all Canadians fair and equal access to the workforce.The passage is mainly about how to ________.
| A．modernize equipment for the disabled at work |
| B．achieve equality of employment opportunities |
| C．protect women's rights in employment |
| D．complete a job training program |
The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 3 refers to ________.
| A．barriers |
| B．measures |
| C．goals |
| D．timetables |
The example of women shows that ________.
| A．only a small percentage of women engineers will get promoted |
| B．13% of the working age women should be hired |
| C．policy makers should adopt a practical and flexible approach |
| D．the quota of women for employment should be raised |
The underlined word “address” in Paragraph 6 probably means ________.
| A．put forward |
| B．run into |
| C．find out |
| D．deal with |
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。
(2012年沈阳模拟)They're so young! What sets apart (区别) the new TV adaptation (改编) of the classic novel A Dream of Red Mansions is the youthfulness of the players.
The producers made a great effort to bring in young actors. Most of them were born in the late 1980s and 1990s. At the same time, a team of 20somethings was given responsibility for adapting the novel for TV screens.
It is unusual for a director to pick a group of young people with little scriptwriting (写剧本) experience to take on such a big task. Most would expect the job to be given to more seasoned (经验丰富的) writers.
“I understand why director Li Shaohong has taken this unusual approach，” writes movie critic Raymond Zhou in China Daily. “She wants the drama to resonate (共鸣) with today's young people.”
Besides giving the remake a youthful flavor, Li also wanted to go back to the original. The popular 1986 adaptation left out many important parts of the novel that were considered superstitious (迷信的) back then. For this adaptation Li wanted strict faith to A Dream of Red Mansions, to make sure young audiences will get a real sense of the novel.
However, since people know the 1986 adaptation so well, they compare the old and new shows. The costumes, makeup and scenery in new drama are controversial (被争论的). Nie Lina, 16, of Yantai No.1 High School in Shandong Province, believes it is a bad idea for actors to have such strange hairstyles. The actors remind me of Peking Opera performers, not people living in Qing Dynasty time. Li Youran, 16, of Nanjing Foreign Language School, complains the music is strange and some scenes are scary. She also believes the actors are not playing in the spirit of the characters.
But Zhou defends (捍卫) the remake as an attempt at faithful adaptation. The value of the adaptation of a novel should be judged (评价) by how faithful it is to the novel—it shouldn't be judged against another adaptation. However, Zhou also argues that a director has the right to make his or her own work of art：an artist has the right to interpret (阐释) a classic based on his or her own understanding...You may not like it, but you cannot deny (否认) him or her that right.Which of the following statements is the difference between the new adaptation and the old one?
| A．The actors are very famous. |
| B．The actors are very young. |
| C．The director is very famous. |
| D．The producers are very young. |
According to Zhou，a movie critic，the director Li Shaohong picked young players because ________.
| A．she wanted today's young people love the new drama |
| B．she wanted to train young actors |
| C．she liked to attempt a new unusual approach |
| D．she thought the new drama is fit for young players to act |
Besides the youthfulness，the director wants to make the new adaptation ________.
| A．superstitious |
| B．sensible |
| C．faithful |
| D．unexpected |
What does the underlined word in the third paragraph mean，according to the passage?
| A．young |
| B．old |
| C．famous |
| D．experienced |
According to the audiences，which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Most audiences are satisfied with the new drama. |
| B．Lina believes the music in the drama is strange. |
| C．Zhou thinks it is right to be faithful. |
| D．Li Youran thinks it is wrong for players to have strange hairstyles. |
阅读下面的短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出最佳选项。
E
Some dances gain more popularity than others because they can be performed to different kinds of music and the steps change accordingly. One such dance is the waltz.
There is a basic form for the waltz, which you can see in this drawing of a dancing couple. The man places one arm around the woman's waist and she places her opposite hand on his shoulder. Then, they stretch their arms out from their bodies and clasp hands. If someone tries to teach you a formal kind of dancing, chances are you teacher will start with the waltz. Have you ever tried to dance like this?
There are lots of different kinds of waltzes, all performed to different types of waltz music. The music might be fast or slow but what they all have is a regular onetwothree, onetwothree rhythm.
The traditional form is the oldschool waltz in which dancers turn all the time with a hopping, springy step. This waltz has a slow, smooth, gliding step. There's also the Mexican watlz, which moves much faster. Listen to this Mexican watlz music and you can imagine how fast the dancers had to move.
Formal dancing has even become a profession, with people entering competitions. Have you ever seen a formal dance competition?
Today, ballroom dancing is almost considered a competitive sport; professionals perform different dancers, each with strict rules. Everything from where the dancers place their hands to how they move is judged. In the glide waltz, dancers are judged by how smoothly they move. “I can dance with a glass of water on my head，”is a well known sentence used by skilled dancers in the old days. In the past, some people learned how to dance by reading books, while others studied with a teacher called the“dancing master.” How do people learn to dance today?When a couple are dancing, ________.
| A．the girl places one arm around the man's waist |
| B．the man puts one hand on the girl's shoulder |
| C．they stand face to face with one of their hands held together |
| D．the man puts one arm around the girl's waist and the other on her shoulder |
Why do the dancers move fast in the Mexican waltz?
| A．To keep up with the music. |
| B．To show how well they perform. |
| C．To catch up with the other dancers. |
| D．To show the difference of the dance. |
What do the different types of Waltz have in common?
| A．They use the same kind of music. |
| B．They share the same kind of steps. |
| C．Their speed are the same. |
| D．They have the same kind of rhythm. |
If one says“I can dance with a glass of water on my head”， we know that________.
| A．he is a good dancer |
| B．he is a beginner |
| C．he is practicing dancing |
| D．he is tired of dancing |
阅读下面的短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中，选出最佳选项。
D
In Britain, school is compulsory for children aged from five to sixteen, when they can leave or stay on for another two years. Primary schools take children from the ages of five to eleven; secondary schools from then until they leave.
The school year is from midSeptember to midJuly. There are three terms of about twelve weeks each. Normal school hours are from about 900 to about 400, five days a week, Monday to Friday.
Every school must give lessons in physical and religious education by law. No other subjects are compulsory in this way, but all schools consider English language and mathematics their most important subjects, and offer a wide range of other courses.
In many schools there is organized sport for all pupils at least one afternoon a week. Football, netball, hockey, tennis, cricket, swimming and athletics are the most commonly taught.
From fifteen, pupils normally take seven or eight subjects. These are two public exams: the CSE(Certificate of Secondary Education)and the more difficult GES“O”level(the“O”stand for“ordinary”). In both you pass or fail each subject. What matters is how many passes you get.
Those who do not leave at sixteen take two or three subjects for GCE“A”(advanced)level after a twoyear course. Universities and colleges differ in the way they select their students, but two good passes at “A”level is the minimum requirement for most universities. Oxford and Cambridge are more selective, and hold their own entrance exams.
University courses for a first degree normally take three or four years, and are in one main subject and possibly a second, subsidiary subject.In Britain, how many years can a child enjoy compulsory education?
| A．14. |
| B．12. |
| C．11. |
| D．13. |
Which subjects are obliged to be taught in Britain?
| A．Physical culture and law. |
| B．Religion and law. |
| C．Physical culture and religion. |
| D．English and mathematics. |
In the sentence“What matters is how many passes you get”， the word“pass”means________.
| A．a successful result in an examination |
| B．an official piece of paper with writing on which it shows |
| C．a way by which one may move |
| D．an act of moving past |
For most universities, what is the requirement for their enrollment?
| A．Not mentioned in the article. |
| B．2 good passes at“A” level of GCE. |
| C．2 good passes in GCE “O”． |
| D．2 good passes in GSE “A”． |