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The common cold is the world's most widespread illness, which is plagues (瘟疫) that flesh receives. The most widespread fallacy (谬误) of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one.

If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.

　　During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches (战壕) cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds. In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp (奥斯维辛集中营), naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds.

　　At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be dipped with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.

　　If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.

　　No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain-killer pills such as aspirin, but all they do is relieve the symptoms.

1.How many examples are offered by the writer to support his argument?

2.Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage?

3.Arctic explorers may catch colds when _______.

4.Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit _______.

5.The passage mainly discusses _______.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870), the great nineteenth century English novelist, was born near Portsmouth. His father ran heavily into debt and when he was twelve, he had to go and work in a factory for making boot polish. The only formal education he received was a two-year schooling at a school for poor children. In fact, he had to teach himself all he knew. He worked for a time as junior clerk in a lawyer's office. After that, he worked as a reporter in the law courts, and later in parliament, for London newspapers. His career as a writer of fiction began in 1833 with short stories and essays in periodicals, and in 1837 his comic novel The Pickwick Papers made him the most popular author at his time in England.

　　He was a great observer of people and their places because he was attracted by life and conditions in mid-nineteenth century London. He wrote 19 novels all his life and in many of them, Dickens gave a realistic picture of all classes of England society, showing deep sympathy for the poor and unfortunate, exposing the injustice and inhumanity（不人道） of the bourgeoisie（布尔乔亚阶级）.

　　Many of his novels like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and so on drew attention to the unsatisfactory social conditions that existed in England over a hundred years ago.

　　Dickens criticized capitalist society from the point of view of bourgeois humanism. He wished to see improvement in the living conditions of the poor, but failed to find any effective means to achieve that end.

1.Dickens only received a little formal education because______.

2.According to Dickens, the society at his time in England was________.

3.Which of the following novel made Dickens the most popular writer at his time in England?

4.According to the passage, which of the following about Dickens is true?

5.It can be inferred from the passage that________.

In the United States, when one became 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 lifestyle 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.

1.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.

2.It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.

3.The underlined word “neighbourhood” in the second paragraph means ________.

4.Arthur Momand used the name ‘Jones’ in his series of short stories because’ Jones’ is ________.

5.According to the writer, keeping up with the Joneses is ________.

Born in Italy, Galileo Galilei, was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist. He is closely associated with the 36     (science) revolution. For his great achievements, he has been referred to as the “father of modern astronomy”, as the “father of modern physics”, and as “father of science”. The work of Galileo 37         (consider) to be a significant break from that of Aristotle. In addition, his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church is taken as 38     major early example of the conflict of authority and freedom of thought, particularly with science, 39      Western society. He was a man 40      experimented—never did he take anything for granted. Instead, he despised（蔑视） the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians and drew his 41      (conclude) fearlessly. He had been the first 42     (turn) a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow（推翻） Aristotle and Ptolemy together. Although Galileo found 43       difficult for him to make people 44      (convince) of his theories, he still stuck to his views. His observations showed the theory that the earth moves around the sun was right. It was only many years later 45     the world recognized his greatness.