When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation (住所). I suggested that they should stay at “bed and breakfast” houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.
“We didn’t stay at bed and breakfast houses,” they said, “because we found that most families were away on holiday.”
I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought “VACANCIES” meant “holidays”, because the Spanish word for “holidays” is “vacaciones”. So they did not go to house where the sign outside said ‘VACANCLES’, which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to house where the sign said ‘NO VACANCLES’, because they thought this meant the people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels!
We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word “DIVERSION” means fun. In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word “DIVERSION” on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hold.
English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris. when someone offered me some more coffee, I said ‘Thank you’ in French. I meant that I would like some more, However , to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that ‘Thank you’ in French means ‘No, thank you.’
1. My Spanish friends wanted advice about ______.
A. learning English B. finding places to stay in England
C. driving their car on English roads D. going to England by car
2. I suggested that they stay at bed and breakfast houses because ______.
A. they would be able to practise their English
B. it would be much cheaper than staying in hotels
C. it would be convenient for them to have dinner
D. there would be no problem about finding accommodation there
3. “NO VACANCIES” in English means ______.
A. no free rooms B. free rooms C. not away on holiday D. holidays
4. If you see a road sign that says ‘Diversion’, you will ______.
A. fall into a hole
B. have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself
C. find that the road is blocked by crowds of people
D. have to take a different road
5. When someone offered me more coffee and I said “Thank you” in French, I ______.
A didn’t really want any more coffee B. wanted them to take the coffee pot away
C. really wanted some more coffee D. wanted to express my politeness
Lead（铅） deposits, which accumulated（增加） in soil and snow during the 1960's and 70's, were primarily the result of leaded gasoline emissions originating in the United States. In the twenty years that the Clean Air Act has mandated（托管） unleaded gas use in the United States, the lead accumulation world-wide has decreased greatly.
A study published recently in the journal Nature shows that air-borne leaded gas emissions from the United States were the leading contributor to the high concentration of lead in the snow in Greenland. The new study is a result of the continued research led by Dr. Charles Boutron, an expert on the impact of heavy metals on the environment at the National Center for Scientific Research in France. A study by Dr. Boutron published in 1991 showed that lead levels in arctic (北极的) snow were declining（减少）.
In his new study, Dr. Boutron found the ratios of the different forms of lead in the leaded gasoline used in the United States were different from the ratios of European, Asian and Canadian gasoline and thus enabled scientists to differentiate (分区) the lead sources. The dominant lead ratio found in Greenland snow matched that found in gasoline from the United States.
In a study published in the journal Ambio, scientists found that lead levels in soil in the North-eastern United States had decreased markedly since the introduction of unleaded gasoline. Many scientists had believed that the lead would stay in soil and snow for a longer period.
The authors of the Ambio study examined samples of the upper layers of soil taken from the same sites of 30 forest floors in New England, New York and Pennsylvania in 1980 and in 1990. The forest environment processed and redistributed (再分配)the lead faster than the scientists had expected. Scientists say both studies show that certain parts of the ecosystem (生态系统 ) respond rapidly to reductions in atmospheric pollution, but that these findings should not be used as a license to pollute.
1. The study published in the journal Nature indicates that ________.
A. the Clean Air Act has not produced the desired results
B. lead deposits in arctic snow are on the increase
C. lead will stay in soil and snow longer than expected
D. the US is the major source of lead pollution in arctic snow
2. Lead accumulation worldwide decreased significantly after the use of unleaded gas in the US ________.
A. was discouraged B. was carried out by law
C. was forbidden by law D. was introduced
3. How did scientists discover the source of lead pollution in Greenland?
A. By analyzing the data published in journals like Nature and Ambio.
B. By observing the lead accumulations in different parts of the arctic area.
C. By studying the chemical elements of soil and snow in Northeastern America.
D. By comparing the chemical compositions of leaded gasoline used in various countries.
4. The authors of the Ambio study have found that ________.
A forests get rid of lead pollution faster than expected
B. lead accumulations in forests are more difficult to deal with
C. lead deposits are widely distributed in the forests of the US
D. the upper layers of soil in forests are easily polluted by lead emissions
5. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that scientists ________.
A. are puzzled by the mystery of forest pollution
B. feel ease by the use of unleaded gasoline
C. still consider lead pollution a problem
D. lack enough means to combat lead pollution
If you want to teach your children how to say sorry, you must be good at saying it yourself, especially to your own children. But how you say it can be quite tricky. If you say to your children "I'm sorry I got angry with you, but …" what follows that "but" can make the apology ineffective: "I had a bad day" or "your noise was giving me a headache " leaves the person who has been injured feeling that he should be apologizing for his bad behavior in expecting an apology.
Another method by which people appear to apologize without actually doing so is to say "I'm sorry you're upset"; this suggests that you are somehow at fault for allowing yourself to get upset by what the other person has done.
Then there is the general, all covering apology, which avoids the necessity of identifying a specific act that was particularly hurtful or insulting, and which the person who is apologizing should promise never to do again. Saying "I'm useless as a parent" does not commit a person to any specific improvement.
These pseudo(假的)-apologies are used by people who believe saying sorry shows weakness. Parents who wish to teach their children to apologize should see it as a sign of strength, and therefore not resort to these pseudo-apologies.
But even when presented with examples of contrition（悔悟）, children still need help to become aware of the complexities of saying sorry. A three-year-old boy might need help in understanding that other children feel pain just as he does, and that hitting a playmate over the head with a heavy toy requires an apology. A six-year-old boy might need reminding that spoiling other children's expectations can require an apology. A 12-year-old might need to be shown that taking the biscuit tin without asking permission is acceptable, but that borrowing a parent's clothes without permission is not.
1. If a mother adds "but" to an apology, _______.
A. she doesn't feel that she should have apologized
B. she does not realize that the child has been hurt
C. the child may find the apology easier to accept
D. the child may feel that he owes her an apology
2. According to the author, saying "I'm sorry you're upset" most probably means "_______".
A. You have good reason to get upset
B. I'm aware you're upset, but I'm not to blame
C. I apologize for hurting your feelings
D. I'm at fault for making you upset
3. It is not advisable to use the general, all-covering apology because _______.
A. it gets one into the habit of making empty promises
B. it may make the other person feel guilty
C. it is vague and ineffective
D. it is hurtful and insulting
4. We learn from the last paragraph that in teaching children to say sorry _______.
A. the complexities involved should be ignored
B. their ages should be taken into thinking
C. parents need to set them a good example
D. parents should be patient and tolerant
5. It can be inferred from the passage that apologizing properly is _______.
A. a social issue calling for immediate attention B. not necessary among family members
C. a sign of social progress D. not as simple as it seems
Space is a dangerous place, not only because of meteors (流星 ) but also because of rays from the sun and other stars. The atmosphere again acts as our protective blanket on earth. Light gets through, and this is essential for plants to make the food which we eat. Heat, too, makes our environment endurable（可忍受的）. Various kinds of rays come through the air from outer space, but enormous quantities of radiation（辐射） from the sun are screened off. As soon as men leave the atmosphere they are exposed to this radiation but their spacesuits or the walls of their spacecraft, if they are inside, do prevent a lot of radiation damage.
Radiation is the greatest known danger to explorers in space. The unit of radiation is called "rem". Scientists have reason to think that a man can put up with far more radiation than 0.1 rem without being damaged; the figure of 60 rems has been agreed on. The trouble is that it is extremely difficult to be sure about radiation damage - a person may feel perfectly well, but the cells of his or her sex organs may be damaged, and this will no be discovered until the birth of abnormal children or even grandchildren.
Missions of the Apollo flights have had to cross belts of high amount of rems. So far, no dangerous amounts of radiation have been reported, but the Apollo missions have been quite short. We simply do not know yet how men are going to get on when they spend weeks and months outside the protection of the atmosphere, working in a space laboratory. Drugs might help to decrease the damage done by radiation, but no really effective ones have been found so far.
1. According to the first paragraph, the atmosphere is essential to man in that ____.
A. it protects him against the harmful rays from space
B. it provides sufficient light for plant growth
C. it supplies the heat necessary for human survival
D. it screens off the falling meteors
2. We know from the passage that ____.
A. exposure to even tiny amounts of radiation is deadly
B. the effect of exposure to radiation is slow in coming
C. radiation is avoidable in space exploration
D. astronauts in spacesuits needn't worry about radiation damage
3. The harm radiation has done to the Apollo crew members ____
A. is significant B. seems overestimated
C. is enormous D. remains unknown
4. It can be inferred from the passage that ____.
A. the Apollo mission was very successful
B. protection from space radiation is no easy job
C. astronauts will have deformed children or grandchildren
D. radiation is not a threat to well-protected space explorers
45. The best title for this passage would be ____.
A. The Atmosphere and Our Environment B. Research on Radiation
C. Effects of Space Radiation D. Importance of Protection Against Radiation
In the early days of the internet, many people worried that as people in the rich world embraced new computing and communications technologies, people in the poor world would be left stranded on the wrong side of a "digital divide." Yet the debate over the digital divide is founded on a myth that plugging poor countries into the internet will help them to become rich rapidly.
This is highly unlikely, because the digital divide is not a problem in itself, but a symptom of deeper, more important divides: of income, development and literacy（识字）. Fewer people in poor countries than in rich ones own computers and have access to the internet simply because they are too poor, are illiterate, or have other more immediate concerns, such as food, health care and security. So even if it were possible to wave a magic wand（棒） and cause a computer to appear in every household on earth, it would not achieve very much: a computer is not useful if you have no food or electricity and cannot read. Yet such Wand-waving - through the construction of specific local infrastructure（基础设施） projects such as rural tele-centers--is just the sort of thing for which the UN's new fund is intended.
This sort of thing is the wrong way to go about addressing the inequality in access to digital technologies: it is treating the symptoms, rather than the underlying（下面） causes. The benefits of building rural computing centers, for example, are unclear. Rather than trying to close the divide for the sake of it, the more sensible goal is to determine how best to use technology to promote bottom-up development. And the answer to that question turns out to be remarkably clear: by promoting the spread not of PCs and the Internet, but of mobile phones.
1. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Plugging poor countries into the Internet will help them to become rich rapidly.
B. Poor countries should be given more basic devices other than advanced ones.
C. Rich countries should help poor ones become rich.
D. People in poor countries cannot afford devices such as computer.
2. What did the author mean by referring "digital divide." (Line 3, Para. 1)?
A. Digital technology will make the gap between rich world and poor world wider.
B. Digital technology will divide people into rich and poor world.
C. People can be divided digitally.
D. To divide people in digital world is wrong.
3. We can infer from the 2nd paragraph that_______.
A. people in poor countries cannot use computer because of illiteracy.
B. poor people cannot use computers.
C. there would be no magic to cause a computer to appear in every household on earth.
D. people in poor countries need more basic living conditions than computers.
4. Considering the following sentences, which one would the author most agree?
A. Digital technology is useless.
B. Digital divide will help poor countries become rich.
C. Poor people need more immediate concerns, such as food, health care and security.
D. Mobile phones should be promoted firstly.
5. The following passage will probably be:
A. How to promote using of mobile phones.
B. How to use technology to promote bottom-up development.
C. The benefits of building rural computing centers.
D. How to meet the need of food, health and security in poor countries.
The French word renaissance means rebirth. It was first used in 1855 by the historian Jules Michelet in his History of France, then adopted by historians of culture, by art historians, and eventually by music historians, all of whom applied it to European culture during the 150 years spanning 1450-1600. The concept of rebirth was appropriate to this period of European history because of the renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture that began in Italy and then spread throughout Europe. Scholars and artists of this period wanted to restore the learning and ideals of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome. To these scholars this meant a return to human. Fulfillment in life became a desirable goal, and expressing the entire range of human emotions and enjoying the pleasures of the senses were no longer frowned on. Artists and writers now turned to religious subject matter and sought to make their works understandable and appealing.
These changes in outlook deeply affected the musical culture of the Renaissance period--- how people thought about music as well as the way music was composed and experienced. They could see the architectural monuments, sculptures, plays, and poems that were being rediscovered, but they could not actually hear ancient music --- although they could read the writings of classical philosophers, poets, essayists, and music theorists that were becoming available in translation. They learned about the power of ancient music to move the listener and wondered why modern music did not have the same effect. For example, the influential religious leader Bernardino Cirillo expressed disappointment with the learned music of his time. He urged musicians to follow the example of the sculptors, painters, architects, and scholars who had rediscovered ancient art and literature.
The musical Renaissance in Europe was more a general cultural movement and state of mind than a specific set of musical techniques. Furthermore, music changed so rapidly during this century and a half-though at different rates in different countries---that we cannot define a single Renaissance style.
1. What does the author mean by using the word “eventually” in line 3?
A. That music historians used the term “Renaissance” after the other historians did
B. That most music historians used the term “Renaissance”
C. The term “Renaissance” became widely used by art historians but not by music historians
D. That music historians used the term “Renaissance” very differently than it had been used by Jules Michelet
2. The phrase "frowned on" in line 9 is closest in meaning to
A. given up B. forgotten about C. argued about D. disapproved of
3. It can be inferred from the passage that thinkers of the Renaissance were seeking a rebirth of__.
A. communication among artists across Europe
B. spirituality in everyday life
C. a cultural emphasis on human values
D. religious themes in art that would accompany the traditional secular themes
4. According to the passage, why was Bemardino Cirillo disappointed with the music of his time?
A. It was not complex enough to appeal to musicians.
B. It had little emotional impact on audiences.
C. It was too dependent on the art and literature of his time.
D. It did not contain enough religious themes.
5. Which of the following is mentioned in the passage as a reason for the absence of a single Renaissance musical style?
A. The musical Renaissance was defined by technique rather than style.
B. The musical Renaissance was too short to give rise to a new musical style.
C. Renaissance musicians adopted the styles of both Greek and Roman musicians.
D. During the Renaissance, music never remained the same for very long.
