【推荐1】The cost of living in countries like the United States, Britain, Australia or France has increased in recent years. But, if you're willing to leave your country and explore life in other areas, there are many countries having an extremely cheap and low cost of living. So, if you have the flexibility of living wherever you please, and want to live in a country the cost of living is the cheapest in the world, check out these 3 countries when planning your next move.

Cambodia

Cambodia may not be the first country that comes to mind when you think of a tropical paradise, but it's pretty close. The added bonus is that living here is insanely cheap, unlike some other tropical getaways. A luxury home with four bedrooms and a pool would only cost about $600 a month. A decent three-bedroom vacation home can be purchased here for just $20,000. And, for only about $2,000 a year, you can also hire a gardener and housekeeper to take care of your property.

Ecuador

Ecuador is similar to the United States in many ways, and as a result, it has become a popular American getaway. They even use the US Dollar for their currency. In this country, it's cheaper to eat out every day than cook for yourself on a budget in the U. S. You can even buy a property for around 50，000 and hire someone to tend to it while you're away.

Mexico

Although the country is known for its poverty ridden streets, there are many wealthier areas that provide every amenity you might need. You can live off a mere $700 a month in Mexico, and this includes rent for a nice place, amenities, food, and any sights.

1. How much money do you need to pay to look after your property for a year in Cambodia?

A．$600.

B．$2,000.

C．$20,000.

D．$700.

2. In which country you can enjoy a life like in America?

A．Cambodia.

B．Mexico.

C．Ecuador.

D．China.

3. What things will you be unable to enjoy in Mexico?

A．Any scenery.

B．Amenities.

C．A nice place.

D．Tropical climate.

4. How much money will you spend living in a luxury home with four bedrooms and a pool a year in Cambodia?

A．$20,000

B．$7,200

C．$600

D．$700

5. The following statements are all wrong EXCEPT?

A．The cost of living in countries like the United States, Britain, Australia or France has decreased in recent years.

B．Cambodia must be the first country that comes to mind when you think of a tropical paradise

C．The people in Ecuador even use the US Dollar for their currency.

D．Cambodia is known for its poverty ridden streets.

【推荐2】The 1920s was a decade of wealth, decadence(堕落) and social changes. They were known as the Roaring Twenties, and the best place to experience this exciting time was New York City. But what was it really like?
Prohibition
In 1919, a new law in the US known as Prohibition made it illegal to buy and sell alcohol. But Prohibition didn’t stop people drinking; it just drove the sale of strong alcoholic drink underground. Bootleggers(走私贩) waited off the coast of New York after dark and brought illegal alcohol into the city.
Jazz
Jazz was the music of New York in the 1920s. In fact, the decade is called Jazz Age. The best place to listen to this new form of music was the Cotton Club in Harlem. All the great jazz musicians played at the Cotton Club, including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington. Also, in 1942 George Gershwin composed the jazz—influenced Rhapsody in Blue. The piece has been called “a musical portrait of New York” and was used by Woody Allen in his film Manhattan.
Art Deco
Art Deco was the most popular style of the 1920s, with bright colors and geometric designs; it can be seen in the art, architecture and inside designs of the period. New York is full of Art Deco buildings, but the most famous ones are the Chrysler Building (built between 1928 and 1930) and the Empire State Building (built between 1930 and 1931).
The Great Depression
On 29th October, 1929, the Roaring Twenties came to a dramatic end. On that day (known as “Black Tuesday”), the US stock market crashed, causing the Great Depression. The economic downturn lasted ten years and affected most of the Western world. Unemployment in America reached 25% and the country didn’t recover until after World War II.
1. We know from the passage that in 1919 people ________ alcohol in the US.

A．began to buy and sell	B．stopped producing
C．completely stopped trading	D．secretly bought and sold

2. The 1920s is called _________.

A．Country Music Time	B．Jazz Age
C．Folk Music Age	D．Pop Age

3. We infer from the passage that the US _________ in the year 1930.

A．was in a bad economic state

B．was in good economic condition

C．developed at a rapid speed

D．had many dramatic plays

【推荐1】The battle for women’s right to vote

One hundred years ago, British women were given the vote for the first time. How did it come about?

The first appeals for women’s right to vote in Britain date from the early 19th century. In 1818, in his Plan of Parliamentary Reform, Jeremy Bentham insisted that women should be given the vote. Women at the time had no political rights at all-they were deemed to be represented by their husbands or fathers. The old arguments prevailed. Women, it was said, were mentally less able than men; their “natural position” was in the home; they were unable to fight for their country, and thus undeserving of full rights; moreover, they simply didn’t want the vote. This was at least partly true. “I have never felt the want of a vote,” declared Florence Nightingale in 1867, while Queen Victoria condemned the “mad, wicked folly of women’s rights”. Even George Eliot was reluctant to back the cause.

It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th century that the first campaigning women’s groups were formed. Initially they focused on the lack of education, employment opportunities and legal rights for women(married women, at the time, had no independent legal standing); but the question of the vote gradually became central to their demands— both symbolically, as a recognition of women’s rights, and practically, as a means of improving women’s lives.

However, the women’s campaigning was still a subject of debate. While most historians agree that the campaigns were initially very effective in mobilizing women and highlighting injustices, a series of mass processions followed; more than 250,000 women protested in Hyde Park in 1908. Many were arrested and ill-treated; prisoners who went on hunger strike were brutally force-fed. Over time they became steadily more militant— smashing shop windows, setting fire to letter boxes, libraries and even homes. The PM, Herbert Asquith, an opponent of women’s votes, was attacked with a dog whip. Such use of violence was thought, certainly at the time, to have been unfavorable.

With the sacrifices of the First World War strengthening support for widening the right to vote generally, women suspended campaigning. More than a million women were newly employed outside the home— in munitions(军需品) factories, engineering works. Crucially, Asquith was replaced as PM by David Lloyd George, a supporter of votes for women. The Representation of the People Act 1918 was introduced by the coalition government and passed by a majority of 385 to 55, gaining the Royal Assent on 6 February 1918. Women over 30, who were householders or married to one, or university graduates, were given the vote.

1. Which of the following is NOT the reason why women were not qualified to vote?

A．Women had already enjoyed many political rights.

B．Women were too weak to fight against enemies.

C．Women were supposed to do housework and serve their husbands.

D．Women were not as intelligent as men.

2. According to the passage, why did women’s campaigning arouse debate?

A．Because it failed to mobilize women and emphasize injustices.

B．Because women were put in prison and abused during the protest.

C．Because all the emotional behaviors were regarded as improper.

D．Because most women didn’t want the vote.

3. The word “militant”(in Line 5, Para.4) probably refers to ______.

A．extreme

B．splendid

C．compassionate

D．noble

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The first campaigning women groups were formed originally for the sake of legal rights.

B．The PM, Herbert Asquith, an opponent of women’s votes, committed suicide.

C．Women stopped protesting for their vote because they were offered more job opportunities.

D．All women can enjoy their right to vote since the introduction of People Act.

【推荐2】We all love bank holidays. In the UK, we only get eight bank holidays in one year, and atleast five of those occur around Christmas time and Easter time! A bank holiday is a British English term. This is an official day that is decided by the government, when banks, shops and offices close for the day even though it’s a weekday — usually a M onday, and a lot of people have a day off work.

Bank holidays are different in Colombia — firstly, they are called “festivos”. There are twenty festivos for the whole country in one year ! In Britain, people get more holiday allowance (津贴) than Colombians but fewer bank holidays. There can be even more festivos in Colombia, depending on which region of Colombia you live in. This is because different regions have their own holidays. For example, some regions have a patron saint                    (守护神) in their region, so they have an extra festivo to celebrate that saint.

However, there are some days that are national holidays for historical reasons. There is an Independence Day celebration on July 20 every year. This is just like Bastille Day in France on July 14, or Independence Day in the United States on July 4. Other important festivos in Colombia are： Labor Day, on May 1, and Columbus Day on October 12. Columbus Day is a historical bank holiday that almost every country on the continent of A merica celebrates. This includes Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and the United States. It is a memorialization of the day that the Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, first reached land on the continent in the year 1492. Many people criticize this day and say it is not something to celebrate because of the way Columbus and his teams treated the people that were already living there.

1. What is a “bank holiday” according to the text?

A．A holiday only for the bank staff.

B．A British traditional religion festival.

C．A celebration for Christmas and Easter.

D．An official nationwide rest day.

2. What can we learn from paragraph 2?

A．Colombia and Britain have the same number of festivos.

B．All Colombians have the same number of festivos.

C．Colombians have more bank holidays than the British.

D．Different regions in Colombia have different patron saits to celebrate.

3. Why do many Americans refuse to celebrate Columbus Day?

A．Because Columbus wasn’t an American at all.

B．Because Columbus once treated the locals badly.

C．Because it wasn’t Columbus that found America first.

D．Because Columbus didn’t live in the continent of America.

4. What is the suitable title for the text?

A．Bank Holidays in Western World

B．How to Celebrate Bank Holidays

C．Celebrations of National Holidays

D．Why People Celebrate National Holidays

【推荐3】The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.There are nine sports: cycling, tennis, gymnastics, swimming, athletics, weightlifting, rowing, wrestling and shooting. Sailing was also to have taken place, but had to be cancelled (取消) because of bad weather at sea.

In the first Olympics there were no real team sports. Then, slowly, a few team sports joined the program. Football and hockey were the first team sports introduced into the Olympics in London in 1908.Then in 1936, at the Berlin Olympics, the Germans brought in handball and the Americans had basketball accepted as an Olympic sport.

It often happens that the country that introduces a new sport into the Olympics then goes on to win the gold medals. In 1904, at the Olympics in St. Louis, the Americans introduced boxing and won all seven events. Five horse riding events were introduced into the 1912 Stockholm (斯德哥尔摩) Olympics, and Swedish riders won four of them. And in 1964, at the Tokyo Olympics, two sports which are popular in Japan were introduced: judo (柔道) and volleyball. The Japanese won all three gold medals in the judo, and also won the first women’s volleyball competition. Some new sports have recently been added to the Olympics. In Los Angeles, in 1984, baseball was introduced and became an Olympic sport. In Seoul (汉城), Korea in 1988, table tennis was introduced for the first time, and tennis returned as an Olympic sport. Unlike tennis, some sports, such as golf and rugby (橄榄球), have been tried in the Olympics but have never returned.

1. The text is mainly about ________.

A．the ancient Olympic Games	B．the modern Olympic Games
C．the ancient and modern Olympic Games	D．how many events are in the Olympic Games

2. Football was first introduced into the Olympics in ________.

A．1908, London	B．1936, Berlin
C．1904, St. Louis	D．1988, Seoul

3. Which sport is different from the other three in the group?

A．Basketball.	B．Football.
C．horse-riding.	D．Baseball.

4. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens.

B．At the time when the first modern Olympic Games were held, there were not so many sports as there are today.

C．The Olympic Games are held every four years.

D．The country which introduces a new sport into the Olympics usually cannot get   the gold medal for that event.