1 . Plays are an important part of British culture. The West End theatre district in London is the best place to watch a professional play, but acting also takes place in every school and village hall across the country.
There are over 2,500 non-professional drama groups in the UK today and they are an active part of community life. people from all walks of life take on acting roles in addition to their regular jobs. They do it for fun, for the love of acting and as a way to meet new people.
Not everyone in a drama club is a skilled actor, but enthusiasm(热情)is considered to be more important than talent. Friends, family members and neighbours enjoy getting together to watch the final performance and telling the people they know to “break a leg(走运)”. It’s a great way of bringing communities together. Also, in many rural parts of Britain, non-professional theatre is the only chance people have to see plays for miles around.
Many people get a taste for acting at school. Every school puts on a play at least once per year, usually at Christmas, and parents love coming to watch their children perform. Ask any British person and they’re sure to have happy memories of being in their school’s Christmas play, whether they played the role of Mary or Joseph or perhaps even a sheep or a donkey.
Another Christmas theatre tradition is the pantomime(舞剧). Pantomimes are a type of musical comedy for families .the audience is encouraged to participate in the performance-singing along with the music and shouting to the actors. Pantomimes are really fun to watch, especially for children.
British people love going to the theatre, professional or not, and many of them also enjoy performing. If you have the chance, go and see a play in the UK.
1. What matters most for an actor in a drama club, according to the article?| A．Talent | B．Enthusiasm |
| C．Professional training | D．Support from family |
| A．All the performers are professional child actors |
| B．The audience is allowed to play some small roles in them |
| C．The audience is encouraged to interact with the actors |
| D．The musical comedy is always about family life |
| A．learn how to be a professional actor in school |
| B．consider acting to be their regular jobs |
| C．often participated in performance when in school |
| D．watch plays in the West End theatre district in London |
| A．Reasons why British people love plays |
| B．The origin of theatre traditions in the UK |
| C．Rules for theatergoers to follow in the UK |
| D．The popularity of non-professional plays in the UK |
2 . People who have red hair and people who are losing their hair could finally get their own emoji(表情符号). The Emojipedia website has shown new emojis following demands that they should be more diverse. If its ideas are approved, the new emojis could be added in 2018, alongside new characters that have grey, curly or Afro hair.
“New styles focus on appearances that aren’t currently supported in the informal skin tone and hair color pairings(组合) used on many cellphones,” showed one page on the website. The page gave Jessica Chastain and Ed Sheeran as examples of people with red hair. Sinead O’Connor and Samuel L Kackson were given as examples of people with no hair or a shaven head.
The emojis could be released in 2018 if chosen by the Unicode Consortium which met in January, 2017 following a number of complaints about lack of diversity. “Non-naturally occurring features, such as blue hair and tattoos, are not included in this project,” the website added.
At the end of 2016, Apple published its iOS 10.2 software update which included 72 new emojis such as firefighters, astronauts, rockstars and so on. But people who have red hair were notably absent, causing a global protest.
A website in Scotland demanding ginger emojis got 20,000 signatures. The main issue is that there is one organization, known as Unicode Consortium, who controls emojis on iPhone.
In March, a new list of emojis was published by Emojipedia which might be released later this year. However, the emojis need to be approved by the Unicode Technical Committee before people can use them.
In 2015, ginger emojis were published on the Google Play Store for Android. But up until now, the Unicode Consortium has not been willing to give in to ginger campaigners.
1. Which of the following emojis could be included in 2018?| A．Characters with black hair. | B．Characters with white skin. |
| C．Characters with shaven heads. | D．Characters with smiling faces. |
| A．there is no demand for them | B．people dislike such emojis |
| C．they are out of fashion | D．they are not natural identity |
| A．Favorable. | B．Ambiguous. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．New Emojis to BE Added in 2018 |
| B．Complaints about the Present Emojis |
| C．Demands for New and Informal Emojis |
| D．Global Protests against the Lack of Diversity |
3 . Every week in China, millions of people will sit in front of their TVs watching teenagers compete for the title Character Hero, which is a Chinesestyle spelling bee (拼写大赛). In this challenge, young competitors must write Chinese characters by hand. To prepare for the competition, the competitors usually spend months studying dictionaries.
Perhaps the show’s popularity should not be a surprise. Along with gunpowder and paper, many Chinese people consider the creation of Chinese calligraphy (书法) to be one of their primary contributions. Unfortunately, all over the country, Chinese people are forgetting how to write their own language without computerized help. Software on smart phones and computers allows users to type in the basic sound of the word using the Latin alphabet(字母). The correct character is chosen from a list. The result? It’s possible to recognize characters without remembering how to write them.
But there’s still hope for the paint brush. China’s Education Ministry wants children to spend more time learning how to write.
In one Beijing primary school we visited, students practice calligraphy every day inside a specially decorated classroom with traditional Chinese paintings hanging on the walls. Soft music plays as a group of six-year-old dip brush pens into black ink. They look up at the blackboard often to study their teacher’s examples before carefully trying to reproduce those characters on thin rice paper. “If adults can survive without using handwriting, why bother to teach it now? ”we ask the calligraphy teacher, Shen Bin. “The ability to write characters is part of Chinese tradition and culture”, she reasons. “Students must learn now so they don’t forget when they grow up.” says the teacher.
1. Which of the following is closest in meaning with the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?| A．Every Chinese can write Chinese characters easily, especially with computers. |
| B．Only with the help of computers can some Chinese people write Chinese characters. |
| C．Despite the help of computers, Chinese people have forgotten how to write. |
| D．Computers are the only means to rely on to write Chinese characters for many people. |
| A．It draws great public attention across the country. |
| B．It’s the most viewed TV programs in China. |
| C．It means to spread Chinese culture to the world. |
| D．It’s open to people of all ages and all walks. |
| A．Chinese people don’t refer to dictionaries very often. |
| B．Chinese people no longer use brush pens or practice calligraphy. |
| C．Chinese people are using the Latin alphabet instead of the characters. |
| D．Chinese people needn’t write by hand as often with the help of technology. |
| A．necessary for adults to survive in China |
| B．a requirement made by the Education Ministry |
| C．helpful to keep Chinese tradition and culture alive |
| D．an ability to be developed only when you are students |
4 . Thirteen-year-old American Jessica Goldstone wants to be a fashion designer when she finishes school. She thinks her designs would be more exciting than clothes bought from stores. But until this month, Jessica has never touched a sewing machine(缝纫机).
After her first class, Jessica and six other girls aged 9 to 13 said that sewing was fun, cool and challenging.
These students at Fabrics’ Sew Fun class show that the sewing machine is becoming popular again.
“There have been a lot of teens getting excited about sewing,” said a sewing company worker Donna Smith. “Some of them come from the Project Runway TV show,” she said. This TV show is an exciting weekly contest to make a great fashion designer. Every week one contestant (参赛者) fails the test and has to leave the contest.
The number of people who joined sewing class summer camps grew by 10 percent this year. That’s good news for companies that make sewing machines and publish sewing magazines. The Singer Sewing Company sold nearly 3 million sewing machines in the United States last year. This is about twice as many as in 1999.
Sewing machines have been around for more than 150 years, but they have changed a lot since your grandmother was a girl.
Spencer Carmel started sewing lessons after getting a sewing machine for her 11th birthday. She has sewn a lot by hand, but she wants to make more difficult things. Spencer’s class recently made hats.
Another member of the class, Kelsey Oen, 9 years old, needed time to get used to her machine, but soon she could use it well. By the end of the class, Kelsey was happy and wearing her new hat.
1. The passage is written to .| A．teach how to sew clothes |
| B．advertise a kind of sewing machine |
| C．describe a popular American children’s hobby |
| D．encourage more people to start sewing |
| A．They don’t really care much for it. |
| B．They are very interested in it. |
| C．They think it’s too easy to learn. |
| D．They think it’s only for younger kids. |
| A．sewing class |
| B．sewing machine |
| C．fashion design class |
| D．fashion design contest |
5 . Maaseik, a city in Belgium, has opened an exhibition of about 200 relics and treasures of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 907 AD), showing China’s golden age of ancient civilisation (文明).
The exhibition, which opened on May 11 and will continue until Oct. 20, is part of the city's effort to create a centre of Chinese culture. Belgian Princess Mathilde formally announced the beginning of the exhibition, titled “China’s Golden Age: Treasures from the Tang Dynasty”.
The items, including gold plates and silver wares for royal families, Tang Dynasty tri-colour glazed figurines (小雕像) of women and paintings, have recently been on exhibit in the Dutch city of Assert.
All of the exhibited items are from Shaanxi Province, China. Its provincial capital Xi’an was the most populous (人口多的) city in the world and once the capital of the Tang Dynasty.
The Tang period is generally regarded as a high point in Chinese civilization-equal to, or better than that of the earlier Han Dynasty (202 BC—220 AD), a golden age of Chinese culture.
Several years ago, said Dirk Verlaak, vice-mayor of Maaseik, his city and Assen teamed up to host history and culture exhibitions of China’s first two imperial dynasties, the Qin (221 BC—206 BC) and the Han. The Chinese relics and treasures attracted 350,000 visitors in Assen and 190,000 in Maaseik.
“Westerners don’t know much about China’s ancient civilisation and history, and we hope the new exhibition in Maaseik can attract more visitors,” said Verlaak.
1. Maaseik held the exhibition in order to .| A．make money | B．educate people |
| C．attract foreign visitors | D．spread Chinese culture |
| A．Dirk Verlaak is interested in Chinese history |
| B．All the items in the exhibition are from China |
| C．Assert attracted more visitors than Maaseik several years ago |
| D．This is the first time that Maaseik has held such an exhibition. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Consent. |
| C．Worried. | D．Excited |
| A．Tang Dynasty Treasures Exhibited in Belgium |
| B．Tang Dynasty Treasures Discovered in Belgium |
| C．Chinese Culture Goes Around the World |
| D．Chinese Civilisation Attracts Foreigners |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
India has many festivals, with some celebrations that last for weeks. However, none of them come even close to Holi, India's most colorful and fun festival. Celebrated on the day following the full moon, this year's festival happens to be on March 19th.
As with most Indian festivals, this one also has many different folk stories. Most of them center around the success of good over evil. The most popular one is about a king, who hates his son Prahlada for loving the creator of the Universe－Lord Vishnu. When every attempt to stop him fails, his sister, Holika believed to be immune (免疫的) to fire, joins in the effort by inviting the young boy to sit with her inside a huge fire. Helped by the power of Lord Vishnu, Prahlada escapes safely, while the evil Holika is burned to death. To remember this event, huge outdoor fires are lit in the night before Holi in order to clean the air of evil spirits and to celebrate the death of the evil.
So what's so great about this day? While there are some fun parades (游行) and folk songs and dance performances, the most fun of all is walking to the streets and splashing (泼洒) people with water guns and dry colors and even covering them with entire buckets of colored water. On this day, everybody is fair game, no matter how old or how young.
At about midday, the splashing comes to an end and people living close to oceans or rivers usually take a bath in the water to clean themselves before going home to a delicious homemade big dinner and a welldeserved short sleep, following this full day of fun and activities.
1. Why does the king dislike his son Prahlada?
| A．Because Prahlada doesn't love him. |
| B．Because Prahlada is rude to Holika. |
| C．Because Prahlada loves Lord Vishnu. |
| D．Because Prahlada concentrates on his own success. |
| A．with the help of Lord Vishnu |
| B．because of his good luck |
| C．by beating his aunt Holika |
| D．using his amazing talent |
| A．fights against others fairly |
| B．enjoys splashing people |
| C．plays a trick on others |
| D．is the aim of splashing water |
| A．they have got dirty with dry colors and colored water |
| B．going home with colored water means bad luck |
| C．they believe clean water will bring good luck |
| D．taking a bath shows their true love for Lord Vishnu |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C 和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。
Christmastime in the city brings forests of trees already cut and waiting to be sold. But some people like to drive to tree farms. Others wait for their trees to come to them. They order one from the pages of a catalog or on the Internet. Some say the easiest thing of all is to buy a manmade tree with Christmas lights already on it. No falling needles to have to clean up.
The National Christmas Tree Association says 33,000,000 real trees were sold last year, compared to 9,000,000 manmade ones. Manmade trees generally cost more, but they can be reused. Most natural trees are cut up and recycled, but some people buy trees that can be planted.
Most Christmas trees are now grown on farms instead of in forests. Twenty-one thousand tree farmers in the United States grow Christmas trees on more than 180,000 hectares. Oregon was the leading producer last year.
Twenty-two percent of people who bought real trees last year chose them at a farm. Two percent of those people cut the trees themselves. The next most popular places were big stores like Walmart and Home Depot. Groups like the Boy Scouts also sell Christmas trees. But some people pay nothing for theirs. They steal it.
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has many pretty evergreens. Some years ago, a university worker found a way to keep them there. A month before Christmas, workers treated them with “pink ugly mix”. It contains water and red food colour. The bright colour starts to disappear after about a month. It can take longer, however. Cornell decided not to use the mix this year, but the idea has spread.
1. Manmade trees are chosen for Christmas partly because________.| A．they cost less than real ones |
| B．they are usually sold with gifts |
| C．they look prettier than real ones |
| D．they can be used for more than once |
| A．Oregon produced the most Christmas trees last year. |
| B．Most Christmas trees come directly from the forests. |
| C．All real trees for Christmas are recycled by Americans. |
| D．Manmade Christmas trees are more popular with Americans. |
| A．Oregon | B．Home Depot |
| C．Boy Scouts | D．Cornell University |
| A．the important festivals in America |
| B．the origin of Christmas as a holiday |
| C．the way Americans celebrate Christmas |
| D．the popularity of Christmas trees in America |
Culture shock refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, uncertainty, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country.
Generally speaking, we could say that there are four stages of culture shock. The first stage is called “the honeymoon”. In this stage, you are excited about living in a different place.
The next stage is “the hostility (敌意) stage”. In this stage, you begin to notice not everything is as good as you originally thought it was.
Then you come to the third stage called “recovery”. In this stage, you start to feel more positive.
The last stage of culture shock is called “adjustment”. In this stage, you have reached a point where you actually feel good.
Not all individuals visiting another country will experience all these four stages.
| A．You feel that friends should help each other to deal with culture shock. |
| B．And you try to develop comprehension of everything you don’t understand. |
| C．In addition, culture shock is not limited to the overseas visitor. |
| D．You become tired of many things about the new culture. |
| E．You have learned enough to understand the new culture. |
| F．You begin to understand you need to travel a lot. |
| G．And everything seems to be marvelous and everybody seems to be so nice to you. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 (A 、B 、C 和 D )中，选出最佳选项。
In 1841, a book was published which astonished the world. It was called “Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan”. The author John Loud Stephens had just returned from a long, difficult and dangerous journey through the thick rain forest of southern Mexico and Guatemala. He had once been there with Frederick Catherwood, an architect and artist, to search for the remains of a lost civilization known as the Mayas (玛雅). Very little was known about the Mayas at that time, but Catherwood’s drawing in the book showed incredible cities with temples, pyramids and other buildings as impressive as those of their northern neighbors, the Aztecs. These cities, however, were deserted. The inhabitants (居民) had disappeared almost a thousand years before.
Since that time, far more has been learned about this remarkable civilization. The Mayas had a highly-developed system of government and of agriculture, as well as an incredibly accurate system of measuring time. They were also wonderful engineers capable of moving huge blocks stone long distances and cutting them to accurate shapes and sizes.
And yet although the Mayas knew about the wheel, they never used it. Neither did they use metals other than copper. What is ever more surprising is that they suddenly abandoned many of their cities and built new ones in the jungle. Some time around AD 900, Mayan civilization collapsed(崩溃). By the year 1200, their last great capital, Chichen Itza, was deserted.
Who were these strange people and the even stranger gods they worshipped? What brought about their sudden and mysterious collapse? Some writers have tried to prove that the Mayas had contact with visitors from space and even that they themselves came from another planet. Some people believe that their civilization came to an end because the Mayas never developed a proper resistance to local germs and diseases. All we really know is that when the first Europeans appeared off their coast in 1517, this great and mysterious culture was only a memory.
1. Stephen’s book astonished the world because .| A．it was the first time people heard about Mayas |
| B．the Mayas were excellent builders and farmers |
| C．he had experienced so may difficulties to find this lost civilization |
| D．it described that the Mayas used to be an advanced civilization |
| A．they developed accurate system measuring time | B．they knew how to build pyramids with stones |
| C．they deserted their cities and moved to new ones | D．they built cities which they never lived in |
| A．a thousand years before 1841 | B．around AD 900 |
| C．any year between 1200 and 1517 | D．1200 |
| A．Tropical germs and diseases. | B．European conquest. |
| C．Mysterious force from outer space. | D．No one knows for sure. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Kiss crisis, hug horrors and the UK’s handshake headaches
Greeting someone, saying goodbye — these situations fill me with unease. You have a second to make a dangerous decision. One peck(轻吻)? Two pecks? Three? No kisses at all? Why, I think, as I crash into the other person’s face, why can’t it be as simple as a handshake?
A survey by the soap company Radox in May showed one in five Brits now feels a handshake is “too formal”, according to the Daily Mail. Some 42 percent said they never shook hands when greeting friends. For one third of people the alternative was a hug, for 16 percent a kiss on the cheek.
British people are known to be reserved(保守的) — unfriendly, some would say. Handshakes used to work for us because we didn’t have to get too close. But the super-British handshake is no longer fashionable. We want to be more like our easygoing Mediterranean neighbors who greet each other with kisses and hugs.
The trouble is, we still find it a bit awkward. What does a married man do when greeting a married female friend, for example? How should someone younger greet someone older?
Guys don’t tend to kiss one another; my male friends in Britain go for the “manly hug”, taking each other stiffly(不自然地) in one arm and giving a few thumps on the back with words like “Take it easy, yeah?”.
The biggest questions, if you do decide to kiss, are how many times and which cheek first. Unlike the French, who comfortably deliver three, our cheek-pecks usually end in embarrassed giggling(咯咯笑): “Oh, gosh, sorry, I didn’t mean to kiss you on the lips, I never know where to aim for first!”
But then it’s never been easy for us poor, uncomfortable Brits. Even the handshake had its problems: don’t shake too hard, but don’t hold the other person’s hand too limply(无力地) either, and definitely don’t go in with sweaty hands.
Maybe it’s better to leave it at a smile and a nod.
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．Origin of the traditional British way of greeting someone. |
| B．New trends and problems that Brits have with the way they greet people. |
| C．Why the author feels uneasy when greeting someone or saying goodbye. |
| D．Differences in greetings between Britain and other Western countries. |
| A．It is now considered unfriendly to greet friends with a handshake in Britain. |
| B．A kiss on the cheek is becoming the most popular form of greeting in Britain. |
| C．Most Brits no longer offer to shake hands with those they meet. |
| D．More and more Brits prefer to be greeted with a hug or kiss. |
| A．not helpful |
| B．too informal |
| C．quite embarrassed |
| D．very interesting |
| A．A hug. |
| B．A smile and a nod. |
| C．A handshake. |
| D．A kiss on the cheek. |
