【推荐1】 An epidemic (流行病) of the use of street-culture language broke out in some English exams, according to examiners.

A report said there were “a surprising number of small mistakes” in standard (标准) English. It asked teachers that they should prevent pupils from using "street language and text style", adding, “Most answers require formal expression of language.”

“Many concerns were expressed by examiners about basic errors, often appearing in the work of clearly able students,” the report continued.

It added that the use of street and text language “appeared with surprisingly regularity in the work of students who clearly desired a higher grade”.

“Most answers require formal expression but even when an informal style is appropriate--students should know the examination context and, in particular, should not use street language and text style.” it said.

There is rising concern about pupils’ writing skills, especially among boys. National test results for 11-year-old boys’ writing standards had fallen this year. Only 55 percent reached the level expected of an 1l-year-old by the time they left primary school, the results showed.

Many educationalists are now arguing that teachers should also think of ways of improving writing standards.

The report said spelling was “in general inconsistent (不一致)” and “variety of vocabulary and of sentence structure is often limited”. It went on, “Punctuation (标点符号) errors continue to be widespread.”

However, it added, “Some examiners felt that this year they had met an improvement in the whole structure of students' writing.”

1. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The street-culture language is being examined in English exams.

B．Street language is appearing in the standard English exams.

C．The English say no to the street-culture language in daily life.

D．What the street-culture language is in England.

2. The underlined word “appropriate” (in Paragraph 5) means “ _______”

A．comfortable

B．possible

C．acceptable

D．valuable

3. What problems concerned examiners?

A．Small mistakes in spelling and punctuation.

B．Limited vocabulary of boy pupils.

C．Teachers teaching writing skills.

D．Poor sentence structure, and errors in spelling and standard English.

4. How does the author feel in writing this passage?

A．worried but positive	B．worried and negative
C．concerned and sad	D．warm and excited

5. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．In English exams, most answers require informal expression of language.

B．When an informal style is correct, the students are allowed to use it.

C．Boys' writing skills are worse than those of girls in England.

D．There is no improvement in the whole structure of students' writing.

【推荐3】Sayings(谚语) are quite common in spoken English. We don’t normally put them in a composition or a letter. Sometimes it is helpful if you know what common proverbs mean. Here are a few examples.
“ Once bitten, twice shy.” If a dog bites me, I shall be twice as careful in future when I see it. This proverb is also used to apply to many things and not only to dogs. For example, if you have been cheated at a shop, you will not go to the same shop again.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” If I am a hunter, trying to catch birds, it is better to catch one than to see two birds in a bush but not able to catch them. Thus this means that what you have already got is better than the chance of being able to get something bigger in future.
“ Don’t be a dog in a manger(槽)” means “ Don’t be selfish.” In a stable (马棚)，the manger is the place where the horse’s food is put. Sometimes a dog will sleep in the manger and bark when a horse comes to get its food. The dog doesn’t want to eat the horse’s food in the manger but it will not let the horse eat it.
“ He who pays the piper calls the tune (调子).” A piper is a musician. The man who pays a musician can say what tunes the man will play. Thus this means that if a man provides the money for a plan, he can say how it will be carried out.
“To pour oil on troubled waters” is to try to calm things down. Oil is lighter than water. If a ship is in trouble at sea, another ship may come to help it. The second ship can send small boats to rescue people. However, it may first pour oil on the sea to make the sea less rough.
1. Peter has a bicycle which is much too small for him but he does not want to let his young brother ride on it. What would Peter’s mother say to him?

A．“ You can’t get blood out a stone.”

B．“ Don’t be a dog in a manger.

C．“ The early bird gets the worm.”

D．“ To pour oil on troubled waters.”

2. Mr and Mrs   Smith had a quarrel. Their friend, Mr Brown, wanted to talk to them. When he came back, he told his wife that he had been trying to help the Smiths by ______ .

A．pouring oil on the troubled waters

B．getting blood out of a stone

C．being a dog in a manger

D．sitting on the fence

3. Mr Wang paid for a new school. Some people didn’t like the design of the school but they didn’t argue with Mr Wang because ______.

A．he was sitting on the fence

B．once bitten, twice shy

C．he who pays the piper calls the tune

D．a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

4. Mrs Lin wanted to buy a new dress. Her husband suggested that she buy it from a shop near their home. Mrs Lin disagreed because she had been cheated by that shop. So she said, “ I won’t go there again because ______ .”

A．a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

B．he who pays the piper calls the tune

C．once bitten, twice shy

D．I don’t want to be a dog in a manger

5. Mr Brown had quite a good job in Hong Kong but he thought that if he went to Singapore, he might get a much better job with more money and a larger house. His wife didn’t want him to leave his job in Hong Kong and she reminded him that ______ .

A．a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

B．don’t be a dog in a manger

C．he who pays the piper calls the tune

D．once bitten, twice shy

【推荐2】People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.

Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.

“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect the mouth.”

According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.

The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.

It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”

In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.

1. The discovery shows that Westerners ________.

A．pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth

B．consider facial expressions universally reliable

C．observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways

D．have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions

2. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 6 refer to?

A．The participants in the study.

B．The researchers of the study.

C．The errors made during the study.

D．The data collected from the study.

3. In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to ________.

A．do translation more successfully

B．study the mouth more frequently

C．examine the eyes more attentively

D．read facial expressions more correctly

4. What can be the best title for the passage?

A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul

B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions

C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills

D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding