1 . Events at Hamilton Civic Museums

We host a variety of events, workshops and exhibitions at our city-owned museums throughout the year.No two trips are ever the same! The following are on in November and December.

※ Exhibit: Stories from the edge

Using 31stories and artworks, this exhibition presents Ancaster’s history from the earliest human occupants to the present day.

This Exhibit runs Tuesday to Saturday, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM

For all ages

Cost: Adults:$4, Children:$3, Family:$12

Location: Fieldcote Memorial Museum, 64 Sulphur Springs Road.

※ Morning Quilting Workshop Series

Participants of all skill levels are welcome to engage in this make-a-quilt project.Sewing machine in working order is required.

The project takes place every Monday from 9:30 AM to 12:00 AM.

For ages 18 years and older.

Cost: $20 for the series. Pre-registration is required.

Location: Ancaster Old Town Hall, 310 Wilson Street East.

※ An Evening with Jane Austen

Join us on November 23, 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM as we celebrate the writings of author Jane Austen and help bring the charm of the early 19 th century to life with fashion,music, dancing, and refreshments.

For adults.

Cost:$25. Online payment is accepted.

Location: Battlefield House Museum & Park, 77 King Street West.

※Victorian Christmas

Bring your family to share a Hamilton holiday tradition and enjoy the beauty of a mid-19th century family Christmas celebration at Dundurn Castle, in which the impressive beauty of the Victorian Age will be produced.

The event happens Tuesday to Sunday, 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM.

For all ages’

Cost: Adults: $30, Children: $14, Family: $40

Location: Dundurn National historic Site, 610 York Boulevard.

1. How is Morning Quilting Workshop Series different from the others?

A．It is fit for people of all ages.	B．It lasts the longest each time.
C．It needs signing up in advance.	D．It gives orders through a machine.

2. Where will you go if you want to know more about Jane Austen?

A．310 Wilson Street East.	B．64 Sulphur Springs Road.
C．Dundurn National historic Site	D．Battlefield House Museum & Park

3. Which event cost the most for an adult?

A．Victorian Christmas	B．An Evening with Jane Austen.
C．Exhibit: Stories from the edge	D．Morning Quilting Workshop Series

2 . Around the world,people have different traditional foods to celebrate different festivals．Traditional foods also show a new year of good luck and good health:An English Christmas dinner has a meal of turkey,and it also includes pies and plum puddings(李子布丁)．In Germany,Christmas is celebrated with bread cookies and cakes,which are made like Christmas trees.In France,Christmas dessert is a cake filled with butter cream.

In southern parts of India,there is a three-day festival in mid-January called Pongal.It includes rice and a dish of rice cooked with sugar that is shared with families and friends.

Japan celebrates New Year with a seven-day festival.It begins from January 1st.Food is prepared before the festival so people don't need to cook during the festival.On New Year's Day，various dishes called Osechi ryori(御节料理) are served — each dish is a wish for the New Year.

In most Asian countries,the New Year begins with the first full moon of the first Chinese Lunar(阴历的) month．Each place has its special food to welcome the coming year:People in China prepare their food ahead of time to avoid the possibility that using a knife during New Year's time might "cut luck",Foods with lucky names are popular，such as fish,which sounds like "surplus(剩余)".

1. What do you learn from the passage?

A．people have different traditional foods to celebrate different festivals．

B．New Year begins from January 10th in Japan．

C．In France，Christmas dessert is a cake filled with butter．

D．Traditional foods only show a new of good luck．

2. What is a three-day festival in mid-January in southern parts of India?

A．Christmas．

B．Pongal．

C．New Year．

D．Lantern Festival．

3. The underlined word "various" in Paragraph 3 can best be replaced by " ________"．

A．different

B．same

C．expensive

D．few

3 . Every life in Britain

The weather is the most common topic in Britain.    1    Because in Britain the weather changes a lot. Wind, rain, sun, cloud, snow---they can all happen in Britain.

    2    At banks, cinemas, shops, bus stops you can always see people in queues. They stand and wait quietly, often for a long time. Each new person stands at the end of the queue---sometimes in rain,wind or snow. They never complain and they will get quite upset when someone jumps the queue.

Men always shake hands when they meet.     3    They shook hands to show that they didn't have sword(剑). Now shaking hands is a customer most countries. In Britain you don't shake hands with your friends or family members. But you do shake hands when you meet a person for the first time.

    4    And they always send birthday cards or presents. There are also other cards like Christmascards, goodluckcards, congratulations on your new baby cards and get well soon cards. They have everything for every important moment.

British people are very superstitious(迷信). They believe in all sorts of signs they see. For them black cats are luck    5    The more leaves you catch, the more lucky you will be. However, never open an umbrella in the house and never break a mirror because they mean seven years of bad luck.

A．Shopping is another common topic in Britain

B．Another common thing in Britain is queue

C．Hundreds of years ago, soldiers began this custom.

D．In autumn if you catch falling leaves you are lucky

E．Why do the Britain talk about the weather so often

F．They also pay attention to tiny details like your birthday

G．Never walk under a ladder, and don't walk pass somebody on the stairs

4 . Would you save a woman, a child or a dog in a car crash? An experiment has investigated human morality（道德观）and ranked countries based on who they would save in the event of a certain death situation.

The findings show the value of life varies according to different countries. French people, for example, are far more likely to save women than men. Lithuania ranks in the top 10 for saving both the young and the healthy. The four characters most people saved in the experiment are a baby, a little girl, a little boy and a pregnant woman.

The experiment put forward difficult ethical（伦理的）decisions such as choosing between the lives of a family of four crossing the road and a group of old people going the other way. Quandaries（两难境地）like this will one day be faced by autonomous vehicles that will be programmed with rules that place value on human life.

Tests into the moral decisions involving almost forty million people around the world, including the English, have found that the lives of women and men are widely held in equal regard. The French however resist the trend as they think the lives of women have far more weight than those of men.

Dr Edmond Awad, of the MIT Media Lab, who is the lead author, said, “The study is basically trying to understand the kinds of moral decisions that driverless cars might have to turn to. We don't know yet how they should do that.” He added, “we find that there are three elements that people seem to approve of the most.”

“These are that humans are saved over animals, that many people are saved rather than a few, and that the young are saved rather than the old.”

Dr Awad added, “The main preferences are to some degree universally agreed upon. But the degree to which they agree with this varies among different groups or countries.”

1. According to Para. 2, which of the following is least likely to be saved in danger?

A．A little girl.	B．A little boy.
C．A pregnant woman.	D．An old man.

2. Why did the experiment come up with different ethical decisions?

A．Self-driving cars will one day face the same decisions.

B．It's very interesting to do this kind of experiment.

C．The value should be placed on human life.

D．It's very dangerous for a family of four to cross the road.

3. In which aspect is France different from other countries on their decision?

A．It treats lives of women and men equally.

B．It thinks the lives of the young come first.

C．It attaches more value to women's lives.

D．It shows extraordinary respect for the old.

4. What can we know about the three elements found by Dr. Awad's team?

A．Animals are saved over humans.

B．The lives of many people will be considered first.

C．The lives of the old are above those of the young.

D．The three elements are equally agreed upon.

5 . The measure of a good night's sleep is usually based on two things—the amount of time spent sleeping and the quality of that sleep. But now researchers say there is a third thing that matters even more than the other two when it comes to keeping good sleep habits, and that is having a regular bedtime.

A study has found that going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day have an important effect on one's health. Adults who stick to a regular bedtime tend to weigh less, have lower blood sugar and reduced risk of heart disease.

The researchers studied the sleeping habits of 2,000 adults with an average age of 69. They found that people with greater irregularity in their sleep patterns tended to go to sleep later at night,feel sleepy and sleep more during the day, and experienced reduced light exposure. These people were also more likely to be stressful. Among the three kinds of sleep problems, sleep regularity was the most strongly associated with health.

Of course ,there are many people for whom this may be impossible, such as night-shift workers or those with late-night duty. But for those who don't have mandatory(强制的) reasons to stay up late, they should make an effort to go to bed at the same time every night. Skip the late afternoon coffee.Get off the phone.Try this calculator to figure out the best bedtime.

As Matthew Walker, a scientist, wrote, "The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. "Surely that's reason enough to go to bed on time.

1. What can we infer from the research?

A．Adults enjoy sleeping late.

B．The old often have less sleep.

C．Poor sleep has a lot to do with our health.

D．The older you ar , the more stressed you feel.

2. Which of the following helps us have a good sleep?

A．Giving up jobs.	B．Drinking coffee.
C．Turning off our cell phones.	D．Using a clock to wake us up.

3. Why are Matthew Walker's words mentioned ?

A．To show the importance of the good sleep.

B．To tell us how to make our life colorful.

C．To tell us how long we should sleep every day.

D．To present disadvantages of going to bed on time.

4. What's the best title for the text ?

A．The Importance of Sleep	B．The Suitable Time for Sleep
C．Ways to Have a Good Sleep	D．Stick to a Regular Bedtime

6 .

The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie by Chavonne D. Stewart The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie is the first book in a wonderful children's books series, which is fun and exciting and also teaches kids valuable lessons. It tells the story of Amilya Rose Patterson, a creative eight-year-old with “can do” attitude and full of imagination, who is determined to set out on a new adventure, even if it means getting into trouble in the end and learning a lesson. Once she sets her mind to do something, nothing can stop her.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Little Prince, the most translated book in the French language, tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to explore the universe, learning the unexpected and unpredictable changes of adult behaviour through a series of his personal journeys to Earth and further adventures.

Chester and Gus by Cammie McGovern Chester has always wanted to become a service dog. When he fails his test, though, it seems like that dream might never come true—until a family adopts (收养) him to be a companion for their ten-year-old son, Gus, who has autism (自闭症). But Gus acts so differently from anyone Chester has ever met. He never wants to pet Chester, and sometimes he doesn't even want him in the room. Chester is not sure how to help Gus since this isn't exactly the job he trained for—but he's determined to find it out and show he's the right dog for the job.

Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson The novel tells the story of two totally different little girls—quiet, shy, artistic Emmie and popular, outgoing, athletic Katie—and how their lives unexpectedly intersect (相交) one day, when a note falls into the wrong hands.

1. From whom can you learn how to achieve your goals?

A．Gus.	B．Emmie.
C．Katie.	D．Amilya.

2. Which book shows the exploration of the universe?

A．The Adventures of Amilya Rose: The Lie.

B．The Little Prince.

C．Chester and Gus.

D．Invisible Emmie.

3. What do these four books have in common?

A．They are stories about children.

B．They are written for parents.

C．They are about popular people.

D．They are love stories.

7 . The ancient Maya mastered the art of ceramic (制陶艺术) in a manner which virtually no other culture did.

The Vase of the Seven Cods, made in the area of Naranjo, an ancient city of the Maya civilization in the present-day Petén, Guatemala, shows the fine way Maya handled clay. Like all art of Maya, this vase exhibits highly religious symbols. Furthermore, the artist’s name is carved along the bottom of this piece in the form of a small white rabbit.

Ceramics also served as reminders of ancestors and gods. The Flour De Lis Vase is a fine example of this. The water lilies are not only symbols of new birth and life-giving qualities, but a constant reminder of purity. On this vase, the water lilies are white, which is undoubtedly a sign of purity. The black background shows the sea, in which the lilies float.

Furthermore, ceramics served practical functions in the Maya culture. Vases, which are quite commonly seen today, were used primarily to hold liquid chocolate and cocoa. Bowls were used to hold various maize (玉米) products. Maize was seen as the imaginary body of the Maize God and the ancient Maya thought that as one ate the maize or the body of God from the bowl, they actually became God. Plates were merely used for any object.

Finally, Maya used depictions on ceramics to resurrect (使复活) family members and honor gods. Because they believe that they would come back to life with their names spoken or their figures drawn, the carvings and paintings on these ceramics played a vital role in Maya spirituality.

Clearly, ceramics served a key function in ancient Maya society from dinner plates to acts of God.

1. What do we know from the passage?

A．The art of ceramic of the ancient Maya was instructed by Gods.

B．The Vase of the Seven Gods was made by the people of Guatemala.

C．The art of ceramic of the ancient Maya was the best in the world at that time.

D．Naranjo is a well-known city of Guatemala at present.

2. Which of the following is a characteristic of the art of Maya?

A．Seven Gods are carved on a vase.

B．A vase exhibits highly religious symbols.

C．The artist’s name is carved on the top of a vase.

D．There is a big white rabbit on a vase.

3. The ancient Maya used the Flour De Lis Vase to _________.

A．remind them of their ancestors and gods	B．hold water and grain or cook food
C．show the importance of new birth and life	D．express people’s pure friendship and love

4. The Maya carved names and figures of family members on ceramics to _________.

A．honor their family members	B．be remembered by their children
C．draw the attention of the shoppers	D．wish they would come back to life