【推荐1】There are 195 countries in the world today and actually none of them have purple on their national flags. Throughout history, purple was never used to represent a kingdom.

So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.

The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio famously wouldn’t allow his wife to buy a scarf made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn’t spend that much having purple on their flags.

In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin by accident created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore everybody could afford it.

Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.

1. Why was color purple expensive in the past?

A．Because only royal families were allowed to wear purple.

B．Because it took a long time to get purple dye from snails.

C．Because purple was worth as much as its weight in gold.

D．Because purple dye used to be uncommon and hard to produce.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The anti-malaria drug.	B．Snails.
C．The man-made purple dye.	D．Tyrian purple.

3. What can we infer from the passage ?

A．A few new national flags have chosen to use purple.

B．William Henry Perkin got rich by producing the purple dye.

C．Royal families stop using purple because it’s not expensive.

D．A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold.

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

A．No Purple Flags?	B．Purple vs. Gold
C．How to Produce Purple Dye?	D．The Birth of Purple Color

【推荐1】It’s said that today more than $ 400 billion a year is spent on advertising worldwide. Beyond that the economic influence of advertising touches just about every consumer-product industry, from No wonder, it is widely recognized that the global economy is heavily being driven by advertisements.

A successful advertisement involves at least three things. The advertisers will first of all single out the market. That is, they need to determine who will buy the product. Then, they will work out the best way to appeal to this market. So they will take into consideration a number of desires or worries the market may have. Finally, they will design the advertising programme. That is, they will study what words and images their advertisement contains and what slogans（广告语）they plan to make use of. They will also consider employing famous people and using scientific data to support e product.

While in everyday life consumers have seen lots of successful examples of advertising like Nike, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s, there are still some examples that do not reach the expected goal. One soap company had all its advertisements show dirty clothes on the left, its box of soap in the middle, and clean clothes on the right. Then it started its advertising programme in the Middle East. Unfortunately, since Arabic speakers read Arabic from the right to the left, many viewers when seeing the ad, thought to themselves, “Why, this soap makes clothes dirty!”

Therefore, advertisers have to be aware of cultural differences when they want to carry out international advertising programme in a foreign country. Study the cultural background of the customers, or ruin the advertising programme!

1. What should the advertisers do before designing an ad?

A．Conduct market research.

B．Remove customers’ worries.

C．Invite famous people to cooperate.

D．Employ scientific data to give evidence.

2. What can be learned from the text?

A．The global economy is determined by advertising.

B．The profits of advertising are beyond expectation.

C．The soap ad is successful in Arabic countries.

D．Cultural differences should be considered for international ads.

3. What is the best title of the passage?

A．Successful International Ads

B．Awareness of Cultural Differences

C．What Is Advertising?

D．How to Appeal to the Market?

【推荐2】Whether rich or poor, parents who have books in the home increase the level of education their children will attain, according to a 20-year study led by Mariah Evans.

For years, educators have thought the strongest predictor（预测指标）of attaining high levels of education was having parents who were highly educated. But, the study showed that the difference between being raised in a bookless home compared to being raised in a home with a 500-book library has as great an effect on the level of education a child will attain as the difference between having parents who are barely literate（有文化的）and having parents who have a university education.

Being a sociologist, Evans was particularly interested to find that children of lesser-educated parents benefit the most from having books in the home. What kinds of investments should we make to help these kids get ahead? The results of this study indicate that getting some books into their homes is an inexpensive way that we can help these children succeed. Evans said, “Even a little bit goes a long way. Having as few as 20 books in the home still has a significant impact on motivating a child to a higher level of education, and the more books you add, the greater benefit the children get.”

The researchers were struck by the strong effect having books in the home had on children’s educational attainment even above and beyond such factors as education level of the parents, the father’s occupation or the economic level of the country.

Having books in the home is twice as important as the father’s education level, and more important than whether a child was brought up in a developing country or a developed country. Surprisingly, the difference in educational attainment for children born in developed country and children born in developing country was just 2 years, less than two-thirds of the effect that having 500 or more books in the home had on children.

1. In the past educators held a point of view that ______.

A．parents’ level of education had nothing to do with their children’s levels of education

B．children whose family had a library would possibly attain high levels of education

C．children who were born in poor families studied harder than those in rich families

D．children whose parents are highly educated would attain high levels of education

2. What does the underlined word “motivating” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Helping somebody to finish something.

B．Making somebody want to do something.

C．Making somebody pretend to do something.

D．Preventing somebody from achieving something.

3. Which of the following has the most important effect on the level of education a child will gain?

A．The economic level of the country.	B．The father’s occupation.
C．Having books in the home.	D．Education levels of parents.

4. Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Reading books is good for the development of children.

B．Books in home have a great effect on children’s education levels.

C．Getting books into homes is good investment （投资）parents can make.

D．Children who get a higher level of education must have many books in their homes.

【推荐3】Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experience? Strangely enough, the answer to these questions is yes. To some extent our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. While the limits of a person’s intelligence are fixed at birth, whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.
It is easy to show that intelligence is to some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random(随机地) from population, it is likely that their degrees of intelligence will be completely different. If, on the other hand, we take two identical twins, they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.
Imagine now that we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.
1. Which best describes the writer’s point in Para.1?

A．Intelligence is given at birth.

B．Intelligence is developed by the environment.

C．Intelligence is fixed at birth, but is developed by the environment.

D．Some people are born clever and others born stupid.

2. It is suggested in this passage that __________.

A．close relations usually have similar intelligence

B．unrelated people are not likely to have similar intelligence

C．the closer the blood relationship between people, the more different they are likely to be in intelligence

D．people who live in close contact with each other are not likely to have similar degrees of intelligence

3. The example of the twins going to a university and to a factory separately shows_________.

A．the importance of their intelligence

B．the effect of environment on intelligence

C．the importance of their positions

D．the part that birth plays

4. The best title for this article would be “_____________”.

A．On Intelligence

B．What Intelligence Means

C．Born with Intelligence

D．Environment Decides Intelligence

【推荐1】Some Facts about Britain

School-leaving age

Children have to stay at school until the age of 16. There is no upper age limit.

Alcohol

You have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a shop, but if you’re 16 and you’re having a meal in a pub, you can drink beer or wine with it.

Motor vehicles

16-year-olds can ride a motorbike of up to 50 cc. At 17 you can ride any bike or drive a car.

Smoking

You can smoke cigarettes at any age, but you can’t go into a shop and buy them until you are 18.

Armed forces

Men can join the army at 16, women at 17. If you’re under 18, you need your parents’ permission.

Marriage

You can get married at 16 with your parents’ permission. Otherwise you have to wait till you’re 18.

Paid employment

You can take a part-time job at 14, and a full-time job at 16 (i.e. when you’ve left school).

Entering Parliament(议会)

The minimum age for becoming a Member of Parliament is 21.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．People and employment.	B．Children and smoking.
C．Age and the law.	D．Safety and traffic.

2. When a British boy is 14 years old, he can probably          .

A．take a part-time job	B．drink beer or wine
C．drive a car	D．buy cigarettes

3. The minimum age for entering Parliament in Britain is           .

A．16

B．17

C．18

D．21

4. According to the passage, we may know that in Britain           .

A．people can get married at 18

B．people can buy alcohol in a shop at 16

C．children have to study at school until 18

D．a girl of 17 can join the army without asking her parents

【推荐2】D
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation(感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception(感知) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses(假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
1. According to Paragraph 1, a person’s emotion may be affected by ______.

A．the visitors to his office	B．the psychology lessons he has
C．his physical feeling of coldness	D．the things he has bought online

2. The author mentions Harlow’s experiment to show that ______.

A．adults should develop social skills	B．babies need warm physical contact
C．caregivers should be healthy adults	D．monkeys have social relationships

3. In Bargh’s experiment, the students were asked to ______.

A．evaluate someone’s personality	B．write down their hypotheses
C．fill out a personal information form	D．hold coffee and cold drink alternatively

4. We can infer from the passage that ______.

A．abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences

B．feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide

C．physical temperature affects how we see others

D．capable persons are often cold to others

5. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Drinking for Better Social Relationships.

B．Experiments of Personality Evaluation.

C．Developing Better Drinking Habits.

D．Physical Sensations and Emotions.

【推荐3】Situated in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City－now called the Palace Museum－covers an area of 1,120,000 square meters. During nearly six hundred years, the palace served as the residence and court of twenty-four emperors. It consists of various structures built in accordance with the traditional Chinese architectural hierarchy（层次、结构）and designed to reflect imperial power and authority.

Entering from the south, visitors will see a succession of halls and palaces spreading out on either side of the central axis. The magnificent architectural complex and the vast holdings of paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, and antiquities of the imperial collections make it one of the most prestigious museums in China and the world. In 1987 it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Palace Museum can be approached through the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Immediately to the north of the Palace Museum is Prospect Hill, while on the east and west are the Wangfujing and Zhongnanhai neighborhoods. Visitors will be excited to find various historic sites, scenic parks, shopping malls, museums, and theatres in the vicinity of the Forbidden City. Conveniently located bus stops and subway stations provide easy access to transportation.

*Free admission for children under 1.2 meters in height.

*Concessions (减价票) for elementary, middle school, and undergraduate students on production of valid student I.D. or certified letter from the school administrator (excluding graduate and adult or continuing education students): 20 yuan.

*50% discount on concessions for seniors 60 years old and older with valid certificate or proof of age (passport, etc.)

*Women’s Day: Half-price admission for female visitors.

*Children’s Day: Free admission for children 14 years old and younger; 50% discount on admission for one accompanying parent, legal guardian, or adult.

Regulations & Suggestions:

*The online booking system (http://gugong.228.com.cn) allows visitors to purchase tickets 10 days beforehand.

*Receipts will be available for pickup at a designated office in the quadrangle （四方形院）between the Gate of Correct Deportment and the Meridian Gate（午门） within thirty days from the date of intended visit (including date of visit).

* Photography is permitted for private, non-commercial use outdoors throughout the Forbidden City, except for sites or areas with “No Photography”signs. For special photography, please contact the Director's Office (Fax: (8610)8500-7415, gugong@dpm.org.cn).

1. According to the passage, which of the following is true?

A．Photos can be taken as long as kept for private and non-commercial purposes.

B．The Palace Museum ranks No. 1 globally due to its architecture and collections.

C．Convenient transportation and medical assistance are accessible if necessary.

D．A man visiting the Palace Museum on National Day can get the receipt before December 1.

2. If a man takes his father who is retired and his 10 year-old son to the Palace Museum on
June 1, how much will they pay at least?

A．40 yuan .	B．60 yuan.
C．90 yuan.	D．110 yuan.