Often a nickname is a shortened form of a person's name, and it can also be a descriptive name for a place or a thing. Many American cities have nicknames. These can help build up an identity, spread pride among citizens and build their unity. Nicknames can also be funny.
Los Angeles, California is the second largest city in population, after New York City. Los Angeles has several nicknames. One is simply the city's initials, L.A. It is also called the City of Angels because Los Angeles means "the angels" in Spanish.
Los Angeles often has warm, sunny weather. So another nickname is City of Flowers and Sunshine. New York is called The Big Apple. So Los Angeles is sometimes called The Big Orange because of the fruit that grows in that city's warm climate.
The American movie and television industries are based in Los Angeles. So it is not surprising that it is called The Entertainment Capital of the World. Many films are made in the area of Los Angeles called Hollywood. Millions of people visit the area. No trip to Los Angeles is perfect without seeing the word "Hollywood" spelled out in huge letters on a hillside.
Many movie stars live in Los Angeles. The city is sometimes called Tinseltown. This nickname comes from the shiny, bright and often unreal nature of Hollywood and the movie industry.
Another nickname for Los Angeles is La-La Land, using the first letters of Los and Angeles. This means a place that is fun and not serious, and maybe even out of touch with reality.
A good place for watching unusual-looking people is Venice, an area on the west side of Los Angeles. A system of waterways designed after the Italian city of Venice has been built there. Many people love Los Angeles for its warm sunny weather, beautiful mountains and beaches, and movie stars. That includes Randy Newman, who sings about his hometown.
On the whole, Los Angeles is growing attractive just for its rich nicknames.
1.Choose the one that isn’t the function of a nickname of a place. ________
A. Uniting surrounding cities.
B. Entertainment.
C. Bringing pride to the locals.
D. Establishing characteristics.
2.Which of the following can best replace the underlined sentence?
A. Seeing the big letters "Hollywood" on a hillside means you've been really to Los Angeles.
B. Not seeing the word "Hollywood" on a hillside means you haven't been to Los Angeles.
C. If you visit Los Angeles you should first pay a visit to "Hollywood" s on a hillside.
D. Your trip to Los Angeles is not complete if you miss the big letters "Hollywood" on a hillside
3.What’s the number of the nicknames given to Los Angeles?
A. 5B. 4C. 7D. 6
4.According to the passage, the true statement is ________.
A. Los Angeles was built after the Italian city of Venice
B. Hollywood alone adds fame to Los Angeles
C. Los Angeles is most famous for its nicknames
D. All the nicknames increase the charm of Los Angeles
It is commonly believed that all over the world, boys and girls attend a mixed school, where they study together. But boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Always boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to correspond to(和…相符) the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
Surprisingly, the findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
George Carl, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when girls do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can adjust lessons to boys' learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study's author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision, learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around. "Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine(女性的) and prefer the modern genre (类型) in which violence and sexism are major themes," James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel that they had to be "masterful and in charge" in relationships. "In mixed schools, boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means," the study reported.
1.The writer argues that a single-sex school would ________.
A. encourage boys to express their emotions more freely
B. help boys to be more competitive in schools.
C. force boys to he their emotions to be "real men".
D. naturally strengthen boys’ traditional image of a man.
2.Traditionally, in a mixed school boys ________.
A. behave more responsibly
B. perform relatively better
C. grow up more healthily
D. receive a better education
3.In Abigail James’ opinion, one of the advantages of single-sex schools is ________.
A. boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in
B. boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted
C. teaching can be adjusted to suiting the characteristics of boys
D. teaching can be designed to promote boys' team spirit
4.The underlined word “acute” in paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ________.
A. lovelyB. seriousC. sharpD. dull
On a Friday night in May 2015, Oliver and Lone Kleven heard angry shouts coming from their front lawn. Lone, 68, stepped onto the porch and saw two men in dark clothes struggling with something on the ground—right where she and her grandson had planted a flower bed the weekend before.
“Go fight somewhere else!” she shouted, worried her plants would get damaged. At the sound of her voice, the face of a boy appeared from beneath the two men. He looked 13 or 14 or so. “They’re trying to kill me!” the boy screamed. Lone ran toward them and, without hesitation, caught the boy’s arm, pulling him out.
“Leave him alone!” she shouted. When the men stood up, Lone saw what looked like a sharp object in one man’s hand. When she turned back toward the boy, he was moaning in pain and holding his stomach. The attackers began to move in on the boy again when Lone’s husband shouted: “Get lost!” The two men walked quickly and quietly across the street and drove off in a dark car.
“I have to get to the hospital!” the boy cried. He lifted his shirt, and Lone could see a bloody wound on his stomach. Oliver hugged the trembling boy while Lone caught her cell phone and car keys inside the house. She handed the phone to Oliver. “Call 911,” she told him. “I’m going after them.” Lone took off but was unable to find the car.
The Klevens then learned what had happened. Earlier that night, as the boy waited for his parents to pick him up from the high school across the street from the Klevens’ house, two men approached and demanded his wallet. When he refused, one of the men hit him in the face. The boy ran across the street. The men caught up with him, and one hurt him in the back and stomach with a sharp knife. That’s when Lone stepped in.
The boy’s wounds required operations, but he has fully recovered.
“He was alone and outnumbered,” says Lone. “There was no time to do anything except what I did.”
1.Why did Lone shout at the man at the beginning of the story?
A. To stop them fighting with each other.
B. To prevent her flowers being ruined.
C. To stop them stealing in the flower bed.
D. To keep the boy from being wounded.
2.What’s Lone’s first reaction when she got close to the men?
A. She kept them separate.
B. She was shocked at the boy’s wounds.
C. She pulled the boy out.
D. She called her husband for help.
3.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. An old couple rescued a boy by fighting against two robbers.
B. A boy was saved.
C. Two robbers were driven away.
D. An old lady didn’t track the two robbers.
4.What’s the correct order of the following events?
a. Lone stepped in the fight.
b. The two men drove off in a dark car.
c. The boy waited for his parents to pick him up.
d. Lone’s husband boomed from the porch.
e. Two men approached and demanded the boy’s wallet.
f. The boy ran across the street to a flower bed.
A. cfeadbB. cefadbC. fecabdD. eafcbd
阅读理解
DOGS DRIVE CAR
Auckland, New Zealand
After two months of learning, Monty, and Porter were able to drive an automobile around a racetrack. “We wanted to prove how smart rescue dogs are,” animal behaviorist Mark Vette says. Vette first used voice commands and treats to teach the dogs how to turn a steering wheel and how to change gear(换挡).
The dogs’ ride only accelerated up to 7.5 miles an hour, and trainers could stop the auto using a remote control.
GOLDEN ZEBRA
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Zoe the zebra’s markings are special. The animal has white and golden stripes. Zoe’s appearance resulted from a rare condition called amelanosis(黑色素缺失症). Her body doesn't make enough melanin, the substance in an animal’s skin and hair cells that produces color. “Only 25 other golden zebras are known to exist in the world,”says Ann Goody, who runs the wildlife refuge where Zoe lives. In the wild, life may be difficult for animals with amelanosis because predators(捕猎者) can easily spot them. But Zoe is protected at her refuge.
COCKATOO MAKES TOOLS
Vienna, Austria
When Figaro the cockatoo spots food lying just out of reach from his cage, he builds a tiny wooden tool to sweep the tasty prize in his way.
The bird first revealed his talent when a stone he was playing with rolled out of his cage. The cockatoo couldn’t reach the stone. So he flew away and returned with a small branch, slipping it through the fence to slide the stone toward him.
Wondering if he would do it again, scientists placed a nut exactly where the stone had been. This time, Figaro pulled out a small piece of wood in his cage and dragged the nut toward him.
1.If Zoe the zebra is set free in the wild, she will ________.
A. meet no natural predators
B. not get along with other zebras
C. manage to make enough melanin
D. be easily found for her appearance
2.What’ s special about Figaro the cockatoo?
A. He’ s particular about his food.
B. He’s extremely fond of stones.
C. He’s good at drawing support from outside forces.
D. He can tell the difference between stones and nuts.
3.What is the text mainly about?
A. Amazing animals.
B. Ways to help animals.
C. Animals’ unique talents.
D. Tips on training animals.
假定你是李华，与留学生朋友Bob约好一起去书店，因故不能赴约。请给他写封邮件。
内容包括：
1.表示歉意；
2.说明原因；
3.另约时间。
注意：
1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），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；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
The summer holiday is coming. My classmates and I are talking about how to do during the holiday. We can chose between staying at home and take a trip. If we stay at home, it is comfortable but there is no need to spend money. But in that case, we will learn little about world. If we go n a trip abroad, we can broaden you view and gain knowledges we cannot get from books. Some classmates suggest we can go to places of interest nearby. I thought that it is a good idea. It does not cost many, yet we can still learn a lot.
