Hello and welcome to "Words and Their Stories". We will research into some commonly used words and expressions. As with other languages, American English is rich in expressions that come from animals. Today we will talk about the wolf.
Wolves are important animals in the traditions and stories of America. Before the Europeans arrived in North America in the 1500s, to native Americans, wolves often meant being brave.
However, in English, wolves are not to be trusted. Perhaps wolves attacked too many people or ate too many farm animals. Whatever the reason, wolves were killed in many places. So many died that they almost became endangered. They also became known as bad animals.
To begin with, there is an expression "lone wolf'. If we call somebody a lone wolf, he isn't a bad person, but he may like to do things by himself. In fact, he sometimes makes you think he doesn't want to be around people because he dislikes them.
Now, let's move on to the home. Parents tell their children not to "wolf down" their food. In other words, the child eats too quickly and without care. And if someone says a child was "raised by wolves", that child has bad manners and is behaving like a wild animal.
A "wolf call" is the noise made by a man to show that he likes the way a woman looks. But a wolf call is not a nice thing. These men sound rude. And trust me, most women really hate wolf calls. So, they don't help a man in the game of love.
By the way, there is a popular expression about wolf from a very old story: a wolf in sheep's clothing. A wolf in sheep's clothing describes someone who acts and looks nice on the outside but is bad on the inside. It tells us not to be fooled by appearances.
1. What can we know after reading the passage?| A．Wolves are dangerous and should be killed in order to protect other animals. |
| B．We can expect to find expressions about wolves only in American English. |
| C．In different areas and times, wolves make people think of different things. |
| D．Nobody lived in North America before the Europeans went there in the 1500s. |
| A．Helping classmates to finish homework. |
| B．Using others' computer if nobody is watching. |
| C．Making many friends with people around. |
| D．Going to see a movie on his own after school. |
| A．A lone wolf. | B．Raised by wolves. |
| C．Wolf call. | D．A wolf in sheep's clothing. |
| A．A book for travel guide. | B．A magazine on trade and business. |
| C．A science report. | D．A program for English learning. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】A new bus in Singapore is making headlines (成为新闻热点) for a strange reason. It is what is written on the signs inside the bus that has people talking. The signs are written in Singlish!
Quite different from the English we are familiar with, the signs read, for example, “Here cannot go in” instead of “You cannot go in from here”, and “Here can charge (给……充电) phone” instead of “You can charge your phone here”.
English is one of the official languages in Singapore. But the English Singaporeans use in their daily lives is far from standard English and earns it the name “Singlish”. In Singapore, migrants (移民) from many countries, including China, India and Malaysia, all speak their own versions (版本) of “English”. The New York Times calls Singlish a “patchwork”.
For example, in Singlish you can easily find influences from Chinese. Singaporeans use Chinese sentence structures like “Toilet where?” instead of “Where is the toilet?”. They also add words like “leh” and “meh” at the end of a sentence to show their mood (情绪). This comes from Cantonese.
Though it may seem interesting, Singlish is worrying Sinagapore’s government. It thinks that Singlish may hurt people’s ability to speak standard English and make it hard for them to communicate with foreigners. The government even started the Speak Good English Movement in 2000.
But the movement didn’t seem to work very well, especially among young people. The youth think Singlish is cool and a way to show they are Singaporeans. Besides, many can speak both standard English and Singlish. “We are a nation good at code-switching (语码转换),” wrote Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, a Singaporean author, in Time magazine.
1. How did the new bus in Singapore make headlines?| A．Special pictures inside the bus. | B．The strange size of the bus. |
| C．Singlish written on the signs inside the bus. | D．The strange shape of the bus. |
① Here cannot go in. ④ You cannot go in from here.
② Here can charge phone. ⑤You can charge your phone here.
③ Toilet where? ⑥Where is the toilet?
| A．①②③ | B．①④② | C．③⑤⑥ | D．④⑤⑥ |
| A．外来语 | B．拼凑品 | C．官方语 | D．原创品 |
| A．Because Singlish is difficult for people to understand. |
| B．Because people can easily find influences from Chinese in Singlish. |
| C．Because Singlish makes it easy for people to communicate with foreigner. |
| D．Because the government think Singlish may hurt people’s ability to speak standard English. |
| A．The government started a movement to stop people from speaking Singlish. |
| B．The young think Singlish is cool and a way to show they are Singaporeans. |
| C．Singlish is one of the official languages in Singapore. |
| D．Migrants from many countries a speak their own versions of “English”. |
【推荐2】”How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly way that people greet each other in the USA. But “How are you?” is also a very unusual question.
It’s a question that often doesn’t have an answer. The person who asks “How are you?” hopes to hear the answer “Fine”, even if the person’s friend isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question and “Fine” isn’t really an answer. They are simply other ways of saying “Hello” or “Hi”.
Sometimes, people also don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks, “Do you agree?” the other person might think, “No, I disagree. I think you’re wrong…” But it isn’t very polite to disagree strongly, so the other person might say, “I’m not sure…”. It’s a nice to say that you don’t agree with someone.
People also don’t say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking with other people. For example, many talks over the phone finish when one person says “I have to go now.” Often, the person who wants to hang up gives excuses, “Someone is at the door.” “Something is burning on the stove (炉子).” The excuses might be real, or not. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn’t want to talk anymore, but it isn’t polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn’t hurt the other person.
When people are greeting each other or talking about an idea, they don’t say exactly what they are thinking. It’s an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it’s also part of the game of language.
1. When a person in the United States asks “How are you?”, he or she wants to hear “________”.| A．How are you? | B．Hello! | C．I don’t know. | D．Fine. |
| A．You have to go now. | B．I want to hang up. |
| C．I have to go now. | D．I don’t want to talk anymore. |
| A．Always say what you mean. | B．Don’t disagree with people. |
| C．Say exactly what you are thinking sometimes. | D．Be polite. |
【推荐3】When I was in a middle school, I was the only Asian (亚洲的) student in the school. One day a student from Japan came to our school. Nobody knew how to talk with her, so some teachers called me to the office.
They didn’t ask whether I was Japanese. They just asked me to tell the girl something about the school and where her classroom was. I told them that I wasn’t Japanese and didn’t speak Japanese. But I still tried to talk with the girl.
I just used very easy words to tell some things to her. My mother didn’t speak English, so I knew how to get someone to understand English when they didn’t speak the language. From then on, I became the Japanese girl’s interpreter (口译者) when she was in our school. She studied with us for about half a school year.
When I talked with the girl, I used some Chinese and she used some Japanese if we really couldn’t understand each other. Sometimes we found some of the words we used were the same. When it was time for her to leave our school, she could understand some English. At first, I didn’t like being her interpreter, but later I found it was interesting and I got a lot from it.
1. Some teachers asked the writer to talk with the Japanese girl because he ________.| A．was a good interpreter | B．was good at making friends |
| C．knew the Japanese girl before | D．was the only Asian student in the school |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By using pictures. |
| C．By using simple English words. | D．By using some Japanese. |
| A．For about half a school year. | B．For about two school years. |
| C．For about a school year. | D．For about one and a half school years. |
| A．Japan. | B．China. | C．Thailand. | D．India. |
| A．The writer’s mother spoke Japanese well. |
| B．The Japanese girl could speak a little Chinese. |
| C．Only the writer could speak Japanese in his school. |
| D．In the end the writer liked to be the Japanese girl’s interpreter. |
【推荐1】Hamsters（仓鼠）are animals. They look very cute. Lots of people like to keep them as pets. They are very popular especially among children.
Hamsters have beautiful fur（软毛）. Their fur can be black, white, brown, red or a mix of these colors.
Hamsters have tails, but their tails are very short. A hamster’s tail is only about one centimeter long. Its tail is short, but it can help the hamster to keep balance.
Hamsters generally eat fruit and nuts. Some people buy hamster mix at the pet store. Hamsters have a funny eating habit. They like to store food in their cheeks（脸颊）. Please remember to give them much food. Then they can have enough food to store.
Hamsters are good pets because they are easy to be taken care of. They do not need a lot of space. Hamsters usually live in cages. They can do many things in the cages, such as eating and exercising.
1. A hamster uses its tail to________.| A．get its food | B．keep balance | C．clean its cage | D．keep warm |
| A．a kind of food for hamsters | B．a kind of hamster |
| C．the name of the pet store | D．a body part of hamsters |
| A．in their cages | B．under their tails | C．in their cheeks | D．in their plates |
| A．All the hamsters are black or brown. | B．There aren’t red hamsters in the world. |
| C．We can know the length of the hamster’s tail. | D．The hamsters never exercise in the cage. |
| A．How to help the hamster to keep balance. | B．Hamsters can have enough food to store. |
| C．What do hamsters look like? | D．Something about a lovely animal, Hamster! |
A. Home works as a speaker to play music from Google Music and YouTube. You can set your favourite music service so that you do not have to tell Home which one to use each time. B. Wifi Router helps users connect to Wi-Fi throughout the house. Multiple units connect to each other to bring a Wi-Fi signal to dead spots (非灵敏区) in faraway rooms. C. Daydream View is a virtual reality (VR) viewer (查看器). It can show VR videos and games. The device is covered in cloth and holds a phone. You wear the device on your head and see the VR display (展示) on the phone through the viewer. D. Comfor is a robot which looks like a chair. It helps you move anywhere you like. It is easy to control and you will feel free sitting on it. E. Doggy is a smart robot dog. If you talk to him, he can answer you with simple words, movements or a smile. He can read the pages when you put the book right in front of him. He will be a good friend to you. F. Smart Compass is a latest device based on AI. It can easily tell from east, west, south or north. You will not get lost in faraway areas with its help. G. Potter is used for recording audios, so that you can save lots of time to take notes and won’t miss any important information. It is especially popular with students. |
【推荐3】A lot of people in the world eat fast food. When you go into a fast food restaurant, you can see lots of people enjoying their meals there. But do you know in which country people like fast food best?
English people are the world’s biggest fans (粉丝) of fast food, while the French like quick meals the least (最不), according to a survey (调查) done last year.
The survey shows 45% of English people say they can’t give up fast food because it’s delicious. And 44% of Americans and 37% of Canadians say the same words.
The French, proud (自豪的) of their delicious cuisine, don’t like fast food. 81% of them think it is unhealthy, followed by 75% of the Japanese.
How about the Chinese? How often do you have hamburgers or fried chicken? It doesn’t matter whether (是否) you like Western fast food or Chinese food. The most important thing is to keep a balanced diet.
1. The survey shows ________ of Americans like fast food.| A．37% | B．44% | C．75% | D．81% |
| A．it’s cheap | B．it’s safe | C．it’s delicious | D．it’s healthy |
| A．house | B．water | C．country | D．food |
| A．Western countries. | B．Fast food. |
| C．Restaurants in the world | D．Chinese food. |
This is a fortune-telling song, It is popular among English Children. Parents use it to teach their young children the days of the week. The song uses the day of the week a child was born on to tell the child's future.
Monday's child has a beautiful face.
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child fears no foe.
Thursday's child has a long way to go.
Friday's child is happy and loving
Saturday's child works hard to make a living.
But the child is born on Sunday is
Beautiful, happy and good in every day.
Some people think that the year or the month or the day on which we were born is important. They think that these things tell us about our futures, Some people think that we all make our luck in life.
What do you think?
1. Who likes the song?
| A．Teachers and students. | B．Old people. |
| C．Parents and children. | D．Young people. |
| A．Monday's. | B．Wednesday's. | C．Tuesday's. | D．Friday's. |
| A．hard-working. | B．strong. | C．happy. | D．beautiful. |
| A．speak. | B．make friends. |
| C．learn the days of the week. | D．make their own luck. |
【推荐2】Look at this picture below. It shows the layers (层) of a rain forest and what lives in each layer.
1. What information can you get from the picture?
| A．Life in a rain forest. | B．Beautiful birds and butterflies. |
| C．Living places of animals. | D．Different kinds of wild animals. |
| A．Emergent layer. | B．Canopy. | C．Understory. | D．Forest Floor. |
| A．Fashion. | B．Science. | C．Lifestyle. | D．Business. |
根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。
1. Dale is a ________．
| A．pen | B．pencil case |
| C．ruler | D．jacket |
| A．green and yellow | B．yellow |
| C．green | D．blue |
| A．white; blue | B．black; white |
| C．black; blue | D．blue; white |
| A．pen; jacket | B．jacket; key |
| C．key; pen | D．pencil case; ruler |
| A．Frank | B．Eric |
| C．Helen | D．Alice |
【推荐1】China once again proved（证明）its ability to change the world with its “new four great inventions”: high speed railways, electronic payments （电子支付）, shared bicycles and online shopping.
According to a survey, young people from other countries like the four modern ways of life very much. “The new four great inventions, are all related to China’s high-tech（高科技）, inventions. They improved the quality of people’s lives,”said Wu Hao, a manager in a company.
China has the largest mobile use in the world. “My wallet is no longer in use. I can buy and eat whatever I want simply with my phone. Even vegetable sellers are using mobile payment,” said Lin Jinlong, a Chinese student.
The bikes themselves are not new, but the bike sharing is based on mobile payment, big data （数据）and so on. Shared bikes are making public transportation more convenient. They are encouraging people to be more active.
A number of young foreigners are happy about their experience of traveling by Chinese high-speed train from Beijing to Tianjin. It’s more than 100 km away, but the journey takes only half an hour.
根据短文内容，判断下列句子正（A）、误（B）。
1. We don’t know who invented the new four great inventions by the article.
2. Lin Jinlong in the passage no longer uses his wallet because he lost his wallet.
3. Shared bikes don’t make public transportation easier.
4. In China, if you go to visit a friend who lives 300 km away from you, you’d better take the high-speed train because it’s fast.
5. Young people from other countries like Chinese high-speed trains.
【推荐2】Li Ming is a junior middle school student of Zunyi City. He is in Grade 9 now. He is going to have the Senior High School Entrance Examination soon. His class teacher asked them to do a good preparation for the exams. So he wrote down some of the important things he should pay attention to in his notebook.
Note 1．Time table
Date | In the morning | In the afternoon |
June 20 | 09：00 —11：30 Chinese | 15：00—17：00 Politics and history |
June 21 | 09：00—11：00 math | 15：00－17：30 Physics and chemistry |
June 22 | 09：00—11：00 English |
Note 2．Keep a proper diet, and don't eat what makes a person excited.
Note 3．Review the subjects for some time before going to bed, but don't stay up late.
Note 4．Remember to bring the examination bag with the ID card in it.
Note 5．Never cheat in the exams, or anyone will be punished.
1. How long will Physics and chemistry last?| A．100 minutes | B．120 minutes | C．135minutes | D．150minutes |
| A．On the morning of June 20. | B．From 9:00--11:30 a.m. on June 21. |
| C．On the afternoon of June 20. | D．From 9:00--11:00 a.m. on June 21 . |
| A．Four. | B．Five. | C．Six. | D．Seven. |
| A．Time and money. | B．Food and drink. |
| C．Sports and games. | D．ID card and honesty |
| A．Students should be honest in the exams. |
| B．Students must study till midnight before the exams. |
| C．Students can't bring their ID cards with them in the exams. |
| D．Students may eat something exciting. |
【推荐3】When I was a little girl，I wanted to leave school and have my own life. The only way was to work in the paper factory in my town. I was very nervous(紧张不安的), and then I told my father I wanted to leave school. I thought he would say, "No! You are going to college(大学)" But he said, "OK. Let’s go to the paper factory."
Two days later, he took me to the factory. I thought everyone to be friends working together and having fun. I even thought there would be music there. When we arrived at the factory gate, my father took me inside. I walked around the factory looking at the noisy building and the workers. I was afraid. I ran back to my father and said, "I want to go home." He asked me, "What do you think of the factory?" "Too bad," I answered.
I went back to school the next day thinking about studying hard so I could get into a good college.
Thanks to my father and our trip to the paper factory, I now work in an office and my father is really glad.
My life is much better than(比) that it works in the factory!
1. The writer wanted to ______when she was a little girl．| A．go to college | B．leave her home |
| C．leave school | D．work in a supermarket |
| A．It was terrible（可怕）. | B．It was wonderful. |
| C．It was dangerous. | D．It was magic. |
①I went to school ② Father took me to the factory
③ I walked around the factory ④ I wanted to leave school
| A．①②③④ | B．④②③① | C．③④①② | D．②①③④ |
| A．the writer’s father didn’t care her |
| B．the writer is thankful to her father |
| C．the writer stayed at the factory and had fun |
| D．the writer went to the factory and worked hard |
| A．A Visit to the Factory | B．A Kind Father |
| C．Great Changes | D．My School Life |
