Do you know what the White House is? Perhaps some of you do，while others don't.
The White House is a house in Washington. The president of the U.S.A. lives in it. It's really white. But do you know why the White House is white? The story happened in 1812. That year England was at war with America. The British army got to Washington and set the president's house on fire. In 1814，in order to hide the marks of the fire，the stone walls of the president's house were painted white and it has been the "White House” ever since.White House is a house for ___________.
A. the American people.
B. the soldiers of U.S.A.
C. the presidents of U.S.A.
D. the patients of U.S.A.England fought with America in ____________.
| A．1810 | B．1812 | C．1814 | D．1916 |
The house is called "White House" because ____________.
| A．it's covered with snow |
| B．the house is very clean |
| C．the stone walls of the house were painted white |
| D．they like white colour |
The White House was painted white because ____________.
| A．the house is old |
| B．the house is new |
| C．it was once on fire and was with marks |
| D．they have enough paint |
"ever since" means ___________.
| A．never | B．once | C．from then on | D．Before |
A student was one day taking a walk with his teacher. As they went along, they saw a pair of old shoes lying in the path. They were a poor farmer’s, who was working in the nearby field.
The student turned to the teacher, saying: “we will hide his shoes, and hide ourselves behind those trees, and wait to see what he will do.”
“My young friend,”answered the teacher,“we should never make fun of the poor. Why not put a coin in each shoe, and then we will hide ourselves and watch?”The student did so and they both hid themselves behind the trees. The poor man soon finished his work, and came across the field to the path where he had left his coat and shoes.
After putting on his coat, he put his foot into one of his shoes, and felt something hard. Then he bent (弯腰) down to feel what it was, and found the coin. Surprised, he looked at the coin, turned it around and looked at it again. He then looked around, but no person was seen. He put the money into his pocket, and continued to put on the other shoe. His surprise was doubled on finding the other coin.
He couldn’t control his feelings and fell to his knees, looked up to the sky and expressed his thanks. Then he spoke of his wife, sick and helpless, and his children without bread. He said the help would save them from dying.
The student stood there deeply moved, and his eyes filled with tears. “Now,” said the teacher, “are you not much happier than if you had hidden the shoes?”When the student saw the shoes, he wanted to _____.
| A．steal them |
| B．find their owner |
| C．play a joke on the owner |
| D．give the owner some money |
When the farmer saw the second coin, he _____.
| A．was very excited and grateful |
| B．was worried and looked up at the sky |
| C．was surprised and decided to find the owner |
| D．spoke of his difficulties and asked for more help |
At the end of the story, the student _____.
| A．was very proud of himself |
| B．was very pleased with his life |
| C．felt very sorry about his first idea |
| D．felt sad for not taking his teacher’s advice |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．It is never too late to learn. |
| B．All good things come to an end. |
| C．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| D．True happiness comes from helping others. |
It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr.Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.
Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.
Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena.”The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.
Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs ,which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”, In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.The author mentions Dr.Johnson’s comment to show that________.
| A．most commentators agree with Dr.Johnson |
| B．Dr.Johnson is famous for his weather observation |
| C．the comment was accurate two hundred years ago |
| D．English conversations usually start with the weather |
What does the underlined word “obsession” most probably refer to?
| A．A social trend. |
| B．An emotional state. |
| C．A historical concept. |
| D．An unknown phenomenon. |
According to the passage, Jeremy Paxman believes that________.
| A．Bill Bryson has little knowledge of the weather |
| B．there is nothing special about the English weather] |
| C．the English weather attracts people to the British Isles |
| D．English people talk about the weather for its uncertainty |
What is the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To explain what English weather-speak is about. |
| B．To analyze misconceptions about the English weather. |
| C．To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman. |
| D．To convince people that the English weather is changeable. |
In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便车).
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.
The author had to hitch a ride one day in 1978 because .
| A．her work delayed her trip to Sydney |
| B．she was going home for her holidays |
| C．the town was far away from Sydney |
| D．she missed the only train back home |
Which of the following did Gordon do according to Paragraph 2?
| A．He helped the girl find a ride. |
| B．He gave the girl a ride back home. |
| C．He bought sandwiches for the girl. |
| D．He watched the girl for three hours. |
The reason why the author offered a lift to the elderly man was that .
| A．she realized he was Gordon |
| B．she had known him for decades |
| C．she was going to the nearby town |
| D．she wanted to repay the favour she once got |
What does the author want to tell the readers through the story?
| A．Giving sometimes produces nice results. |
| B．Those who give rides will be rapid. |
| C．Good manners bring about happiness. |
| D．People should offer free rides to others. |
Your glasses may someday replace your smartphone, and some New Yorkers are ready for the switch. Some in the city can't wait to try them on and use the maps and GPS that the futuristic eyewear is likely to include.
“ I'd use it if I were hanging out with friends at 3 a. m. and going to the [bar and wanted to see what was open,” said Walter Choo, 40, of Fort Greene.
The smartphone-like glasses will likely come out this year and cost between $250 and $600, the Times said, possibly including a variation of augmented(增强的) reality, a technology already available on smartphones and tablets (平板电脑) that overlays information onto the screen about one's surroundings. So, for example, if you were walking down a street, indicators would pop up showing you the nearest coffee shop or directions could be plotted out and come into view right on the sidewalk in front of you.
“ As far as a mainstream consumer product, this just isn't something anybody needs,” said Sam Biddle, who writes for Gizmodo.com. “ We're accustomed to having one thing in our pocket to do all these things,” he added, “and the average consumer isn't gonna be able to afford another device (装置) that's hundreds and hundreds of dollars.”
9to5Google publisher Seth Weintraub, who has been reporting on the smartphone-like glasses since late last year, said he is confident that this type of wearable device will eventually be as common as smartphones.
“It's just like smartphones 10 years ago,” Weintraub said. “A few people started getting emails on their phones, and people thought that was crazy. Same kind of thing. We see people bending their heads to look at their smartphones, and it's unnatural,” he said. “ There's gonna be improvements to that, and this a step there.”
One of the possible functions of the smartphone-like glasses is to ____.
| A．program the opening hours of a bar |
| B．supply you with a picture of the future |
| C．provide information about your surroundings |
| D．update the maps and GPS in your smartphones |
The underlined phrase "pop up" in the third paragraph probably means " ____".
| A．develop rapidly |
| B．get round quickly |
| C．appear immediately |
| D．go over automatically |
According to Sam Biddle, the smartphone-like glasses are ____.
| A．necessary for teenagers |
| B．attractive to New Yorkers |
| C．available to people worldwide |
| D．expensive for average consumers |
We can learn from the last two paragraphs that the smartphone-like glasses ____.
| A．may have a potential market |
| B．are as common as smartphones |
| C．are popular among young adults |
| D．will be improved by a new technology |
In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yetas early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1,25 million tickets were sold.What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at the beginning?
| A．To bring Europe together again. |
| B．To honor heroes of World War 11. |
| C．To introduce young theatre groups. |
| D．To attract great artists from Europe. |
Why did some uninvited theatre groups come to Edinburgh in 1947?
| A．They owned a public house there. |
| B．They came to take up a challenge. |
| C．They thought they were also famous. |
| D．They wanted to take part in the festival. |
Who joined the "Fringe" after it appeared?
| A．they owned a public house there |
| B．University students. |
| C．Artists from around the world. |
| D．Performers of music and dance. |
We may learn from the text that Edinburgh Festival______.
| A．has become a non-official event |
| B．has gone beyond an art festival |
| C．gives shows all year round |
| D．keeps growing rapidly |
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