【推荐1】The first men and women came to Britain over two and a half million years ago.     1     But the British Isles only became islands separated from the rest of Europe about 8, 500 years ago, when melting ice formed the English Channel!

3,000 years after Britain became an island, new tribes who came by boat from the mainland introduced farming.    2    Many of these man-made hills can still be seen.

Later on, people learned to build stone monuments. The most amazing is Stonehenge, a circle of huge stones begun about 4,500 years ago. Stonehenge is the world's most famous prehistoric monument.     3    

3,000 years ago the climate in Britain became colder and wetter than before.     4     A bit later iron started to be used for tools and weapons instead of bronze. Knowledge of ironworking may have been brought by the Celts, a new wave of immigrants who started to arrive from southern Europe in about 500 BC.

What we know about the first people in Britain has been worked out by archaeologists from the remains they left behind them. Pytheas, a Greek, was the first person who could read and write to come to Britain. His visit was in about 330 BC, over 2, 000 years after Stonehenge was begun. Unfortunately, what Pytheas wrote has been lost, so we don't have any written record of Britain until the Romans came.     5    

A．That was almost 300 years after he did!

B．As a result, people had to move down from high ground.

C．Because of the climate change, much of the ice has melted.

D．Many archaeologists believe that Britain was once covered by ice.

E．These tribes built earthworks for protection and as tombs for their dead bodies.

F．They were hunters and gatherers of food, who used stone tools and weapons.

G．We don't know what it was used for, though many different suggestions have been made.

【推荐2】阅读理解。
The Erie Canal was the first important national waterway built in the US.It crossed New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie Troy to Albany on the Hudson River.It joined the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.The canal served as a route over which industrial goods could flow into the west,and materials could pour into the east.The Erie Canal helped New York develop into the nation’s largest city.
The building of the canal was paid for entirely by the state of New York.It cost $ 7,143,789,but it soon gained its price many times over.Between 1825,when the canal was opened,and 1882,when toll charges(过运河费) were stopped,the state collected $ 121,461,891.
For a hundred years before the Erie was built,people had been talking about a canal which could join the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.The man who planned the Erie Canal and carried the plan through was De Witt Clinton.Those who were against the canal laughingly called it “Clinton’s Ditch(沟)”.Clinton talked and wrote about the canal and drew up plans for it.He and Governor Morris went to Washington in 1812 to ask for help for the canal,but they were unsuccessful.
Clinton became governor of New York in 1817,and shortly afterwards,on July 4,1817,broke ground for the canal in Rome,N,Y.The first part of the canal was completed in 1820.As the canal grew,towns along its course developed fast.The length of the canal is 363 miles.
1. We can see that the Erie Canal .

A．joined the Great Lakes together

B．crossed New York from north to south

C．played an important part in developing New York City

D．was the first waterway built in the US

2. It can be inferred that into the Atlantic Ocean.

A．the Great Lakes flow

B．the Hudson River flows

C．Lake Erie flows

D．the Erie Canal flows

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The Erie Canal brought profits of over $ 114,000,000.

B．It’s 363 miles from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

C．The West was more advanced than the East when the canal was built.

D．Many other states helped New York build the canal.

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Clinton broke ground for the canal at both ends.

B．Clinton started building the canal before he became governor.

C．All parts of the canal were completed at the same time.

D．The construction of the canal took eight years.

【推荐3】Everything has its root. “Holiday”, is no exception. The origin of “holiday” is easy to see, coming from “holy day”, a day of particular religious significance, often celebrating the life of a saint (圣徒), during which no work was to be done. As far back as the 11th century, “holidays”, especially the major feast days, were times of “celebration and amusement”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it.

The number of holidays steadily increased during the Middle Ages, until a medieval Englishman would have had the luxury of 40 to 50 days a year off work, depending on where he lived, in addition to a free day on Sundays.

During the Reformation, Henry VIII abolished most of the holidays partly because of the Protestant (新教徒的) suspicion of saints, but more practically, because, according to historian Eamon Duffy, “A large number of holidays were making the people poor by limiting agriculture.” The people took a different view and organized a protest march—the Pilgrimage of Grace—partly to protect their days off.

Though at first the religious and festive senses of holiday were combined, the word gradually came to be used for any kind of relaxing break from work. As the word was drawing away from a religious society, the number of authorized holidays was reduced, until by 1834 most workers had only four official days off a year, in addition to Sundays. Many factory workers amplified this time by staying home on “Saint Monday” to recover from what they had gotten up to the day before.

By the late 19th century, employers were compromising and offering half-day Saturdays, the beginning of the “weekend”, a term first used in 1879. In 1908, an innovative mill in New England gave its employees all of Saturday off, and the practice of their getting the whole Saturday off spread widely during the Great Depression as a way to keep employment up. It took 400 years, but finally workers could enjoy as many holidays as they had in the 15th century.

1. What was the word “holiday” originally intended for?

A．Economy.	B．Entertainment.
C．Religion.	D．Politics.

2. What’s the main reason for Henry VIII’s ending most holidays according to Eamon Duffy?

A．His people required a thorough reformation.

B．He didn’t believe in God and saints.

C．People took no interest in the agriculture due to them.

D．Large numbers of holidays stood in the way of the agriculture.

3. Which can best replace the underlined word “amplified” in paragraph 4?

A．lengthened	B．wasted
C．shortened	D．guaranteed

4. When did most employees get the whole Saturday off?

A．In 1879.	B．During the Great Depression.
C．In 1908.	D．In the 15th century.

【推荐1】Improvements to energy efficiency, such as LED lights, are seen by many authorities as a top priority for cutting carbon emissions. Yet a growing body of research suggests that a rebound effect could wipe out more than half of the savings from energy efficiency improvements, making the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change even harder to hit.

A team led by Paul Brockway at the University of Leeds, UK, looked at the existing 33 studies on the impact of the rebound effect. First comes the direct rebound: for instance, when someone buys a more efficient car, they may take advantage of that by driving it further. Then comes the indirect rebound: fuel savings leave the owner with more money to spend elsewhere in the economy, consuming energy.

Although the 33 studies used different methods to model the rebound effect, they produced very consistent estimates of its impact, leading the team to conclude that the effect wipes out, on average, 63 percent of the anticipated energy savings.

“We’re not saying energy efficiency doesn’t work. What we’re saying is rebound needs to be taken more seriously,” says Brockway.

The idea that increased efficiency may not deliver the hoped-for savings dates back to the Jevons paradox(悖论), named after the economist William Stanley Jevons, who, in 1865, observed that more efficient coal use led to more demand for coal.

If the rebound effect does prove to be as big as suggested, it means future global energy demand will be higher than expected and the world will need far more wind and solar power and carbon-capture technology than is currently being planned for.

But that doesn’t mean nothing can be done to limit the rebound effect. One answer is to double down on energy efficiency and do twice as much to achieve the same effect.

1. Which of the following is a rebound effect?

A．A man uses LED lights to cut carbon emissions.

B．A company uses coal more efficiently to reduce waste.

C．A family saves money by using energy-saving devices.

D．A lady spends savings from her fuel efficient car on more clothes.

2. How did Paul Brockway’s team carry out their research?

A．By interviewing economists.

B．By analyzing former studies.

C．By modeling the rebound effect.

D．By debating about the Jevons paradox.

3. What would Paul Brockway probably agree with?

A．Authorities should dismiss energy efficiency.

B．Worldwide efforts to preserve energy are in vain.

C．The rebound effect helps protect the environment.

D．More attention should be paid to the rebound effect.