Americans use many expressions with the word dog. People in the United States love their treat dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog’s life, describes a person who has an unhappy life.
Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. The hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.
Husbands and wives use doghouse when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse and treats him badly. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.
Dog expressions are also used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.
1. What does the underlined expression “work like a dog” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Become successful. | B．Have an unhappy life. |
| C．Compete for the same things. | D．Work very hard. |
| A．It will rain cats and dogs. | B．Every dog has its day. |
| C．You lead a dog’s life. | D．You are in the doghouse. |
| A．Become sick as a dog. | B．Teach an old dog new tricks. |
| C．Let sleeping dogs lie. | D．Make people dog-tired. |
| A．Expressions in American culture. | B．Some expressions with the word dog. |
| C．A fun way to learn English | D．Dogs’ influence on American culture. |
相似题推荐
English can change by borrowing words from other languages. The word “tomato” was borrowed from Mexico, and “tea” came from China, and so on. Now a great many new space and science words are being borrowed from other countries, too. New words can be created in other ways. For example, some can be created by adding two words together. “Weekend” and “cookbook” are made up of two parts. Sometimes new words are shorter forms of older words. The word “photo” was made from “photograph” by cutting off the end of the longer word. “Plane” was made by cutting off the front part of “airplane”. The names of people and products can become new words. Our “sandwich” was named after a man named Sandwich and “sello(透明胶带)” was a name given by the company that first made the product.
1. New English words are needed because .
| A．people use old words in a new way |
| B．people need a new way to speak |
| C．the world is changing in a different way |
| D．new ideas and new inventions come about quickly |
| A．New science words are shorter than the old ones. |
| B．The best way to make a new word is adding words together. |
| C．Some new English words are borrowed from other languages. |
| D．Most new English words are the name of a person or a product. |
| A．New words come into use while older words disappear. |
| B．New words can only be formed by adding two words together. |
| C．The word “tea” was borrowed from China. |
| D．The word “photo” was named after its inventor. |
| A．the English language is always changing |
| B．there are new ideas in English today |
| C．people name new products and inventions |
| D．the change of languages goes on in the world |
| A．a story book |
| B．a science magazine |
| C．a business report |
| D．a TV advertisement |
【推荐2】You just arrived in an English-speaking country. How can you get the most benefit out of your journey?
Don’ts
If you packed books to read while on the road, make sure the books are in English.
Do’s
But when travelling to an English-speaking country there aren’t just things that you need to avoid. Here are some things you are advised to do in order to improve your English.
Make friends among the locals.
Read the local newspapers, read every brochure you get your hands on and try to use the Internet while searching for something locally in English.
Go shopping. This is an amazing experience and everybody will be nice to you and listen to you even if your English is not that good.
So next time you are in an English-speaking country, don’t waste time thinking your English is not good enough. Go outside, meet people and speak the language!
| A．Fortunately, there is a lot of information on the Internet on all subjects possible. |
| B．Instead, go to the local library and buy the classics in the English language. |
| C．Avoid finding people who speak the same native language as you. |
| D．Well, first you need to make sure that you know what to avoid. |
| E．This way, you will end up with some cool new things. |
| F．There’s nothing better than having fun with the locals. |
| G．Also, buy books that you already read. |
【推荐3】The Chinese written language originated very early. However, people began to like the art of writing, and pay attention to the creator’s thinking and spirit since the period between the Late Han Dynasty and Wei Jin Dynasty. The Chinese calligraphy fonts(字体) gradually evolved from oracle, Chinese bronze inscriptions and silk manuscripts to the following five main schools:
| School | Representative Master | Feature |
| Seal Script | Li Si | There are Big Zhuan and Small Zhuan. The Big Zhuan includes all the ancient Chinese calligraphy fonts before Qin Dynasty. The Small Zhuan are the characters commonly used by officials after Qin united China. These characters feature balanced left and right parts and a bit complicated structures. |
| Official Script | Cai Yong | A simplified form of script since seal characters were too complicated for officials to use when copying documents. |
| Regular Script | Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Liu Gongquan | Also named Zhenshu or Zhengshu, Kaishu is regular with a tight structure and fluent strokes. |
| Cursive Hand | Zhang Xu, Huai Su | Caoshu is characterized by sketchy, simplified forms of characters, often distorted or exaggerated to achieve an internal rhythmic appearance within the compositions of characters. |
| Running Hand | Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing; Su Shi | Xingshu is something between the regular script and the cursive scripts in the initial period and now is between the official script and cursive(草写体的)hand. Chinese masters have always compared the three styles of writing, Kaishu, Xingshu, Caoshu to people standing, walking and running respectively. |
| A．the difficulty to write | B．their function in use |
| C．who often wrote them | D．how cursive they are |
| A．Official Script. | B．Running Hand. |
| C．Cursive Hand. | D．Regular Script. |
| A．Ouyang Xun. | B．Yan Zhenqing. |
| C．Zhang Xu. | D．Wang Xizhi. |
【推荐1】California has lost half its big trees since the 1930s, according to a study to be published Tuesday and climate change seems to be a major factor (因素).
The number of trees larger than two feet across has declined by 50 percent on more than 46,000 square miles of California forests, the new study finds. No area was spared (使幸免) or unaffected, from the foggy northern coast to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the San Gabriels above Los Angeles. In the Sierra high country, the number of big trees has fallen by more than 55 percent; in parts of southern California the decline (下降) was nearly 75 percent.
Many factors contributed to the decline, said Patrick McIntyre, an ecologist who was the lead author of the study. Woodcutters targeted big trees. Housing development pushed into the woods. Aggressive wildfire control has left California forests crowded with small trees that compete with big trees for resources (资源).
But in comparing a study of California forests done in the 1920s and 1930s with another one between 2001 and 2010, McIntyre and his colleagues documented a widespread death of big trees that was evident even in wildlands protected from woodcutting or development.
The loss of big trees was greatest in areas where trees had suffered the greatest water shortage (缺乏). The researchers figured out water stress with a computer model that calculated how much water trees were getting in comparison with how much they needed, taking into account such things as rainfall, air temperature, dampness of soil, and the timing of snowmelt (融雪).
Since the 1930s, McIntyre said, the biggest factors driving up water stress in the state have been rising temperatures, which cause trees to lose more water to the air, and earlier snowmelt, which reduces the water supply available to (供给于……) trees during the dry season.
1. What percent has the number of big trees fallen by in the Sierra high country?| A．By about 30 percent. | B．By over 55 percent. |
| C．By 50 percent. | D．By nearly 75 percent. |
| A．The results of big-tree loss in California. |
| B．The process of big tree loss in California. |
| C．The causes of big-tree loss in California. |
| D．The benefit of big-tree loss in California. |
| A．The place which lacked water the most. |
| B．The place where snowmelt was rarely seen. |
| C．The place where air temperature was often low. |
| D．The place where woodcutters targeted big trees. |
| A．The basic way is to control global warming. |
| B．The basic way is to stop big trees being cut down. |
| C．The basic way is to water big trees when necessary. |
| D．The basic way is to use wildfires to get rid of small trees. |
【推荐2】Scientists have long struggled with how to measure the effects of climate change on wildlife. This is especially true for birds flying in and out of coastal areas bordering the Arctic Ocean.
In the past, researchers depended mainly on information gathered by satellite to follow the movement of birds and animals. But this method can be costly and result in huge amounts of information, which can be difficult to process.
Now scientists are turning to another kind of technology to help them follow birds and other wildlife. Songbirds are especially difficult to study in the wild. They can fly across thousands of kilometers and their bodies are too small for electronic tracking equipment A new report tells about a project in which researchers recorded songbirds and then put the sounds into a computer program to be studied.
Birds are known to make more singing noises after arriving in areas where they plan to mate. Spring is short in extreme northern areas of the American state of Alaska. There, the birds must mate and have their young before winter. A algorithm（计算程序）is designed to use the recordings to predict when the birds arrive in large groups to begin mating.
While some results were produced completely by machine, human supervision（监督）helped to improve the process. In both cases, the researchers reported the computer was correct in predicting when the birds arrived to their breeding grounds.
In another study, researchers reported how machine learning methods can be used to identify, count and describe animals in the wild. Researchers created a machine learning system that they say uses artificial intelligence or AI to identify, count, and describe the behavior of 48 animal species. They said their method can correctly identify animals at a rate of 94 percent.
The scientists said results showed AI can be used as an effective way to gather“a wealth of information”on huge numbers of animals in the wild. They say the new method will save time and costs, and can even operate in real-time.
1. Why are songbirds especially difficult to study in the wild?| A．Because they fly too fast. |
| B．Because of the climate change. |
| C．Because there are too much information. |
| D．Because of the long flying distance and their small bodies. |
| A．Their destination. | B．Their sounds. |
| C．Their young babies. | D．Their movement. |
| A．It can provide too much information to deal with. |
| B．It can save time and money. |
| C．It doesn't need humans to attend in the process. |
| D．It can identify animals in the wild at a rate of 100 percent. |
| A．New technology used to track wildlife. |
| B．How to protect animals in the wild. |
| C．How to track birds by satellite. |
| D．New progress on artificial intelligence. |
【推荐3】While retiring ahead of time may be easier on the body, a new set of research has found that it may not be so beneficial for the mind. The study, conducted at Binghamton University, finds that an early retirement can speed up the usual rate of cognitive (认知的) decline among the elderly.
The research team analyzed China’s new rural pension system, as well as China’s most recent Retirement Longitudinal Survey, in order to investigate the effects of early retirement and pension benefits on individual cognition among adults over the age of 60. After going over all of the data, the research team noted a clear trend: people receiving pension benefits were experiencing much more rapid mental decline than those still on the workforce. Surprisingly, females seemed to experience even sharper mental decline after retiring early. Overall, the results support the hypothesis (假设) that decreased mental activity accelerates cognitive decline.
Nikolov, the lead researcher, had actually conducted previous studies that found retirement led to a number of positive physical health benefits for retirees, such as improved sleep patterns, less stress, and reduced alcohol consumption. However, retirement is also usually accompanied with a decline in social activities and less overall interaction with people, which has also been linked to cognitive decline.
“For cognition among the elderly, it looks like the negative effect on social connection far outweighed the positive effect of the program on fitness and sleep.” Nikolov says. “Or social connection may simply be the single most powerful factor for cognitive performance in old age.”
The research team are hopeful that their findings will be considered by older adults when thinking about retirement, but perhaps more importantly, they hope that policy makers in developing countries take note while drawing up new pension plans. They recommend building social get-togethers and workshops for recent retirees to help lessen the predicted decline in social interaction and creative thinking that often comes along with retirement.
1. Which of the following best describes retiring ahead of time for the mind?| A．Useless. | B．Beneficial. | C．Damaging. | D．Improving. |
| A．Men retiring as plans. | B．Women retiring early. |
| C．Women over the age of 60. | D．Men retiring ahead of time. |
| A．Longer sleeping time. | B．Fewer social activities. |
| C．More alcohol consumption. | D．More time with family members. |
| A．We should help the retired people |
| B．We should not retire in the modern world |
| C．Early retirement is not so good for the old |
| D．The government should make a new policy |
