_____ his knowledge of the mountainous country, John Smith was appointed as our guide.

　　A. In spite of      B. On account of

　　C. Regardless of    D. Instead of

　 As we know, Human beings each have unique brains. The brain is of the greatest importance to the body. It is the boss of the body．Your eyes，ears，nose，and skin tell your brain what is going on around you．Other parts of your body tell your brain what is going on inside of you．Your brain takes in the signals．It tells your body what to do with them．When you touch fire，your skin tells your brain that your finger is too hot．Your brain tells you to move your finger．All these happen very fast．Your brain also controls your breathing，blinking，and heartbeat．It controls your feelings and thoughts too．

　　Humans have the most developed brain of all animals．Yet it is not the largest brain．The human brain weighs three pounds．The brain of an elephant weighs 11 pounds．So the largest brain is not always the best brain．In people，a larger brain does not mean a clever person．

What is the main idea of this passage?

　  A．The human brain works very fast．

 B．The largest brain is not always the best brain．

　　C．The brain controls the body．

　　D．The best brain is the largest brain．

What happens after the brain takes in the signals from the body?

　A．The brain grows faster and larger． B．The brain tells the body what to do．

　C．The body becomes more developed．D．We don't know．

What does “the boss of the body” mean?

　　A．The signals．            B．The most developed body part．

　　C．The main part of the body.  D．The centre of the body．

Which brain is the most developed?

　　A．The largest brain．　　　　　　　B．The human brain．

　　C．The smaller brain．　　　　　　　D．Not too big brain．

What are the things that the human brain does?

　　A．Takes in signals．　　　　　　　B．Controls breathing．

　　C．Controls feelings and thoughts．　D．A，B and C．

—Did you find the missing couple in the mountain yesterday?

   —No, but we ________ to get in touch with them ever since.

   A．have tried　　　　　　　　　　 B. have been trying

   C．had tried　　　　　　　　　　　 D. had been trying

短文改错

The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.

Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.

  He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”

 “We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and ‘dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”

The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each  Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch (传统火鸡午餐).

    The results were published (发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.

What is the text mainly about?

A. The relationship between accents and social classes.

B. The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV.

C. The changes in a person’s accent.

D. The recent development of the English language.

The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because ______.

A. she has been Queen for many years

B. she has a less upper-class accent now

C. her speeches are familiar to many people

D. her speeches have been recorded for 50 years

Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?

A. “dutay”　　　　　B. “citee”　　　　　      C. “hame”　　　　　D. “lorst”

We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on ______.

A. speech sounds         　　　　　　  B. Christmas customs

C. TV broadcasting       　　　　　      D. personal messages