Christmas is the biggest holiday in many countries including the US and the UK. Decorating Christmas trees, giving gifts and singing Christmas songs are just a few of the traditions that the two nations share. However, just as there are many cultural differences between the two, Christmas is not the same on both sides of the Atlantic. BBC has pointed out some differences.
According to BBC, the language of Christmas is not completely the same in the US and UK. “Americans will appear confused or chuckle(暗自笑) to themselves if you wish them ‘Happy Christmas’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’,” BBC said. In addition, the shortening of Christmas to “Chrimbo” is almost unknown in the US. Another difference is the name of the white-bearded man. British people usually call him “Father Christmas” while Americans refer to him only as “Santa Claus” or simply “Santa”.
A good, old US Christmas dinner doesn’t necessarily（必然地）have turkey. BBC explained that Americans prepare special food for Thanksgiving, and they often go for ham or roast beef on Christmas Day. Christmas cake, and Christmas pudding are popular desserts(餐后甜点)in the UK. In the US, however, your post-meal treat will probably be one of the following: pumpkin pie, fruit cake, apple pie, or sweet potato pie.
In the US, but not in the UK, the beautiful Christmas decorations you see in films are real, and some people even turn their houses into light shows, according to BBC. “Driving through American suburbia (郊区) at Christmas can sometimes feel like a tour of Disney World,” the news network described.
What might be the best title for the passage?
| A．Christmas in the world |
| B．Christmas and traditions |
| C．The importance of Christmas |
| D．Christmas on both sides of the Atlantic |
What can we learn from the second paragraph?
| A．“Chrimbo” is more widely used in the UK. |
| B．We’d better say “Happy Christmas” to Americans. |
| C．White-bearded man is usually called “Father Christmas” in the US. |
| D．The language of Christmas is almost the same in the US and UK. |
Which one is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Christmas is not exactly the same in the US and UK. |
| B．You can see the beautiful Christmas decorations in the UK. |
| C．Christmas cake, pudding are popular with American people. |
| D．You may have apple pie or fruit cake in your post-meal in the UK. |
Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A science magazine. | B．A culture magazine. |
| C．A guide book. | D．A business report. |
Many people say pennies are not worth saving. After all, a penny is only worth a cent. But one unusual penny turned out to be worth a lot more when a coin collector paid $1.7 million for it earlier this month.
The coin is one of a kind. It is the only penny that the Denver mint(铸币厂) made out of copper, instead of steel, in 1943. Because it is unique, it is also very valuable. No penny has ever sold for so much money.
The Changing Penny
The Lincoln penny first appeared in 1909. For 34 years, the one-cent coin was made out of copper. Then, in 1943, the penny changed. World War II was going on, and copper was needed for equipment. So for one year, pennies were made out of steel instead. At least most of them were.
Only a few coins were made out of unused copper. There are three main mints, or places where coins are made, in the United States. Of the known copper pennies from 1943, twelve were made in the Philadephia mint, and five were made in the San Francisco mint. Only one was made in the Denver mint.
Nobody knows for sure why a copper penny was made at the Denver mint in 1943, coin dealers Andy Skrabalak told Time for Kids. “There is a rumor that a mint employee made the coin in the middle of the night.”
A Special Set
The coin collector who bought the $1.7 million penny wants to remain unknown. But the reason for the trade is known. He already had two copper pennies from 1943 – one from the San Francisco mint and one from the Philadephia mint. To complete the set, he needed the Denver penny. The three coins will go on display at a coin exhibition in Tampa, Florida.
The collector who sold the penny is also keeping his name a secret. It took four years to convince him to give up the rare coin. Now that he has finally donating all of the money to charity.Why is the Lincoln penny worth over one million dollars?
A. Because it has a history of thirty-four years.
B. Because it was made out of a rare material.
C. Because it was made on one night of 1943 by the Denver mint.
D, Because it was the only coin Denver mint made out of copper in 1943.Before the Lincoln penny was sold, people thought one-cent coins __________.
| A．were worth collecting for selling later |
| B．were surely valuable if not made out of steel |
| C．wouldn’t be sold for large amounts of money |
| D．were only useful for some coin museums |
At least how many copper coins were made in 1943?
| A．Five | B．Twelve | C．Seventeen | D．Eighteen |
What can we learn about the collector who sold the penny?
| A．He already had two copper pennies from 1943. |
| B．He wanted to complete the set of copper pennies. |
| C．He didn’t want to sell his penny in the beginning. |
| D．He was a well-known coin dealer in Tampa, Horida. |
Mother Teresa was born in Yugoslavia, on August 27th, 1910. She attended the government school near her home until she was eighteen. At that time, some doctors and nurses from Yugoslavia were working in India, and they often wrote to the school about their work. She decided to join them one day.
When she finished school, she went first to Britain. Then a year later she went to India, where she began to train to be a teacher. After training, she was sent to Calcutta, where she taught geography at a school and soon after became headmistress(女校长).
However, although she loved teaching, in 1946 Mother Teresa left the school and went to work in the poor parts of Calcutta. Later she trained to be a nurse in Panta, and then began her work helping the poor and comforting the dying in the streets of the city. Slowly, others came to help her, and her work spread to other parts of India.
Mother Teresa is now a well-known person. Many photos have been taken of her, as she travels the world to open new schools and hospitals in poor countries. In 1979, she was given the Nobel Peace Prize for the lifetime of love and service she has given to the poor.What first inspired Mother Teresa to work in India?
| A．Her visit to the poor parts of Calcutta. |
| B．Her visit to Britain after she left school. |
| C．The medical worker’s letters to her school. |
| D．The work of the nurse in the city of Panta. |
In which order did Mother Teresa do the following things?
a. Trained to be a nurse
b. Went to India.
c. Helped the dying.
d. Studied to be a teacher.
e. Went to Britain.
f. Worked as a headmaster.
| A．b, a, c, e, d, f | B．b, f, a, d, e, c |
| C．e, b, d, f, a, c | D．e, a, b, c, d, f |
Mother Teresa gave up teaching because she wanted to ___________.
| A．look after the poor. |
| B．travel to poor countries |
| C．build hospitals for the poor |
| D．train nurse to care for the poor |
Mother Teresa is now a famous person because she has ___________.
| A．saved many poor people in India |
| B．helped to bring about world peace |
| C．helped to make India a more peaceful place |
| D．taken care of many poor people in the world |
Brrriiinnng. The alarm clock announces the start of another busy weekday in the morning. You jump out of bed, rush into the shower, into your clothes and out the door with hardly a moment to think. A stressful journey to work gets your blood pressure climbing. Once at the office, you glance through the newspaper with depressing stories or reports of disasters. In that sort of mood, who can get down to work, particularly some creative, original problem-solving work?
The way most of us spend our mornings is exactly opposite to the conditions that promote flexible, open-minded thinking. Imaginative ideas are most likely to come to us when we’re unfocused. If you are one of those energetic morning people, your most inventive time comes in the early evening when you are relaxed. Sleepy people’s lack of focus leads to an increase in creative problem solving. By not giving yourself time to tune into your wandering mind, you’re missing out on the surprising solutions it may offer.
The trip you take to work doesn’t help, either. The stress slows down the speed with which signals travel between neurons (神经细胞), making inspirations less likely to occur. And while we all should read a lot about what’s going on in the world, it would not make you feel good for sure, so put that news website or newspaper aside until after the day’s work is done.
So what would our mornings look like if we wanted to start them with a full ability for creative problem solving? We’d set the alarm a few minutes early and lie awake in bed, following our thoughts where they lead. We’d stand a little longer under the warm water of the shower, stopping thinking about tasks in favor of a few more minutes of relaxation. We’d take some deep breaths on our way to work, instead of complaining about heavy traffic. And once in the office—after we get a cup of coffee—we’d click on links not to the news of the day but to the funniest videos the web has to offer. According to the author, we are more creative when we are _______.
| A．focused | B．awake | C．Relaxed | D．busy |
What does the author imply about newspapers?
| A．They are solution providers. |
| B．They are normally full of bad news. |
| C．They are a source of inspiration. |
| D．They are more educational than websites. |
By “tune into your wandering mind” (in Para. 2), the author means “_______”.
| A．wander into the wild |
| B．listen to a beautiful tune |
| C．stop concentrating on anything |
| D．switch to the traffic channel |
The author writes the last paragraph in order to _______.
| A．summarize past experiences |
| B．offer practical suggestions |
| C．advocate diverse ways of life |
| D．establish a routine for the future |
It was a simple letter asking for a place to study at Scotland’s oldest university which helped start a revolution in higher education. A 140-year-old letter written by a lady calling for her to be allowed to study medicine at St Andrews University has been discovered by researchers. Written by Sophia Jex-Blake in 1873, the seven-page document, which urged the university to allow women to study medicine at the institution, was released yesterday on International Women’s Day.
The document was discovered buried in the university archives (档案) by part-time history student Lis Smith, who is completing her PhD at St Andrews Institute of Scottish Historical Research. She said: “We knew that Sophia Jex-Blake and her supporters, in their effort to open up university medical education for women, had written to the Senatus Academicus (校评议委员会) at St Andrews in an attempt to gain permission to attend classes there, but we didn’t know documentary evidence existed. While searching the archives for information about the university’s higher certificate for women, I was astonished to come across what must be the very letter Jex-Blake wrote.”
In the letter, Sophia and her supporters offered to hire teachers or build suitable buildings for a medical school and to arrange for lectures to be delivered in the subjects not already covered at St Andrews. Although her letter was not successful, it eventually led to the establishment of the Ladies Literate in Arts at St Andrews, a distance-learning degree for women. The qualification, which ran from 1877 until the 1930s, gave women access to university education in the days before they were admitted as students. It was so popular that it survived long after women were admitted as full students to St Andrews in 1892.
Ms Jex-Blake went on to help establish the London School of Medicine for Women in 1874. She was accepted by the University of Berne, where she was awarded a medical degree in January 1877. Eventually, she moved back to Edinburgh and opened her own practice. Sophia wrote a letter to St Andrews University because she wanted _______.
| A．to carry out a research project there |
| B．to set up a medical institute there |
| C．to study medicine there |
| D．to deliver lectures there |
Lis Smith found Sophia’s letter to St Andrews University _______.
| A．by pure chance |
| B．in the school office |
| C．with her supporters’ help |
| D．while reading history books |
Sophia’s letter resulted in the establishment of _______.
| A．the London School of Medicine for Women |
| B．a degree programme for women |
| C．a system of medical education |
| D．the University of Berne |
When did St Andrews University begin to take full-time women students?
| A．In 1873. | B．In 1874. | C．In 1877. | D．In 1892. |
How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others’ lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”.
A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents. The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para. 1) means “_______”.
| A．in a different family environment |
| B．in a different family tradition |
| C．in different family crises |
| D．in different families |
In terms of language development, later-borns ________.
| A．get their parents’ individual guidance |
| B．learn a lot from their elder siblings |
| C．experience a lot of difficulties |
| D．pick up words more quickly |
What was found about fights among siblings?
| A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing. |
| B．Siblings in some families fought frequently. |
| C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships. |
| D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights. |
The word “feminine” (in Para. 4) means “_______”.
| A．having qualities of parents |
| B．having qualities of women |
| C．having defensive qualities |
| D．having extraordinary qualities |
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