1 . “I think I’m nothing more than a dead fish.” “I don’t want to do anything.” “I’m so beat and so sad.”…The young generation in our country used to enjoy their “happy culture” but now they have become “beat and sad” slowly and secretly. Some people even called it “the beat culture”. The “Beat” youths don’t want to do anything. They have no purpose, no desire and they are totally depressed so that they only want to live an aimless life. The “Ge You slouch (葛优瘫)” and the song I feel like having been drained are the examples.

Many media concern themselves about this phenomenon and try to persuade the youths into embracing positive and healthy feelings and encourage them to work hard to get rid of decadence. This is really a kind gesture. However, we don’t have to worry too much about this “beat culture.” In fact, it’s not a negative thing. “Beat” never means despair, but a way of self-mockery(自嘲)and pressure relief.

In general, the youths in China are not “beat”. According to a recent international research, the youths in China hold positive attitude towards the future. 29% of the Chinese interviewees believe they will live and work in peace in China because “as long as you work hard, you can have your own day”. Around 93% of the Chinese interviewees believe the future is promising because of medicine industry, renewable energy sources and computer. Compared with Chinese youngsters, youths in developed countries are more pessimistic (悲观的).

Of course there are some social reasons for the appearing of “the Beat Culture”. As urbanization develops rapidly, youths living in big cities are facing new challenges that their forefathers have never met before. Loneliness and feelings of insignificance and powerlessness are easy to get hold of the young people. Without proper care, they could threaten our mentality and cause many social problems. These problems probably need our attention more.

1. “The Beat culture” includes the following examples except that _______

A．the young generation don’t feel like doing anything.

B．the young generation consider themselves dead fish.

C．the young generation in big cities are facing new challenges.

D．the young generation enjoy the song I feel like having been drained.

2. Which word has the most similar meaning with “decadence” in Paragraph2?

A．loneliness	B．laziness
C．sufferings	D．pessimism

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Most people believe that with hard work, people can have their own day.

B．These days, young people suffer much more loneliness than their parents.

C．Chinese youths are more negative than young people in developed countries.

D．Social development does bring some pressure to the younger generation.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．The Chinese youths are not the beat generation.

B．How does “the Beat Culture” affect the Chinese youth.

C．“The Beat Culture” is positive to Chinese youngsters.

D．“The Beat culture” is popular among the Chinese youngsters.

2 . 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。

Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a     1     (total) different country? If so, then you are a third-culture kid.

The term “third—culture kid”     2     (use) in the 1960s for the first time by Dr. Ruth. She first came across this phenomenon while     3     (research) North American children living in India. In general, third-culture kids benefit from    4     (they) intercultural experience and they often reach excellent academic results.

Yet many       5     (difficulty) may arise from this phenomenon. Third-culture kids may not be able to adapt themselves completely     6     their new surroundings. Also, they often find it hard     7     (develop) new friendship. Additionally, for a third-culture kid, it is often easier to move to a new country     8     to return to his homeland. For example, after living in Australia for many years, Louis finally returned to the country     9     she was born. She didn’t know anything about current TV shows     10     fashion trends. And she didn’t share the same values as other teens of her age.

3 . Punks, Ravers, Mods and Teddy Boys. No, these aren’t some hot new bands, but the names of a number of British youth subcultures from the last 70 years. Youth Club, a UK not-for-profit organization, released a book earlier this year celebrating many different subcultures from throughout Britain’s recent history.

“A catalyst for creativity on the worldwide stage, British youth culture movements from the Teddy Boys of the 1950s to the Grime Scene of the 2000s continue to play a pioneering role in music, fashion and creativity across the globe,” it wrote on its website.

These subcultures were traditionally a way for young people to show their personalities to others. Walking around London in the 1970s would have meant seeing dozens of young “punks” — people dressed in ripped denim, leather jackets, body piercings and with brightly-dyed hair on the streets. And in the 90s, “ravers” were young people who threw all-night parties in abandoned buildings or car parks.

So, what was the reason behind these subcultures?

“On both sides of the Atlantic, more and more young disappointed teenagers were looking for an escape from the boredom and restrictions of society,” wrote Ian Youngs, BBC entertainment reporter. “Unemployment, racial tensions and social changes added fuel to their fires.”

Youth subcultures have almost disappeared in the West. Some experts believe the reason for this is the instant and low-priced availability of music and clothing in the Internet age. “Fashion and music, they’re much cheaper and they’re much faster today,” Ruth Adams, a culture lecturer at King’s College London told The Guardian.

“When I was a teenager, you had to stick to one type of music or fashion, because it cost more money. Now, it's all a bit vaguer,” she said, believing that it's harder to figure out someone’s personality or music tastes nowadays just by looking at them.

Despite this, Adams believes that today’s young people are still finding their own way to express themselves, but in a more modern way. “It’s certainly happening online, ”she said. “It’s a lot easier to use personas online just by showcasing certain types of mysterious knowledge. ”

1. What do we know about British youth subcultures?

A．They date back to the 1970s.	B．They were started by Youth Club.
C．They are contemporary culture movements.	D．They were a way for youths to express themselves.

2. What contributed to the appearance of these youth subcultures?

A．The easy access to music and clothing.	B．Young people’s desire for freedom and fun.
C．The political pressure young people suffered.	D．Young people’s longing for fame and wealth.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 6 probably refer to?

A．The faster and cheaper music.	B．The instant and low-priced fashion.
C．The disappearance of youth subcultures.	D．The availability of music and clothing.

4. Which of the following would Ruth Adams probably agree with?

A．Young people are less willing to express themselves.

B．Young people are less interested in music and fashion.

C．Music and fashion develop too fast for young people to follow.

D．The Internet makes it harder to tell the young’s real personalities.

4 . One morning last week I looked out of my study window and saw that it was a fine day. No, it was a wonderful day: the sun shone down from a sky without even a single cloud. But later that day, hard at work at my desk, I heard a loud noise on the roof. Turning to the window, I saw that the sky was now the color of charcoal. Two minutes later the rain poured, making rivers of water.

    1    It’s extremely variable. Go ahead with your picnic in the local park by all means, but don’t suppose that because the sun is shining now, it will be when you open your pack of sandwiches.       2    

The weather in Britain is not always bad.     3    This is one of the biggest reasons why the British talk so often about the weather. Wherever there are strangers standing or sitting close together, and talk can not be avoided. The conversation focuses on the weather: “Yes, the weather has been good, hasn’t it?” or “    4    ”

The unexpected change of the weather is something that every British can agree on.    5     Even those with different opinions on everything else in the world, such as the argument in the UK about membership of the European Union, can talk about the weather without leading to a quarrel.

A．It is just changeable.

B．That makes it a safe topic of conversation.

C．You’d better take an umbrella, just in case.

D．What shocking weather we’ve been having!

E．Strangers will choose to talk about the weather to break the ice.

F．This story will give you some idea about weather in Britain.

G．Are you going for a picnic?

5 . Finding the Real You
Psychometric testing—personality testing—has been very popular nowadays as studies show their results to be three times more accurate in predicting your job performance. These tests are now included in almost all graduate recruitment (招聘) and are widely used in the selection of managers.
The most popular of these personality tests is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is based on the theory that we are born with a tendency to one personality type which stays more or less fixed throughout life. You answer 88 questions and are then given your “type”, such as Outgoing or Quiet, Feeling or Thinking.
Critics of personality testing raise doubts about “social engineering”. Psychologist Dr. Colin Gill warns that the “popular” personality traits (特性) have their disadvantages. “People who are extremely open to new experiences can be butterflies, going from one idea to the next without mastering any of them.” However, the psychometric test is here to stay, which may be why a whole sub-industry on cheating personality tests has sprung up. “It’s possible to cheat,” admits Gill, “but having to pretend to be the person you are at work will be tiring and unhappy and probably short-lived.”
So can we change our personality? “Your basic personality is fixed by the time you’re 21,”says Gill,“ but it can be affected by motivation and intelligence. If you didn’t have the personality type to be a doctor but desperately wanted to be one and were intelligent enough to master the skills, you could still go ahead. But trying to go too much against type for too long requires much energy and is actually to be suffered for long. I think it’s why we’re seeing this trend for downshifting—too many people trying to fit in to a type that they aren’t really suited for.”
Our interest in personality now exists in every part of our lives. If you ask an expert for advice on anything, you’ll probably be quizzed about your personality. But if personality tests have any value to us, perhaps it is to free us from the idea that all of us are full of potential, and remind us of what we are. As they say in one test when they ask for your age: pick the one you are, not the one you wish you were.
1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is based on the belief that ______.

A．certain personality traits are common

B．personality is largely decided from birth

C．some personality types are better than others

D．personality traits are various from time to time

2. According to Dr. Gill, what is the problem with personality tests?

A．Employers often find the results unclear.

B．They may have a negative effect on takers.

C．People can easily lie about their true abilities.

D．The results could be opposite to what employers want.

3. In Dr. Gill’s view, how easy is it to change your personality?

A．It’s possible in your adult life.

B．It’s easy if you have great motivation.

C．It’s difficult before the age of 21.

D．It’s unlikely because it requires much energy.

4. What final conclusion does the author reach about the value of personality tests?

A．They are not really worth doing.

B．They may encourage greater realism.

C．They are of doubtful value to employers.

D．They can strengthen the idea we have of our abilities.

6 . We’ve reached a strange—some would say unusual—point. While fighting world hunger continues to be the matter of vital importance according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), more people now die from being overweight, or say, from being extremely fat, than from being underweight. It’s the good life that’s more likely to kill us these days.
Worse, nearly 18 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What’s going on?
We really don’t have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public ­health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through—up to a point.
In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public ­health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades.
Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world’s most body ­conscious country.
We know what we should be doing to lose weight—but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower.
Others blame good food. They say: it’s just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American­ style fast food.
Some also blame their parents—their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they’re normal in shape, or rather slim.
It’s a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say—not as I do.
1. What is the “strange” point mentioned in the first sentence?

A．The good life is a greater risk than the bad life.

B．Starvation is taking more people’s lives in the world.

C．WHO report shows people’s unawareness of food safety.

D．Overweight issue remains unresolved despite WHO’s efforts.

2. Why does the author think that people have no excuse for being overweight?

A．A lot of effective diet pills are available.

B．Body image has nothing to do with good food.

C．They have been made fully aware of its dangers.

D．There are too many overweight people in the world.

3. The example of Finland is used to illustrate ________.

A．the cause of heart disease

B．the fashion of body shaping

C．the effectiveness of a campaign

D．the history of a body ­conscious country

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A．Actions or Excuses?

B．Overweight or Underweight?

C．WHO in a Dilemma

D．No Longer Dying of Hunger