单选题Questions on the Origins of Christmas A. The traditions we associate with Christmas have evolved over the centuries. Here are answers to five questions about these traditions, from the date we choose to celebrate to the origin of Santa. 1. Why do we celebrate on December 25th? B. The Bible makes no mention of Jesus being born on December 25th and, as more than one historian has pointed out, why would shepherds be tending to their flock in the midge of winter? So why is that the day we celebrate? Well, either Christian holidays miraculously fall on the same days as Pagan ones or the Christians have been crafty in converting pagan populations to religion by placing important Christian holidays on the same days as pagan ones. And people had been celebrating on December 25th (and the surrounding weeks)for centuries by the time Jesus showed up. C. The Winter Solstice, falling on or around December 21st, was and is celebrated around the world as the beginning of the end of winter. It is the shortest day and longest night and its passing signifies that spring is on the way. In Scandinavian countries, they celebrated the solstice with a holiday called Yule last from the 21st until January and burned a Yule log the whole time. D. In Rome, Saturnalia—a celebration of Saturn, the God of agriculture—lasted the entire end of the year and was marked by mass intoxication. In the middle of this, the Romans celebrated the birth of another God, Mithra (a child God), whose holiday celebrated the children of Rome. E. When the Christianity became the official religion of Rome, there was no Christmas. It was not until the 4th century that Pope Julius I declared the birth of Jesus to be a holiday and picked December 25th as the celebration day. By the middle ages, most people celebrated the holiday we know as Christmas. 2. How did Americans come to love the holiday? F. The American Christmas is, like most American holidays, a mishmash of Old World customs mixed with American inventions. While Christmas was celebrated in America from the time of the Jamestown settlement, our modern idea of the holiday didn't take root until the 19th century. The History Channel credits Washington Irving with getting the ball rolling. In 1819 he published The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent. , an account of a Christmas celebration in which a rich family invites poor folk into their house to celebrate the holiday. G. The problem was that many of the activities described in Irving's work, such as crowning a Lord of Misrule, were entirely fictional. Nonetheless, Irving began to steer Christmas celebrations away from drunken debauchery(放荡) and towards wholesome, charitable fun. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, Christmas gained popularity and Americans adopted old customs or invented new ones, such as Christmas trees, greeting cards, giving gifts and eating a whole roasted pig. 3. Who popularized Christmas trees? H. Since time immortal, humans have been fascinated with the color green mid plants that stay green through winter. Many ancient societies—from Romans to Vikings—would decorate their Homes and temples with evergreens in the winter as a symbol of the returning growing season. I. But the Christmas tree didn't get going until some intrepid(无畏的)German dragged home and decorated a tree in the 16th century. Legend has it that Martin Luther himself added lighted candles to his family's tree, starting the trend (and leading to countless fires through the years). J. In America, the Christmas tree didn't catch on until 1846 when the British royals, Queen Victoria and the German Prince Albert, were shown with a Christmas tree in a newspaper. Fashionable people in America mimicked the Royals and the tree thing spread outside of German enclaves(被围领土)in America. Ornaments, courtesy of Germany, and electric lights, courtesy of Thomas Edison's assistants, were added over the years and we haven't changed much since. 4. What's the deal with Santa Claus? K. The jolly, red-suited man who sneaks into your home every year to leave you girls hasn't always been so jolly. The real Saint Nick was a Turkish monk who lived in the 3rd century. According to legend, he was a rich man thanks to an inheritance from his parents, but he gave it all away in the form of gifts to the less-fortunate. He eventually became the most popular saint in Europe and, through his alter ego, Santa Claus, remains so to this day. L. But how did a long-dead Turkish monk become a big, fat, reindeer-riding pole dweller? The Dutch got the ball rolling by celebrating the saint-called Sinter Klaas—in New York in the late-18th century. Our old friend, Washington Irving, included the legend of Saint Nick in his seminal History of New-York as well, but at the turn of the 18th century, Saint Nick was still a rather obscure figure in America. M. On December 23, 1823, though, a man named Clement Clarke Moore published a poem he had written for his daughters called 'An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,' better known now as 'T'was the Night Before Christmas.' Nobody knows how much of the poem Moore invented, but we do know that it was the spark that eventually lit the Santa fire. Many of the things we associate with Santa—a sleigh, reindeer. Christmas Eve visits—came from Moore's poem. N. From 1863 to1886, Thomas Nast's illustrations of Santa Claus appeared in Harper's Weekly—including a scene with Santa giving gifts to Union soldiers. Not much has changed since the second half of the 19th century: Santa still gets pulled in a sleigh by flying reindeer, he still wears the big red suit and he still sneaks down chimneys to drop off presents. 5. Who invented Rudolph? O. Santa did get one more friend in 1939. Robert May, a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store chain, wrote a little story about a 9th reindeer with a disturbing red nose for a booklet to give customers during the holiday season. Ten years later, May's brother would put the story to music, writing the lyrics and melody.

单选题 Which of the following italicized phrases indicates purpose?

单选题 Questions2-5 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

单选题The Home Secretary has been asked to ______ because the union leaders and their employers cannot agree on a course of action.

单选题That's the reason ______ Ann could not do her part of the job.

单选题Keep in ______ that all people are different and some may progress faster than others.

单选题（）

单选题England is not a big country: from north to south and from east to west it is only about three hundred miles across. (76) But for a small country it has a surprising range of climate. People who have never visited England, or who have visited only one part of it, often make the mistake of thinking that it is a cold and wet country. Except for the summer months of June to September, this is probably true of the north of England and the Midlands. In the south, however, the climate is much more pleasant. One result is that when people retire from a job in the north they often prefer to move down to the milder south. Perhaps the warmest part of the country is the southwest, which consists of the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The warm Gulf Stream flows across the North Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico and makes the coastal regions of the southwest quite warm. Palm trees, bamboo (竹) and many semi-tropical (亚热带的) plants grow well in the southwest of England. Flowers and vegetables ripen(成熟) as much as a month earlier than those elsewhere. Farmers in the area obtain a higher price for their vegetables and flowers because they are ready earlier. (77) In winter there may be several feet of snow in other parts of England but there will probably be no snow at all in the southwest. This may be one of the reasons why the southwest is one of England' s most popular holiday areas.

单选题Concerned people want to ______ the risk of developing cancer.

单选题______ her age, she really did a good job in such a short time.

单选题Many students suggested ______ a boat trip on the Huangpu River.

单选题"What courses are you going to do next semester?" "I don"t know. But it"s about time______on something."

单选题 SECTION A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS In this section there are several passages followed by ten multiple-choice questions. For each question, there are four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the best answer and mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET TWO. PASSAGE ONE Rates of depression and anxiety are rising in the modern world. Proposed remedies are numerous. And one that is reaping growing attention is meditation, and mindfulness meditation in particular. The aim is simple: to pay attention—be 'mindful'. Typically, a teacher will ask you to sit upright, in an alert position. Then, they will encourage you to focus on something straightforward, like the in-and out-flow of breath. The aim is to nurture a curiosity about these sensations—not to explain them, but to know them. It's a way of concentrating on the here and now, thereby becoming more aware of how the here and now is affecting you. It doesn't aim directly at the removal of stresses and strains. In fact, it is very hard to develop the concentration necessary to follow your breath, even for a few seconds. What you see is your mind racing from this memory to that moment. But that's the trick: to observe, and to learn to change the way you relate to the inner sufferings. Therein lies the route to better mental health. Mindfulness, then, is not about ecstatic (入迷的) states. It's mostly pretty boring and dull. Moreover, it is not a fast track to delightful happiness. It can, in fact, be quite unsettling, as works with painful experiences, to understand them better and thereby get to the root of problems. Research into the benefits of mindfulness seems to support its claims. People prone to depression, say, are less likely to have depressive episodes if they practice meditation. Stress goes down. But it's more like going on a journey than taking a pill. Though meditation techniques can be learned quickly, it's no instant remedy and requires discipline. Mindfulness is a practice aimed at caring for yourself. Then, it's about knowing yourself better, something recognized as a crucial part of living well. It's striking that today we often don't take the time to do so. Hence, perhaps, many of the ills of the western world. But mindfulness says: make the time to step back, and here's a way to do it. It encourages you to be more aware of life, and promises that mindfulness is a source of insight and hope. PASSAGE TWO For thousands of years men have been wandering around—for pleasure, for profit, or to satisfy their curiosity. When the only means of transportation were horses, camels and small boats, travelers were already crossing seas and deserts to acquire rare goods or to visit famous places. For the pure joy of learning, scholars ventured into distant kingdoms and observed their customs. They tasted the foods; they questioned the wise men about their gods and their history, they sat in fearful admiration on the banks of newly discovered rivers. Then they went back home reflecting upon what they had seen, and perhaps they wrote a book or two about their discoveries. Slowly, nations learned about each other, men met and ideas spread—for better or worse. There was a time, close to ours, when artists and writers traveled all over Europe and sometimes further to study ancient works of art and to exchange ideas and methods with their foreign colleagues. Poor adventurers traveled on foot while rich ones in comfort. Two centuries ago, it became fashionable for wealthy families to send their grown children to foreign countries where they would complete their education. A young man was expected to acquire good manners and a taste for literature in France, an appreciation of music in Germany, and some feeling of history in Roman Forum. Thus all kinds of travelers learned and dreamed through the centuries. But their number was always limited, for they were only a privileged minority—the rich, the free, the talented and the adventurous—who could enjoy a pleasure unknown by the great masses. This is not true any more. Railroads, ships, buses, and airplanes have made travel easier, faster and cheaper, and the number of people who can spare the time and the money to take trips has grown enormously. It is not reserved to a lucky few, nowadays, to admire Inca temples, giant Buddhas, French castles and Australian kangaroos. Millions of people do each year. But instead of being called travelers, they are known as tourists and they are seen all over the world—floating down the Amazon, taking a pleasure trip by boat to Alaska, flying from Timbuktu to Easter Island, and taking picture of Norwegian churches and Pakistani costumes. PASSAGE THREE It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn't know enough to really care. My older brother and I lived with Morn in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses' hoofs from 'Wagon Train' or 'Cheyenne', and laughter from 'I Love Lucy' or 'Mister Ed'. After supper, we'd sprawl on Mom's bed and stare for hours at the tube. But one day Morn changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But she was much brighter and smarter than we boys knew at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned—books. So she came home one day, snapped off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. 'You boys are going to read two books every week,' she said. 'And you're going to write me a report on what you read.' We moaned and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn't have any books in the house other than Mom's Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: 'I'd drive you to the library.' So pretty soon, there were these two peevish boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly among the children's books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them. The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this verbal visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home. It didn't dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip of a page. Soon I began to look forward to visiting this hushed sanctuary from my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn't wait to get home to my books. Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can't believe my life's journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery. But I know when the journey began: the day Morn snapped off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library. PASSAGE FOUR My heart sank when the man at the immigration counter gestured to the back room. I'm an American born and raised, and this was Miami, where I live, but they weren't quite ready to let me in yet. 'Please wait in here, Ms Abujaber,' the immigration officer said. My husband, with his very American last name, accompanied me. He was getting used to this. The same thing had happened recently in Canada when I'd flown to Montreal to speak at a book event. That time they held me for 45 minutes. Today we were returning from a literary festival in Jamaica, and I was startled that I was being sent 'in back' once again. The officer behind the counter called me up and said, 'Miss, your name looks like the name of someone who's on our wanted list. We're going to have to check you out with Washington.' 'How long will it take?' 'Hard to say.., a few minutes,' he said. 'We'll call you when we're ready for you.' After an hour, Washington still hadn't decided anything about me. 'Isn't this computerized?' I asked at the counter. 'Can't you just look me up?' Just a few more minutes, they assured me. After an hour and a half, I pulled my cell phone out to call the friends I was supposed to meet that evening. An officer rushed over. 'No phones!' he said. 'For all we know you could be calling a terrorist cell and giving them information.' 'I'm just a university professor,' I said. My voice came out in a squeak. 'Of course you are. And we take people like you out of here in leg irons every day.' I put my phone away. My husband and I were getting hungry and tired. Whole families had been brought into the waiting room, and the place was packed with excitable children, exhausted parents, even a flight attendant. I wanted to scream, to jump on a chair and shout: 'I'm an American citizen; a novelist; I probably teach English literature to your children.' Or would that all be counted against me? After two hours in detention, I was approached by one of the officers. 'You're free to go,' he said. No explanation or apologies. For a moment, neither of us moved, we were still in shock. Then we leaped to our feet. 'Oh, one more thing.' He handed me a tattered photocopy with an address on it. 'If you weren't happy with your treatment, you can write to this agency.' 'Will they respond?' I asked. 'I don't know—I don't know of anyone who's ever written to them before.' Then he added, 'By the way, this will probably keep happening each time you travel internationally.' 'What can I do to keep it from happening again?' He smiled the empty smile we'd seen all day. 'Absolutely nothing.' After telling several friends about our ordeal, probably the most frequent advice I've heard in response is to change my name. Twenty years ago, my own graduate school writing professor advised me to write under a pen name so that publishers wouldn't stick me in what he called 'the ethnic ghetto'—a separate, secondary shelf in the bookstore. But a name is an integral part of anyone's personal and professional identity—just like the town you're born in and the place where you're raised. Like my father, I'll keep the name, but my airport experience has given me a whole new perspective on what diversity and tolerance are supposed to mean. I had no idea that being an American would ever be this hard.

单选题They all study hard but she studies the hardest ______.

单选题 The United States has a major problem on its hands. True, Britain is facing a similar problem, but for the time being it is in America that it is graver. The only way to solve it is through education. Negroes (黑人) should know about the contributions that black individuals and groups have made towards building America. This is of vital importance for their self-respect; and it is perhaps even more important for white people to know. For if you believe that a man has no history worth mentioning, it is easy to assume that he has no value as a man. Many people believe that, since the Negro's achievements do not appear in the history books, he did not have any. Most people are taken aback when they learn that Negroes sailed with Columbus, marched with the Spanish conquerors of South America and fought side by side with white Americans in all their wars. People are astonished when you tell them about Phillis Wheatley, who learned English as a salve in Boston and wrote first-class poetry. They have never heard of Benjamin Banneker, a mathematician and a surveyor, who helped to plan the city of Washington. There has been a tendency all along to treat the black man as if he were invisible. Little has been written about the 5,000 American Negroes who fought in the Revolution against the British, but they were in every important battle. In the Anglo-American War of 1812, at least one out of every six men in the U.S. Navy was a Negro. In the Civil War, more than 200,000 black troops fought in the Union forces. How, then, did the image of the Negro as a valiant fighting man disappear? To justify the hideous institution of slavery, slave-holders had to create the myth of the docile, slow-witted Negro, incapable of self-improvement, and even contented with his lot. Nothing could be further from the truth. The slave fought for his freedom at every chance he got, and there were numerous uprisings. Yet the myth of docility persisted. There are several other areas where the truth has been twisted or concealed. Most people have heard of the Negro, Carver, who invented scores of new uses for the lowly peanut. But whoever heard of Norbert Rillieux, who in 1846 invented a vacuum pan that revolutionized the sugar-refining industry? Or of Elijah McCoy, who in 1872 invented the drip cup that feeds oil to the moving parts of heavy machinery? How many people know that Negroes are credited with inventing such different items as ice creams, potato chips, the gas mask and the first traffic light? Not many. As for the winning of the West, the black cowboy and the black frontiersman have been almost ignored, though film producers are becoming more aware of their importance. Yet in the typical trail crew of eight men that drove cattle from Texas to Kansas, at least two would have been Negroes. The black troops of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry formed one-fifth of all the mounted troops assigned to protect the frontier after the Civil War. 'What difference does it make?' you may ask. A lot. The cowboy is the American folk-hero. Youngsters identify with him instantly. The average cowboy film is really a kind of morality play, with good guys and bad guys and right finally triumphing over wrong. You should see the amazement and happiness on black youngsters' faces when they learn that their ancestors really had a part in all that.

单选题 The idea of public works projects as a device to prevent or control depression was designed as means of creating job opportunities for unemployed workers and as a 'pump priming' device to aid business to revive. It was conceived during the early year as of the New Deal Era (1933-1937). By 1933, the number of unemployed workers had reached about 13 million. This meant that about 50 million people—about one third of the nation—were without means of support. At first, direct relief in the form of cash or food was provided for these people. This made them recipients (接受者) of government charity. In order to remove this stigma (耻辱) and restore to the unemployed some measure of respectability and human dignity, a plan was devised to create governmentally sponsored work projects that private industry would not or could not provide. This would also stimulate production and revive business activity. The best way to explain how this procedure is expected to work is to explain how it actually worked when it was first tried. The first experiment with it was the creation of the Works Project Administration (WPA). This agency set up work projects in various fields in which there were many unemployed. For example, unemployed actors were organized into theater projects; orchestras were organized for unemployed musicians, teaching projects for unemployed teachers, and even writers' projects for unemployed writers. Unemployed laborers were put to building work or maintaining roads, parks, playgrounds, or public buildings. These were all temporary 'work relief' projects rather than permanent work opportunities. More substantial work projects of a permanent nature were organized by another agency, the Public Works Administration (PWA). This agency undertook the planning of construction of schools, houses, post offices, dams, and other public structures. It entered into contracts with private construction firms to erect them, or it loaned money to local or state governments which undertook their construction. This created many jobs in the factories producing the material as well as in the projects themselves, and greatly reduced the number of the unemployed. Still another agency which provided work projects for the unemployed was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). This agency provided job opportunities for youths aged 16 to 20 to work in national parks or forests clearing land, guarding against fires, building roads, or doing other conservation work. In the event of a future depression, the federal government might revive any or all of the above methods to relieve unemployment and stimulate business.

单选题The meeting was ______ over by the mayor to discuss the toll of crossing the bridges in Wuhan.

单选题Having applied for a ( ) in the office of the local newspaper, he was told to see the manager.

单选题Julie spent one month _________ her term paper on Chinese poems.

单选题I can't ______ the address. He has written it so badly.