Hongbao, a red envelope with small amounts of money in, is a gift that is guaranteed to be 1. (warm) received, not just because of the cash, but also because of its 2. (tradition) symbolism and best wishes for the future. This is true throughout China, especially in the south 3. people view receiving hongbao 4. an auspicious (吉祥的) beginning of the New Year.
Legend in the south goes that a devil (恶魔) used to appear lo harm children and the elderly 5. loud noise would frighten the devil away, as did 6. color red.
Fireworks took care of the noise and during the Spring Festival couplets (对联) also helped keep the devil away. But fireworks couldn’t go off all day so children and the elderly alsogot hongbao, red envelopes 7. (contain) money. The tradition 8. (survive) for thousands of years and giving hongbao to children and the elderly remains popular among Chinese people all over the world. It has also made its way into workplace where bosses often give 9. (employ) hongbao and most recently, companies have adopted online marketing strategies where haongbao are distributed, hoping 10. companies and staff members have a good start.
Giving hongbao at the beginning of the Lunar New Year indicates best wishes for the future.
“This Friday we’ll have the yearly Egg Drop Challenge,” said our science teacher, Mr. Baker. “You can work alone or with a partner.”
My friend, Cassie, and I smiled at each other. We always worked on projets ______.
The ______ of the challenge was simple------to build a protective container to keep an egg from breaking when ______ the stadium wall.
I made my sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie.______ the butter-cream gave me an idea.
“I have a brilliant design for our ______ container?” I said when Cassie arrived. “We can ______ the egg with some butter-cream.”
“Why not pit the egg in a basket with a parachute (降落伞)______?” Cassie rolled her eyes. “The parachute is better than that stupid idea.”
I couldn’t believe it. Of course we’d had our little ______ in the past, but she’d never called any of my ideas “______” before.
“Then I’ll build mine and you build yours!”
____ words had been out, our friendship was challenged.
When Friday finally arrived, I had to ______ Cassie’s Egg Force One looked pretty good.______, my Egg-cellent Egg Cream didn’t look quite scientific. We kids carried our containers up three stadium steps and dropped them over the side wall. Those whose eggs broke were out; those whose eggs survived ______ three more steps and dropped them again. This would go on till the last egg broke.
After four rounds, only Cassie and I were ______. I let go of my box. I heard someone say “ew” after seconds. Had my egg broken? I raced down the ______. The side walk was dotted with egg shells (蛋壳) from those ______ drops. Finally I found my little Egg-cellent Egg Cream.
“That looks like egg drop soup, Laura,” Cassie said. She was holding her Egg Force One. My ______ raced. Had she won? I looked at her basket.______.
“My egg bounced ______” she explained, pointing to a broken shell.
“A tie (平局),” Mr. Baker said.
Cassie looked at me, and her glare ______. I laughed. She smiled…
1.A. patiently B. silently C. together D. alone
2.A. function B. goal C. reason D. result
3.A. rolled down B. pushed against C. thrown at D. dropped over
4.A. Spreading B. Boiling C. Baking D. Holding
5.A. butter B. sandwich C. cream D. egg
6.A. protect B. replace C. carry D. mix
7.A. followed B. covered C. attached D. supported
8.A. ideas B. fights C. worries D. challenges
9.A. wrong B. stupid C. brilliant D. scientific
10.A. Since B. While C. But D. And
11.A. explain B. deny C. admit D. prove
12.A. Therefore B. Anyway C. Otherwise D. Besides
13.A. paced down B. turned around C. walked up D. went back
14.A. left B. wanted C. chosen D. discovered
15.A. steps B. way C. wall D. sidewalk
16.A. intended B. unexpected C. failed D. desired
17.A. eyes B. hands C. feet D. heart
18.A. Lost B. Dirty C. Broken D. Empty
19.A. around B. out C. in D. down
20.A. returned B. remained C. increased D. softened
Tests and exams assess not only your subject knowledge, but also your ability to use the appointed time wisely. 1.
Do...
2. Try to answer the questions that arc worth a lot of points before those only worth a few points. This will allow you to spend more time on the higher point questions than the lower ones, which can provide a big increase for your final grade.
Move on when you’ve used up the time for a question. Sometimes it is hard to do it, especially if you are a perfectionist (完美主义者) or someone that likes to provide as many details as possible in your test responses,3. Otherwise, you may find at the end that a large number of questions are still unanswered.
Don’t...
Don’t allow yourself to get stuck on a question. You come across a question that you have no idea how to answer. Instead of moving on, you decide to sit there for 20 or 30 minutes annoyed over it.4. However, setting a time limit for questions and sticking to that time limit can help you avoid this problem.
5. When you’re taking a test, focus on the big picture. Your main goal is to answer all of the questions in the best way. Don’t spend amounts of time proofreading (校对) your work. It is the task that is best completed at the end if you have lime left.
A. Focus on higher point questions.
B. Get answers to the questions you know.
C. However, you must force yourself to move on.
D. Don’t spend too much time on the little things.
E. The following can help you make the most of your time.
F. Many students feel stressed when taking an examination.
G. If you’ve done this before, you’ve actually made a mistake.
Will there be a time in our lives when cars don’t crash? When we can just sit back and relax and our cars will drive themselves. Auto technology experts say “yes”. And they say that some of those advances may happen quicker than you might think.
They will require the users to input the name of the destination or the complete address of the location that they want to go and the cars’ artificial intelligence takes them there automatically without a driver. They will run on solar power in the daytime and ethanol fuel (乙醇燃料) at night. Toyota, BMW and Honda will completely control the trade of driverless car business together and will have the cheapest driverless cars. Fossil fuels will be completely incompatible (不相配的) with these cars.
Driverless cars will not require a driver’s license of any grade to operate. Anyone with basic literacy and computer skills who are at least 16 years of age will be legally allowed to operate the vehicle with absolutely no restrictions. This would give the young users permission to operate the driverless cars on major highways as well as secondary roads without needing a separate classification. In addition to all this, drunken people will be able to use their own automobiles to return home because they are not “driving”, the vehicle.
What’s more, car insurance will become obsolete because there will be no more automobile accidents after the year 2025. This is because the driverless car will have all safety methods in place by the car’s artificial intelligence to prevent automobile accidents. Global positioning systems will become mandatory (强制的) in all newly-manufactured cars after 2010, and will be the most important part in the driverless car.
1.Who will not be able to use driverless cars?
A. Adults with basic literacy and computer skills.
B. Adults who are drunk.
C. Adults without computer skills.
D. Adults without a driver’s license.
2.We can infer from the second paragraph that driverless cars .
A. will need fewer fossil fuels
B. will not need a human’s instructions
C. will run on solar power only
D. will be environmentally friendly
3.What will prevent the driverless car from crashing?
A. Artificial intelligence.
B. Global positioning systems.
C. The people inside.
D. Car insurance.
4.Which of the following may be the best title of the passage?
A. Car safety.
B. Driverless cars.
C. The future cars.
D. New technology in cars.
Mark felt that it was time for him, to take part in his community, so he went to the neighborhood meeting after work. The area’s city councilwoman (女议员) was leading a discussion about how the quality of life was decreasing. The neighborhood faced many problems.
Mark looked at the charts taped to the walls. There are charts for parking problems, crime, and for problems in vacant buildings. People were supposed to suggest solutions to the councilwoman.
It was too much for Mark. “The problems are too big,” he thought. He turned to the man next to him and said, “I think this is a waste of my time. Nothing I could do would make a difference here.”
Mark thought some more on his way to the bus stop. “People should just take care of themselves,” he decided. “That’s enough to do. I can’t take on all the problems of the world.”
As he neared the bus stop, Mark saw a woman carrying a grocery bag and a baby. She was trying to unlock her car, but she didn’t have a free hand. As Mark got closer, her other child, a little boy, suddenly darted into the street. The woman tried to reach for him, but as she moved, her bag shifted and the groceries started to fall out. Mark ran to take the boy’s arm and led him back to his mother. Then he picked up the groceries while the woman smiled in relief. ‘‘Thanks!” she said. “You’ve got great timing!”
“Just being neighborly,” Mark said. As he rode home, he glanced at the walls of the bus. On one of them was “Small acts of kindness add up.” Mark smiled and thought, “Maybe that’s a good place to start.”
1.It is known from the passage that .
A. Mark played an active part in community activities
B. the city councilwoman was responsible for the falling of life quality
C. visual aids were used to display the seriousness of problems
D. many people were discouraged by the many problems facing them
2.In Mark’s opinion, .
A. nobody was so able as to solve the problems
B. he was not in the position to solve such problems
C. many people were too selfish to think about others
D. he already had more than enough work to do
3.What is the implication of the Words on the bus wall?
A. You should be kind to your neighbors and they will treat you the same way.
B. Everyone can play his own part to make things better.
C. All small acts will add up to kindness.
D. It’s a small act to help a person in need.
4.The passage is mainly about .
A. how individuals can help make a difference
B. running a neighborhood meeting to solve its problems
C. citizens’ reactions to the problems they face
D. solving problems through group action
How much do you hate waiting for another beer in a crowded bar? Josh Goodman invented a pretty obvious solution self-service beer taps. Goodman, 36, recalled the exact moment in late 2008 when his frustration boiled over. “I was hanging out with my friends at a Baltimore sports bar before an Orioles (金莺队) game,” he said. “We just couldn’t get another beer served to us quickly.”
Even more than annoyed, Goodman was struck by how much money the bar must be losing. Almost immediately, he got to work on a self-service beer concept. Within a few months, Goodman had launched Pour My Beer in Chicago (where he’d relocated to be with his wife).
He invested (投资) $ 20,000 of his own funds and partnered with a U.S. manufacturer to make beer tables with two to four self-service taps. In February 2009, Goodman landed his first client (客户): A Baltimore tavern. He spent the next two years growing the business and adding more bars and restaurants. In 2011, Pour My Beer introduced self-service “beer walls,” which let people pour their own beer from taps on a wall.
Pour My Beer has expanded to over 200 restaurants and bars in 28 states and Canada. The concept will roll out in Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport this week and in Italy and Brazil later this year. The tables start at $ 4,000 and the beer walls cost as much as $16,000. It generated more than $ 400,000 in sales in 2013 and doubled that in 2014. Goodman expects to take in close to $ 2 million in revenue this year (2015) which would make it the company’s first profitable (赚钱的) year. “Our business customers tell us that they’ve cut down on waste and they’re selling twice as much beer on average,” said Goodman.
1.The underlined phrase “boiled over” in Paragraph 1 probably means .
A. came to an end B. was extremely unbearable
C. threw up D. was too hot
2.Josh Goodman decided to invent the self-service beer taps when .
A. His friends advised him to do so.
B. He realized the loss in waiting for beers.
C. He set up Pour My Beer in Chicago.
D. His company started to make profits.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. Goodman was a businessman before he invented the self-service beer taps.
B. Pour My Beer has expanded to over 200 restaurants in 28 states and Australia.
C. Goodman did his business all by himself at first.
D. Goodman’s company will make more profits in the future.
4.Which of the following can best describe Josh Goodman?
A. far-sighted B. strong-willed
C. kind-hearted D. bad-tempered
