It is expected that Pacific Island countries will become popular with Chinese tourists in 2019． Which one should you choose for your summer holiday？
Country |
What you need to know |
Language |
What you need to do |
Papua New Guinea |
It is the largest one of the Pacific Island countries． Both the mainland and its islands are perfect for deep sea diving （潜水）． |
English & Tok Pisin |
Go deep sea diving in the Solomon Sea． |
Kingdom of Tonga |
Tonga is ahead of the rest of the world： it's the first country in the world to start a new day． |
English & Tongan |
Visit the Royal Palace of Tonga． |
The Republic of Vanuatu |
It sits between Hawaii and Australia． In Vanuatu， you'll find the world's only underwater post office in the capital， Port Villa． |
English， French & Bislama |
Send a postcard from the underwater post office． |
Fiji |
Fiji is one of the world's best﹣known places for your holidy． The island's blue sea， white﹣sand beaches and the forests are well worth seeing． |
Fijian & English |
Go diving on Mana Islan． |
（1）Which country is the first one to start a new day？
A． Papua New Guinea．
B． Kingdom of Tonga．
C． The Republic of Vanuatu．
D． Fiji．
（2）People go to Fiji for their holidays mainly because ．
A． things there are well worth seeing
B． the underwater post office is exciting
C． they want to stay in the Royal Palace
D． it is the largest Pacific Island country
（3）Which language is spoken in all the four Pacific Island countries？
A． Tok Pisin．
B． French．
C． Bislama．
D． English．
（4）What is the purpose of the text？
A． To ask for some help．
B． To introduce languages．
C． To answer a question．
D． To offer holiday choices．
Chinese government has decided to give up the rules of food with no checking .According to the Xinhua News, from September 17th , 2008, Chinese government decided to give up the rules of food with no checking. Many people said yes to it. The officer said that these days, the food safety accident about children milk of Sanlu made the government decide to give it up. In order to keep the food safe and people healthy, Chinese government said that all the food must be checked. The rule of food with no checking made in 1999 was given up from that day.
“I think if the companies get the food with no checking, they will never check their food. It gives them the chance of making the food of poor quality,” an old man said in the shop. “ I hope our government not only gives it up, but also makes some strong rules to manage the companies,” a young woman told us. “ The important point is our government should send officers to the companies and check their food every time,” a shop owner said. A young expert of food safety said, “ The department of government should take the food from the shop or supermarket and check, not ask them to send. In that way, we can get the real checking.”
But in order to keep people’s health, the government asks the officers to check all the food before they are sent to the shop or supermarket. That means all the food must be checked before they are sold.You may read the passage ___________.
| A．in a letter | B．in a book | C．in a newspaper | D．in a magazine |
Chinese government decided to give up __________ from September 17, 2008.
| A．food check rules |
| B．the rules of food with checking |
| C．the rules of food with no checking |
| D．checking all the food before they are sold |
Many people __________ to check all the food.
| A．agree with | B．disagree | C．agreement | D．agree |
A young expert of food safety think the government should_________.
| A．make some strong rules to manage the companies. |
| B．take food from shop or supermarket and check |
| C．ask the companies to send food and check |
| D．send more officers to the company to check the food. |
According to the officer’s idea, all the food _________ before they are sold.
| A．must be checked | B．must be stored |
| C．must be handed in | D．can be stored for a long time |
| Name |
Personal Information |
| Norman Bethune |
Born in 1890 in Canada. A doctor Came to China in 1938 Died in 1939 in China |
| Celine Dion |
Born in Montreal, Canada A singing star In 1997, sang My Heart Will Go On for the film Titanic |
| Thomas Edison |
Born in 1847, Kentucky, USA Made over 1,000 inventions Died in 1931 |
| Bill Gates |
Born in 1955 in the USA Wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought Owns Microsoft Company |
| Mark Twain |
Born in 1835 in the USA A writer Wrote The Adventures of Tome Sawyer Died in 1910 |
________ is from Canada.
| A．Bill Gates | B．Mark Twain | C．Thomas Edison | D．Celine Dion |
The _______ was born in 1835.
| A．inventor | B．singer | C．doctor | D．writer |
My Heart Will Go On is the name of a ______.
| A．book | B．film | C．song | D．story |
Dr. Bethune worked in China for about _______ years.
| A．4 | B．8 | C．2 | D．6 |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Mark Twain wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought. |
| B．Bill Gates started working for Microsoft Company in 1955. |
| C．Thomas Edison made over 1,000 inventions. |
| D．Celine Dion stopped singing in 1997 |
There are hundreds of funny and strange expressions in the English language. A lot of them include country names or nationalities. Take these examples:
The Dutch（丹麦人）are the target of most English expressions about nationalities. Why are there so many jokes about the Dutch in English? And what do these expressions mean? In the 17th and early 18th centuries, there were three wars between the British and the Dutch, and Dutch became a bad word. So double Dutch means something that has no meaning or is impossible to understand. A Dutch uncle is someone who gives much stronger advice than they need to. There are later expressions, which are funnier and kinder, like to go Dutch, which is nowadays a popular expression. It means to pay for your part of a bill. This often happens when a group of friends have a meal together, and each person pays for the food they ate. I’m a Dutchman is another commonly used expression. This means not being able to believe something.
An expression with a similar meaning to double Dutch is it’s all Greek to me, which means I don’t understand. The expression was made famous in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar although the expression is actually hundreds of years older.
If you take French leave, you are not present or leave somewhere without permission. For example, you could take French leave from a classroom or the place where you work. This expression is from the 18th century when French people left parties without saying goodbye to the host or hostess.
There are Chinese whispers, which mean confused（令人困惑的）messages. This describes the fact that a message can often change as it is passed from person to person. This expression comes from the First World War when foreigners were often confused by Chinese language.
Many people find English expressions confusing, but now that you know about some of them, you can easily have fun finding out many more funny English expressions.Are there many jokes about the Dutch in English?
When did Dutch become a bad word?
What does “French leave” mean?
Which three expressions mentioned above have similar meanings?
What do the funny and strange expressions in the passage have in common?
When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity（身份，特性）as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same thing. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language through which we express our fears, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?
| A．Students regard music as a way of entertainment. |
| B．Students disagree with their parents on education. |
| C．Students take music as an important subject. |
| D．Students prefer the arts to science. |
In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music identifies a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science____________. .
| A．explain the world in different ways |
| B．explain different facts of the world |
| C．express people’s feelings in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Music education is worth more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music is really a good communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. |
To err is human. To blame（责备） the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes（戏谑的引语）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine（神圣的）.” This saying mirrors an ideal: People should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite – find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity（成熟）.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large companies, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary（直接推论）to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?Which of the following is NOT based on common sense?
| A．A secretary works to a timetable. |
| B．A company’s next move follows a good plan. |
| C．A girl goes out with an umbrella in stormy weather. |
| D．A man tries to manage everything in a large company. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph according to the writer?
| A．A good excuse is the same as honesty. |
| B．Inventing a good excuse needs creative ideas. |
| C．Unpleasant truth is better than a good excuse. |
| D．Making a good excuse is sometimes a better idea. |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．A Mirror of Human Nature |
| B．To Blame or to Forgive |
| C．A Mark of Maturity |
| D．Truth or Excuse |