【推荐1】Mauritius, an island country, lies 1, 200 miles off the southeastern coast of Africa, and just east of Madagascar, another African island country, which is larger by far than Mauritius. It covers 788 square miles and has a population of 1, 100, 000, about 750, 000 Indians, 300, 000 Clioers, 30, 000 Chinese and 20, 000 Whites included. They are living together peacefully.

The country can be divided into many parts with different climates all because of its special terrains (地形). In the center there are volcanoes several thousand feet high, and 90 percent of its arable land is covered with sugarcane.

There were no people living on the island before the Dutch landed on it in 1638. The Dutch abandoned it in 1710, and five years later, the French came and succeeded in planting sugarcane there. It was conquered by Britain in 1810.

Mauritius was extremely poor when it declared its independence in 1968. In the past ten years, obvious economic prosperity (繁荣) has shown itself in this island country.

1. The underlined words “abandoned it” in third paragraph means______ .

A．took its place	B．left for it
C．gave it up	D．held it out

2. The right order that shows the history of Mauritius should be     .
a. seized by the French
b. became its master
c. ruled by the Dutch
d. conquered by the British

A．b, a, c, d	B．c, a, d, b
C．d, c, a, b	D．a, c, d, b

3. According to the passage all of the following statements are true except     .

A．Arable land covers 90 percent of the country’s total area

B．It was the rule of foreigners that made the Mauritius people live in poverty

C．More than half of Mauritius population are Indians

D．Britain ruled the island longer than French and Holland

【推荐2】America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while, then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending(延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality(好客) easily.

Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home.

1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

2. From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be                 .

A．warmly welcomed at the airport

B．treated hospitably at his home

C．offered a ride to his home

D．treated to dinner in a restaurant

3. The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean                  .

A．willing to spend time	B．serious with time
C．careful with time	D．strict with time

4. A suitable title for this passage would probably be “                ”.

A．Friendships Between Chinese

B．Friendships Between Americans

C．Americans' and Chinese's Views of Friendships

D．Americans' Hospitality

【推荐3】New Zealand, which is a beautiful beach country, draws many people looking for a new life. Its cities are considered as some of the best places to live in throughout the world, and with a population of about 4.5 million there remains plenty of untouched land to explore and enjoy.

The big draws for modern-day visitors are the country’s beautiful scenery and natural wonders. Sailing, surfing, hiking, camping and any other outdoor activities can be done in New Zealand. With an increasing number of visitors arriving every year, environmentalists and the government are concerned about protecting nature.

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, with a population of about 1.5 million. Known as the City of Sails, it sits on the narrow land between the Waitemata Harbour and Manukau Harbour. The city’s suburbs stretch for many miles along the coast. Its most popular places to live are Westmere, Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Ellerslie and Meadow bank. These are the areas seeing the highest housing prices in the country.

At the south of the North Island sits Wellington, the capital and diplomatic centre of the country, built in the hills above the Cook Strait that separates the North Island from the South Island. It has the country’s best public transport, Metlink, and considers itself the coolest city in New Zealand.

“No matter where we live, beach culture has always been a big part of our culture,” said Shane Mason. “It’s pretty common to leave town during the summer and spend Christmas and New Years at the beach.” “New Zealand is a good place to visit but a great place to live,” said Mason, who now lives in Berlin. “I’ve discovered there is no place like home.”

1. Many people move to New Zealand because ________.

A．they want to live a new life in the place fit to live in

B．it has a lot of beautiful scenery and natural wonders

C．they want to explore and enjoy plenty of untouched land

D．it has a population of only 4.5 million

2. What has caused environmentalists and the government to be concerned about protecting nature?

A．Its rising population.

B．Plenty of untouched land.

C．The increasing visitors.

D．Its rich natural resources.

3. What does the underlined word “stretch” mean?

A．Extend.	B．Settle.
C．Improve.	D．Increase.

4. From what Mason said we can infer that ________.

A．its beach culture is the most important culture

B．he hopes to live in Berlin for the rest of his life

C．people seldom leave their homes to the beach

D．he thinks New Zealand is the best place to live in

【推荐1】ARGENTINA’S new government faced public anger over its recent decision to greatly reduce the dollar value of its citizens’ bank savings. More than two-thirds of Argentine bank savings were in US dollars. The country’s recession (衰退), which is in its fourth year, has left a third of Argentine’s 36 million people in poverty.

A few angry people took the streets on January 21, beating pots and pans in protest. And a group of unemployed Argentines demanding jobs blocked a major highway into Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires.

Argentines fear they could lose up to half the dollar value of their savings. Some on the street said the country’s fifth president in the past month has already failed them.

After three weeks in power, President Eduardo Duhalde has broken his first and biggest promise. He said he would return people’s savings in the currency in which were deposited(开户). Duhalde aims to make exports more competitive. But this is expected to have a serious effect on ordinary families, for the simple reason that in Argentine, 80 percent of loans and mortgages(抵押) are in dollars. The government froze all the bank savings made in dollars, worth US$45 billion in total to stop a run on banks. This cause huge street protest earlier this month and contributed to the downfall of two governments. “Most of my life savings were just taken away from me,” said Jose, a 38-year-old citizen. “I was going to move to Italy but now I can’t because my money is trapped here. Argentina is like a prison.”

The government loosened the new banking rules a little bit on January 17. However, people still don’t have free access to their bank account. They are only allowed to take out rapidly devaluing pesos, even though their savings are in US dollars.

The banking controls will remain in place for about three months, with a few exceptions for the elderly or people with sever illnesses who need crash.

1. How many people have been left in poverty because of Argentina’s economic recession?

A．all Argentines people	B．24 million people
C．12 million people	D．36 million people

2. What cause Argentines to protest in the streets earlier this month?

A．Argentina’s economic recession.

B．Argentina’s new government made its people angry.

C．Argentina’s government froze all the bank savings made in US dollars.

D．Two of Argentina’s governments failed to make exports more competitive.

3. What does the sentence “my money is trapped here” mean_____?

A．My bank savings have been frozen by the government.

B．I don’t want to take my money away.

C．I don’t have any money in the bank.

D．My money has been taken by the Italian government.

4. According to the article, which of the following sentences is correct?

A．people can get their money from the bank freely.

B．People are only allowed to get US dollars from the bank.

C．The government will only allow people to get pesos from the bank.

D．The banking controls will loosen a little in three months’ time.

5. Argentines cannot get US dollars from the bank unless they are_____.

A．ordinary people	B．rich or government officials
C．poor people	D．old or seriously ill

【推荐2】Did you make financial decisions last New Year’s Eve? Did they fall by the wayside? If so, you are not alone.     1    .

▲Make a smart budget

Did you plan to make a budget and fail to do so? This is a perfect time to start, as you are heading into the new year. You may be able to stop yourself from overspending if you realize how overextended you are. If you’ve taken no other financial steps this year, start by setting a realistic budget.     2    .

▲Control your spending

Even if you had a budget, were you able to stick to it?     3    . Use it as a psychological advantage－you have less to spend so you need to shop harder for bargains and research prices. Impulse buying (即兴购买) will be less likely to attract you and your spending should be more focused as a result.

▲    4    

You had a savings goal, didn’t you? If you didn’t have a specific goal, it may be why your savings effort failed. Set a smaller savings goal now, and use that to build a larger savings goal for the upcoming year. Make sure that you equate（使等同）your savings with a specific goal.

▲Reduce your debt

Debt reduction is an important goal, especially in the case of high-interest debt such as credit cards. It’s easy to get into an unrecoverable increase of debt if you have no plan to keep debt in check. It is a longer-term goal, but one you need to start right away.     5    . That may be a tall task, which is all the more reason to start immediately.

A．Increase your savings

B．Have a clear goal for your debt

C．You will go on with your new decisions

D．Most other financial improvements will follow

E．Start small by setting a spending budget for your shopping

F．But this year, you can make some progress on your financial goals

G．Attack the debt with the highest interest rate, and control your spending

【推荐3】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

King Juan Carlos of Spain once insisted “kings don’t give up the throne(王位）, they die in their sleep.” But embarrassing scandals and the popularity of the republican left in the recent Euro-elections have forced him to eat his words and stand down. So does the Spanish crisis suggest that monarchy(君主制) is seeing its last days? Does that mean the writing is on the wall for all European royals, with their magnificent uniforms and majestic lifestyles?

The Spanish case provides arguments both for and against monarchy. When public opinion is particularly polarized, as it was following the end of the Franco regime, monarchs can rise above mere politics and symbolize a spirit of national unity.

It is this apparent transcendence（超越） of politics that explains monarchs continuing popularity as heads of state. And so, the Middle East excepted, Europe is the most monarch- filled region in the world, with 10 kingdoms (not counting Vatican City and Andorra). Most royal families have survived because they allow voters to avoid the difficult search for a non-controversial but respected public figure.

Even so, kings and queens undoubtedly have a downside. Symbolic of national unity as they claim to be, their very history and sometimes the way they behave today symbolizes outdated and indefensible privileges and inequalities. At a time when Thomas Piketty and other economists are warning of rising inequality and the increasing power of inherited wealth, it is strange that wealthy noble families should still be the symbolic heart of modern democratic（民主的）states.

The most successful monarchies try their best to abandon or hide their old noble ways. Princes and princesses have day-jobs and ride bicycles, not horses (or helicopters). Even so, these are wealthy families who party with the international 1%, and media interference makes it increasingly difficult to maintain the right image.

1. According to the first two paragraphs, King Juan Carlos of Spain

A．used to enjoy high public support

B．was unpopular among European royals

C．eased his relationship with his rivals

D．gave up his throne in embarrassment

2. Monarchs are kept as heads of state in Europe mostly

A．owing to their undoubted and respectable status

B．to achieve a balance between tradition and reality

C．to give voters more public figures to look up to

D．due to their everlasting political symbolizing

3. Which of the following is shown to be strange, according to Paragraph 4?

A．The noble families’ excessive dependence on inherited wealth

B．The role of the nobility in modern democracies

C．The simple lifestyle of the noble families

D．The nobility’s sticking to their privileges

4. Which of the following is the best title of the text?

A．Carlos, a good example of All European Monarchs

B．Europe, the most monarch-filled region in the world

C．Carlos, a Lesson for All European Monarchs

D．Europe, symbolic heart of modern democracy.