1 . Last year I attended the annual autumn saffron (藏红花) harvest festival on a trip in Italy, known as the sagra. Giovannina Sarra and her family
Saffron , taken from the stigmas (柱头) of the saffron flower, is a(n)
Now sitting at a mouth-watering plate of Risotto alla Milanese, a dish cooked with saffron, I
A.interviewed | B.accompanied | C.hosted | D.recognized |
A.fell behind | B.fanned out | C.sat around | D.hung around |
A.profitable | B.tropical | C.unavailable | D.unaffordable |
A.technology | B.patent | C.investment | D.import |
A.harvested | B.stored | C.watered | D.monitored |
A.noon | B.sunrise | C.dusk | D.midnight |
A.bloom | B.tend | C.grow | D.sell |
A.frozen | B.sticky | C.tiny | D.wet |
A.object | B.issue | C.adventure | D.process |
A.rough | B.careless | C.patient | D.sweaty |
A.boiled | B.dried | C.fried | D.warmed |
A.recall | B.remind | C.cherish | D.record |
A.doubt | B.evidence | C.reason | D.chance |
A.wonders | B.platforms | C.traditions | D.relations |
A.Fortunately | B.Immediately | C.Gradually | D.Hopefully |
December strode (阔步走) into the mountains of Colorado, shooting snowflakes and blowing them into a thick blanket of white. As Christmas approached, the farmers there closed down most wooden houses for a holiday cheer. Not all were closed, however. There was still work to be done, and someone had to stay. That someone was Slim Carter.
Old Jake, another farmer there, had offered to keep him company, but Slim shook his head. “After all, a young man like me has got plenty of Christmases ahead,” Slim joked. Before Jake offered to stay again, Slim hurried on. “I’ll just have a private Christmas this year, and that’s the way I want it.” So he was left alone at the house. Alone, with his horse in the farm and the wolves roaring in the forest nearby.
Truth was, Slim had decided not to celebrate Christmas at all. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Christmas. In fact, his Christmas memories were good ones. His mother would fill their house with the light of candles and the smell of candy. His father would make their Christmas tree hunt an all-day, men-only affair. Slim smiled as he remembered sitting on the broad back of their horse with the freshly cut tree along behind. Back home, they would cover the tree with paper snowflakes and homemade decorations and sing all the Christmas songs they knew. And that’s the way he liked it. Those were the memories he pulled out on nights when he was working alone. Such memories warmed him inside, even if his outsides were aching with cold.
This was Slim’s first year away from home. “Christmas is nothing if not spent with family,” Slim declared to the empty house. That was the real reason he’d sent Jake away. He figured he would handle Christmas better if he just pretended it was an ordinary winter workday.
But on Christmas Eve, as Slim headed back with snow beneath his feet and stars overhead, his head hung low. It was Christmas, even without the tree and the gifts. Christmas, and he was all alone.
注意:1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Then he remembered decorating the tree with his family again.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________While singing to his decorated Christmas tree, Slim heard a knock on the door.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. Where was the name Liam most popular in America?
A.On the west coast. | B.In the Midwest. | C.In the southeastern area. |
A.Emma. | B.Ava. | C.Katrina. |
A.A marketing manager. | B.A social worker. | C.A teacher. |
A.Ones starting with K. | B.Ones starting with H. | C.Ones starting with N. |
1. When was World Environment Day established?
A.In 1972. | B.In 1974. | C.In 1987. |
A.In England. | B.In the United States. | C.In Kenya. |
A.One Earth One Family. | B.Only One Earth. | C.For Life on Earth. |
A.It is celebrated each year on July 5. |
B.Tree planting is the main activity. |
C.International environmental conventions are signed during it. |
World Olive (橄榄) Tree Day takes place
Protecting and growing the olive tree is
World Olive Tree Day is set up
There is much to learn, share and celebrate on World Olive Tree Day, and UNESCO encourages everyone to participate in
6 . Almost everyone who has studied English has been warned about the way Brits love their manners. It is part of our national identity, as much as fish and chips or complaining about the weather. Recently I have been wondering where this comes from and I read online that we say sorry up to eight times a day. Probably the same amount of times that any other person says “hello” or “how are you”. It is almost like greetings to us! It was only when I was explaining how there are five steps of saying thank you when you buy something from a shop to a Mexican friend of mine that I realised how mad it sounded.
After some research online I have not been able to find any specific reasons why we are the way we are. I suppose for centuries manners and how we eat at the table and talk to other people have been the barriers between the lower and upper classes and represent your social status. Britain has traditionally been a quite conservative country. There are many articles suggesting that this seemingly polite attitude of always saying please and thank you is quite false because it is impossible to always feel that you want to thank someone or say please.
Maybe it is for this reason that people are going one of two ways: they are incredibly polite and hold back on their feelings or not polite at all, and express their true feelings. Some Brits are fed up of pretending that they are always content and having to please people. Sometimes because we feel we have to be polite, we are prevented from saying what we truly think. Do you think it is better to not hurt people’s feelings and be polite or to let people know the truth? In your country what is the custom? I know in some countries if someone is considered to be doing their job, the clients think that they do not need to be thanked.
1. What does the author think of the British way of saying “Thank you”?A.Normal. | B.Surprising. | C.Exciting. | D.Pleasing. |
A.Why the British like to complain about the weather. |
B.Why the British love their way of showing manners. |
C.Why the British are fond of fish and chips so much. |
D.Why the British have five steps of saying thank you. |
A.Wealth and health. | B.Social status. | C.Politeness. | D.Attitudes. |
A.They want to express their true feelings. |
B.They want to let people know the truth. |
C.They are kept from saying what they think. |
D.They want to represent their social status. |
1.简要说明传统节日的现状;
2.谈谈你对此现状的看法。
注意:1.词数100左右(标题已为你写好,不计入词数);
2.可以适当增加细节,使行文连贯。
Traditional Festivals in Modern Times
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8 . Day of the Dead
Here’s one thing we know: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is not a Mexican version of Halloween.
Day of the Dead originated several thousand years ago with the Aztec, Toltec, and other Nahua people, who considered mourning the dead disrespectful.
Today’s Día de los Muertos celebration is a mash-up(混聚) of pre-Hispanic religious rites and Christian feasts. It takes place on November 1 and 2—All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day on the Catholic calendar—around the time of the fall maize harvest.
Cultural heritage is not just monuments and collections of objects. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) says that cultural heritage also includes living expressions of culture—traditions—passed down from generation to generation.
Day of the Dead is an extremely social holiday that spills into streets and public squares at all hours of the day and night. Dressing up as skeletons is part of the fun. People of all ages have their faces artfully painted to resemble skulls, and, mimicking the Calavera Catrina, they don suits and fancy dresses.
A.In 2008, UNESCO recognized the importance of Día de los Muertos by adding the holiday to its list of Intangible(无形的) Cultural Heritage of Humanity. |
B.Some families place their dead loved one’s favorite meal on the altar(祭坛). |
C.Though related, the two annual events differ greatly in traditions and tone. |
D.Many revelers wear shells or other noisemakers to fuel the excitement—and also possibly to rouse the dead and keep them close during the fun. |
E.Today, the calavera Catrina, or elegant skull, is the Day of the Dead’s most ubiquitous symbol. |
F.For these pre-Hispanic(前西班牙时期的) cultures, death was a natural phase in life’s long continuum. |
BEAUTIFUL IRELAND AND ITS TRADITIONS
Ireland’s beautiful countryside has always had a great influence on its people and traditions. The country has a long history of producing great writers and poets. Its beautiful countryside excites and inspires all, offering something for each of the senses. The peaceful landscape of the “Emerald Isle” and its many green counties is a true feast for the eyes, with its rolling green hills dotted with sheep and cattle. And down by the sea, the roar of the ocean waves and cries of the seabirds make up the music of the coast. On a quiet morning in the mountains, feel the sun on your skin, and breathe in the sweet scent of fresh flowers while birds greet the new day with their morning song. With all this beauty, it is not surprising that Ireland has developed strong traditions that include music, dancing, and dining. To have a chance of experiencing this, stop by a village pub and relax with a glass of wine or a local beer. Better yet, enjoy a delicious traditional Irish Beef Stew. If you’re lucky, you might be able to enjoy some traditional music and dancing, too. And if you introduce yourself to a friendly face, you are more than likely to experience local culture and customs first-hand.
1. What makes the Irish countryside exciting and inspiring?2. What are the best ways to experience some Irish traditions and culture?
3. What is the meaning of “breathe in the sweet scent of fresh flowers while birds greet the new day with their morning song”?
4. What are the best ways to experience Chinese traditions and customs?
10 . What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? The question occurred to me with the photos in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world that staged public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day. Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?
As a cultural sign, the pillow is deceptively soft. Since at least the 16th Century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an afternoon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.
Subsequent writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-Century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.
It’s a trick perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.
With the words of Tang. Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries: an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down — one that must be lightened.
1. The example of Tang Xianzu is used to illustrate that ________.A.pillows give people satisfactory dreams |
B.dreams are always wonderful while the real world is cruel |
C.people’s impression of pillows changes from wonder to terror |
D.pillows symbolically convey the meaning in contrast to their soft appearance |
A.wrote poems about pillows |
B.regarded pillows as reflections of our minds |
C.shared the same viewpoint as Tang Xianzu on pillows |
D.was likely to have been influenced by the thoughts of the Renaissance |
A.pillows give us comfort |
B.pillows make people more intelligent |
C.people with too many thoughts have less inner peace |
D.people can easily fall asleep when they know nothing |
A.Because it is a ritual release. |
B.Because it makes life delightful. |
C.Because it comforts restless minds. |
D.Because it contains a profound meaning of life. |