1 . The olive (橄榄) tree probably first grew in southern Asia. And then it spread to Mediterranean countries about 6,000 years ago. Since then, it has been important in Mediterranean people’s lives.

The olive tree grows in rocky places and it doesn’t need much water. Its fruit can be made into olive oil. People have used olive oil to cook dishes for centuries. But they haven’t only used it for cooking. Some ancient cultures believed that it was useful as medicine. In modern times, people still use olive oil both for its taste and its health advantages.

Olive oil has also been an important product in the business and culture of Mediterranean countries. In ancient Greece, for example, anyone who cut down an olive tree was heavily punished. Winners at the Olympic Games wore wreaths (花环). They were made of olive branches (树枝). Sometimes winners were also given a prize of olive oil. People from Greece built ships so that they could use olive oil for trade. But it was the Romans who grew the olive tree in the rest of southern Europe and northern Africa.

Today, olive oil is still a very valuable product, and many different kinds of olive oil are sold in countries all over the world.

1. Where did the olive tree probably first grow?

A．In Asia.

B．In Africa.

C．In Europe.

D．In America.

2. What can we learn about olive oil?

A．People started to cook with it recently.	B．It is made from olive branches.
C．People used it to build ships in Greece.	D．It can be good for health.

3. In ancient Greece, people who cut down an olive tree ________.

A．wore wreaths	B．were heavily punished
C．got a prize of olive oil	D．were regarded as heroes

4. The passage is mainly about ________.

A．the method of cooking	B．the trade of Greece
C．the history of the Olympic Games	D．the story of olive oil

2 . Traffic lights are red, yellow and green. They are very important signals (信号). Traffic lights are usually placed at busy street corners to help control traffic. Sometimes, they are on streets near schools and shops, too. Most young children are taught what each of the colored lights means, so everybody can stay safe.

The first traffic signals were used for trains. The signals were put alongside railway tracks (轨道). The color red was used to mean “stop” because it warned people of danger. A red light was also the easiest color to see from a distance. Train drivers could see the red “stop” light ahead and had enough time to slow down and stop their trains. A green light was used to mean “take care” and a white light meant “go”.

However, there were many dangerous accidents on the train tracks. Some train drivers thought a star shining in the night sky was a white light that meant “go”. So the signals were swapped. The “go” light was changed to green and the “take care” light was changed to white.

During these times, people travelled by train or in carts pulled by horses. Years later, when cars were built, people began to drive them because they could travel much faster than horses. However, the road rules for drivers were not very clear and many people were hurt crossing the roads. Yellow warning signs had to be placed beside the roads to remind drivers to take care and allow people to cross safely.

Today, towns and cities all over the world have traffic lights. Red and green lights match the signals used on the railways. Yellow lights are easy to see, so they are used to warn drivers that they should slow down and prepare to stop.

1. Why was the color red used to mean “stop”?

A．It gave people a warning of danger.

B．It was the first color people thought of.

C．It reminded people of traffic rules.

D．It helped trains run smoothly.

2. What does the underlined word “swapped” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Designed.

B．Suggested.

C．Compared.

D．Exchanged.

3. In which order did the “take care” light develop?
a. A white light.            b. A green light.          c. A yellow light.

A．a—b—c	B．b—c—a
C．b—a—c	D．a—c—b

4. What is the passage mainly about?

A．The importance of traffic lights.	B．The meanings of traffic lights.
C．The advantages of traffic lights.	D．The history of traffic lights.

3 . 阅读下列材料，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 modern times, the government uses Westminster Hall for large public ceremonies. It is also the place where a king     1     queen who has died will “lie in state”,     2    (provide) a last chance for people to pay their respects. In the year 2002, Queen Elizabeth’s mother “lay in state” at Westminster Hall. Thousands of people walked     3    (quiet) past the Queen Mother’s body     4     order to show their respect for her and for the royal family.

The Hall is very important for political events too. Probably the most important event     5     ever happened in Westminster Hall was the meeting of     6     first English parliament. In the year 1265, King Henry Ⅲ called a meeting to discuss his policies. He met with some important     7    (man) of the time. But King Henry also requested some ordinary people be present. He asked each town     8    (send) two soldiers and two businessmen to Westminster Hall. This group represented the common citizens of the nation. They were not rich people, neither were the members of the ruling families. These citizens met with the king and the other important men. Their ideas     9    (listen) to, and the king treated them     10     equals. It was the first time that the common citizens of England had a chance to be heard. This was the start of the first real parliament.

4 . Hand gestures are a very useful communication tool because they are easy to learn and simple to perform     1     . Many hand gestures have been around for a very long time, though their meanings may have changed over the years. Here are the histories of three of our most commonly used hand signs.

Thumbs-up

Is there a more well-known sign of approval than the thumbs-up?     2    . When one gladiator (角斗士) beat another, he would look to the crowd for their opinion: Should the loser be allowed to live? The crowd would respond by turning their thumbs up if they wanted the man to be saved or down if they wanted him to be killed —at least, that’s what people used to think.     3     What would an ancient Roman think if he saw the number of thumbs-up we give each other today?

V Sign

    4    . Captured English archers (弓箭手) would have their first two fingers cut off so they could no longer fight. Uncaptured archers would therefore raise these two fingers to the enemy to show them that they could— and would— still draw their bows. Centuries later, the sign was employed by those who were fighting against the Nazis to represent “V for Victory,” and later to mean “peace” by American activists in the 1960s. During this time, people in Japan also started using the V sign in photos.

High Five

On October 2, 1977, after Dusty Baker hit a home run, L.A Dodgers baseball player Glenn Burke raised his hand to greet his teammate.     5     From then on, they would often give high fives during their games, and the gesture caught on.

A．Not all hand gestures are about communication.

B．Without thinking, Baker struck Burke’s hand hard

C．In the 1400s, there was a war between Britain and France.

D．They allow us to express strong emotions without the need for words.

E．However, new studies have shown that a thumbs-up meant that the loser should die!

F．In French, V stands for victoire, “victory,” and in Dutch, it stands for vrijheid, “freedom.”

G．The origins of this popular gesture actually go back to the bloody games of ancient Rome

5 . Intrigued by Maya civilization from a very young age, 15-year-old Canadian William Gadoury thought he had made an incredible discovery from his study of ancient star charts. Through comparison, he found that the locations of the 117 known Maya cities correspond to the positions of the stars. Based on this, he believed he had spotted an unknown Maya city buried deep in the jungle.     1    

It isn’t difficult to see why. Extending south from parts of what we now know as Mexico into Central America, Maya civilization has been surrounded by mystery since its rediscovery in the 19th century. The Maya built impressive palaces and temples, including their representative step pyramids. What is most extraordinary about these complex structures is how they were built without the use of wheels, metal tools or even animal power. The Maya’s understanding of mathematics and astronomy was also quite amazing.     2    

The fact that Maya society was technologically primitive makes its achievements all the more incredible and mysterious.     3     By 700 AD, Maya civilization was at its peak. Yet, within just a couple of generations, it began to mysteriously decline. The cities were left to be taken back by the jungle. When Europeans arrived in Central America in the early 16th century to claim its riches, the remaining Maya people were living in small settlements.

Why Maya civilization collapsed remains a mystery. Was it a natural disaster? A deadly disease? Conflicts between cities? Or was it a combination of several different factors?     4     They had turned wetlands into fields for growing grains, and had dug huge canal systems. As their population expanded, yet more land was needed for agriculture and more trees for construction. By changing the landscape in this way, it is possible that the Maya people unknowingly reduced their ability to deal with natural disasters.

Whatever the reasons, Maya civilization largely disappeared within the deep jungle. Its once—great cities fell into ruin, leaving various mysteries for later people to solve.

A．Research suggests that those natural disasters may have led to the decline of the Maya.

B．But the greatest mystery of all is what caused the Maya to abandon most of their great cities.

C．It turned out that the lucky boy hit the jackpot and the Maya city was eventually brought to light.

D．Some research seems to indicate that the Maya people themselves may have played a part in their downfall.

E．Although his theory has been dismissed by scholars, it shows how powerful the secrets of Ancient Maya civilization are among people.

F．They applied this understanding to the Maya calendar, which was accurate to within 30 seconds per year.

6 . 选用适当的单词或短语补全短文。

A. declined            B. eventually             C. flooded            D. handmade          E. producer          F. profit G. remained            H. ruler                    I. share                    L. stressful            K. typically

In the early 19th century, Egypt connected two vast regions: the Ottoman Empire (奥斯曼帝国) and the African continent. For centuries, the Ottoman Empire had been at the center of Eurasian trade. It had also been a major center of manufacturing which produced     1     goods for Europe and Africa.

However, the industrialization of Europe meant that cheaper goods made by machines soon     2     into the Ottoman Empire. The result of this competition was that Africa was increasingly seen as a place that provided new materials for European factories, rather than one that had factories of its own.

Egypt was an African country that was technically part of the Ottoman Empire. It was first invaded by the French army. With British help, the Ottoman forces drove the French out of Egypt. Following this, Muhammad Ali successfully brought about Egyptian independence from the Ottoman Empire. By 1831, he was effectively an independent     3     of a more modern Egypt.

Egypt was already a small-scale     4     of cotton, which was sold to Britain. Ali encouraged even more cotton production nationwide. With the money from this cotton production, Ali’s government began to aid factories so that the country could     5     from its own industrialization. By the late 1840s, it looked like Egypt would     6     become an industrial power.

However, Egypt’s economy slowly     7     . The factories stopped production, and by the 1880s, it had to borrow money from Britain. Though Egypt     8     formally independent, it seemed to be more like a British colony(殖民地).

Europeans kept interfering in Egypt partly because of the Suez Canal(苏伊士运河). Egypt’s new leaders were already     9     because of the industrial collapse that left their country unable to repay the money borrowed from Britain. Finally, in 1875, the king sold his     10     in the Suez Canal Company to the British, giving them control of this important national resource. The powerful British took advantage of this instability and seized the country.

7 . Putting Pen to Paper: The History of Ballpoint Pens

Ballpoint pens may not seem like anything special, but they’ve made our lives more convenient than you might realize. The story behind their invention may also surprise you.

László Bíró, a Hungarian journalist, is said to have invented the ballpoint pen in 1938. Before the ballpoint pen, people used fountain pens. These old-fashioned pens had to be refilled often, and they leaked and easily made paper dirty.     1    

Many inventors had tried to design similar types of pens before Bíró, but none had succeeded. Bíró’s ballpoint pen design used a small ball instead of a nib（钢笔尖）. When the ball is pressed onto paper, it rolls to pick up ink inside the pen and transfer it onto paper. The inspiration for this design came from an unexpected source. One day, Bíró happened to see children playing with marbles（弹珠游戏）. A boy rolled a marble through a puddle, creating a line of water on the street and giving Bíró the idea for the ballpoint design.     2    . He developed a thick, fast-drying ink for Bíró’s pen.

Bíró began selling his pen in Argentina, where he and his brother had fled to during World War Ⅱ. His biggest customer was UK’s Royal Air Force, which ordered 30,000 pens to allow its crews to write more easily while in the air.     3     Instead, American businessman Milton Reynolds was the man responsible for that. After seeing the pens in Argentina, he changed the design just enough to sell them as his own. Though expensive, the pens were a big hit with American customers in the 1940s.

Eventually, mass production made plastic ballpoint pens more affordable, and soon they were a household necessity.     4     Ballpoint pens can be less comfortable to write with because more pressure must be applied when writing with them. In addition, it doesn’t feel natural to join letters together because of the way the ink flows. Some say these factors contributed to the decline of cursive writing（草书）.

    5     Who would have thought that this amazing invention was inspired by something as simple as children playing with marbles?

A．For this reason, ballpoint pens last for ages.

B．Ballpoint pens have become an essential tool in our everyday lives.

C．These pens are particularly popular because they are easy to write with.

D．Unfortunately, Bíró wasn’t able to spread his invention around the world.

E．Although ballpoint pens were convenient, they changed the way that people write.

F．However, the real breakthrough came when Bíró got help from his brother, who was a scientist.

G．Since Bíró spent much of his day writing, he was all too familiar with these inconveniences.

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank. Write your answers on the answer sheet.

American Indians

When you think of a typical American, whom do you picture? A pretty white American like Taylor Swift? Or a handsome black American like Barack Obama or basketball star Kobe Bryant? In fact, there was a time when the average American looked like     1     of these people.

Back in the year 1500, the average American was a brown-skinned hunter-gatherer who probably rode a horse and wore clothing     2     (make) from animal skins. Today, these people—who tend to be connected with their individual tribes (部落) such as Iriquos, Apache and Navajo—are referred to     3     “Native Americans”,   “American Indians” or simply “Indians”.

You     4     say that you have never even heard of American Indians. That’s because there aren’t very many left.     5     (settle) in North America, the settlers from Europe were involved in bitter conflict with the native peoples. After the Revolutionary War, conflicts with natives continued as the states were created     6     would later make up the US. American Indians were treated as a military “enemy”     7     1924, when the few Indians still alive at that point     8     (award) US citizenship.

    9     the story of the American Indians has been a sad one, these people’s legacies (遗产) are still felt every day in the US. There are many US geographical names     10     (come) from Indian languages and numerous successful academics and other important US leaders descended (是……的后裔) from Indians.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. spread       B. predicted       C. boomed       D. redefined       E. agricultural        F. trade G. accelerated       H. continued       I. exchanging       J. seeking       K. continents

Globalization is term used to describe how     1     and technology have made the world into a more connected and interdependent place.

When did globalization begin? Many scholars say it started with Columbus’s voyage 10 the New World in 1492. People traveled to nearby and faraway places well before Columbus’s voyage,     2     their ideas, products, and customs along the way. The Silk Road, an ancient network of trade routes across China, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean used between 50 B. C. E. and 250 C. E. is perhaps the most well-known early example. As globalization     3    , new technologies played a key role in the Silk Road trade. Advances in metallurgy (冶金术) led to the creation of coins; advances in transportation led to the building of roads connecting the major empires of the day; and increased     4     production meant more food could be trafficked between locales. Along with Chinese silk, Roman glass, and Arabian spices, ideas such as Buddhist beliefs and the secrets of paper-making also     5     via these tendrils of trade.

Unquestionably, these types of exchanges were     6     in the Age of Exploration, when European explorers were     7     new sea routes to the spices and silks of Asia. Again, technology played an important role in the maritime trade routes that flourished between old and newly discovered     8     Trade and idea exchange now extended to a previously unconnected part of the world, where ships carrying plants, animals, and Spanish silver between the Old World and the New also carried Christian missionaries.

The web of globalization     9     to spread out through the Age of Revolution, when ideas about liberty and equality spread like fire from America to France to Latin America and beyond. It rode the waves of industrialization, colonization, and war through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, powered by the invention of factories, railways, steamboats, cars, and planes.

With the Information Age, globalization went into overdrive. Advances in computer and communications technology launched a new global era and     10     what it meant to be “connected.”

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空格处填入一个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The History of English

English is now the most common language in the world. It is the first language in the UK, the USA and Canada. It is also the most popular second language,     1    means English is     2    (probable) spoken by over one billion people around the world. But how did we arrive at the English we speak today?

The history of     3     English language begins in the fifth century with the invasion（入侵） of Britain by three tribes from Germany - the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. The original language of Britain was an older European language     4    (call) Celtic. Over time, most of the Celtic speakers were forced into the north and west of the British Isles. The invaders    5     (speak) a language called Anglo-Saxon and many of the most common words in English come from this.

In the eighth and ninth    6     (century), there were other invasions by the Vikings from Scandinavia. These brought words like “knifr”, or knife into the English language.

Outside of the United Kingdom, the use of English is growing.     7     is the official language of the European Union, and     8     (use) all over the world for air traffic control. Also, English is used     9    (much) than any other language on the Internet,     10     (make) it an important language in the world.