It’s really true what people say about English politeness: it’s everywhere. When squeezing past someone in
a narrow aisle, people s
ay “sorry”. When getting off a bus, English passengers say “thank you” rather than the driver. In Germany, people would never dream of doing these things. After all, squeezing past others sometimes can’t be avoided, and the bus driver is merely doing his job. I used to think the same way, without questioning it, until I started travelling to the British Isles and came to appreciate some more polite ways of communicating with people.
People thank each other everywhere in England, all the time. When people buy something in a shop, customer and retail assistant in most cases thank each other twice or more. In G
ermany, it would be exceptional to hear more than one thank you in such a conversation. British students thank their lecturers when leaving the room. English employers thank their employees for doing their jobs, as opposed to Germans, who would normally think that paying their workers money is already enough.
Another thing I observed during my stay was that English people rarely criticize others. Even when I was working and mistakes were pointed out to me, my employers stressed several times but none of their explanations were intended as criticism. It has been my impression that by avoiding criticism, English people are making an effort to make others feel comfortable. This also is shown in other ways. British men still open doors for women, and British men are more likely to treat women to a meal than German men. However, I do need to point out here that this applies to English men a bit more than it would to Scottish men! Yes, the latter are a bit tightfisted.What is the author’s attitude towards English politeness?
| A．He thinks it is artificial | B．He gives no personal opinion |
C．He appreciates it |
D．He thinks it goes too far. |
What can we learn about customers and retail assistants in Germany?
| A．A customer never says thank you to a retail assistant. |
| B．It’s always a retail assistant who says thank you. |
| C．They may say thank you only once. |
| D．they always say thank you to each other. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that Scottish men ___________.
| A．are more likely to be involved in a fighting. |
| B．are more polite than English men. |
| C．treat women in a polite way. |
| D．are not so willing to spend money for women. |
The author develops the text through the method of ____________.
| A．making comparisons | B．telling stories |
| C．giving comments | D．giving reasons |
After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, so mostly I just lied a lot to appear to be skilled at dealing with people. At least I never needed the map.
One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she gossiped about teachers and classes. I didn't try to keep up.
We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. The boy from England Eric, waved at me from across the room.
It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them.
They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. They weren't staring at me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an over interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught and held my attention.
I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all extremely, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine, or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful -- maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-haired boy.What does the underlined word “diplomatic” mean?
| A．clever | B．smooth | C．honest | D．delight |
From the passage, we can infer that _______________.
| A．“I” was really liking the new place. |
| B．“I” had a bad memory, so it’s hard to remember names. |
| C．“I” was good at making friends. |
| D．“I” was not interested in what the girl said. |
According to the last two paragraphs, why did “they” catch “my” attention?
| A．Because “they” looked incredibly beautiful. |
| B．Because “they” weren’t talking. |
| C．Because “they” sat in the corner. |
| D．Because “they” didn’t eat the food. |
According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?
| A．The girl walked with “me” was a little short. |
| B．“I” saw the five students for the first time. |
| C．Those students sitting in the corner had finished their food. |
| D．“I” probably wanted to know more about those five students. |
Mothers can still offer comfort, even from a distance, a new study has found. The results show that simply hearing their mothers’ voice over the phone works just as well at calming the nerves of stressed children as a real-life pat on the shoulder.
The soothing（抚慰的）effect is most likely due to the release of the hormone（荷尔蒙）, oxytocin（催生素）, in the brain, the researchers say. This “love hormone” is known to quell stress and is likely to be involved in social connections, including those between a mother and a child.
Previous work has revealed that this hormone is released during physical contact with a mother. “But it’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if she isn’t actually standing there,” said the researcher, Leslie Seltzer, a biological scientist.
Seltzer tested a group of 61 girls, aged 7 to 12, by having them make an unprepared speech and solve a series of maths problems in front of a group of strangers, sending their hearts racing and levels of cortisol—a hormone associated with stress—soaring.
Facing a challenge like that raises stress levels of a lot of people. Once stressed, a third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers with hugs. A third of the girls watched an emotionally neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone with their mothers on the line.
For the girls who interacted in person or over the phone with their mothers, the levels of the “love hormone” rose significantly, and the stress-marking hormone was washed away. This effect didn’t show up for participants who watched the video.
Seltzer is now testing the amount of oxytocin released with other communication methods—like text messaging—and hopes to see the research spread out from human subjects. “It’s not just us, of course. Lots of very social species have voices,” she said. “on the one hand, we are curious to see if this effect is unique to humans. On the other, we’re hoping researchers who study vocal communication will consider looking at oxytocin release in other animals and apply it to broader questions of social behavior and evolutionary biology.Mothers’ voice over the phone can reduce children’s nerves according to the study, because .
| A．children can imagine their mothers’ hugs on the line |
| B．children enjoy their mothers’ voice and forget their worries |
| C．mothers are good at comforting their children, even on the phone |
| D．mothers’ voice can promote the release of the love hormone |
The underlined word “quell” in the second paragraph probably means “ ”.
| A．cause or bring | B．delay or direct |
| C．stop or reduce | D．develop or train |
From the study, we know that .
| A．the level of cortisol determines how stressed a person is |
| B．the 61 girls were divided into two groups in the research |
| C．the recent study had the same results as the previous one |
| D．watching a video is the best way to reduce one’s stress |
From the last paragraph, we can conclude that .
| A．text messaging has the same effect on oxytocin release as telephoning |
| B．the effect of a mother's voice on oxytocin in animals is still not known |
| C．the effect of communication on stress is unique to humans |
| D．the research has been applied to social behavior and evolutionary biology |
It may not be news to parents of teenage girls, but researchers have confirmed that no one can stop their 16-year-old daughter from deciding how the family spends its money.
The willpower and determination of teenage girls give them a big say in how a family’s money is spent on everything from food and meals to mobile phones, and, of course, clothes. Teenage boys did not show up at all in the analysis, which was designed to find out the influence of young people on household spending.
The findings on the spending power of teenage girls were calculated from Office for National Statistics records of family spending during the 1980s and 1990s. Researchers examined how much money went on services and leisure goods in different kinds of homes. They checked spending on food, restaurant meals, alcohol, tobacco, services, heating, transport, clothes and sports in 2,745 British families.
They found that teenage girls in the UK typically played an active role in family decisions about the allocation（分配）of household resources. But older children— those over the age of 21 who are still living with their parents—appear to have no say in household decisions.
They also tried to calculate to what extent the bargaining power of a teenager affected family budgets. “Every parent knows that children, even at a very early age, have their own preferences with regard to consumption, researchers said. “But children are only interested in a limited range of goods—mainly sweets and toys—and parents are able to use punishment to reduce their children’s bargaining power or remove it.” When they become teenagers, however, girls are much more independent and they are capable of earning their own money, which improves their bargaining power in family decisions.
The researchers could not explain why girls have more influence over spending while the evidence for boys is much less conclusive. However, this study could be of great significance to market research and how marketers target children. From the passage we can learn that .
| A．teenage girls have more influence over family budgets than teenage boys |
| B．teenage boys don't want to decide on household spending |
| C．teenage boys have some influence over household |
| D．teenage girls have weaker willpower and determination than teenage boys |
What does the underlined part “give them a big say” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．Make them dare to say something. |
| B．Make them want to know. |
| C．Make them say something meaningful. |
| D．Make their influence stronger. |
It appears that household decisions are NOT affected by .
| A．girls living with parents |
| B．girls over 21 |
| C．girls over 12 |
| D．girls living alone |
How can parents reduce children’s bargaining power?
| A．By persuading them |
| B．By offering them sweets or toys. |
| C．By threatening to punish them. |
| D．By allocating household resources. |
People with disabilities make up a large part of the population. It is estimated（估计） that over 35 million Americans have physical, mental, or other disabilities. About half of these disabilities are “developmental", i.e., they occur before the individual's twenty-second birthday, often from genetic conditions, and are severe enough to affect three or more areas of development, such as mobility, communication, employment, etc. Most other disabilities are considered “adventitious", i.e., accidental or caused by outside forces.
Prior to the 20th century, only a small percentage of people with disabilities survived for long. Medical treatment for these disabilities was unavailable. Advancements in medicine and social services have created a climate in which people with disabilities can expect to have such basic needs as food, shelter, and medical treatment. Unfortunately, these basics are often not available. Civil liberties such as the right to vote, marry, get an education, and gain employment have historically been denied on the basis of disability.
In recent decades, the disability rights movement has been organized to fight against these infringements（违反；侵犯）of civil rights. Congress responded by passing major legislation recognizing people with disabilities as a protected class under civil rights statutes.
Still today, people with disabilities must fight to live their lives independently. It is estimated that more than half of qualified Americans with disabilities are unemployed, and a majority of those who do work are underemployed. About two-thirds live at or below the official poverty level.
Significant barriers, especially in transportation and public awareness, prevent disabled people from taking part in society. For example, while no longer prohibited by law from marrying, a person with no access to transportation is effectively excluded from community and social activities which might lead to the development of long-term relationships.
Only when public attitudes advance as far as laws have will disabled people be fully able to take their rightful place in society.A “developmental" disability ______.
| A．develops very slowly over time |
| B．is caused by forces |
| C．occurs in youth and affects development |
| D．is getting more and more severe |
Most disabled people used to die early because ______.
| A．disabilities destroyed major bodily functions |
| B．they were not very well looked after |
| C．medical techniques were not available |
| D．they were too poor to get proper treatment |
In the author's opinion, to enable the disabled people to take their rightful place in society, ______.
| A．more laws should be passed |
| B．public attitudes should be changed |
| C．government should provide more aids |
| D．more public facilities should be set up |
Which of the following cannot be inferred from the passage ?
| A．Many disabled people may remain single for their whole life. |
| B．The public tends to look down upon the disabled people. |
| C．The disabled people feel inferior to those surrounding them. |
| D．Discriminatory laws prevent the disabled from mixing with others. |
The best title for this passage might be ______.
| A．Handicaps（障碍）of People with Disabilities |
| B．The physical difficulties of the Disabled |
| C．The Causes for Disabilities |
| D．Medical Treatments for Disabilities |
Brenda Bongos was a happy, artistic girl. She had one big ambition—to play the drums in a band. But one big problem lay in her way. To be good enough to play in a band, Brenda had to practice a lot, but she lived next-door to a lot of old people. Many of them are sick. She knew that the sound of beating drums would really get on their nerves. So, she had tried playing in the strangest places: a basement, a kitchen, and even in a shower. But there was always someone it would annoy.
One day, while watching a science documentary on TV, she heard that sound cannot travel in space, because there's no air. At that moment, Brenda Bongos decided to become a sort of musical astronaut.
With the help of a lot of time, books and work, Brenda built a space bubble. This was a big glass ball connected to a machine which sucked out all the air inside. All that would be left inside was a drum kit（成套设备） and a chair. Brenda got into the space suit she had made, entered the bubble, turned on the machine, and played those drums like a wild child.
It wasn't long before Brenda Bongos came very famous. Many people came to see her play in her space bubble. Shortly afterwards she came out of the bubble and started giving concerts. Her fame spread so much that the government suggested that she be part of a unique space journey. Finally, Brenda was a real musical astronaut, and had gone far beyond her first ambition of playing drums in a band.
Years later, when asked how she had achieved all this, she thought for a moment, and said: ''If those old people next – door hadn't mattered so much to me, I wouldn't have found a solution, and none of this would have ever happened.''Why did Brenda try to play in the strangest places?
| A．Because she didn't want others to hear her play. |
| B．Because she didn't mean to disturb others. |
| C．Because she didn't have her own room. |
| D．Because she didn’t like her neighbors. |
Brenda started to give concerts _______.
| A．after she practiced in her space bubble |
| B．when she became part of the unique space journey |
| C．after she became a real musical astronaut |
| D．when people came to see her in the space bubble |
Brenda became famous because _______.
| A．she was good at music and science |
| B．she became a real musical astronaut |
| C．she invented a special way of practice |
| D．she played well and had a talent |
Which of the following can be used to describe Brenda?
| A．Kind, hardworking and clever. |
| B．Brave, kind and hardworking. |
| C．Lovely, brave and kind. |
| D．Nervous, kind and clever. |
It can be inferred from the text that: " _______".
| A．He laughs best who laughs last |
| B．It's never too old to learn |
| C．Two heads are better than one |
| D．One good turn deserves another |
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