In the UK, a group of campaigners(活动家)have declared the last Saturday in November as National Buy Nothing Day. “Our message is clear: shop less, live more!” says organizer Michael Smith. “The challenge is to try simple living for a day. Spend time with family and friends, rather than spending money on them. Anyone can take part, provided they spend a day without spending.”
On Buy Nothing Day, they take to the streets to tackle consumers(消费者). They dress as pigs to symbolize greed(贪婪). They offer to cut up credit cards and hand out shopping bags with the words “another useless thing I don’t need” written on the side. Some hold street parties to show shoppers that it is possible to have fun without spending money. Others go into shops and put notes saying “don’t buy me” inside clothes and shoes.
Some protestors(抗议者) are working against powerful forces. Many retailers(零售商) and manufacturers depend on Christmas sales for most of their profits. Around two thirds of GDP in the West is made up of consumer spending. If this drops, many people will lose their jobs. At least that will make it easier for them to buy nothing.
And there is also the risk that the campaigners will be seen as killjoys, who want to stop people enjoying themselves. “There’s a fun side to this,” says Michael Smith. “To some it’s a protest, but it’s also a street party. We’re not saying that people are bad because they go shopping, but we need get the message across for people to consume wisely. And after we’re finished, we’ll probably go for a drink.”Why do a group of people in the UK choose Saturday as National Buy Nothing Day?
| A．Because they have enough food at their homes. |
| B．Because it is the season for shopping. |
| C．Because they have run out of money at that time. |
| D．Because it’s popular to live a simple life. |
In order to persuade people to stop shopping, the campaigners _____.
| A．stop people going out |
| B．have different ways to make it |
| C．offer goods to people freely |
| D．play tricks on consumers |
The underlined word “killjoys” in the last paragraph refers to people who _____.
| A．ruin the happiness and fun of others |
| B．get money from shopkeepers |
| C．bring happiness to others |
| D．take no interest in shopping |
The campaigners started National Buy Nothing Day for the purpose of _____.
| A．persuading people to kill time in a different way |
| B．persuading people to save money |
| C．persuading people to have more parties |
| D．persuading people to spend money wisely |
Edward Sims was born in 1892. He was the fifth child and only son of Herbert and Dora Sims. Herbert was a blacksmith(铁匠), and had a thriving trade making horseshoes. He was determined that his first-born son would follow him into the blacksmith. For this reason, Edward had to leave school at the age of 12,and worked with his father.
However, Edward was not cut out to be a blacksmith. Although he has an athletic body, he didn't have strong arms like his father, and he felt dizzy in the heat of the smithy. When he tried to find alternative employment, he found it difficult because he had never learnt to read or write.
One day, he went for an interview at a solictior’s office. The job was a runner, taking documents from the office to other offices in the city. The solicitor was pleased to see that Edward was physically fit, but when he discovered that the young man couldn't read or write, he decided against employing him. "How can you deliver documents to other offices," he asked, "if you can't read the addresses on them?"
Bitterly disappointed, Edward left the building and went to wait for a tram to take him back to the suburb where his father’s smithy was. Next to the bus stop, a man was selling newspapers from a stand .
"Excuse me, son?" he said. "Would you look after my stand for a moment?"
For the next 20 minutes, Edward sold newspapers, lots of them. When the man came back, he was so delighted with his new assistant's honesty, that he offered him a job. Edward took it immediately.
In the next few months, the two men progressed from working on newspaper stands to selling newspapers, tobacco,confectionery（糖果点心）and other goods in a shop. Then they opened a second shop, and a third. Eventually, they had a chain of 25 shops in three cities.
Edward became very rich, so he employed a tutor to teach him to read and write. The tutor was amazed at what Edward had achieved. "Imagine what you could do if you’d been able to read and write when you were younger!" he said.
“Yes!” said Edward. “I could have run myself to exhaustion delivering documents for a solicitor!”What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Success of illiterate newsboy |
| B．Local blacksmith becomes famous |
| C．The thriving trade of the blacksmith |
| D．Reading and writing-the road to success |
What can you infer from the underlined expression “not cut out to be” in the second paragraph?
| A．Edward Sims did not like being a blacksmith. |
| B．Edward Sims did not like working with his father. |
| C．Edward Sims was not strong enough and it made him feel ill. |
| D．Edward Sims was good at it but wanted to do another job. |
When Edward applied for the job as a runner for a solicitor, .
| A．the solicitor turned him down because he wasn’t intelligent enough |
| B．the solicitor offered him the job because he was so fit |
| C．the solicitor gave him the job but told him he had to learn to read |
| D．the solicitor didn’t offer him the job because he couldn’t read |
Which of the following is NOT ture about Edward Sims?
| A．He was such a good salesman that he went on to own 25 newsagent shops with another man. |
| B．The newspaperman liked him so much he gave him a job. |
| C．He ran himself into exhaustion delivering papers. |
| D．He learnt to read and write. |
Welcome to this Website on the British Isles. Over the coming months it will be expanded to allow you to find information on all aspects of life in the British Isles. The British Isles is visited by millions of people each year, many returning time and again.
Wales: Wales is full of fascinating places to visit and stay. The castles of Beaumaris, Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon are officially listed as world heritage sites and provide an insight into the troubled past of this great land. The national park of Snowdonia is stunning and provides walkers and climbers with many opportunities to challenge their limits. South Wales also has interesting places to visit: Pembrokeshire is especially inviting for tourists.
England: We all know about the attractions lf London but England has a lot more to offer outside of the city. The “English Riviers”, Torquay, is blessed with good weather and is a major tourist attraction. This is a great place to stay and explore the local seaside resorts.
Windsor castle is a great place to visit and the town and surrounding areas are beautiful. Warwick castle in the centre of England is world famous and holds regular evens (同额赌注) to show how life was like in the time it was built.
Scotland: A great place to visit, Scotland still has many places that are relatively uninhabited(杳无人迹的) and are great for getting away from it all. Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in the British Isles and the numerous lakes provide great fishing. In parts you can still hear Gaelic spoken and we all know about the Scottish expertise in making Whisky! You can also visit the ski resorts of Aviemore in the Cairngorms. Glasgow, the capital is now recognized as a centre of culture as well as being a great shopping centre.The highest mountain in the British Isles is in ________.
| A．Wales | B．England | C．Scotland | D．Chester |
A mountain-climber will probably visit ________.
| A．Wales and England | B．Wales and Scotland |
| C．England and Wales | D．Pembrokeshire and Torquay |
Which of the following is NOT true about England?
| A．Windsor castle is in the center of England. |
| B．London is the capital city. |
| C．You can enjoy good weather in Torquay. |
| D．There are more than one castles. |
Where are you likely to get such information?
| A．A TV program on tourism. | B．A newspaper. |
| C．A geography book. | D．The Internet. |
Throughout the world, boys and girls prefer to play with different types of toys. Boys typically like to play with cars and trucks, while girls typically choose to play with dolls. Why is this? A traditional sociological explanation is that boys and girls are socialized and encouraged to play with different types of toys by their parents, peers, and the “society”. Growing scientific evidence suggests, however, that boys’ and girls’ toy preferences may have a biological origin.
In 2002, Gerianne M. Alexander of Texas A&M University and Melissa Hines of City University in London surprised the scientific world by showing that monkeys showed the same sex typical toy preferences as humans. In the study, Alexander and Hines gave two masculine toys (a ball and a police car), two feminine toys (a soft doll and a cooking pot), and two neutral toys (a picture book and a stuffed dog) to 44 male and 44 female monkeys. They then assessed the monkeys’ preference for each toy by measuring how much time they spent with each. Their data showed that male monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the masculine toys, and the female monkeys showed significantly greater interest in the feminine toys. The two sexes did not differ in their preference for the neutral toys.
If children’ s toy preferences were largely formed by gender socialization, as traditional sociologists’ claim, in which their parents give “gender appropriate” toys to boys and girls, how can these male and female monkeys have the same preferences as boys and girls？They were never socialized by humans, and they had never seen these toys before in their lives.Traditional sociologists believe boys’ and girls’ toy preferences ________
| A．are passed down from their parents |
| B．are largely formed in later life |
| C．have nothing to do with gender socialization |
| D．have a biological origin |
The study by Alexander and Hines shows that monkeys________
| A．also have a sex typical toy preference |
| B．also play toys as humans do |
| C．have no toy preferences |
| D．like to play different toys at different time |
Alexander and Hines carried out the study to ________
| A．find more evidence for traditional sociology |
| B．test the intelligence of monkeys |
| C．test whether monkeys like to play toys |
| D．find out why boys and girls prefer different toys |
According to the study, if given a stuffed dog, _______
| A．only the male monkeys showed interest |
| B．the female monkeys showed more interest |
| C．the male and female monkeys showed the same interest |
| D．neither the male nor the female monkeys showed any interest |
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is one of the world's greatest art museums. Millions of people have entered its doors to see paintings by the world's fine artists. But if these priceless masterpieces are to be preserved, the Gallery must protect them carefully. The Gallery's 135-man guard force has successfully prevented them from being stolen, but protecting the paintings from nature is a greater problem.
In past times, the owners of paintings did not protect them from damaging changes in humidity (湿度) and temperature. As a result, the life of these paintings were shortened. In the National Gallery, however, humidity and temperature are carefully controlled. The building is air-conditioned in summer and heated in winter. The air-conditioning and heating system are so important to the life of the painting that the Gallery has two of each system. If one should fail, the extra one can take over.
Light is another enemy of paintings. Ultraviolet rays (紫外线) in light cause paintings to fade (褪色). Long ago, paintings often hung in dark churches and palaces. A coat of varnish (清漆) was a protection from the weak light. But when museums took over the care of many paintings, they were often hung in brighter light than before. Soon they were in danger of fading. The damaging effects of light were increased when the museums removed the varnish coating, yellowed with age.
To protect its paintings, the National Gallery put a special kind of glass in its skylights. This glass allows visible lights to enter the building but it keeps out harmful ultraviolet rays. The Gallery has also developed new and better varnishes which help to keep paintings from fading. Thanks to these new precautions, many of the world's greatest paintings are being well protected for future generations to enjoy.The text mainly tells us about ______.
| A．the guard force in the National Gallery |
| B．protecting great paintings from nature |
| C．priceless paintings of past times |
| D．the air-conditioning and heating systems in the National Gallery |
The underlined word "precautions" in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．decorations |
| B．problems |
| C．suggestions |
| D．applications |
From the text we can infer that_______.
| A．great artists painted in dark churches and palaces |
| B．you can touch these paintings while you are in the National Gallery |
| C．the care of the world's greatest paintings is both a big responsibility and a great challenge |
| D．the guard force in the Gallery has not done a good job |
The earth is not the only body that travels around the sun. With it are eight other planets, fellow members of the sun’s family.
Two of them, Mercury (水星) and Venus, are nearer while the other six, namely Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, also in their given order from the sun, are farther from the sun than the earth is. The farther they are, the longer trips they make around the sun. People noticed long ago that these traveling bodies moved around in the sky in definite paths. It is a force called gravity that holds them in their paths.
We know that every little bit of matter in the universe pulls upon every other bit of matter. The pull between two bodies is proportional (成比例的) to the product of their masses. Because the sun is so large the pull between the sun and the planets are thus great. If it were not for this pull, the planets would fly off into space. In the same way there exists a pull between the earth and the moon, which keeps the moon traveling in its orbit around our planet, the earth. Gravity holds you to its surface, and pulls back to it the ball which you throw into the air. Of course the ball also pulls on the larger earth but the earth is so much larger that the pull is not noticed.
Now remember that large bodies exert a greater pull than smaller ones which contain less material. But each object in the universe, no matter how small, pulls on all other objects to some degree.There are ________ that travel around the sun in the sun’s family.
| A．nine planets | B．eight planets |
| C．one star and ten planets | D．the earth and the sun |
Which two planets make the longest trips around the sun among all the planets in the solar system?
| A．Mercury and Venus. | B．Neptune and Pluto. |
| C．Saturn and Uranus. | D．Mars and Jupiter. |
From the passage we can see__________
| A．all the objects, big or small, must exert the same pull on one another |
| B．large objects exert the same pull on anybody as small objects |
| C．small objects exert the same on large ones |
| D．each object in the universe exerts a pull on all other objects |
From the sentence “The pull between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses.” We can infer that the pull between__________
| A．the sun and the moon is greater than between the sun and the earth |
| B．the earth and the moon is greater than that between the sun and the earth |
| C．the sun and the earth is greater than that between the earth and the moon |
| D．the sun and the earth is the same as that between the earth and the moon |
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