The influence of America is increasing in my country. Spanish people drink Coca Cola, wear blue jeans, watch Hollywood movies, listen to American music, and eat fast food, and they do these things every day.
I think that American movies are a good way to spread American culture because people are often influenced by what they see in the movies. Most of the programs and documentaries (纪录片) we watch on TV are from America, and most of the movies we go to see are made in Hollywood.
In the last few years, the government has tried to protect the Spanish movies. Now, in our cinemas, at least twenty percent of the movies which are shown must be from Spain or from other countries in Europe.
American culture is a part of Spanish life now. It’s certain that many things from America are as much a part of people’s lives as Spanish things. For example, Coca Cola is as familiar to everybody as any typical Spanish product. I’ve known about Coca Cola for my whole life.
However, it’s different with Western fast food. For example, I don’t think McDonald’s is as successful in Spain as it is in other countries. In my opinion, one of the reasons may be the lifestyle of the Spanish people. The Spanish people normally eat at home.
On the other hand, maybe McDonald’s hamburgers will eventually replace the famous Spanish tapas. It’s true that in every city in Spain you can find a McDonald’s, and it is more popular among the Spanish children than among the adults. In any case, it’s obvious that American culture is becoming more and more a part of our lives every day.From the first paragraph we can know that ____.
| A．the influence of America on Spain can be found everywhere |
| B．most Spanish people don’t like to listen to their own music |
| C．fast food spreads from Spain to the United States |
| D．some Spanish actors go to America to improve their acting skills |
What plays an important part in the spreading of American culture in Spain?
| A．American novels. | B．Hollywood movies. |
| C．McDonald’s. | D．American music. |
Why did the government set some rules for the films shown in Spain?
| A．To protect foreign culture in Spain. |
| B．To earn more money from Spanish films. |
| C．To limit the number of foreign movies. |
| D．To unite the European Community. |
What do you think Spanish tapas (in the last paragraph)might be?
| A．The name of a drink. | B．The name of a restaurant. |
| C．A clothing brand. | D．A certain kind of food. |
Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know，however，that they existed over 5,500years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5，100 years
old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for .while, though . This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modern road design.
In the mid-1700s,a Frenchman came up with a new design of road--a base layer (层)of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller atones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same time, metal hubs(the central part of a wheel came into being, followed by the Wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads(泊油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.What might explain why transport wheels didn’t become popular for some time?
| A．Few knew how to use transport wheels. |
| B．Humans carried farming tools just as well. |
| C．Animals were a good means of transport. |
| D．The existence of transport wheels was not known. |
What do we know about road design from the passage?
| A．It was easier than wheel design. |
| B．It improved after big changes in vehicle design. |
| C．It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles. |
| D．It provided conditions for wheel design to develop. |
How is the last paragraph mainly developed?
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following time order. |
| D．By making classifications. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The beginning of road deaign. |
| B．The development of transport wheels. |
| C．The history of public transport. |
| D．The invention of fast-moving vehicles. |
While Andrew was getting ready for work one Friday morning, he announced to his wife that he had finally decided to ask his boss for a salary raise. All day Andrew felt nervous and anxious as he thought about the upcoming showdown. What if Mr. Larchmont refused to grant his request? Andrew had worked so hard in the last 18 months and landed some great accounts for Braer and Hopkins Advertising Agency. Of course, he deserved a wage increase.
The thought of walking into Larchmont’s office left Andrew weak in the knees. Late in the afternoon he was finally courageous enough to approach his superior. To his delight and surprise, the ever-frugal（一向节俭的）Harvey Larchmont agreed to give Andrew a raise!
Andrew arrived home that evening—despite breaking all city and state speed limits—to a beautiful table set with their best china, and candles lit. His wife, Tina, had prepared a delicate meal including his favorite dishes. Immediately he figured someone from the office had tipped her off!
Next to his plate Andrew found a beautiful lettered note. It was from his wife. It read: “Congratulations, my love! I knew you’d get the raise! I prepared this dinner to show just how much I love you. I am so proud of your accomplishments!” He read it and stopped to reflect on how sensitive and caring Tina was.
After dinner, Andrew was on his way to the kitchen to get dessert when he observed that a second card had slipped out of Tina’s pocket onto the floor. He bent forward to pick it up. It read: “Don’t worry about not getting the raise! You do deserve one! You are a wonderful provider and I prepared this dinner to show you just how much I love you even though you did not get the increase.”
Suddenly tears swelled in Andrew’s eyes. Total acceptance! Tina’s support for him was not conditional upon his success at work.
The fear of rejection is often softened and we can undergo almost any setback or rejection when we know someone loves us regardless of our success or failure.What was Andrew’s plan that Friday?
| A．To request a wage increase from his boss. |
| B．To get a job with the Braer and Hopkins Advertising Agency. |
| C．To celebrate his success with his wife at home. |
| D．To ask his boss to come for dinner. |
On his way back home, Andrew _________.
| A．felt weak in the knees | B．was punished by the traffic policeman |
| C．was too eager to share the news | D．couldn’t wait to enjoy a meal |
Which of the following statements about the story is FALSE?
| A．Andrew was afraid that his request would lead to disaster. |
| B．Andrew had worked very hard and done his part for the company. |
| C．Andrew’s boss agreed to his request. |
| D．One of Andrew’s colleagues had told his wife the good news. |
Why did Tina prepare a grand dinner for Andrew that day?
| A．She was confident of his getting a pay raise. |
| B．She meant to show her support whatever the result would be. |
| C．She believed that her husband was the best in his company. |
| D．She wanted to express her gratitude for his devotion to the family. |
We can conclude from the text that ______.
| A．we should never be afraid to ask for what is due to us |
| B．work hard and you will be rewarded |
| C．many fears turn out to be unfounded |
| D．unconditional love brings courage and strength |
Choosing the Right Resolution (决定)
Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.
To reach our goal of losing weight --- the output, we need to control what we eat --- the input ( 输入). That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construce goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I’ll stop having desert for lunch,” or “I’ll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on a well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.
Recently a new science behind incentives (激励) , including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect on output. Fryer’s conclusion was that the intensives for inputs might be more effective because do not knoe how to do better on exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.
As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it’s easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.
If you want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn’t a goal because it’s too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don’t stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.
In the long run, these new goals could become a habit.The writer thinks that setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake because _______ .
| A．it is hard to achieve for most Americans |
| B．it is focused too much on the result |
| C．it is dependent on too many things |
| D．it is based on actionable decisions |
In Roland Fryer’s research, some students did better than the others because ______ .
| A．they obeyed all the general rules |
| B．they paid more attention to exams |
| C．they were motivated by their classmates |
| D．they were rewarded for reading some books |
According to the writer, which of the following statements is a good goal?
| A．“I’ll give up desert.” | B．“I’ll study harder.” |
| C．“I’ll cut down my expense” | D．“I’ll spend more time with my family” |
The writer strongly believes that we should ________ .
| A．develop good habits and focus on the outcome |
| B．be optimistic about final goals and stick to them |
| C．pick specific actions that can be turned into good habits |
| D．set ambitious goals that can balance the input ang output |
However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone's time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost—namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends? This—the alternative use of your cash and time—is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo—in terms of money and enjoyment—in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make better-informed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all: there's no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it's human nature to do precisely that—we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is "value for money." People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage: "value for time." The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By readmg this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.According to the passage, the concept of "opportunity cost" is applied to .
| A．making more money | B．taking more opportunities |
| C．reducing missed opportunities | D．weighing the choice of opportunities |
Hie "leftover ... time" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time .
| A．spared for watching the match at home |
| B．taken to have dinner with friends |
| C．spent on the way to and from the match |
| D．saved from not going to watch the match |
What are forgone opportunities?
| A．Opportunities you forget in decision-making. |
| B．Opportunities you give up for better ones. |
| C．Opportunities you miss accidentally. |
| D．Opportunities you make up for. |
“I like your smile, but unlike you put your shoes on my face”. A charming way of saying “Keep off the grass”. But could you figure it out? Or this: “Wash Clothing Store” for laundry.
They are both typical Chinglish, a combination of English vocabulary and Chinese grammar. Expressions such as “people mountain people sea”， means extremely crowded, and “give you some color to see”， meaning a punishment, are widely known and recognized.
Chinglish has been attracting global attention in recent years as China grows rapidly in stature on the world stage, attracting both fans and detractors.
The Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Programme and English First China Company, a language trainer known as EF Education, jointly launched a campaign to root out poor grammar and misused vocabulary in downtown Beijing. They argue Chinglish is an embarrassment that we should let it die out at all costs.
“It is meaningful, to allow the capital show its most beautiful historical and cultural heritage to the world.” Michael Lu, vicepresident of EF Education said, “since the launching of the campaign, foreign teachers and students had been very keen to volunteer participation.” He believed signs were very important in public services. “The signs in some old buildings confused foreign visitors.”
Chinglish, although the target of much criticism, has also won supporters who regard it as an interesting way for foreigners to learn how Chinese people think and express themselves.
“Many Chinglish logos carry Chinese elements and they will enrich the English language，” 32yearold Oliver Radtke said. He had even published a book “Chinglish: Found in Translation，” on the subject. About 50 000 copies of the book have been sold since it was published in 2007.
Some Chinese university experts also side with Chinglish. “English has absorbed elements from other languages such as French and Spanish in its growth, and the emergence of Chinglish again testifies to the language's vitality and inclusiveness，” said Shi Anbin, an associate professor of Tsinghua University.How did Chinglish come into being?
| A．Chinese people misunderstood the meaning of the new words. |
| B．Chinese people combined English vocabulary with Chinese grammar. |
| C．Chinese people based their English on the native English speakers. |
| D．Chinese people make wide use of English vocabulary with bad spelling. |
What Shi Anbin said means ________.
| A．there are many French and Spanish words in English |
| B．English is the language with vitality and inclusiveness |
| C．Chinglish enriches English and shouldn't be got rid of |
| D．Chinglish has greater effect on English than French and Spanish |
According to Oliver Radtke, Chinglish ________.
| A．shows how Chinese people think |
| B．does damage to the English language |
| C．shows the great humor of Chinese people |
| D．should be sold to all over the world |
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