【改编】The island of Great Britain being small (compare the size of Australia), the natural place for holiday relaxation and enjoyment is extensive coastline, above all its southern and eastern coasts, and the favorite resort of the mass-population of industrial Lancashire, is on the north-west coast. Distant and little-inhabited area like Northern Scotland, are too remote for the development of large seaside resorts.
For most children, going to the seaside suggests a week or fortnight of freedom on the beach, ideally a sandy one providing enough opportunities for the construction of sandcastle, fishing in pool, paddling in shallow water or swimming in deep water. Their parents spend sunny days swimming in the sea and sunbathing on the beach. Not that the British sun can be relied on and the depressing sight of families wandering round the town in old –fashioned and under umbrellas is only too common. However, there are always shops with their tourist souvenirs, plenty of cafes and if the worst comes to the worst, the cinema to offer a refuge.
The average family is unlikely to seek accommodation in a hotel as they can stay more cheaply in a boarding-house. There are usually three or four-storeyed Victorian buildings, whose owners spend the summer season letting rooms to a number of couples or families and providing three cooked meals a day at what they describe as a reasonable price, with the hope that in this way they will add enough to their savings to see the winter through. Otherwise there are the camping sites for those who prefer self-catering.
Nowadays, even when an increasing number of people fly off to Mediterranean resorts where a well-developed suntan (晒黑) can be assured, or explore in comfort Swiss lakes and mountains or romantic Italian or Spanish cities, the British seaside is still the main attraction for families, especially those with younger children. As they queue for boats trips, cups of tea or ice-cream under gray skies and in dizzling rain, the parents are reliving (重温) their own childhood when time seemed endless, their own sandcastles the most splendid on the beach, the sea always blue and friendly and the sun always hot.Where do tourists seldom go ?
| A．Australia | B．Great Britain |
| C．Northern Scotland | D．Lancashire |
Why do children prefer the seaside ?
| A．Because they can stay with their parents. |
| B．Because they can play various games on the seaside. |
| C．Because they can meet many other children there. |
| D．Because they can buy whatever they want. |
What attracts people to Mediterranean resorts?
| A．Romantic Italian or Spanish cities |
| B．Ice-cream under gray skies. |
| C．Cups of tea in dizzling rain. |
| D．Reliving their own childhood. |
Which of the following is True according to the passage?
| A．The cinema is the best place to get enough sunshine. |
| B．The English seaside is an ideal place for children. |
| C．Northern Scotland is very popular with tourists. |
| D．Few people in Britain go abroad for holiday. |
Where can you find this passage in a newspaper ?
| A．Economy | B．Science. |
| C．Fashion. | D．Tourism. |
David Beckham had a dream: to be the first English player to appear in four World Cups.
But now it appears that dream is over after a serious injury to his Achilles tendon（跟腱）which means he could be out of action for around six months. With this year's World Cup in South Africa only three months away, sadly Beckham looks set to miss out.
The injury happened while Beckham was playing for AC Milan against AC Chievo in the Italian league. After attempting to kick the ball he collapsed to the ground and hobbled off the pitch before being stretchered（被担架抬走）away.
It is not yet known whether he has completely severed（切断）his Achilles tendon or only torn it. The player has now flown to Finland for assessment and treatment by a knee specialist.
England manager Fabio Capello fears the worst for Beckham's World Cup chances.
"We have to wait for the results of the scan but it looks like he is out of the World Cup," he said in a statement. "I spoke with him after the game on Sunday night to offer my support.
"David is a great professional and has worked very hard to be ready for the World Cup, so missing it will be a big blow."
Beckham's former manager at American club LA Galaxy, Alexei Lalas, echoed（共鸣）Capello's words of support:
"It is a horrible situation for Beckham. I know how much it meant to him to be in the World Cup and how important he was to the England team.
David Beckham is now 34 and some are asking whether this serious injury could mean his whole career is over.
Whatever happens, as one of football's best-known and popular players, Beckham will have no shortage of encouragement from fans around the world.
Some will remember Beckham's miraculous recovery from an Achilles injury in 2006, when he was back on the pitch after only eight weeks.
If he could repeat the same feat，in time for the World Cup it really would be the stuff of fairytales.
So, perhaps all is not lost. Optimists will take heart from Alexei Lalas' words:
"You never want to write off（排除）David Beckham as he has shown us his ability to bounce back（恢复原状）."What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Beckham had a dream? |
| B．Beckham—a great football player! |
| C．The end for Beckham? |
| D．World Cup in South Africa! |
What does the author mean by saying “missing it will be a big blow?”
| A．Missing the World Cup will be a big success. |
| B．Missing Beckham means a great failure. |
| C．Missing Beckham means an important opportunity for the American club LA Galaxy. |
| D．Missing the World Cup means a big disappointment for Beckham. |
We may infer from the passage that .
| A．Beckham will definitely not be able to play football again |
| B．Beckham was cured by a great knee specialist he found |
| C．Beckham has his ability to bounce back |
| D．Beckham is likely to miss the World Cup |
What do the underlined words “take heart” probably mean?
| A．get disappointed | B．get help | C．get encouraged | D．get hurt |
Workplaces all over the UK are preparing for Christmas and all the traditions and customs that come with it. But will this Christmas be a cause of happiness and celebration, or of disappointment and embarrassment?
At this time of year, colleges show their appreciation of each other by doing a “Secret Santa”. Secret Santa involves people who work together buying gifts for each other without saying who they are from.
Co-workers all write their names on pieces of paper, then organize a lottery in which each worker picks a colleague’s name at random. He then has to buy a present for that colleague, usually on a small budget of five or ten pounds.
Since the givers are unknown, the quality of presents can vary greatly. In an Internet survey of Secret Santa presents, the gifts that people received range from tickets to the opera to an air freshener for a car.
Another common workplace tradition is the office Christmas party, at which workmates put on their best clothes and enjoy lots of free wine.
Most parties go without a hitch, but sometimes the alcohol cause party-goers to behave in a way that they later regret.
The BBC invited people to share their most embarrassing Christmas office party stories, and received hundreds of funny ones. For example, a man split his trousers while dancing; a drunken lady spent the whole night with the edge of her dress folded into her pants, and later looked at photos that proved it at work.
But the funniest story must be that of Stuart Vanies, who got so drunk that he put his boss’s head into the toilet. Unsurprisingly, he was fired the very next day. How many Christmas traditions are mentioned?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
We learn from this article that for Christmas ____________________.
| A．few people buy presents for their colleagues in Britain |
| B．British workers write their names on the presents they give their colleagues |
| C．people usually give their colleagues presents of high quality |
| D．British workers buy their presents based on an agreed budget |
The underlined phrase “without a hitch” in the sixth paragraph means _______________.
| A．quite smoothly | B．without a result |
| C．with some difficulty | D．quite unexpectedly |
The examples in the last two paragraphs are to ______________________.
| A．show that most British people enjoy drinking wine |
| B．advise readers not to drink wine at parties |
| C．prove that funny things often happen at office Christmas parties |
| D．criticize the bad habits of the British |
Dogs have an understanding of fair play and become angry if they feel that another dog is getting a better deal, a new study has found.
The study looked at how dogs react when a companion is rewarded for the same trick in an unequal way. Friederike Range, a famous researcher, and her colleagues did a series of experiments with dogs who knew how to respond to the command “give the paw”. The dogs were normally happy to repeatedly give the paw, whether they got a reward or not.
But that changed if they saw that another dog was being rewarded with a piece of food, while they received nothing. The dogs hesitated significantly longer when obeying the command to give the paw. Eventually, the unrewarded dogs stopped cooperating.
Researchers always assumed that only humans pay close attention to unfairness. That changed in 2003 when Frans De Waal, a professor of psychology, and a colleague named Sarah Brosnan did a survey on monkeys. Monkeys had to hand a small rock to researchers to get a piece of cucumber(黄瓜) in return. However, the monkeys would suddenly become angry when receiving the piece of cucumber if they saw another monkey receive a more delicious reward, such as a grape, for doing the same job. The monkey that got the cucumber would eventually throw away the food and the rock, and would later just stop performing.
In that experiment, the monkeys considered the fairness of two different types of payment, but when Range and her colleagues did a similar study with their trained dogs, testing to see if dogs would become upset if they only got bread when other dogs received sausage, they found that dogs did not make that kind of subtle (细微的) distinction. As long as the dogs got some kind of food payment, even if it wasn’t the most delicious kind, they would play along. The dogs refused to give their paws when they _____________________.
| A．were given too much reward |
| B．realized they received less food |
| C．found another dog was given nothing |
| D．felt they were being treated unequally |
The underlined word “that” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to “__________________”.
| A．the dogs obeyed the command happily |
| B．the dogs waited for a reward |
| C．the dogs hesitated to give the paw |
| D．the dogs stopped cooperating |
The monkeys would become angry if they found _____________________.
| A．they were being given the same type of food |
| B．another monkey did much less work |
| C．another monkey was offered tastier food |
| D．other monkeys threw food and rocks |
Range finds that, compared with monkeys, dogs __________________.
| A．enjoy playing interesting games with humans |
| B．prefer to do the same jobs as humans |
| C．pay little attention to the type of reward received |
| D．aren’t sensitive to the stimulation (刺激) of food |
About 45 percent of Americans don’t get enough sleep, according to a recent survey. However, the benefits of getting enough sleep far outweigh the thrill of watching TV for one more hour or surfing the web. Getting a better night’s sleep will help you lose or keep your weight more effectively. Try these simple steps to improve your quality of sleep.
Take time to relax
So many of us go-go-go until it’s time for bed, but it’s important to take time to slow down and relax before sleeping. Do relaxing things, such as listening to soothing (抚慰的) music or deep breathing. Avoid stimulating (刺激的) activities such as writing e-mails, talking on the phone and watching TV. Some guidelines (指导方针): no e-mail after 8 p.m. and no TV or phone calls after 9 p.m..
Darker is better
Your body regulates your sleep cycle in response to the presence and absence of light, so dim the lights as evening approaches. Try getting ready for bed by candlelight. When you’re ready to sleep, make sure your room is as dark as possible.
Put your thoughts to bed
We all need time to process our day, but bed is not the place to do it if you want to sleep well. Take 10 to 15 minutes to record your thoughts in a journal. This effective technique will capture what’s in your mind so you don’t lie awake. Tell yourself you’re putting your thoughts to bed so that you can go to bed.
No sugar or alcohol before bed
These may wake you up. If you need a snack before bed, make it protein.
Try to get more sleep
Get an extra hour or two of sleep every night for a week and see how you feel. You’ll notice the difference!The purpose of writing this text is to ________________________.
| A．share some ways to slow down and relax before sleeping |
| B．guide readers to improve their quality of sleep |
| C．tell readers the importance of getting a good night’s sleep |
| D．publish the results of a recent survey on quality of sleep |
According to the text, we know that __________________________.
| A．we should keep our bedrooms in strong light before going to bed |
| B．writing a diary may excite us and influence our sleep |
| C．we should never get up later on weekends than we do on weekdays |
| D．candlelight is a good choice for our bedrooms when we’re getting ready to sleep |
We should take time to slow down because it can _________________________.
| A．inform us of the importance of sleeping |
| B．signal to our body it’s time to sleep |
| C．tell us to stop watching TV for making phone calls |
| D．tell us not to do stimulating activities |
It is not clear who first fried potatoes in hot oil. However, it is widely agreed that French fries(炸薯条) were prepared as early as the 1700s in Europe. Most people believe that it was the Belgians (比利时人), instead of the French, who invented “French”fries. They think that French fries got this name from the cooking word “to french” --- to cut green beans into long thin strips (条).
When Thomas Jefferson traveled to France, he enjoyed the deep-fried potatoes very much and brought them home with him. Ever since he served French fries to his guests at a Whitehouse dinner in 1802, the dish has become very popular in America.
In the summer of 1853, an American Indian called George Crum worked as a cook at Moon Lake Lodge, a hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was good at making French fries. One evening, a dinner guest found Crum’s French fries too thick and sent them back to the kitchen. Crum then cut and fried some thinner French fries, but these, too, were met with disapproval. This time, the cook got angry. So he decided to play a trick on the guest. He finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork. To his surprise, the guest loved the browned, paper-thin chips. The browned chips, then called Saratoga Chips, became one of the most popular dishes of the hotel. Soon they were being sold, first in local restaurants, then throughout New England.The French fries were believed to be introduced to America in _________________________.
| A．the early 1700s | B．the early1800s |
| C．the early 1900s | D．the summer of 1853 |
By saying “these, too, were met with disapproval” in Paragraph 3, the author means that __________________.
| A．the guest still didn’t like the dish |
| B．the French fries were thin enough |
| C．the cook prepared the chips carefully |
| D．the cook had met the guest’s need |
How were Saratoga Chips invented?
| A．They were introduced by Thomas Jefferson. |
| B．A guest told a cook how to make the chips. |
| C．A cook made them only to play a trick on a guest. |
| D．A cook invented them in order to attract more guests. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．America’s Favorite Food | B．Who Invented Saratoga Chips? |
| C．George Crum --- a Clever Cook | D．The History of French Fries |
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