The peoples of the Scandinavian countries share a lot in common for geographical reasons. But there are more of differences than similarities between them in all ways，including their drinking customs.

A superficial① observer might think that no one in Norway drinks wine. Meals eaten in restaurants or at home are usually washed down with tea, coffee or milk. Occasionally however，pale or dark ale② is drunk. It can be ordered only in restaurants, where it is served only with food.

Excellent quality beers are made in Jutland and consumption is high. After beer, brandy is the favorite drink. Aalborg schnapps made from corn and potatoes, is famous for its high alcoholic content. For the Danes, brandy is also an aperitif③ and is often drunk before meals. For a foreigner, the practice of surrounding toasts here can be uncomfortable. If he accepts one toast then he will have to accept all others, and it is difficult to drink six or seven glasses of brandy unless one is used to it. Ladies are fortunately excluded from these rounds and they drink only a grape juice with almost no alcoholic content.

It is milk instead of liquor that is the principal④ Finnish table drink. More milk is drunk by the Finnish people than in any other nation. In Finland the sale of alcohol is a state behavior and a check is kept on consumption by recording purchases on special card issued to all customers.

As there is a difference between Swedish cooking in the south and that in the north because of the difference in soil and climate, their drinking habits are also different. In the north alcoholic beverages⑤ are considered a necessity because they keep out the cold. While in the south people have milder drinks. But generally speaking, too much drinking is rare in Sweden, partly because it is against the law.

Sale of spirits is controlled, the Swedes drink much coffee and tea. Many people still prefer the old-fashioned coffee served in large cups with cakes. Tea is so popular in Sweden that it has been called the Swedish national drink.

Notes:

① superficial  adj.  表面上的

② ale  n.  麦牙酒

③ aperitif  n.  开胃酒

④ principal  adj.  最重要的；主要的

⑤ alcoholic beverage   n.  烈酒

1. The passage mentions the following subjects EXCEPT ______.

  A. drinking habits      B. table manners     C. sales of spirits     D. drinking time

2. According to the passage, which of the following is the Swedish national drink?

  A. Tea.       B. Brandy.       C. Aperitif.      D. Grape juice.

3. Which of the following people like milk more than other drinks?

  A. The German people.              B. The American people.

C. The Finish people.                D. The French people.

4. It can be inferred that if a foreigner isn’t good at drinking brandy, he ______.

  A. would like to invite ladies to have a party

  B. is unwilling to have a surrounding toast

  C. would like to accept others’ toasts

  D. will often drink milk instead of brandy

President Bush may talk about a plan to Mars, but Bruce Jones thinks there is still a healthy thirst for exploration into underwater worlds on our own planet. After growing up with a grandfather in the marine construction① business, Jones quickly got a feel for the water. He started diving at age 9 and, by the 1980s, began offering advice for those interested in the submarine② business. By 1993, he was running his own company, U.S. Submarines, which designs and builds submarines for others.

Jones has $40 million spent in building a hotel where the most expensive rooms will be 50 feet under the sea off Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. Unlike the Jules Undersea Lodge — the only undersea hotel now, just off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. — guests at the Poseidon won’t need to put on a wet suit to their rooms. They also won’t need to worry about changing pressure levels since the rooms will be kept at above-surface pressure. Instead, they can move easily to their $1,500-a-night underwater rooms by escalator③.

“I think there are a large number of people who would be interested,” said Jones, “including anyone who is looking for a different experience.”

Each room will feature strong walls that look out onto coral④ gardens. There will be controls in each room that guests can use to change the lighting of the underwater worlds outside their windows and to provide food to fish swimming just outside. It sounds exciting— but will it happen? It’s hard to say.

“By now I envisioned⑤ we’d have whole underwater cities,” Cooper said. “It’s about time some of these visions became reality.”

Notes:

① marine construction  海洋建筑

② submarine  adj. 海下的

③ escalator  n.  自动梯

④ coral  n.  珊瑚

⑤ envision  v.  展望

1. The first paragraph takes President Bush for example in order to ______.

  A. praise President Bush’s plan to Mars

B. humorously introduce the main subject to readers

  C. support President Bush’s plan to Mars

D. show Bruce Jones is against President Bush’s plan

2. According to the text, who had a great effect on Bruce Jones?

  A. His father.     B. His friends.       C. His grandfather      D. His grandmother

3. According to Bruce Jones’s undersea hotel, we know that ______.

  A. fish outside can be seen through the hotel’s walls

  B. the hotel has been built and came into use

  C. it will be easy to swim into the underwater rooms

  D. visitors will have to wear wet suits against water

4. According to Cooper’s words, his attitudes towards the underwater hotels are ______.

  A. disappointed       B. critical       C. objective      D. hopeful

A typical① Chinese Internet user is a young male who prefers instant messaging to e-mail, seldom makes online purchases② and favors news, music and games sites. According to a study, about two-thirds of survey participants③ use the Internet for news — often entertainment-related — or for online games. About half download music and movies.

They also tend to prefer instant messaging to e-mail, and they are depending on the Internet more frequently than before to communicate with others who have the same professions, hobbies and political interests. Online purchases still remain unpopular in China. Three-quarters of users surveyed have never bought anything over the Internet, and only 10 percent make purchases even once a month. Among those who do buy online, most pay for entertainment while others buy phone cards, or computer hardware or software.

“Many people don’t trust the quality of goods bought online,” Guo said Wednesday. “If they buy it in a store and don’t like it, they can easily bring it back.”

The survey was done in five major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Changsha. Results do not necessarily project countrywide because Internet use in rural areas is lower than in cities. Guo describes the typical netizen④ in the five cities surveyed as young, male, richer and more highly educated. Males make up two-thirds of the Internet community, and more than 80 percent of users are under 24. Among people ages 25 to 29, 60 percent to 80 percent go online.

China has more than 100 million people online, second in the world to the United States.

Notes:

① typical  adj.  典型的

② purchase   n. / v.  购买

③ participant  n. 参与者

④ netizen  n. 网民

Choose the best answers according to the above:

A typical Chinese Internet user will be the one who _________.

        A. likes to send e-mails                 B. likes to buy goods online

        C. likes to pay for entertainment          D. likes the games sites

Online purchases still remain unpopular in China mainly because _________.

        A. it is more difficult for sales returns       

B. people haven’t computers

        C. people can’t have a look at the goods     

D. goods bought online are of low quality

Which of the following words fails to describe the typical netizens in the five cities?

        A. well educated     B. richer     C. female     D. young

According to the text, which of the following shows the right relation between online people and their ages?

        A.       B.

C.       D.

Unusual incidents are being reported across the Arctic. Inuit（因纽特人）families going off on snowmobiles to prepare their summer hunting camps have found themselves cut off from home by a sea of mud. There are also reports of sea ice breaking up earlier than usual, carrying seals beyond the reach of hunters. Climate change may still be a rather abstract（抽象的）idea to most of us, but in the Arctic it is already having great effect—if summertime ice continues to shrink at its present rate, the Arctic Ocean could soon become almost ice-free in summer. The knock-on effects（连锁反应）are likely to include more warming, cloudier skies and higher sea levels. Scientists are increasingly eager to find out what’s going on in the Arctic.

     For the Inuit the problem is urgent. They live in unsteady balance with one of the toughest environments on earth. Climate change, whatever its causes, is a direct danger to their way of life. Nobody knows the Arctic as well as the locals, which is why they are not content simply to stand back and let outsider experts tell them what’s happening. In Canada, where the Inuit people are trying hard to guard their hard-won autonomy（自治权）in the country’s newest land, Nunavut, they believe their best hope of survival in this changing environment lies in combining their ancestral (祖先的) knowledge with the best of modern science. This is a challenge in itself.

     The Canadian Arctic is a vast, treeless polar desert that’s covered with snow for most of the year. Adventure into this area and you get some idea of the hardships facing anyone who calls this home. Farming is out of the question and nature offers few pickings. Humans first settled in the Arctic a mere 4,500 years ago, surviving by taking advantage of sea first. The environment tested them to the limits: sometimes the settlers were successful; sometimes they failed and disappeared. But around a thousand years ago, one group appeared that was uniquely well adapted to deal with the Arctic environment. These Thule people moved in from Alaska, bringing dogs, iron tools and the like. They are the ancestors of today’s Inuit people.

Which of the following is likely to be the effect of climate change?

  A. Shorter and shorter summertime.     B. Ice-free summer around the Arctic.

  C. Lower sea levels.                  D. More rainy skies.

The Inuit people believe the solution to the climate change problem is ________.

  A. to change their way of life

  B. to do as their ancestors

  C. to try to protect the environment from now on

  D. to use their ancestral knowledge and modern science

It can be concluded from the last paragraph that ________.

  A. the first settlers in the Arctic survived there quite easily

  B. it’s hard to farm in the Arctic due to climate change

  C. the ancestors of Inuit people stood out among the settlers

  D. the Thule people from Alaska invented iron tools

Which of the following is the best title for this text?

A. Climate Change and the Inuit       

B. Climate Change around the Arctic

C. Global Warming around the World   

D. The Inuit and Their Ancestors around the World