【推荐1】The International Day of Happiness, March 20th, is a United Nations project which has a serious purpose. The UN thinks happiness will only be for everyone when the people of the world are equal.

On this date, the centre of the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator, which is called an equinox (春分）. On the equinox, day and night last for almost equal time all over the Earth. The equinox is felt by everyone on the planet, which matches perfectly with the idea behind the Day of Happiness. Since 2013, the Day of Happiness has been celebrated in all 193 United Nations member states. The United Nations invites each person of any age to join in celebration of the International Day of Happiness.

The idea goes back to 1972, when the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, said that they should measure a country’s progress by its happiness and not just how much it produces or how much money it makes. He called it Gross National Happiness (GNH). Again, it is more than just a nice idea. Bhutan developed a system to measure happiness based on things like people’s psychological health, their general health, how they spend their time, where they live, their education and their environment. People in Bhutan answer about 300 questions, and the results are compared every year to measure progress. The government uses the results and the ideas behind GNH to make decisions for the country.

In 2011,a UN adviser called Jayme Illien suggested the idea of an international day to increase happiness. His plan was accepted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012. Jayme was born in Calcutta, India, and he became an orphan when he was a child. He was adopted by an American nurse, Anna Belle Illien. She travelled the world to help orphans and she took Jayme with her. He saw children like him, but who were not as lucky as him because they were often escaping wars or they were very poor. He wanted to do something about it, so he worked in the areas of children’s and human rights.

The UN measures and compares the happiness of different countries in the World Happiness Report. It bases its report on social, economic and environmental well-being. The UN also sets goals for countries to achieve to increase happiness because it says happiness is a basic human right. Happiness should not be something people have because they are lucky to live in a place where they have basic things like peace, education and access to healthcare.

1. What do we know about the Day of Happiness?

A．People all over the world celebrate it.

B．It’s a day to make people equal and happy.

C．It’s on the same day when the equinox happens for everyone.

D．Different countries celebrate the Day of Happiness on different dates.

2. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．How happiness is measured in Bhuta.

B．What happiness means to people in Bhutan.

C．How the idea of the Day of Happiness started.

D．When people began to celebrate the Day of Happiness.

3. What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

A．Jayme Illien’s childhood experience influenced his choice of work.

B．UN thinks happiness depends largely on basic things people have.

C．UN has followed exactly the work of Bhutan to measure happiness.

D．Jayme Illien proposed the idea of the International Day of Happiness.

4. In which section of a magazine may this text appear?

A．Entertainment.

B．Culture.

C．Science.

D．Health.

【推荐2】Americans celebrate Labor Day this year on September 5. The national holiday began more than 100 years ago to honor low-paid factory workers.

Labor Day also marks the end of summer. Many students return to school after Labor Day. The hot days of summer turn cooler. Many Americans celebrate the holiday with an outdoor family picnic.

But Labor Day started with a struggle(奋斗). On May 1,1889,workers marched(游行) on the streets of Paris, France. International Labor Day was born. Most industrialized countries in the world—except the United States and Canada—celebrate Labor Day on the first of May.

On September 5, 1882, in New York City, about 10,000 workers walked through the streets to show the strength of labor organizations. For many years after that, American workers used the first Monday in September to ask for better working conditions and pay. Music was a part of many of those marches.

Labor songs traditionally tell stories of conflicts(冲突) and hopes for a better life.Many traditional American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mine owners were against workers’ unions. In Kentucky, the company police searched for union leaders. They waited outside a worker’s home for several days to stop him from organizing marches. The coal miner’s wife, Florence Reece, stayed inside with her children. She wrote this song, “Which Side Are You On?”

Another American labor song is called “Bread and Roses”. Based on a poem by James Oppenheim, it was published in December of 1911. The poem speaks about the women’s labor movement. At that time, conditions in factories, where many women worked, were dreadful. A fire at a clothing factory in New York killed 146 people.

A month after Oppenheim’s poem was published, women workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts went on with their marches, which won them higher pay and better working conditions. Oppenheim’s poem received more attention.

1. What does Labor Day mean to students in the United States?

A．It’s time to have a picnic.

B．Their summer vacation is over.

C．It teaches them to respect labor.

D．They can learn about history through activities.

2. Why did the company police wait outside a worker’s home?

A．To force him to stay at home.

B．To prevent his wife writing the song.

C．To try to communicate with him.

D．To stop marches from being organized.

3. What does the underlined word “dreadful” mean in paragraph 6?

A．Pleasant.

B．Freezing.

C．Terrible.

D．Controllable.

4. What do we know about Oppenheim?

A．He cared for working women’s rights.

B．He created the song “Bread and Roses”.

C．He reported the fire at a clothing factory.

D．He led the labor movement in Lawrence.

【推荐3】Royal family gather at Windsor Castle for first Easter Sunday service without the Queen on April 9th. Attendees and members of the royal family wore a variety of stylish hats throughout the ceremony. It is a requirement for all women to wear hats on royal occasions. This rule dates back to the 1950s when upper class and royal women would rarely show their hair in public, according to the BBC.

Hats were originally worn for practical reasons such as protection from the sun, rain or cold weather, but quickly people wore them for other purposes. The top hat, for example, was reserved for upper-class men and was worn at formal events such as weddings and horse races. Women also used hats to signify social status, wealth and fashion. The larger the hat, the wealthier the wearer was believed to be.

In addition to status, hats played an important role in British social etiquette. Men were expected to remove their hats indoors, especially in formal settings, to show respect. Women, on the other hand, were to wear their hats until seated for dinner, but then they were expected to remove them.

But hats were not always a symbol of status and etiquette. The bowler hat, created in 1849, was worn by the working class, especially those involved in transportation. The bowler hat became an iconic item of British fashion, worn by both men and women.

Today, hats continue to be an essential part of British culture, with many old and new hat shops throughout the country. The fedora is also making a comeback among younger gen-erations. Shopping in hat shops provides you with a glimpse of British hat. Caps, trilbies, beanies, and berets are just some of the styles available.

1. What is the significance of the top hat in British culture?

A．It was worn by the working class.

B．It was a personal statement of fashion.

C．It was used to protect people from the rain.

D．It was worn at formal events and signified wealth.

2. What does the underlined word “etiquette” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Routine.

B．Practice.

C．Manners.

D．Origin.

3. Which hat was popular among postmen and train drivers in Britain?

A．Top hat.

B．Fedora.

C．Bowler hat.

D．Beret.

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A．To attract more visitors to Britain.

B．To introduce the hat culture in British.

C．To show his or her opinions on British hats.

D．To tell an interesting story about British hats.