With time, everything changes. So do magazine covers. The following are three of the most popular magazines in the U.S. Let’s take a look at how their covers have changed over the past centuries.
◆ Time
Time is best known for its red border（镶边）. The cover photos and designs are almost the same for ages-a photo of a famous person with bold（粗体）text to draw your attention. The cover continues to feature（以……为特色）America’s icons year after year-from presidents to pop stars.
◆National Geographic
Being around for more than a century, the design of National Geographic, especially of the cover, has gone through many changes. The magazine is perhaps best known for its amazing photography-yet it wasn’t shaped until the 1960s. It has also done a great job designing its famous yellow border.
◆Seventeen
The Seventeen logo（标识）has stayed the same, but almost everything else about the design has changed. There was a time when the cover was simple. And then things just got more and more cluttered（杂乱）. The magazine cover’s job is to sell the magazine-it has to stand out from the others. So the design starts to get louder and louder. But honestly, you might get a bit of a headache when you look at the Seventeen covers for too long.
1. What does the underlined word “icons” in this passage mean in Chinese?| A．轶事 | B．时政 | C．偶像 |
| A．It has a history of more than a hundred years. |
| B．It had amazing photography in the 1950s. |
| C．It is famous for its yellow border. |
| A．special covers | B．good writers | C．fantastic ads |
| A．comfortable | B．pleasant | C．cluttered |
| A．The changes of magazine colors |
| B．The changes of magazine covers |
| C．The changes of magazine logos |
2 . Scientists think that there has been life on the Earth for millions of years. However, we haven’t found life on other planets yet.
The Earth is a planet and it goes around the Sun. Seven other planets also go around the Sun. None of them has an environment with air, so people and things cannot grow. The Sun and its planets are called the solar system（太阳系）. The solar system is a small part of our galaxy（星系）.
Scientists have also discovered many other galaxies in the universe. But they are a long way away because their light has travelled for many years to reach us. It is hard to understand how large the universe is.
So far, scientists have sent lots of spaceships to look at other planets in our solar system, and some spaceships have gone beyond the solar system. However, no one has discovered any life on other planets yet.
1. How many planets go around the Sun?| A．Seven. | B．Eight. | C．Nine. |
| A．e-mails | B．planes | C．spaceships |
| A．No one | B．A scientist | C．A traveller |
| A．All the planets have an environment with air. |
| B．The solar system includes the Sun and its planets. |
| C．There is only one galaxy in the universe. |
| A．The Earth | B．Our solar system | C．The stars at night |
3 . Many animals are in danger around the world. Here are some examples.
 | The blue whale lives in oceans around the world. It is the largest animal in the world, but it eats the smallest animals for food. Many people kill the whales. And not enough clean water is also a problem. There may be only 1,300 blue whales left. |
 | The wild Bactrian camel lives in Northwest China and Mongolia. It is a large camel and the only species（种类）in the world with two humps（驼峰）. There are perhaps 950 left in the wild. |
 | Many Asian elephants live in India but you can find them in other countries as well. There are many elephants which work for people. There might be 35,000 Asian elephants left in the wild. |
1. ________ is the largest animal in the world.
| A．The blue whale | B．The wild Bactrian camel | C．The Asian elephant |
| A．In oceans around the world. | B．In Northwest China and Mongolia. | C．In India and some other countries. |
| A．950. | B．1,300. | C．35,000. |
4 . Here are some tips that can help you have a few moments of quiet in your day.
1. Make it a priority（优先的事物）. Like brushing your teeth or taking a shower, 10 minutes of quiet time a day is part of taking care of your body and cultivating（陶冶） your spirit.
2. Teach the people you live with about quiet time. No television or computer or music. This is the time to read or play or create art一alone. Tell the people around you about the importance of quiet and lead by example. Then they’ll begin to support you and enjoy it as well.
3. Use the spaces in between. I seldom have the radio on in the car when I’m driving alone. When I’m waiting for an appointment（约会）, I’m seldom texting or talking.I just enjoy the quiet before the appointment.
4. Create at least our daily activity that needs quiet.Go for a run without earphones. Take a long bath, or a shower before bed. My morning coffee is a time of enjoying quiet. When I know I’ve got a very busy day ahead. I’ll get up 15 minutes early just to drink coffee alone in the quiet.
Creating pockets of quiet is a powerful way to make your life full of energy. You’ll feel better to manage the challenges of your day.
1. What is the passage about？2. Why should you have 10 minutes of quiet time every day？
3. How can you get support for quiet from the people around you？
4. According to the text,which daily activity do you like best to get quiet？
5. Why is it a powerful way to create pockets of quiet？
5 . You may have already forgotten the days when you had to learn how to use chopsticks. Every Chinese kid manages to use them for some time. But chopsticks are not just simple tools to pick up food. They come with their own special rules and traditions.
Generally, people should not make noise with chopsticks. Playing with chopsticks is seen as bad manners, just as playing with forks and knives in a Western country would be rude.
There are also some superstitions（迷信）related to chopsticks. For example, some people believe that chopsticks should not be left standing upright in a bowl. It looks like the incense （香）that Chinese use to honor the dead. Doing it at the dinner table is believed to bring bad luck.
You should not tap（敲）chopsticks on the edge of the bowl either, as beggars （乞丐）do this to ask for food. Parents might get angry if children do this as they don’t want their children to be as poor as beggars in the future.
Besides, chopsticks can also be a great gift. In Chinese, “chopsticks” are known as “kuaizi”, so newlyweds （新婚夫妇） feel happy to receive chopsticks as a wedding gift. Skilled craftsmen （手艺人）paint beautiful pictures on chopsticks to make them look like fine artwork. Today, even people from western countries are learning to use chopsticks and like to collect them as souvenirs（纪念品）.
1. The text is about .| A．history of chopsticks |
| B．stories behind chopsticks |
| C．rules and traditions of using chopsticks |
| A．It is all right. |
| B．It is not polite. |
| C．It is funny. |
| A．挽救 |
| B．复活 |
| C．表达敬意 |
| A．get ill |
| B．be poor |
| C．become lazy |
| A．having a baby soon |
| B．having good meals |
| C．being rich quickly |
6 . Hi Friends! My name’s Sandra and I live in Hilltown.It is in the south of England. It isn’t a very big town. About 9000 people live here.
There are about thirty shops in Hilltown and there are three supermarkets. You can buy everything in the town that you need.There are two banks and a post office in Main Street.There is a police station and a library, too.
You can find a big market where you can buy fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and drinks. I like going to the market with mum.
There are three churches in the town centre and there is a park, too. In the park children can play because there is a playground. In our town you can find some restaurants and there are five cafes. My favorite cafe is Icecave. It’s in Park Street and the ice cream is fantastic here!
There are three elementary schools and two high schools in Hilltown. My school is in Mill Street. We have got a very nice building. Next to our school there is a sports centre. Every Wednesday afternoon we play volleyball.
If you want to see a film you can go to the cinema in our town, but unfortunately there aren’t any theaters here.
I like living in Hilltown because it s a calm, clean place and people are friendly.
1. Where is Hilltown?| A．It’s in southern England. |
| B．It’s in northern Singapore. |
| C．It’s in eastern Australia. |
| A．5. |
| B．3. |
| C．2. |
| A．Her father. |
| B．Her mother. |
| C．Her friends. |
| A．Every Wednesday. |
| B．Every Thursday. |
| C．Every Friday. |
| A．Watch a play. |
| B．See a movie. |
| C．Eat out with friends. |
7 . There’s an old saying: “Laughter is the best medicine,” and modern research certainly shows that laughing is good for you. When you have a good laugh, you exercise your muscles （肌肉）, strengthen your heart and balance your body chemistry. However, these are the results of having laugh, not the explanations（解释）of why we do it.
Until recently, scientists believed that laughter was a human behaviour only. They argued that people find jokes funny because we can put ourselves in another person’s shoes, and that animals can’t do that. People don’t all have the same sense of humour. Sometimes there isn’t any joke, or we may not have heard it but we laugh because the people around us are laughing. How long and how loud we would laugh are also shared. We just go on following the example with one another until the laughter fades away（消失）.
Many pet owners insist that animals have a sense of humor ,too. For example, pet dogs often run away with a slipper（拖鞋）and then stop, inviting their owners to run after them. Dogs even seem to smile when their owners join in the game. As the game continues, our pets make noises that are very like laughter. You can compare this behaviour to the laughter of a baby, who continually throws a toy down, waits for the adult to pick it up and throws it down again.
Perhaps laughter is just a sign that we are having fun. Fun, like laughter, is best when we share it with friends.
1. The main idea of the first paragraph is of having a laugh| A．the causes |
| B．the results |
| C．different ways |
| A．people have the same sense of humour |
| B．both human and animals can find jokes funny |
| C．sometimes some people laugh because people around them do so |
| A．pet dogs are very naughty |
| B．animals have a sense of humor, too |
| C．animals are more humorous than human beings |
| A．nervous |
| B．angry |
| C．happy |
| A．share fun with friends |
| B．play games with habits |
| C．make friends with animals |
8 . “Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”
This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD(公元) 53 wrote it.
We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives. But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?
Picture this. You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How happy do you feel?
Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave up feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they live simpler lives.
One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave(微波炉), computer or mobile phones.
The grandmother, Lyn, said, “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes.” The boys said they fought less. Probably, they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy(赶时髦的), beer-drinking granny”, to one who cooked things.
根据短文内容，选择正确答案。
1. The writer uses the quote(引号) at the beginning of the story to ________.
| A．tell us a truth about our lives |
| B．tell us what life was like long time ago |
| C．point out what causes such a thing to happen |
| D．point out some problems we will meet in the life |
| A．have speeded up our lives | B．have improved the quality of our lives |
| C．may make people feel very happy | D．may bring people some trouble |
| A．they loved to live simple lives |
| B．they wanted to know how people lived without modern inventions |
| C．they were troubled by modern inventions |
| D．living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them |
| A．People who live far away from noisy cities often seem to be happier. |
| B．An unknown Roman was sure that the quality of life would get better. |
| C．The family had some changes when they lived in a 1940s house. |
| D．With the improvement of our lives, we often feel stressed and tired. |
| A．problems with technology |
| B．improvements of our lives with technology |
| C．changes happening to technology |
| D．the importance of technology |
9 . Chinatown is the name given to an area in the middle of London. It is a large Chinese community with a lot of Chinese restaurants, supermarkets and shops.
In the 1950s, it was a poor area and everything was very cheap. At the same time, the world rice market changed and thousands of farm workers in Hong Kong lost their jobs. They began arriving in London to look for work. They found jobs in the restaurants in this area.
These restaurant workers often worked 17 hours a day and had no time to learn English. As more Chinese arrived, more shops and businesses grew up. Wives came and joined their husbands and children came and joined their fathers. The community grew, and Chinatown was born.
In the 1970s and 1980s, British-born Chinese started to have a better education and this brought economic (经济的)success to the area. Many families moved out of Chinatown, and there was more space for businesses. Chinatown soon became a popular place for tourists.
Now everyone knows about London’s Chinatown. During the Chinese New Year, the streets are seen with flags and thousands of Chinese go into the streets. For most of the year, though, Londoners and tourists go there mainly for the food in the Chinese restaurants. The best restaurants are the ones where the Chinese eat.
1. From the text, we know that ________.| A．the first Chinese in Chinatown were mainly from Hong Kong |
| B．many factory workers in Hong Kong lost their jobs in the 1950s |
| C．there were many restaurants in the middle of England in the 1950s |
| A．in hospitals | B．in churches | C．in restaurants |
| A．didn’t have time | B．couldn’t pay for the course | C．found it too difficult |
| A．At the beginning of the 1990s. |
| B．When the Chinese community was born. |
| C．Twenty to thirty years later after their parents’ arrival. |
| A．To introduce the history of Chinatown in London. |
| B．To introduce some popular Chinese restaurants in London. |
| C．To tell us the reason why people in Hong Kong moved to London. |
Dogs are very popular pets in the United States. Most dogs just live with their families, but some dogs have very special jobs to do. Some dogs help the police to find criminals (罪犯). Some dogs help people who can’t see or hear. Dogs that help their owners (主人) are “Assistance Dogs”.
A very special group of dogs are known as “Therapy Dogs”. These dogs are family pets with special training (训练). So they can go into public (公共) places and help people in need (需要). A dog needs about three months’ training to be a therapy dog. They like being with people and making people happy. Some therapy dogs go into places such as hospitals and nursing homes. When patients (病人) see the dogs, they are very happy. They like playing with the dogs and like seeing the dogs have fun. The dogs help to brighten their day.
1. What do some dogs help the police to do?2. What are “Therapy Dogs”?
3. Can a therapy dog go to a hospital to help patients?
4. How many months of training does a dog need to be a therapy dog?
5. How do patients feel when they see the therapy dogs?
