The Festival of Cultures is an annual event to celebrate the wide range of cultures found in our great state. People representing 40 cultural groups will share their traditions and customs. Here are just a few of the festival's many activities.
Crafts: See the fine art of basket weaving from Vietnam and Zimbabewe. Watch the delicate art of making paper umbrellas from Thailand and the decorative craft of paper picado, or paper cutting, from Mexico. All craft demonstrations provide a firsthand view of how things are made. You will appreciate the process involved in making these products.
Music and Dance: Experience musical instruments that you have never heard before. Listen to the music of a sho from Japan, a bull-roarer from Australia, a sitar from India, and a chakay from Tailand. You will also be entertained by folk dances from around the world, such as the troika from Russia and the mayim mayim from Israel. From 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on August 14, special folk-dancing classes for children will be offered. Children ranging in age from 6 – 8 can learn the kinderpolka from Germany. Children ranging in age from 9 – 12 can learn the raspa from Mexico.
Storytelling: Listen for hours as professional storytellers charm you with captivating tales. Fables, folktales, and ballads from various countries will be told. By popular demand, Gwendolyn Washington, a famous African American storyteller, is back.
Food: Enjoy irresistible foods from other countries, such as gyros from Greece, seafood paella from Spain, crepes from France, and tandoori chicken from India. These tasty dishes will be difficult to pass up.
The festival of Cultures is sponsored by the World Marketplace. For more information about the festival, call (800) 555 – 0199.
1.In the festival, you are most likely to see the art of making _______.
A. paper. B. umbrellas. C. bamboo beds. D. flower vases.
2.Which of these is a dance from Germany?
A. The troika. B. The raspa. C. The kinderpolka. D. The mayim mayim
3.The underlined word “irresistible” means ________.
A. in large quantities B. with natural ta
stes
C. not able to be refused D. hot but delicious
4.For a family with children aged 6—12, which day would be the best bargain for visiting the festival?
A. August 11 B. August 12 C. August 13 D. August 14
Losing weight comes with a lot of health benefits—including making your brain sharper.
Yes, it turns out that overweight may damage cognitive functions (认知功能) such as memory and attention. There have been few studies of overweight and cognitive functioning, possibly because it is generally believed that it is not a primary risk cause for poor cognitive performance. Losing weight, therefore, may help improve these mental functions, according to a new research led by John Gunstad, assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University.
Growing evidence suggests that being fat is linked to cognitive deficits (缺陷). So Gunstad and his team guessed that losing weight might improve mental function. For their study, they measured memory and attention in a group of 150 overweight participants, some of whom had some kind of operation for weight loss and some did not. All of the volunteers completed mental skills tests to assess their abilities of memory and attention at the beginning of
the study, and again 12 weeks later. To begin with, about 24% of the patients showed damaged learning and 23% showed signs of poor memory when tested. At the end of the study, those who had lost weight after operation improved their scores into the average or above average range for cognitive functions. Scores for the volunteers who didn’t lose weight dropped even further.
The study helped Gunstad to find out whether losing weight had any effect on mental function. Now that he’s seen the positive effect that weight loss can have on memory and attention, he says he will next study those who choose to lose weight by the traditional way—eating healthier and getting more active. He expects that losing weight in this way will have a similarly positive effect on the brain. “If we can improve the condition with operations, then we can probably produce the same change with behavioral weight loss as well,” he says.
1.There is less research on overweight and cognitive functions because researchers _____.
A. believe overweight only affects our body
B. have focused on ways to sharpen people’s mind
C. do not consider overweight a main cause for low cognitive ability
D. are clear about the relation between weight and mental functions
2.The result of Gunstad’s study shows that ______.
A. losing weight has little effect on people’s memory
B. losing weight can improve people’s mental functions
C. overweight people are likely to have psychology problems
D. overweight people’s abilities of concentration differ greatly
3.What is Gunstad planning to prove next in his research?
A. Slim people are smarter than overweight people.
B. Healthy diet is better than exercise in losing weight.
C . Traditional ways of losing weight are better than operation.
D. Overweight people will get smarter by taking more exercise.
4.Which of the following is the best title for th e text?
A. Body Weight and Health
B. Losing Weight by Operation
C. Ways to Improve Mental Functions
D. Losing Weight to S harpen Your MindD
In the early hours of March 8, a Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its destination was Beijing. But for unknown reasons, it never arrived there.
There were 239 people on the Malaysia Airlines flight, including 154 Chinese. As of March 13, 12 different countries, including Malaysia, China, Vietnam and the US, were searching for the plane.
The disappearance is an “aviation (航空) mystery”, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said on March 10.There was no clear sign of a crash by March 13.
Between 1-2 hours after takeoff, the plane suddenly lost contact with people on the ground. The weather was clear, and the pilots didn’t make any calls . No evidence was found in the a
rea where the flight last made contact. People are also talking about a possible hijacking (劫机).
International police agency Interpol confirmed on March 9 that at least two passengers on the flight had used stolen passports to get on board. “We are looking at all possibilities,” said Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein. The incident is now being called simply a “plane disappearance”.
So, what are some possible causes of a plane disappearance? An AP story provided a summary.
1. A failure of the plane’s body or its engines. However, even if both engines stopped working, the plane could still glide (滑翔) for up to 20 minutes, giving pilots time to make an emergency call.
2. Bad weather. Planes are designed to fly through most severe storms. However, in June 2009, an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed during a bad storm over the Atlantic Ocean.
3. A bomb. Throughout history, several planes have been brought down by bombs.
4. An accidental shoot-down by some country’s military. In July 1988, the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iran Air flight. In September 1983, a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down by a Russian fighter jet.
No matter how unlikely a situation, it’s too early to determine what really happened to MH370. It could take months, if not years, to rule out any possibilities, say experts..
1.How many cities are mentioned in this passage?
A. Four cities.B. five cities.C. Six cities.D. Seven cities.
2.What could the underlined phrase “rule out” in the last paragraph mean?
A. cross outB. get rid ofC. take outD. take the place of
3.What could be the best title of the passage?
A. An Air CrashB. The Causes of the Disappearance
C. The Disappearance of MH 370D. An Aviation Mystery
When us teenager Jake Olson isn’t playing football or golf for his high school, he’s often offering inspiration through his new book about his own life.
These activities might be too much for the average 16-year-old to deal with, but Jake is blind. When people ask him how he can possibly play golf without being able to see the ball, he says he is thankful for his father’s guidance.
It seems apparent that his early experience playing sports as a person with sight and muscle memory— repeating behaviors over and over until they become second nature — have also enabled Jake to hit the ball quite well.
Jake was born with a rare kind of eye cancer that took away the vision from his left eye when he was an infant and eventually his right eye, in 2009, when he was 12 years old. Rather than letting the disease hold him back, Jake used his loss of sight and his faith as sources of motivation .
“If I was going to sit on the couch all day feeling sorry for myself, I wasn’t going to do anything. I decided right then and there that I wasn’t going to let it stop me and that I was going to go out and persevere (坚持不懈),” he said.
It was with that mind-set that the student from Orange Lutheran High School in California was able to write his first book, Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life. “It’s about opening the readers’ eyes to their true potential in life and making sure that they use all the abilities that they have,” Jake said.
Jake’s father, Brian Olson, said the family is impressed with what he has done with his life, including showing people that they can get through hardships. “Your darkest hour can soon become your brightest, and with every setback, there’s a setup,” Jake said. “In every one of us, there’s more potential than we can ever imagine, and it really is a choice.”
1.We can learn from the article that Jake Olson ______.
A. was born a blind child
B. could have been a golf master
C. has great muscle memory
D. is trying to find the cure for his disease
2.According to the article, Jake’s family members ______.
A. pity him deeply
B. once gave up hope on him
C. encouraged him to write the book
D. admire his efforts and determination
3.The purpose of the book Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life is to ______.
A. promote good approaches to get
ting along with disabled people
B. inspire people to discover and use their hidden abilities
C. help people come up with better life goals
D. explain different definitions of “a happier life”
4.The underlined word “setback” is closest in meaning to ______.
A. fight B. failureC. opportunity D. success
假定你是李华，你的英国笔友正在写一篇关于各国中学生课外阅读(extra-curricular reading)情况的调查报告，他给你发了一封电子邮件，想了解相关情况。请你根据以下提示，给他回一封电子邮件。
你校学生课外阅读的现状；
原因分析；
你的看法；
注意：1.根据所给提示，适当发挥，要求内容充实，语意连贯。
2.字数不少于100。开头和结尾已经写好，不计入总词数。
3.邮件中不得提及考生所在学校及本人姓名。
Dear Helen,
Thank you for your email. Now I would like to tell you something about
Best wishes!
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文，文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（/\）,并在该句下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线（___），并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从11处起）不计分。
Dear Lucy,
I am very excited to learn that you’re coming to Xi’an for travel. Both my parent miss you a lot. So is our friend, Ruby. April is best time of the year to visit Xi’an. There is only a few rain and the weather is neither too hot or too cold. There are so many places I wanted to take you to after I finish my work like a volunteer in the local charity. When you come, you can stay with ourselves. My house is about three kilometers far away from Xi’an Moslem Street where is full of local foods.
Best regards,
Janet
