The humble potato is more than just a kind of food. In many ways it's part of the American pop culture. Let's take a look at some pop culture potatoes.
Mashed Potato dance
The Mashed Potato dance is a craze that began in 1962. The name of the dance came from the song it accompanies, Mashed Potato Time, performed by American R&B singer Dee Dee Sharp. The move vaguely resembles that of the Twist dance style, by Sharp's fellow Philadelphian,
Chubby Checker.
Hot Potato!
Hot Potato! is an action puzzle video game released in 2001. In the game the player must drive a bus and clear the road of alien potato beings. The potato beings are either red or blue; when two like-colored potatoes touch each other, they disappear. .Over the years, Hot Potato! has received mostly positive reception from critics.
Mr. Potato Head
Mr. Potato Head is an American toy invented by George Lerner in 1949. The toy consists of a plastic potato model and a variety of plastic parts like hands, feet, ears and mouths. In 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. This commercial revolutionized marketing and caused a boom that solidified this toy's place in American pop culture.
1. Which is the newest to the American pop culture?
| A．French fries. | B．Mashed Potato dance. |
| C．Hot Potato! | D．Mr. Potato Head. |
| A．French fries were popular in US when first served in the White House. |
| B．Mashed Potato Time came from Mashed Potato dance. |
| C．Players can play Hot Potato! on their phone. |
| D．Mr. Potato Head can be taken apart. |
| A．Enjoy American Fast Food |
| B．Have Fun with Potatoes |
| C．Different Uses of Potatoes |
| D．American Food Culture |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Could it be your after-dinner coffee that keeps you awake at night? Perhaps you are one of those people who simply can’t take coffee in the evening, because the caffeine（咖啡因）in it makes you excited. Coffee with caffeine does make some people restless, just when they want to go to sleep. So, before you rush to the doctor for “something to make you sleep”, change over to H.A.G.—a new kind of caffeine—free coffee, the nicest coffee so far. This kind of coffee is made by modern scientific methods and has come to the perfection for the greatest pleasure that drinking good coffee gives, but without any harmful effects. H.A.G. is the coffee that continental people, who are such great coffee drinkers, have been taking in the evenings for over 50 years. Make your choice of H.A.G.. Enjoy good coffee and good sleep. Health food stores and most groceries have H.A.G. coffee. If there is any difficulty, send (with your name and address) for free sample（样品）from the A.A. SUPPLY CO. LTD. 31/32 Priory Park Road, London, N. W. 6.
1. Reading it, we can know that the massage is about ________ of a new kind of coffee.| A．an advertisement | B．an instructions |
| C．the use | D．good effect |
| A．it can help people to have a good sleep |
| B．it has been used by continental people for over 50 years |
| C．it has no caffeine in it and has no bad effect |
| D．it can make people happy and excited |
| A．take less ordinary coffee | B．take ordinary coffee with H. A. G. |
| C．take a lot of H. A. G. coffee | D．try some H. A. G. coffee |
| A．If you want to try some H. A. G. coffee, you can ask for free sample from the company. |
| B．The writer of passage suggests that the readers should use H. A. G. coffee. |
| C．You can get H. A. G. coffee only in health food stores. |
| D．The writer tells us that H. A. G. coffee is better than other coffee. |
【推荐2】A Brief History Of The Hamburger
The hamburger, in some form or another, has appeared throughout history since the early 4th century.
Traveling from Europe across the Atlantic, the hamburger rose to fame in the US, ranking as an icon in the culinary (烹饪) world.
While its story is long and tiresome—from Mongol horsemen to American county fairs (集会), here’s how Americas favorite sandwich became what we know and love today.
In the 1840s, German immigrants fleeing political revolutions in their country left for the New World. The Hamburg steak is said to have been eaten on the ships before arriving in the US.
A few short years later, Frank and Charles Menches from New York and Charlie Nagreen from Wisconsin both claim to be its creators.
Led by McDonalds, American-style patented fast food spread globally. By the 2000s, America had become a burger-fascinated nation.
| A．Today, the US is the largest country producing hamburgers. |
| B．They served a version of burger at their respective local fairs. |
| C．Today, the US alone eats more than 40 billion burgers annually. |
| D．It survived through war, economic crises, and over a dozen centuries of time. |
| E．Before the hamburger reached America, it was the principal food in Mongolia. |
| F．By 1873, it appeared for the first time on a menu at Delmonico’s in New York City. |
| G．Before the hamburger came to America, it was a popular cooking tradition in Europe. |
【推荐3】Starting your morning with a good cup of coffee can be a great way to get an energy boost. But besides helping you get over your sleepiness, it turns out it might also be boosting your brain, too. A study out of the Krembil Brain Institute has found that drinking your coffee a certain way can actually reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔茨海默氏症).
“Coffee consumption does seem to have some relation to a decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s,” Donald Weaver, the study‘s co-author, said. “But we wanted to investigate which compounds (化合物) are involved and how they may affect age-related cognitive decline.”
The research was set out to investigate the connection between coffee consumption and a decreased risk of Alzheimer. The researchers decided to test the compounds found in different beans, including light roast, dark roast, and decaffeinated (无咖啡因的) coffee. The team discovered the beans contained phenylindanes, a chemical compound that prevents the buildup of proteins, known as beta-amyloid and tau, which are known to lead to Alzheimer’s. Since a longer roast leads to an increase in the amount of phenylindanes, the researchers concluded that dark roast coffee provided better protection against the Alzheimer’s.
The team also discovered levels of phenylindanes were as strong in dark roasted decaffeinated coffee as they were in a regular caffeinated dark roast. “The caffeinated and de-caffeinated dark roast both had identical function in our initial experimental tests,” Ross Mancini, one of the scientists, said in a statement. “So we observed early on that its protective effect could not be due to caffeine.”
“It’s the first time someone has investigated how phenylindanes interact with the proteins that are responsible for Alzheimer’s,” Mancini acknowledged that the findings show more research is needed. “The next step would be to investigate how beneficial these compounds are, and whether they have the ability to enter the bloodstream or cross the blood-brain barrier.”
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By advertising a local coffee brand. |
| B．By arousing reader’s interest in coffee. |
| C．By presenting the dilemma of having coffee. |
| D．By giving directions on how to make coffee. |
| A．To analyze the diversity of coffee beans. |
| B．To confirm different flavors of various coffee. |
| C．To determine the compounds that affect Alzheimer’s reduction. |
| D．To investigate how many cups of coffee per day is the most beneficial. |
| A．Light roast beans. | B．Phenylindanes. |
| C．Decaffeinated coffee. | D．Dark roast beans. |
| A．Objective. | B．Indifferent. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Pessimistic. |
Language expert Allen Walker Read said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”. Old stories say some foreign-born people would write “all correct” as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t and spoke it as “OK”. Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK”. Experts say early explorers in the Western America spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.
According to some people, “OK” was a way to shorten Greek words that mean everything is fine. It is also said that a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. He is said to have put the first letters of his names — O and K — on each object people gave him to place on the train.
Another explanation is that “OK” was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the 1800s. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.
Not everyone agrees with these explanations, but experts do agree that the word is purely American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech. Serious writers prefer using words, such as “agree”, “approve” or “confirm” instead.
1. Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A newspaper. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A radio program. | D．A language magazine. |
| A．The OK Club |
| B．The Choctaw word “okeh” |
| C．The word invented by Martin Van Buren |
| D．The short form of “all correct” |
| A．People disagree about the origin of “OK”. |
| B．“OK” is often used in formal writing in the USA. |
| C．The word “OK” is widely used all over the world. |
| D．Native American language once influenced American English. |
【推荐2】Beijing’s Forbidden City is a place full of wonder. From its thousands of rooms to its many beautiful artifacts (工艺品), there’s no wonder it’s one of China’s most popular tourist destinations.
But even more than 600 years after it was built, it’s still managing to serve up surprises.
Since it was built during the Ming Dynasty, it’s estimated that the Forbidden City has survived more than 200 earthquakes.
And while most structures aren’t made to survive natural disasters, let alone ones built hundreds of years ago, it seems that the Forbidden City was built to withstand anything.
A recent television documentary by UK broadcaster Channel 4 explored the skills of the ancient building’s designers. A group of Chinese carpenters and engineers were shown building a model of one of the Forbidden City’s palaces, at one fifth of the size.
To show how strong ancient Chinese architecture really is, the model was put to the test. It was subjected to an artificial earthquake of 9.5 on the Richter scale equal to the largest ever recorded quake and survived. Instead of falling apart, the model was just moved gently during the test.
According to experts, the answer to the Forbidden City’s strength, as well as other ancient Chinese structures’, lies in dougong-a centuries-old building method invented in China.
This is the name for special holders on buildings. Despite being held together without any nails or glue, the holders are perfect at keeping structures together when the weather gets rough.
“Dougong design is an important earthquake-proof feature of classical Chinese structures because the framework changes in shape when under pressure, much like the shock absorbers (减震器) of a car, ”according to Chinese National Geography.
“Ancient Chinese craftsmen created structures that were both enduring and aesthetically (在美学方面) pleasing［using dougong］, revealing their advanced understanding of mathematics, architecture, materials, and structural science.”
The Forbidden City draws visitors because of its rich history and cultural significance, but perhaps it should add one more thing to its list of attractions: earthquake shelter.
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．What has made the Forbidden City a popular tourist destination. |
| B．A variety of building methods used in ancient Chinese structures. |
| C．The characteristics of Chinese architecture during the Ming Dynasty. |
| D．What has helped the Forbidden City survive so many earthquakes. |
| A．keep on | B．fight for | C．defend against | D．stand for |
| A．reproduce a real earthquake from the Ming Dynasty |
| B．prove the strength of ancient Chinese architecture |
| C．explain the impact of earthquakes on ancient buildings |
| D．discover a long-lost Chinese building method |
| A．a paint that gives Chinese buildings an attractive look |
| B．a tool used by ancient people to measure earth-quakes |
| C．special building parts that keep a traditional Chinese building together |
| D．a building piece located in the center of traditional Chinese house |
【推荐3】Long before the Internet, and even before the telephone, people relied on pen and paper to communicate. It’s a lot different from writing an email because when you make a mistake, you cannot “backspace” your errors away.
Letter writing has been a key means of communication for people throughout history.
There were two main reasons why these early explorers wrote letters.
When the British began building colonies (殖民地) in America during the 17th century, these lands were settled by people who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.
| A．Letter writing is just how you travel around the world. |
| B．You simply cross out your mistakes with your pen and continue writing. |
| C．The early settlers faced a lot of challenges in the unfamiliar environment. |
| D．One was a boy from England who liked the same music as me: rock and roll. |
| E．Four hundred years later, however, we don’t really need to write letters anymore. |
| F．It played a vital part in the exploration of the ‘"New World”, as America was once known. |
| G．One was to document for the people back home what they saw as they journeyed through the faraway, mysterious land. |
【推荐1】With growing awareness of the gender gap in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields, where women hold only 27% of jobs, Chinese researchers have explored a cause influencing women’s participation in STEM careers. They studied how teen girls can be influenced by their own peers who believe the inaccurate stereotype (刻板印象) that boys are better at math.
The study found that when surrounded by peers holding this stereotype, middle-school girls scored lower on math tests. This influence even persisted into college, impacting women’s math performance and self-confidence. The researchers suggest dealing with this issue during the middle school period to reduce the negative impact on women’s long-term STEM engagement.
Middle school is considered a critical developmental stage where teens are forming a stronger sense of self separate from their parents. This change often makes teens more likely to be influenced by the opinions of their peers. It’s also a period when, objectively measured by standardized tests, girls on average have better math skills than boys. However, teens may not realize it.
In some middle schools in China, the researchers studied the potential role of peer-pressure beliefs of the gendered math stereotype. In classrooms where the belief that “boys” natural ability in studying math is greater than that of girls” was significantly higher than the standard, girls’ later performance on math tests was lower than the results for boys. Moreover, girls in these classrooms were less likely to participate in math-related out-of-class activities. They were also less likely to feel that their teachers paid attention to them and offered praise, leading to lower math-related self-confidence.
The researchers conclude that preventing the harm from gender math stereotyping requires a change of the social environment for children and young adults, in addition to focusing on changing girls’ attitudes and choices.
1. What is the focus of the study?| A．Inaccurate stereotype of STEM. |
| B．Women’s participation in STEM. |
| C．Teen girls’ academic performance. |
| D．Gender stereotype’s influence on girls. |
| A．Girls do better in math than boys. |
| B．Teens have strong self-confidence. |
| C．Teens are experiencing a key stage. |
| D．Girls are easily affected by their peers. |
| A．score high in standardized tests |
| B．be often praised by math teachers |
| C．show low confidence in math tests |
| D．take an active part in school’s math club |
【推荐2】If you think of the jobs robots could never do, you would probably put doctors and teachers at the top of the list. It’s easy to imagine robot cleaners and factory workers, but some jobs need human connection and creativity. But are we underestimating what robots can do? In some cases, they already perform better than doctors at diagnosing illness. Also, some patients might feel more comfortable sharing personal information with a machine than a person. Could there be a place for robots in education after all?
British education expert Anthony Seldon thinks so. And he even has a date for the robot to take over the classroom: 2027. He predicts robots will do the main job of transferring the information and teachers will be like assistants. Intelligent robots will read students’ faces, movements and maybe even brain signals. Then they will adapt the information to each student. It’s not a popular opinion and it’s unlikely that robots will have the ability to really connect with humans like another human.
One thing is certain, though. A robot teacher is better than no teachers at all. In some parts of the world, there aren’t enough teachers and 9~16 percent of children under the age of 14 don’t go to school. That problem could be partly solved by robots because they can teach anywhere and won’t get stressed, or tired, or move somewhere for an easier, higher-paid job.
Those negative aspects of teaching are something everyone agrees on. Some teachers all over the world are leaving because it is a difficult job and they feel overworked. Perhaps the question is not “Will robots replace teachers?” but “How can robots help teachers?” Office workers can use software to do things like organizing and answering emails, arranging meetings and updating calendars. Teachers waste a lot of time doing non-teaching work, including more than 11 hours a week marking homework. If robots could help teachers with the time teachers spend marking homework and writing reports, teachers would have more time and energy for the parts of the job humans do best.
1. What does the underlined word “diagnosing” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Curing. | B．Deciding. | C．Preventing. | D．Avoiding. |
| A．transfer all the information to the students | B．make teachers its assistants in class |
| C．offer the students special information | D．take the place of real teachers in class |
| A．A robot teacher is worse than a human teacher. |
| B．A robot teacher can work continuously without any problems. |
| C．A robot teacher isn’t necessarily better than a human teacher. |
| D．A robot teacher can read students’ ideas better than a human teacher. |
| A．They can do all the teaching for the teachers. |
| B．They can transfer all the information to the students. |
| C．They can organize the teaching activities for teachers. |
| D．They can finish the boring and repeated work for the teachers. |
【推荐3】Have you considered studying abroad? If you ask anybody who has studied abroad, he or she will most certainly tell you that it is a life-changing experience and one of the most rewarding (有益的) things he or she has ever done. Perhaps you’re not sure whether it’s worth your time. Here are six very excellent reasons for you do decide to go and study abroad.
1. Studying abroad is the best way to learn a language. There is no better way to lean a language than to be with people who speak the language you are learning. Language learning happens most quickly under these situations.
2. Studying abroad provides the chance to travel. Weekends and holidays allow you to go out and visit different places of the foreign country where you are studying. Since studying abroad often puts you in a completely different country, you are much closer to places you might not have had the opportunity to visit.
3. Studying abroad allows you get to know another culture first-hand. Cultural differences are more than just differences in language, food, appearances, and personal habits, Students who experience cultural differences personally can come to truly understand where other cultures are coming from.
4. Studying abroad will help you develop skills and give you experiences a classroom setting will never provide. Being in a new cultural setting is scary (提心吊胆的) at first, but it’s also exciting. It’s a chance to discover new strengths and abilities, conquer new challenges, and solve new problems.
5. Studying abroad offers you the chance to make friends around the world. While abroad, you will meet not only natives to the culture in which you are studying, but also other international students who are as far from home as yourself.
6. Studying abroad helps you to learn about yourself. Students who study abroad return home with new ideas about themselves and their own culture. So they can see themselves and their own culture through new eyes.
1. Why does the writer of this passage write the sentence underlined in the first paragraph| A．Because he or she has known a lot of people who have studied abroad. |
| B．Because he or she has talked with many people who have studied abroad. |
| C．Because he or she wants to use what people said to support (支持) his or her opinion. |
| D．Because you are not sure whether it’s worth your time when you study abroad. |
| A．Point 2 | B．Point 3 |
| C．Point 4 | D．Point 5 |
| A．To understand the cultural differences well, you should use your first hand. |
| B．Studying abroad can have a deeper understanding of the culture of the country where you study. |
| C．You can’t learn a foreign language if you don’t talk with people who speak the language you are learning. |
| D．To understand the cultural differences is more important than to learn a foreign language. |
| A．Why Study Abroad | B．How to Study a Foreign Language |
| C．Tips for Going Abroad | D．Decide What You Like |
