Speaking English is not only about using proper grammar, but also about understanding the culture. Here is some important advice to remember when speaking English in the United States.
◆Americans have difficulties understanding foreign accents. Many Americans are not used to foreign accents. This requires patience from both of you.
◆Talk about places: Americans love to talk about places. When speaking to a stranger, ask them where they come from and then say something about that place. For example: “Oh, I have a friend who worked in Los Angeles. He says it’s a beautiful place to live in.” Most Americans will then willingly talk about their experiences of living in or visiting that city or place.
◆Talk about work: It is common for Americans to ask “What do you do?” It’s not considered impolite as in some countries and is a popular topic of discussion between strangers.
◆Talk about sports: Americans love sports! However, they love American sports. When speaking about football, most Americans understand “American football”, not soccer.
◆Be careful when expressing ideas about race, religion or other sensitive（敏感的）topics:The United States is a society with different cultures. Americans are very sensitive to other cultures and ideas.
【小题1】For Americans, the question “what do you do?” is ________.

Imagine a perfect day: the weather is good and everything seems fine. When, suddenly, your cell phone loses its signal, the television has no programs, and you can't get online with your computer.

What has happened? These are just the types of problems a solar storm (太阳风暴) might  cause. You may not think of storms as putting our society in danger.  But today, a solar storm is as serious as other bad events, such as earthquakes.

A solar storm is caused by solar flares (太阳耀斑): large explosions near the sun that can give off lots of energy. The strong energy can stop the satellite systems (卫星系统) that operate our computers, telecom networks and so on. These storms can even cause the power to go out for weeks or months.

In the past few months, scientists have recorded some of the strongest sun flares in years. The most recent one happened around Valentine's Day, 2011. It caused radio and satellite signals to go down in some northern cities in China.

"Solar flare activity is going to be much worse than what we've seen in the past. We' re not talking about a few cities losing power. It could be half the country, maybe more," SolarStormWarning. com, a US website about space weather, warned.

Experts say that little can be done to predict (预测) such a storm. Governments around the world are trying to work together before the next storm, although they are not sure when that may happen.

46. Solar storms can cause many problems EXCEPT that_______.

A. TVs cannot be turned on           B. mobile phones have no signals

C. people cannot get online              D. the satellite system will be stopped

47. According to the article, what are solar flares?

A. Natural disasters like earthquakes.         B. Strong solar storms.

C. Large explosions near the sun.       D. A lot of energy around the sun.

 48. The writer wrote the article mainly to_______.

A. introduce to people what solar storms are

B. tell people how to solve the problems caused by solar storms

C. call for scientists to predict when the next storm will happen

D. ask people to work to prevent the solar storms from happening

We know that there are too many net bars around us．The Internet is popular and it makes our lives colourful．Many of us like going online very much because we can learn how to use the computer and get more information form the Internet．We can learn English．We can read some good newspapers and magazines．We can also watch some exciting sports matches．It can make us clever in playing computer games．We can send e-mails to our friends quickly．We can chat freely online with our friends．It can help us get in touch with people from all over the world．

       But some students spend too much time in playing computer games and some stay in the net bars all day and all night．Teenagers even get to have boyfriends or girlfriends online．They send e-mail to each other．It takes them too much time to chat online so they do worse and worse in their lessons and they don’t study well any more．I think we mustn’t get online when it is time for us to study．We can do it in summer or winter holidays．We should get online with adults-our teachers or parents．

    At the same time，if we have lots of free time，we can do some out-of-class activities at school．We usually have activities from 4：50 to 5：50 in the afternoon．We have different kinds of activities．If you are interested in sports，you can play basketball or football．We can go to the English Corner．We can practice talking in English there．We hope we can spend more time on our subjects or on such activities that we can learn a lot from and spend less time on the Internet．

1．What does the underlined word“It”in Paragraph I refer to?

      A．A net bar．          B．A computer．      C．Going online． D．Watching matches．

2．Because of the Internet，our lives are becoming ________．

      A．richer and richer                                      B．more and more colourful

      C．worse and worse                                       D．more and more boring

3．Which of the following is the best out-of-class activity at school?

      A．Playing computer games．                       B．Sending e-mails to each other．

      C．Chatting on the Internet．                           D．Going to the English Corner．

4．The writer suggests that students shouldn’t _________．

      A．have boyfriends or girlfriends online            B．do different out-of-class activities

      C．get online during their holidays                    D．get online with their parents

5．What is the passage mainly about?

      A．Going online．                                        B．Computers．

      C．How to use computers．                             D．How to play computer games．

Jean is a clever young woman who comes from a rich and famous family. She goes to a good university and has everything that money can buy. Well, almost everything. The problem is that Jean’s family are so busy that they can hardly find time to be with her . In fact, Jean is quite lonely. So Jean spends a lot of time on her QQ. She likes being anonymous（名字不公开的）, talking to people who do not know about her famous family and her rich life. She uses the name Linda on QQ and has made a lot of friends who she keeps in touch with quite often.
Last year Jean made a very special friend on QQ. His name was David and lived in San Francisco. David was full of stories and jokes. He and Jean had a common interest in rock music and modern dance. So it always took them hours to talk happily on QQ and sometimes they even forgot their time. Of course, they wanted to know more about each other. David sent a picture of himself: He was a tall , good looking young man with big , happy smile. As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other.
When Jean’s father told her that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday. She would take him the latest DVD of their favorite rock singer. But when she knocked on David’s door in San Francisco, she found that her special friend was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim!
【小题1】Jean is a clever young woman who comes from a _________ family.