1 . British beer and pubs are famous around the world. Things are changing, however. Is this the end of a great British tradition?
For thousands of years, a very important building in any British village has been the pub. In fact, until a place has a pub, it is not really considered a community worthy of a name. Traditionally, the pub is at the heart of any village or town, since it is where people gather to socialize and exchange news. It is an institution at the heart of British society. After all, the word “pub” is actually short for “public house”.
As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites that tourists visit. Many British pubs have names referring to monarchs, such as The King's Head or The Queen Victoria, but of course this doesn't mean they are only for kings and queens. Pubs have always welcomed people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub boss can always find a warm place for customers by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.
That's how it used to be, but there are worrying signs that things are beginning to change. Economic downturns, governmental austerity measures and cultural changes are causing many pubs to go out of business. People do not have a lot of spare money to spend on beer. On top of that, in 2007 smoking was banned in all public indoor spaces, including pubs, which may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs since then. This decline is happening despite the fact that pubs are now allowed by law to stay open after 11p.m..
In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to diversify to attract new customers. And with various “save the pub” campaigns, there are signs that people are gathering around pubs to support this great British institution with pride.
1. Why are British pubs often old?| A．Because the British want to attract tourists. |
| B．Because the birth of a community often results from a pub in it. |
| C．Because they are where people socialize and exchange news. |
| D．Because they follow in the tradition of British kings and queens. |
| A．Emperors. | B．Bosses. | C．Special tourists. | D．Ordinary people. |
| A．Cultural differences. | B．Economic decline. |
| C．Changes in opening hours. | D．Regulations against drinking. |
| A．Conservative. | B．Skeptical. | C．Hopeless. | D．Objective. |
2 . 60 or so men and women are gathering outside of the Emergency Food Shelf in the city of Burlington. Inside, volunteer students from the University of Vermont （UVM） are working busily to bake chicken, re-heat donated pizza, chop vegetables, make peanut butter and sandwiches, and put bananas and beverages （饮料）within easy reach of anyone who comes through the door.
Six nights a week, the Salvation Army makes dinner for the hungry. But on Sunday, the Army's day of rest, the UVM kids take over and make sure that anyone who's hungry gets fed.
This year the program is headed by a tall, blonde chemistry major. At age 22, senior Carly Hodgins has been a part of this group for four years and is a masterful organizer.
“Time to open up!” Carly yells.
The door swings open. Men and women who've been waiting outside silently walk into the building. Ten steps inside the door, each man or woman picks up a waiting plate and the students start piling it with food. Every person gets a portion（一份）of meat, vegetables, salad, potatoes, and pizza.
Carly stands at the end of the food line and offers a beverage. "Apple juice?” she asks, looking straight into the eyes of each diner. "Orange juice?” Her smile is a flash of sunshine.
I remember words buried long ago in my heart: “I am hungry and you give me food. I am thirsty and you give me something to drink. I am a stranger and you welcome me.
When the last meal has been served and the last diner has gone back into the darkness! wipe down a steel table in the kitchen and think about what these kids have done. Tonight, no one in Burlington will go hungry.
1. What is the UVM volunteer students' duty?| A．To help the Salvation Army make dinner. |
| B．To make dinner for the hungry on Sunday. |
| C．To make sure the hungry get fed every day. |
| D．To make dinner for the hungry six nights a week. |
| A．They help themselves to it. |
| B．They wait at the door to get it. |
| C．They get it at the end of the food line. |
| D．They let the students put it on their plates. |
| A．Staying out of trouble. | B．Helping a person in trouble. |
| C．Enjoying good things in life. | D．Seeking help when in trouble. |
| A．A person waiting for a meal. | B．A person preparing a meal. |
| C．A person serving a meal. | D．A person eating a meal. |
3 . Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. Like pairs of dogs you can find in any neighborhood, these two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their houses.
One evening, Brownie’s family noticed that Brownie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no success. Brownie didn’t show up the next day, and, although they made their efforts to find him, by the next week he was still missing, Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie’s house alone, barking and jumping. Busy with their own lives, they paid no attention to the nervous little neighbor dog.
Finally, one morning Spotty refused to take “no” for an answer. Ted, Brownie’s owner, was continuously disturbed by the angry, determined little dog. Spotty followed Ted about, barking all the time, then darting toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “Follow me! It’s urgent!”
Eventually, Ted followed Spotty across the empty lot as Spotty stopped to race back and barked encouragingly. The little dog led the man to a deserted spot a half mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie alive, one of his legs crushed in a steel trap (圈套). Frightened, Ted now wished he had taken Spotty’s earlier appeals seriously.
Then Ted noticed something. Spotty had done something else besides leading Brownie’s human owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found some food remains of every meal. Brownie had been fed that week! Spotty had been visiting Brownie regularly, in the hope of keeping his friend alive. Spotty had actually stayed with Brownie to protect him from hunger and other dangers, and keep his spirits up.
Brownie’s leg was carefully treated and he soon got well again. For many years thereafter the two families watched the faithful friends chasing each other down that well-worn path between their houses.
1. At the very beginning, Ted paid little attention to Spotty because __________.| A．he was not free at the moment | B．he was sure Brownie would be OK |
| C．he didn’t like Spotty at all | D．his missing dog made him sad |
| A．rushing | B．shouting | C．walking | D．looking |
| A．managed to free his dog at once | B．was very thankful to Spotty |
| C．regretted not following Spotty earlier | D．was angry with the trap-maker |
| A．humans and animals depend on each other for comfort |
| B．it’s not right to hunt for animals in any neighborhood |
| C．Ted has to take better care of his beloved dog later on |
| D．Brownie would have died without Spotty’s timely help |
4 . Having worked at a 7-Eleven store for two years, I thought I had become successful at what our manager calls “customer relations”. But the other night an old woman shattered my belief that a glib(非诚恳的) response could smooth over the rough spots of dealing with other human beings.
The moment she entered the store, the woman presented a sharp contrast to our shiny store with its bright lighting and neatly arranged shelves. On a zero-degree night, she was wearing only a faded print dress, a thin sweater too small to button, and black slippers with the backs cut out to expose heels. There were no stockings or socks on her blue-veined legs.
After strolling around the store for several minutes, the old woman stopped in front of the rows of canned vegetables. She picked up some corn niblets and stared with a strange intensity at the label. At that point, I decided to be a good employee and asked her if she needed help.
“I need some food,” she muttered(嘟囔) in reply to my bright “Can I help you?”
“Are you looking for corn, ma’am?”
“I need some food,” she repeated. “Any kind. But I can’t pay.” She said.
For a second, I was tempted to say, “Take the corn.” But the employee rules flooded into my mind. I responded dutifully, “ I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t give away anything for free.”
The old woman’s face collapsed a bit more, and her hands trembled as she put the can back on the shelf. She shuffled(蹒跚) past me toward the door, her torn and dirty clothing barely covering her bent back.
Moments after she left, I rushed out the door with the can of corn, but she was nowhere in sight. For the rest of my shift, the image of the woman kept coming to my mind. I had been young, healthy. She had been old, sick and desperate. Wishing with all my heart that I had acted like a human being rather than a robot, I was saddened to realize how fragile a hold we have on our better instincts(本能).
1. What does the underlined world “shatter” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Maintain. | B．Hold. |
| C．Break. | D．Lose. |
| A．She was attracted by the shiny store with neatly arranged shelves. |
| B．She left the store in disappointment without any food. |
| C．She declined the writer’s offer of a can of corn. |
| D．She was very healthy and was not afraid of the cold weather. |
| A．He was actually very mean. |
| B．He followed the employee rules. |
| C．He disliked the woman’s appearance. |
| D．He wanted to give her after she went out of the store. |
| A．A Lady and I | B．Working at A Store |
| C．Sadness | D．If Only …… |
5 . To me, life without music would not be exciting. I realize that this is not true for everybody. Many people get along quite well without going to the concert, and listening to the record. But music plays an important part in everyone's life, whether he realizes it or not. Try to imagine, for example, what films or TV plays would be like without music. Would the feelings, the moving plot, and the greatest interests, be so exciting or dramatic? I'm not sure about it.
Now, we have been speaking of music in its more common meaning----the kind of music we hear in the concert hall. But if we look at some parts of music more closely, we discover them in our everyday life too----in the rhythm of the sea, the melody of a bird in the woods and so on. So music surely has meaning for everyone, in some way or other. And, of course, it has special meaning for those who have spent all their lives working on playing or writing music.
It is well said, “Through music a child enters into a world of beauty, expresses himself from his heart, feels the joy of doing things alone, learns to take care of others, develops his mind and makes his body strong.”
1. What does the writer say more about in the text?| A．Life full of music. | B．The importance of music. |
| C．Life without music. | D．The development of music. |
| A．go to the concert instead of enjoying music |
| B．get along quite well without music |
| C．don't realize the importance of music |
| D．think music would be less exciting than films |
| A．flying | B．living |
| C．looking | D．singing |
| A．is very necessary for our everyday life |
| B．is very important, especially for children |
| C．can make our life exciting and dramatic |
| D．can enter another beautiful world |
6 . Two of the saddest words in the English language are “if only”. I live my life with the goal of never having to say those words, because they convey regret, lost opportunities, mistakes, and disappointment.
My father is famous in our family for saying, “Take the extra minute to do it right.” I always try to live by the “extra minute” rule. When my children were young and likely to cause accidents, I always thought about what I could do to avoid an “if only” moment, whether it was something minor like moving a cup full of hot coffee away from the edge of a counter, or something that required a little more work such as taping padding (衬垫) onto the sharp corners of a glass coffee table.
I don’t only avoid those “if only” moments when it comes to safety. It’s equally important to avoid “if only” in our personal relationships. We all know people who lost a loved one and regretted that they had foregone an opportunity to say “I love you” or “I forgive you.” When my father announced he was going to the eye doctor across from my office on Good Friday, I told him that it was a holiday for my company and I wouldn’t be here. But then I thought about the fact that he’s 84 years old and I realized that I shouldn’t give up an opportunity to see him. I called him and told him I had decided to go to work on my day off after all.
I know there will still be occasions when I have to say “if only” about something, but my life is definitely better because of my policy of doing everything possible to avoid that eventuality. And even though it takes an extra minute to do something right, or it occasionally takes an hour or two in my busy schedule to make a personal connection, I know that I’m doing the right thing. I’m buying myself peace of mind and that’s the best kind of insurance for my emotional well-being.
1. Which of the following is an example of the “extra minute” rule?| A．Start the car the moment everyone is seated. |
| B．Leave the room for a minute with the iron working. |
| C．Wait for an extra minute so that the steak tastes better. |
| D．Move an object out of the way before it trips someone. |
| A．keep her appointment with the eye doctor |
| B．meet her father who was already an old man |
| C．join in the holiday celebration of the company |
| D．finish her work before the deadline approached |
| A．abandoned | B．lacked |
| C．avoided | D．taken |
| A．To Keep Emotional Well-being | B．To Prevent “If Only” Moments |
| C．To Follow the Most Useful Rule | D．To Achieve the Peace of Mind |
7 . A while back I caught a news report on something called ―couch surfing and the network of trusting souls who make this phenomenon possible. They offer to put up travelers free of charge and help them on their ways. At first, it sounded unbelievable. I mean, inviting strangers into one’s home for one or two nights? Give me a break.
However, I was intrigued. I decided to find it out. The only way to truly learn about this phenomenon was to dive in. So I planned a trip to Finland, a country I’ve always wanted to explore. I would couch surf at every stop there.
If ever any anxiety existed when stepping into the unknown, it disappeared when my first host met me at the train station. Ari looked like my idea of a typical Finn: tall and blue-eyed. Finns were also supposed to be famously reserved (寡言少语的). Ari was anything but. He was a live wire, giving me a warm welcome and walking with me to his apartment, where he showed me the sleeper sofa, served me tea, and engaged me in warm conversations. He also handed me a key to come and go as I pleased.
If this was what couch surfing was all about—trust and friendship—then I had gotten off to a good start. As I boarded my next train to continue my journey, I began to think about this couch-surfing idea. What encouraged these people to open their homes to strangers? I concluded that there was a desire to lend a hand to like-minded folks who might enrich their own lives.
Seven cities in 14 days. Seven hosts. Seven new friends. If couch surfing taught me anything, it’s this: Most people are good and generous. Where will couch surfing take me next? Who knows? But I can’t wait to find out.
1. Which of the following best explains the underlined word in the second paragraph?| A．relaxed. | B．bored. |
| C．interested. | D．pleased. |
| A．He was reserved like most Finns. |
| B．He talked less but he was friendly. |
| C．He treated the author as a friend. |
| D．He saw off the author at the train station. |
| A．To take an adventure with strangers. |
| B．To exchange houses for a short time. |
| C．To learn more about others’ family lives. |
| D．To enrich their own lives by helping others. |
| A．Travel on Trust and Couches |
| B．A Free Travel in Finland |
| C．Experiences in Strangers’ Houses |
| D．A Plan for Couch Surfing |
8 . It was an autumn day, and 1 was standing in the kitchen, hanging my head over the counter and trying to figure out how many calories were in a bowl of homemade yogurt and fruit. And I felt annoyed.
I was 16, and my best friend and I had gone to our first Weight Watchers meeting. It was the trend in the mid-1980s，and even though I was an athlete, like many teen girls, I didn't necessarily like what I saw in the mirror. But after a week or so of recording every meal and snack and calculating the calories, I had had enough. I went back to my routine of chowing whatever I wanted, running and skiing, and let that be that. And it's still pretty much what I do; as long as the workouts are regular and the food is whole and balanced, my body's set point hasn't varied for years.
The weight loss trend of three decades ago−full of scales and counting calories−has fallen away. Now fasting is popular. The ways to keep fit vary: on the 5:2 diet a person eats for five days and fasts for two days each week, while the 18:6 refers 10 fasting for 18 hours and then eating within a six-hour window each day.
In this issue, Associate Editor Mark Barna tries to understand the science behind the fasting plans. Researchers have found that animals like monkeys age more slowly after years of eating less, and in the lab in humans, they saw improvements in a number of signs that indicate risk of some hard to cure diseases. The hope for healthy weight loss isn’t over yet, but at least now the calculators don’t have to be out at every meal.
1. What made the author annoyed?| A．Her body was not as strong as an athlete’s. |
| B．There were too many calories in the yogurt and fruit. |
| C．The Weight Watches meeting was not necessary for her. |
| D．She had to work out the calories in every meal and snack. |
| A．Eating. | B．Doing | C．Cooking. | D．Choosing. |
| A．They limit the calories they take in. |
| B．They lose weight only. |
| C．They fast daily or weekly. |
| D．They eat enough every day. |
| A．People grow more slowly if they eat less. |
| B．People are healthier if they eat less. |
| C．People have stopped losing weight now. |
| D．People calculate their food for every meal. |
9 . Chinese people had never paid more attention to the annual Nobel literature award than they did when Mo Yan became China’s first winner of the prize.
The effect has not disappeared. Tourists continue to rush to Mo’s home village in Gaomi, Shangdong province, which has become a tourist site since the author was awarded Nobel Prize. Visiting the village is to walk into the world he created in Red Sorghum Clan, one of his best-known novels, adapted for the award-winning film Red Sorghum by famous director Zhang Yimou in 1987.
About 210 hectares of red sorghum(高粱) is ready for harvesting, recalling this scene Mo wrote in the novel: "In the deep autumn of the eighth month under a high, clear sky, the land is covered by sorghum that forms a wild sea of blood. When the sun comes out, the surface of the sea shimmers(闪光), and heaven and Earth are painted with rich, wonderful colors."
Locals have planted the sorghum for the coming film of the novel’s TV adaptation starring actress Zhou Xun, in similar style to 1987 when Zhang’s film was filmed. But while the sorghum fields disappeared after the film was made, this time they may remain.“We have signed long-term contracts to sell sorghum to wine producers,”said Zhang Xinfu, head of Xianjia village, Mo Yan’s hometown is in the area.“Dozens of wine producers came to discuss the sorghum business after Mo Yan won the prize,” said Zhang. Zhang said the wine producers promised to pay a satisfying price for the sorghum.
1. What happened to Mo Yan’s home village after he won the Prize?| A．The house of Mo’s at his home village was rebuilt for tourism. |
| B．The local people at Mo’s home village welcomed the tourists. |
| C．Many tourists rushed to Mo’s home village to show respect and interest. |
| D．Mo’s home village remained what it used to be. |
| A．settled | B．designed | C．re-organized | D．written |
| A．Autumn. | B．Winter. | C．Spring. | D．Unknown. |
| A．the fame of Mo Yan. | B．good quality of the red sorghum itself. |
| C．the lower price | D．the large amount of the red sorghum . |
10 . Pokemon GO has become the most successful mobile game. It is now played in about 70 countries. While the game clearly has many fans, not everyone thinks the latest Pokemon fever is a good thing.
To play Pokemon GO, users follow maps on their phones that show virtual (虚拟的) animals, called Pokemon, in real-life places. Players have to walk around those places in search of Pokemon and try to catch as many as possible, which attracts kids most.
Fans of the game say it gets kids off the sofas and encourages them to play in new places and make new friends. That’s what Christine Elgersma, a senior app editor (编辑), thinks about it. And some educators are finding that Pokemon GO can also improve kids’ map skills.
Brain scientist Kristen Race says that kids pay so much attention to their phones that it doesn’t matter that they are outside. She warns that Pokemon GO gets in the way of real imaginative play. She argues that “even though a child may be playing this game outside, his brain is working in the same way it would as if he were spending hours inside. ”
There are some risks in playing Pokemon GO as well. Being distracted because of the game is one of the biggest dangers. People have walked into things, fallen down, and even been hit by cars while playing.
Elgersma says there are plenty of things kids can do to stay safe while playing Pokemon GO. She advises kids to discuss with their parents what they are allowed to do before playing. They should also pay careful attention to their surroundings (环境)and avoid talking to strangers. Finally, they should limit the amount of time they spend playing.
“Just like every other game, Pokemon GO should be used in balance with other things,” says Elgersma. “If it is, it can be a really great way for a family to have fun together.”
1. The greatest joy of playing Pokemon GO for kids is .| A．to learn knowledge of geography on maps |
| B．to look for Pokemon here and there and catch them |
| C．to hide themselves and not to be found by Pokemon |
| D．to travel around the world without going out of their rooms |
| A．kids had better play Pokemon GO outside |
| B．Pokemon GO is a big disaster for a family |
| C．parents should encourage kids to play Pokemon GO |
| D．Pokemon GO can’t really develop kids’ imagination |
| A．unfocused |
| B．intelligent |
| C．amazed |
| D．foolish |
| A．It is only popular with adults. |
| B．It can make kids fond of taking exercise. |
| C．It is dangerous for players in some way. |
| D．It probably sets up a home in people’s garden. |
