1 . Our names are an important part of our ID. Parents think over and over again when naming their children, hoping to give them a name that is meaningful and reflects their child’s personality. But last names, on the other hand, are not something we have as much control over. Recently, Great British Mag listed some of the strangest last names in the UK. Let’s look at three of them.
| Onions When we think of onions, of course we think of its strong smell. But it is also a surname. This last name was first popular in France and Ireland, dating back to 1279. It was commonly used by those who either sold or grew the vegetable. |
| Smellie This one is pronounced the same as the word “ smelly” . But it has a totally different meaning. In Scotland, this name was often related to people who are cheerful. Nearly 400 people in the UK nowadays have this surname. |
| Gotobeds “Go to bed!” Children hear it frequently, but it may surprise you that this phrase sounds much like a surname still in use. According to the online magazine, the first person to have this surname was John Gotobedde in 1269. During that time, owning a bed was rare and considered as a luxury（奢侈品）. People proudly ‘‘announced” the fact they could afford to have a bed by using it in their surname. |
1. Last names are quite different from first names because ________.
| A．they’re an important part of our IDs |
| B．people have no choice about last names |
| C．they’re meaningful and can show the kids’ personalities |
① rare things they own ② job ③ personality
a. Onions b. Smellie c. Gotobeds
| A．①-a, ②-b, ③-c | B．①-c, ②-a, ③-b | C．①-a, ②-c, ③-b |
| A．not widely known | B．difficult to understand | C．uncommon and valuable |
| A．strange names always have a very long history |
| B．few people in the UK have these strange names now |
| C．Onions was not only popular in Ireland at the very beginning |
| A．Britain Culture | B．Health care | C．News Story |
2 . Did you know that chocolate comes from a tree? The cacao tree gets large brown fruits called cocoa pods（荚）, and
The first people to
Wouldn’t you like to have a cacao tree in your
Chocolate is good for you as long as you don’t eat it all day long! It has iron（铁）, which is good for your body! But remember where there is chocolate, there is
| A．outside | B．around | C．besides | D．inside |
| A．first | B．most | C．last | D．though |
| A．clean | B．try | C．dry | D．enjoy |
| A．until | B．unless | C．because | D．whether |
| A．suggest | B．grow | C．train | D．water |
| A．water | B．fruit | C．wealth | D．drink |
| A．served | B．spread | C．lived | D．considered |
| A．garden | B．room | C．kitchen | D．classroom |
| A．cloudy | B．snowy | C．foggy | D．rainy |
| A．salt | B．juice | C．sugar | D．honey |
| product, up, valuable, connect, place, who, so, officers, traded, thousand, worth, secret |
In ancient times, the Silk Road was very important. It
The Chinese learned to make silk
The ancient Romans were the first Europeans
There were deserts and high mountains in the way,
4 . How do we know the time? A clock, a watch or a mobile phone can help us. However, many years ago there were no clocks and knowing the time was not so easy. Over the centuries people have developed different ways of telling the time.
About 5, 500 years ago, the Egyptians invented the sun clock. This was a tall stone building. Its shadow(影子)showed the movement of the sun. So people were able to know midday. The Egyptians made a sundial about 3,500 years ago. It was smaller than the sun clock and could let people know the time for half a day. On cloudy days or at night it was impossible to tell the time with a sun clock or a sundial. Water clocks not were the first clocks not to use the sun. The idea is simple. Water flows(流动) from one bottle to another. When the water reaches a certain level, it shows the hours. The Egyptians used water clocks about 3,400 years ago. These clocks were popular in the Middle East and China. But they failed to make people know the exact time.
In the 13th century, the mechanical clock was invented. This was more exact, but it was expensive to make one. Over the next few centuries it was developed. For example springs(发条) were added around 1500. This enabled people to get the correct time and allowed clocks to be smaller. In 1927, the first quartz watch was developed. Clocks became cheaper to make. It’s also cheaper for ordinary people to own a clock. People began depending on them more and more to run businesses, markets and so on. More recently, in 1956, came the digital clock. And nowadays satellites send our mobile phones the time to the exact second.
There has been a lot of progress in timekeeping. Clocks are always changing but some things never change. Many of us sill have trouble getting out of bed on time and not being late for school or work.
1. According to the passage, we can’t use a ________ tell the time on a rainy day.| A．water clock | B．sun clock | C．digital clock | D．mechanical clock |
| A．现代的 | B．特殊的 | C．富有的 | D．普通的 |
| A．Four. | B．Five. | C．Six. | D．Seven. |
(①= Paragraph 1 ②= Paragraph 2...)
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．The importance of time. | B．The development of timekeeping |
| C．The inventions of clocks. | D．The history of a digital clock. |
5 . Once upon a time carrots were purple, there were no pineapples in Asia or lemons in America, and many people thought potatoes were poisonous. Many types of fruit and vegetable grew only in one place. So how did they spread all over the world?
Changing colors
Five thousand years ago, carrots only grew in Afghanistan and most were purple. Only a few were orange as they are today! Farmers in the Netherlands were looking for a fruit or vegetable to represent their king, William of Orange, and orange carrots were just what they were looking for. So they became the ancestors of all modern carrots.
At home in the mountains
Many plants only grow in certain places on Earth, often deep in the jungle. The home of potatoes is in the mountains of the Andes in South America. Bananas come from Papua New Guinea and lemons grow wild in China.
World travel
But once people realized that many of these plants were good to eat, they took them far from the places where they grew. Fruit, in particular, attracted thirsty travelers. Arab businessmen transported different fruits and vegetables around the world, such as oranges, which they took from Asia to distant countries such as Spain. The Spanish returned from South America with many new types of food, including chocolate, chili and corn.
And today…
Today, we are so used to our different types of food that we don’t think about where they came from. But for each pineapple, potato or carrot we eat, there is a long history!
1. What does the writer think about fruits and vegetables long ago?| A．Could not be eaten. | B．All in purple colour. |
| C．Could be found everywhere. | D．Grew in a particular place. |
| A．The Netherlanders. | B．Afghanistani. | C．American. | D．Chinese. |
| A．An earlier thing from which something modern developed. |
| B．A person in your family who lived a long time ago. |
| C．The delicious carrots which grew in the long past. |
| D．King William of Orange in old Netherlands. |
| A．The wind. | B．The wars. | C．Men’s traveling. | D．Animal Migration. |
| A．To tell people to save food, including vegetables and fruits. |
| B．To explain how different types of food spread all over. |
| C．To remember the farmers who planted vegetables and fruits. |
| D．To sell special vegetables and fruits from all over the world. |
The Year of the Ox has come. In China, you will find various ox figures made of gold,
But why was the ox
The ox is considered as
In China, writing brushes. ink sticks. paper and ink stones are called the
The writing brushes are
The ink stick is the pigment（颜料）used in writing and
Paper is one of
The ink stone was
8 . A road is a path that links two places. The Silk Road is a path that has linked the Eastern and Western worlds for more than 2, 000 years.
But did you know: the Silk Road is not a single route (路线)! It is actually a series of trade and cultural transmission (传送) routes that started in ancient times. It began during the Western Han Dynasty. The trade route started from the city of Xi’an in Shanxi province and ended in Eastern Europe, near today’s Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea (地中海). The Silk Road was about 6, 500 kilometers long. It went across one-fourth of the planet.
The Silk Road got its name because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. Apart from silk, jade (玉器), ceramics (陶器) and iron went west to Rome. From the west came glass, gems, and food like carrots and sesame (芝麻).
The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world. In addition to goods, knowledge of science, arts and literature as well as crafts and technology, was shared across the Silk Roads. In this way languages and cultures developed and influenced each other.
Today, places along the Silk Road are known as top travel destinations, such as the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu. Beginning in August, 2014, a train line, the New Orient Express, started to run from Beijing across the Silk Road. People are able to take the train and see the sights along the ancient route.
1. What do we know about the Silk Road?| A．There is only one route along the Silk Road. |
| B．It started from Xi’an during the Eastern Han Dynasty. |
| C．Silk was once carried along the road. |
| D．It crossed one-fifth of the planet. |
| A．Glass. | B．Jade. | C．Gems. | D．Carrots. |
| A．it encouraged many people to become traders |
| B．it was the oldest and longest road in the world |
| C．it improved exchanges between China and the West |
| D．it made China strong and wealthy |
| A．places along the route are popular among tourists |
| B．Xi’an and Dunhuang are the road’s most-visited places |
| C．tourists can’t travel along the Silk Road by train |
| D．the Silk Road is no longer important to China |
9 . Do you like running around outdoors? How about camping in the hills? Do you think you could survive (存活) in the wilderness? If yes, then you’d love the scouts (童子军).
In 1907, an Englishman named Robert Baden-Powell started the Scouts movement. The aim was to “promote (促进) the development of young people in achieving their full physical, make them smart and develop their social and spiritual abilities.” By 1910, there were over 100,000 members.
The movement quickly became very popular in the UK. The Girl Guides was created for girls. The movement became international in 1920, when Baden-Powell set up a headquarters in Switzerland (which, with its big mountains, is also a great place for scouting.) Baden-Powell’s experiencing in the Boer War in South Africa led him to begin the movement. Some people say the scouts tried to make young children warlike.
Nowadays, though, scouts are fairly peaceful. They learn a lot of key skills, like tying knots (结) in ropes, making a fire and finding food outdoors. They also have their own special songs, which they sing around the campfire. The film Moonrise Kingdom (《月升王国》) made scouting famous again. It follows a crazy young boy scout who falls in love with a girl scout at a camp.
The | |
| In 1907 | Robert Baden-Powell |
| In 1910 | The member was not |
| In | A headquarters was founded in Switzerland. |
| Nowadays | Scouts are not warlike. They learn a lot of key skills: tying knots in ropes, making a fire and The movie made scouting famous again. |
10 . What was your first work of art? Did you use your fingers to paint it? Did you paint it with crayons? People have always painted. Their times and places for painting have been different. Maybe their tools have, too. Yet their reasons for painting have often been the same. The reason is simple. Painting is fun!
Cave paintings
Imagine living in a cave (洞穴). How would you get art supplies? Thousands of years ago, cave people burned wood and found colored rocks. They broke them into small pieces, added water, and made paint. The oldest paintings are on cave walls. Some show wild bears, horses, bulls, or cats. They showed that people had been there. They showed what the people had seen.
Ink Paintings
In China long ago, artists used ink and water. They painted on long pieces of paper called scrolls (卷轴). They used the brush skillfully. Many of their paintings showed beauty from nature. Others told stories. People could carry the scrolls with them.
Oil Paintings
In the 1400s, oil paint was invented. Artists painted it onto canvas (画布). From then on, many great artists in Europe and America used oil paint. They painted people and nature. They painted events from history. They used art to tell stories, teach ideas and express moods.
New ways to paint
These days, artists paint whatever they want. Some choose the oldest styles. Others experiment. They use berry juices. They pour paint onto a canvas on the floor. They use their hair instead of a paintbrush! Some artists paint with computers. It isn’t messy or smelly. You don’t get to use your fingers. But they say it’s fun.
1. Why do people always paint?2. How did cave people make paint thousands of years ago? （不超过15个词）
3. 将划线句子 Many of their paintings showed beauty from nature.翻译成汉语。
4. What does It in the last paragraph refer to?
5. What’s the best title of the passage?
