Blind tasting is a very strange activity. Contrary to what many people imagine, it has nothing to do with blindfolds. It involves tasting a wine without seeing the label and it can deliver shocking surprises. I tasted seven champagnes (香槟) blind with a group of professionals recently. There was a shock when they discovered the wine most of them preferred carried a label they regarded as their least favorite. That sort of result is especially common with champagne, the most image-driven rather than quality-driven wine of all. But it happens all the time when wine is tasted blind.
Because I’m interested in how wines really taste instead of how I think they should, I taste wine blind as often as I can, especially when assessing similar young wines. But blind tasting when you know absolutely nothing about the wine in front of you is something completely different. The most difficult Master of Wine exams include three sessions during which you have a dozen glasses in front of you and nothing more helpful than a printed exam paper asking you to identify each wine as closely as possible, and assess its quality.
Now that the MW is behind me, I taste wine completely blind only very rarely, and never in public. So my blind tastings these days are round the dinner table with good friends and once a year when I act as a judge, with Hugh Johnson, in the Oxford vs Cambridge wine-tasting competition. This is the most extraordinary match, always held before the Boat Race but taken just as seriously nowadays. This year’s taste-off took place at the end of last month, as usual in the Oxford and Cambridge Club on Pall Mall in London.
1.Which of the following is true about Blind tasting?
A. Blind tasting is the professional way to identify a wine.
B. Blind tasting usually has the right result.
C. Blind tasting means tasting a wine with one’s eyes covered.
D. Blind tasting is tasting a wine without seeing the label.
2.Why did the professionals get shocked at the result of their blind tasting?
A. They got all the results correctly.
B. They didn’t recognize their favorite at all.
C. The writer made no mistakes.
D. Champagnes can not be tasted blind.
3.What can we infer from the last paragraph?
A. The Boat Race is taken more seriously than the wine race.
B. The Oxford v Cambridge wine-tasting competition is held annually.
C. I didn’t act as a judge last year.
D. Pall Mall is chosen as the competition place for the first time.
Once Dr. Mellinkoff invited me to join him at the hospital to discuss interesting cases with his students. The case at hand was a Guatemalan man, aged 34, who had a fever and many other medical problems. His condition was not improving, and there was not much hope he would live.
Dr. Mellinkoff asked to see the patient. He introduced himself in Spanish and, in a very gentle voice, asked how he felt. The patient smiled and said everything was all right. Then the doctor asked if he was able to eat. The patient said that he had no desire to eat.
“ Are you getting food you like? ”
The patient said nothing.
“ Do you get the kind of food you have at home? ”
The answer was no.
The doctor put his hand on the man’s shoulder and his voice was very soft.
“If , you had food that you liked , would you eat it? ”
“Yes , yes. ” the patient said.
The change in the patient’s appearance couldn’t have been more obvious. Nothing was said, but it was easy to tell that a message had been sent and had also been received.
Later, the doctor asked why the Guatemalan man wasn’t getting food he could eat. One of the students said, “ We all know how difficult it is to get the kitchen to make special meals. ”
“ Suppose, ” the doctor replied, “ you felt a certain medicine was absolutely necessary but that our hospital didn’t carry it, would you accept defeat or would you insist the hospital meet your request? ”
“ I would probably insist, ” the student said.
“ Very well, ” the doctor said. “ You might want to try the same method in the kitchen. It won’t be easy, but I can help you. Meanwhile, let’s get some food inside this man as fast as possible, and stay with it. Or he’ll be killed by hunger. By the way, there must be someone among you who can speak Spanish. If we want to make real progress, we need to be able to talk with him. ”
Three weeks later, Dr. Mellinkoff told me that the Guatemalan man had left the hospital under his own power. It takes more than medicine to help sick people; you also have to talk to them and make them comfortable.
1.The patient had no desire to eat because __________.
A. he was not hungry
B. he was seriously ill
C. he was given special meals
D. he was not satisfied with the food
2.According to the passage , we can conclude that __________.
A. the patient was from another country .
B. the patient’s illness was caused by hunger
C. Dr. Mellinkoff performed an operation on the patient
D. the hospital failed to provide the right medicine for the patient
3.Which of the following words can be used to describe Dr. Mellinkoff ?
A. Cold.
B. Considerate.
C. Curious .
D. Confident.
4.What do you think Dr. Mellinkoff wanted to tell his students in this case?
A. Doctors should know their patients’ real problems.
B. Doctors should be able to speak foreign languages.
C. Doctors should try to improve their medical skills.
D. Doctors should give more medicine to patients.
假如你是学生会主席李华，你打算邀请外教Mr. Smith到你们学校作一个健康知识讲座，请你给他写封邀请信。要点如下：
1. 学生面临的健康问题（睡眠不足、饮食习惯不健康、过度节食）；
2. 讲座的具体内容；
3. 讲座的地点；
4. 讲座的时间安排：下周二下午3:00-4:00。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr. Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely 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. 每处错误及其修改仅限一词。
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
How is everything going with you? As for me, I have a great news to share—I will finally get to be in a book!
Last Saturday morning, Dad and I were eating breakfast while we heard a knock on the door. I rushed to open the door. It was our neighbor Miss Lydia, that draws pictures for children’s books. Miss Lydia greeted me with a smile, looking happily to see me. Remembering my best manner, I said, “Hello, Miss Lydia. Won’t you come in?” Miss Lydia came in, sitting at the breakfast table, and said to my dad that he would like both of us to be her models in one of her books! I jumped off my chair and run to give Miss Lydia a big hug.
I hope my first model experience will be both enjoyable or unforgettable. I’m looking forward to hearing you soon.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Aesop (伊索) was a slave living around 550 BC. We call the stories he wrote fables, as every story has a moral. Almost all the fables he wrote are ___1.__ (humor) and entertaining, appealing to people __2.___ all ages. Till now, Aesop’s fables __3.___ (translate) into many languages and are known all over the world. Not only _4.__ the fables themselves lived for nearly 1500 years, but the __5.___ (express) from them have entered various languages.
One fable, for instance, is about a farmer who was driving his cart along a country road. The cart got __6.__ (stick) in the mud, but the farmer made _7.__ effort to get it out. Instead, he began to pray to the gods for help. The god Hercules finally appeared and told ___8.__ man to get busy and push ___9.__. “Push your shoulder to the wheel.” Hercules advised.
The moral of the story is clear. We mustn’t rely on others for help. Another saying which has come from the fable is “God helps those __10.__ help themselves.”
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、 B 、C 、D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
One month ago, my daughter started kindergarten. As usual, I wished her success. I was telling a lie. What I actually wish for her is _____. I believe in the power of failure.
Success is _____ in a sense. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can ______ be a problematic victory. First-time success is usually a fluke (侥幸). First-time failure, _____, is expected; it is the natural order of things.
Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase _____ a good cook as “she who has broken many pots”. If you have spent enough time in the _____ to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about ______. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time ____ knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility (可信度) their ______ gave them.
I earn my _____ by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am _____ that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don’t just set out to write it; I try my best every day. _____, every week, one column is inferior (较差的) to the others, sometimes extremely so.
I have learned to ______ that column. A successful column usually means that I am treading (踏) on _____ ground, going with tricks that work, or dressing up popular ideas in fancy words. Often in my inferior columns, I am trying to ______ something I’ve never done before, something that I’m not even sure can be done.
My daughter is a perfectionist. She will feel her failures, and I will want to _______ her. But I will also, I hope, ______ her of what she learned, and how she can do _______ next time. I probably won’t tell her that failure is a good thing, because that’s not a(n) ______ you can learn when you’re five. I hope I can tell her, though, that it’s not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is the ______.
1.A. successB. failure C. victory D. sacrifice
2.A. demandingB. worthwhile C. correct D. boring
3.A. oftenB. rarely C. always D. hardly
4.A. in additionB. on purposeC. by contrast D. in demand
5.A. denyingB. describing C. pointingD. predicting
6.A. dormitoryB. yardC. kitchenD. field
7.A. gardeningB. trainingC. displayingD. cooking
8.A. comparingB. makingC. learningD. curing
9.A. woundsB. failuresC. scars D. strengths
10.A. livingB. supportC. skill D. similarity
11.A. ambitiousB. grateful C. confident D. aware
12.A. MoreoverB. StillC. OtherwiseD. Therefore
13.A. adapt B. update C. cherishD. review
14.A. accessibleB. similar C. sensitiveD. familiar
15.A. get through B. figure outC. comment on D. take in
16.A. amuseB. comfortC. scold D. reward
17.A. warn B. cheat C. remind D. suspect
18.A. better B. luckier C. worse D. less
19.A. experience B. trick C. lesson D. truth
20.A. processB. destinationC. ending D. beginning
