Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada.Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.
Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival.This is why it is celebrated in late fall，after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest.On December 4,1619，the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City，Virginia.They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.
The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest.The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth，Massachusetts，in 1620.They had a difficult time
and the first winter was cruel.Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year，they had a good harvest.So Governor Bradford declared a threeday feast (盛宴).The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.
In time，other colonies (殖民地) began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War，Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed (宣布) the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving. Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November.Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours.But the Canadian Thanksgiving Day falls on the second Monday in October.Thanksgiving Day is celebrated .
| A．in spring | B．in summer |
| C．in autumn | D．in winter |
The first to celebrate thanksgiving were .
| A．some people from England |
| B．the American Indians |
| C．Sarah Josepha Hale |
| D．Governor Bradford |
We can infer from the passage that New England must be .
A.in the U.S.A.
B.in Great Britain
C.in Canada
D.on some island off the AtlanticWhich of the following is NOT true?
| A．Thanksgiving Day used to be a holiday to celebrate a good harvest. |
| B．Abraham Lincoln was not the first to decide on thanksgiving celebrations. |
| C．Thanksgiving Day is celebrated to express the American and Indian people’s thanks to God. |
| D．There’s little difference between the American way and the Canadian way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. |
The passage mainly tells us .
A.how Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the U.S.A.
B.how Thanksgiving Day came into being and the different ways it is celebrated
C.that Thanksgiving Day is in fact a harvest holiday
D.how the way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day changed with the time and places
He lost his arms in an accident that claimed his father’s life--who was the main source of support for the family. Since then, he has had to depend on the arms of his younger brother. For the sake of taking care of him, his younger brother became his shadow, never leaving him alone for years. Except for writing with his toes, he was completely unable to do anything in his life.
One late night, he suffered from diarrhea (腹泻) and had to wake up his younger brother. His younger brother accompanied him into the toilet and then went back to dorm to wait. But being so tired, his younger brother fell asleep, leaving him on the toilet for two hours till the teacher on duty discovered him. As the two brothers grew up together, they had their share of problems and they would often quarrel. Then one day, his younger brother wanted to live separate from him, living his own life, as many normal people do. So he was heart-broken and didn’t know what to do.
A similar misfortune happened to a girl, too. One night her mother, who suffered from chronic mental illness, disappeared. So her father went out looking for her mother, leaving her alone at home. She tried to prepare meals for her parents, only to overturn (弄翻) the kerosene light on the stove, resulting in a fire which took her hands away.
Though her elder sister, who was studying in another city, showed her willingness to take care of her, she was determined to be completely independent. At school, she always studied hard. Most of all she learned to be self-dependent. Once she wrote the following in her composition: “I am lucky. Though I lost my arms, I still have legs; I am lucky.” Though my wings are broken, my heart can still fly.”
One day, the boy and the girl were both invited to appear on a television interview program. The boy told the TV host about his uncertain future at being left on his own, whereas the girl was full of enthusiasm for her life. They both were asked to write something on a piece of paper with their toes. The boy wrote: My younger brother’s arms are my arms; while the girl wrote: Broken wings, flying heart.
They had both endured the same misfortune, but their different attitudes determined the nature of their lives. It is true that life is unpredictable. Disasters can strike at any time. How you handle misfortune when confronted with it actually is the true test of your character. If you choose only to complain and escape from the misfortune, it will always follow you wherever you go. But if you decide to be strong, the hardship will turn out to be fortune on which new hopes will arise.In the first paragraph, what happened in the accident?
| A．The boy wasn’t badly injured. |
| B．The boy’s father escaped being hurt. |
| C．The boy’s father was killed. |
| D．The boy’s younger brother was slightly wounded. |
The girl refused her elder sister’s help, because ______.
| A．she was lucky and still had two legs |
| B．she wanted to be self-dependent rather than rely on others |
| C．she didn’t want to move to another city |
| D．she enjoyed living separate from others |
When the girl wrote the words: Broken wings, flying heart, she really meant ______.
| A．though she lost arms, she still had legs |
| B．her elder sister’s willingness to take care of her could help her fly with wings |
| C．if one had wings, his or her heart could fly |
| D．faced with the misfortune, you should be strong, and you’ll make it |
If you remember taking class notes in longhand(速记), there’s a good chance you also remember more about a variety of topics than today’s students do. A study investigated whether taking notes by hand helps you learn better than taking notes on a laptop. It was no contest.
Study authors and psychologists Pam A. Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California– Los Angeles conducted three separate experiments involving a total of 327 students. All students got the same lectures, but some used laptops, and others took notes by hand.
When it came to learning the concepts, the handwriters won. When it came to retrieving facts, the groups were comparable, except when given time to go home and look at their notes, at which point the handwriters did better.
“Even when allowed to reviewnotes after a week’s delay, participants who had taken notes with laptops performed worse on tests of both factual content and conceptual（概念的）understanding,” the study states.
Learning suffered not because of “multitasking” or the distraction available to students using Wi-Fi– enabled laptops. In the lab, scientists allowed no extraneous（不相干的）activity. Students who paid attention and took deep notes on their laptop still didn’t learn as well—in fact, the study suggests the thoroughness of their notes contributes to the problem.
Laptop users tend to record long, verbatim quotes, which they type mindlessly. Handwriters are more selective. They “wrote significantly fewer words than those who typed,” according to the study. By processing and selecting the more important information, they studied more efficiently, said researchers.
Here’s what’s a bit frightening: When the laptop students were instructed to cut down or eliminate the verbatim note taking, they couldn’t. The study adds to a ton of evidence that for learning, writing is better and that the hand has a “unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas.”
Of course, the chance of persuading students to put away their laptops is probably zero. Many of them can’t write longhand, a forgotten subject in many American schools, itself a source of controversy.
So are we stuck with traditional classrooms and learning techniques if we want the brightest pupils? Perhaps not: Another possibility, some have suggested, is apps that permit handwriting on tablets, a compromise that students might accept.The reason why taking notes by hand is considerably better than taking notes on a laptop may be that_______.
| A．longhand note takers engage in more processing than laptop note takers |
| B．students using laptops paid attention and took deep notes |
| C．handwriters have a tendency to use long verbatim quotes |
| D．laptop users are more selective when taking notes |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “verbatim”?
| A．板书的 | B．冗长的 |
| C．完全照字面的 | D．重要的 |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The experiments show that there are advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. |
| B．In many American schools, longhand has always been popular with the students. |
| C．When allowed to review notes after a week’s delay, participants who had taken notes with laptops performed equivalently to longhand note takers. |
| D．There is a good chance that many students will put away their laptops and take class notes in longhand. |
The passage is most likely to be taken from _____.
| A．National Geography | B．The Economist |
| C．Psychological Science | D．Wall Street Journal |
Most nutrition education isn’t very effective. People know that an apple is better than a Snickers bar, but they often eat the Snickers bar anyway. After conducting hundreds of studies on the psychology of how and why we eat, I’ve seen that it’s good to understand nutrition, but it’s much better to change your eating environment. Doing so can help you make better choices without even thinking about it.
Part 1
We all know children can be stubbornly habitual in what they want to eat. If kids had French fries yesterday, they want them again today. We came up with a simple way to interrupt this default. Instead of asking kids what they want, what if we ask them about someone they admire?
We studied this with elementary school–aged children one summer. We treated 22 kids to apple slices or fries at a fast-food restaurant. The first week, 20 of them ordered French fries, and two ordered apple slices. But the next week, we asked, “What would Batman eat: apple slices or French fries?” After they answered for Batman, we asked them what they wanted. This time, the number of kids who ordered apple slices jumped from two to ten— almost half of them.
If you ask yourself before deciding between the salad and the cheesy bacon fries, “What would my role model choose?” you’ll be a lot less tempted. Thinking about what a well-liked person would do makes us less indulgent.
Part 2
If we knew what a skinny person’s kitchen looked like, we could set up our own kitchens in a similar way. Once we got into people’s homes, we took pictures of everything: their dishes, sinks, refrigerator shelves, counters, snacks, pet-food dishes, tables, lighting — even random items held up by magnets on their refrigerators. Then we spent eight months coding these kitchens to see what thin people do differently.
We wondered if big kitchens turn us into big people. But it turns out that kitchen size isn’t the problem. It’s what you see in the kitchen. The average woman who kept potato chips on the counter weighed eight pounds more than her neighbor who didn’t. “In sight, in stomach.” We eat what we see, not what we don’t.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined part “less indulgent”?
| A．self-confident | B．self-controlled |
| C．self-estimated | D．self-centered |
What’s the writer’s purpose of writing this passage?
| A．To give advice on how to become slim. |
| B．To warn people that nutrition education is important for our daily life. |
| C．To tell us that someone children admire may influence their eating habits. |
| D．To introduce some innovative ways to help us eat healthier. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Changing your eating environment is more effective than understanding nutrition in order to eat healthier. |
| B．The role model way has no effect on children at all when they choose what to eat. |
| C．Setting up our kitchens just like the slim person’s will help us eat healthier. |
| D．It is not the size of the kitchen but what we see in the kitchen that turns us into big people. |
What is the best title for part 2?
| A．The Slim Person’s Kitchen |
| B．How to decorate your Kitchen |
| C．Kitchen size makes a difference |
| D．Big kitchens are more popular |
Unlike chemists and physicists, who usually do their experiments using machines, biologists and medical researchers have to use living things like rats. But there are three Nobel prize-winning scientists who actually chose to experiment on themselves – all in the name of science, reported The Telegraph.
1. Werner Forssmann (Nobel prize winner in 1956)
Forssmann was a German scientist. He studied how to put a pipe inside the heart to measure the pressure inside and decide whether a patient needs surgery.
Experiments had been done on horses before, so he wanted to try with human patients. But it was not permitted because the experiment was considered too dangerous.
Not giving up, Forssmann decided to experiment on himself. He anaesthetized (麻醉) his own arm and made a cut, putting the pipe 30 centimeters into his vein. He then climbed two floors to the X-ray room before pushing the pipe all the way into his heart.
2. Barry Marshall (Nobel prize winner in 2005)
Most doctors in the mid-20th century believed that gastritis was down to stress, spicy food or an unusually large amount of stomach acid. But in 1979 an Australian scientist named Robin Warren found that the disease might be related to a bacteria called Helicobacter pylori.
So he teamed up with his colleague, Barry Marshall, to continue the study. When their request to experiment on patients was denied, Marshall bravely drank some of the bacteria. Five days later, he lost his appetite and soon was vomiting each morning – he indeed had gastritis.
3. Ralph Steinman (Nobel prize winner in 2011)
This Canadian scientist discovered a new type of immune system cell called the dendritic cell. He believed that it had the ability to fight against cancer.
Steinman knew he couldn’t yet use his method to treat patients. So in 2007, when doctors told him that he had cancer and that it was unlikely for him to live longer than a year, he saw an opportunity.
With the help of his colleagues, he gave himself three different vaccines based on his research and a total of eight experimental therapies. Even though Steinman eventually died from his cancer, he lived four and a half years, much longer than doctors had said he would.What’s the main purpose of the article?
| A．To introduce a few Nobel prize winners who did experiments on themselves. |
| B．To list difficulties that scientists went through in order to make important discoveries. |
| C．To explain why some scientists chose to experiment on themselves. |
| D．To introduce some dangerous experiments that Nobel prize winners did on themselves. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?
| A．Forssmann’s experiment ended in failure. |
| B．Forssmann had the pipe pushed all the way into his heart. |
| C．Barry Marshall succeeded by drinking some Helicobacter pylori. |
| D．Barry Marshall’s experiment on himself confirmed that most doctors’ belief about gastritis |
was correct.The underlined word “gastritis” in Paragraph 5 probably means ______.
| A．a kind of bacteria |
| B．a kind of stomach disease |
| C．a new type of therapy |
| D．a large amount of stomach acid |
From the text, we can conclude that Ralph Steinman ______.
| A．discovered a new type of cancer cell called the dendritic cell |
| B．tried different therapies containing the dendritic cell on himself |
| C．had his request to experiment on patients denied |
| D．believed that he was better than doctors at treating cancer |
It’s not so surprising that US First Lady Michelle Obama has called Modern Family her favorite TV series. September saw the fun, heartwarming sitcom take home the Best Comedy Series award at the 2013 Emmys. This is the fourth year in a row that the series has won that title. The show features three families who move in and out of each other’s lives. The first one is a typical American family: the working dad Phil, stay-at-home mom Claire and their three children.
The second family is made up of Jay, his young Hispanic wife and her son Manny. Jay, 65, is the father of Claire. He is 30 years older than his wife and everyone mistakes the two for being father and daughter.
The third family is made up of a gay couple, Mitchell and Cameron, and their adopted daughter Lily. Mitchell is Jay’s son.
On Sept 25, the show started its fifth season, in which Claire makes a big change – she returns to work. The other big storylines include Jay’s stepson Manny starting high school and Mitchell and Cameron looking for a primary school for Lily. Will things go right for the three families?
Modern Family has no spies, aliens or vampires (吸血鬼); it’s just about ordinary people. So what has made it such a hit?
According to the Los Angeles Times, its “presentation of contemporary US society” contributes to its success. The show presents what a typical “nuclear family” is like in the US: two parents, a big house and two or three children. When there’s a fight between their kids, Phil wants to be the “cool dad” while traditional mom Claire lives by the saying “an eye for an eye”. She always forces Phil to punish the troublemaker.
The show also touches upon developments in interracial relations in the US by focusing on Hispanic communities. This makes sense, as “by 2040, America will no longer be a majority-white country, with the fastest growth rate among Hispanics…” BBC pointed out.
In addition, according to BBC, 40 percent of Americans say they have a gay friend or relative. By including Mitchell and Cameron, Modern Family reflects the changing status of gay people in the US.
“The US is a melting pot … so the family has come to reflect that diversity.” commented The Hartman Group, a US research firm.Which of the following is TRUE about the characters in Modern Family?
| A．There are always fights between Phil and Claire because of their different ways of raising kids. |
| B．Jay, Claire and Mitchell make up a typical American family. |
| C．Mitchell and Cameron are a gay couple and they adopted a boy. |
| D．Jay and his wife are often not thought of as a couple because their ages are so far apart. |
What’s new in Modern Family’s fifth season?
| A．Lily is entering kindergarten. |
| B．Jay’s grandson Manny starts high school. |
| C．Phil loses his job. |
| D．Claire goes back to work. |
Why is Modern Family so popular?
| A．It reflects current US society. |
| B．It presents what a typical “nuclear family” is like in the US. |
| C．It includes developments in interracial relations in the US. |
| D．It reflects the changing status of gay people in the US. |
Which of the following best shows the structure of the article?
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