1 . For late 19th-century North Americans and Europeans, a display of tableware (餐具)could reveal much about someone’s social position, as the wealthy took great care to get different kinds of forks for everything. Before the 18th century, people of all classes usually ate with a knife and a spoon.
The fork’s path to the table was hard-won and slow. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, forks were used for slicing food into pieces or lifting meat from a pot or fire.
Following a reduction in size, the fork appeared to have entered dining areas in the courts of the Middle East and Byzantine Empire by the eighth and ninth centuries, and became common among wealthy families there by the tenth century. Early in the 11th century, it appeared in various pieces of European art. In the late 11th century, St.Peter Damian from Ostia wrote about a Byzantine princess who used forks and regarded her dying of a disease as punishment for such “luxury”.
The fork’s slow conquest of Europe was carried out from Italy. Motivated by the same concerns for hygiene(卫生)，forks were bought by wealthy Britons，inspired by Queen Victoria, who regarded fork use as a sign of good manners.
The fork’s introduction to North America dates back to 1633, when John Winthrop, a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was gifted a set of forks. The Industrial Revolution strengthened the fork’s presence on dining room tables as production of flatware became less expensive. Writing in 1896 inSocial Eriquere，Maud C. Cooke declared the fork had finally conquered the knife in America and “any attempt to give the knife importance at table is looked upon as an offense(冒犯)against good taste.”
1. What can we learn about forks from paragraph1?| A．They were used improperly in the 18th century. |
| B．They had many different types in the 19th century. |
| C．They were popular in Europe before the 18th century. |
| D．They led to North American’s rise in social position. |
| A．To eat food. | B．To decorate tables. |
| C．To cut food. | D．To create works of art. |
| A．St.Peter Damian. | B．Thomas Coryate. |
| C．Queen Victoria | D．Maud C.Cooke. |
| A．The appearance of flatware |
| B．The start of the Industrial Revolution. |
| C．John Winthrop receiving forks as presents. |
| D．Maud C.Cooke writing Social Etiquette. |
2 . In 1823, a young woman noticed a strange fossil (化石) on a beach near Lyme Regis, England. She dug out the bones and had them carried to her home.She carefully arranged the skeleton(骨架) on a table. Then she saw something extraordinary. The creature’s neck was a meter long-more than half the length of its body. It was unlike any animal living on Earth.
Even at a young age, Mary Anning had a talent for spotting unusual fossils. Her father died in 1810, leaving her family in.debt, so Mary began selling her fossils to collectors. At 12, she made her first major discovery—a crocodile-like skull(头骨) with a long skeleton. It turned out to be a sea creature that lived long ago. Named ichthyosaur, or “fish-lizard”, it was the first extinct animal known to science.
Fossil hunting brought in money, but it was a dangerous job. One day, a rock fall killed her dog and almost buried Mary. Despite the dangers, she continued to look for mew finds The long-necked fossil she unearthed in 1823 was another long-dead sea reptile(爬行动物). Known as a plesiosaur, it would inspire legends—including that of the Loch Ness Monster.
Mary was not only a skilled fossil hunter; she also carefully examined and recorded her finds. However, she wasn’t widely recognized in the scientific community. Only one of her scientific writings got published in her lifetime, in 1839. She was also not allowed to join London’s Geological Society, as membership was only available to men.
Mary Anning died in 1847, but her contributions have not been forgotten. Her finds are now displayed in museums in London and Paris. The beach near her home is a UNFSCO World Heritage Site, known as the Jurassic Coast. Her life continues to inspire visitors hoping to find their own fossil wonders. According to Britain’s Natural History Museum, Mary Anning was “the greatest fossil hunter the world has ever known”.
1. The first paragraph is written to_________.| A．stress the hard work Mary Anning carried out |
| B．prove the uniqueness of Mary Anning;s finds |
| C．introduce the readers to Mary Anning;s story |
| D．show the importance of Mary Anning;s discovery |
| A．Her main purpose was to make scientific contributions. |
| B．She found it hard to make ends meet as a fossil hunter. |
| C．She made her first major discovery in 1823. |
| D．She had a narrow escape from a rock fall. |
| A．Mary Anning deserved more credit. |
| B．More people should join in fossil hunting. |
| C．The Jurassic Coast is in need of protection. |
| D．Mary Anning is the greatest scientist in the world. |
| A．By providing examples. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following the order of time. |
| D．By following the order of importance. |
3 . The Eiffel Tower is one of the most famous buildings in the world. It was named after Alexandre Eiffel whose team of engineers designed it. It cost £260,000 to build in 1889 with most of the money being provided by Eiffel himself and the French state. The Eiffel Tower rises to a height of 985 feet and for over forty years it was the highest building in the world. The tower is largely composed of triangulated(三角形的)sections and this allowed the engineers to build the tower so high.
Originally looked upon as a short-lived building, the Tower was built for the 1889 World’s Fair. It was the entrance gate to the World’s Fair and one of a number of designs entered as part of a competition. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel’s company won the competition, so the tower became known as the Eiffel Tower. However, it was Morris Koechlin, an employee of Eiffel, who designed the thousand - foot tower. And he also designed the structure(结构)for the Statue of Liberty.
The original idea was for the tower to be dismantled after a twenty-year period. However, it was so well built and engineered that it was decided to leave it in position. The various parts were so well engineered that not even one had to be returned to workshops.
After the first year of opening so much money had been raised from people visiting the tower that the cost of construction was covered. After that, Alexandre Eiffel became rich. Later on, he conducted experiments on the tower such as using it as an instrument for measuring air resistance and atmospheric pressure. In 1898 it was discovered that the tower could also be used as a great radio tower. Thus, the Eiffel Tower was saved.
1. What makes the high tower possible?| A．Its structure. | B．Its position. | C．Its materials. | D．Its cost. |
| A．To stand in Paris as a landmark. | B．To work as a great radio tower. |
| C．To compare with the Statue of Liberty. | D．To serve as the gate of the World’s Fair. |
| A．Set up. | B．Burnt down. | C．Taken apart. | D．Passed down. |
| A．Eiffel Tower’s history. | B．Eiffel Tower’s designer. |
| C．Alexandre Eiffel’s team. | D．Alexandre Eiffel’s success. |
The tracks found at New Mexico’s White Sands National Park are turning upside down past assumptions on when humans first came into North and South America. They look like they were left behind just moments ago by a barefoot teen visitor to New Mexico’s White Sands National Park, each footprint freshly defined (描出外形) by sand. But this is no tourist track. These footprints are among the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas, marking the latest addition to a growing body of evidence that challenges when and how people first got into this unexplored land.
According to the research team, the footprints were pressed into the mua near an ancient lake at White Sands between 21, 000 and 23, 000 years ago, a time when many scientists think that huge ice sheets walled off human passage into North America.
Exactly when humans populated the Americas has been heatedly debated for nearly a century, and until recently, many scientists insisted that this first occurred no earlier than 13, 000 years ago. A growing number of discoveries suggest people were in North and South America thousands of years before. These include the Monte Verde site in Chile that is as old as 18, 500 years and the Gault site in Texas that is up to 20,000 years old. But each find kicks up a firestorm of controversy among scientists.
While the White Sands discovery doesn’t close the book on these debates, it is stirring excitement. “A discovery like this is very close to finding the Holy Grail (圣杯),” says Ciprian Ardelean, an archacologist at the Chiquihuite Cave in Mexico, where researchers believe they have evidence for human activity in the Americas as early as 30,000 years ago.
If confirmed, the discovery of people in the Americas during the last glacial maximum (末次盛冰期)would require a major change in scientifie thinking about how people arrived in the New Werld.
1. What is the previous conclusion on the first arrivals of Americas?| A．Humans came into Americas about 23, 000 years ago. |
| B．Humans first appeared in Americas to explore the land. |
| C．Humans didn’t arrive in Americas until 13, 000 years ago. |
| D．Humans couldn’t enter Americas because of White Sands. |
| A．To add evidence. | B．To introduce the background. |
| C．To give data. | D．To end the debate. |
| A．Excitement. | B．Argument. | C．Disagreement. | D．Interest. |
| A．Trustworthy. | B．Questionable. | C．Inspiring. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．Humans populated the Americas for nearly one hundred years. |
| B．The tracks were found at New Mexico’s White Sands National Park. |
| C．The footprints are among the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas. |
| D．Surprising footprints push back human arrival in Americas by thousands of years. |
5 . The pasty (馅饼) has been a recorded part of the British diet since the 13th century, at that time being enjoyed by the rich upper classes. The fillings were different and rich. It wasn’t until the 17th and 18th centuries that the pasty was popular among miners and farm workers in Cornwall as a means for providing themselves with easy and tasty meals while they worked. And so the Cornish pasty was born.
Traditionally, the pasty fillings are beef with potato, onion and swede! As meat was much more expensive in the 17th and 18th centuries, its presence was rare and so pasties traditionally included much more vegetables than today. The presence of carrot in a pasty, although common now, was the mark of a poor pasty at first.
Filling ideas are endless however, and can be as different as your taste will take you. There is much discussion as to whether the ingredients (原料) should be mixed together first or lined up on the pastry in a special order. However, there is agreement that the meat should be cut into pieces, the vegetables sliced and none should be cooked before they are sealed (密封) within the pastry. It is this that makes the Cornish pasty different from other similar foods.
It was such a commonly used method of eating amongst the miners that some mines had tools down the mineshafts (井筒) specifically to cook the pasties. If they were cooked in the mornings, the pastry could keep the fillings warm for 8-10 hours and, when held close to the body, keep the miners warm too. It was also common for the pasties to provide not only a main course lunch, but also a sweet or fruity dessert course. The salty filling would be cooked at one end of the pasty and the sweet course at the other end. Hopefully these ends would be marked on the outside too!
1. What do we know about the pasty in the 13th century?| A．It was enjoyed in Cornwall only. |
| B．It was popular among miners and farm workers. |
| C．It had few and simple fillings. |
| D．It was widely eaten by the rich upper classes. |
| A．be more expensive | B．be sold out very soon |
| C．be seen as one of bad quality | D．be made without other fillings |
| A．Its fillings can’t be very different. | B．Its ingredients should be mixed. |
| C．Its ingredients should be put in the correct order. | D．Its fillings shouldn’t be cooked before they are sealed. |
| A．To show how to make pasties. | B．To introduce the basic information of pasties. |
| C．To compare different pasties. | D．To encourage people to taste pasties. |
6 . Have you ever wondered why people drive on a different side of the road? It might seem bizarre that U. K. Drivers stay on the left, but they’re not the only ones. Around 35 percent of the world population do the same, including people in Ireland, Japan, and some Caribbean islands.
Originally, almost everybody traveled on the left side of the road. However their way of transport was quite different from today: Think about four legs instead of four wheels. For Medieval swordsmen on horseback, it made sense to keep to the left to have their right arms closer to their enemies. Getting on or off was also easier from the left side of the horse, and safer done by the side of the road than in the center.
So why did people stop traveling on the left? Things changed in the late 1700s when large wagons (货车) pulled by several pairs of horses were used to transport farm products in France and the United States. The wagon driver sat behind the left horse, with his right arm free to use his whip to keep the horses moving. Since he was sitting on the left position, he wanted other wagons to pass on his left, so he kept to the right side of the road.
The British Government refused to give up their left-hand driving ways, and in 1773 introduced the General Highways Act, which encouraged driving on the left. This was later made law thanks to The Highway Act of 1835.
When Henry Ford showed his Model T in 1908, the driver’s seat was on the left, meaning that cars would have to drive on the right hand side of the road to allow front and back passengers to exit the car onto the roadside. However, British drivers remain on the left, and this is highly unlikely to change.
1. What does the underlined word “bizarre” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Funny. | B．Strange. |
| C．Wrong. | D．Difficult |
| A．It was safer to keep on the left |
| B．It was easier to carry goods. |
| C．It was easier for them to fight. |
| D．It was necessary to control the horse. |
| A．Their sitting position. |
| B．The road conditions. |
| C．The number of horses. |
| D．The products in the wagons. |
| A．UK Drivers Still Go On The Left |
| B．Why People Like Sitting On The Left Side |
| C．The History Of Transportation Means |
| D．The Reasons For Different Driving Sides |
