China celebrates the Chinese National Day on October 1st every year. The celebration marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
For centuries, a succession of different dynasties ruled China,
On October 1st, 1949,
Since 1950, October 1st
2 . The computer is a useful machine. It is the most important invention in many years. The oldest kind of computer is the abacus, used in China centuries ago, but the first large, modern computer was built in 1946. A computer then could do maths problems quite fast.
Today computers are used in many ways and can do many kinds of work. In a few years the computer may touch the life of everyone, even people in faraway villages.
In the last few years, there have been great changes in computers. They are getting smaller and smaller, and computing faster and faster. Many scientists agree that computers can now do many things, but they cannot do everything. Who knows what the computers of tomorrow will be like? Will computers bring good things or bad things to people? The scientists of today will have to decide how to use the computers of tomorrow.
1. The computer is a ______ machine.| A．helpful | B．strange | C．large | D．dangerous |
| A．a few | B．forty | C．sixty | D．eighty |
| A．bigger | B．fewer | C．smaller | D．taller |
| A．everything | B．anything | C．nothing | D．lots of things |
| A．may decide | B．must decide | C．can make | D．needn’t make |
Jia Sixie, author of China's first agricultural encyclopedia, was one of the leading agronomists (农学家) in Chinese history. In the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he wrote Qimin Yaoshu, the
Jia Sixie was born in Yidu County in Shandong Province. During his childhood, Jia's family wasn't wealthy, but had
The book, which has 92 chapters in 10 volumes and nearly 120,000 characters,
Qimin Yaoshu was first distributed mainly among common people. In the late Tang Dynasty, the book was introduced to Japan. So far, the book
No discussion about Chinese culture is complete without mentioning of the Great Wall. It is one of the most amazing
The hardships involved in building the Great Wall are beyond
Over the centuries, the Great Wall
The well-preserved sections we see today were mainly built during the Ming Dynasty (1368
—1644), among
5 . A huge fire broke out on 2 September 1666 in London. The fire, known as the Great Fire of London, was the worst fire in the history of London. It burned down more than three quarters of the old city.
The fire started in the very early hours of Sunday morning in the house of the king’s baker. A strong wind blew the fire from the baker’s house into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.
At that time, most of the buildings in London were made of wood, so it was easy for the fire to spread quickly. By eight o’clock, three hundred houses were on fire. By Monday, nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the Thames River. On Tuesday, which was considered the worst day, the fire destroyed many well-known buildings, including the old St Paul’s Cathedral.
The fire burned until finally hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire were destroyed to create a firebreak. The fire then died out eventually with nothing left to burn.
1. Why is the fire of 1666 called the Great Fire of London?| A．The fire broke out in the capital of England. |
| B．The fire was the worst fire in the history of London. |
| C．People in England will never forget the fire. |
| D．The fire spread fast into Thames Street. |
| A．In the house of the king’s baker. |
| B．In Thames Street. |
| C．In the house of the baker’s neighbour. |
| D．In St Paul’s Cathedral. |
| A．It started in a baker’s house. |
| B．It broke out on a Sunday morning. |
| C．A hotel was next to the baker’s house. |
| D．Most of the buildings in London were wooden. |
| A．The old St Paul’s Cathedral. |
| B．Hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. |
| C．Hundreds of wooden houses. |
| D．All of the above. |
6 . 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 |
7 . 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.
9 . 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 |
10 . 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 |
