1 . When gold was discovered in Coloma, California in 1848, news travelled fast and many went there to find their fortune. Before 1849, California was a place focusing mainly on agriculture. As word of the gold discovery spread, many people left their fields to seek their fortune. With more and more travellers arriving, restaurants and hotels were built to feed and accommodate (提供住宿) them.
On the mining sites, men were often forced to cook for themselves since few gold diggers were women. In the early days, both food and riches were plentiful and miners could uncover $2,000 worth of gold in just one day. When it came to food, there were plenty of wild animals to be hunted, and meat, beans and coffee could be purchased at a reasonable price. Times appeared to be good.
Over time, because the majority of food in California had to be imported, it became very expensive. Simple foods like eggs and bread were sold for one dollar a piece in 1849. Besides, fruit and vegetables were scarce (缺乏的). Therefore, many gold diggers couldn't get enough food, and some even had no food at all at last. But the gold diggers also hated to tear themselves away from their search for gold and turned to quick and simple meals that could be cooked over hot ashes.
During the Gold Rush, San Francisco's famous sourdough (酸面团) bread became a main type of food. Miners would often buy a piece in the morning that would be eaten slowly throughout the day. The Boudin family, who came from France, was partly responsible for putting San Francisco sourdough on the map. The Boudin bakery has used the same sourdough, a piece of socalled mother dough since 1849. And when the 1906 earthquake hit, Louise Boudin managed to save some sourdough, ensuring that each piece of bread that came from the bakery would be linked throughout history. So far the Boudin bakery has remained in California, using the sourdough that is the same as the one in 1849.
1. What change took place in California after 1849?| A．The environment got damaged by gold diggers. |
| B．Gold diggers from outside became its main population. |
| C．The gold industry pushed each other forward. |
| D．Business of eating and living developed due to the Gold Rush. |
| A．Many sadly left without any gold. |
| B．Many had to bring food from home. |
| C．Many likely ended up with poor health. |
| D．Many probably turned to unique ingredients. |
| A．Helping discover lots of gold there. |
| B．Rescuing many people from the earthquake. |
| C．Creating a type of tasty bread for Califormans. |
| D．Passing down some food culture in the Gold Rush. |
| A．The Origin of San Francisco Sourdough |
| B．The Historical Changes of California |
| C．The Tough Life of Early Gold Diggers |
| D．The Rise and Fall of the Gold Rush |
2 . Ireland has had a very difficult history. The problems started in the 16th century when English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. For hundreds of years, the Irish people fought against the English. Finally, in 1921,the British government was forced to give independence to the south of Ireland. The result is that today there are two “Irelands”. Northern Ireland, in the north, is part of the United Kingdom. The Republic of Ireland, in the south, is an independent country.
In the 1840s, the main crop, potatoes, were affected by disease and about 750,000 people died of hunger. This, and a shortage (短缺) of work, forced many people to leave Ireland and live in the USA, the UK, Australia and Canada. As a result of these problems, the population fell from 8.2 million in 1841 to 6.6 million in 1851.
For many years, the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people still work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside, where things move at a quieter and slower pace.
The Irish are famous for being warm-hearted and friendly. Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish writer, once said that the Irish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence, Ireland has revived (复兴) its own culture of music, language, literature and singing. Different areas have different styles of old Irish songs which are sung without instruments. Other kinds of Irish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.
1. What does the author tell us in paragraph 1?| A．How the Irish fought against the English. | B．How Ireland gained independence. |
| C．How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland. | D．How two “Irelands” came into being. |
| A．Food shortages in the 1840s led to a decline in population. |
| B．People are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countryside. |
| C．It is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker. |
| D．Different kinds of old Irish songs are all sung with instruments. |
| A．Life in Ireland | B．A Very Difficult History |
| C．Ireland, Past and Present | D．The Independence of Ireland |
3 . Over the course of more than 250 years, the US Postal Service has gone through many changes, including switching its focus from newspapers to package delivery service.
In the early 1830s, the Postal Service focused on delivering newspapers to keep Americans informed and connected. To keep newspaper subscriptions cheap and accessible, the Postal Service charged high prices for letter postage as much as a full-day’s wages. In order to help the expansion of the passenger transportation network in the new nation, the agency often shared the letter delivery with stagecoach lines. Later, it did the same for private steamboats and railroads, even airlines
But the competition for the letter delivery became so fierce that a wave of laws between 1845 and 1851 made the Postal Service the only letter-carrier and set aside an annual budget to support the agency. Helped by lowered rates, letters soon became the agency’s main business.
In 1863, the Postal Service began to experiment with home delivery, instead of just carrying letters from post office to post office. By the dawn of the 20th century, even remote farmers’ letters were dropped into their mailboxes. Since then, home delivery has become a “universal public service (UPS)” that every American deserves to receive at a low price.
By the early 20th century, the Postal Service had set a four-pound limit on mail: Anything heavier was supposed to be left to private companies. But the four largest private carriers secretly cooperated to charge confusing and often terribly high rates. In 1913, the Postal Service eventually took the parcel (包裹) service away from the private carriers.
Now the Postal Service’s only growing business is package delivery fed by the online shopping addictions. Since it is required by law to visit every household six days a week, the Postal Service now offers cheap rates to private companies like Amazon and FedEx to deliver their goods to our doorsteps. However, most Americans think that it is unfair to use taxpayer’s money to help such big private companies to deliver their goods.
1. What can we learn from the second paragraph?| A．Letter delivery was once a very profitable business. |
| B．The US was well connected by airlines in the 1820s. |
| C．The Postal Service charged high prices for newspapers. |
| D．In the 1830s. Americans had free access to newspapers. |
| A．Goods transportation. | B．Letter delivery. |
| C．Newspaper subscriptions. | D．Parcel services. |
| A．The private companies often charge terribly high rates. |
| B．The online-shoppers cannot receive their parcels on time. |
| C．The Postal Service usually leaves parcels in the local post offices. |
| D．The “UPS” is originally designed for non-commercial home delivery. |
| A．The Problems of the US Postal Service |
| B．The Postal Service’s Roles in the US History |
| C．A Brief History of the US Postal Service |
| D．The Main Functions of the US Postal Service |
The Antonine Plague (瘟疫)
The year was 166 C.E., and the Roman Empire was in its prime. The triumphant Roman troops, under the command of Emperor Lucius Verrus, returned to Rome victorious after
The Antonine Plague,
The effect of the epidemic on Rome’s armies was apparently devastating. Closeness to sick fellow soldiers and less-than-optimal living conditions made it possible for the outbreak to spread rapidly throughout the troops, such as those
The effect on the civilian population was evidently by no means
It has been estimated that the death rate over the 23-year period of the Antonine Plague was 7—10 percent of the population.
5 . Levi Strauss did not invent jeans, but he is considered the first person to make and sell great numbers of them. He was born in Bavaria, an area that is part of Germany. In 1847 he and his family moved to the United States.
Levi Strauss opened a small dry goods store, first in New York, then in San Francisco, California. Among the products he sold were jeans. These pants were especially useful for miners in California. They needed clothing made from a strong material. Jeans are usually made from a heavy cotton cloth called denim.
Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis. Davis had invented a process for making rivets (铆钉) for jeans. These little metal connectors helped hold the pieces of cloth together to make the jeans stronger.
In 1875, the government gave Strauss and Davis a patent (专利) for their invention. That meant no one else could legally copy it without their permission. In 1928 the Levi Strauss company registered (注册) the word “Levi’s” as a trademark for their product.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington has one of the oldest known pairs of Levi’s. Writer James Sullivan published a book called “Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon.” In the book, he says jeans show two American values, creativity and rebellion.
Cowboys wore jeans in the old Wild West. In the 1950s, people saw famous Hollywood actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando wearing jeans in movies.
Today jeans come in blue but also lots of other colors and in many styles and at all prices.
1. Which of the following about Levi Strauss is TRUE?| A．He invented jeans. | B．He was born in the west of America. |
| C．He used to run a dry goods store in New York. | D．He started the Levi Strauss company by himself. |
| A．hang little things. | B．make the clothes stronger. |
| C．decorate the clothes. | D．protect miners from attacks. |
| A．was registered in 1928. | B．was given a patent. |
| C．was the oldest trademark of jeans. | D．has ever appeared in movies. |
| A．the meaning of jeans. | B．the history of jeans. |
| C．how jeans are invented. | D．why jeans become popular. |
The 16th to 18th centuries witnessed the peak time of Suzhou classical gardens, featuring around 250 gardens. A survey from 2015 to 2018 showed that Suzhou is home
With a fascinating past and more than four hundred years of history, St. Augustine is one of the nation’s oldest cities and a
In 1513, an explorer found this land,
Apart
After the city recovers, visitors shouldn't overlook it. It has suffered much in history. Hopefully, visitors will come and perhaps support the coast recovery while discovering Florida’s
8 . There are 195 countries in the world today and actually none of them have purple on their national flags. Throughout history, purple was never used to represent a kingdom.
So what’s wrong with purple? It’s such a popular color today. The answer is really quite simple. Purple was just far too expensive.
The color purple has been related to royal power and wealth for centuries. Queen Elizabeth I didn’t allow anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it. Purple’s unique position comes from the rarity and high cost of the dye used to produce it. The dye was from a small sea snail that was only found in the Tyre area of the Mediterranean. Over 10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of Tyrian purple; not to mention lots of work went into producing the dye, which made purple dye so expensive even for some royal families. Third century Roman Emperor Aurelio famously wouldn’t allow his wife to buy a scarf made from purple silk because it cost three times its weight in gold. A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold, which equals 56,000 dollars today. Therefore, even the richest countries couldn’t spend that much having purple on their flags.
In 1856, 18-year-old English chemist William Henry Perkin by accident created a man-made purple dye while attempting to produce an anti-malaria drug. He noticed that it could be used to dye cloth. He patented the dye and mass-produced it. Therefore everybody could afford it.
Till now, a handful of new national flags have been designed and a few of them have chosen to use purple.
1. Why was color purple expensive in the past?| A．Because only royal families were allowed to wear purple. |
| B．Because it took a long time to get purple dye from snails. |
| C．Because purple was worth as much as its weight in gold. |
| D．Because purple dye used to be uncommon and hard to produce. |
| A．The anti-malaria drug. | B．Snails. |
| C．The man-made purple dye. | D．Tyrian purple. |
| A．A few new national flags have chosen to use purple. |
| B．William Henry Perkin got rich by producing the purple dye. |
| C．Royal families stop using purple because it’s not expensive. |
| D．A single pound of dye cost three pounds of gold. |
| A．No Purple Flags? | B．Purple vs. Gold |
| C．How to Produce Purple Dye? | D．The Birth of Purple Color |
9 . Valencia is in the east part of Spain. It has a port on the sea, two miles away on the coast. It is the capital of a province that is also named Valencia.
The city is a market centre for what is produced by the land around the city. Most of the city’s money is made from farming. It is also a busy business city, with ships, railways, clothes and machine factories.
Valencia has an old part with white buildings, coloured roofs, and narrow streets. The modern part has long, wide streets and new buildings. Valencia is well known for its parks and gardens. It has many old churches and museums. The university in the centre of the city was built in the 13th century.
The city of Valencia has been known since the 2nd century. In the 8th century it was the capital of Spain. There is also an important city in Venezuela (委内瑞拉) named Valencia.
1. From the text, how many places have the name Valencia?| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．2nd century. | B．8th century. | C．13th century. | D．20th century. |
| A．Its seaport. | B．Its university. | C．Its churches and museums. | D．Its parks and gardens. |
| A．markets | B．business | C．factories | D．farming |
The European Union is
The idea of the European Union
In 2004, the European Union increased to 25 members. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, plus the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta all became members. The
