【推荐1】The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps into Julia Roberts and pours orange juice all over her. After the bump, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”

    1     If Roberts’ character were from Britain then she would probably apologize repeatedly as well—even if the bump were not her fault. But this doesn’t happen in the film, as Roberts is from the US.

A report in The Telegraph last week said that three-quarters of British people apologize when they bump into someone in the street — regardless of whether they are responsible or not. In fact, we Britons use “sorry” in many situations. For example, if we mishear someone, we say “Sorry?” The person we are talking to will also apologize by replying: “No, I am sorry!”     2    

Life is never as simple as “duibuqi” and “meiguanxi”.

    3     Traditionally, “sorry” was used to express deep regret, but a survey in 2017 showed that we use it to mean anything from “what” to “whatever”.

    4     Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system. We say sorry because historically the new middle classes in Britain had to apologize for not being working class, but also for not really being upper class.

    5     For example, if you bump into someone they might get angry. To avoid this we instantly say “Sorry!”. True manners are about being considerate and the modern day hobby with apologizing shows that we are perhaps not as thoughtful as we once were. The word has lost some of its meaning. Do you see my point? Sorry, it might just be a British thing.

A．Why are Britons so sorry?

B．British people are sincere while saying sorry.

C．How we use “sorry” has changed.

D．Saying sorry when necessary is a good manner.

E．This can go on for up to five minutes as we compete over who is the most sorry.

F．Another theory is that we apologize to avoid confrontation (冲突).

G．His actions in this scene are very British.

【推荐2】Sending an emoji to your doctor probably isn’t something most patients think about when they’re feeling sick. However, researchers say these symbols can actually help improve communication between patients and medical staff.

Senior author Shuhan He, MD, from Massachusetts General Hospital believes the use of emojis is a great opportunity to take communication to another level. “Emojis could be particularly important in treating children with still-developing language skills, people with disabilities that affect their ability to communicate, and the many patients who speak a different language,” Dr. He says.

Researchers say that although there are around 3,500 emojis in all, there are only about 45 which have a connection to medicine. The first ones appeared in 2015, with a needle and pill. In 2017, Apple added new emojis to represent people with disabilities. Two years later, a stethoscope (听珍器), bones, teeth, and microbe emojis popped into computers and smart phones everywhere. Dr. He helped to create anatomical (解剖学的) heart and lung emojis which were introduced in 2020. He is now working to create even more medical-related emojis.

The study authors add that, in a medical emergency, time is particularly vital. Using an emoji could help doctors know what’s wrong in a jiffy. The growth of telemedicine is providing a golden opportunity for emojis to find a purpose in the health care industry. Dr. He believes communication through emojis can help patients express things like the intensity of pain or even mood changes when words fail them.

“It’s clear that emojis have become part of the global, mainstream conversation, and that medical societies need to take them seriously,” Dr. He concludes. “They should now reach agreement on the medical accuracy of these emojis, and then work to get them approved through the global standard-setting body.”

1. Who may find it most convenient to use emojis to communicate with doctors?

A．Creative teenage children.	B．Unsociable disabled people.
C．Those addicted to technology.	D．Those with language barriers.

2. Which word best explains “in a jiffy” underlined in paragraph 4?

A．Quickly.

B．Randomly.

C．Indirectly.

D．Personally.

3. What does Dr. He suggest medical societies do now?

A．Promote telemedicine globally.

B．Encourage patients to use emojis.

C．Establish uniform standards for the use of emojis.

D．Approve the use of emojis in the whole world.

【推荐3】Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how languages first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about 3,000 languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by many millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present day languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 years ago.

Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. In time some even died out completely. About 1,000 years ago, English was a little-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by many millions of speakers. The differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China can’t understand speakers from other parts.

1. The first paragraph mainly tells us that ____ .

A．most people in the world speak Chinese

B．there are thousands of languages in the world today

C．man has much knowledge about languages

D．some people know several languages

2. According to the passage, most European and Indian languages ____ .

A．will soon die out completely	B．were once a relative of English
C．are no longer spoken	D．come from the same family

3. According to the passage, ____ has the most speakers.

A．Chinese

B．English

C．Spanish

D．German

4. According to the passage, ____ seems to have changed a lot.

A．German

B．English

C．Spanish

D．Chinese

5. The underlined word dialect in the last paragraph probably means ____ .

A．a special language spoken by Chinese

B．the sign used by the Chinese people in a special area

C．the difference between the old and today’s Chinese

D．the form of a language used in one part of the country

【推荐1】Music has often been used in movies to create mood and add dimension to the images which the audience sees on the screen. One man who is famous for his ability to write powerful and highly effective music for movies is John Williams. Mr. Williams has been writing music for movies since 1960, but he is perhaps best known for his award-winning scores for movies such as Jaws, Star Wars, and Schindler’s List. Before he began writing music for the movies, Mr. Williams dreamed of being a concert pianist. He studied at both the University of California, Los Angeles and Juilliard School. During the 1950s, Mr. Williams was into jazz and he worked in New York City with many jazz artists. Later, he moved back to Los Angeles where he continued to play the piano for jazz musicians. He also got a job writing music for television shows. It was this television job that led him into movies.
Throughout the 1960s, Mr. Williams wrote the music that can be heard in more than 20 movies. Most of these movies were light comedies. Then, in 1975, the director of the movie Jaws, Steven Spielberg, hired Mr. Williams. The director thought that Mr. William’s music added so much to the scary (引起恐慌的) scenes of the movie that he insisted on working with Mr. Williams in all of his future movies. Other directors and Hollywood film studios also demanded to work with Mr. Williams, and his career as a composer of movie soundtracks took off. Many of these movies have soundtracks that are still available in music stores today. They include The Deer Hunter, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, and Jurassic Park.
In 1980, Mr. Williams had another chance to expand his musical experience. He was chosen to be the new conductor for the Boston Pops Orchestra when Arthur Fiedler retired. Mr. Williams gladly accepted the position because it only required that he conduct the orchestra during the summer. This left him free to continue writing music for the movies during the rest of the year. Mr. Williams conducted the Boston Pops for more than 12 years before he decided to retire and write music full-time. Along with the many movie music scores he has written, Mr. Williams has also written two symphonies, a flute concerto, and a violin concerto. Up to now, Mr. Williams has written music for more than 60 movies. It is no wonder that he is today’s most famous Hollywood composer.
1. What is John Williams most famous for?

A．Conducting.	B．Making movies.
C．Playing jazz.	D．Writing music for movies.

2. What happened to Mr. Williams in 1975?

A．He began writing music for movies.	B．He moved to Hollywood.
C．He worked with Steven Spielberg.	D．He worked for the Boston Pops.

3. Which the following things has Mr. Williams not done?

A．Conducted an orchestra.	B．Directed a movie.
C．Played jazz piano.	D．Writing classical music.

【推荐3】All my friends at school smoked.My dad smoked; he didn’ t want me to smoke but my friends kept saying I was stupid.They asked when I was going to grow up.So I started when I was sixteen and after a month I couldn’ t stop.But two years later I could feel what smoking was doing to me.I couldn’ t run far, and I coughed every morning.I got very ill and decided to stop.It wasn’ t easy, but now I’ ve done it, and I feel better.Now I have money for other things.

If you smoke, you are twice as likely to die from a heart attack.And the more you smoke, the earlier the heart attack is likely to be.For example, a 50-year-old who smokes more than 20 cigarettes a day, is four times more likely to have heart disease than a non-smoker of the same age.

What does smoking do to the heart? First of all, it makes the heart beat faster and increases the blood pressure.The cigarette smoke also reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood.

Consequently, the heart has to work harder, with less oxygen.Finally, your arteries will narrow faster if you smoke.

So if you want to reduce your chances of getting heart disease, the answer is easy – – not to smoke.Don’ t copy your friends and other people who smoke.If you smoke, find out how to stop.Stopping isn’ t easy, but you’ ll be healthier, and…

1. Who is more likely to have heart disease?

A．A smoker

B．A non-smoker

C．A-50-year-old person

2. What does the write think of smoking?

A．It’s good for his health

B．Smoking is bad for him

C．It is neither good nor bad for his health

3. What happens after the writer stoped smoking?

A．He becomes rich

B．He has more friends

C．He becomes healthier and has money to do other things.