America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flow more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending(延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.
Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.
Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time.
Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!
1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.
B. Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.
C. Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.
D. Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.
2.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
A. offered a ride to his home
B. treated hospitably at his home
C. treated to dinner in a restaurant
D. warmly welcomed at the airport
3.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
A. Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships.
B. Friendships between Americans.
C. Friendships between Chinese.
D. Americans’ hospitality .
There was once an old wise man living on the top of a mountain. Whenever the villagers had a problem, they would climb up the mountain and ask the old man for advice.
One day a young man arrived. “Wise man,” he asked, “What makes a man truly great?”
The old man said, “Do you sincerely want to know?”
“Yes, yes!” the young man replied.
“Well,” the wise old man said to him, “Let me tell you in the form of a story.”
There was once a Greek man who suffered from a deadly disease. Knowing that he would die soon, he was the first to join the army when his country was in a battle with the enemy. Hoping to die in battle, he would fight in the front line, risking himself without any worry for his life. Finally they won the battle and he was still alive. His general (将军) was so impressed with his bravery which contributed much to the victory.
The general decided to promote him and award him with medals of bravery and honor. On the day of presentation (授予仪式), he was looking very down and sad. Curiously, the general asked him why he was so sad on a day he should be so proud. The soldier told him of his deadly disease. “How could I let such a brave soldier die?” the general thought. So the general hired the best physician and finally cured the soldier. But from that day on, the once valiant soldier was no longer seen at the front. He would always avoid danger and tried his best to protect his life.
“Young man,” the wise man said, “if you want to be truly great, you must not be afraid of dying, you must be daring.”
1.The reason why the young man went to see the old man was that .
A. he enjoyed the scenery of the great mountain
B. the old man was very good at telling stories
C. there was a difficult problem troubling him
D. he was not sure who the greatest man was
2.The general decided to award the Greek man .
A. after he realized the man’s serious illness
B. because the man fought bravely in battle
C. though he knew the man would die soon
D. so that he could find the man a good doctor
3.The underlined word “valiant” is closest in meaning to .
A. brave B. polite C. curious D. proud
4.What the old man really wanted the young man to do was .
A. trying to be kind to the people in trouble
B. mastering the skills of telling
C. joining the army to fight for his country
D. learning a lesson from the Greek man
A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.
The unpunctual man, on one hand, never does what he has to do at the right time. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name. A lost thing may be found again, but lost time can never be regained. Time is more valuable than material things. In fact, time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable asset (财产) as well as others. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to answer letters, or return calls or keep appointments promptly. But the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful of his time. He knows that he can not get through his huge amount of work unless he faithfully keeps every piece of work when it has to be attended to.
Failure to be punctual in keeping one’s appointments is the sign of disrespect towards others. If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time, he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.
Unpunctuality, moreover, is very harmful when it comes to one’s duty, whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time. A man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men.
1.What does the author think is the main difference between a punctual person and an unpunctual person?
A. A punctual person does everything ahead of time.
B. An unpunctual person never does anything at the right time.
C. A punctual person has a lot of appointments.
D. An unpunctual person has little time to do anything.
2.According to the passage, the main reason that a person is always unpunctual is that _______.
A. he has more work to do than other people
B. he is always in a hurry when he works
C. he doesn’t care much about time
D. he always mismanages and wastes his time
3.If someone isn’t punctual in keeping his appointments, he might ________.
A. lose his life
B. mismanage his asset
C. be thought to disrespect others
D. do harm to others
4.According to the third paragraph, when you are invited to dinner, you should arrive there ________.
A. after other guests
B. before other guests
C. at the appointed time
D. after the host getting things ready
5.Which of the following statements best describes the harm of unpunctuality?
A. If you are an unpunctual person, you cannot be in charge of any important task.
B. If your friends know that you are unpunctual, they may not see you again.
C. Unpunctuality may bring about heavy losses for both public and private affairs.
D. Unpunctuality may make you miss a lot of appointments and lose friends.
Anyone who wants to buy a gun in California will have to wait for 2 weeks. Four people waited for 15 days to buy guns. Then they robbed a store and shot 3 people .
Congress(国会) is now trying to pass a law that will make everyone wait to buy a gun. Many people do not want this law. Others are glad it might happen. California is one of the longest waiting times for someone to buy a gun. A gun dealer said that this waiting time does not seems to do much good．He has not seen crime(犯罪) go away because of it.
One good thing that has happened with the waiting time to buy a gun is a smaller number of suicide (自杀) . a lot of suicides are with a gun. In California, there are less suicides by gun than in other places. One reason to make people wait to buy a gun is to make sure the guns are not sold to criminals(罪犯). Last year, this check stopped 2,400 guns from being sold to criminals. This check does not stop anyone else from buying a gun.
Many criminals buy guns on the street and not in a store… some people think that a law like this will not do any good．But other people think that if only one person is stopped from getting a gun, then this law is worth it.
1.A long waiting time to buy in California has led to ___.
A．a good gun control B．less suicides by gun
C．less shop robbery D．a sharp fall of gun sales
2.If congress passed the law, ____.
A．no one could kill himself
B．there would be no gun deals
C．one would see more crimes go away
D．criminals couldn’t easily get guns in a store
3.From the passage we can infer that ___.
A．California is the only state to have a waiting time to buy guns
B．Congress will surely fail to pass the law to have a waiting time to buy guns
C．Different states can have some different laws in the United States
D．No laws can cover all the states in the United States of America
Elaine was a saleswoman，who drove all over the city five days a week. When all the freeway lanes were at a dead stop，she would drive quickly along the emergency lane. While driving she usually____on her cell phone，drinking a soda or eating a sandwich—her hands, legs and mouth were always___while she was driving.
Last night she got____in Friday evening rush hour. She was going to be ____for her date. She was already____when things seemed to be getting worse and all the traffic stopped. Elaine drove____over to the emergency lane. Soon she saw the red flashing lights in the mirror. She had to____her car. A goodlooking officer walked up.
“Officer，my boyfriend left me after he got me pregnant. I have constant morning sickness. I’m just trying to get to the nearest store to buy my____.” She looked at the officer with____eyes.
He looked at her pitifully，then said____，“Okay，ma’am. Take the first exit. I hope you’ll be feeling better.”
The officer walked back to his car and Elaine drove on. This was the second time that____had worked for her. She had one more thing to do before she got home. She had to mail a package. When she got to the shopping mall at 7 pm, no parking was____，except for the handicapped (残疾的) space. Elaine drove right into it. She would only be a minute，she told____.All she had to do was ____the post office，get the package____，and pay the clerk.
Fortunately，there was no____in the store. Everything was done so ____that she was whistling while she walked back out to her car. Then she stopped____.There was an envelope on the windshield (挡风玻璃)．She opened it slowly. She knew____it was，but not how much it was. She screamed when she saw the____.A dog started barking.
1.A. depended B. carried C. talked D. sold
2.A. full B. open C. free D. busy
3.A. stuck B. hurt C. annoyed D. punished
4.A. late B. ready C. excited D. mad
5.A. satisfied B. angry C. exhausted D. calm
6.A. reluctantly B. immediately C. guiltily D. gratefully
7.A. stop B. start C. discard D. speed
8.A. gas B. ticket C. medicine D. package
9.A. innocent B. aggressive C. addicted D. proud
10.A. softly B. rudely C. skeptically D. strictly
11.A. officer B. excuse C. driver D. mistake
12.A. adoptable B. accessible C. acceptable D. available
13.A. the clerk B. the guard C. the worker D. herself
14.A. take out B. get out C. run into D. push into
15.A. weighed B. printed C. repaired D. paid
16.A. car B. line C. police D. service
17.A. quickly B. slowly C. strangely D. quietly
18.A. talking B. driving C. thinking D. whistling
19.A. how B. why C. what D. that
20.A. invitation B. order C. amount D. letter
书面表达
假如你是李华，你的表弟王鹏在读初三。他来信询问你的高中学习生活怎么样，并说他感到英语学习很困难，请你用英语写一封回信，对英语学习提出自己的建议。
