1 . 
Baseball and American football are people’s favorite sports in the USA. Children play them in sports fields (球场) or in parks.
In summer, there are often some informal (非正式的) baseball games. Boys and girls, the young and the old, they all can play the games. There are two teams in a baseball game. Each team (每一支球队) has nine players.
The baseball season starts (开始) in April and finishes in September. During this time, baseball games are on TV. In September, the two top (顶级的) teams play with each other in the field. Many baseball fans(球迷) will go there to watch the game. Many other people will listen to the radio and watch TV. After that people talk about the game and the players for a long time.
In the USA, many people are interested in American football, too. American football is not like (像) soccer. People play their football with hands (手) not their foot. The football season starts when the baseball season finishes. And the football season finishes in November. There are eleven players in each team. Each team plays ten or eleven games each season. The best teams play again (再一次) on January 1st, the first day of the New Year. Many people sit near the radio or the TV to hear or watch the game. And they really want to know which team wins the game.
1. In the USA, people’s favorite sports are _________.| A．baseball and soccer | B．baseball and volleyball |
| C．basketball and tennis | D．baseball and American football |
| A．9 | B．11 | C．18 | D．22 |
| A．there are eight months in a baseball season |
| B．many baseball fans go to the field to watch games |
| C．all the people must watch the games on TV at home |
| D．people only talk about the players after the games |
| A．baseball | B．soccer | C．hands | D．foot |
| A．Only boys and girls can play baseball. |
| B．People in the USA don’t like playing football. |
| C．The football season is after the baseball season. |
| D．The best football teams play again on March 1st. |
2 . Around the world, people have different traditional foods to celebrate different festivals. Traditional foods also show a new year of good luck and good health.
An English Christmas dinner has a meal of turkey, and it also includes pies and plum puddings (李子布丁). In Germany, Christmas is celebrated with bread, cookies and cakes, which are made like Christmas trees. In France, Christmas dessert is a cake filled with butter cream.
In southern parts of India, there is a three-day festival in mid-January called Pongal. It includes rice and a dish of rice cooked with sugar that is shared with families and friends.
Japan celebrates New Year with a seven-day festival. It begins from January (1)st. Food is prepared before the festival so people don’t need to cook during the festival. On New Year's Day, various dishes called Osechi Ryori (御节料理) are served—each dish is a wish for the New Year.
In most Asian countries, the New Year begins with the first full moon of the first Chinese Lunar (阴历的) month. Each place has its special food to welcome the coming year. People in China prepare their food ahead of time to avoid the possibility that using a knife during New Year's time might "cut luck". Foods with lucky names are popular, such as fish, which sounds like "surplus(剩余)".
1. What do you learn from the passage?| A．People have different traditional foods to celebrate different festivals. |
| B．New Year begins from January 10th in Japan. |
| C．In France, Christmas dessert is a cake filled with butter. |
| D．Traditional foods only show a new of good luck. |
| A．Christmas | B．Pongal | C．New Year | D．Lantern Festival |
| A．turkey | B．dessert | C．Osechi Ryori | D．dumplings |
| A．different | B．same | C．expensive | D．few |
| A．必须性 | B．必然性 | C．可变性 | D．可能性 |
3 . My name is Cathy. There are three photos of my good friends on my desk. In the first photo you can see Jerry. He is a tall and cool boy with short and straight hair. He is the captain of our basketball team. He is very popular. All my classmates like him very much. In the second photo, you can see a boy with glasses. His name is Jack. He is short and a little bit heavy. But he is very clever and funny. He often tells us funny stories and makes us happy. In the third photo, you can see two girls. They are reading a book. The girl on the left is Lucy. She is a beautiful girl from London. She has long blonde hair and big eyes. She can sing very well, and she can also speak a little Chinese. The girl on the right is Li Xiaoyun. She is a Chinese girl with beautiful black hair. She likes singing. She says she wants to be a singer.
1. We can see Cathy’s ________ good friends in the photos on the desk.| A．one | B．two | C．three | D．four |
| A．long hair | B．glasses | C．short hair | D．small eyes |
| A．swimming | B．basketball | C．telling stories | D．singing |
| A．the UK | B．Australia | C．the USA | D．Canada |
| A．Lucy | B．Li Xiaoyun | C．Jack | D．Jerry |
4 . After watching my mother deal with our family of five, I can’t understand why her answer to the question, “What do you do?”, is always, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” JUST a housewife? Anyone who spends most of her time in preparing meals, washing and drying clothes, keeping the house clean, playing the part of a taxi driver to us kids when it’s time for school, music lessons or the dentist, doing volunteer work for her favorite charity, and making sure that all our family needs are met is not JUST a housewife. She’ s the real Wonder Woman. Why is it that so many mothers like mine think of themselves as second-class or something similar? Where has this notion(观念) come from? Have we males(男性) made them feel this way? Has our society made “going to work” outside the home seem more important than what a housewife must face each day?
I would be very curious(好奇的) to see what would happen if a housewife stopped working. Dishes would pile up. Food in the house would run out. No meals would appear on the table. There would be no clean clothes when needed. The house would be filled with rubbish. Walking and bus riding would increase. Charities would be in great need of help. I doubt if the man of the house would be able to take over(接手). Oh, he might think that he can do just as good a job, but how long would that last? Not long, once he had to come home each night after work to more household duties. There would be no more coming home to a prepared meal; he’d have to fix it himself. The kids would all be crying for something to eat, clean clothes and more bus fare money. Once he made the kids quiet, he’d have to clean the house, go shopping, make sure that kids got a bath, and fix lunches for the next day. Once the kids were down for the night, he might be able to crawl(爬行) into an unmade bed and try to read the morning newspaper.
No, I don’t think many males are going to volunteer for the job. I know I don’t want it. So, thanks, mom! I’ll do what I can to create a national holiday for housewives. It might be called Wonder Woman Day.
1. How do the children in the writer’s family go to school?| A．They walk or take a taxi. | B．Their father sends them to school. |
| C．They take the school bus. | D．Their mother drives them to school. |
| A．There would be no clean clothes to wear. | B．No meals would appear on the table. |
| C．All the family members would be relaxed. | D．The house would be a terrible mess. |
| A．strange | B．important | C．interesting | D．dangerous |
| A．a national holiday should be set up for housewives |
| B．there will be many males volunteering for housewives’ work |
| C．the man of the house would be able to take over the housewife’s work |
| D．housewives don’t regard themselves as second-class or something similar |
| A．housewives stopping their work | B．housewives, the wonder women |
| C．men taking the place of women | D．a national holiday for housewives |
5 . A life coach is somebody who helps you reach all kinds of personal and professional goals (目标) . Each of us has the ability to be our own life coach. Here are some tips for you:
♦ Pay attention to your relationships with others
Ask yourself the following questions: How do you deal with disagreements? When was the last time you showed your family members that you care for them? Your relationships with friends, family members and teachers show a lot about the kind of person you are.
♦ Face the fears about the future
Now, imagine that one of your good friends told you that he or she was not strong enough to go back to school. We often give better advice than we are willing to take ourselves. Remember that even the most successful people were probably told that what they wanted to do was impossible, but they followed their dreams and succeed.
♦ Develop your talents
If you want to reach your goals, you will have to spend more time developing the talents you already have, and uncovering any hidden talents that you haven’t discovered yet. So you can take classes in subjects that you are interested in, even if you have no experience.
♦ Be thankful
Take some time to be thankful for the things you do have. Remember positive memories.Think of the best day(s) you have had in the past month or year. Remember special parties, vacations and holidays. Appreciate the wonderful people you have in your life.
A. 根据短文内容简要回答问题。
1. Which tip do you think influences you most?
2. Why should you pay attention to your relationships with others?
B. 将短文中划线的句子译成汉语。
3.
4.
C. 请给短文拟一个适当的标题。
5.
We all waste food, you and me, every day, millions of tons of it. In China, enough food is wasted in restaurants every year to feed 200 million people. And the amount of food wasted by Chinese consumers is increasing fast. So our nation is being encouraged to stop wasting food.
So what should Chinese consumers do to prevent food waste?
♦ Keep a kitchen diary
All of us should keep a kitchen diary, and we can know that how much food we waste at home. The first thing for us to do is to stop throwing away food that we can still eat. We should eat everything we buy and if we cannot, we should buy less.
♦ Buy only what we need
We should ask for smaller portions in stores. We should also check how much food we have before buying more. We shouldn’t bring much food we don’t need home even if large posters ask us to do so.
♦ Develop the habit of packing food
Chinese consumers are generous and friendly. In restaurants, often too much food is ordered and served. So when ordering out, we are supposed to exclude the food in the order if we don’t plan to eat it. And order smaller servings in restaurants and take home what we cannot finish.
Don’t put it off! Let’s stop food waste today!
1. Why is our nation being encouraged to stop wasting food?| A．Because there’s enough food for Chinese people. |
| B．Because Chinese consumers like to try delicious food. |
| C．Because the number of food wasted by us is growing fast. |
| D．Because it’s traditional to invite friends to dinner in China. |
| A．keep a kitchen diary | B．buy things as much as possible |
| C．cook too much food for her family | D．keep the food as long as possible |
| A．Enjoy the food! | B．Keep healthy! | C．Share the dish! | D．Waste not, want not! |
| A．He asks for the right portions. |
| B．You leave a lot of food on the table. |
| C．You ask your friend to order less food. |
| D．He takes away the food that you can still eat. |
| A．Have a balanced diet. |
| B．Eat less food to keep fit. |
| C．Keep the balance of nature. |
| D．Have a good habit of clearing the plate. |
Deep Green Bush School is New Zealand’s newest and most unusual school with just eight students. The weather is so beautiful that the school day will start with fishing. After, the kids will eat lunch cooked on an open fire. Homework and classes? Canceled. Students spend most of the day outdoors exploring nature. They also learn about the plants and animals of their home. Students learn to read and write, but they do so at their own pace, when they begin getting interested, not when the teacher decides it is time to learn.
“We are called a school but we look nothing like any school out there,” says Joey Moncarz, who had been a teacher in more common schools for five years before he helped start the school more than a year ago. Being worried that common schools were not preparing children for the problems of the future, he began thinking about a very different kind of education, teaching kids the skills of survival.
Some parents saw their kids were unhappy and stressed in mainstream education and began to question whether it is normal or right for kids to come home stressed and unhappy. People have asked Moncarz to open similar “bush schools” around New Zealand, and as far away as Europe and China.
David Berg is a learning expert. He said schools like Moncarz’s are becoming more popular. However, he says, these schools need to be careful. Children need to learn traditional subjects so they can find jobs in the modern world. Berg said many people still feel it is important to spend more time in nature. People in the modern world need to have many skills and some of those can be developed outside.
Moncarz insists that the school isn’t an experiment( 试 验 ). For two million years, parents have brought up their kids with nature, he said. “We don’t want to be one of a kind, we want to take the place of mainstream schools,” he said. “We are using the same method parents have used to teach their kids for millions of years. Locking kids in a classroom and driving them to learn just causes a lot of problems.”
1. Paragraph 1 is mostly about ________.| A．how many kids learn outside | B．where the school building is |
| C．what the bush school is like | D．why there is no homework |
| A．learning about the nature is less helpful |
| B．normal schools do not teach the right things |
| C．normal schools teach things in the future |
| D．everything should not be taught in schools |
| A．the most acceptable education | B．public education |
| C．the most important education | D．private education |
| A．Parents wish their kids to get education in China. |
| B．David Berg doesn’t totally agree with Moncarz. |
| C．Moncarz hopes bush schools will be main education. |
| D．Moncarz believes the bush school pattern is not new. |
| A．To make more kids choose outdoor schools. |
| B．To describe and explain an outdoor school. |
| C．To tell parents that outdoor schools are bad. |
| D．To see how weather means to bush schools. |
8 . March 16 is International Sleep Day. Studies have shown that a good night's rest helps us stay healthy, both mentally(精神地) and physically(身体地). Sleep is probably the best tool we have for memory and learning. A good night's sleep helps to learn better.
But what about getting rest during the middle of the day? Short periods of sleep after a mid-day meal, we call it napping(午睡), may help our brains work better.
Past studies have shown that napping can help babies and young children learn better. And napping can help brain performance in older adults. Taking a nap may also help this group of people fight off age-related memory loss. As we all know, the older we are, the more memory we will lose.
The study found that people who took an hour-long nap did much better on mental tests than those who did not nap. The hour-long nappers also did better on the tests than those who napped for shorter and longer periods. In this study, it seems that the most effective(有效地) nap lasted for about an hour, but not much longer. Keep in mind, however, that these are the findings for those over the age of 65.
And there is a little difference between the old and young people. Doctor Michael Twery notes that an hour long nap may be too long for young, healthy adults. And 30 minutes is enough to remove the pressure to sleep and will help them feel more awake(清醒的). If they nap longer, they will get trapped into(受困于) deep sleep, which can be hard to get out of.
If you have trouble falling asleep at night, limit(限制) your daytime nap to under 45 minutes. Also nap before 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
1. When is the International Sleep Day?| A．January16. | B．February16. | C．March 16. | D．May 16. |
| A．babies | B．young children | C．older adults | D．young, healthy adults |
| A．10 minutes | B．30 minutes | C．under 45 minutes | D．about an hour |
| A．Napping | B．Walking | C．Swimming | D．Dancing |
| A．are having trouble seeing | B．have trouble making decisions |
| C．have trouble remembering things | D．have trouble falling asleep at night |
9 . If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles(肌肉).
The study also found the effect(效果) is greater when the younger people learn a second language. A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners. Scans showed that grey matter density(密度) in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference. “Our findings suggest that the structure(结构) of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn. Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and math skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible (灵活的),” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings had the same result in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and thirty-four. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.
1. From Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 2, we can learn that ___________.| A．learning a second language can make you smarter |
| B．grammar is not very important in learning English |
| C．you can start to learn another language if you are smart |
| D．it is best to learn a second language in a British university |
| A．people who study language learning | B．people who can speak two languages |
| C．languages spoken by British people | D．languages children learn before five |
| A．it is not very good to start learning a language too early |
| B．it usually takes quite a long time to master a new language |
| C．learning a second language changes the structure of the brain |
| D．people who don’t learn a second language have no grey matter |
| A．the younger you start to learn a second language, the better |
| B．improving math skills is as difficult as learning a second language |
| C．Italian people are supposed to learn English as a second language |
| D．the best age to learn a second language is between two and thirty-four |
| A．language learning and math skills | B．how to learn a second language well |
| C．the importance of learning English | D．the good effect of learning a language |
10 . They say the average person makes 35,000 decisions a day. Yet in her new book, How Woman Decide, Therese Huston explores a widespread thing that many women fail to notice. “There’s a huge double standard when it comes to how men and women are viewed as decision makers,” explains Therese, a psychologist from Seattle University. Therese decided to write the book after looking at her bookshelf: bestselling books about decision-making—all written by men and featuring interviews with men like professional ball players．
“Once those women are at the table, will their decisions be taken as seriously as men’s?”Therese Wondered. “Men are respected as decision makers more than women, especially in the workplace, largely because there’s this cultural belief that women are unable to make smart choices at work.” So, Therese set out to part with the stereotypes(固有印象)to see what scientific research had found. “Scientific research shows that men and women struggle with decision-making in the similar way. The only disadvantage I found was that during the teenage years —teenage girls are more indecisive than teenage boys. That means boys can make a decision more easily. Otherwise, there’s few differences between the genders(性别).”
However, there are some differences. “Women are more collaborative(协作的),” says Therese. “A female boss is more likely to ask the opinions of those around her when making a choice. Women ask for advice, which helps make better decisions. However, this is often seen as a weakness rather than a strength.”
Therese also found that during times of stress, men and women make different choices, and the results are often better when women are involved. Study after study backs this view up. Neuroscientists Mara Mather and Nicole Lighthall from the University of Southern California studied the way men and women make decisions and found that in times of stress, they react very differently. During their study, which involved playing a virtual gambling(赌博)game, they found that when the females became stressed, they made smarter decisions—giving up while they were ahead or taking safe bets. But when the men became stressed, they did the opposite, risking everything for a small chance of a big win．
1. Why did Therese Huston write her book How Women Decide?| A．Women are less respected as decision makers. |
| B．Men have written too many bestselling books. |
| C．Women are unable to make smart choices. |
| D．Women ball players are seldom interviewed. |
| A．犹豫不决的 | B．自负的 | C．灵活的 | D．气急败坏的 |
| A．Men can make much quicker decisions than women． |
| B．Women are not serious enough when making decisions． |
| C．Women are likely to ask for advice when making decisions． |
| D．Teenage girls has more advantages in decision-making. |
| A．Women show less confidence in times of stress． |
| B．Men prefer to make risky in times of stress． |
| C．Men always show great bravery in times of stress． |
| D．Women stop making decisions when ahead in games． |
| A．There are great differences between the two genders. |
| B．Men are weaker in making smart decisions． |
| C．We should give up all cultural beliefs about genders． |
| D．Women are smart as decision makers. |
