【推荐1】We know the westerners like to plan for their time carefully in order to do all the things that are important to them. So if your American or English friend asks you to dinner, he usually invites you a week ahead. But if you really have no time and can’t go to the dinner, you can ring him to say sorry. The dinner is usually served at home, sometimes at a restaurant. You should get there on time, and don’t forget to put on your fine clothes. It is also a good idea to take some little presents to your friend, such as flowers, chocolates and so on. When you are at dinner, you should also observe (遵守) some other customs. Here I’ll give you some dos and don’ts about them in the following:

1) Don’t leave bones on the table or the floor. (You should put them on your plate with fingers.)

2) Don’t use your bowl to drink soup, but use your spoon to help you instead,

3)   Don’t talk with much food in your mouth.

4)   Don’t ask others to have more wine. (This is quite different from that in China.)

5)   After dinner, use you r napkin (餐巾) to clean your mouth and hands.

6)   Make sure small pieces of food are not left on your face.

Then after dinner, you can stay there a little time. And your friend will be pleased if you leave in half an hour or so. Next day, you had better ring him up to thank him for the good dinner.

1. If your American or English friend wants to invite you to dinner, he will invite you _____.

A．on the night before the dinner	B．on the day before the dinner
C．a week before the dinner	D．at the last moment

2. When you come to the dinner, you’d better_____.

A．get there a bit earlier

B．put on your usual clothes

C．take some presents like flowers, chocolates and so on

D．take your best friends with you

3. It would be impolite to______.

A．put bones on your plates with fingers

B．persuade others to drink more

C．drink soup with your spoon

D．make sure that there is nothing left on your face after dinner

4. Which of the following is not true?

A．After dinner, you’d better stay and talk with your friends for a long time to show your thanks.

B．You’d better ring your friend the next day to show your thanks.

C．After dinner, you’d better leave in half an hour.

D．After dinner, use napkin to clean you r mouth.

5. The best title for this passage would be_____.

A．Custom in England and America	B．Custom in the West
C．Living Custom in the West	D．Custom at Dinner Table in the West

【推荐2】As the weather cools across the United States, a growing number of Americans visit farms. They harvest apples, enjoy hay wagon rides and walk in the fields. These people are called agri-tourists. They improve the economy of rural areas and help local farmers increase their profits. It is reported that Americnas spent more than $700 million on the agri-tourism activity in the United States last year.
On Mike Dunn’s farm, school children are laughing and playing. They come to have a hands-on experience of what it’s like to be on a farm. In a corn field maze, the corn is cut into tricky passageways that make it hard to find a way out. Their teacher says they come around once a year.
When Mike Dunn opened the family farm to agri-touists, he had only a corn maze, a pumpkin field and hay wagon rides. The number of visitors to his farm doubles every year and there are 250 people at weekends on average. He says so many people visited that he soon increased the number of activities in which people can take part. The agri-tourism earnings might be 30 percent of the entire farm income. He hopes he will make a larger profit form visitors than from farming someday.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, there are farms where grapes are grown for use in making wine. Many of the farms let people visit and drink the wine that is make there . Malcolm Baldwin owns a vineyard in Loudoun County. Last year, he began letting people get married on his farm. The wedding business attracts an increasing number of people. It’s the best choice for the young couple to spend the big day. They can also stay overnight. Mr Baldwin says the money he makes from these activities lets him keep his small farm operating.
1. What can we learn about the agri-tourism activity in America?

A．It is available throughout the year.

B．It is for Americans to help farmers grow crops.

C．It brings a lot of trouble to the local environment.

D．It has a good effect on the development of rural areas.

2. Why did Mike Dunn add more activities for agri-tourism?

A．because he earned little money from farming.

B．Because people were losing interest in previous activities.

C．Because more and more tourists visited his farm.

D．Because agri-tourism was the only source of his income.

3. What’s the most attractive activity in Mr. Baldwin’s vineyard?

A．Making wine.	B．Tasting wine.
C．Sleeping for the night.	D．Holding wedding ceremonies.

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A．The new way for Americans to travel

B．How to make money from agri-tourism

C．Agri-tourism is popular with Americans.

D．Go to the family farms to enjoy yourself.

【推荐3】It may seem as if Mother’s Day was invented by a company named Hallmark, but people have been taking time on the calendar to give a shout-out to Mom for a long time. The Greeks and Romans had mother goddess festivals — although their celebrations didn’t involve the menfolk taking their underappreciated mothers out to dinner. A more recent tradition was Mothering Sunday, which developed in the British Isles during the 16th century. On the fourth Sunday in April, young men and women who were living and working apart from their families were advised to return to their mothers’ houses.

Mother’s Day as it is observed in the United States started in the 1850s with Ann Jarvis, a West Virginia woman who held “Mothers’ Work Days” to promote health and hygiene (卫生) at home and in the workplace. During the Civil War, Jarvis organized women to improve sanitary conditions for soldiers on both sides, and after the war she became a peacemaker, furthering the cause by bringing together mothers of Union and Confederate soldiers and promoting a Mother’s Day holiday.

Jarvis’s work inspired another 19th-century woman, Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe published her “Mother’s Day Proclamation”, which envisioned the day not as appreciation of mothers by their children but as an opportunity for women to exercise their collective power for peace. Howe started holding annual Mother’s Day celebrations in Boston, her hometown, but after about a decade she stopped footing the bill and the tradition faded away.

It was Jarvis’s daughter Anna who succeeded in getting Mother’s Day recognized as a national holiday. After her mother died, in May 1905, Anna started holding yearly ceremony on the anniversary and conducting a tireless PR campaign to have the day made a holiday. In 1908 she succeeded in enlisting the support of John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia department store magnate and advertising pioneer, and by 1912 West Virginia and a few other states had adopted Mother’s Day. Two years later, President Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution declaring the second Sunday in May a national holiday.

It wasn’t long, though, before whatever ideals the day was supposed to celebrate were buried under an amount of greeting cards and candy. By the 1920s Anna Jarvis was campaigning against the holiday she had been instrumental in creating. “I wanted it to be a day of emotionalism, not profit,” she said.

1. The first paragraph suggests that ________.

A．mothers didn’t get enough appreciation

B．Mother’s Day was invented by Hallmark

C．young people returned to their mothers’ houses

D．Greeks and Romans were the first to celebrate Mother’s Day

2. Who plays the most important role in creating Mother’s Day?

A．Ann Jarvis.	B．Julia Ward Howe.
C．Woodrow Wilson.	D．Anna Jarvis.

3. Why did Anna Jarvis object to Mother’s Day at last?

A．Because it was an emotional day.

B．Because the festival was not profitable.

C．Because the celebrations went against the original spirit.

D．Because the day was buried under greeting cards and candy.

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．The Objection to Mother’s Day

B．The Argument on Celebrating Mother’s Day

C．The Story Behind the Creation of Mother’s Day

D．Different Form of Celebrations on Mother’s Day

【推荐1】Art & Technology

Think “art”. What comes to your mind? Is it Greek or Roman sculptures in the Louvre, or Chinese paintings in the Palace Museum? Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a dancing pattern of lights?

The artworks by American artist Janet Echelman look like colorful floating clouds when they are lit up at night. Visitors to one of her artworks in Vancouver could not only enjoy looking at it, they could also interact with it- literally. They did this by using their phones to change its colors and patterns. Exhibits such as these are certainly new and exciting, but are they really art?

Whatever your opinion, people have been expressing their thoughts and ideas through art for thousands of years. To do this, they have used a variety of tools and technologies. Yet Michelangelo and others have been labelled as “artists” rather than “technicians”. This means that art and technology have always been seen as two very separate things.

Today, however, technological advances have led to a combination of art and technology. As a result, the art world is changing greatly. Now art is more accessible to us than ever before. Take for example one of China’s most famous paintings from the Song Dynasty, Along the River During the Qingning Festival. As this artwork is rarely on display, people have sometimes queued up to six hours for a chance to see it. Once in front of the painting, they only have limited time to spend taking in its five meters of scenes along the Bian River in Bianjing. Thanks to technology however, millions more people have been able to experience a digital version of this painting. Three-dimensional (3D) animation means that viewers can see the characters move around. They can also watch as the different scenes change from daylight into nighttime.

The art-tech combination is also changing our concepts (概念) of “art” and the “artist”. Not only can we interact with art, but also take part in its creation. With new technological tools at our fingertips, more and more people are exploring their creative sides. The result has been exciting new art forms, such as digital paintings and videos.

However, the increase in the amount and variety of art produced has also raised questions over its overall quality, Can a video of someone slicing a tomato played in slow motion really be called “art”?

Similarly, such developments are making the line between art and technology less distinct. Can someone unfamiliar with traditional artists’ tools really call themselves an “artist”? And is the artist the creator of the art itself. Or the maker of the technology behind it? A recent project used technology and data in the same way that Rembrandt used his paints and brushes. The end result printed in 3D, was a new “Rembrandt painting” created 347 years after the artist’s death. These advances are perhaps bringing us closer to a time when computers rather than humans create art.

Where technology will take art next is anyone’s guess. But one thing is for sure—with so many artists exploring new possibilities, we can definitely expect the unexpected.

1. What is the main purpose of the first two paragraphs?

A．To criticize the new forms of art exhibits.

B．To lead readers to review how art develops.

C．To draw readers’ attention to what can be called “art”.

D．To compare the differences between eastern and western art.

2. The author mentions Along the River During the Qingming Festival to show that ________.

A．the old way of displaying artworks is out of date

B．artworks can be recreated with the help of technology

C．art-tech combination changes the viewers into creators

D．technology makes viewers appreciate classics more easily

3. According to the passage, the author might agree that ________.

A．it is hard to recognize the difference between art and technology

B．technology has improved the quantity and quality of artworks

C．art and technology have been seen as a whole for a long time

D．artworks have lost their value with the help of technology

【推荐2】Since around the later part of the 1950s, society started to realize that tobacco cigarettes caused health problems. As research progressed along with increasing numbers of people that developed lung cancer, emphysema, and other smoking related illnesses, cigarette smoking has become less accepted and popular. Unfortunately, the nicotine contained in cigarettes is one of the most addictive substances on the planet and makes quitting smoking one of the hardest things to do. In 2003, Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik invented the electronic cigarette as a safer, and cleaner way to breathe in nicotine after his father, a heavy smoker, passed away from lung cancer attributed to smoking tobacco cigarettes.
Hon Lik applied for his first patent on the electronic cigarette in 2003 and afterwards introduced e-cigs to the Chinese market in the following year through his employer, Golden Dragon Holdings. Golden Dragon Holdings later changed the company’s name to “Ruyan” in order to better match the company’s name(Ruyan means “almost like smoke”)to the new product. Since the renaming, the Ruyan company has continued e-cigarette development and grown to be one of the largest global e-cig manufactures.
Dr.Sam Han, CEO of Cixi E-CIG Technology, Inc, Ltd. also has a number of e-cig related inventions, including four patents in the United States and two in China that are electronic cigarette and e-liquid technology related. Similar to Hon Lik’s father. Dr. Han was a heavy smoker for more than 40 years before beginning to work on electronic cigarette technologies in order to help himself and others make the shift to vapor smoking. Dr.Han continues to market and conduct R&D in e-cig related techonologies to this date.
After the successful deployment of Ruyan and Cixi E-CIG electronic cigarettes in China and Asia, the products started to be sold in significant quantities on the Internet.
1. How many years is it since the electronic cigarette was first invented according to the passage?

A．About 5 years.	B．About 11 years.
C．About15 years.	D．About 20 years.

2. What’s the direct reason why Hon Lik invented the electronic cigarette according to the passage ?

A．Tobacco cigarettes caused health problems.

B．Tobacco cigarettes were too expensive for customers to buy.

C．Quitting smoking became one of the hardest things to do.

D．His father died from lung cancer due to smoking tobacco cigarettes.

3. Since when have Chinese smokers have been able to buy Hon Lik’s electronic cigarettes according to the passage?

A．2000.

B．2003.

C．2004.

D．2005.

4. What’s the correct order of the following events according to the passage?
① Hon Lik applied for his first patent on the electronic cigarette.
② Hon Lik’s father died from lung cancer because of smoking tobacco cigarettes.
③ Hon Lik’s electronic cigarettes were introduced to the Chinese market.
④ The name of the company Golden Dragon Holdings was changed to “Ruyan”.

A．①③②④	B．①④②③
C．②④①③	D．②①③④

【推荐3】An animated(动画) film Coco has made a dark horse in the Chinese film box office competition at the end of these recent two years. Since its first run on Nov 24, 2017 in China, the animation has taken in over 602 million yuan. Against the background of the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, a day in memory of the dead, it centers on a 12-year-old boy named Miguel accidentally transported to the land of the dead, where he seeks his great-great-grandfather’s help to be a great musician and also return him to his family.

Coco has scored 9. l of 10 points at Chinese movie review website Douban for its warm story, popular soundtrack and, most of all, meaningful theme. However, the film wasn't favored by Chinese moviegoers at first because of the poor translation of the film title.

It was called “Xun Meng Huan You Ji”, meaning the journey to chase dreams in Chinese.” It's such an improper name. The film is more than a little boy's musical dreams—it also explores the meaning of life and death." said a Sina Weibo user Gu Xudong. “The awful translation almost made me miss such a great film. When I first noticed its name, I thought it another Forrest Gump.” said the Sina Weibo user Xiao Pihai.

Some locations featured in the animation have gained much attention on Chinese social media platforms like WeChat and Sina Weibo. And many people expressed their hopes to visit these scenic spots in the future. Meanwhile, the film's universal values that you should cherish your family and loved ones won much appreciation from the audiences. The boy's grandma Coco reminded me of my grandmother. I couldn't help but sob at the cinema." said the netizen Xu Lingling.

The meaning of life and death is an everlasting issue for humans. And it seems unlikely to be explored in animation, but more animated films are going in that direction. Coco tells us, “Death is not a scary thing at all, but being forgotten by others should be.” “The physical death is not the final destination. The moment when no living people remember who you are, then you have gone forever,” is one of the most impressive lyrics in the film.

1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph1 refer to?

A．the background.	B．the animation.
C．the Mexican holiday.	D．the memory of the dead.

2. Coco has achieved great success at the popular Chinese movie review website mainly because of _______.

A．interesting story.	B．meaningful theme.
C．positive energy.	D．popular soundtrack.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Xu Lingling had a low opinion of the translation of the film title.

B．People would rather die than be forgotten by others.

C．The film’s values won much appreciation from the audiences.

D．Many people visited these scenic locations featured in the animation.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．People increasingly love cross cultural stories.

B．An animated film exploring life and death wins big.

C．Profound truths are revealed in an animated film.

D．Poor translation arouses debate.