In England, we look forward to our birthdays for 364 days a year!
We invite special people to celebrate it with us.
The Presents
Presents are opened as soon as the children are awake. They can’t wait for the birthday cake later in the day!
The Cards
Friends and family send birthday cards. Sending birthday cards is a custom (风俗) that began in England about 100 years ago.
The Party
The birthday child will have a party to which friends and family are invited. Visitors to the party bring presents for the birthday child. The children play games such as musical chairs and pass the parcel (包裹).
The Cake
The birthday cake is decorated on a theme (主题). A candle for each year is lit and placed on top and the child blows out the candles making a wish. We don’t put objects inside the cake as stated on many websites.
The Bumps (碰撞)
It used to be traditional for the birthday child to have the bumps. Friends would hold the child by the legs and under the arms and lift the child up and down bumping them gently on the ground. The number of bumps given is the age of the child plus one for extra good luck. As this can be dangerous, clapping (拍手) is often done instead.
The Sweets
Some children do take sweets to school to share with their classmates on their birthdays. In England, the birthday present is opened _____.
| A．before the child wakes up |
| B．immediately after the child wakes up |
| C．as soon as the child gets up |
| D．during the birthday party |
If Alice is celebrating her 7th birthday, how many bumps will she be given?
| A．Six. | B．Seven. |
| C．Eight. | D．Nine. |
Which of the following facts about birthdays in England is NOT true?
| A．All the children will receive birthday cards on their birthdays. |
| B．Clapping is often done for the birthday child. |
| C．Objects meaning good luck are usually placed inside the birthday cake. |
| D．Nowadays children may share sweets with their classmates on their birthdays. |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．How birthdays are celebrated in the world |
| B．Where to hold an English birthday party |
| C．What to send when invited to a child’s birthday |
| D．How English children celebrate their birthdays |
Suppose you want to buy some new clothes or a new TV. Or maybe you need some work done on your car. How can you find the best price without shopping all over town? Ads can help you. Ads can show you lots of prices. And you don’t have to go anywhere to see them. Just open a newspaper or magazine, and you’ll find plenty of ads.
The following is an ad about TV sets for sale. Please read it and answer the questions below. 
How many different kinds of TV sets does the store advertise( 打广告) here ?
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. | D．Five. |
Which of the following statements is true according to the advertisement?
| A．You can buy any kind on July 14th. |
| B．The service time is9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Monday. |
| C．The larger the screen is, the higher the price will be. |
| D．The lowest price is a little more than 300. |
Which is NOT mentioned in the advertisement?
| A．The deadline(最后期限) of all the TV set sales. |
| B．The post code of the area where the store is. |
| C．The address of the store. |
| D．The name of the store. |
What can ads do for us according to the passage?
| A．They can help us cut down the prices before shopping. |
| B．They can show us plenty of prices after shopping all over town. |
| C．They can help us learn about the quality of the advertised things. |
| D．They can help us find the best price without shopping everywhere. |
The Cost of Higher Education
Individuals (个人) should pay for their higher education.
A university education is of huge and direct benefit to the individual. Graduates earn more than non-graduates. Meanwhile, social mobility is ever more dependent on having a degree. However, only some people have it. So the individual, not the taxpayers, should pay for it. There are pressing calls on the resources (资源) of the government. Using taxpayers' money to help a small number of people to earn high incomes in the future is not one of them.
Full government funding (资助) is not very good for universities. Adam Smith worked in a Scottish university whose teachers lived off student fees. He knew and looked down upon 18th-century Oxford, where the academics lived comfortably off the income received from the government. Guaranteed salaries, Smith argued, were the enemy of hard work; and when the academics were lazy and incompetent, the students were similarly lazy.
If students have to pay for their education, they not only work harder, but also demand more from their teachers. And their teachers have to keep them satisfied. If that means taking teaching seriously, and giving less time to their own research interests, that is surely something to celebrate.
Many people believe that higher education should be free because it is good for the economy (经济). Many graduates clearly do contribute to national wealth, but so do all the businesses that invest (投资) and create jobs. If you believe that the government should pay for higher education because graduates are economically productive, you should also believe that the government should pay part of business costs. Anyone promising to create jobs should receive a gift of capital from the government to invest. Therefore, it is the individual, not the government, who should pay for their university education. The underlined word "them" in Paragraph 2 refers to ______.
| A．taxpayers | B．pressing calls | C．college graduates | D．government resources |
The author thinks that with full government funding ______.
| A．teachers are less satisfied | B．students are more demanding |
| C．students will become more competent | D．teachers will spend less time on teaching |
The author mentions businesses in Paragraph 5 in order to ______.
| A．argue against free university education | B．call on them to finance students' studies |
| C．encourage graduates to go into business | D．show their contribution to higher education |
Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?
| A．Betty was talkative. | B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. | D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one's confidence |
The underlined word "assertiveness" in the last paragraph probably means ______.
| A．being willing to speak one's mind | B．being able to increase one's power |
| C．being ready to make one's own judgment | D．being quick to express one's ideas confidently |
Open Letter to an Editor
I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently --- one who works for you. In fact, he’s one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.
Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume(简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues(问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I’m sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you’ve given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.
So why is he looking for a way out?
He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.
The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.
He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he’s doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That’s what you want for him, too, isn’t it?
So your reporter has set me thinking.
Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists --- everyone --- is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can’t do it, they’ll find someone who can.What does the writer think of the reporter?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Imaginative. | C．Ambitious. | D．Proud. |
What does the reporter want most from his editors in their talks?
| A．Finding the news value of his stories. | B．Giving him financial support. |
| C．Helping him to find issues. | D．Improving his good ideas. |
Who probably wrote the letter?
| A．An editor. | B．An artist. | C．A reporter. | D．A reader. |
The letter aims to remind editors that they should ______.
| A．keep their best reporters at all costs |
| B．give more freedom to their reporters |
| C．be aware of their reporters’ professional development |
| D．appreciate their reporters’ working styles and attitudes |
Goldie’s Secret
She turned up at the doorstep of my house in Cornwall. No way could I have sent her away. No way, not me anyway. Maybe someone had kicked her out of their car the night before. "We’re moving house.’; "No space for her any more with the baby coming." "We never really wanted her, but what could we have done? She was a present." People find all sorts of excuses for abandoning an animal. And she was one of the most beautiful dogs I had ever seen.
I called her Goldie. If I had known what was going to happen I would have given her a more creative name. She was so unsettled during those first few days. She hardly ate anything and had such an air of sadness about her. There was nothing I could do to make her happy, it seemed. Heaven knows what had happened to her at her previous owner’s. But eventually at the end of the first week she calmed down. Always by my side, whether we were out on one of our long walks or sitting by the fire.
That’s why it was such a shock when she pulled away from me one day when we were out for a walk. We were a long way from home, when she started barking and getting very restless. Eventually I couldn’t hold her any longer and she raced off down the road towards a farmhouse in the distance as fast as she could.
By the time I reached the farm I was very tired and upset with Goldie. But when I saw her licking (舔) the four puppies (幼犬) I started to feel sympathy towards them. "We didn’t know what had happened to her," said the woman at the door. "I took her for a walk one day, soon after the puppies were born, and she just disappeared." "She must have tried to come back to them and got lost," added a boy from behind her.
I must admit I do miss Goldie, but I’ve got Nugget now, and she looks just like her mother. And I’ve learnt a good lesson: not to judge people.How did the author feel about Goldie when Goldie came to the house?
| A．Shocked. | B．Sympathetic. | C．Annoyed. | D．Upset. |
In her first few days at the author’s house, Goldie ______.
| A．felt worried | B．was angry | C．ate a little | D．sat by the fire |
Goldie rushed off to a farmhouse one day because she ______.
| A．saw her puppies | B．heard familiar barking |
| C．wanted to leave the author | D．found her way to her old home |
The passage is organized in order of ______.
| A．time | B．effectiveness | C．importance | D．complexity |
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