CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They • put • something • that • can • separate • words • in • a • sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.
When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗号).
Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark (感叹号) comes from the Latin word io. It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.
Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the “interrobang”. This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.
1.From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.
A. good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks
B. a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece
C. ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks
D. the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times
2. The passage is developed _______.
A. by time B. by space
C. by comparison D. by importance
3. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks
B. exclamation and question marks came from Latin
C. spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century
D. Aldus Manutius first started to use commas
4. What can be concluded from the last paragraph?
A. The combination of two marks will not work.
B. It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.
C. Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.
D. Punctuation marks are still changing today.
To most people, noise pollution is a jet flying over their head. For one Spanish woman, it is a neighbor playing the piano. The woman has taken her neighbor to court. Now she wants to send her neighbor to prison for over seven years on the charges of psychological damage and noise pollution.
In a country known for its noisiness, the case has raised eyebrows. Neighbors often complain about street noise in Spain, but people seeking prison time for someone practicing the piano is unheard of. At the trial, Sonia Bosom says she has been suffering noise pollution up to now due to the practice sessions of Laia Martin, who lives below her. Martin, 27, didn’t admit that she played at home that often, saying she took regular classes in other towns and mostly practiced at home on the weekends.
On the first day of the trial, the newspaper reported that Bosom told the court she now hated pianos so much that she couldn’t even stand seeing them in a film.
Bosom says years of hearing constant playing has caused her “psychological injury”. Medical reports show she has suffered from a variety of problems, including insomnia (失眠), anxiety, and panic attacks.
She says tests by local authorities have found that the sound levels made by the piano are up to 10 decibels (分贝) higher than the limit. City authorities have asked the family several times to either stop the piano playing or soundproof (隔音) the room. The family told the court they carried out soundproofing work twice but the complaints continued.
The court hasn’t made a final decision. A spokeswoman says the trial will end before May.
1.Bosom wants to send Martin to prison because _______.
A. Martin’s playing the piano damaged her health
B. Bosom suffered from heart attack
C. Martin refused to take regular classes in other towns
D. Martin flew a jet over her head
2.How did Laia Martin respond to the complaints?
A. She stopped playing the piano.
B. She soundproofed the room.
C. She didn’t admit she played at home.
D. She took her neighbor to court.
3.Which of the following may probably be the best title for the passage?
A. A 7-year Sentence Caused by the Piano
B. Pianist Charged with Noise Pollution
C. Health Problems of a Spanish Woman
D. Actions Against Noise by Local Authority
书面表达
下面是对中学生对志愿工作看法的调查图。请根据下列图表提示，写一篇英语短文，客观地介绍调查情况并发表你的观点。
可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。词数120左右（开头已经给出，不计入词数）。
Opinions vary among students about voluntary work according to the survey.
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阅读下面短文，根据所读内容在表格中的空格处填入恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
Woodkopf is a crazy new sport invented in the Czech Republic(捷克共和国) and it has been gaining quite a lot of national media attention. This popular sport involves a pair of opponents wearing two-meter wooden boards on their heads and trying to knock the other’s board down without dropping their own. Strange as it sounds, a rousing match of Woodkopf can be quite exciting to watch.
This crazy sport can be traced back to July, 1992, when it was practiced during a cultural festival of art school graduates in Prague. Woodkopf, which literally translates as “wooden head”, is popular partly due to the fact that the game is simple, inexpensive and requires no complex equipment, but also because it never fails to supply a good dose of humor.
It is played by both men or women of all ages, and the rules are pretty simple. Both opponents must wear long and thin wooden boards of 200×16×2cm, weighing between 3 and 4kg. Once the boards are in position, the opponents try to knock each other’s boards off, using only plank-to-plank(木板) touches. No body-to-body or plank-to-body touches are allowed. The player who manages to knock down the opponent’s board twice in a row is declared the winner.
According to members of the Woodkopf Union, the best players are generally the taller ones. A bald head is also of great advantage, as pointed out by union chief Ivan Rezac.
Veteran Woodkopf players are now struggling for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games. They strongly believe that it has a great future. Vladimir Cech, who has been playing for the past seven years, said,We want it to become our national sport, and a part of Czech culture along with beer, pork, dumplings and cabbage..
Title | An Interesting Sport ----Woodkopf |
Origin | 1. from July,1992, Woodkopf was first played by art school graduates in Prague. |
Reasons for its 2. | 1. It’s simple, inexpensive and 3. to watch. 2. It always supplies a sense of humor. |
4. | 1.Wearing two-meter wooden boards on their heads, two 5.try to knock each other’s board off without 6.their own. 2.Only plank-to-plank touches are allowed, and body-to-body or plank-to-body touches are 7. . |
Winners | 1. 8.succeeds knocking down the other’s board twice in a row is the winner. 2. The taller players and people with bald heads are very 9. to win. |
The future of the sport | Experienced Woodkopf players are struggling to make it an 10. in the Olympic Games and a national sport of the Czech Republic. |
On a clear night, the sky is a wonderful thing. Is there life out there somewhere? Is there another place like Earth where life might exist? If so, where is it? And how far away is it?
Recently, the Kepler spacecraft found “22b”, a planet about six hundred light years away. It is the first planet in a “habitable zone” outside the solar system. That means the planet orbits(环绕) a star like our sun, but it is not too close to it, nor too far away. Because of this position, Kepler-22b might have water, one of the main things needed for life. The newly-discovered planet is about two and a half times larger than the Earth. It is closer to its star than we are to the Sun, but 22b’s sun is smaller than ours, and doesnt produce as much heat. Scientific instruments show the new planet could be made of gases, rocks or some kinds of liquids.
The Kepler spacecraft was named in honor of Johannes Kepler, the seventeenth century German astronomer. It was designed to examine a small part of the Milky Way galaxy(星系)and search for places like the Earth. It was made to inspect over 150,000 stars and measure how bright they are. It looks to see if a star’s brightness gets less over a short time.
If a planet passes between Kepler and the star, it blocks out part of the light. That is what suggested to scientists that there is at least one planet orbiting the star. The instruments on Kepler show the new planet as a small, black dot moving across its sun. An important part of the Kepler experiment is on the Earth. After the spacecraft gathers information, scientists use the telescopes on the ground.
Scientists have found over 2,300 new planets since Kepler was launched. Most are much larger, but it is the new planet’s distance from its star that is important. For life to possibly exist there, the planet’s temperature must not be too hot or too cold.
1.What can we learn about Kepler-22b?
A. Water must have existed on it.
B. It takes humans about 600 years to get there.
C. It is made of gases, rocks and plenty of liquids.
D. It is the first planet in outer space where life may survive
2.The Kepler spacecraft was sent into space to
A. show honor to Johannes Kepler
B. observe the changes of a star’s brightness
C. look for Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy
D. measure the brightest star among 150.000 stars
3.In Paragraph 4 the author mainly tells us
A. how the Kepler system works
B. if the Kepler system sees a new planet
C. how the Kepler system shows a new planet
D. why an important part of the Kepler system remains on the Earth
4.What can we infer from the passage?
A. Life may exist on the new planet in another form.
B. It is colder on the new planet because its sun is smaller.
C. Life can’t exist on planets which are much larger than the Earth.
D. The new planet’s distance from its star decides on the possibility of life existence.
Every year seals would crowd ashore in Farne Island and give birth to their pups. Between early October and early December, 1,500 seal pups will be born. Almost half of them will not make it past the first three weeks of life.
“The pups have to stay out of the water for the first three weeks, when they have their white coat, which is not very waterproof,” explains the warden (监察员)，who spends nine months on the Island.
“But when you’re born in November on a rock in the North Sea, it’s a tough start to life,” he said. Storms often wash young pups into the water. And occasionally, young, inexperienced mothers abandon their pups and head out to sea.
“We lost 41% last year,” said David Steel, the National Trust’s head warden on the Farne Islands. “Mother Nature certainly keeps them in check.”
Despite the early challenges for every newborn seal, the population is healthily and slowly and steadily growing. There are almost 4,000 seals on a set of islands, which is named a Special Area of Conservation(SAC), meaning it is protected under EU regulations. This successful human safeguarding of the seals’ habitat is huge turnaround(转机).
Just a few decades ago, the seal population was deliberately decimated. The animals used to be thought of as a threat to local fish stocks. During the late 1960s and 1970s, thousands of seals were shot in a cull(剔除)that aimed to protect the local fishing industry. According to the National Trust, between 1962 and 1983 approximately 2,000 adult females and 3,000 pups were shot.
But, as the fishing industry collapsed, it was gradually replaced by tourism. Today, several companies use fishing boats to take groups of people to visit the islands and admire the scenery, seabirds and, of course, the seals that make their homes in this bleakly beautiful place.
1.In the first three weeks after they were born, almost half of the seal pups _______.
A. would be abandoned by their mothers
B. would be protected by the wardens
C. couldn’t live independently
D. would die mostly in the sea water.
2.According to David Steel, death of so many pups________.
A. is a normal and natural phenomenon
B. is mainly caused by farmers’ killing
C. can be prevented efficiently by man
D. will be controlled by Mother Nature
3.The underlined word “decimate” in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ____.
A. increase B. kill C. reduce D. control
4.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. The Beautiful Farne Island
B. A Tough Beginning
C. How to Protect Grey Seals
D. Tourism or Fishing Industry
