You feel generally depressed and unable to concentrate. Your pattern of daily activity may change：you find yourself awake and active in the middle of the night；you sleep late into the day. You stay in your room and have little contact with people except with those who speak your language. In your mind，you criticize the people around you；You are constantly comparing between life here and the perfect life back home. Above a11, you are homesick almost all the time.
If you ever find yourself behaving in these ways，you are probably suffering from culture shock. Culture shock is a psychological condition that sometimes has physical effects. It affects people who have moved away from an environment where they know how to live into a new environment where much is unfamiliar to them-the food，the weather, the language，and especially the unwritten rules for social behavior.
Culture shock is caused. therefore，by a lack of familiarity with the system of rules that the new society uses for everyday living. Language is an obvious example of one type of these rules. If your language is limited，even the simplest task can suddenly become difficult for you. However, knowledge of the language doesn’t make you free from the effects of culture shock as many Britons in the United States and many Americans in Britain will experience. Most people are unaware that each culture has its own rules for social behavior；they certainly think that polite， civilized people behave the same way worldwide. This mistaken belief will cause you to behave and judge the behavior of others according to the rules you learned as a member of your own culture. If the rules are different, then people will misunderstand your behavior, and you will misunderstand theirs.
How can you deal with culture shock? First, you need to realize that every newcomer suffers from some culture shock. You’re not the only case. Second，remember that culture shock can be cured. The process of recovery will start as you begin to become used to the new culture. Of course learning the language will help remove the obstacles to communication and will ease the job of making Mends with people. Recognizing and learning the new cultural rules of behavior, however, may be just as important. You’ll still have emotional reactions to unfamiliar situations but you’11 find yourself making jokes about them rather than condemning the entire society as “stupid.” The jokes are a good sign：they show that you are recovering.What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．the causes of culture shock |
| B．some signs of culture shock |
| C．the cure for culture shock |
| D．an explanation of culture shock |
What does the underlined word obstacles mean?
| A．things that make a task easy |
| B．things that make at ask enjoyable |
| C．things that make a task difficult |
| D．things that make at ask funny |
What can be concluded when you find yourself making jokes about new culture?
| A．You are about to recover from culture shock. |
| B．You have completely got rid of culture shock. |
| C．You never suffered from culture shock before. |
| D．You’re in culture shock for many years. |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．The passage suggests that culture shock makes you miss your family badly. |
| B．A good knowledge of the language will prevent you suffering from culture shock. |
| C．In the writer’s opinion，the social rules for polite，civilized behavior are international. |
| D．If you have a perfect knowledge of their language, you will never be misunderstood. |
For Rachael and Leigh Badman, there is only one wish on their Christmas list this year__ that their sick daughter survives until December 25.
Fifteen –year-old Paige suffers from a rare brain condition. The disease affects as few as 12 people in the world, and can kill her any day without warning. And her condition has deteriorated in recent months. Each time she closes her eyes, she may never wake up. Rachael and Leigh Badman are worried that she couldn’t live through Christmas. They filled their house with Christmas decorations on November1, so she could enjoy her favorite day of the year in advance.
Paige was diagnosed with the condition four years ago. Mrs. Badman described the condition as “being on death row” as she never knows if she will wake up and still have a daughter. She said, “ Paige always loves Christmas and it’s heartbreaking to see her suffering like this.”
In the last months, Paige has been unable to eat and has never walked or spoken. But she loves music, and enjoys watching pop stars’ DVDs. And in May she also went on holiday to Florida with her parents and little brother, Kefton. The family , who have already organized parts of Paige’s funeral, also saw the teenager swimming with dolphins during the trip. Since then, however, her condition has worsened.
Mrs Badman, who is separated from her husband and works as Paige’s full-time carer, said, “Now she can’t eat or drink anymore, and her brain is shrinking.(萎缩) With all her problems, we just thought, ‘Let’s get the Christmas tree up as soon as possible.’ We’re praying she lives to see Christmas Day.”Paige’s parents got the Christmas tree up on November 1 to ____.
| A．let her enjoy the great time with visitors |
| B．let her understand her parents’ love |
| C．let her enjoy Christmas early before her death |
| D．let her receive more good wishes from others |
Mrs Badman described Paige as “ being on death row” because ______.
| A．Paige could die at any time without warning |
| B．she found Paige struggling painfully |
| C．she had organized Paige’s funeral |
| D．Paige lost the abilities to walk and speak |
The underlined word can be replaced by “_____”.
| A．proved satisfying | B．grown stronger | C．got improved | D．become worse |
What can be learned from the passage?
| A．Christmas is Paige’s favorite festival. |
| B．12% of children in the world suffer from the disease. |
| C．Paige enjoyed watching pop stars’ DVDs on a trip. |
| D．Paige travelled with her family before suffering the disease. |
Since the pre-historic times, man has had an urge to satisfy his needs. Be it hunger, shelter or search for a mate, he has always controlled the situations to his advantage. Probably this might be the reason why we humans are the most developed of all living species on the earth. As we climbed the steps of development, we somehow left behind common sense and logical thinking -- we forgot that we have stopped thinking ahead of time.
If you are hungry, what do you do? Get a piece of your favorite meal and stay quiet. Just like your stomach, even your mind is hungry. But it never lets you know, because you keep it busy thinking about your dream lover, favorite star and many such things. So it silently began to care about your needs and never let itself grow. When mind looses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop. This might be the reason why we all sometimes think "What happens next?", "Why can't I think?" "Why am I always given the difficult problems?" Well, this is the result of using our brain for thinking of not-so-worthy things.
Hunger of the mind can be actually satisfied through reading. Now why reading and not watching TV? Because reading has been the most educative tool used by us right from the childhood. Just like that to develop other aspects of our life, we have to turn to reading. You have innumerable number of books in this world which will answer all your "How to?" questions. The interesting part of the book is stored in your mind as a seed. Now this seed is unknowingly used by you in your future to develop new ideas. The same seed, if used many times, can help you link and relate a lot of things, of which you would have never thought in your wildest dreams! This is nothing but creativity. More the number of books you read, your mind will open up like never before.What is the function of the first paragraph?
| A．To show humans are the most developed. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| C．To indicate people have different needs to satisfy. |
| D．To explain why people need to read. |
What does the author mean by saying "When mind looses its freedom to grow, creativity gets a full stop."
| A．When mind keeps growing, creativity fully stops. |
| B．When freedom is lost, creativity gets a full stop. |
| C．When mind stops growing, creativity fully stops. |
| D．When growing is lost, creativity gets a flail stop. |
The paragraph following the passage is probably about ______.
| A．how the pre-historic man feeds his mind |
| B．what other advantages reading brings |
| C．how to develop creativity |
| D．how to satisfy your mind by watching TV |
The author tends to tell us ______.
| A．reading can satisfy your all needs | B．reading can result from creativity |
| C．reading can feed your mind | D．reading can realize your dreams |
Cleveland has won the distinction of being the worst city in the United States, according to a new survey. The city has high unemployment, terrible weather, heavy taxes, and ordinary sports teams, all of which have pushed it to the No. 1 position in the Forbes.com list.
"Cleveland was the only city that fell in the bottom half of rankings in all nine categories. And it has been entitled with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the lake," Forbes said on its website,
The economic downturn hit cities across the United States last year particularly in the mid-west section of the country. Crime and unemployment secured the No. 2 spot for Stockton, which held the top position in last year's ranking. Memphis got third place thanks to its violent crime rate and the number of officials who are guilty, while the poor auto industry drove the Michigan cities of Detroit and Flint into the top five.
"A lot of the cities that showed up on our list are going through hard times fight now, dealing with high unemployment, with declining producing bases. Many have experienced strong movement out of the city over the last 20 and 30 years."
Despite (尽管) its fine weather, Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in commuting (上下班往返) time, and violent crime which sent it into sixth place.
"One of the biggest surprises is Miami. The good weather and no state income taxes blur some of the severe problems that Miami has related to crime as well as long commutes," Badenhausen added.
Florida was followed in the poor ranking by St Louis, Buffalo, Canton, Ohio and Chicago, which has the country's highest sales tax at 10.25 percent. New York, the nation's biggest city, is rich in culture but its lengthy commuting time and high income taxes pushed it into 16th place.From the text we can learn that ______.
| A．Cleveland has been entitled a lovely nickname |
| B．the economic downturn hit cities in the mid-east section |
| C．Miami scored in the bottom 10 percent in all nine categories |
| D．commuting time in New York is too long |
What information can be inferred according to the text?
| A．The number of officials who are guilty is large in Memphis. |
| B．Stockton got second place in last year's ranking. |
| C．High income taxes made New York get 16th place. |
| D．Ohio has the country's highest sales tax. |
The word "blur" underlined in the last paragraph but one probably means ______.
| A．make it possible | B．make it unclear | C．make if obvious | D．make it important |
Which of the following is the correct ranking order?
| A．Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Buffalo, Florida. |
| B．Stockton, Miami, Flint, Florida, Canton. |
| C．Cleveland, Stockton, Miami, Chicago, Florida. |
| D．Stockton, Detroit, Miami, Florida, St Louis. |
Some plants get so hungry they eat flies, and even small frogs. What's more amazing is that these plants occur naturally (in special environments) in every state. In fact, they're found on every continent except Antarctica.
You've probably seen a Venus' flytrap -- a small plant, which grows 6 to 8 inches tall in a container. At the end of its stalks (茎) are leaves that act like traps (陷阱). Inside each trap is a lining of tiny hairs. When an insect lands on them, the traps suddenly shut. Over the course of a week or so, the plant feeds on its catch.
The Venus' flytrap is just one of more than 500 species of meat-eating plants, says Barry Meyers-Rice, the editor of the International Carnivorous Plant Society's Newsletter. He states although you might have read some science-fiction stories, no meat-eating plant does any danger to humans.
Barry says a plant is meat-eating, only if it does all four of the following: "attract, kill, digest, and absorb" some form of insects. Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants -- well, most of the time.
All green plants make sugar to produce food. What makes meat-eating plants different is their special leaves, which need insects for one reason: nitrogen (氮). Nitrogen is a nutrient that they can't obtain any other way. Why?
Almost all green plants on our planet get nitrogen from the soil. Meat-eating plants can't. They live in places where nutrients are hard to get from the soil because of its acidity. So they've come to rely on getting nitrogen from insects and small animals. In fact, nutrient-rich soft is poisonous to meat-eating plants. Never fertilize (施肥) them! But don't worry, either, if they never seem to catch any insects. They can survive, but they'll grow very slowly.According to the passage, a Venus' flytrap ______.
| A．is a small plant which grows in a container |
| B．is a kind of plant which gets hungry easily |
| C．can trap and feed on some form of insects |
| D．can only grow 6-8 inches tall |
From the passage, we can infer that ______.
| A．meat-eating plants are found nowhere else except Antarctica |
| B．all green plants get nitrogen from the soil |
| C．meat-eating plants endanger humans in science-fiction stories |
| D．the nutrient-poor soil is beneficial to meat-eating plants |
Meat-eating plants grow very slowly, ______.
| A．so you'd better fertilize them |
| B．probably because the supply of nitrogen is cut off |
| C．simply because they can't absorb nitrogen from the soil |
| D．and then they will die slowly |
Which of the following is true?
| A．Meat-eating plants look and act like other green plants. |
| B．It's hard to get nutrients in the soil when acidity is high. |
| C．The Venus' flytrap eats flies to get nutrient from them. |
| D．Green plants make sugar at night. |
There are many theories about how drama (戏剧) came into being in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama developed gradually from ceremonies. The argument for this view goes as follows.
In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then kept and repeated until they hardened into fixed ceremonies. Eventually stories arose which explained the mysteries of the ceremonies. As time passed, some of them were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths (神话), provided materials for art and drama
Those who believe that drama came out of ceremonies also argue that those ceremonies contained the seed of theater because music, dance, and masks were almost always used. In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the rules of ceremonies, religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks, they often impersonated (扮演) other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and performed the desired effect by gestures -- success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, the revival (复活) of the Sun -- as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory finds out the theater came from the human Interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, or other events) are gradually formed, at first through the use of impersonation, action, and dialogue by a speaker and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person A closely related theory about drama traces to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations (模仿) of animal movements and sounds.Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?
| A．Three theories about how drama came into being are mentioned. |
| B．The majority of people believe drama came from ceremonies. |
| C．Stories were made up to explain the mysteries of the ceremonies. |
| D．Religious activities developed gradually from ceremonies. |
We can infer from the passage that ______.
| A．all measures couldn't bring the desired results |
| B．religious leaders usually didn't perform in the ceremonies |
| C．mistakes are unavoidable in the religious ceremonies |
| D．performers usually used languages to reach the desired results |
The underlined part "traces to" in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．dates back to | B．is devoted to | C．gives way to | D．is familiar to |
The best title for the text would be ______.
| A．The Development of Drama | B．The History of Drama |
| C．The Origin of Drama | D．The Popularity of Drama |
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