1 . Scientists have discovered a bit of hand-made string (线绳) that’s around 50,000 years old in Neanderthal remains. The first Neanderthal remains were found in the Neander Valley in Germany, which is where the name comes from. Neanderthals may have lived mainly in caves and made stone tools, but recent discoveries have given hints that Neanderthals developed some advanced skills that people used to think impossible. For example, Neanderthals knew how to make glue from the bark (树皮) of a tree.
Now, scientists report they’ve found a piece of string on a stone tool made by Neanderthals. Before this, the oldest known piece of string was one made by humans about 19,000 years ago. The string is about a quarter of an inch long. Almost all things made from plants during that time have broken down and disappeared, so it’s very special to find this bit of string.
The scientists don’t know whether the string was attached to the tool. But that doesn’t interest them as much as the fact that Neanderthals knew how to make string. Bruce Hardy, the lead scientist on the project, says that knowing how to make string was meaningful for humans. “We wouldn’t really be here today without that technology,” he says.
Making string is a very arduous process. This string was made from the inside bark of an evergreen tree. To make string that is strong enough, the string must be made of several smaller fibers twisted (缠绕) together in a special way. For the Neanderthal string, several fibers needed to be twisted together into something like yarn. Then three pieces of yam needed to be twisted together in the opposite direction to make the final string.
The scientists Aren’t sure what the string was used for, but they say that string like. the bit that was found could be used to make bags, baskets, traps, or other things. The researchers also suggest that because Neanderthals needed to make pairs and count fibers to make the string, the bit of string may also tell us something about the kinds of math that Neanderthals could do.
1. What can we know about Neanderthals?| A．They were named after a nation. |
| B．They didn’t know how to make tools. |
| C．They were not as smart as scientists thought. |
| D．They may master more skills than people realized. |
| A．It is surprisingly long. |
| B．It was made from wood. |
| C．It survives a long history. |
| D．It was attached to a stone tool. |
| A．Neanderthals strengthened stone tools with the string. |
| B．The scientists think the string is part of the stone tool. |
| C．The string-making skill is of great importance to humans. |
| D．Neanderthals had great difficulty in inventing the string. |
| A．Difficult. | B．Normal. |
| C．Creative. | D．Boring. |
Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, the attitudes to dirt are always changing.
In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, and washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. The king of England did something similar in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. France’s Henry IV was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.
Though the belief above was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbour ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?
Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist(免疫学家) , encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . From the earliest times, man has been interested in art. People have often worked together to collect and save the world‘s art treasures.
Fine art treasures from many countries are kept in an art museum called the Louvre in Paris, France. The works of art have been collected by the people of France over many centuries.
The Louvre has not always been a museum. The first building was a fort. In 1190, it was the king’s castle with high walls and a round tower. It had a moat to prevent his enemies from walking in .
Over the years, the number of buildings around the castle grew. By 1350, the castle was no longer needed as a fort. The Louvre became a palace home for French kings and queens.
During times of peace, new treasures were brought in. During days of war, many treasures were stolen, and the buildings were damaged.
When Francis I became king of France in 1515, he brought in artists from many countries. One of the artists was Leonardo da Vinci from Italy. Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the best known painting in the museum today.
In 1793, the Louvre became a public museum, just as it is now. It is a place where art treasures have been saved for everyone to enjoy.
1. On the whole, this passage is mainly about____.| A．an art museum called the Louvre | B．an Italian artist named Leonardo da Vinci |
| C．a king of France named Francis I | D．the best known painting in Louvre |
| A．the Louvre has always been a museum. |
| B．old forts always make the best museums. |
| C．Nowadays even the ordinary people can enjoy the art treasures in the Louvre. |
| D．king Francis I of France brought in artists from an old fort |
| A．a high tower built in former times where soldiers watched out for enemies |
| B．a long and deep ditch dug round a castle and was usually filled with water. |
| C．a cart pulled by horses on which soldiers fought |
| D．a long and high wall around castle |
4 . The name England comes from the words “Angle land”. The Angles were people who came from northern Germany in the 5th and 6th centuries, after the Romans had left. The French name for England is Angleterre, which also means “Angle land”. There were also invasions (侵略) of southern England by Saxons and Jutes (people from another part of northern Germany). English people are sometimes called Anglo－Saxons. The Celts who used to live in this area were forced to move back into Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and into Western France (the area known as Brittany).
England at first became a series of kingdoms, the strongest of which was Wessex (the name comes from West－Saxon). The names of many of the areas in England come from this period—for example, the name Sussex comes from South－Saxon, Essex from East－Saxon, and East Anglia from East－Angle. The Vikings then came from Denmark, and later the Normans invaded from France. Eventually England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were united, forming the United Kingdom.
The English language is the main language spoken throughout England, although there are many different accents. It can be difficult to know how to spell or to pronounce some English words, because the language has been influenced by Latin and Greek (languages used at the time of the Romans, and used in religion and education until recent times), German (the language of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes), French(the language of the Normans), Gaelic/Scots (Celtic languages) and Danish (the language of the Vikings).
There are now many people throughout the United Kingdom who speak a foreign language either as their first or second language, mainly due to immigration (移民) from Europe or the Commonwealth (countries which used to be part of the British Empire).
1. What's the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The origin of the name England. |
| B．The Celts used to live in England but left for some reason. |
| C．Southern England once was attacked by Saxons and Jutes. |
| D．Angles and Saxons came from different parts of northern Germany. |
| A．Sussex | B．Wessex |
| C．Essex | D．East Anglia |
| A．English words are hard to spell and to pronounce. |
| B．England had been invaded by most of the countries of Europe. |
| C．The English language was influenced by several foreign languages. |
| D．It's hard for people who have different English accents to communicate. |
| A．Because they are required to learn a foreign language at school. |
| B．Because they plan to live outside the UK in the future. |
| C．Because they have moved from other countries. |
| D．Because they have worked in other countries. |
What do the five Olympic signs on the flag represent?
Pierre de Coubertin thought that the five interlocking rings meant the five continents
At the end of each Olympic Games, the mayor(市长) of the hosting city passes the Olympic fag to the mayor of the city where the next Olympics
As is
In 1896,
China didn't become a member of the modern Olympics until the 1950s. And in 1984, Xu Haifeng became the first Chinese that won an Olympic gold medal in shooting. With the
7 . How did we get the alphabet? It was a long process, covering thousands of years.
The first people to write things down carved symbols onto rocks or shells. These symbols represented people or things.
These people who lived a long time ago had simple lives with simple needs. One of the most basic needs was food. Before the introduction of agriculture, people were called HunterGatherers because they hunted animals and gathered nuts and berries for food. To tell each other about how to hunt animals or where to find them, these people drew on cave walls or on animal hides. Soon, people were growing their own crops. They were also using a system of symbols to stand for people, places and things. The best ancient example of this was found in Egypt, where hieroglyphs (象形字) were used. These people believed in many different gods. Each god had its own symbol. Symbols were also used to stand for water, buildings, food, and other parts of life.
But these picture drawings and hieroglyphs represented whole words, not just sounds. How did we get an alphabet? Recent research suggests that the idea of an alphabet was first used in Egypt about 1900 BC. Civilizations that traded with or fought against Egypt were exposed to this alphabet, and the idea spread.
The ancient Greeks adapted this alphabet and created their own. The ancient Romans polished it up to a state almost like our modern alphabet. The idea of stringing letters together to make words was born. You can see by looking at letters from the Roman alphabet that these letters survive almost unchanged in our modern English alphabet.
This was the case in the Western world. Actually, a similar thing also happened in the East. You can see many examples in such areas’ language development.
1. Why did HunterGatherers use drawings?| A．To assist them in searching for food. |
| B．To put a series of symbols into a system. |
| C．To warn their companions to hide safely. |
| D．To record some methods of growing crops. |
| A．The difficulties ancient people have learning languages. |
| B．The different kinds of religious beliefs in the same god. |
| C．The poor living conditions and agricultural development. |
| D．The needs of ancient people to survive and communicate. |
| A．They made improvements to it. |
| B．They created it all by themselves. |
| C．They managed to keep it unchanged. |
| D．They turned it into the modern one. |
| A．The effects of the alphabet on global languages. |
| B．Why the alphabet grew better in Western world. |
| C．How the alphabet appeared in the Eastern world. |
| D．A number of examples of language evolution. |
Clowns (小丑)are almost everywhere in popular culture. But what they represent
Clowns began appearing in
Clowns became popular in the US in the 1960s. A happy clown
However, the image of a happy clown is largely an American creation. In other cultures, the clown character is not
Of course, there are different voices. Some people think clowns are positive, creative and imaginative. They bring people
The Dujiangyan is the oldest man-made water system in the world, and a wonder in the development of Chinese agriculture.
In ancient times, the region where Dujiangyan now stands
Once the system
Plovdiv is situated in south-central Bulgaria on the two banks of the Maritsa River. The city has historically developed on seven hills, some of
Plovdiv remains a popular
