【推荐1】Watching kids' cartoons can be an effective way to learn a language. The basic plot lines of kids' cartoons are fairly simple and the characters speak more slowly, and the dialogue is typically standard and casual. Here are four worldwide popular kids' cartoons which may help you with your English learning.

Peppa Pig

Peppa Pig, the pink piggy, has gained worldwide popularity. There are even videos showing an American child speaking in a British accent to her mom after watching the popular cartoon.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons in the ' 90s was smart, culturally savvy (有见识的), and unbelievably entertaining TV about an average American family. At its height, no show - animated or otherwise - could reach The Simpsons' greatness. From the cleverness of “Marge vs. the Monorail” to everything Lisa Simpson ever said. The Simpsons was fearless and game-changing television.

Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is a French educational animation, created by Procidis. There are seven series (系列), each focusing on different aspects of knowledge. These are mostly historical, focusing on the overall history of mankind or specified historical fields, such as the lives and achievements of the explorers or inventors.

Sazae-san

Sazae-san is more than a kids' show. It's a cultural institution, a national treasure and the longest- running animated series in the world, ever!

It's about a typical Japanese big family living together in Tokyo. The central character is an outspoken but somewhat clumsy woman in her early 20s, living with her husband, son, father, mother, brother and sister all under one roof.

All of the characters are colorful and funny, and all are named after fish!

1. Why does the American girl speak in a British accent?

A．She was born and brought up in Britain.	B．Peppa Pig has strongly influenced her.
C．The British accent is popular in America.	D．She wants to make fun of her mother.

2. What will a fan of history choose to watch?

A．Peppa Pig	B．The Simpsons
C．Once Upon a Time	D．Sazae-san

3. What can you learn about Sazae-san from the text?

A．It is about an average American family.	B．It is the longest-running of the four.
C．It is a well-received French cartoon.	D．It includes seven different series.

【推荐2】A
Though the Web is becoming increasingly popular, the TV never fails to attract people．Do you know which television network is the largest in America? It is not ABC, CBS, or Fox．Nor is it one of the cable net-works such as CNN, which carries only news and news stories．It is not ESPN, the all-sports cable net-work, or even MTV, which is famous for its music videos．Rather it is PBS, Public Broadcasting System, a non-profit public broadcasting TV service．PBS has 349 member television stations in the U．S．and some member stations by cable in Canada．
PBS only attracts a minority of all TV viewers, about 2 percent．The industry leader, NBC, however, attracts 11 percent of viewers．But the growth of public television in the past two decades has been dramatic．This is especially noteworthy （值科关注） when one considers that public television stations must often survive on very limited budgets, on viewers' donations, and on private foundations and some governmental funding．
The level of quality of PBS programs, whether in national and international news, entertainment, or education, is excellent．Almost a whole generation of children throughout the world is familiar with Sesame Street and the characters of The Muppet Show．PBS is especially well known for the quality of its many educational TV programs．Over 95 percent of all public television stations have tale-courses．These courses are accepted and supported by more than 1,800 colleges and universities throughout the US．Each year, over a quarter of a million students take   courses this way．
1. According to this article, PBS received part of its funding from___．

A．the audience

B．public schools

C．advertising agencies

D．other television stations

2. What is PBS most famous for?

A．Cable services．

B．Generous donations．

C．Tele-courses．

D．Live news broadcasts．

3. Which of the following is TRUE about public television stations ?

A．The majority of their viewers are minority people．

B．Ninety-five percent of their programs are tele-courses．

C．They are shrinking in number because they make no profits．

D．Their courses are accepted by many universities in America．

4. Which of the following has the highest percentage of viewers?

A．ABC	B．PBS
C．NBC	D．Fox

【推荐3】Imagine that you’re the creator and show runner of the newest comedy show on television. Only it isn’t so popular yet, and your live Studio audience isn’t giving you the big laughs the show deserves. Do you film the show all over again, hoping that this time the audience will laugh? Or is there another option for making a joke sound funnier than it was received?

Sweeten(改善) the sound by adding a laugh track! “Sweetening,” or the addition of sound effects such as laughs, screams, and other audience-produced noises to the audio track of a TV show, has been used since the 1940s to produce the appearance, or rather the sound, of an engaged and entertained response to a show’s comedy. Laugh tracks came into existence as not only a solution, and sometimes replacement, for an unengaged live audience but also as a way to engage an at-home audience into a more-traditional, public, and theaterlike experience. Adding a laugh track to a television show makes the viewers at home feel much less like they’re sitting on a couch staring at the television screen and much more like they’re in a room full of laughing happy people to varying degrees of success.

Though the art of sweetening has risen and fallen in popularity over the past 60 years, credit for its creation and continued use is owed to laugh-track pioneer and sound engineer Charles Douglass. Douglass was the first to develop, in 1953, a machine for producing “canned laughter”, accessible at the push of a button or pull of a lever (操纵杆). Despite being artificial, sensibly edited laugh tracks are found by television studios to bring about a positive audience response, as their use is usually accompanied by higher ratings and increased audience memory. Though some television audiences may disagree with the value of the laugh track, the cheerful and repetitive sound holds a permanent place in the history and future of television comedy.

1. The author uses the first paragraph to         .

A．introduce the topic “sweetening”

B．seek solutions for the problem

C．point out a way of making comedies

D．arouse readers’ interest in comedies

2. What effect does a laugh track produce?

A．The creation of a show.

B．Funnier sound in a show,

C．More engaged live audience

D．Communication among TV viewers.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards the use of the laugh track?

A．Doubtful.	B．Positive.
C．Neutral (中立的).	D．Uncertain,

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The reason for using laugh tracks.

B．The brief history of laugh tracks.

C．The development of TV comedies.

D．The way to improve television shows.

【推荐2】The word addiction usually makes you think of alcohol or drugs.    1    Some people are compulsive (难以自制的) shoppers. Others find it impossible to pull themselves away from their work. Still others spend countless hours watching TV or playing computer games.

    2    Many people enjoy going to malls or stores more and more every day, but it’s more than a common hobby for some of them. They have turned into shopaholics. They are people who simply enjoy shopping and walking around spending money without being able to stop doing it. They are hooked on shopping and usually buy things that they don’t need. Even though they don’t have enough money, they buy everything they want.

The question is: why do they have this addiction? There isn’t a specific answer. Some people go shopping when they are sad, worried, upset or lonely and they want to feel better. They use this activity as a way to forget their problems. Shopaholics say that they feel more important and better after they buy something.    3    

Shopaholism seems to be a harmless addiction, but it can bring out problems. Some of them can be psychological. If this is the case, people addicted to shopping should go to a support group to help them break this habit. However, the process, like for most addictions, is long, and they suffer a lot.    4    They just think about satisfying their feelings, so they spend money they don’t have.    5    

A．Once you are addicted to alcohol or drugs, it is difficult to get rid of.

B．Over the years, shopping has become a very common activity.

C．They use this activity as a way to forget their problems.

D．However, in modern-day society we are seeing some new kinds of addictions.

E．People addicted to computer games consider the games as great ways to amuse themselves.

F．They get deep in debt, and they can even go bankrupt(破产) and get sent to prison.

G．It can also cause financial problems.

【推荐3】Ancient Greek used zodiac signs (星座) to judge a person’s character traits. Today people are still fascinated with trying to figure out people’s personality type based on science.

According to The Washington Post, a new study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior on September17, could tell us something more about the four personality types: reserved (内向的), role models, average and self-centered.

In this study, participants were asked to rate a number of written statements related to the five main personality traits: extroversion (外向性), agreeableness, conscientiousness (责任性), emotional stability and openness.

Researchers found self-centered people scored higher on extroversion, but lower than average on the other four traits. “These are people you don’t want to hang out with,” coauthor William Revelle, told the Daily Mail.

Members of the reserved group were lacking in openness and extroversion, but were more agreeable and conscientious. These people are usually unwilling to try new things, but are kind and cooperative, according to the study.

People defined as role models scored well in most traits, but were weak in emotional stability. “These are people who are dependable and open to new ideas,” said Luis Amaral, co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems in the US.

Besides these three personality types, a totally new type was found: average, which gets average scores in all traits. Females are more likely than males to fall into this type.

The study also shows that there is connection between personality type, gender and age. For example, role models are usually seniors, while the traits of the self-centered type mainly fall in teenage males.

However, “certain facts are changing,” Amaral told USA Today. “As people mature and grow, their personality also matures and grows.”

1. Which type of people are you probably unwilling to pass the time with according to William Revelle?

A．Self-centered.	B．Role models.
C．Reserved.	D．Average.

2. Which words can best describe reserved people?

A．Extroverted and agreeable.	B．Open-minded and considerate.
C．Reliable and pleasant.	D．Cooperative and aggressive.

3. What can be concluded from the last two paragraphs?

A．Most young people are self-centered.

B．Role models are often middle-aged people.

C．Personality type has little to do with gender or age.

D．People’s personality tends to become better as they age.

4. Which of the following is the best title?

A．Personality Types Based on Science

B．Personality Types and Age

C．Zodiac Signs and Personalities

D．Extroverted or Introverted Personality

【推荐1】Most parts of China have access to sufficient supplies of fresh water for drinking. But fresh water can be in short supply in many regions of the world such as Saudi Arabia, where there are limited water resources. As the world population continues to grow, shortages of fresh water will occur more often and the need for additional water supplies will become critical. Some may ask, “Since the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the Earth, why not just get drinking water from the ocean?”

To turn seawater into fresh water we need to remove the salt in seawater, that is, to desalinate seawater. The problem is that the desalination of water requires a lot of energy. Salt dissolves very easily in water, forming strong chemical bonds, and those bonds are difficult to break. The energy and technology to desalinate water are both expensive, and this means that desalinating water can be costly.

There are environmental costs of desalination as well. Sea life can get sucked into desalination plants, killing small ocean creatures like baby fish, upsetting the food chain. Also, there is problem of what to do with the separated salt, which is left over as a very concentrated salty water. Pumping this super-salty water back into the ocean can harm local sea life. Reducing these impacts is possible, but it adds to the costs.

Despite the economic and environmental hurdles, desalination is becoming increasingly attractive as human beings are using up fresh water from other sources. At present desalinating seawater is the only practical way to provide water to growing populations in rural areas of the Middle East and North Africa. Therefore, the race is on to find a cheaper, cleaner, and more energy-efficient way of desalinating seawater, and promising new finding are being reported.

1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．The high cost of desalinating seawater.

B．The major chemical characteristics of seawater.

C．The urgent need to turn seawater into fresh water.

D．The amount of energy produced in the desalination of seawater.

2. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A．Mixing salt with water is not as easy as removing salt from seawater.

B．Desalinating seawater may kill some sea creatures and disturb the food chain.

C．Covering 70% of the Earth, the ocean has always satisfied human needs for water.

D．The increasing population in Saudi Arabia has resulted in shortages of fresh water.

3. Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward the future of desalination?

A．Amazed.	B．Skeptical.
C．Reserved.	D．Hopeful.

【推荐2】Roald Dahl is a beloved British writer. He is the writer of some of the world’s best-known children’s novels, including James and Giant Peach, Matilda, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

More than 250 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. His works have been translated into 58 languages. Tuesday was Roald Dahl Day. People around the world celebrated what would have been Dahl’s 100^th birthday. He was born in 1916 in Wales. He died in 1990.

Roald Dahl Day was worldwide on social media(媒体). Many people thanked Dahl for making them truly enjoy reading. One Twitter user wrote, “My childhood was made magical because of the wonderful Roald Dahl. A great storyteller!” Another wrote, “You made me fall in love with reading—a love that has lasted me a lifetime.” Special events and celebrations were held in Britain and other countries in honor of Dahl.

The Oxford English Dictionary marked Dahl’s 100^th birthday by officially adding six Dahl-created words to its latest edition. They included words such as “Oompah- Loompah” and “scrumdiddlyumptious.”

Oompah Loompahs are the factory workers in the book—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. They had orange skin and green hair. They danced and played music. Oompah Loompahs became more famous after the 1971 film of the book, which starred Gene Wilder as candy maker Willy Wonka.

“Scrumdiddlyumptious” is a word that appeared in Dahl’s book- The BFG—short for The Big Friendly Giant. It generally means “delicious”. A film of The BFG, directed by Steven Spielberg, was released(发行)this year

Earlier this year, Ocford released an entire Roald Dahl dictionary. It included more than 8,000 real and invented words used by the master storyteller.

1. What day was Roald Dahl Day this year?

A．Tuesday	B．Monday
C．Friday	D．Sunday

2. According to Paragraph 3, why did many people thank Dahl?

A．He changed their whole life.

B．He made them enjoy movies

C．He made them fall in love with reading

D．He brought some events and celebrations for them.

3. What does the underlined word “They” in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Musicians

B．Film-makers

C．The bosses in Dahl’s book

D．The factory workers in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

4. What do we know about Dahl?

A．He died at the age of 75.

B．He had a boring childhood

C．His works greatly influenced many people in the world

D．He added his words to the Oxford English Dictionary.

【推荐3】Sub-zero temperatures will reach some parts of the UK by the end of this week, bringing to an end a stretch of mild autumn weather. Temperatures look likely to fall below zero m some parts of the country by Friday, with forecasters saying a cold blast will make parts of the UK feel like they have been thrown into an early winter.

Strong winds will affect parts of northern England and Scotland, reaching 50mph in exposed and coastal regions. Northern Scotland, especially Orkney and Shetland; are likely to be the worst hit. Temperatures will be low enough for snow in northern England. There is also a risk of high tides in the north-east of the country.

This week, however, much of the country will see blue skies and temperatures in the mid-teens until Thursday, with a cold snap sweeping in by the start of the weekend, said Luke Miall，forecaster at the Met Office.

“It's the first cold snap of the season and it will feel like a bit of a surprise,” he said. By Tuesday, the north of Scotland will become wet and windy, while southern areas will be mostly dry with spells of sunshine and fine weather, with temperatures reaching up to 17°C to 18°C on Wednesday.

Miall said: “But as we go into Thursday, most places will start to see the change in weather and, while much of England and Wales start off fine, rain will start to push down from Scotland, bringing colder air behind it. By Friday we see that colder air hitting the whole country with highs of 7°C to 8°C in the north and 9°C to 10°C in the south. ”

“It's not unusual to see this weather at the end of October, but because we've had a warm autumn so far－which followed a dry, hot summer－it will feel like a bit of a shock to the system. ”

1. How has the weather been in Britain recently?

A．Mild.

B．Cold.

C．Windy.

D．Hot.

2. Where will the weather change first?

A．Northern England.

B．Wales.

C．Northern Scotland.

D．Southern England.

3. What does Miall say about the coming weather?

A．It's normal.

B．It's shocking.

C．It's dangerous.

D．It's concerning.

【推荐1】It was a hot, damp Summer day a few years ago. I had just pulled into the local gas station to fill my tank. After pumping the gas I started to walk inside to pay. That is when I noticed them. Two elderly women were standing back from their car. There was a mixture of shock, fear, and dread on their faces. I looked and saw what they saw. Five yellow jackets had started to build a nest around their gas cap. My eyes widened. I shared the ladies’ fear.

Yellow jackets had never been friends of mine. Several times these tempered wasps（黄蜂） had attacked me while I was mowing my lawn, giving me multiple stings（蜇）each time I ran over their ground nests. They are the reason I never mow my lawn in shorts anymore. The worst time, however, happened when I was a young boy. A friend of mine and I were running and playing in my backyard. I must have stepped on one of their hidden nests again because before I knew it both of us were being chased（追赶） and stung over and over by the yellow jackets while we ran away screaming. I ran to my mom with tears in my eyes. She immediately ran a cold bath and put us both in it to ease the pain before giving us medicine to fight all the poison in our little bodies from the stings.

Still, I knew I couldn’t let fear stop me now. I reached into my back pocket for a paper towel I had there, tore out the nest and stepped on it while the angry wasps buzzed around me. Both of the ladies thanked me and I said, “You’re welcome!” with a smile and a happy heart.

In this life you can’t let the fear of being stung either physically or emotionally keep you from doing what is right. All of us loving each other can change the world for the better. And the only way you can do this is one loving act, one kind word, and one shared smile at a time. Don’t let the yellow jackets in your life hold you back then. Live! Love! Do good today!

1. What do the author and the two women have in common?

A．Eagerness to meet.	B．Fear of being stung.
C．Running after wasps.	D．No money to pay for gas.

2. Why does the author refuse to wear shorts when mowing the lawn?

A．To have a good time.	B．To avoid wasp stings.
C．To find the wasp’s nest.	D．To attack partners easily.

3. What did Mom do with the author’s and his friend’s stings?

A．She chased the wasps away.

B．She gave them some medicine first.

C．She forced the poison out of them.

D．She helped them to have a cold shower.

4. What can we learn from the text?

A．Many drops make a shower.

B．One act of kindness means a lot.

C．Time brings a great change to the world.

D．Whatever you can do can make a difference.

【推荐2】Facial Recall

Large gatherings such as weddings and conferences can be socially overwhelming. Pressure to learn people’s names only adds to the stress. A new facial-recognition app could come to the rescue--but privacy experts recommend proceeding with caution.

The app, called SocialRecall, connects names with faces via smartphone cameras and facial recognition, potentially eliminating the need for formal introductions. “It breaks down these social barriers we all have in terms of initiating the protocol to meet somebody,” says Barry Sandrew, whose start-up, also called SocialRecall, created the app and tested it at an event attended by about 1,000 people.

After receiving an invitation to download SocialRecall from an event organizer, a prospective user is asked to take two selfies and sign in via social media. At the event the app is active within a previously defined geographical area. When a user points his or her phone camera at an attendee’s face, the app identifies the individual, displays the person’s name, and links to his or her social media profile. To protect privacy, it recognizes only those who have consented to participate. And the app’s creators say it automatically wipes users’ data after an event.

Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert who runs the Privacy by Design Center of Excellence at Ryerson University in Toronto, commends the app’s creators for these protective measures. She cautions, however, that when people choose to share their personal information with the app, they should know that “there may be unintended consequences down the road with that information being used in another context that might come back to bite you.”

The start-up has also developed a version of the app for individuals who suffer from prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” a condition that prevents people from recognizing individuals they have met. (Sandrew, who has prosopagnosia himself, notes that the app has not yet been tested on others with the condition.) To use this app, a person first acquires an image of someone’s face, from either the smartphone’s camera or a photograph, and then tags it with a name. When the camera spots that same face in real life, the previously entered information is displayed. The collected data are stored only on a user’s phone, according to the team behind the app.

Jason Schultz, a professor of clinical law at New York University, who was not involved with the app’s creation, remains cautious: “The cost to everyone whom you are surveilling with this app is very, very high, and I don’t think it respects the consent politics involved with capturing people’s images.”

1. Why do lots of privacy experts not advocate the facial-recognition app?

A．Because it is only active within a defined area.

B．Because the technology behind is still not mature.

C．Because the app has not been tested on a large scale.

D．Because users’ personal information might be misused.

2. Paragraph 3 is mainly about ______.

A．how the app works	B．how the app was created
C．what makes the app popular	D．what people can do with the app

3. SocialRecall helps people with prosopagnosia by ________.

A．giving names to the photos kept in their smartphones

B．collecting information previously entered in the phone

C．providing the information of a person when they first meet

D．showing the person’s information when it spots a stored face

4. What can we learn about SocialRecall from the passage?

A．It may put people’s privacy at risk.

B．It has caused unintended consequences.

C．It can prevent some communication disorders.

D．It is praised by users for its protective measures.

【推荐3】阅读理解
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

India has many festivals, with some celebrations that last for weeks. However, none of them come even close to Holi, India's most colorful and fun festival. Celebrated on the day following the full moon, this year's festival happens to be on March 19th.
As with most Indian festivals, this one also has many different folk stories. Most of them center around the success of good over evil. The most popular one is about a king, who hates his son Prahlada for loving the creator of the Universe－Lord Vishnu. When every attempt to stop him fails, his sister, Holika believed to be immune (免疫的) to fire, joins in the effort by inviting the young boy to sit with her inside a huge fire. Helped by the power of Lord Vishnu, Prahlada escapes safely, while the evil Holika is burned to death. To remember this event, huge outdoor fires are lit in the night before Holi in order to clean the air of evil spirits and to celebrate the death of the evil.
So what's so great about this day? While there are some fun parades (游行) and folk songs and dance performances, the most fun of all is walking to the streets and splashing (泼洒) people with water guns and dry colors and even covering them with entire buckets of colored water. On this day, everybody is fair game, no matter how old or how young.
At about midday, the splashing comes to an end and people living close to oceans or rivers usually take a bath in the water to clean themselves before going home to a delicious home­made big dinner and a well­deserved short sleep, following this full day of fun and activities.
1. Why does the king dislike his son Prahlada?

A．Because Prahlada doesn't love him.

B．Because Prahlada is rude to Holika.

C．Because Prahlada loves Lord Vishnu.

D．Because Prahlada concentrates on his own success.

2. Prahlada gets out of danger ________.

A．with the help of Lord Vishnu

B．because of his good luck

C．by beating his aunt Holika

D．using his amazing talent

3. The underlined phrase“fair game”in Paragraph 3 refers to a person who ________.

A．fights against others fairly

B．enjoys splashing people

C．plays a trick on others

D．is the aim of splashing water

4. After the fun activities, people living close to oceans or rivers often take a bath because ________.

A．they have got dirty with dry colors and colored water

B．going home with colored water means bad luck

C．they believe clean water will bring good luck

D．taking a bath shows their true love for Lord Vishnu