1 . Black Friday refers to the day after Thanksgiving. On this day, crowds of shoppers flood into stores all over the country to take advantage of the season’s biggest holiday bargains. But the real story behind Black Friday is a bit complicated.

The most commonly repeated story behind the post-Thanksgiving shopping-related Black Friday tradition links it to retailers (零售商). As the story goes, after an entire year of operating at a loss, recorded in red ink, stores would supposedly earn a profit, marked in black ink, on the day after Thanksgiving, because holiday shoppers blew so much money on discounted products. Though it’s true that retail companies used to record losses in red and profits in black when doing their accounting, this version of Black Friday’s origin is not an accurate story behind the tradition.

The true story behind Black Friday, however, is not as sunny as retailers might have you believe. Back in the 1950s, police in the city of Philadelphia used the term to describe the chaos that happened on the day after Thanksgiving, when tens of thousands of suburban shoppers and tourists flooded into the city in advance of the big Army-Navy football game held on that Saturday every year. Not only would the police not be able to take the day off, but also they would have to work extra-long shifts dealing with the additional crowds and traffic.

The term didn’t spread to the rest of the country until much later, however, and as recently as 1985 it wasn’t in common use nationwide. Sometime in the late 1980s, however, retailers found a way to reinvent Black Friday and turn it into something that reflected positively on them and their customers. The result was the “red to black” concept mentioned earlier. The Black Friday story stuck, and pretty soon the term’s darker roots in Philadelphia were largely forgotten.

1. What is usually believed to be the origin of Black Friday?

A．The great profit retailers may gain.	B．The way retailers do their accounting.
C．The much money shoppers spend.	D．The biggest bargains on this day.

2. Why did police in Philadelphia refer to the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday?

A．They had to compete with more shoppers for bargains.

B．They had to give up the big Army-Navy football game.

C．They had to work more hours to deal with the chaos.

D．They had to advance to suburb to fight against floods.

3. The retailers reinvent Black Friday in the late 1980s ________.

A．to attract more customers to shop	B．to create the “red to black” concept
C．to make profits by this special event	D．to change people’s impression of it

4. What is the purpose of writing the passage?

A．To introduce the real history of Black Friday.

B．To explain a term with various meanings.

C．To show the biggest shopping holiday in US.

D．To remind readers of a forgotten truth of red and black.

2 . September 23 marks the start of a new season.     1     In Great Britain, the third season of the year usually has only one name: autumn. But if you travel across the Atlantic, you’ll find that people use both fall and autumn interchangeably when referring to this time of year, making it the only season in the English language with two widely accepted names.     2    

According to Dictionary.com, fall isn’t a modern name that followed the more traditional autumn. The two terms are actually first recorded within a few hundred years, with the term fall being used even a bit earlier.

    3     The word is of Germanic origin and meant “picking” or “collecting”, a nod to the act of gathering and preserving crops in the field before winter. In the 1500s, English speakers began referring to the season separating the hot and cold months as either the fall of the leaf or the spring of the leaf, or fall and spring for short.     4     By the end of the 1600s, autumn, from the French word “automne” and the Latin “autumnus”, had overtaken fall as the standard British term for the third season.

Around the same time England adopted autumn, the first-ever British American colonists (殖民者) were voyaging to North America.     5     While the former fell out of fashion overseas, it established itself in the local vocabulary by the time America won its independence. Today, using both words to describe the season before winter is still a unique American behavior.

A．With them they brought the words fall and autumn.

B．The Americans prefer using fall to using autumn.

C．However, what exactly you should call that season depends on where you are.

D．But for some reason, only spring had staying power in Britain.

E．It is time to gather apples, rice and other things for the farmers.

F．So what is it about the season that makes it so special?

G．Before either word appeared, the season between summer and winter was known as harvest.

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

We seem to be very familiar with teahouses. The function of a teahouse varies widely     1     （depend） on the culture. In China, a teahouse is a place     2     people gather to enjoy tea, chat and socialize. It     3     （consider） as a symbol of Chinese tea culture.

Chinese teahouses enjoy a long-standing history. They developed from tea stands in the Western Jin Dynasty,     4     （take） shape in the Tang Dynasty, developed     5     （gradual） in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties and became booming in modern times.

In the Song Dynasty, teahouses existed all over cities and villages,     6     a rate comparable with that of restaurants. The owners preferred to decorate their teahouses with paintings of celebrities（名人）and rare and precious plants     7     （attract） customers. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the number of teahouses went beyond that of restaurants, gaining more     8     （popular） and becoming more famous. Later, the acculturation（文化移入）of Western culture forced traditional Chinese teahouses to take on     9     new look. After reform and opening-up, teahouses flowered in China with the development of the economy and evident improvement of     10     （people） living standards.

8 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Before the Tangshan Earthquake, Strange things    1    (happen) in the countryside. For several days, the water in the village wells     2       ( rise) and fell. There were deep cracks     3       appeared in the well walls. At least one well had some     4     (smell) gas coming out of it. Chickens and even pigs were too nervous     5     (eat), and dogs refused to go inside buildings.    6     (mouse)ran out of the fields looking for places to hide, and fish jumped out of the water. At about 3:00 a.m.,    7    28 July 1976, bright lights     8     (see) in the sky outside the city of Tangshan and loud noises were heard.       9       the city’s one million people were asleep as usual that night.     10       (fortunately), it led to a lot of people losing their lives.

9 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

In 1939, Britain declared war on Germany. In the first few months, before any actual fighting began, there was a lot of     1     (anxious) in the country. So the government launched a publicity campaign aimed at reassuring the British public that, together, they     2     (survive) the bad times that were sure to come. Posters were put up on buildings to urge everyone to keep calm and carry on. And that’s     3     the British people did. In the end, they won the war.

China is now fighting     4     war of a different kind. It’s against an unseen enemy, COVID-19. Since its appearance     5     the end of December in Wuhan, the virus has spread to other cities, infecting hundreds of thousands of people.

The Chinese people should be praised because they have been doing the same. The government’s response has also been calm and     6     (effect). They’ve kept everyone     7     (inform) about what has been happening and they have sent thousands of doctors and nurses to help Hubei.

This terrible virus hasn’t been defeated and the fight against it may continue. However, it will     8     (eventual) die out. It’s hoped that when the crisis     9     (fade), China and the world will learn that cooperation and hope, not panic or criticism, is the best way     10     (face) a common threat.

10 . Look to many of history’s cultural symbols, and there you’ll find an ancestor of Frosty, the snowman in the movie Frozen. It appeared on some of the first postcards, starred in some of the earliest silent movies, and was the subject of a couple of the earliest photos, dating all the way back to the 1800s. I discovered even more about one of humanity’s earliest forms of life art during several years of research around the world.
For example, snowmen were a phenomenon in the Middle Ages, built with great skill and thought. At a time of limited means of expression, snow was like free art supplies dropped from the sky. It was a popular activity for couples to leisurely walk through town to view the temporary works of chilly art. Some were created by famous artists, including a 19-year-old Michelangelo, who in 1494 was appointed by the ruler of Florence, Italy, to build a snowman in his mansion’s courtyard.
The Miracle of 1511 took place during six freezing works called the Winter of Death. The city of Brussels was covered in snowmen—an impressive scene that told stories on every street corner. Some were political in nature, criticizing the church and government. Some were a reflection of people’s imagination. For the people of Brussels, this was a defining moment of defining freedom. At least until spring arrived, by which time they were dealing with damaging floods.
If you fear the heyday of the snowman has passed, don’t worry: I’ve learned that some explosive snowman history is still being made today. Every year since 1818, the people of Zurich, Switzerland, celebrate the beginning of spring by blowing up a snowman. On the third Monday of April, the holiday Sechselauten is kicked off when a cotton snowman called the Boogg is stuffed with explosive and paraded through town by bakers and other tradesmen who throw bread to the crowds. The parade ends with the Boogg being placed on a 40-foot pile of firewood. After the bells of the Church of St. Peter have rung six times, representing the passing of winter, the pile is lit. When the snowman explodes, winter is considered officially over—the quicker it is burnt down, the longer summer is said to be.
1. According to the passage, why did snowmen become a phenomenon in the Middle Ages?

A．People thought of snow as holy art supplies.

B．People longed to see masterpieces of snow.

C．Building snowmen was a way for people to express themselves.

D．Building snowmen helped people develop their skill and thought.

2. “The heyday of the snowman” （paragraph 4） means the time when___________.

A．snowmen were made mainly by artists

B．snowmen enjoyed great popularity

C．snowmen were politically criticized

D．snowmen caused damaging floods

3. In Zurich, the blowing up of the Boogg symbolizes__________________.

A．the start of the parade

B．the coming of a longer summer

C．the passing of the winter

D．the success of tradesmen

4. What can be concluded about snowmen from the passage?

A．They were appreciated in history

B．They have lost their value

C．They were related to movies

D．They vary in shape and size