Hi Hongbo,

I’m so glad to read about the changes talking place in your city. It’s really good news that you can travel by subway in Xi’an, though there’s only one line there. Here in London we have twelve lines. By the way, we don’t use the word “subway” here. It’s American English. We call it “the Underground”, instead.

The London Underground is very famous. It’s famous for several reasons. First of all, part of the underground railway today is the oldest in the world, which opened in 1863. Secondly, the London Underground is also the first line to have electric trains, in 1890. Thirdly but not the last, the London Underground is the second largest metro system in the world, after the Shanghai Metro. There are 270 stations in the Underground and it has 402 kilometres of tracks(轨道). What’s more, the city of London itself helps make the transportation system famous! I’ve got a few photos to help you build a clear picture of the Underground in my city. They are together with this mail.

In your email, you also said workers were building more lines. I’m sure your city is developing fast. Maybe you can send me a few photos of your city today. I really want to see the changes taking place there. I’m happy for you to live there in an ancient city with such a new look!

So much for now. I’ll write soon again. Best wishes!

1.Where is the writer from？

A．From London      B．From Shanghai      C．From Xi’an.       D．From New York

2.The second paragraph mainly tells us        ?

A．when the first subway was opened in the world.

B．when the London Underground first used electric trains

C．why the London Underground is the oldest subway in the world.

D．why the London Underground is famous in the world

3.In the email, the words “subway”, “underground”, and “metro” mean   .

A．three different things                    B．two different things

C．almost the same thing                    D．nothing like each other

4.What does the writer want Hongbo to do?

A．To buy a good book about Xi’an for him.

B．To send him a few photos of Xi’an.

C．To post him some postcards of Xi’an.

D．To tell him more about Xi’an subway.

 

Most people consider skydiving (高空跳伞) a product of the 20th century, but its history actually goes further back than that. The Chinese attempted to parachute (跳伞) in the 10th century, a thousand years before we did. The Chinese did what we would today call base diving; that is, they jumped off a place that would allow them to float from a height to the ground.
The first person to attempt to parachute was a Frenchman named Jacques Garnerin. He jumped from his hot-air balloon at the end of the 18th century and did tricks on the way down and stupefied the crowds by landing safely on the ground. At the end of the 19th century, Kathie Paulus, a brave German woman, became famous for her skydiving skills.
Once the airplane was invented, skydiving took on a whole new form. The airplane made it possible to dive from greater heights at greater speeds, allowing for more range in the movements in the air. A woman named Tiny Broadwick became the first woman to jump from a plane in 1913 and dive free fall in 1914.
Skydiving was not called skydiving until the middle of the 1950s, when Ronald Young invented the word. It had been called parachuting before this and was mainly used by the military (军事) to land troops in inland locations, or for pilots to jump out of their planes when necessary. Once World War I was over, parachuting became a sport, which we now call skydiving.
After World War II, this activity became more a hobby than a military action. Soldiers were trained in parachuting and enjoyed the thrill so much that they continued on for fun. From this, teams and competitions were formed. Skydiving schools appeared in the late 1950s and now it is a recognized extreme sport enjoyed by many.
【小题1】The underlined word “stupefied” in paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.

A．disappointed

B．encouraged

C．surprised

D．attacked

【小题2】Who was the first woman to jump from a plane?

A．Jacques Garnerin.

B．Kathie Paulus.

C．Tiny Broadwick.

D．Ronald Young.

【小题3】Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The Chinese attempted different skydiving skills in the 10th century.

B．Skydiving became popular after the airplane was invented.

C．The word skydiving was first used in a military action.

D．There were no skydiving schools until the late 1950s.

【小题4】What can we infer from the passage?

A．Skydiving is not a military action any more.

B．Kathie Paulus is famous for her skydiving skills.

C．The first person who parachuted was from Germany.

D．The history of skydiving is longer than that of parachuting.

【小题5】What would be the best title for this text?

A．The history of skydiving	B．The popularity of skydiving
C．What is skydiving?	D．Why is skydiving an extreme sport?

He is famous both _________a novelist and poet but he is more famous_________ his novels.

A．for; as

B．with; for

C．as; for

D．like; as

 

It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr. Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.

Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.

Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena. “The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.

Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs, which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”. In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.

1.The author mentions Dr. Johnson’s comment to show that______.

A．most commentators agree with Dr. Johnson

B．Dr. Johnson is famous for his weather observation

C．the comment was accurate two hundred years ago

D．English conversations usually start with the weather

2.What does the underlined word “obsession” most probably refer to?

A．A social trend.

B．An emotional state.

C．A historical concept.

D．An unknown phenomenon.

3.According to the passage, Jeremy Paxman believes that______.

A．Bill Bryson has little knowledge of the weather

B．there is nothing special about the English weather

C．the English weather attracts people to the British Isles

D．English people talk about the weather for its uncertainty

4.What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

A．To explain what English weather-speak is about.

B．To analyse misconceptions about the English weather.

C．To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman.

D．To convince people that the English weather is changeable.

 

Vivi Mac, an amazing artist from France, can use nearly any kind of food to create detailed celebrity portraits（名人肖像）．Although she has yet to display her short-lived work of arts in a proper art gallery, Vivi Mac has already made a name for herself online.

We've seen some amazing food artists in the past, but none are quite like this one .Karen Eland is a master coffee painter, Elisabetta Rogai uses wine as her medium(媒介），Kelly McCollam uses food colouring(食用色素）to recreat classic paintings, but the self-taught Vivi Mac can take anything from chewing gum to milk and turn it into a fantastic portrait  When working with liquids, Mac uses a simple plastic straw and her hands to guide the unusual .mediums around a plastic plate which acts as a painting. Just how she manages to capture the finest facial features  is still a mistery  to me, and I've seen videos of her doing it many times，

Vivi Mac has never attended art school. She only used online resources like blogs and facebook to learn the basics of drawing and painting. She started out working with pens and paper, but soon realized drawing wasn't just creative enough for her. She got into speed  painting and body painting, posting videos of her works on You Tube, but it wasn't until she began experimenting with different kinds of foods that her art got serious coverage. Photos and videos of her eatable celebrity portraits, like Bruce Lee in milk  Ice Cube in crushed ice or Amy Winehouse in wine, became popular on the French inter-webs and changed Vivi Mac into an online celebrity.

1.What does the underlined word "display" in the first paragraph mean?

A .Exhibit.      B .Create.      C .Produce.      D. Store.

2.What is the difference between Vivi Mac and other food artists?

A.She Uses wine as her medium.

B.She is famous for her food website.

C.She turns any  kind of food into a portrait

D.She uses spices to recreate classic paintings.

3.In which section of a website are we most likely to find the passage？

A .Food        B .Science       C .Art          D .Health