1 . More than 10 million Chinese cultural relics have been lost overseas, lots of which were stolen and illegally shipped out of China during the times of war before 1949. About 1.67 million pieces are housed in no more than 200 museums in 47 countries, which accounts for 10 percent of all lost Chinese cultural relics, and the rest are in the hands of private collectors.

Most of these treasures are owned by museums or private collectors in the United States, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. There are more than 23,000 pieces in the British Museum, most of which were stolen or bought for pennies more than 100 years ago.

The major method to recover these national treasures was to buy them back. In some cases, private collectors donated the relics to the government. Also, the government can turn to official channels to demand the return of relics.

In 2003, a priceless bronze pig’s head dating from the Qing Dynasty was returned to its home in Beijing after it was removed by the Anglo-French Allied Army over 140 years ago. Macao entrepreneur Stanley Ho donated 6 million yuan to buy it back from a US art collector and then donated it to the Poly Art Museum in Beijing.

Although buying-back is the most feasible way to recover the lost treasures, limited funding is always a big headache.

In recent years, the Chinese government has improved efforts to recover the precious cultural relics lost overseas. It has started a national project on the recovery of the treasures and has set up a database (数据库) collecting relevant information. It has signed several international agreements with many countries on this matter, and is also looking for international cooperation to recover the relics by working closely with several international organizations.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The best way to recover cultural relics.

B．The efforts to recover Chinese cultural relics.

C．Stanley Ho donated a bronze pig’s head to Beijing.

D．Chinese cultural relics were stolen by the Anglo-French Allied Army.

2. What we can know about the bronze pig’s head?

A．It was made in the Ming Dynasty.

B．It is now in the Poly Art museum in Beijing.

C．It was donated by the French government to China.

D．It was removed by the Anglo-French Allied Army over 150 years ago.

3. What does the underlined word “feasible” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．Possible.

B．Difficult.

C．Wonderful.

D．Careful.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．China has enough money to buy all the cultural relics back.

B．Many countries have returned the lost cultural relics to China for free.

C．The Chinese government has done a lot to recover the lost cultural relics.

D．China is preparing to set up a database to collect information about the lost cultural relics.

2 . When another old cave is discovered in the south of France, it is not usually news. Rather, it is an ordinary event. Such discoveries are so frequent these days that hardly anybody pays heed to them. However, when the Lascaux cave complex was discovered in 1940, the world was amazed. Painted directly on its walls were hundreds of scenes showing how people lived thousands of years ago. The scenes show people hunting animals, such as bison or wild cats. Other images depict birds and, most noticeably, horses, which appear in more than 300 wall images, by far outnumbering all other animals.

Early artists drawing these animals achieved a monumental and difficult task. They did not limit themselves to the easily accessible walls but carried their painting materials to spaces that required climbing steep walls or going on hands and knees into narrow passages in the Lascaux complex.

Unfortunately, the paintings have been exposed to the destructive action of water and temperature changes, which easily wear the images away. Because the Lascaux caves have many entrances, air movement has also damaged the images inside.

Although they are not out in the open air, where natural light would have destroyed them long ago, many of the images have deteriorated and are hardly recognizable. To prevent further damage, the site was closed to tourists in 1963, 23 years after it was discovered.

1. Which title best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A．Wild Animals in Art

B．Hidden Prehistoric Paintings

C．Exploring Caves Respectfully

D．Determining the Age of French Caves

2. What does the underlined phrase “pays heed to” in paragraph 2 probably means?

A．discovers	B．watches
C．notices	D．buys

3. Why was painting inside the Lascaux complex a difficult task?

A．It was completely dark inside.

B．The caves were full of wild animals.

C．Painting materials were hard to find.

D．Many painting spaces were difficult to reach.

4. According to the passage, all of the following have caused damage to the paintings EXCEPT _______.

A．temperature changes	B．air movement
C．water	D．light

3 . A cafe in Virginia, America, has come up with a method to convince customers to be more polite.
A sign advertises different costs for a cup of coffee depending on how polite the customer is when ordering. The prices are listed with the typical phrases a customer might use when placing their order. They include: “Small coffee” at $5, “small coffee please” at $3 and “hello, one small coffee please” at $1.75.
A passer-by took a photo of the sign and posted the image online. This isn’t the first time that a coffee shop has attempted to teach customers a lesson. The Petite Syrah cafe in Nice, on the French Riviera, charged customers €7 for “a coffee”, but a more affordable €4.25 for “a coffee please”.
Fabrice Pepino, manager of Petite Syrah, explained the reason: “It started as a joke because at lunchtime people would come in very stressed and were sometimes rude to us when they ordered a coffee.” He added: “I know people say that French service can be rude but it’s also true that customers can be rude when they’re busy.”
The American cafe will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Petite Syrah cafe as the original coffee shop proved a success in changing customers’ behaviors. Pepino said that he had noticed a huge difference in the behaviors of his customers after a few days of the sign being on show.
1. If a customer orders a coffee politely, the cafe will ________.

A．present him/her a gift as a reward

B．charge him/her less money

C．offer him/her the coffee for free

D．teach him/her a good lesson

2. It can be known from the passage that ________.

A．the cafe in Virginia is the first coffee shop to do so

B．people don’t believe the strategy because it is a joke

C．the French cafe made the rule just for fun at first

D．both French service and French customers are rude

3. What do you know about the strategy of the Petite Syrah cafe?

A．It is useless.	B．It is boring.
C．It is unacceptable.	D．It is effective.

4 . Every year on April 1, April Fools’ Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. In France, it’s called Poisson d’Avril or “Fish of April.” In Scotland, the holiday is often called “Gowkie Day.” In Iraq, the holiday is called Kithbet Neesan or “April Lie.”

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools’ Day for a long time. Some believe the tradition comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago. It was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564, when King Charles changed the yearly calendar. He moved New Year’s Day from April 1 to January 1. Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems back then. Some people continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.

In the United States, April Fools’ Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. These kinds of jokes are also called pranks. These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting “April Fools’!”

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common. But, major companies also get in on April Fools’ Day fun in a much bigger way. A few years ago, on April 1, Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes — Plenta and Micra. The very large cups, bigger than a human head, remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee. According to Starbucks, the cups could be used as a rain hat, a pot for plants, or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank!

More and more, people use social media or smart phone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools’ Day. One very annoying smart phone app, Cat Facts, sends funny facts about cats to your friends’ phones, every day.

1. What is not true about “April Fools’ Day”?

A．It has been celebrated for a long time.

B．Its tradition comes from the ancient Romans.

C．French people celebrated it because of not knowing that King Charles changed the yearly calendar.

D．Different countries have different names for it.

2. In the United States, April Fools’ Day is         .

A．a day of joking and playing tricks on friends.

B．a day when you can play jokes on any people.

C．a day when people can’t shout “April Fools’!”

D．a day when Starbucks introduced new coffee.

3. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “pranks” (para4)?

A．friends

B．methods

C．jokes

D．jokers

5 . People in the United States honor their parents with two special days：Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father’s Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two days make us think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with child care.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother’s Day people wear carnations. A red one symbolizes a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead. Many people attend religious services to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery(墓地).On these days families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues for Father’s Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of the gift that is important, but it is “the thought that counts”. Greeting card stores, florists, candy makers, bakeries, telephone companies, and other stores do a lot of business during these holidays.
1. Which of the following is NOT a reason for children to show love and respect for parents?

A．Parents bring up children.

B．Parents give love and care to children.

C．Parents educate children to be good persons.

D．Parents pass away before children grow up.

2. Which do you think is right about “carnation”?

A．It has only two kinds of colors.

B．It refers to the special clothes people wear on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

C．It’s a kind of flower showing love and best wishes.

D．People can wear carnations only on the second Sunday in May.

3. What do you know from the passage?

A．Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both in May.

B．Fewer women worked outside the home in the past.

C．Not all the children respect their parents

D．Fathers are not as important as mothers at home.

4. On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, _______.

A．people usually have family parties

B．everyone goes to visit the cemetery

C．children always go to parents’ home

D．hand-made cards are the most valuable gifts

6 . Tea drinking was common in China for nearly one thousand years before anyone in Europe had ever heard about tea．People in Britain were much slower in finding out what tea was like, mainly because tea was very expensive. It could not be bought in shops and even those people who could afford to have it sent from Holland did so only because it was a fashionable curiosity. Some of them were not sure how to use it. They thought it was a vegetable and tried cooking the leaves. Then they served them mixed with butter and salt. They soon discovered their mistake but many people used to spread the used tea leaves on bread and give them to their children as sandwiches.
Tea remained scarce and very expensive in England until the ships of the East India Company began to bring it direct from China early in the seventeenth century. During the next few years so much tea came into the country that the price fell and many people could afford to buy it.
At the same time people on the Continent were becoming more and more fond of tea．Until then tea had been drunk without milk in it, but one day a famous French lady named Madame de Sevigne decided to see what tea tasted like when milk was added．She found it so pleasant that she would never again drink it without milk. Because she was such a great lady her friends thought they must copy everything she did, so they also drank their tea with milk in it. Slowly this habit spread until it reached England and today only very few Britons drink tea without milk.
At first, tea was usually drunk after dinner in the evening. No one ever thought of drinking tea in the afternoon until a duchess (公爵夫人) found that a cup of tea and a piece of cake at three or four o'clock stopped her getting “a sinking feeling” as she called it. She invited her friends to have this new meal with her and so, tea-time was born.
1. Which of the following is true of the introduction of tea into Britain?

A．The Britons got expensive tea from India.

B．Tea reached Britain from Holland.

C．The Britons were the first people in Europe who drank tea.

D．It was not until the 17th century that the Britons had tea.

2. This passage mainly discusses ________.

A．the history of tea drinking in Britain

B．how tea became a popular drink in Britain

C．how the Britons got the habit of drinking tea

D．how tea-time was born

3. Tea became a popular drink in Britain ________.

A．in eighteenth century	B．in sixteenth century
C．in seventeenth century	D．in the late seventeenth century

4. People in Europe began to drink tea with milk because ________.

A．it tasted like milk

B．it tasted more pleasant

C．it became a popular drink

D．Madame de Sevigne was such a lady with great social influence that people tried to copy the way she drank tea

5. We may infer from the passage that the habit of drinking tea in Britain was mostly
due to the influence of ________.

A．a famous French lady	B．the ancient Chinese
C．the upper social class	D．people in Holland

7 . America is a mobile society.Friendships between Americans can be close and real，yet disappear soon if situations change.Neither side feels hurt by this.Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two，perhaps a few letters for a while-then no more.If the same two people meet again by chance，even years later，they pick up the friendship.This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand，because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings，extending（延伸）sometimes deeply into both families.

Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes，share their holidays，and their home life.They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality（好客）easily.

Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives，they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time.This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time.Sometimes，we，as hosts，will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend.We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends.The Americans，however，express their welcome usually at homes，but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine.They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus.And they expect that we will phone them from there.Once we arrive at their homes，the welcome will be full，warm and real.We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

For the Americans，it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes thanto go to restaurants，except for purely business matters.So accept their hospitality at，home！.

1. The writer of this passage must be______.

A．an American	B．a Chinese
C．a professor	D．a student

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3. From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be_______.

A．warmly welcomed at the airport	B．offered a ride to his home
C．treated hospitably at his home	D．treated to dinner in a restaurant

4. The underlined words"generous with our time"in Paragraph 3 probably mean_____.

A．strict with time	B．serious with time
C．careful with time	D．willing to spend time

5. A suitable title for this passage would probably be"_____".

A．Friendships between Chinese

B．Friendships between Americans

C．Americans' hospitality

D．Americans' and Chinese's views of friendships

8 . February has long been a month of romance（浪漫）. With the sweet smell of roses in the air, romantic films hit cinemas and love stories fill newspapers and magazines.
On the 14th day, it is a custom for a boy to take his girlfriend out to dinner, buy her flowers and chocolates, write poems, sing to her or even spell out her name with rose petals! This is what you see on Valentine’s Day, a day named after Valentine who was a priest（牧师） in the third century Rome. When the emperor (皇帝) decided that single men could become better soldiers than those with wives, he didn’t allow marriage. But Valentine continued to perform（主持） marriage ceremonies（典礼） for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, the emperor sentenced him to death. While in prison（监狱）, it is said that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his prison guard. Before his death, he wrote her a letter, which he signed （签名）“From your Valentine”, an expression that is still   in use today. Valentine died for what he believed in and so he was made a Saint (圣徒), as well as becoming one of history’s most romantic characters.
Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is also popular among Chinese young people. Some students are planning to make Valentine’s cards for parents, teachers and friends. Others want to hold parties at which they will exchange small gifts and eat heart-shaped（心形的） cakes. The idea is to have fun and encourage people to share in the spirit of St. Valentine.
1. Why did the emperor in Rome not allow marriage in his country?

A．Because there were few women in his country at that time.

B．Because he wanted to control the birth rate.

C．Because there wasn’t enough food for so many people.

D．Because he thought men without wives could be better soldiers.

2. Valentine was put into prison because ______.

A．he killed one of the soldiers

B．he didn’t obey the emperor’s order

C．he stole a lot of food

D．he didn’t want to be a soldier

3. The last paragraph mainly tells us ______.

A．students in China send cards to their teachers

B．Valentine’s Day is also popular in China now

C．it is interesting to celebrate Valentine’s Day in China

D．it is a good idea to celebrate Valentine’s Day in China

4. The best title for this passage should be ______.

A．Valentine’s Day in China	B．A Brave Priest
C．Valentine’s Day	D．A Romantic Man