There is one word that is on the lips of Americans, day and night: “Sorry.”
One time as I was walking on the street, a young man ran by hurriedly, brushing against my handbag. Even as he continued on his way, he turned back and said “sorry” to me. Even in a rush, he didn’t forget to apologize. One day, after I bought a mango, the salesman was giving me the change, but I wasn’t ready for it and a coin dropped to the ground. “I’m sorry,” he said while bending down to pick it up. I was puzzled—why would he apologize when it is my fault?
Another time, I stepped on a man’s foot in an escalator, at the same time, we both said “sorry”. I thought it interesting, was it really necessary for him to apologize? Later on, an American friend explained to me that according to the American mentality, the escalators a public place, and everyone should be able to stand in it. After someone occupies a position in the elevator, making it difficult for someone else to find a place to stand, isn’t it necessary to express an apology?
If you go to the movies and the tickets happen to be sold out, the ticket seller will say: “Sorry, the tickets are sold out.” Whenever one of your hopes goes unfulfilled, an American will say “sorry” as a sign of sympathy.
During my stay in America, I often came across situations in which I was supposed to say “sorry”. Gradually, I realized that when friction（摩擦）appears in daily life, Americans don’t care much about who is wrong; If someone is troubled, a “sorry” is always necessary. When this happens, even if the other person is hurt, the “sorry” cools tempers and human kindness is shown. Perhaps this is why I never saw anyone quarreling on the buses, subways or streets of America. How many examples are given to show that Americans like to say “sorry”?
| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
When the author was walking on the street, a young man ran by hurriedly ______.
| A．and took away his bag | B．and touched his bag |
| C．to help him with his bag | D．to brush his bag |
Which of the following plays a different role in the passage?
| A．Paragraph 2 | B．Paragraph 3 | C．Paragraph 4 | D．Paragraph 5 |
At last, the author’s attitude towards the Americans’ “sorry” seems to be ______.
| A．angry | B．interested | C．approving(赞成) | D．disappointed |
The best title for the passage can be “_______”.
| A．My life in America | B．Americans’ “sorry” |
| C．My experience in an escalator | D．The meaning of “sorry” |
The common cold is the world's most widespread illness, which is plagues(疫病) that flesh receives.
The most widespread mistake of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses(病毒) passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated Arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.
During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds.
In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp(奥斯维辛集中营), naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds.
At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.
If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? Despite the most pains—taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.
No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors(止痛片) such as aspirin, but all they do is to relieve the symptoms(症状).The writer offered _______ examples to support his argument.
| A．4 | B．5 | C．6 | D．3 |
Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage?
| A．The Eskimos do not suffer from colds all the time. |
| B．Colds are not caused by cold. |
| C．People suffer from colds just because they like to stay indoors. |
| D．A person may catch a cold by touching someone who already had one. |
Arctic explorers may catch colds when ________.
| A．they are working in the isolated Arctic regions |
| B．they are writing reports in terribly cold weather |
| C．they are free from work in the isolated Arctic regions |
| D．they are coming into touch again with the outside world |
The passage mainly discusses ________.
| A．the fallacy about the common cold |
| B．the experiments on the common cold |
| C．the reason and the way people catch colds |
| D．the continued spread of common colds |
"Indeed," George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, "some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home." But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen hade been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightning-bug(萤火虫). But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs, and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, "to install (安装) an alarm". Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others' conversation. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant "to cheat", and since the 1940s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as "little problems and difficulties" that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison "had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his invented record player."We learn from Paragraph 1 that __________________.
| A．Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug |
| B．George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug |
| C．the word bug was still popularly used in English in the nineteenth century |
| D．both Englishman and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century |
What does the word "flaw" in the last paragraph probably mean?
| A．Fault. | B．Finding. | C．Origin. | D．Explanation. |
The passage is mainly concerned with__________________.
| A．the misunderstanding of the word bug |
| B．the development of the word bug |
| C．the public views of the word bug |
| D．the special characteristics of the word bug |
Imagine going to sleep then waking up speaking another language. It may sound impossible， but it's actually happened.
The phenomenon(现象)of being able to suddenly speak another language is known as“Xenoglossia”， from the Greek words“xenos”(foreigner)and “glossa”(language)．
It once happened to a 13yearold girl from Croatia. After being unconscious(不省人事的)because of a disease for 24 hours in 2010，she woke up speaking fluent German. The girl， who came from the town of Knin in the south of Croatia，was studying German at school but she'd only started recently. Her parents said that she'd been reading German books and watching German TV at home， but that she wasn't fluent in the language.However ，since waking up， she's been able to communicate “perfectly”in German.What's really strange is that she's now unable to speak Croat，her mother language.Doctors at Split's KB Hospital have asked some experts to examine the girl as they try to find out what caused the change.Dr Mijo Milas said，“In earlier times this would have been considered as a miracle(奇迹)；we prefer to think that there must be an explanation—it's just that we haven't found it yet.”
In 2007，Matej Kus from Czech became unconscious after a motorbike accident. On waking up 45 minutes later，he could speak fluent English.Matej was only 18 years old at the time， and had just started studying the language and so was at a low level.Peter Waite，Kus's teammate said，“I couldn't believe what I was hearing.It was really clear English.It was unbelievable to hear him talk in unbroken English.”Unluckily，Matej's new language skills didn't last.Two days later， when he recovered fully from the accident， he'd completely forgotten his English.
We still don't know exactly what happened to the two people. Perhaps scientists will discover something new and exciting. But until then， keep studying!According to the passage，what is“Xenoglossia”？
| A．That someone becomes unconscious. |
| B．That someone speaks a new language in a sudden. |
| C．That someone doesn't like his mother language. |
| D．That someone is able to speak Greek suddenly. |
What does the underlined word “It” in Para.3 probably refer to?
| A．Having accidents. |
| B．Speaking fluent German. |
| C．The phenomenon of Xenoglossia. |
| D．Being unable to speak. |
We can learn from Paragraph 3 that the girl from Croatia ______.
| A．wanted to know what caused her change |
| B．believed she had a talent for language |
| C．didn't study German for a long time |
| D．didn't like learning German |
Which of the following is TURE according to the test?
| A．Matej Kus is now afraid of motorbike racing. |
| B．The girl from Croatia lost consciousness for several days. |
| C．The girl from Croatia was knocked unconscious in an accident. |
| D．Matej Kus could only speak a little English before the accident . |
Food prices have risen sharply over the past few years. The good news is that the rate of increase has slowed. The bad news is that prices will not go down anytime soon.
Also，the rate of global agricultural production is slowing. Yet it needs to increase 60% over the next 40 years to feed a growing world population.
These are among the findings from the OECDFAO(the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development & the Food and Agriculture Organization)Agricultural Outlook(展望)2012－2021.
FAO DirectorGeneral Jose Graziano da Silva spoke at a news conference in Rome when the report was released. Mr.Da Silva said that，not surprisingly，the world's poorest people will feel the greatest effects of higher prices.
“For the millions and millions of extremely poor people， the effects of high food prices are clear—they might have to change their diets，usually to ones with poorer nutrition quality， ”he said.
In middleincome countries， people are gaining weight as they eat fewer fruits and vegetables and more of the cheaper but less nutritious foods.
The report also shows that farmers in poorer countries will be leading efforts to feed an expected 9,000,000,000 people by 2050.The outlook predicts that farmers in Latin America，the Caribbean and subSaharan Africa will drive agricultural production in the future.
Angel Gurria，SecretaryGeneral of the OECD，said：“We can feed 9,000,000,000 people by 2050 on this planet. But we have to organize ourselves better.” But there are plenty of challenges.Onefourth of all agricultural land is damaged. Many countries face water shortages(短缺)．And experts believe climate change is driving increasingly unusual weather patterns.
The report says farmers need to use more growing methods that can't cause damage to the environment.At the same time，it says governments should end economically harmful supports and spend more money to increase agricultural production.Mr.Gurria says rich and poor nations need to treat agriculture more like a business.
“In many cases，agriculture is related in people's minds to the poorest. It's related to aid. It's related to very poor living conditions，etc. We have got to shake that image away，”he said.Why are people gaining weight in countries with average incomes?
| A．They eat more food. | B．They eat less nutritious foods. |
| C．They eat cheaper fruits. | D．They eat cheaper vegetables. |
It can be inferred from the text that poorer countries ______.
| A．are damaging a great part of their agricultural land |
| B．will play a great role in feeding the growing world population |
| C．are spending lots of money increasing agricultural production |
| D．will not be so seriously affected by food prices as rich nations |
What can be done to deal with the slow agricultural production?
| A．Improving the growing methods. |
| B．Finding more agricultural land. |
| C．Preventing governments' involvement. |
| D．Improving farmers' living conditions. |
Which of the following might Angel Gurria agree with?
| A．Agriculture means difficulty and sadness. |
| B．Food prices will go down in the near future. |
| C．It's almost impossible to feed 9,000,000,000 people by 2050. |
| D．Both rich and poor countries should take agriculture seriously. |
Cold weather has a great effect, on how our minds and our bodies work. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions that use the word “cold”. For centuries, the body’s blood has been linked closely with the emotions. People who show no human emotions or feelings, for example, are said to be cold-blooded. Cold-blood people act in a merciless way. They may do brutal things to others, and not by accident. For example, a newspaper says the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. The killer murdered someone, not in self-defense. He seemed to kill with no emotion.
Cold can affect other parts of the body, the feet, for example. Heavy socks can warm your feet, if your feet are really cold. But there is an expression ---- to get cold feet--- that has nothing to do with cold or your feet. The expression means being afraid to do something you decided to do. For example, you agree to be president of an organization. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned. All the work of the organization will be your responsibility. You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation.
Cold can also affect your shoulder. You “give someone the cold shoulder” when you refuse to speak to them. You treat them in a distant, cold way. The expression probably come from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face-to- face. You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you or to someone who has lied about you to others.
“A cold fish” is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and show no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone.
“Out in the cold” is and expression often heard. It means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise. He was left our in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be. The text is intended to tell us that ______.
| A．cold weather has a great effect on human bodies |
| B．“cold” is a word closely linked with human emotions |
| C．many English expressions contain the word “cold” |
| D．the word “cold” has many different meanings in English |
The underline word “brutal” in paragraph 1 most probably means ______.
| A．merciless | B．illegal | C．impolite | D．extreme |
Which phrase can best describe a person who is unwilling to offer anything to others?
| A．Cold-blooded. | B．To get cold shoulder. |
| C．A cold fish. | D．A cold shoulder. |
If the teacher gives all the boys except Tom a pen as a prize, you can say he ______.
| A．is given the cold shoulder | B．is punished by a cold fish |
| C．has got cold feet | D．is left out in the cold |
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