1 . Baron Pierre de Coubertin was a Frenchman. At his time sports were not taught in French schools. De Coubertin believed that sports should go hand in hand with studies. He had an idea. His idea was to begin the Olympics all over again.
Sports teachers of other countries liked De Coubertin ideas. So in 1896, the modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece. Since then the Olympics have been held once every four years, except three times, when there were wars.
The modern Olympic games have many foot races and field sports programs. The longest race in the games is called marathon.
Before the start of the Olympic Games, runners carry lighted torch( 火炬 ) through many nations towards the stadium where the games will be held. These sportsmen are from different countries. Yet they work together to carry the Olympic torch. It is passed from runner to runner, When the last runner enters the stadium, he or she places the torch in a special basin filled with oil. It catches fire. It is then, only then, that the Olympic Games can begin.
The Olympic flame burns throughout the games. It is the flame of peace.
1. Before 1896 French schools didn't teach ______.| A．match | B．history |
| C．sports | D．physics |
| A．In Athens,Greece | B．In German |
| C．In French | D．In Russia |
| A．1896 | B．1904 |
| C．1915 | D．1924 |
2 . At some point in elementary school, your science teacher may explained to you that there are 365 days in a year because that's how long it takes for Earth to complete one full journey around the sun. What they might not have explained, however, is that it's not exactly 365 days—it’s actually closer to 365. 2421 days.
So, if we want our calendar year to begin right when Earth begins a new turn around the sun, we have to account for roughly an extra quarter of a day each year, or one day every four years. History.com reports that the Egyptians had already been doing this for a while before Europe finally caught on in 46 BC, when Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and astronomer Sosigenes put their heads together to come up with what we now call the Julian calendar, which includes 12 months, 365 days, and an additional ''leap day'' every four years on February 29.
But rounding 0.2421 up to 0.25 each year created an issue, because it didn't quite add up to a full day every four years—and that tiny difference meant that after 128 years, the calendar year ended up starting a day before Earth had completed its journey around the sun. By the 14th century, the calendar year was starting 10 days before Earth finished its orbit.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII sought to correct the error by suggesting that we simply skip a leap day every so often. His Gregorian calendar, which we still use today, rules that we skip the leap day during years which can be evenly divided (被整除) by 100 but not by 400. For instance, the year 2000 included a leap day because it can be divided by 100 and 400; the year 2100, on the other hand, will not include a leap day, since it's evenly divided by 100, but not by 400.
Gregory XIII’s correction to Caesar's overcorrection is itself a bit of an under-correction, so we'll probably need to reevaluate our leap day design again in about 10,000 years.
1. What do the underlined words ''put their heads together'' in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Come across each other. | B．Bump their heads together. |
| C．Compete against each other. | D．Combine their efforts. |
| A．2100. | B．1600. |
| C．1800. | D．2020. |
| A．Emperor Julius Caesar was also an astronomer. |
| B．Today's calendar exactly agrees with the sun's turning. |
| C．The 10-day early start in calendar will always exist. |
| D．The Gregorian calendar is not yet the most accurate. |
| A．To point out a mistake made by your science teacher. |
| B．To explain how long Earth makes a trip around the sun. |
| C．To explain in detail why the leap day is needed. |
| D．To explain the reason why we need a calendar. |
3 . Miep Gies, the woman who hid the Dutch girl Anne Frank’s diary from the Nazis to become one of the world’s most-read books, died after a brief illness at the age of 100.
It was Gies who guarded Anne’s diary, and presented it to the girl’s father, Otto, when he returned from the Auschwitz concentration camp(奥斯威辛集中营) at the end of World War Ⅱ—the only one of his family to survive.
In her diary, Anne Frank wrote about her teenage life hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam from 1942 to 1944, when the Nazi police discovered her and her family’s hiding place. The diary, first published in 1947, has been translated into 70 languages.
Anne Frank expressed a great wish to live on after her death. Miep Gies saw it as her duty to help in making this happen.
Born in Vienna in 1909, Gies moved to the Netherlands at the age of 11. In 1933, she began working for Otto Frank at his trading company. At great risk to her own safety, she and four other helpers brought food and supplies to the Frank family hiding in a secret office building for more than two years.
When she turned 100, Gies tried to play down her own role. “I’m not a hero,” she said. “It wasn’t something I planned in advance. I simply did what I could to help.”
Every day she received letters from all over the world with questions about her relationship with Anne Frank and her role as a helper. Gies received many honors for her role, including from the Netherlands, Germany and Israel.
1. When did Miep Gies move to the Netherlands?| A．In 1909. | B．In 1947. |
| C．In 1920. | D．In 1933. |
| A．Only Miep Gies helped the Frank family. |
| B．Anne’s father Otto survived World War Ⅱ. |
| C．Anne’s hiding place was discovered in 1943. |
| D．Miep Gies wasn’t highly honored until her death. |
| A．didn’t play a role in saving the diary. | B．regretted saving the diary. |
| C．was proud of what she had done. | D．thought she was overpraised. |
| A．Woman who saved Anne’s diary dies at 100. |
| B．Anne Frank’s diary. |
| C．Survivors of World War Ⅱ. |
| D．The story of Miep Gies and Anne Frank. |
4 . The “Chong Yang Festival” is celebrated on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, which is also known as the Double Ninth Festival.
Climbing Mountains
People like to climb mountains on this festival, so Double Ninth Festival is also called “Mountain-climbing Festival”.
The 9th lunar month, with clear autumn sky and bracing air, is a good time for sightseeing.
Climbing mounting also indicates “climbing to a higher position”. Another reason why climbing mountains are valued by people, especially by the elderly is that it has a meaning of “climbing to ligneous life”. Climbing mountains on Double Ninth Festival was already popular in the Tang Dynasty.
Drinking Chrysanthemum Flower(菊花) Wine
The chrysanthemum flower wine is unique in brewing. In ancient times, people usually picked fresh chrysanthemum flowers and leaves on the 9th of the 9th lunar month, and brewed the mixture of them and grains into the wine.
The Double Ninth cake is also known as “flower cake”. It dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. It is said that the cake was originally prepared after autumn harvests for farmers to have a taste of what was just in season, and it gradually grew into the present cake for people to eat on the Double Ninth Day.
| A．Eating Double Ninth Cake |
| B．Making “flower cake” with friends |
| C．A lot of poems were devoted to this custom |
| D．So people love to go sightseeing this month |
| E．It would not be drunk until the same day next year |
| F．Here are some traditional customs of the Double Ninth Festival |
| G．But few Chinese people are aware of the importance of the festival |
5 . When you think of a typical American, who do you picture? A pretty blond white American like Taylor Swift? Or a handsome black American like basketball star Kobe Bryant? In fact, there was a time when the average American looked like neither of these people.
Back in the year 1500, the average American was a brown-skinned hunter-gatherer who probably rode a horse and wore clothing made from animal skins. Today, these people－who usually identify themselves based on their individual tribes such as Iriquois, Apache and Navajo－are broadly referred to as “Native Americans”, “American Indians” or simply “Indians”.
There’s a chance that you’ve never even heard of American Indians. That‟s because there aren’t very many left. When the European settlement of North America began, there were fierce conflicts between the settlers from overseas and these native peoples. After the British government and military were expelled (驱逐) in the Revolutionary War, conflicts with natives continued as the states were created that would later make up the US. In these conflicts, millions of natives were killed.
In 1830, president Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. This act required all Indians to migrate to the west of the Mississippi River to allow for the expansion of the US. American Indians were treated as a military “enemy” until 1924, when the few Indians still alive at that point were granted （准予）US citizenship. That was the first time that the US government formally recognized the rights of Indians.
While the story of the American Indians has been a sad one, these peoples’ legacies (遗产) are still felt every day in the US. Many US geographical names come from Indian languages, such as Ohio, Topeka, Kansas, and the Potomac River. At the same time, there are numerous successful academics and other important US leaders who are descended（是……的后裔）from Indians. And nowadays, more and more history classes in US public schools are educating students about how Indians suffered during the settlement of the US.
Although what happened cannot be undone, we can learn at least one thing from the sad history of the Indians: If we want a better future, we must look carefully and honestly at the past.
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．The history of the settement of the US. |
| B．What a typical American is like. |
| C．The sad story of American Indians. |
| D．American Indians‟ economic impact on the US. |
| A．were driven from the US by the British government |
| B．were regarded as a military “enemy” of the US |
| C．were finally granted US citizenship |
| D．were required to live along the Mississippi River. |
| A．There are few influential American Indians in US history. |
| B．Some of their languages are still used today. |
| C．The majority of them lived in the states of Ohio and Kansas. |
| D．American youths are becoming more informed of the suffering of the Indians. |
| A．It’s miserable to be reminded of it. |
| B．It’s important to learn from it. |
| C．He doesn’t have much interest in it. |
| D．Every school should teach classes about it. |
The kings of ancient Egypt planned strong tombs to keep their bodies safe after death and to hold their treasure. The Great Pyramids along the Nile are on its west bank. The ancient Egyptians compared the rising of the sun to the beginning of life and the setting of the sun to the end of life. This is why their dead bodies were buried on the west bank of the Nile.
The people of Mexico also built pyramids.They did not build the pyramids for tombs. They used to build a pyramid and then a temple on top of it. The pyramids of Mexico are not as high as the pyramids of Egypt, but they are bigger. Each of the pyramids has a wide stairway(楼梯) that goes from the bottom to the top.
The biggest pyramid in Mexico is almost 2,000 years old. Scientists think it took 10,000 men more than ten years to build it. On the top they built a temple of the sun. The temple is no longer there, but people still call it the Pyramid of the Sun. Near it is another huge pyramid, the Pyramid of the Moon.
1. In ancient Egypt pyramids were built .
| A．in honour of the gods |
| B．for the kings’ tombs |
| C．for visitors to see |
| D．as places of interest |
| A．they died in the west |
| B．the sun sets in the west |
| C．the end of their lives was like the setting of the sun |
| D．they would go to the west after death |
| A．The pyramids of Mexico are as big as those of Egypt. |
| B．The pyramids of Egypt are not higher than those of Mexico. |
| C．The pyramids of Mexico are just the same as those of Egypt. |
| D．The pyramids of Mexico are quite different from those of Egypt. |
| A．for the kings | B．for the people |
| C．for wars | D．for the gods |
7 . People have strange ideas about food. For example, 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(营养) 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, know 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 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 guests about the fact.
1. Tomato is a kind of ___________.| A．poisonous fruit | B．poisonous vegetable |
| C．tasty fruit | D．tasty vegetable |
| 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．people from other countries | B．from France |
| C．people of his own country | D．men only |
| A．None 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．President Thomas Jefferson knew that tomatoes were good to eat and not poisonous at all. |
| D．All of the guests didn’t know that their president would serve his honored guests poison apples. |
First, what forced emigrants to make the decision to leave? One major cause for European farmers to leave was the rise in population which in turn led to land hunger. Another was politics. There was an increased taxation（税收）and the growth of armies, and many young men fled eastern Europe to avoid being forced to join the army.
Physical hunger provided another pressing reason. Following the collapse （衰退）of the economy of southern Italy in the 1860s, hundreds of thousands decided to start a new life in America. Religion also encouraged millions to leave the Old World.
In short, people chose to leave their homes for social, economic and religious reasons. As a result, by 1890 among a total population of 63 million, there were more than nine million foreign-born Americans.
But what were the attractions? First of all, there was the promise of land which was so scarce in Europe. Next, factories were calling for workers, and pay conditions were much better than back home. Men were needed to open up the West and build the long railroads, and new towns needed settlers to live in and to develop business. There was the space for religious people to practice their faith in peace.
This immigration meant that by around the 1850s Americans of non-English had started to be more than those of English. As we know, there were losers. To start with, there were those unwilling immigrants, the slaves who had been used as a source of cheap labour. Nor should we forget the equally unlucky American Indians. By 1860 there were 27 million free whites, four million slaves and a mere 488,000 free blacks.
Nowadays, the USA is still seen by millions as the Promised Land. As always, it remains an attractive place to those who think it will offer them a second chance.
1. What is not the cause for people to leave their homeland?
| A．The search for religious freedom. | B．The search for adventure. |
| C．Unwillingness to join the army. | D．Economics. |
| A．There was no land. | B．There was no peace. |
| C．The population had gone down. | D．There were too many of them. |
| A．Employment | B．A healthy life |
| C．freedom of religion | D．Business opportunities |
| A．The USA is still seen by millions as the Promised Land. |
| B．The USA is a land of immigrants. |
| C．Religion encouraged millions to leave the Old World. |
| D．About one-eighth of non-native born Americans live in the USA in 1890. |
| A．were as fortunate as the slaves |
| B．were more unfortunate than the slaves |
| C．were the most unfortunate |
| D．were as unfortunate as the slaves |
