There are red postboxes on street corners and on the sides of buildings. The British red phone box is famous all over the world. The famous double-decker (双层) bus is red. Red is the color traditionally worn by British soldiers in battle (战争), and there is red in the UK’s Union Jack national flag. Britain even has a famous team of stunt (特技) jet fighters (喷气式战斗机) called “The Red Arrows”.
To go with British culture’s love of red, British nature also features many red animals. A beloved bird is the robin (知更鸟), which has a bright red breast (胸脯). At Christmastime in winter, the bird is commonly found on the greetings cards people send each other. There is also quite a rare animal called the red squirrel (松鼠). Foxes are red, and they used to be hunted by men in red outfits (服装).
But is red considered lucky to British people? A good way to see how a culture looks at a color is to look at the way it uses it in language. The results may surprise you. Even though Britain has a lot of red on its high streets and in its countryside, red is used quite differently as a metaphor (比喻). If someone “sees red”, they are angry. When a person is “red faced”, they are out of breath or blushing (脸红). Red is also a political color: it means a left-winger (blue is the color of the political right). To be “in the red” is to be in debt (someone in credit (存款) is “in the black”).
Look hard enough and you’ll find the color red being used in all countries. For instance the “red heart” symbol (符号) is pretty universal. But whether the British realize it or not, red is everywhere in Britain. It does seem that the country is in love with the color.
1. The article is mainly about ______.
| A．the metaphor of red in the English language |
| B．the preference for red animals in Britain |
| C．the history of red items in Britain |
| D．the color red in British culture |
| A．red-faced | B．see red |
| C．in the red | D．in the black |
| A．red has different meanings depending on the context (情境) |
| B．the color red is not as popular as it was before in Britain |
| C．most British people are aware of (知道的) how popular the color red is in British culture |
| D．British people are often asked to explain the meaning of the color red |
| A．compare | B．judge | C．inform | D．argue |
2 . When I was 13 my only purpose was to become the star on our football team. That meant
Football season started in September and all summer long I worked out. I carried my football everywhere for
Just before September, Miller was struck by a car and lost his right arm. I went to see him after he came back from
That season, I
One afternoon, I was crossing the field to go home and saw Miller
His words freed me from my bad
| A．cheering for | B．beating out | C．relying on | D．staying with |
| A．coach | B．student | C．teacher | D．player |
| A．practice | B．show | C．comfort | D．pleasure |
| A．school | B．vacation | C．hospital | D．training |
| A．pale | B．calm | C．relaxed | D．ashamed |
| A．held | B．broke | C．set | D．tried |
| A．reported | B．judged | C．organized | D．watched |
| A．and | B．then | C．but | D．thus |
| A．decision | B．mistake | C．accident | D．sacrifice |
| A．stuck | B．hurt | C．tired | D．lost |
| A．steady | B．hard | C．fun | D．fit |
| A．praise | B．advice | C．assistance | D．apology |
| A．let | B．helped | C．had | D．noticed |
| A．dropped | B．ready | C．trapped | D．safe |
| A．fine | B．wrong | C．quickly | D．normally |
| A．us | B．yourself | C．me | D．them |
| A．memories | B．ideas | C．attitudes | D．dreams |
| A．still | B．also | C．yet | D．just |
| A．challenged | B．cured | C．invited | D．admired |
| A．healthier | B．bigger | C．cleverer | D．cooler |
3 . Darek Fidyka, a 38-year-old Bulgarian, had been paralysed（瘫痪的）from the chest down for four years after a knife attack. Scientists from Britain and Poland took cells from his nose, transplanted them into his back and regrew his spinal cord （脊髓）. Now he can walk and even drive a car. The doctors were delighted but said it was the first step in a long journey.
The breakthrough came after 40 years of research by Professor Geoff Raisman, who found that cells had the possibility to repair damage to nasal （鼻子的） nerves, the only part of the nervous system that constantly regrows. “The idea was to take something from an area where the nervous system can repair itself, and put it into an area that doesn't repair itself,” Professor Raisman said.
Polish doctors injected the nasal cells into Mr Fidyka's spinal cord above and below the injury and used some nerves from his ankle to form a bridge across the damaged tissue. The nasal cells appear to have caused the spinal nerves to repair themselves.
Professor Raisman achieved this with rats in the late 1990s, but this is his greatest success. “I think the moment of discovery for me was Christmas in 1997 when I first saw a rat that couldn't control its hand put its hand out to me. That was an exciting moment, because I realized then that my belief that the nervous system could be repaired was true. ”
Doctors chose the easiest case for their first attempt — it might not work for others. But there is a real sense of hope that an idea once thought impossible has been realized.
David Nicholls, who helped provide money for the breakthrough, said information about the breakthrough would be made available to researchers across the globe.
“What you’ve got to understand is that for three million paralysed people in the world today, the world looks like a totally brighter place than it did yesterday,” he said.
1. Why did Professor Geoff Raisman choose cells from the nose?| A．The nervous system in the nose can repair itself. |
| B．Cells in the nose can be easily transplanted. |
| C．Cells in the nose reproduce rapidly. |
| D．He just wanted to give it a try. |
| A．The nasal cells reproduced and spread quickly. |
| B．The nerves from his ankle cured the injury. |
| C．The nervous system in the spinal cord can repair itself. |
| D．The nasal cells helped the spinal nerves to repair themselves. |
| A．His study on animals. |
| B．His operation on a paralysed patient. |
| C．His sudden thoughts about Christmas. |
| D．His unusual experience with a sick rat. |
| A．the world is becoming better and brighter |
| B．paralysed people have the hope of recovery |
| C．the report of the breakthrough will be published soon |
| D．researchers across the globe will carry out the operation immediately |
I recently cared for a patient near the end of his life. Medically speaking, his situation was hopeless, which made me feel helpless and defeated.
His mother came in to see him. I had prepared myself to support her, imagining she would crumble (崩溃) into a pile of tears.
“Our God is faithful,” she said, with a smile on her face and the sunshine of hope in her eyes.
“Cancer is faithful,” I muttered (嘀咕) in my mind.
“We still believe he can heal him,” she continued, as if she had heard what I was thinking. I provided updates on his body. In a laundry list of updates, perhaps two things were positive. She thanked me for the information, repeating back the minor positive notes I had given. I became kind of angry. And I wanted to sak, “Do you really not understand the gravity (严重性) of this illness?”
And then, yet again, as if she had heard me, she replied with this: A positive attitude gives us power over our circumstances, rather than allowing our circumstances to have power over us. I was shocked. Here I was, judging her positive attitude as a fault. I completely disregarded the choice to believe in something more powerful than me, more healing than the doctors on our team. It wasn’t blind faith. It was strength and devotion.
When I came out of the room, tears welling in my eyes, I sat at my computer and looked down at a small plate of candies she must have left for me on her way into the room. A hand written note was laid above them: Kate, your devotion is so appreciated, So, it is your devotion that I am appreciating today. Because of you, I am begging again to believe in miracles.
1. The author is probably a ________.
| A．nurse | B．patient | C．teacher | D．mother |
| A．would recover soon |
| B．had got much better |
| C．was going to die of cancer |
| D．might make a miraculous recovery |
| A．Because of her optimism. |
| B．Because of her impoliteness. |
| C．Because she couldn’t stop crying. |
| D．Because she was always complaining. |
| A．more patient | B．more positive |
| C．more aggressive | D．more sympathetic |
5 . A crisis is on the way. Global warming? The world economy? No, the decline of reading. People are just not doing it anymore, especially the young. Who’s responsible? What is responsible? The Internet, of course, and everything that comes with it—Facebook, Twitter, etc.
There’s been a warning about the coming death of literate civilization for a long time. In the 20th century, first it was the movies, then radio, then television that seemed to end the written world. None did. Reading survived; In fact, it not only survived, but it has developed better. The world is more literate than ever before — there are more and more readers and more and more books.
The fact that we often get our reading material online today is not something we should worry over. The electronic and digital revolution of the last two decades has arguably shown the way forward for reading and for writing. Interconnectivity allows for the possibility of a reading experience that was barely imaginable before. Where traditional books had to make do with photographs and illustrations(插图), an e-book can provide readers with an unlimited number of links：to texts, pictures, and videos.
On the other hand, there is the danger of trivialization(碎片化).One Twitter group is offering its followers single-sentence-long“digests”of the great novels. War and Peace in a sentence? You must be joking. We should fear the fragmentation(碎片)of reading. There is the danger that the high-speed connectivity of the Internet will reduce our attention span(时间)—that we will be incapable of reading anything of length or which requires deep concentration.
In such a fast-changing world, in which reality seems to be remade each day, we need the ability to focus and understand what is happening to us. This has always been the function of literature and we should be careful not to let it disappear. Our society needs to be able to imagine the possibility of someone entirely in pace with modern technology but able to make sense of a dynamic, confusing world.
1. In Paragraph 2,we can learn .| A．the disappearance of traditional books |
| B．the development of human civilization |
| C．the historical challenges for reading |
| D．the birth of pioneering e-books |
| A．1imited link |
| B．imaginative design |
| C．low cost |
| D．varied contents |
| A．Doubtful | B．Worried |
| C．Shocked | D．Hopeful |
| A．Technology is an opportunity and a challenge for traditional reading. |
| B．Technology pushes the way forward for reading and writing. |
| C．Interconnectivity is a feature of new reading experience. |
| D．Technology offers a greater variety of reading practice. |
6 . On June 17, 1774, the officials from Maryland and Virginia held a talk with the Indians of the Six Nations. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. In a letter the next day they refused the offer as follows:
We know that you have a high opinion of the kind of learning taught in your colleges, and that the costs of living of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced that you mean to do us good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you must know that different nations have different ways of looking at things, and you will therefore not be offended if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the college of the northern provinces: they were taught all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad manners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods — they were totally good for nothing.
We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we refuse to accept it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, teach them all we know, and make men of them.
1. The passage is about ____.| A．the talk between the Indians and the officials |
| B．the colleges of the northern provinces |
| C．the educational values of the Indians |
| D．the problems of the Americans in the mid-eighteen century |
| A．express their opinions on equal treatment |
| B．politely refuse a friendly offer |
| C．show their pride |
| D．describe Indian customs |
| A．it would be better for their boys to receive some schooling |
| B．they were being insulted by the offer |
| C．they knew more about science than the officials |
| D．they had better way of educating young men |
| A．young women should also be educated |
| B．they had different goals of education |
| C．they taught different branches of science |
| D．they should teach the sons of the officials first |
The Tropical Paradise Holiday
Welcome to St Anna, our tropical paradise just off the coast of Latin America. You can spend two weeks in our luxury four-star hotel. The cost of your flight is included in the holiday, and you can be picked up from your home by our special airport bus. On your arriving, our coach will be waiting to take you to the hotel. All flights leave from Heathrow on a Monday morning.
The Cowrie Hotel is built right on the beachfront, and many rooms have wonderful ocean views. If swimming and surfing are not enough for you, the hotel also offers horse rides on the island, and a discount membership of the golf club.
The Rain Forest Adventure Holiday
Every year Broughton holidays offer twelve days of unforgettable adventure in a tropical rain forest. You may have a choice of Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia, or even to the greatest rain forest of them all, the mighty Amazonian forest.
You will fly to our special base camps at the edge of the forest, where you will be given five days of survival training, and talks on the local wildlife.
Then you take a bus into the forest. You will have to walk the final five miles to the camp sites to avoid disturbing the local ecology. All of the camp sites have been carefully built to cause the minimal amount of disturbance to the local wildlife.
Remember that these adventure holidays take you deep into the wilderness, and they are not suitable for families with young children. Also remember that no more than two dozen guests can stay at any camp at one time, so if you want to go on one of these very special holidays, you will need to book early!
1. What can we learn about the rain forest holiday?
| A．Travelers will learn to talk with wild animals. |
| B．Different means of transportation will be used. |
| C．The holiday will end with a survival training. |
| D．Booking early, travelers will get a discount. |
| A．People loving water sports. |
| B．People travelling with children. |
| C．People preferring comfortable hotels. |
| D．People concerned with environment and wildlife. |
| A．Transportation. | B．Price. |
| C．Reservation. | D．Departure time. |
8 . In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied (依赖) on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.
1. What does this passage mainly talk about?| A．Competition helps to set up self-respect. |
| B．Opinions about competition are different among people. |
| C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development. |
| D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition. |
| A．It pushes society forward. |
| B．It builds up a sense of duty. |
| C．It improves personal abilities. |
| D．It encourages individual efforts. |
| A．those who try their best to win |
| B．those who value competition most highly |
| C．those who are against competition most strongly |
| D．those who rely on others most for success |
| A．One’s worth lies in his performance compared with others. |
| B．One’s success in competition needs great efforts. |
| C．One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills. |
| D．One’s success is based on how hard he has tried. |
9 . In the fall of 1985，I was a brighteyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twentyone years later I am later I am still a brighteyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic...and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8!Our home was a complete zoo...a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college fulltime. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant talking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit.But I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!
I am not special, just singleminded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember; little steps add up to big dreams.
1. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be ________.| A．a writer | B．a teacher | C．a judge | D．a doctor |
| A．She wanted to study by herself. |
| B．She fell in love and got married. |
| C．She suffered from a serious illness. |
| D．She decided to look after her grandma. |
| A．She was busy yet happy with her family life. |
| B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons. |
| C．She wanted to remain a fulltime housewife. |
| D．She was too confused to make a correct choice. |
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Little by little，one goes far. |
| C．Every coin has two sides. |
| D．Well begun, half done. |
10 . The first ancient Olympic Games for which we still have written records were held in 776 BC. Coroebus won the only event at the Olympics. This made him the first Olympic champion in history. Then the Olympic Games developed and continued to be held every four years. In 393 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, a Christian, put a stop to the Games.
In 1892,a young Frenchman named Pierre de Coubertin suggested starting the Olympic Games again but failed. Two years later,Coubertin organized a meeting with 79 people representing nine countries. At this meeting he got what he wanted. All the delegates at the meeting voted for the Olympic Games. They also decided to have Coubertin found an international committee (委员会) to organize the Games. This committee became the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Demetrious Vikelas from Greece was chosen to be its first president. Athens was chosen for the revival (复兴) of the Olympic Games and the planning began.
The first modern Olympic Games opened in the first week of April, 1896. Since the Greek government didn’t have enough money to build a stadium, a wealthy Greek man, Georgios Averoff, donated over $100,000 to repair the Panathenaic Stadium built in 330 BC.Since the Games were not well publicized (宣传) internationally, athletes were not nationally chosen but rather came by themselves. Some athletes were tourists who happened to be in the area during the Games.
1. What can we know about the first Olympic Games？| A．There was only one event in it. |
| B．It opened in the first week of April 1896. |
| C．Coroebus was the first man to take part in it. |
| D．It was stopped by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. |
| A．776 | B．1892 |
| C．1894 | D．1896 |
a．Coubertin first brought forward his idea to start the Olympic Games.
b．Demetrious from Greece was selected as the first president of IOC．
c．Coroebus became the first Olympic champion.
d．Georgios donated money to repair the Panathenaic Stadium.
| A．acdb | B．cabd |
| C．bdac | D．dcba |
| A．The History of the Olympics |
| B．How Coubertin Set up IOC |
| C．The First Modern Olympic Games |
| D．Great Changes in Olympic Games |
