Mayor Bill de Blasio designated(指定) the Lunar New Year an official public school holiday in New York City in June, 2015.
The move came after de Blasio in March, 2015 declared school holidays on the most-observed holiday in Islam, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. De Blasio, making good on a promise made during his 2013 mayoral campaign, said students would also have a day off on the Lunar New Year, and not long ago the Asian holiday took place on February 8, 2016.
"About 15% of the city’s school system is of Asian descent(血统), and many student, have been taking the day off as a sick day” said State Senator Daniel Squadron. “It’s a big deal,” he said, whose district includes Manhattan’s Chinatown. “Families have had to choose between their most important cultural celebration and missing a day of school.”
The city’s Department of Education had been working on the practical arrangements for adding another holiday while maintaining the legal 180 school days. The problem was solved by combining two half days that previously did not count towards the total to form a single full day that can be counted towards the total. After San Francisco, New York is the second major urban school district to add the Lunar New Year to the official school calendar.
“This holiday is not about kids just getting a day off from school,” said Assemblyman Ron Kim. “It’s about the City of New York telling hundreds of Asian-American societies that America is a cultural melting pot.” Kim said recognizing the holiday is one way of pushing back against feelings of isolation and marginalization(边缘化) felt by the Asian-American community.
1.What does the underlined party in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Make use of.B. Stand by.C. Keep up with.D. Go against.
2.How does New York make the Lunar New Year an official public school holiday?
A. By cancelling a legal 1-day holiday.
B. By copying the way of San Francisco.
C. By adding a new full day to the school calendar.
D. By changing the legal 180 school days.
3.What do we know from Ron Kim’s words?
A. He’s opposed to the new school holiday.
B. Asian culture is valued most in New York.
C. Asian culture is part of the American society.
D. The holiday wipes out Asian Americans’ isolation.
4.What’s the best title for this passage?
A. A new public school holiday in New York
B. A promise made by the mayor of New York
C. Cultural differences between America and Asia
D. A revolution of the Lunar New Year in New York
The best family vacation that ever had was going on a road trip to Myrtle Beach. The trip was for 2 weeks during the March break from school. This trip was probably about 20 years ago so it was before the time of things like portable video games and being able to watch movies in the back seat.
So to pass the many hours of travel my brother and I had to entertain ourselves and each other. My mum would set the back set up so that it was out own little playroom. She would pack everything up in the feet well so that we had a big level area to play in. We would play cards and board games.
When it got to the point that we were at each other’s throats we would be sent back to out own side of the seat and would be forced to either nap or read by ourselves until we could be friendly to each other again. I can remember us playing for quite some time when we turned the back seat into a spaceship and travelled around the earth.
Another time we turned it into a kitchen and had a bake-off（食品烘烤赛）. But the thing that I remember the most and that gave us many hours of enjoyment was using each other’s faces as silly Plasticine(普萊斯蒂辛橡皮泥) and making funny faces. We would see how far we could stretch each other’s mouth open, see how thin we could make the other’s eye by pulling on it. We would keep going until one of us begged for mercy because we had to give our faces a rest.
So while I can remember us having a great time on the beach, laughing a lot trying to put the tent up in the rain, what I remember the most of that trip and what always makes me smile the most is remembering the pain that our faces would be in after the trip.
1.What did the author do when traveling to Myrtle Beach?
A. Watch movies.
B. Play video games.
C. Have fun with his brother.
D. Pack things up to amuse himself.
2.What does the author mean by saying “we were at each other’s throats”?
A. We were fighting with each other.
B. We used up our skills.
C. We were quite out of breath.
D. We were about to fall asleep.
3.What impressed the author most during the trip?
A. Playing cards and board games.
B. Pulling each other’s faces and eyes.
C. Having a cooking competition.
D. Playing with silly Plasticine.
4.Which of the following titles would best suit the passage?
A. An Unforgettable Family Travel
B. What Is the Most Meaningful Journey
C. The Good Old Day Never to Be Forgotten
D. How to Kill Time while Traveling in the Past
For the Travel section, writers and editors selected special items to profile from a dozen cities.
Brussels: Chocolate.
Nearly half the chocolate consumed in the world is eaten in Europe, and Belgium—with average consumption of 14.99 pounds per person a year—certainly covers its fair share. While Brussels, the country’s capital, is home to hundreds of chocolate makers, what makes a visit necessary is the rich heritage of traditional chocolate makers.
Budapest: Paprika(红辣椒)
The job of preparing Hungarian paprika was once considered too dangerous for mothers to do. A woman who touched her children upon returning from work risked burning them, so only the elderly and unmarried were allowed the delicate task of separating the skin from the flesh. But by the early 20th century, sweeter varieties and a machine turned paprika into a common feature of all Hungarian cuisine.
Lisbon: Tiles(瓷砖)
Is there a bluer country than Portugal? The blue sky and Atlantic Ocean embrace the land. The blue moods of Fado, the dark folk music, form the national soundtrack. And all across Portugal, the typically—blue designs of azulejos—ceramic tiles—are spread across churches, castles, palaces, university halls, parks. The result is a beautiful land of Christian saints, Portuguese kings, historical glories, aristocrats(贵族) at leisure, seascapes and so on.
Madrid: Guitars
Walking into one the Madrid’s storied guitar makers’ workshops can feel like stepping into the past. Curly wood shavings, from the palest pine to ebony, fall onto the floor as artisans(工匠) turn some humble wood into works of art. It’s painstaking work—all done by hand—with classical guitar models and the methods of making them changing little over the last century.
1.What does the job of preparing Hungarian paprika suggest?
A. The popularity of Hungarian peppers.
B. The difficult of processing peppers.
C. The unique tradition in Budapest.
D. The hot level of Hungarian peppers.
2.Which city can be a splendid setting for a film?
A. Brussels.B. Budapest.C. Lisbon.D. Madrid.
3.What’s the similarity of the four items?
A. They’re all treasures of a city.
B. They all date back several centuries.
C. Their production processes are all painstaking.
D. They all win popularity in most European countries.
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（/\），并在其下面写出该加的词。
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；不按要求方式改的不给分！
2、只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
In recent years, more and more parents send their children to famous schools, thought it can ensure that their children can be admitted by better universities after graduation.
It is true that famous schools are furnishing with better teaching facilities. What's more, teachers are excellent, that come from all over the country and even abroad. They have the ability make classes more lively and interesting, so students will be able to accept knowledge better. Besides, not every student is fit to go to famous schools where there is a fierce competition among students. And students there have to work much harder than that in ordinary schools.
I suggest effective measures are taken to make sure all the schools provide equal good education. Only in this way can all the students have equal rights to receive quality education.
第二节 词组短语
1. 由….组成
2. 克服（困难），从。。。中恢复过来
3.对…讲究
4.重视
5.消失，离去
6.向….收费
7.排列着，排满
8.为…. 奠定基础
9.伸展；摊开；分散
10.充当，担任
第一节 词性转换
1.admit →(n.)_______________
2.poison → (a.)______________
3.recover → (n.)______________
4.describe → (n.)______________
5.publish → (n.)______________
6. injure → (n.)______________
7.energy → (a.)______________
8.symbol → (v.)______________
9.criticism → (v.)______________
10.combine → (a.)______________
