【推荐1】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 develop more slowly but then become lifelong feelings, reaching 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 happier if we accept their hospitality(友好) easily.

Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they treat 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（主人）, 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 daily life. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our 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 only business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

1. This passage is probably from________.

A．a novel

B．a magazine

C．a letter

D．a diary

2. The underlined words generous with our time probably mean ________.

A．strict with time	B．careful with time
C．thankful to time	D．glad to spend time

3. The passage is about________.

A．the way Americans treat visitors

B．the way Chinese treat visitors

C．the differences between Americans and Chinese

D．the differences between American culture and Chinese culture

4. From the passage, we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we’ll probably be ________.

A．welcomed at the airport	B．offered a ride to his home
C．treated hospitably at his home	D．invited to dinner in a restaurant

5. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．Friendship between Americans usually reach deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between American 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.

【推荐2】As we walk the “path of life”, we may sometimes wish to be alone with our own thoughts, for quiet moments of reflection（反省）can lead to personal improvement. However, when we want to be alone, we must be careful that we do not always jump into our own world. Social life is also important to all of us.

As we live in social groups, there are many benefits of friendship that we can enjoy. Generally speaking, close friendships have three “fruits”: they may comfort the heart, advise the head and help us achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Through friendship, we can become happier, wiser and more satisfied humans.

The first fruit of friendship is the peace that comes from sharing with friends our joy, sadness, success and failure. Here, friendship has a double advantage—happiness takes on a greater meaning and a trouble shared becomes a trouble halved! Naturally, this kind of openness results from a close friendship.We know that our friends will both respect our feelings and treasure these moments of closeness.

The second fruit of friendship is the better understanding and judgement（评判）that may be achieved through conversations with well-meaning and wise friends. We often find it easier to recognize other people’s weaknesses than our own. As a result, if we are guided only by our own feelings, our judgements might be one-sided. On the other hand, our friends are better able to offer advice on important decisions that we all have to make. This helps make our thoughts clearer and brings us a more thorough（彻底的）understanding of our problems .

The third fruit of friendship is the help that a friend may offer in many different ways. Sometimes a friend is even known as our “second self”. There are so many things in life that can only be achieved with the help of friends. Friends may have many different ideas and skills.

Finally, it should be pointed out that enjoying the company of a crowd is not the same as being with friends. Friends should be carefully chosen and relationships carefully developed. In this way, we can better walk the “path of life” with the comfort, advice and help from our trusted friends.

1. According to the passage, close friendships have a lot of “fruits” EXCEPT ________.

A．making our hearts peaceful	B．achieving our goals with friends’ help
C．guiding our own feelings easily	D．understanding our problems better

2. We can achieve better understanding by talking with wise friends because ________.

A．it is more difficult to realize other people’s weaknesses than ourselves

B．our judgements won’t be one-sided if we are guided only by our feelings

C．our friends are able to offer better advice on our important decisions

D．it gives us a chance to completely understand our friends’ problems

3. Which shows the best structure of the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Walking the Path of Life	B．Understanding of Friendship
C．Advice on Making Friends	D．Improvements of Social Life

【推荐3】Do you want to make friends with others? Please remember to keep your words all the time. In this way, people around you will get along well with you.

To make friends and keep them, you have to keep your words. If you agree to meet someone at a certain time, you should arrive at the place on time or a little earlier. If you agree to help others, you must do it. Of course if there is something unexpected(没有预料到的) happening and you can’t do what you have agreed to do, your friends will understand this.

He is always lying or making excuses for breaking his words. Would you like to have him as one of your best friends? You wouldn’t. And your own friends feel the same way.

So, be more careful when you have to agree to do something for your friends. Don’t have “Maybe” in your mind when you say something about what you are going to do.

1. The underlined phrase keep one’s words means           in Chinese.

A．记住单词	B．记录语言
C．保存语言	D．信守诺言

2. If you want to make friends, it is very important to         .

A．keep your words	B．be funny
C．be kind to them	D．be helpful for them

3. You wouldn’t mind if         .

A．your friends agree to help you	B．they are helpful
C．there is something unexpected happening	D．they are late

4. Who can be your best friend?

A．He is always being late.	B．He is always lying.
C．He is always breaking his words.	D．He is always keeping his words

5. We can know that          from the passage.

A．we shouldn’t agree to help others	B．we should be ready to help others
C．it’s difficult to make friends	D．we should keep our words when we make friends

【推荐2】阅读短文及文后的A~E选项，选出可以填入1~5各题空白处的最佳选项。

Which part of the world has the most nearsighted students? Just look around you—it’s East Asia. Nine in ten school leavers in major East Asian cities are nearsighted according to the BBC. Experts say books and video games are not to blame.     1    

People become nearsighted because their eyeballs grow out of shape and light entering their eyes cannot focus correctly.     2     And guess what scientists have just discovered? Sunlight can help our bodies produce more dopamine, reported AFP.

According to the study, primary school students in Singapore spend only 30 minutes outdoors every day; in Australia, by contrast, kids spend about three hours a day outside. As a result, fewer children in Australia—only 10 percent, compared with 90 percent in Singapore. “    3     They study and they watch television,” Ian Morgan of the Australian National University told AFP.

“    4     As long as they get outside, it doesn’t seem to matter how much study they do,” Morgan explained. “There are some kids who study hard and get outside and play hard and they are generally fine. The ones who are at major risk are the ones who study hard and don’t get outside. As a result of massive educational pressures and the construction of a child’s day, the amount of time they spend outside in bright light is minimized”.

Experts suggest children should stay outside for two to three hours every day.     5    

A．But being a bookworm or a couch potato does not directly harm the eyes.

B．This can include time spent in the playground and walking to and from school.

C．Children in East Asia just go to school, go home and stay inside.

D．The body can produce a chemical called dopamine (多巴胺) to stop eyeballs from changing shape.

E．East Asian students, they say, aren’t getting enough sunlight.