1 . A long time ago, before there was any money (coins or paper money), people got the things that they needed by trading or exchanging. Salt was one of the first items used to exchange for other items. Later, some of the common things that were used for exchanging were tea leaves, shells, feathers, animal teeth, tobacco, and blankets. Around 3000 BC, barley, a type of grain, was used for exchanging.
The world’s first metal money was developed by the Sumerians who melted silver into small bars all weighing the same. This was around 1000 BC. About three hundred years later, people started using coins as official money.
Around 640 BC, people in the ancient kingdom of Lydia ( which was in Turkey) created special coins of exact with and purity (纯度). They were made of gold and silver and were stamped with a lion’s head.
Later, other empires such as Greece, Persia, and Rome adopted the concept of coins and started developing their own in many different shapes and different metals.
Around the year 1000, the Chinese started using paper money. The Chinese were the first to use paper money. The Europeans discovered this thanks to Marco Polo who went to China in 1295. the Chinese had different values for the paper notes which were made by the Chinese government.
Around 1661, Sweden became the first European country to make paper money. Until 1850, the Spanish dollar was the coin most widely used throughout the world.
1. What is the best title for this passage?| A．The history of money |
| B．How people traded in the past |
| C．The invention of paper money |
| D．The use of coins around the world |
| A．barley had always been used for exchanging |
| B．only a few people knew how to trade with others |
| C．salt was the most widely used item for exchanging |
| D．many kinds of things were used for exchanging |
| A．Around 1300 BC. | B．Around 1000 BC. |
| C．Around 700 BC. | D．Around 640 BC. |
| A．replaced | B．changed |
| C．accepted | D．invented |
| A．Spain | B．China | C．Sweden | D．Lydia |
2 . Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject -- and studied the brain—say that they are. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist, and four fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects and to music.
Black, white and Asian children in this group show the same patterns. However, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering.
If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy? One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians.
It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music.
Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modern. A long string of names comes to mind—W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker…and so on.
None of this presupposes(假设，意味着) any special innate（先天的）ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.
1. what is the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Mathematical ability and musical ability are connected. |
| B．Mathematical ability has more to do with the brain than musical ability. |
| C．More people are good at music than math. |
| D．More research should be done into the relationship between mathematical ability and math ability. |
| A．difference | B．excellence | C．inborn ability | D．inability |
| A．It requires formal training. |
| B．It is often enjoyed by those with strong analytical ability. |
| C．It is disliked by blacks. |
| D．It is more difficult to learn than classical music. |
| A．Blacks have special innate ability in music. |
| B．Unlike others, blacks do not have innate ability in music. |
| C．Jazz is one of the narrow channels through which blacks express their ability in music. |
| D．Those who have money and time choose mathematics over music. |
| A．Are musical ability and mathematical ability connected? |
| B．Why have blacks been greatly over represented in the development of American popular misic? |
| C．What kinds of music require formal training? |
| D．What are the contributions made by black musicians? |
People have strange ideas about food. For example, the tomato is a kind of very delicious vegetable. It is one of useful plants that can be prepared in many ways. It has rich nutrition and vitamin in it. But in the 18th century, Americans never ate tomatoes. They grew them in their gardens because tomato plants are so pretty. But they thought the vegetable was poisonous (有毒的). They called tomatoes “poison apples.”
President Thomas Jefferson, however, knew that tomatoes were good to eat. He was a learned man. He had been to Paris, where he learned to love the taste of tomatoes. He grew many kinds of tomatoes in his garden. The President taught his cook a way for a cream of tomato soup. This beautiful pink soup was served at the President’s party. The guests thought the soup tasted really good. They never thought their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. Jefferson never spoke to his honored (忠实的) guests about the fact.
1. After you read the passage, which of the following do you think is true?
| A．Americans never ate tomatoes after they began to plant them. |
| B．Americans didn’t eat tomatoes before 19th century. |
| C．Even now Americans don’t eat tomatoes. |
| D．In the 18th century Americans ate a lot of tomatoes. |
| A．while he was in Paris | B．when he was a little boy |
| C．because his parents told him so | D．from books |
| A．the President himself | B．a French cook | C．the President’s cook | D．the President’s wife |
| A．people from other countries | B．from France | C．people of his own country | D．men only |
| A．All of the guests knew the soup that was served at the President’s party was made of tomatoes. |
| B．All of the guests thought the soup which was prepared by the President’s cook was nice. |
| C．All of the guests thought the taste of the beautiful pink soup was nice. |
| D．None of the guests knew that their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. |
The finest and most sought-after violins were handcrafted by an Italian violin maker over 250 years ago. The man’s name was Antonius Stradivarius. He was born in 1644 and began his career
Unfortunately, the secret of the Stradivarius violin died with its maker. During his lifetime Stradivarius kept his notes safely
Through the years, many experts have offered
| A．with | B．as | C．for | D．from |
| A．Instruments | B．facilities | C．equipment | D．tools |
| A．investigated | B．surveyed | C．tested | D．experimented |
| A．fashion | B．existence | C．possession | D．use |
| A．protected | B．buried | C．hidden | D．covered |
| A．possible | B．accurate | C．detailed | D．persuasive |
| A．brings in | B．takes in | C．results in | D．lies in |
| A．master | B．violinist | C．expert | D．user |
| A．attention | B．application | C．invention | D．foundation |
| A．Additionally | B．Luckily | C．Therefore | D．Still |
