1 . International Women's Day is March 8. The first celebration was held in 1911, and the event was recognized by the United Nations starting in 1975.

It's a great time to think about the origin of the word "woman". Some people think the word “woman" is a compound(混合)of the words“womb”and“man". Not so. Rather,it's a compound of "wife" and "man", a combination that can be traced back to Old English. You see, when Old English was first being spoken in the 5th century AD, there were two distinct words for men and women: "wer" meant "adult male",and "wif” meant “adult female". There was a third word,“man", which simply meant "person"or "human being”. These words could be combined:“wer" plus“man"(in the form of "waepman")meant "adult male person" and“wif” plus"man”("wilman") meant “adult female person”.

Those middle forms,“wimnan"and "wommon"with the two M's in the middle, remind me of Noah Webster's efforts to simplify English spelling by suggesting changing the spelling "woman” to“wimmen" to have the spelling better match the pronunciation. He put that in his 1806 Compendious Dictionary o f the English Language, but it didn't become popular.

And the Old English word for "adult male" evolved into a simplified form. The compound word "weapman" melted into the simple word we use today: "man".

Maybe the lesson to take from all this is that the role of women in society has always been complex. Whatever the case, the word "woman" today was originally a compound of the Old English words for"woman” and “human being”.

1. Where can you find the first source of the word "woman"?

A．In paragraph 1.

B．In paragraph 2.

C．In paragraph 3.

D．In paragraph 4.

2. Why did Webster suggest changing the spelling "woman" to "wimmen"?

A．To link the spelling to the pronunciation.

B．To keep up with the times more closely.

C．To satisfy the readers’ requests

D．To make it easy to pronounce.

3. When did the spelling "woman" started?

A．By the 1600s.	B．In the 5th century AD,
C．In 1809.	D．By the Middle English period

4. What is the purpose of the author in writing the text?

A．To tell us the origin of Women's Day.

B．To tell us the history of the word "woman".

C．To stress the roles women are playing

D．To teach us the development of a language

2 . How to Be a Good Upstairs Neighbor

One must remember to be polite when living in an apartment building. You may unintentionally bother your neighbors with actions that you think to be harmless.     1     Living upstairs, you must always be aware that everything you do may be heard by those who live below. This doesn’t mean that you have to completely change your lifestyle, though.

    2     This will greatly reduce the sound of your footsteps, thus limiting the sound your downstairs neighbor will hear. You should always remember to change your shoes when entering your apartment to ensure that your downstairs neighbor doesn’t hear you walking around.

Place carpets in your apartment if you have hardwood floors. Doing so is another way to decrease the sound of steps coming from an upstairs apartment. You can also put your furniture on these carpets.     3    

Close your windows when you can. A floor is usually about three meters high, so it’s quite easy to hear your conversations.     4     Therefore, whenever you are watching TV or listening to a radio, try to keep your windows closed as much as possible.

Do your cleaning on weekend afternoons.     5     Doing such housework at 3:00 pm on a Saturday is much better than doing so at 9:30 on a Tuesday night.

A．Wear slippers while in your upstairs apartment.

B．It becomes much easier when your windows are open.

C．No matter what you do, consider your neighbor’s requirements.

D．There’ll be a time when you will run a cleaner to clean your room.

E．This is especially true for those people who live above an apartment.

F．It will disturb your downstairs neighbor who has to work the next morning.

G．This keeps your furniture from moving around, thus limiting noise a downstairs neighbor may hear.