As early as the mid-18th century, some people began raising doubts about Marco Polo’s travels. They pointed to seemingly obvious omissions in his descriptions of the Far East. In 1995,historian Frances Wood argued in her book “Did Marco Polo Go to China?” that the famous explorer from Venice never made it pass the Black Sea. She noted that his travel journal “ The travels of Marco Polo” left out the Great Wall of China, chopsticks and tea drinking among other details. Furthermore, Chinese documents from Polo’s day make no mention of the explorer and his men.
Wood and other scholars have argued that Marco Polo based his tales of China on information collected from fellow trades who had actually been there. Last year, a team of Italian researchers became the latest skeptics to challenge Polo’s accounts. They said that archaeological evidence didn’t support his description of Kublai Khan’s Japanese invasions.
Now, however, research by Hans Ulrich Vogel of Germany’s Tubingen University might help prove Marco Polo was true. In a new book “ Marco Polo Was in China”, the professor of Chinese history counters the arguments most frequently made by skeptics. He tries to prove that Marco Polo spoke the truth. He suggests, for example, that Polo didn’t included the Great Wall in his book because it only achieved its great importance under the Ming Dynasty, several hundred years later. Vogel further explains that Chinese records from the 13th and 14th centuries routinely avoided setting down visits from Westerners.
Historians before him have touched on these issues while defending Marco Polo’s honor. But Vogel also relies on another evidence: the explorer’s very detailed descriptions of currency and salt production in the Yuan Dynasty. According to Vogel, Polo documented these aspects of Mongol Chinese culture in greater detail than any other of his time. This is a hint that the Venetian relied on his own powers of observation.
Will we ever know whether Marco Polo traveled to China? Perhaps not, but the consequences of his real of fictional journey are still felt across the globe. One reader of “The travels of Marco Polo” was Christopher Columbus, who stepped upon the New World while following in his Venetian idol’s footsteps.
1.France Wood doubted Marco Polo’s travel’s to China because his description__________.
A. missed some important culture of China.
B. covered so much about trader’s life.
C. was full of obvious mistakes.
D. seemed less detailed.
2.Vogel’s trust on Marco Polo is based on _______.
a. the Great Wall didn’t gain its importance then
b. records in Yuan Dynasty mentioned Polo
c. Polo’s mention of the currency and salt.
d. Polo’s other works are believable
e. Polo recorded what he saw in great detail
A. a, b, d B. a, c, d C. a, e D. b, c
3.Which of the following shows the structure of the text?
Having a tattoo(纹身) can reduce your chance of getting a job, but it depends on where the tattoo is, what it expresses and if the job involves dealing with customers, new research says.
Dr Andrew R Timming told the British Sociological Association conference on work, employment and society in Warwick today that employers were likely to view tattoos negatively. Dr Timming of the school of Management at the University of St Andrews said he had spoken to 15 managers involved in hiring staff about their reaction to interview candidates with visible tattoos.
"Most respondents agreed that visible tattoos are a stigma," Dr Timming told the conference. One woman manager told him that "they make a person look dirty." Another male manager told him "subconsciously that would stop me from employing them." The managers were concerned about what their organisations' customers might think, said Dr Timming. "Hiring managers realise that, ultimately, it does not matter what they think of tattoos -- what really matters, instead, is how customers might think of employees with visible tattoos.
Dr Timming said: "The one qualification to this argument is there are certain industries in which tattoos may be a desirable characteristic in a job interview. For example, an HR manager at a prison noted that tattoos on guards can be 'something to talk about' and 'an in' that you need to make a connection with the prisoners."
The negative attitude to tattoos did not extend to ones that could be easily covered by clothing. Dr Timming also found that in some of the organisations it was only certain types of tattoos that diminished the chances of getting a job at interview. One male manager told him: "If it's gang culture-related you may have a different view about the tattoo than if it's just because it's a nice drawing of an animal that they've done on their arm."
1.Why do managers really refuse to hire a person with tattoos?
A. They don’t like tattoos themselves.
B. Tattoos can turn customers away.
C. People with tattoos don’t obey the rules.
D. People with tattoos are gang members.
2.A person with tattoos can probably work as ________.
A. a doorkeeper B. a salesman
C. a prison guard D. a manager
3.Who would be most likely to be turned down by employers?
A. A person who has his tattoos covered.
B. A person who has tattoos of an animal.
C. A person with a gang culture-related tattoo.
D. A person with a drawing of flowers on his arms.
4.We can infer from the last paragraph that _______.
A. not all tattoos reduce one’s chance if employment.
B. some tattoos are helpful to a job interviewee.
C. it’s no use covering one’s tattoos.
D. tattoos are hard to hide.
You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated ( 隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
1. In Paragraph 1，the author wants to say the black box_________.
A. is an necessary device on an airplane
B. comes from a comic book
C. can prevent disasters
D. can control the function of an airplane
2.Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
A. New materials became available by that time.
B.The early models often got damaged in the crash.
C.Too much space was needed for its device.
D. The early models didn't provide the needed data.
3. The black boxes were painted orange or yellow to_________.
A. distinguish them from the colour of the plane.
B. warn people to handle them with care
C. make them easily identified.
D. obey the international standards.
4.What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
A. There is still a good chance of their being recovered.
B. There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.
C. They have stopped sending homing signals.
D. They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.
书面表达
假如你是李华，将于今年7月从西安外国语大学毕业，你从报纸上得知B&B公司要招聘一名英文秘书，你很感兴趣。请给该公司写一封求职信，包括以下要点：
1. 年龄；
2. 学习情况及英语水平；
3. 兴趣和特长；
4. 性格特点。
注意：1. 词数100；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语和结束语以为你写好。
4. 西安外国语大学: Xi’an International Studies University
Dear Sir/ Madam，
I’ve learned from the newspaper that your company needs an English secretary. _____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
I’m looking forward to your reply.
Sincerely yours,
Li Hua
短文改错
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加:在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除:把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改:在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2.只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Yesterday, I saw the old lady fall down when I was hurrying to school. I was about to help her up while suddenly a passer-by stop me, saying that I might be accused of knocking her down. Heard his words, I began to hesitate and slow down my steps. At the same time, another student, that saw everything, went up to help. The old lady said nothing but lots of thank to the good boy. I felt ashamed.
As is known to all, help others is forever a good virtue. Even though some old people are becoming immorally, we can’t let it to disappear. I have made my mind that I will reach out my hand without hesitation next time.
语法填空
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Venice, 1._______ small waterside city in northeast Italy, boils with happiness and excitement once every year. Between February 21th and March 4th, the carnival hits the streets. For most people the carnival means large 2._____ (party) and feasts. But in Venice, it also means traditional masks and costumes.
These costumes were 3.________ (original) meant to hide personal identities. Then, different social classes could mix in a sea of happiness.
Today, people in Venice still dress up in the strangest ways 4._______ soldiers, butchers and fishermen, for example.
Bars and cafes are filled with party-goers5.________ come to show off their strange costumes. Their designs and creations 6._______ (make) by special studios. Ready-made costumes are not acceptable.
“ In the month before the carnival we work overtime 7.______(meet) the demand,” said a mask maker. “ Many kilometers of silk and lace are made into costumes. For shopkeepers, the carnival is the 8.______ (good) time of the year.
The Venice carnival 9.______ (date) back to the Middle Ages. At that time, the city was 10.______ of the wealthiest in Europe. Now the Venice carnival attracts huge crowds from all over the world.
The city certainly benefits---a whole industry has been build up around the carnival’s masks and costumes.
“ The Venice Carnival is a magical time! It’s such a great experience.”
