1 . In 1834, the clock tower in London was burned down. People planned to build a new clock which would be the biggest and best in the world. The clock had to be big and keep very good time. The big clock was made in two years. Five more years later the tower was finished. Then people put the big clock in the tower, and made it ring out for the first time on July 11,1859.

In order to give the big clock a good name, people held a meeting. Someone wanted to call it the Queen of Bells, and someone thought Victoria was good. At last, a man named Benjamin Hall stood up. He was a big man. Before he started to speak, someone shouted, "Why not call it Big Ben?". Everybody laughed and agreed with him.

From then on, Big Ben became its name. And it also became a famous building of London. People all over the world write to Big Ben. They even send birthday presents, bottles of oil to help keep Big Ben running. Big Ben is not only a clock but also a dear friend of people.

1. Big Ben's birthday is ________.

A．July 11, 1854	B．July 11, 1834
C．July 11, 1859	D．July 11, 1852

2. How did Big Ben get its name?

A．The king gave it the name.

B．Victoria gave it the name.

C．Big Ben got its name because of Benjamin Hall.

D．Big Ben got its name from the Queen of the UK.

3. The underlined phrase "keep very good time" means ________.

A．have a good time	B．show people the correct time
C．keep running	D．be made in time

4. Which of the following is wrong?

A．People think Big Ben will reply their letters.

B．People all over the world even send oil to Big Ben.

C．People all over the world look upon Big Ben as their friend.

D．People think Big Ben is the biggest and best clock in the world.

5. Benjamin Hall is ________.

A．a man who built Big Ben

B．a man who was always very funny

C．the man who burnt down the old clock

D．a man who attended the meeting

2 . The Winter Olympic is also called the White Olympics. At this time, people make many colorful stamps to mark(纪念)the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out an January 25h. 1932 in the Unite sates for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, printing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule. During the 4th Winter Olympic Game, a group of stamps were printed in Germany in November, 1936. It was the first time that the five rings appeared on the stamps of he White Olympics.

In the 1950s stamps of his kind became more colorful. The host countries as well as the non—host countries printed stamps to mark those games. China also printed four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sportsman began to take part in the White Olympics.

1. The White Olympics and the Winter Olympics________ .

A．are the same thing	B．are different games
C．are not held in winter	D．are held in summer

2. It was made a rule to print stamps to mark the great world Games________.

A．after the year 1936	B．after the 3rd White Olympics
C．before the 3rd White Olympics	D．before the year 1932

3. The White Olympics is held________

A．every two years	B．every three years
C．every four years	D．every five years

4. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Only the host countries can print stamps to mark the Games.

B．Only the non—host countries can print stamps to mark the Games.

C．All countries can print stamps to mark the Games.

D．China hosted the Winter Olympics in February 1980.

5. What's the best title of this passage?

A．The Winter Olympics Games	B．The Winter Olympics Stamps
C．The Stamps of Olympics	D．Different Stamps of Sports

3 . We don’t know who first discovered a way to measure time. It was probably the Hindus, the Greeks, or the Egyptians. We do know, however, that more than 7, 000 years ago the Hindus looked at the sky and measured time by looking at the position of the stars and the sun.

The Egyptians used the water clock. This measured the time it took for a certain amount of water to pass from one place to another. The Egyptians were also the first people to make a calendar of 365 days. The earliest known water clock was found in the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh(法老)Amenhotep I, who was buried around 1, 500 BC.

The hourglass(时漏) was probably invented in the 3^rd century BC. No one knows for sure. This was similar in a way to the water clock. Time was measured by the amount of sand that moved from one container to another. We still use this kind of clock today in the form of an egg timer(煮鸡蛋的定时器). This measures time in three minute periods.

The first clock of any kinds to be used in China were brought there by European explorers. And it was in Europe that the first mechanical clock was invented. The word “clock” comes from the Latin “clocca” which means bell, and it was first used in the 14^thcentury.

根据短文内容，填写适当的单词或短语，完成下列句子。每空不超过两个单词。
1. More than 7, 000 years ago, the Hindus measured time with the help of looking at__________ of the stars and the sun.
2. People found the earliest water clock in________ where the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I was buried.
3. No one knows when the hourglass was invented_________.
4. __________ first brought clocks to China.
5. The first mechanical clock was invented in___________.

4 . Every day we communicate with others—often with symbols or gestures(手势). Here are some of the most common gestures.

Shaking Hands

Shaking hands has been done since at least the second century BC. It’s a symbol of trust. Nowadays we usually shake the right hands. But in the old time, people also shook left hands. The world record for handshakes is held by a man from New Jersey, who shook 11,000 hands in a single day.

Thumbs(大拇指) Up

The thumbs up sign is thought to come from contests in Rome. There people decided whether the fighter would live or die by thumbs up or thumbs down. In fact it came from an old English saying “Here’s my thumb on it” which was used to seal a bargain (达成交易). Businessmen held their thumbs up and extended them, until the two touched each other.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rochambeau, or rock, paper, scissors is played all over the world to solve some difficult disagreements. A judge in Florida ordered people in a case to use this game to solve it. In Indonesia, it is earwig(蜈蚣), human, and elephant. The earwig drives the elephant mad. The human killed the earwig, and the elephant killed the human. If you know why it is called Rochambeau, please let me know. It’s still a mystery.

OK

The real history of this sign is lost. Some people think it refers to American president Martin Van Buren. He was often called as “Old Kinderhook”. Others say it is the bad handwriting which made OR—standing for “order received” into OK.

1. In old days, if people shook hands, that means they ________ each other.

A．loved

B．believed

C．protected

D．respected

2. What does the underlined word “extended” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．面对

B．展示

C．延伸

D．掩盖

3. People know the real history of ________.

A．Shaking Hands and OK	B．Shaking Hands and Thumbs up
C．Thumbs up and OK	D．Rock, Paper, Scissors and OK

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Most people know how gestures came into use.

B．The sign of Thumbs up came from the contests in India.

C．In Indonesia, a lot of people were killed by elephants.

D．Some people use Rock, Paper, and Scissors to solve problems.

5. The passage mainly talks about _________.

A．the history of some daily symbols and signs

B．ways to make people trust you

C．importance to using right gestures

D．the how bad handwriting made OK

5 . Do you know when and where ice cream was created? It has a l    1     and interesting history.

The earliest ice cream was eaten in China many centuries ago. People at that time would put orange juice on the ice or get something c    2     to drink. Later, this i    3     traveled to Italy. Around 1660, it was popular to serve（给某人提供）ice cream in coffee shops in Paris. Most of the shop were owned（由……所拥有）by Italians. Among them, the first successful one belonged to（属于）a man named Francesco Procopio.

Ice cream was brought to America in the early 1700s, and it q    4     became the favourite of Americans. President George Washington had ice cream pots（罐）and machines in his kitchen. Dolly Madison, the wife of President Madison, was the first one to serve it in the White House. She made her guests very h    5     when she served such desserts（甜品）.

Before ice cream was sold in stores, people made and kept it at a very low t    6     first. It took a lot of work to mix cream, eggs, fruit and ice together. An American woman, Nancy Johnson, was good at m    7    , and invented the ice cream freezer（冰箱）in 1846. Five years later, Jacob Flusell o    8     the first ice cream factory in Baltimore, Maryland. Her business quickly c    9     to other states（州）。

Today in the United States, ice cream is not only a kind of f    10    , but also a way of life.

6 . Lanterns have been part of Chinese culture for centuries and play an important part in many celebrations. In ancient times, there were mainly three kinds of lanterns

Palace lantern

It was mainly used in palaces in ancient times. When making palace lanterns fine wood was used. The palace lanterns were covered with silk or glass. Different kinds of pictures were drawn on the covers. These lanterns were not only used as lights but also as decorations （装饰）in palaces.

Gauze lantern （纱灯）

Less expensive bamboo and gauze were used to cover the lantern. Red gauze was used when making them. In Chinese culture, red lanterns stand for （代表）happiness. So red lanterns are always hung （悬挂）on important festivals such as Lantern Festival, Spring Festival and National Day in parks or along main streets. In some famous Chinatowns abroad, you can see red lanterns all the year round. They have become a symbol of Chinese culture worldwide.

Shadow picture lantern （走马灯）

It was usually used for amusement （娱乐）.The shape was much like that of the palace lanterns. There were two layers （层）of covers and pictures were drawn on the inside layer. When lit （被点燃）,the heat caused a paper wheel inside the lantern to turn around, so that moving pictures appeared on the outside cover.

Now more kinds of lanterns appear in festivals besides the traditional ones. More modern technology is used on making lanterns. The shapes of the modern lanterns have changed a lot too.

1. In ancient times, there were _________________________________________________.
2. Red lanterns are symbols of __________________________________________, so they are always hung on important festivals.
3. The shape of ______________________is just like that of the palace lanterns.
4. In some famous Chinatowns abroad, you can __________________________________________.
5. When lit, the heat caused a paper wheel inside the lantern to turn around, so that moving pictures ______________________________________.

7 . The word photography was first used in 1839. However, at that time the subject (被拍对象) had to keep still while a picture of it was taken. Few people had ever tried to take photos of moving subjects. The first man to do so was Eadweard Muybridge, a world-famous photographer. He created the first moving picture.

When a horse is running, do all four hooves (蹄)ever leave the ground at the same time? That was the bet that a gentleman called Leland Stanford had with some of his friends. Most people believed that a horse always had one hoof on the ground, but Stanford didn’t think: so. Because a horse’s legs are moving so fast, it’s impossible to tell just by looking. Stanford needed a way to record the movement of a running horse. In 1872, Leland Stanford offered Eadweard Muybridge $25,000 to find the answer. Muybridge had no idea if he could successfully set up and perform an experiment to settle (解决) the bet, but he thought he should give it a try.

In 1878, after years of experiments, Muybridge got what he wanted. He had a sequence (连续) of 12 images (图像), and one of them clearly showed all four of the horse’s hooves were off the ground at the same time. In the end Muybridge collected his well-earned $25,000 from Stanford.

Though Thomas Edison is usually considered as the person who created the first cine-camera (电影摄影机) in 1889, it was the work of Eadweard Muybridge and the bet that led to Edison’s invention.

1. The underlined word “still” most probably means “________” in Chinese.

A．安逸的

B．平衡的

C．直立的

D．静止的

2. Leland Stanford thought that ________.

A．a horse always had one hoof on the ground while running

B．a horse had all 4 hooves off the ground at some point while running

C．it was possible for Eadweard Muybridge to make a moving picture

D．it was impossible for Eadweard Muybridge to make a moving picture

3. Muybridge finally found the answer to the bet in ________.

A．1839

B．1872

C．1878

D．1887

4. Muybridge’s experiments proved that it was ________ who won the bet.

A．Stanford

B．Stanford’s friends.

C．Muybridge

D．Muybridge’s friends

5. The passage mainly tells us ________.

A．that Thomas Edison created the first cine-camera

B．that Eadweard Muybridge created the first still pictures

C．how photography helped people know more about animals

D．how Eadweard Muybridge got pictures of movement successfully

8 . The first cartoons appeared in newspapers. They told stories using ________. The first photographed cartoon film (in 1906) was about humorous _________. In the film, an artist _________ pictures of two faces on a blackboard. The faces came to life. They smiled and a small dog jumped through a ring.

There were lots of ________ in early cartoons. One famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat.

Walt Disney started to ________ films in the 1920s. Some of his earliest films were about a famous story, Alice in Wonderland, ________ in Disney’s films it was called Alice in Cartoon Land. Walt Disney’s most famous cartoon character was Mickey Mouse. He appeared in 1928, first in a black-and-white film ________ sound, then very soon after that in a talking film and later in colour. A Mickey Mouse film was the first cartoon film with sound to become really _________.

Today, over a hundred years _________, cartoons are still popular with people of all ________. They will probably be popular for many more years in the future.

1.

A．pictures

B．words

C．languages

D．books

2.

A．birds

B．cats

C．mice

D．faces

3.

A．bought

B．drew

C．wrote

D．saw

4.

A．planets

B．animals

C．hearts

D．countries

5.

A．make

B．lead

C．see

D．miss

6.

A．as

B．since

C．but

D．and

7.

A．from

B．on

C．in

D．without

8.

A．clever

B．popular

C．soft

D．latest

9.

A．later

B．ever

C．out

D．perhaps

10.

A．prizes

B．ages

C．hobbies

D．heroes

9 . 阅读下面短文，根据短文内容完成句子。

There are many inventions that have caused great changes in the world. Here is a short introduction of the maglev train (磁悬浮). The history of the maglev train started in the beginning of the 1900s. The American Robert Goddard and the French Emile Bachelet came up with the idea of frictionless (无摩擦的) trains. But scientist didn’t succeed in making it at that time.

About 60 years later, the Japanese started their research on maglev transportation. After many years of experiments, the Japanese began to build their first test line. 7 km in 1975, and finished it in 1977. Many test runs started in July, 1977 with a speed of 517 km/h. In 1990, Japan built the Yamanashi Maglev test line. This test line was 42.8 km long and the first running test was held in 1997.

The Germans also started research on the maglev train in the early 1970s. It took them ten years to make the first track(ti)model. In 1993, the longest nonstop test running was 1,674 km. That same year the speed reached 450km/h.

China finished a 30-km-long maglev train line in Shanghai in 2003. This is the first commercial (商业的) maglev train line in the world. Although this project cost over 1 billion dollars, we should feel proud of it.

1. Robert Goddard and Emile Bachelet ________ the idea of frictionless trains.
2. In 1975, the Japanese began to build ________ of maglev trains.
3. The Germans spent ________ in making the first track model.
4. The Maglev train line in Shanghai is ________ long.
5. ________ made the first commercial maglev train line.

10 . Last summer I went to one of the world’s most famous historical places, the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. It was the home of the emperors (皇帝) of the last two dynasties (朝代) in China, the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The Forbidden City was built in 1,420. The palace has over 10,000 rooms. It was where the emperors dealt with the official business with their ministers (大臣).

In Mandarin (普通话), the Forbidden City is called the Purple Forbidden City. However, the color of the palace itself is not purple. The color purple stands for power of the great emperors of China. It was so sacred (神圣的) that the common people could not even dream of ever going in.

The emperor also had some of the largest festival celebrations at the Forbidden City. During Chinese New Year, the emperor would invite all the members of his family and his officials to a banquet. The banquet had a hundred and eight Chinese dishes. It was such an expensive banquet that it could feed a common family for three generations (三代人).

Right now the Forbidden City is known as a historical site for tourists from all over the world. Everyone can go in there. It is a museum with priceless Chinese antiques (古董) and treasures in it.

I really learned a lot about the Chinese culture and its history from this trip to the Forbidden City. It was like a dream which has come true. And I was excited to go on the trip and see the things that I had always wanted to see.

1. How long is the history of the Forbidden City?

A．About 600 years.	B．More than 600 years.
C．1,420 years.	D．Over 10,000 years.

2. We call the palace the Purple Forbidden City because the color purple is the symbol for _______ of the emperor.

A．power

B．beauty

C．interest

D．health

3. What’s the Chinese meaning of the word “banquet” in Paragraph 4?

A．performance

B．competition

C．exhibition

D．dinner party

4. Which of the following is NOT TRUE about the Forbidden City in the passage?

A．The emperor lived there.

B．The wall of the Forbidden City was purple.

C．It is a historical place for visiting.

D．The emperor had festival celebrations there.

5. In the passage, the writer wants to show us _______ of the Forbidden City by comparing its past with present.

A．the beauty	B．the treasures
C．the changes in use	D．the building process