【推荐2】The quick action of Nick helped five people escape a fire on Hope Road. Nick said he usually left his house about 5:30 a.m. to do morning exercises, but that day he decided to stay at home to get his daughter ready for school. As he looked at his neighbor’s house, he realized that it was on fire. “I saw smoke and flames and ran over and started beating on the side of the house shouting, ‘Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire!’” Nick remembered it was at about 9 a.m. that the firefighters put out the fire.

Beverly Penny and her husband, Clark, along with their younger daughters, were sleeping in the living room, next to the kitchen, when they heard Nick beating on the walls. She opened the bedroom door and black smoke came in. She managed to get her kids out. Her dog tried to hide under the bed, but Penny caught it by the leg and threw it out of the door. However, chickens in one of the rooms weren’t so lucky.

Firefighters got the call at about 7:05 a.m. “When we arrived with our fire trucks, there were heavy flames outside on the house,” Jerry said. He called Nick a hero, saying that without his quick responses(回应) the result could have been much worse. “The firefighters were fast,” Nick said. “They arrived here within about three minutes.”

“They did a great job, and I can’t thank them enough,” Penny said, then looked at what remained in the house and shook her head as tears rolled down in her eyes. “Everything I have is gone. Luckily nobody was hurt in the fire.” She said the fire could have been caused by an electrical problem. “We’ve been having problems with mice, so that we could have had something to do with it,” she added.

1. What do you know about Nick?

A．He left house at 5:30 am that day.

B．He has a son who goes to school.

C．He lives next to Beverly Penny.

D．He had a day off on Thursday.

2. Which of the following is true?

A．Clark got hurt in the fire.

B．Penny’s dog saved her kids.

C．Penny’s dog was killed in the fire.

D．Penny’s chickens were killed in the fire.

3. When did the fire break out?

A．At about 5:30 am.	B．At about 7 am.
C．At about 8 am.	D．At about 9 am.

4. We can infer that ________.

A．Jerry is a firefighter	B．Jerry found the fire
C．Jerry called the police	D．Jerry helped Nick escape the fire

5. According to Penny, which of the following might be responsible for the fire?

A．Her dog.	B．Her husband.
C．Her chickens.	D．Some mice.

【推荐3】Avoid These Mistakes in Your Social Interaction

Breaking into an existing conversation

Timing is everything. If you see two or more people actively engaged in conversation, they’re probably not ready for you to cut in. First, wait for a rest.     1    , that’s your chance.

Starting talking without having something to say

If someone appears distant or lost in thought, moving into their personal space and saying “hello” is hardly a way to start a conversation. Try asking permission (e.g., “Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you something?”) and make sure you have a fully formed question or comment in mind (e.g., “Are you having a good time?”).     2    .

Bringing up controversial(有争议的) topics

If you’re talking to someone new, it’s generally best not to talk about weighty or of-putting topics.     3     Maybe it’s the music you’re both hearing, or the food you’re both tasting.

    4    

Once you’ve made a connection with each other, keep that connection going by making yourself easy to understand. If you speak different languages, for example, slow your speech and pronounce clearly. If they ask you what you do for work, don’t use a lot of technical expressions.

Talking too much about yourself - or about the other person

It’s often said that people love to talk about themselves, and that asking questions is the secret to good conversations.     5    . Nobody likes to feel interrogated(审问), so if you sense that questions aren’t welcome, back off.

A．Being hard to follow

B．Making too much connection

C．But that’s not true for everyone

D．They will lead to a deeper interaction

E．Then once you have someone’s attention or receive a nonverbal go-ahead

F．Aim for something simple that you and the other person can observe together

G．It’s all about creating a comfortable opportunity for the other person to respond

【推荐2】Though the spread of good reproduction of works of art can be culturally valuable, museums continue to promote the special status of original work. Unfortunately, this seems to place severe limitations on the kind of experience offered to visitors.

One limitation is the way the museum presents its exhibits. Art museums are called “treasure houses”. We are reminded of this before we view a collection by the presence of security guards who keep us away from the exhibits. In addition, a major collection like that of London’s National Gallery is housed in numerous rooms, where a single piece of work is likely to be worth more than all the average visitor possesses. In a society that judges the personal status of the individual so much by their material worth, it is difficult not to be impressed by one’s own relative “worthlessness” in such an environment.

Furthermore, consideration of the “value” of the original work impresses the viewer that since these works were originally produced, they have been assigned a huge value in terms of money by some person more powerful than themselves. Evidently, nothing the viewer thinks about the work is going to alter that value, and so today’s viewer is discouraged from trying to extend that immediate and self-reliant kind of interpretation which would originally have met the work.

The visitor may then be struck by the strangeness of seeing such a variety of paintings, drawings and sculptures brought together in an environment for which they were not originally created. This “displacement effect” is further heightened by the huge volume of exhibits.

This is particularly distressing because time seems to be a vital factor in the appreciation of all art forms. Operas, novels and poems are read in a prescribed time sequence, whereas a picture has no clear place at which to start viewing, or at which to finish.

Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialized academic approach devoted to “discovering the meaning” of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in harmony with the museum’s function, since the approach is dedicated to seeking out and conserving “authentic”, “original” readings of the exhibits.

1. The writer mentions London’s National Gallery to illustrate ______.

A．the undesirable cost to a nation of maintaining a huge collection of art

B．the conflict that may arise in society between financial and artistic values

C．the negative effect a museum can have on visitors’ opinion of themselves

D．the need to put individual well-being above large-scale artistic schemes

2. Today viewers may be unwilling to criticize a work because they ______.

A．lack the knowledge needed

B．fear it may have financial implications

C．have no real concept of the work’s value

D．feel their personal reaction is of no significance

3. Unlike other forms of art, the appreciation of a painting does not ______.

A．involve direct contact with an audience

B．require a specific location for performance

C．need the involvement of other professionals

D．call for a specific beginning or ending

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Original work: killer of artistic appreciation

B．Original work: reduction to value of art works

C．Original work: substitute for reproduction

D．Original work: art historians’ bread and butter

【推荐3】When asked why he or she wears clothes, some people will probably answer “to keep warm and to cover my body”. These are the basic reasons why clothes are worn, but people also want to look attractive and appear successful to others.

If people only wore clothes for warmth and to cover their bodies, most clothes would be simple and cheap. In most Western countries, however, clothes are sometimes very expensive. The main reason for this is not the cost of the cloth or the cost of making the clothes. The clothes are expensive because of fashion.

Successful businessmen, for example, often wear very expensive suits, shirts and ties. Sometimes they pay thousands of dollars for a suit and hundreds of dollars for a tie. It’s just a suit and a tie but they pay these prices because of the famous name of the designer. A suit costing much less would be just as warm and would cover the wearer’s body just as well.

Fashion is always changing, which means those who want to be fashionable have to buy new clothes every few months, even if last month's clothes have only been worn once or twice. Some people have wardrobes full of clothes that have hardly been worn but are no longer in fashion. Being fashionable, therefore, can be a very expensive pastime!

1. What do people basically wear clothes for?

A．Keeping warm and covering bodies.	B．Following the fashion.
C．Looking attractive to others.	D．Appearing successful to others.

2. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A．fashion is not always changing	B．fashion is an expensive pastime.
C．fashion designers like expensive clothes	D．expensive clothes are warmer

3. What does the underlined word “wardrobes” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Fashionable clothes shops.	B．Cupboards for storing clothes.
C．The clothes that some people have.	D．Shelves used for keeping books.

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Clothes and fashion.	B．Suits and ties.
C．Cost and pastime.	D．Beauty and success.

【推荐1】WHEN JANE AUSTEN’S first novel Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, the title page simply read. ‘A Novel. In Three Volumes. By a Lady’. What could be greater justice than the fact that on her 200th death anniversary, that same anonymous lady gets her very own bank note? Austen is only the third writer to grace an English note (following William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens) and the first woman writer to do so. And really, no one can be unhappy with the honour.

When Austen died at 41, on June 18th, 1817, her profession as a writer did not make it to her epitaph. Her brother Henry chose instead to focus on her ‘charity, devotion, faith and purity’. While she never got to embrace the title of an author when she was alive, death has ensured her legacy. Her books have been translated into 40 languages and Pride and Prejudice itself has sold over 20 million copies. If her epitaph were to be written today, we could, perhaps, borrow from Virginia Woolf who wrote in The TLS of 1913, “More than any other novelist she fills every inch of her canvas with observation, fills every sentence with meaning, stuffs up every chink of the fabric until each novel is a little living world, from which you cannot break off a scene or even a sentence without bleeding it of some of its life. Her characters are so lively and vivid that they have the power to move out of the scenes in which she placed them into other moods and circumstances.”

The greatness of Austen is not only that she created the standard example of the modern novel, but that she continues to be relevant. Her novels have been endlessly adapted and modified because they still make sense today, because they can explain current sensibilities. Her characters can easily move out of London or Pemberley or Mansfield Park and be placed in Delhi or Shanghai or Beijing. Indianise the names, and we can all create our own comedy of manners. Mrs Bennet, the mimsy busybody, could easily be Mrs Batra, your Punjabi neighbour with an axe to grind and daughters to wed. Emma Woodhouse, the self-absorbed, privileged young lady could be Aisha of south Bombay, whose artifice overwhelms her potential. Mr Darcy could be your Mr Dasgupta, the dignified Bengali bachelor whose silence will be misunderstood as snobbery.

A fascinating study of Austen’s novels in facts, figures and charts published in The Guardian brings to light the world she knew and the only world she wrote about. All her characters(in her six novels) are independently wealthy who have no professions. Balls and picnics feature in all of her books. Evenings and afternoons are spent playing cards. And if romance is the base of her novels, then elopement is also a must. The servants speak no lines. The only historic event of the time that gets a mention is the Napoleonic War(1803-1815). The Industrial Revolution and French Revolution are not mentioned at all. The lovers will marry by the end.

Even if the plots of her six novels are simple enough, the success of Austen is her singular wit. It is a cleverness born from immediate observation but one which is universal in nature. She says it well in Northanger Abbey. ‘The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be extremely stupid.’

Two hundred years after her death, you have to be a fool to not enjoy her novels.

1. What can we learn from the fact that Jane Austen’s photo on the English bank note?

A．To honor her publishing the first novel Sense and Sensibility.

B．To honor the most well-known writer in English literature.

C．To honor her outstanding contributions to English literature.

D．To show no one can envy her for her success.

2. The author quotes Virginia Woolf’s comment mainly to show that ________.

A．Jane Austen was also fond of painting on the canvas.

B．Jane Austen lived in her own little world.

C．Jane Austen’s works possess superb writing techniques.

D．Jane Austen’s characters can move out of scenes magically.

3. Which of the following statements about Austen’s works is NOT true?

A．Her major characters have no professions, so life is hard for them.

B．Jane Austen’s works are mainly based on her own living experiences.

C．Life is casual and colorful for characters in her works.

D．Few historic events are mentioned in her works.

4. What is mainly conveyed in the passage?

A．To laugh at those who don’t enjoy Jane Austin’s works.

B．To introduce Jane Austin’s main works.

C．To analyse Jane Austin’s writing technique.

D．To honor Jane Austin as an evergreen storyteller.

【推荐2】Sleeping is important, but we all know that, right? Many people have experienced strange sleeping patterns, unusual dreams and a feeling of restlessness and sleepiness during the coronavirus lockdown, despite a good night’s sleep. So what sort of things can help you to improve your sleep?

Wrong Habits

Many myths related to sleep can be quite damaging for our health. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously claimed that she only hit the sack for five hours a night. But according to experts this is harmful to health.

Likewise, falling asleep in front of the TV is another thing to avoid. The bright lights can prevent you from entering deep sleep.

Wrong Ways to Help Go to Sleep

From a young age we’re told to count sheep to help us to nod off, with some choosing to stay in bed to battle with insomnia (失眠). However, some experts advise getting up and doing something mindless, like folding socks, to help us get in the mood to catch forty winks.

Psychologist Seth J. Gillihan PhD. recommends walking to help in the battle against insomnia. He talks about a sleep study published in the journal Sleep Health which suggests that those who walk slightly more will experience better quality and length of sleep. Watching what you eat or drink can also improve the amount of REM, or rapid eye movement you experience.

Snoring (打鼾)Can be Dangerous

If you’re a snorer, you might also want to take note. While most breathing noisily is harmless, it could be a sign of sleep apnoea, with people suffering from the condition more likely to have strokes or heart attacks, irregular heartbeats or high blood pressure.

A Short Sleep during the Day May Refresh You

Finally, decent nap, or even- power nap, can help you to be more alert, calm and focused. So while there are some good tips like exercising or folding socks to help us get a good night’s sleep, sometimes a good afternoon’s sleep can help us deal with the day ahead.

1. Why do some people still feel tired and sleepy in spite of having a good night sleep according to the passage?

A．They have slept for too long.

B．Their sleeping quality needs improving.

C．Their dream should be nice and happy.

D．Coronavirus lockdown makes them depressed.

2. Which fact is NOT true?

A．Hitting the sack is bad for health.

B．Five hours is not enough for people to keep fit.

C．The bright lights of TV will stop people sleeping soundly.

D．Margaret Thatcher didn’t have a healthy sleeping habit.

3. The author will agree that ________.

A．Snoring will surely result in damage to people’s health.

B．When one is sleepy, quick eye movements increase.

C．A decent nap will affect your night sleep

D．Taking exercise may do good to your afternoon sleep.

4. You may read this passage in ________.

A．a psychology textbook

B．a medical essay collection

C．a health and care section in a newspaper

D．an advertising leaflet in a drug store

【推荐3】The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th of the first month of the lunar calendar. This day is always the first full moon in the new year. Ancient people also called it Shangyuan Festival. Celebrations and traditions on this day began from the Han Dynasty and became popular in the Tang Dynasty.

Watching the red lanterns is one of the main traditions. Lanterns of different shapes and sizes are usually put on trees, or along river banks on show. It is said that sky lanterns were first used by Zhuge Kongming to ask for help when he was in trouble. Today, when the lanterns slowly rise into the air, people make wishes. Another tradition is guessing lantern riddles. The riddles are usually short, wise, and sometimes humorous(幽默的). The answer to a riddle can be a Chinese character, a famous person’s name, or a place name.

The most important thing is to eat sweet dumplings with different tastes. In northern China, they are called yuanxiao while in southern part they’re named tangyuan. Because making sweet dumplings is like a game or an activity, they are usually done happily by a group of friends or family members.

In old times, the Lantern Festival was also a good time for young people to find love. Watching lanterns gave young people a chance to meet each other. And there were many romantic stories about this festival. A line from Xin Qiji, a poet during the Song Dynasty, shows this, “Hundreds and thousands of times I searched for her in the crowd. Suddenly I turned, and there she stood in the dim light. ”

In a word, the Lantern Festival has brought us Chinese so much fun and joy over the years. We hope the young people can carry on these traditions and take pride in Chinese culture.

1. In ancient times, sky lanterns were first used for ______by Zhuge Kongming.

A．making wishes	B．celebrating birthdays
C．getting aid	D．guessing lantern riddles

2. Which of the following is NOT true about sweet dumplings?

A．They have different tastes.

B．They are named “yuanxiao” all over the country.

C．People enjoy the process of making them.

D．People usually make them with family and friends.

3. The line from Xin Qiji in the passage shows the Lantern Festival was ______in old times.

A．boring	B．humorous
C．romantic	D．important