A new word has suddenly become wildly popular in China—“tuhao”—which loosely means “nouveau riche”. There have been more than 100 million references to the word “tuhao” on social media since early September.
It’s being used to describe everything from the new people’s daily building, to expensive celebrity weddings full of millionaires, and the new gold-colored iPhone.
In Chinese “tu” means earth and “hao” means rich. To say someone is tuhao is to imply they come from a poor peasant background, and have made it rich quickly—but don’t quite have the manners to go along with it. “It’s like the term ‘nouveau riche’”, says Professor Steve Tsang at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in Nottingham, “but has even more negative meanings, suggesting a certain vulgarity(粗俗).”
“Tuhao” is actually an old word, dating back perhaps as far as the Southern Dynasty—1,500 years ago, but it has always meant something rather different. During the communist revolution, from the 1920s to early 1950s, it was widely used to refer to landholders and gentry(乡绅)who would often do bad things to those beneath them.
This new usage of the term took off in September after a widely-shared joke about a rich, but unhappy man, who goes to a Buddhist monk for advice, expecting to be told to live a more simple life. The monk replies instead with a sentence, “Tuhao, let’s be friends!”
Chinese Internet users are highly creative in their use of language, and are constantly inventing, and re-inventing words as a way of getting past censorship(审查) rules. But in this case, its popularity seems to be down to the fact that it expresses China’s changing society so well—many people sneer at those with wealth, but are secretly jealous.
1.What is the best title of the passage?
A. Tuhao, a newly popular word in China
B. The long history of Tuhao
C. The new usage of Tuhao
D. Tuhao, a newly-invented Chinese word
2.Which of the following may NOT be considered “tuhao”?
A. A vulgar nouveau riche.
B. A landholder.
C. A quick-rich peasant without proper manners.
D. A Buddhist monk.
3.The last but one paragraph mainly tells us ________.
A. what the new usage of the word is
B. how the word becomes popular again
C. why the unhappy man went to the Buddhist monk
D. what advice the monk gave the unhappy man
4.What does the underlined word in the last paragraph mean?
A. Respect. B. Envy. C. Laugh. D. Disbelieve.
Mr. Baker lived in an old and low house. His wife was blind in both eyes and the two children were very young. All his family often went hungry. He had nothing but a small piece of field. One autumn he grew some wheat in his field. He hoped it would do well because all family would depend on it. The whole winter it often snowed. And the next spring the wheat was doing well. Mr. Baker was happy. One day Mr. Baker went to watch his wheat. To his surprise, a lot of crops were eaten up by a horse. He became angry but could not find out whose horse had eaten them. He thought the horse would go there again. So he decided to stay in his field and tried to catch the horse.
A few days later a yellow horse came in his field again and began to eat the wheat. Mr. Baker ran after it quickly, with a stick in his hand. But the beast ran much faster than he. He tried his best, but could not catch up with it.
The next morning, when Mr. Baker was working in his field, he saw the yellow horse pulling carriage on the road. He picked up a stick at once, ran closer to the horse and began to beat it up.
The driver was surprised and stopped him. He asked, “Why are you beating my horse?”
“It has nothing to do with you,” Mr. Baker said angrily. “The beast knows why I’m beating him!”
1.What was Mr. Baker?
A. A driver B. A farmer
C. A keeper D. A doctor
2.Why was Mr. Baker happy at first?
A. Because he found out the beast that ate up his wheat.
B. Because he would soon get a good harvest.
C. Because wheat was doing well.
D. Because his family would not grow any more wheat.
3.Mr. Baker tried his best to catch the horse to ____________.
A. sell it for some money
B. beat it up
C. make it work for him
D. find out the owner of the horse
4.Which of the following is true?
A. The horse knew that it had done wrong.
B. The horse had nothing to do with the driver.
C. The horse belonged to the driver.
D. The horse knew whose wheat it had eaten up.
Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared(盯着）at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects（受试者）were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almost all of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.”
1.The aim of the two experiments is to ________.
A．explain when people can have a sixth sense
B．study how people act while being watched in the lab
C．study whether humans can sense when they are stared at
D．prove why humans have a sixth sense
2.The underlined word “outcome” in the last paragraph most probably means ________.
A．value B．result
C．performance D．connection
3.In the second experiment, the subjects _________.
A．could tell when they were stared at
B．could tell where they weren’t stared at
C．couldn’t tell who they were stared at or who they stared at
D．couldn’t tell when they were stared at or when they weren’t
4.What can be learned from the passage?
A．People are born with a sixth sense.
B．The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea.
C．The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments.
D．People have a sixth sense in all places.
书面表达
假如你是李华。你看到美国留学生Sharon 在网上发贴，希望有人能帮助她提高普通话（Mandarin）水平，她可以教英语作为回报。请根据以下提示用英语给她写一封电子邮件。
1.表达给她提供帮助的意愿； 2.说明你能胜任辅导的理由；
3.给出讲好普通话的两点建议； 4.提出你学习英语的具体需求。
注意：
1. 词数100字左右，开头语已为你写好；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 文中不得透漏个人姓名和学校名称；
Hi Sharon,
This is Li Xia. I learned from your post that you want to improve your Mandarm
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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。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(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，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。
I was often laughed at my classmates before I turned 14 because I was always very nervous when talking to someone. Helpful and sad, I felt that I could hardly do nothing. You cannot imagine what great difficulty I have in my life. And later, something happened, what changed my life completely. It was an English speech contest and my mother encouraged me to take part in it. I tried my best to remember the whole speech “Believe in yourself” and practised them over 100 times. Believe it or not, I finally won the first prize. Heard the cheers from the teachers and students, I stood there, with my eyes full with excited tear.
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。
1.__(base) on recent researches， distance learning is slowly proving as _2. (value)as the traditional campus-based form．It is a fixed truth that this form of learning is 3. the increase．Moreover, both students and teachers have expressed their 4. (happy)with these courses．The best part of distance learning courses is their flexible format．Students can continue to work and study at the same time without any kind of difficulty．You will __5.__ (provide)with the facilities of a virtual(虚拟的)classroom and a virtual campus．Anyone 6. wants to upgrade their professional knowledge to a new level can apply for these courses．With an online study format，the tests and notes can be 7. (access)with just a mouse click from your home computer．However, a student8. (attend)an online course must take the time management 9. (serious)．Every online student must keep 10. in mind that proper management of time and study schedule is the key towards success in this format．
