Besides entertainment and beautiful lanterns, another important part of the Lantern Festival, or Yuanxiao Festival is eating small dumpling balls made of glutinous (粘性的) rice flour (粉状物). We call these balls Yuanxiao or Tangyuan. Obviously, they get the name from the festival itself. It is said that the custom of eating Yuanxiao originated during the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the fourth century, then became popular during the Tang and Song periods.
The fillings (馅料) inside the dumplings or Yuanxiao are either sweet or salty. Sweet fillings are made of sugar, walnuts (核桃), sesame（芝麻）, osmanthus flowers (桂花), rose petals（花瓣）. A single ingredient (原料) or any combination can be used as the filling. The salty variety is filled with minced meat (肉末儿), vegetables or a mixture.
The way to make Yuanxiao also varies between northern and southern China. The usual method followed in southern provinces is to shape the dough (生面团) of rice flour into balls, make a hole, insert the filling, then close the hole and smooth out the dumpling by rolling it between your hands. In North China, sweet or nutmeat stuffing is the usual ingredient. The fillings are pressed into hardened cores, dipped lightly in water and rolled in a flat basket containing dry glutinous rice flour. A layer of the flour sticks to the filling, which is then again dipped in water and rolled a second time in the rice flour. And so it goes, like rolling a snowball, until the dumpling is the desired size.
The custom of eating Yuanxiao dumplings remains. This tradition encourages both old and new stores to promote their Yuanxiao products. They all try their best to improve the taste and quality of the dumplings to attract more customers.Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Sweet Yuanxiao are usually made in southern China. |
| B．Sugar, rose petals and minced meat are all fillings of Yuanxiao. |
| C．The custom of eating Yuanxiao dates back to the fourth century. |
| D．People in northern China usually make Yuanxiao by rolling like a snowball. |
The way of making Yuanxiao varies between _________ China.
| A．southwestern and northwestern |
| B．eastern and western |
| C．southeastern and northeastern |
| D．northern and southern |
Choose the right order of making Tangyuan in southern provinces.
① make a hole and insert the filling
② roll the dough between your hands
③ shape the dough of rice flour into balls
④ close the hole
⑤ prepare some rice flour
| A．⑤③②①④ | B．⑤③①④② |
| C．③①④②⑤ | D．③⑤①②④ |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．The Lantern Festival |
| B．The ingredients of Yuanxiao |
| C．China’s traditional food—Yuanxiao. |
| D．The difference between Yuanxiao and Tangyuan. |
Why do we eat Yuanxiao today?
| A．Because it’s a tasty food. |
| B．Because it’s a tradition. |
| C．Because we love our country. |
| D．Because it’s promoted by both old and new stores. |
Besides calling 911, here is what to do in some life-threatening emergencies when no oneis
|
around to help.
Lost in the wildernessFirst, you’ve got to acknowledge you’re in trouble. Stay where
you can be seen clearly and remember to rest. Keeping a sense
of humor helps too—it reduces stress and helps creative thinking.
In a wide open area, make a colorful cross out of rocks to show
your present position.
|
Choking
Aim to hit the top of the chair against your stomach, in the soft partbelow the bony upside-down V of the ribs（肋骨）. Make a sudden
push against the chair. If you still can’t breathe after six tries, call 911,
even if you can’t talk. Write the word choking somewhere nearby, and
leave the line open until help arrives.
|
Severe bleeding
Use your hand or clean cotton, or paper towels, or a scarf,or any cloth you can find, and push down on the wound
until the bleeding stops. But if you put a band around
your leg tightly, you’re going to close the vessels（血管）
to the entire leg. In this way, you could lose your foot.
Bear attack
|
If you surprise a bear, don’t run away. That invites an attack.
Instead, stand up and back away slowly, without looking thebear in the eyes. If it does charge at you, stick out your chest,
raise your arms, and spread your legs. Shout at the bear, to
frighten it. If it’s going to attack, lie facedown, with your hands
held firmly behind your neck. Play dead until you’re sure the bear
is gone.
| A．someone is bleeding | B．someone is choking |
| C．someone is lost | D．someone is attacked by a bear |
If you are still choking after six tries, you should .
| A．keep a sense of humor | B．call 911 and leave the line open |
| C．use your hand our clean cotton | D．lie down with your hands behind your neck |
Don’t tie around your bleeding leg tightly, or you could .
| A．stop bleeding | B．reduce stress |
| C．lose your foot | D．cause breathlessness |
The passage is mainly teaching us how to .
| A．survive the emergencies | B．avoid a bear attack |
| C．deal with a choke | D．find our way |
A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how risky it is to get a lift from a teenage driver. Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers is three times as likely to have a fatal accident as a teenager driving alone. By contrast, the risk of death for drivers between 30 and 59 decreases with each additional passenger.
The author also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight, with passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a late-night accident.
Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience. “The basic issue.” he says, “is that adults who are responsible for issuing licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled a task driving is.”
Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate (使……缓解)the problem is to have states institute so-called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a multistage process. A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself capable of driving in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with night of passenger restrictions, before graduating to full driving privileges.
Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies, About half of the states now have some sort of graduated licensing system in place, but only 10 of those states have restrictions on passengers, California is the strictest, with a novice (新手)driver prohibited from carrying any passenger under 20(without the presence of an adult over 25)for the first six months. Which of the following situations is most dangerous according to the passage?
| A．Adults giving a lift to teenagers on the highway after 10 p.m. |
| B．A teenager getting a lift from a stranger on the highway at midnight. |
| C．Adults driving with three or more teenage passengers late at night. |
| D．A teenager driving after midnight with passengers in the car. |
According to Robert Foss, the high death rate of teenage drivers is mainly due to ________.
| A．their frequent driving at night |
| B．their lack of driving experience |
| C．their improper way of driving |
| D．their driving with passengers |
According to Paragraph 3．which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The licensing authorities are partly responsible for teenagers' driving accidents. |
| B．Driving is a skill too complicated for teenagers to learn. |
| C．Restrictions should be imposed on teenagers applying to take driving lessons. |
| D．Teenagers should spend more time learning to drive. |
The most suitable measure to be taken to reduce teenagers' driving accidents is that ________ .
| A．driving in the presence of an adult should be made a rule |
| B．they should be prohibited from taking on passengers |
| C．the licensing system should be improved |
| D．they should not be allowed to drive after 10 p.m. |
Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes "the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don't seem to learn from history." Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can- not even understand why we are and where we are without history, much less (更不必说) try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio (录音机) tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. if, in doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplishe D．I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes. |
| B．Many people aren't clever enough to learn well from the past. |
| C．Many people feel it hard to understand history. |
| D．Many people have no interest in studying history. |
Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show ______________.
| A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil |
| B．people may also learn from bad historical figures |
| C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements |
| D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved |
What would be talked about in the following paragraph?
| A．How to teach history effectively. |
| B．How to get more people to study history. |
| C．Some negative reasons for studying history. |
| D．Some bad historical figures. |
The main purpose of this passage is to ____________.
| A．inspire the parents to teach their children history |
| B．show the importance of history in politics |
| C．explain the reasons why children study history |
| D．introduce the writer' s own way of teaching history |
Animals seem to have the sense to eat when they are hungry and they do not eat more than their bodies need．It has been demonstrated（证明）that rats will, when given a choice over a period of time, prefer water with vitamins(维生素) to water without vitamins even though there is no difference in taste or smell between the two water bottles．When a fragrant（香的）flavor（作料）was added to the vitamin-enriched water, the rats did seem to prefer it and kept drinking it ,even after the vitamins were switched to the clear water．In time, however, they broke the habit and went back to where the necessary vitamins were．
In a classic experiment, babies of 6 to 12 months old were placed in a cafeteria（自助） feeding arrangement, with a wide selection of baby food before them．They were given whatever food they pointed to or appeared interested in．We are told that at first they showed some unusual eating patterns, but that over a period of time they managed to select well-balanced diet．
So, in choosing food, rats and babies do seem to know and act on what's best for them．Apparently, there is a kind of “body wisdom”, which humans soon lose．Most of us do not eat as wisely as we could．Many of our food preferences are culturally determined and influenced by long-formed habits．Some people eat fox, dog and blackbirds, while we eat cows and pigs．So what people eat and how much they eat seems to be greatly influenced by what is going on around them．In the experiment on rats, a fragrant flavor was added to the rats’ drinking water to _____________ .
| A．encourage rats to drink vitamins-enriched water |
| B．test whether rats know which drink is good for them |
| C．find out rats’ preference in flavor |
| D．demonstrate the vitamins are tasteless |
According to the passage ,adults eating habits differ from those of babies because_________．
| A．adults know better than babies what kind of food are good for their health |
| B．adults usually cannot resist the temptation of various delicious foods |
| C．adults have more choices of food than babies in eating patterns |
| D．adults' eating habits are closely related to the social and cultural customs |
The author implied in the passage that most of us_________．
| A．eat a balanced diet |
| B．choose the food that is of nutrition |
| C．have the habits influenced by the surroundings |
| D．like to eat the food with a fragrant flavor． |
As far as their eating habits are concerned, babies and rats are similar in that_________．
| A．both prefer flavored food and drink |
| B．both have the wisdom to choose a balanced diet |
| C．both have the same eating patterns |
| D．both develop a taste for the same kinds of flavors |
China has input several billion yuan of money to stop the dirty water waste on the upper and middle area of the Pearl River from polluting the lowe
r reaches of the river, especially the Macao Special Administrative Region．
The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River has been rapidly urbanized（城市化）and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the damage of the land, rivers and atmosphere．
Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat rubbish to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis．
He Suping, a woman engineer with the water resources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area’s Karst terrain（喀斯特地形）and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more easily polluted．
The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong Province, provide
s fresh water for a n
umber of riverside cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat rubbish quickly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources．
The government 2001—2006 plan to spend billions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly provided by national debt payments and overseas investment．So far wastes treatment projects have received a total of 400 million yuan（48 million US dollars）from national debts and 60 million yuan（7．22 million US doll
ars）from overseas loans（贷款）．The main idea of the passage is __
| A．A large number of waterways have been polluted in China up to now． |
| B．Guangxi and Guangdong have taken the lead in making water clean． |
| C．China's rivers are badly in need of improvement． |
| D．China is making efforts to reduce pollution of the rivers． |
The main idea of the last paragraph is __
| A．The government has no ability to afford the expenses of treating wastes． |
| B．The government has a long-term plan to treat wastes． |
| C．National debt payments and overseas investment are taking an important part in developing China's economy． |
| D．A great deal of money is needed in dealing with wastes． |
The basic reason why the amount of urban rubbish rises in Guangxi lies in _____．
| A．the improvement of people’s living standard |
| B．people’s wasting too much |
| C．urbanization and industrialization |
| D．too many tourists’ coming |
The word “imperative” here probably
means _______．
| A．unnecessary | B．important | C．easy | D．unbelievable |
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