【推荐1】Ping-pong, or table tennis, might seem like an ordinary game to play with friends or family. But it holds a special place in China-US relations, as it has helped both countries get along for the last 50 years. This has been called “ping-pong diplomacy （乒乓外交）”.

Judy Hoarfrost was just 15 years old when she was sent from the US to China as part of a nine-member table tennis team. The year was 1971, and for the past 20 years, relations between China and the US had been unfriendly.

But as the team toured around China, things started warming up. Hoarfrost even got to meet then-Premier Zhou Enlai. “The most unforgettable moment was Zhou shaking hands with me and looking into my eyes,” Hoarfrost told China Daily. “You have opened a new page in China-US relationships.” Zhou told the team.

In the years that followed the historic visit, ties between the two countries started to blossom.Diplomatic relations between the US and China were fully established （建立） in 1979.

Players from both countries believed strongly in the idea of “friendship first, competition second”. To this day, many of them remain friends. Hoarfrost thinks we should remember ping-pong diplomacy in order “to understand the importance of people to people exchanges in establishing bonds , human bonds between peoples.”

Seeing tension （紧张局面） between two of the world’s biggest powers in recent years, Hoarfrost said China and the US should work together. “We have so much in common, and we need to build on what we have in common,” she added.

1. What do we know about Hoarfrost?

A．She has played table tennis for 15 years

B．She doesn’t know what “ping-pong diplomacy” is

C．She formed her own table tennis team 20 years ago.

D．She was part of efforts to improve China-US relations.

2. What is Paragraph 3 about?

A．The team’s tour around China.	B．People’s memories of the team.
C．Hoarfrost’s meeting with Zhou Enlai.	D．The relationship between China and the US.

3. When were China-US diplomatic relations fully established?

A．In 1971.

B．In 1972.

C．In 1979.

D．In 1991

4. What does the underlined phrase “establishing bonds” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Developing a relationship.	B．Holding a competition.
C．Understanding different countries.	D．Understanding the spirit of sportsmanship.

5. According to the passage, what might Hoarfrost agree with?

A．It’s normal for countries to face tension	B．China and the US should improve their relations.
C．Playing table tennis is interesting.	D．US should learn from China.

【推荐2】        IMAGINE if, to collect your salary each month, you had to walk to the nearest town, perhaps tens of miles away, to gather in a school or a football court or a church. There, you and your colleagues wait for a man to arrive from the capital, perhaps a thousand miles away, with a suitcase of cash.
       Few countries are as corrupt as Congo(刚果). Mobutu Sese Seko, a former strongman, used state funds to charter a Concorde to take him on shopping trips to Paris. By the time of his overthrow in 1997, graft was endemic. Government employees were not paid but rather expected to use their positions to make a living. Among the most prized government jobs was that of accountant: the people responsible for transporting bags of cash to the provinces to hand out to employees.
       In 2012, however, the Congolese government started helping civil servants to open bank accounts. Around three-quarters of them—some 670,000 people—now have one. In the process, the government has weeded out tens of thousands of ghost employees, since the embezzlers who invented them could not open accounts in their names without a matching ID.
       Yet in a vast country with fewer roads than Luxembourg, hardly anyone lives anywhere near a bank branch. So Congolese banks must now do the work the government accountants used to: shipping money to the remote area. Cash has to be transported to branches in regional capitals, and thence to account-holders on the backs of motorbikes, in canoes or by foot. Bank staff with suitcases of cash make easy targets, just as they did in the west of America in the 19th century. Though they usually travel with armed policemen, there have been at least ten armed robberies of bank employees since January.
       At the moment banks are little more than money-transfer companies, and not very sophisticated ones at that. The transfers tend to go only one way—out of Kinshasa—so cannot be netted against each other; instead cash almost always has to be moved physically. Therefore, most Congolese bankers hope that the new system will promote the growth of a proper banking system.
1. The underlined word “charter” (Paragraph 2) can be replaced by “_______________”.

A．drive

B．rent

C．write

D．push

2. How did government employees use to earn a living?

A．By getting enough salaries

B．By talking to employees

C．By transporting bags of cash

D．By benefiting from their positions

3. What is not one of the challenges that bank staff have to face while transferring each?

A．The transfers are netted against one another

B．The cash may be robbed away

C．Most cash has to be moved physically

D．They sometimes have to walk to transfer cash

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the article?

A．Unavoidable robberies	B．Frequent corruption
C．Cash on the way	D．Best banking system

【推荐3】Basic to any understanding of Canada in 20 years after the Second World War is the country’s impressive population growth. In September 1966 Canada’s population passed the 20 million mark. Most of this growth came from natural increase. The depression of the 1930’s and the war had held back marriages and the catching - up process began after 1945. The baby boom continued through the decade of the 1950’s, producing a population increase of nearly fifteen percent in the five years from 1951 to 1956. Undoubtedly, the good economic conditions of the 1950’s supported a growth in the population, but the expansion also derived (源自) from a trend toward earlier marriages and an increase in the average size of families. In 1957 the Canadian birth rate stood at 28 per thousand, one of the highest in the world.

After the peak year of 1957, the birth rate in Canada began to decline. It continued falling until in 1966 it stood at the lowest level in 25 years. Partly this decline reflected the low level of births during the depression and the war, but it was also caused by changes in Canadian society. Young people were staying at school longer, more women were working, young married couples were buying automobiles or houses before starting families, rising living standards were cutting down the size of families. It appeared that Canada was once more falling in step with the trend toward smaller families that had occurred all through the Western world since the time of the Industrial Revolution.

Although the growth in Canada’s population had slowed down by 1966 (the increase in the first half of the 1960’s was only nine percent), another large population wave was coming over the horizon. It would be composed of the children who were born during the period of the high birth rate before 1957.

1. From paragraph 1 we know that in Canada during the 1950 ________.

A．Fewer people married.	B．The birth rate was very high.
C．Economic conditions were poor.	D．The population decreased rapidly.

2. Which is not the cause of declines in population growth after 1957?

A．Couples buying houses.	B．Better standards of living.
C．People getting married earlier.	D．People being better educated.

3. What does the underlined “it” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．Nine percent.	B．Population wave.
C．The first half of the 1960’s.	D．Population’s slowing down.

4. What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．Educational changes in Canadian society.

B．Canada during the Second World War.

C．Population trends in postwar Canada.

D．Standards of living in Canada.

【推荐2】Young trees don’t just grow; they develop a personality and learn more about their environment and how they should best behave in it. They also help each other out whenever there’s trouble.

Personality, just as among people, varies among trees. Some are anxious, some bold. On the author’s land, there are three oak trees growing close together. One of the oak trees always starts to shed its leaves two weeks earlier than the others. Since they all experience the same temperature, the same soil and the same length of day, such variables can’t be the explanation. So what’s happening? Well,   this tree is simply more careful than the others.Whoever holds on to their leaves longer can do more photosynthesis(光合作用) and store more nutrients. However, the longer a tree keeps its leaves, the higher the risk of injury.

Not only do trees make their own decisions, they also learn from their mistakes. A tree, for example, keeping its leaves too long during one year will never make this mistake again. This leads to several other conclusions:trees must notice the temperature and the length of the day and be able to save their experiences somewhere. Obviously, trees don’t have brains, but it is thought that in the sensitive tips of their roots they keep track of information and experiences.

But trees aren’t only clever when it comes to caring for themselves. They also support each other whenever there’s trouble by giving warnings and even taking care of sick and weak conspecifics with nutrients. For example, one time the author found a very old tree stump. Its insides had rotted a long time ago to topsoil. But the wood on the outside of the stump was still living. How was this possible? Well, the stump was nourished by its neighbors with nutrients from the root system, and had been for at least 400 years!

Why do trees do such a thing? It’s simple: it’s better together. Trees need the forest; it protects them from storms, provides the right microclimate and warns them of attacks.

1. Why does the author mention the three oak trees?

A．To illustrate trees can learn from experiences.

B．To show trees can make independent decisions.

C．To explain trees are quite supportive to each other.

D．To prove trees have the same personalities as humans.

2. According to the text, which of the following best describes general features of trees?

A．Anxious and bold.	B．Smart and adventurous.
C．Helpful and well-behaved.	D．Adaptable and supportive.

3. What does the underlined phrase “do such a thing” mean?

A．Give warnings.	B．Offer assistance.
C．Depend on others.	D．Provide nutrients.

【推荐3】Two new studies suggest that modern running shoes could increase the risk of injuries to runners.

One study involved sixty-eight healthy young women and men who ran at least twenty-four kilometers a week. The runners were observed on a treadmill machine (跑步机). Sometimes they wore running shoes. Other times they ran barefoot (赤脚).

Researchers from the JKM Technologies Company in Virginia, the University of Virginia and the University of Colorado did the study.

They found that running shoes create more stress that could damage knees, hips and ankle joints than running barefoot. They observed that the effect was even greater than the effect reported earlier for walking in high heels. The study appeared in the official scientific journal of The American Academy of Physical Medicine.

The other study appeared in the journal Nature. It compared runners in the United States and Kenya. The researchers were from Harvard University in Massachusetts, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

They divided the runners into three groups. One group had always run shoeless. Another group had always run with shoes. And the third group had changed to shoeless running.

Runners who wear shoes usually come down their heel first. That puts great force on the back of the foot. But the study found that barefoot runners generally land on the front or middle of their foot. That way they ease into their landing and avoid striking their heel.

Harvard’s Daniel Lieberman led the study. He says the way most running shoes are designed may explain why those who wear them land on their heel. The heel of the shoe is bigger and heavier than other parts of the shoe, so it would seem more likely to come down first. Also, the heel generally has thick material under it to soften landings.

But the researchers do not suggest that runners immediately start running barefoot. They say it takes some training. And there can be risks, like running when your feet are too cold to feel if you get injured.

The study was partly supported by Vibram, which makes a kind of footwear that it says is like running barefoot. The findings have gotten a lot of attention. But the researchers say there are many problems in the way the press has reported in their paper. So they have tried to explain their findings on a Harvard Website.

1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Walking in high heels could cause less serious effects than running barefoot.

B．Two new discoveries encourage people to run in high heels.

C．Running in shoes is partly good to runners.

D．Two new studies prove running without shoes is less risky to runners in most cases.

2. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The way that we run by landing on the front or middle of our foot could avoid damaging our heel.

B．We should start running barefoot in no time.

C．Running in modern running shoes could cause more serious effects than running in high heels.

D．We won’t be injured if we run barefoot.

3. What is the writer’s attitude toward the use of the modern running shoes?

A．Persuasive.

B．Negative.

C．Objective.

D．Supportive.

【推荐3】Living in a culture that is different   from your own can be both an exciting and challenging experience.     1     .The following are five major cultural differences between China and the US to help promote mutual understanding.

Privacy

Chinese people do not have the same concept of privacy as Americans do. They talk about topics such as ages, income or marital status, which Americans think is annoying and intrusive (侵扰的).

Family

In China, elders are traditionally treated with great respect while the young are cherished and nurtured. In America, the goal of the family is to encourage independence, particularly that of the children.     2     .

Friends

Chinese people have different meanings to define friends.     3    . Friendship means lifelong friends who feel it deeply obligated to give each other whatever help might seem required. Americans always call people they meet friends, so the definition of friends is general and different. There are work friends, playing friends, school friends and drinking friends.

Money

As is known to all, the Chinese like to save. Chinese are always conservative when they are planning to spend money.     4    , where far fewer families are saving money for emergencies and education than their Chinese counterparts.

Team VS Individual

Basically China values the community and the US values the individual.     5    , it's because you were great. While in China, if you achieve something it's because the team, or family, or company is great. Everything you do gets attributed to the greater whole, while in America individual merits (功绩) are celebrated.

A．You're welcome Io leave your comments

B．It is different in the USA

C．Just hanging out together time to time is not friendship

D．If we can accept the differences, we will make the result perfect

E．If you achieve something in the USA

F．Unlike the Chinese, older Americans seldom live with their children

G．You have to learn different cultural practices and try to adapt to them