【推荐1】If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like “Shakespeare” “Samuel Johnson” and “Webster”, but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn’t even speak English-William the Conqueror.

Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon or Old English, a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.

But this state of affairs did not last. In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating. When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more “foreign” than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man’s ambition.

1. What language did people in Britain mainly speak before 1066?

A．Celtic and Old English.	B．Nordic and Germanic.
C．Welsh and Scottish.	D．Anglo-Saxon and Germanic.

2. How did William the Conqueror influence English?

A．By teaching people in Britain to speak English.

B．By defeating the Saxons and ruling the whole England.

C．By bringing French to Britain to greatly influence English.

D．By speaking good English to show that they were upper-class.

3. Why does Americans feel France is less foreign than Germany?

A．They know French better than German.

B．They know little history of the English people.

C．In France most of the advertisements appear in English.

D．There are more similarities between English and French.

4. What is the main idea of this passage?

A．The history of Great Britain.

B．The French effects on the English language.

C．The differences between English and French.

D．The great people who had effects on English.

【推荐2】The guzheng is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither (齐特琴) family of string instruments. It is the parent of many musical instruments of some other countries.

The guzheng should not be confused with the guqin, another ancient Chinese zither but without bridges. Now the guzheng is zither with movable bridges and usually 21 strings, although it can have from 15-25 strings. The guzheng’s strings were formerly made of silk, though most players used metal strings by the 20^th century. Since the mid-20^th century most performers use steel strings. The guzheng has a large resonant cavity (共振腔).

The guzheng has existed since the Warring States Period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. The number of strings on the guzheng has always fluctuated. There were as few as 6 to as many as 23 strings during the Tang dynasty. The earliest record of the guzheng belonged to the historian Sima Qian. Until 1961, the common guzheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20^th century 18-string guzheng were also in use. In 1961, Xu Zhenggao, together with Wang Xunzhi, introduced the first 21-string guzheng after two years of research and development. In 1960, they also invented the “S-shaped” left string rest, which was quickly adopted by all guzheng makers and is still used today. This curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and, combined with strings of different thickness, allows for greater resonance in both the deeper and the higher pitch (音调) ranges. The 21-string guzheng is the most commonly used one, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-string one.

1. We can infer from Paragraph 1 that ________.

A．the guzheng is a musical instrument originating from Japan

B．there is only one kind of string instrument in China

C．there are many kinds of guzheng in the world

D．many musical instruments in other countries are related to the guzheng

2. Which of the following material may NOT have been used to make the strings of the guzheng probably?

A．Silk	B．Steel
C．Wood	D．Copper

3. The underlined word “fluctuated” in paragraph 3 can be replaced by “________”.

A．jumped	B．changed
C．flowed	D．waved

4. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．The guqing is an ancient Chinese zither with bridges.

B．The guzheng became espevially popular in the Tang Dynasty

C．All musicians don’t use the 21-string guzheng.

D．Xu Zhenggao invented the “S-shaped” left string rest himself.

【推荐1】Did you know that most humans are able to recognize about 1 million different colors? Well, some people can’t recognize this many because of something called colorblindness. If someone is colorblind, that means they can’t see as many colors as others-or, in rare cases, can’t see any colors at all.

Thankfully, special glasses have already, been made to help fix some types of colorblindness. Now, according to new research published in Optics Letters, scientists have brought this solution one step further.

Sharon Karepov and Tal Ellenbogen, engineers from Tel Aviv University in Israel, have found a way to apply this technology to contact lenses (隐形眼镜).This new method is so groundbreaking because it can be customized to fix many different kinds of visual impairments(视觉缺陷).

People are able to see color because of how the eye is structured. At the back of our eyes, there are three different kinds of cone-shaped cells that absorb light waves. When light waves are absorbed, the cells send a message to the brain for the image to be processed.

If something is wrong with these cone-shaped cells, this can cause problems when the brain processes the image. One of the most common types of colorblindness is red-green colorblindness. People who have this type of visual impairment have difficulty telling apart the colors red and green.

“Problems with telling red from green interrupt simple daily routines such as deciding whether a banana is ripe,” Karepov explained. Karepov also stressed the importance of applying this finding to create special contact lenses instead of relying on color-correcting glasses.

“Color-correcting glasses are commercially (商业地)available, however, they are much larger than contact lenses.?Karepov continued. “Our contact lenses...create a customized, simple and long-lasting way to deal with these impairments.”

Whether you prefer to wear glasses or contacts, it’s nice to know that people who are colorblind will soon be able to choose between the two, as well.

1. What can’t people with colorblindness usually do?

A．See anything.	B．Tell apart colors.
C．Lead an independent life.	D．Live without glasses.

2. According to Karepov, why are his contact lenses better than color-correcting glasses?

A．They are smaller and long-lasting.	B．They can be bought now.
C．They are much larger.	D．They can correct colorblindness.

3. What’s the purpose of this passage?

A．To tell us what colorblindness is.

B．To tell us what causes colorblindness.

C．To tell us how to correct colorblindness.

D．To tell us the finding of a new research.

【推荐2】阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出最佳选项。

Ongoing conflicts across the Middle East have prevented more than 13 million children from attending school, according to a report published by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The report states that 40% of all children across the region are currently not receiving an education, which is a result of two consequences of violence: structural damage to schools and the displacement (转移) of populations, also called “forced migration.” Both issues result from the violence that has crossed the region in recent years. The report examines nine countries where a state of war has become the ordinary state. Across these countries, violence has made 8,500 schools unusable. In certain cases, communities have relied on school buildings to function as shelters for the displaced, with up to nine families living in a single classroom in former schools across Iraq.

The report pays particularly close attention to Syria, where a bloody civil war has displaced at least nine million people since the war began in 2011. With the crisis (危机) now in its fifth year, basic public services, including education, inside Syria have been stretched (竭尽所能) to breaking point. Within the country, the quality and availability of education depends on whether a particular region is suffering violence.

The report concludes with an earnest request to international policymakers to offer money and other resources to help ease the regional crisis. With more than 13 million children already driven from classrooms by conflict, the educational future of a generation of children are in the balance. This is destroying the future for an entire region.

1. What is this article mainly about?

A．Why people are moving away from their own countries.

B．Why there are civil wars and violence in the Middle East.

C．Why many schools have become shelters for displaced families.

D．Why many children in the Middle East are not attending school.

2. Why is “Iraq” mentioned in the second paragraph?

A．To convince people that temporary housing can be easily found.

B．To prove that class rooms there are big enough to host many families.

C．To give an example of why schools are not usable for children’s learning.

D．To show how structural damages of school can affect the quality of education.

3. What does the phrase “in the balance” in the last paragraph most likely mean?

A．Being well taken care of.

B．In an uncertain situation.

C．Under control by the authority.

D．Moving in the wrong direction.

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

A．The war in Syria has been going on since 2011.

B．More than nine thousand schools have been destroyed by wars.

C．Thirteen million people have been forced to leave their homes in the Middle East.

D．Forty percent of all children in the world are not attending schools due to ongoing conflict.

【推荐3】Is it possible to persuade mankind to live without war? War is an ancient institution, which has occurred ever since men were organized into units larger than the family. In the past human race managed to survive it. Why should it not continue to survive even if wars go on occurring from time to time? Moreover, people like war, and will feel frustrated without it. And without war there will be no adequate opportunity for heroism or self-sacrifice.

Modem technology has changed this. Either man will abolish war, or war will abolish man. For the present, it is nuclear weapons that cause the most serious danger, but bacteriological or chemical weapons may, before long, offer an even greater threat. If we succeed in abolishing nuclear weapons, our work will not be done. It will never be done until we have succeeded in abolishing war. To do this, we need to persuade mankind to look upon international questions in a new way, not as contests of force, in which the victory goes to the side which is most skillful in killing people, but by arbitration (通过仲裁) in accordance with agreed principles of law. It is not easy to change very old mental habits, but this is what must be attempted.

There are those who say that the adoption of this or that ideology (意识形态) would prevent war. I believe this to be a big error. All ideologies are based upon dogmatic (武断的) statements that are, at best, doubtful, and at worst, totally false. Their followers believe in them so fanatically that they are willing to go to war in support of them.

The movement of world opinion during the past few years has been very largely such as we can welcome. It has become a commonplace that nuclear war must be avoided. Of course very difficult problems remain in the world, but the spirit in which they are being approached is a better one than it was some years ago. It has begun to be thought, even by the powerful men who decide whether we shall live or die, that negotiations should reach agreements even if both sides do not find these agreements wholly satisfactory. It has begun to be understood that the important conflict nowadays is not between different countries, but between man and the atom bomb.

1. From the passage we can learn that war now is ______.

A．as bad as in the past	B．worse than in the past
C．as necessary as in the past	D．not so dangerous as in the past

2. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Men, as well as war, will have to make the ultimate choice between the two.

B．Modern technology has empowered man to choose whether to have war or not.

C．At least 6,000 years later, man has finally decided to abandon war once and for all.

D．People will eventually destroy themselves if they choose to go to war at modern times.

3. As for ideology, what does the author intend to tell us?

A．Certain ideology is superior regarding its truthfulness.

B．It is useless to adopt an ideology to prevent war.

C．Not every ideology is not worth fighting for.

D．It is wrong to follow any ideology.

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

A．War or No War, That Is A Question

B．Nuclear Weapons Bring the End of Human Race

C．Towards a Future Without War: A Call for Global Arbitration

D．From Ideology to Negotiation: A New Approach to International Conflicts