1 . I guess that there's probably some demanding work schedule, or social anxiety around stepping up to help for an unknown sport. She may just need a little persuading. So I try again and tug at the heartstrings. I mention the single parent with four kids running the show and I talk about the dad coaching a team that his kids aren’t even on… At this point the unwilling parent speaks up, "Alright. Yes, I’ll do it."
What does the underlined phrase "tug at the heartstrings" in paragraph 2 mean?
| A．Encourage team work. | B．Appeal to feelings. |
| C．Promote good deeds. | D．Provide advice. |
2 . In the mid-1990s, Tom Bissell taught English as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. He left after seven months, physically broken and having lost his mind. A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.
His visit, however, ended up involving a lot more than that. Hence this book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, which talks about a road trip from Tashkent to Karakalpakstan, where millions of lives have been destroyed by the slow drying up of the sea. It is the story of an American travelling to a strange land, and of the people he meets on his way: Rustam, his translator, a lovely 24-year-old who picked up his colorful English in California, Oleg and Natasha, his hosts in Tashkent, and a string of foreign aid workers.
What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?
| A．Developing a serious mental disease. |
| B．Taking a guided tour in Central Asia. |
| C．Working as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. |
| D．Writing an article about the Aral Sea. |
3 . Southbank, at an eastern bend in the Thames, is the center of British skateboarding, where the continuous crashing of skateboards left your head ringing .I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language. And my favorite: Safe. Safe meant cool. It meant hello. It meant don't worry about it. Once, when trying a certain trick on the beam (横杆), I fell onto the stones, damaging a nerve in my hand, and Toby came over, helping me up: Safe, man. Safe. A few minutes later, when I landed the trick, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting: “Safe! Safe! Safe!” And that's what mattered — landing tricks, being a good skater.
What do the underlined words “Safe! Safe! Safe!” probably mean?
| A．Be careful! | B．Well done! | C．No way! | D．Don't worry! |
4 . Maeve Higgins once set herself a task. The Irish-born comedian wanted to see what life would be like if she stopped laughing at things that weren’t funny. Turns out it wasn’t as easy as she thought. “It was so hard,” she says. “ Laughter is a lubricant (润滑油) and is expected, and it’s really hard not to do it.”
Higgins suggests there’s something particularly special about being part of the shared experience that is live comedy — that curious magic that occurs when people come together specifically to laugh.
Comedy is more than just a pleasant way to pass an evening, humour more than something to amuse. They’re interwoven into our everyday existence. Whether you’re sharing an amusing story at a party or telling a dark joke at a funeral, humour is everywhere. But what is it for? And can humour, as comedy, change how we feel, what we think or even what we do?
As an essential part of human interaction, humour has been on the minds of thinkers for centuries. One of the most enduring theories of humour was put forward by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It asserts that humour appears to make fun of the weak and exert superiority. While this is clearly the function of some comedy, it’s far from a complete explanation for the overall purpose of humour.
For some comedians, it’s not just about getting laughs — it’s about changing what we think and maybe even what we do. If there’s one comic who is really typical of this, it’s Josie Long. A social justice activist and a comedian, Long has a reputation for delightful, optimistic humour and storytelling.
As her career has evolved, she has consciously put social and political topics at the heart of her act. She believes that comedians have a role to play in challenging some of the most pressing issues of the day.
British comic Stephen K Amos sells out venues seating thousands, year in, year out. Amos firmly believes that when comics consciously deal with pressing or controversial （有争议的）social issues like racism, they can reach people on a much more meaningful level than that achieved by briefly lifting someone’s mood. And while it may be difficult to quantify, he says, the social and psychological impact of comedy deserves much greater recognition.
The research backs this up. Although the role of comedy is to be entertaining first and foremost, Sharon Lockyer, a sociologist who studies humour, has identified a number of possible other functions. These include challenging stereotypes (刻板印象).
Amos’s work frequently settles the issues of race by challenging stereotypes.”I don’t do things for shock value,” he says. “ I do stuff that matters to me. In the old days it was just about doing jokes. We’ve moved on — people are talking about things that matter. ”
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?| A．The benefits of laughing. |
| B．What a comedian’s daily work is about. |
| C．Why Maeve Higgins chose to be a comedian. |
| D．Maeve Higgins’ understanding of the appeal of comedy. |
| A．Protect the weak from the evil. |
| B．Encourage people to be stronger. |
| C．Be determined to improve oneself. |
| D．Show you are better than other people. |
| A．By gradually influencing people’s attitudes. |
| B．By urging politicians to try and solve the issues. |
| C．By quickly yet thoroughly changing people’s thinking. |
| D．By calling on the whole society to pay attention to the issues. |
| A．getting people to laugh |
| B．promoting social progress |
| C．influencing people’s ideas |
| D．making people more productive |
5 . A Universal Greeting: Shaking Hands
A handshake seems to be a normal gesture. In fact, in the 9th century BC, an ancient site during the ruling of Shalmaneser III clearly shows two figures holding hands.The Iliad,usually dated to the 8th century BC, mentions that two characters “taking each other's hands and expressing their loyalty," Centuries later, Shakespeare once wrote of two characters who shook hands and swore to be brothers in the bookAs You Like It.Shaking hands seems to be an ancient custom whose roots have disappeared in the sands of time.
Historians who have studied ancient etiquette books note that the modern handshake did not appear until the middle of the 19th century, when it was considered a slightly inappropriate gesture that could only be used between friends. But what if Shakespeare had written about handshaking hundreds of years earlier?
According to author Torbjorn Lundmark in hisTales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World,the problem comes in differing definitions of the handshake. The early handshakes mentioned above were part of making deals or peace; King Shalmaneser 111 referred to a rebellion in which he signed a treaty with the King of Babylon. In theIliad,Diomedes and Glaucus shook, hands when they realized they were guest-friends, and Diomedes declared: "Let's not try to kill each other." Shakespeare was similarly referencing settlement of a conflict.
The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to trace. As a Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg — the chief authority for the history of handshaking — wrote in a chapter of ananthologycalledA Cultural History of Gesture,“More than in any other field, that of the study of gesture is one in which the historian has to make the most of only a few clues”.
One of the earliest clues he cites is a 16th-century German translation of the French writer Rabelais'sGargantua and Pantagruel.When one character meets Gargantua, Rabelais writes, “He was greeted by countless hugs and countless good days." But according to Roodenburg, the 16th-century German translation added references to shaking hands.
A popular saying suggests that Cleland's statements against bowing were actually a wish to go back to a potentially traditional method of greeting in Europe. As the centuries progressed, handshaking was replaced by more hierarchical ways of greeting — like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in a few remote places, like in Dutch towns where some would use the gesture to make peace after disagreements. Around the same time, those who valued equality also made use of handshaking. Then, as the Continent's hierarchy was weakened, handshaking became a common practice among people of the same rank, as it is today.
1. Why does the author mention Shakespeare in the first two paragraphs?| A．To prove that the history of handshaking is hard to find. |
| B．To illustrate that handshaking is a very old custom. |
| C．To show readers that handshaking is common in fiction. |
| D．To explain the value of handshaking in communication. |
| A．The origin of handshaking as a form of greeting is easy to trace. |
| B．Citizens usually shake hands to show friendliness in Holland. |
| C．It was used only between friends and to reach an agreement. |
| D．It is a common practice between people of different social positions. |
| A．the science of mental ability | B．a collection of selected literary passages |
| C．a daily written record of experiences | D．all the living things of a particular region |
| A．The handshake has disappeared in some remote parts of the Netherlands. |
| B．Handshaking has different meanings in different European countries. |
| C．Most Europeans prefer to shake hands rather than bow. |
| D．Handshakes are now common between people of different positions. |
6 . It’s easy to assume that a vacation to Bali will cost a small fortune. There are plenty of accommodations, food and local transportation, and even the spas offer massages and treatments at value prices. However, you can easily spend a week or two in Bali for under $2,000, without having to sleep on the beach. Here are a few things to consider when planning Bali on a budget.
What is the best time to visit Bali on a budget?
If you’re on a budget, consider visiting Bali during the lower, wetter season, which runs from October through March. The crowds will be fewer, and both hotel rates and flights from abroad are often cheaper, except during the holiday period between mid-December and early January, when crowds swell. The only trade-off for the lower prices is the wet season. This time of year isn’t always ideal for sunbathing, and serious rainfall can make outdoor activities, such as whitewater rafting and visiting waterfalls and rice terraces, less than appealing. That said, even during rainy season, it doesn’t usually rain all day long. Expect bursts of sunshine between the storms.
What is the cheapest way to get around Bali?
The absolute cheapest way to get around Bali is by local bus, but it can take a long time. There are also tourist buses, including hop-on, hop-off options, that travel between different hubs across the island. Bali is well-served by taxis, both of the car and motorbike variety, and the prices tend to be affordable by international standards. Most drivers will offer you a fixed rate for full-day hires or to get from point A to point B, rather than using a meter.
Remember to bargain; doing so is particularly easy when a driver is on his own rather than at a taxi stand.
How much does food cost in Bali?
If you’re into fine dining, you can end up spending a large chunk of your budget on food. Eating at the average restaurant geared towards tourists is the best way to have a meal in Bali on a budget. A good meal should cost you around 100,000 rupiah (around $7), but if you’re willing to subsist mostly off of local specialties such as nasi goreng (fried rice) and eat at local restaurants, you can expect to pay around 30,000 rupiah ($2) to get fed. Best of all, most hotels and guesthouses in Bali come with free breakfast, and many offer heavier options of noodles and meat that may keep you full until lunch.
1. Which of the following situation can be best described by the underlined word trade-off in paragraph 2?| A．Jack got a reward after he returned the lost bag to its owner. |
| B．Lily spent much money buying some handicrafts at the local fair. |
| C．Wendy cancelled her trip in order to prevent the spread of the virus. |
| D．Sam was scolded by his parents for what he did in school last night. |
| A．It’s better for outdoor enthusiasts to visit Bali during the off season. |
| B．Passengers had better fix the price with drivers before the taxi pulls out from the station. |
| C．If on a tight budget, one is advised to visit Bali at the end of December every year. |
| D．It’s relatively economical to eat merely at average restaurants tailored to visitors. |
| A．City and Transport. | B．Travel and Recreation. |
| C．Nature and Environment. | D．Food and Health. |
7 . Humans are not the only ones who underwent self-domestication. So did our close relatives, the bonobos, and the species we call our best friend. A tiny proportion of the genome differentiates dogs from wolves, and yet millions of dogs are comfortably curled up in our homes, while wolves move around at the edge of extinction.
When our research group began its work almost 20 years ago, we discovered that dogs also have extraordinary intelligence: they can read our gestures better than any other species. Wolves, in contrast, are mysterious and unpredictable. Their home is the wilderness, and that wilderness is shrinking.
But not so long ago the evolutionary race between dogs and wolves was so close, it was unclear who would win. Dogs, in fact, did not descend from wolves. Instead, dogs and wolves shared a wolflike ancestor.
Folklore supposes that humans brought wolf puppies into camp and domesticated them. Or as wolf expert David Mech wrote in 1974, “Evidently early humans tamed wolves and domesticated them, eventually selectively breeding them and finally developing the domestic dog from them.” But this story has not held up. Taming an animal occurs during its lifetime. Domestication happens over generations and involves changes to the genome.
So how did wolves turn into dogs? Back in the Ice Age, as our human populations grew more sedentary, we probably created more rubbish, which we then dumped outside our camps. These leavings would have included tempting pieces of food for hungry wolves. Not every wolf would have been able to scavenge, however. These animals would have had to be unafraid of humans, and if they displayed any aggression toward us, they would have been killed. After generations of selection for friendliness without intentional selection by humans, this special population of wolves would have begun to take on a different appearance. Coat color, ears, tails: all probably started to change.
Animals that could respond to our gestures and voices would be extremely useful as hunting partners and guards. They would have been valuable as well for their warmth and companionship, and slowly we would have allowed them to move from outside our camps to our firesides. We did not domesticate dogs. The friendliest wolves domesticated themselves.
1. What can be summarized about wolves and dogs from the first three paragraphs?| A．Wolves are smarter than dogs. |
| B．They are very much racially divided. |
| C．They are close relatives but dogs seem to be on the winning side. |
| D．Dogs have made their ways to indoor life while wolves to the wild. |
| A．diverse | B．limited |
| C．living in the same place | D．involving regular migration |
| A．Dogs evolved from wolves. |
| B．Selective breeding developed domestic dogs. |
| C．Taming and domesticating an animal are the same thing. |
| D．Friendliness as a quality translates into an evolutionary strategy. |
| A．From Wolf to Dog | B．Dog: Our Favorite Pet |
| C．An Intentional Domestication | D．A Competition Story between Wolf and Dog |
8 . When Chef Enrique Olvera opened his restaurant, Pujol, 13 years ago, his only goal was to have the best restaurant in the neighborhood. Olvera's budget was so small that he had to do all the things himself. But Pujol is now widely thought of as Mexico's finest restaurant and the 36th best in the world. He reached his position by making his cuisine 'fancier and fancier, and more complex' over time. Pujol now serves a tasting menu of sophisticated food that wouldn't look out of place even at New York's Momofuku Ko. To decode his rocket soar in world cuisine circus, Olvera insists on mixing elaborate, cutting-edge techniques with a strong emphasis on local ingredients to create a cosmopolitan cuisine that's at once international yet unmistakably Mexican, matching the direction of Mexico City itself.
A visit to the 48-seat Pujol reveals a space-age kitchen containing 27 cooks, with one making his fifth attempt to reshape the egg liquid and another coloring potatoes. Pujol tolerates any grotesque attempt a chef could imagine and the restaurant is the trial site for its staff. That makes Pujol a hot place to attract free labor. The chef has also thought more about bringing Mexican cooks home from the U.S. Many are returning to move past the glass ceiling that exists in America. “Despite the number of Mexicans working in U.S. restaurants, you rarely see a Mexican head chef in a New York kitchen,” said Olvera. “Then why not come back here to attract diners here for the most local but also novel dishes?”
And for foreign diners, Mexican restaurants have another wonder to offer. Just think that merely 30 dollars can sustain you for a 4-course feast in an ordinary Mexican restaurant and no one could resist the temptation. To achieve such high cost performance, Olvera states that you have to keep looking for and exploring with the simple ingredients from which to accomplish amazing dishes. “You always cherish where you come from, but there’s also the need for new sensations. Keep exploring with new ideas until you get a better dish.” After all, it’s the soul of modern cuisine.
1. Why has Pujol become so successful?| A．Because Olvera aimed low in the first place. |
| B．Because Olvera forms the habit of doing things by himself. |
| C．Because Olvera attracts excellent cooks from the U.S. |
| D．Because Olvera combines cooking skills with local characteristics. |
| A．forceful. | B．weird. | C．abstract. | D．painful. |
| A．Because Pujol provides them with high titles and salaries. |
| B．Because they find it hard to rise to senior positions in U.S. restaurants. |
| C．Because they cook Mexican food better than American food. |
| D．Because they refer to the high cost performance of the restaurants. |
| A．Momofuku Ko is a famous food critic. |
| B．Olvera relies totally on foreign cutting-edge cooking techniques. |
| C．Eating in ordinary Mexican restaurants is expensive. |
| D．One key to success in today’s restaurant business is continuous innovation. |
9 . Each generation -- from Baby Boomers to Generation X to Millennials -- has its own set of values and characteristics. But one thing common to all generations is that they are suffering from stress. In a recent poll by the American Psychological Association (APA), all age groups now report higher levels of stress than in the past. Baby Boomers (those born roughly between 1946 and 1964, and who are now moving into their retirement years) said that they are stressed about earnings and health issues. Gen Xers (born roughly between 1965 and 1980) are concerned about work, income, and job stability. However, Millennials (born roughly between 1981 and 2004) are turning out to be the most stressed-out of all the generations. Poll results indicate that stress levels for these younger respondents are significantly above average. So what’s worrying the Millennials?
Millennials are the first generation to grow up with computers in the home and the classroom. Due to the rise of modern technology and social media, they are constantly showered with information. Over time, this information overload can become too much to handle and can result in stress, which in turn can cause serious physical, psychological, and emotional problems. Another contributing factor, according to author Michael D. Hais, is that many Millennials have lived sheltered lives due to overprotective parents. These young adults lack problem-solving skills and may struggle with fear of failure once they leave home. Making matters worse, the 2008 economic depression occurred when many Millennials were graduating from high school or college. The resulting economic slowdown reduced the number of available jobs for graduates. Sure enough, in the APA poll, Millennials said that work, money, relationships, family responsibilities, and the economy are the main stressors in their lives.
However, the poll results may be a bit misleading as they don’t take into account public attitudes toward stress and mental illness. Ronald Kessler of Harvard Medical School, who has studied the prevalence (流行) of mental disorders in the U.S., points out that changes in social attitudes have helped reduce the stigma attached to mental illness over the years. For example, the creation of health-related television programming and specialty magazines such as Psychology Today have contributed to greater public awareness of mental health issues. According to psychologists, younger people now are more willing to admit to them that they are under stress than in the past. “There is not a lot of evidence of true prevalence having gone up,” Kessler says. “It looks like younger people are in worse shape, but unfortunately, we just don’t know.”
1. It can be learned from the results of the APA poll that ______.| A．All age groups are experiencing more stress than before. |
| B．Millennials have more stress than before, but other age groups aren’t. |
| C．Compared with other age groups, Millennials have more overprotective parents. |
| D．Stress levels are down for all age groups, but they’re down the most for Millennials. |
| A．Health. | B．Occupation. | C．Money. | D．Weak economy. |
| A．Behavior. | B．Shame. | C．Symptom. | D．Complexity. |
| A．They fail to keep good body shape. |
| B．They are more interested in health-related media. |
| C．They are more willing and courageous to face up to their fault. |
| D．They are more willing to seek professional help to deal with stress. |
