Buckingham Palace has a history that dates back over 500 years and has changed hands on numerous occasions, however, much of the building that remains standing today is from the original structure built in the early 1700's.
In the beginning Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House. However, in 1762 George III liked the house so much that he bought it for 28,000 and renamed it "The Queen's House". The reason for this was down to the fact that he bought the house to give to his wife Charlotte. Shortly after he did this, work soon began in order to remodel the house with the help of Sir William Chambers. This trend then continued with the accession of George IV in 1820 when he decided to reconstruct the house but he still used it for the same purpose that his father did.
One of the biggest physical changes to the house occurred several years later when the king had a change of mind. It was in 1826 that King George IV set about transforming the house into what it is known today, Buckingham Palace. He did this with the help of an architect known as John Nash.
The work that Nash carried out involved doubling the size of the main block through adding a new suite of rooms on the garden side facing the west. He then faced this with mellow Bath stone, which reflected the French neo-classical influence favored by George IV. Many of the rooms that Nash added still remain pretty much unchanged today.
The palace as it stands today acts as not only the London residence of Her Majesty the Queen but also the administrative headquarters of the Royal Household. It is in fact one of the few working royal palaces that remain in the world today. The state rooms are extensively used by the Queen as well as members of the royal family as a way of receiving and entertaining guests on state, ceremonial and official occasions.
1.George IV reconstructed Buckingham House probably to .
A. please his own wife
B. satisfy his son
C. sell at a good price
D. honor his old father
2.One of the biggest changes to Buckingham Palace took place in .
A. 1762 B. 1820 C. 1826 D. 1829
3.The last paragraph mainly tells us
A. how important Buckingham Palace is today
B. what Buckingham Palace is like today
C. some information of royal palaces in the world
D. how Buckingham Palace is used today
Imagine you are standing on the 70th floor of the Empire State Building, staring at the cityscape. Suddenly a man pushes past you, opens the window and announces his intention to jump. You yell out, “Stop! Don’t do it!” the six-foot-five figure turns to you and menacingly (恐吓地) says, “Try to stop me and I’ll take you with me!”
“Umm… No problem, sir. have a good trip. any last words?”
“Let me tell you my troubles,” he says, “my wife left me, my kids won’t talk to me, I lost my job and my pet turtle died, so why should I go on living?”
Suddenly you have a flash of inspiration. “Sir, close your eyes for a minute and imagine that you are blind. No colors, no sights of children playing, no fields of flowers, no sunset. Now imagine that suddenly there’s a miracle. You open your eyes and your vision is restored! Are you going to jump? Or will you stick around for a week to enjoy the sights?”
“I’ll stay for a week.”
“But what happened to all the troubles?”
“I guess they’re not so bad. I can see!”
“Well, your eyesight is worth at least five million dollars. You’re a rich man!”
If you really appreciate your eyesight, the other pains are insignificant. But if you take it all for granted, then nothing in life will ever truly give you joy. Actually, there are misconceptions on the road to happiness.
misconception1: “Once I know the tools for being happy, then it will work like magic.”
Don’t expect the results to come automatically. It is possible to understand how to achieve happiness, yet not put it into practice. In fact, many people actually prefer to be comfortable and unhappy, rather than bear the discomfort of changing their habits. Just as learning any new skill requires effort, you have to be willing to invest serious effort to achieve real happiness.
Misconception 2: “if I become content and satisfied with what I have, I’ll lose my motivation to achieve more.”
Now ask someone who is depressed, “Let’s go fishing!” “I’m tired. Maybe tomorrow. And anyway, I might rain…” in reality, happy people are energetic and ambitious. There’s never enough time to do everything they want to do.
Misconception 3:
A beautiful Sunday afternoon, you’re in the park having a picnic with friends. Suddenly one person complains: “who forgot the forks? It’s too hot for volleyball. I want to go home already.”
When our mood negatively affects others, we recognize we have duty to be happy and not spoil the fun. But what about when we’re at home with our family? Or when we go into the office on Monday morning? like an open pit in the middle of the road, a sourpuss(牢骚满腹的人) is a public danger. Being happy is part of being considerate to the people around us.
1.The story is placed at the beginning of the passage in order to .
A. tell a skill of persuasion
B. warn the danger of standing on a tall building
C. emphasize the importance of eyesight
D. introduce the theme of the passage
2.What can be inferred from the underlined sentences?
A. Everything has a price.
B. We should value what we have.
C. Every dog has its day.
D. Eyesight is more important.
3.What is right about happy？
A. Happy is a gift.
B. Happy is limited.
C. Happy is contagious (会传染的).
D. Happy is no more than a skill.
4.The best subtitle of Misconception 3 is .
A. If unhappy occurs at home, I needn’t pretend to be happy
B. If I can’t make others unhappy, I won’t be happy.
C. If someone is happy, then others around them are happy.
D. If I want to be depressed, that’s my own prerogative.
It’s hard to predict the weather in the near future. It’s even more difficult to know what the climate of the coming season is like. Now you know the winter of 2011/12 was not warm but a freezing one/ many people in the Northern Hemisphere died of cold. but a Native American tribe was fortunate enough to survive the terrible winter because of what was foretold by a weatherman.
One day in early September o 2011 the chief of the Native American tribe was asked by his tribal elders if the winter was going to be cold or mild. The chief asked his medicine man, but the man also had lost touch with the reading signs from the natural world around the Great Lakes.
In truth, neither of them had idea about how to predict the coming winter. However, the chief decided to take a modern approach, and rang the National Weather Service in Gaylord Michigan.
“Yes, it is going to be a cold winter,” the weatherman told the chief. Consequently, the chief went back to his tribe and told his tribe people to collect plenty of firewood.
A fortnight later the chief called the National Weather Service and asked for an update. “Are you still forecasting a cold winter?” he asked.
“Yes, very cold,” the weatherman told him.
As a result of this brief conversation the chief went back to the tribe people to collect every bit of wood they could find.
A month later the chief called the National Weather Service once more and asked about the coming winter. “Yes,” he was told, “it s going to be one of the coldest winters ever.”
The weatherman was right! And the Native American tribe went comfortably through the terrifying winter. The chief was thankful and curious. He rang the weatherman again and asked, “How can you be so sure about it tat it was freezing winter?”
The weatherman replied, “Because the Native American tribe of the Great Lakes are collecting wood like crazy.”
1.The underlined words in Paragraph2 must be a person who .
A. only has the ability to cure illness
B. can foretell what will happen in the future
C. governs he whole American tribes
D. is a weatherman for the Great Lakes
2.The chief decided to take a modern approach, so he turned to .
A. his medicine man
B. his tribe people
C. a telephone
D. a weatherman
3.The native tribe survived the terrible winter mainly because of .
A. lucky coincidence
B. good leadership
C. scientific prediction
D. modern technology
4.The chief rang the weatherman several times out of .
A. anger B. excitement
C. curiosity D. doubt
Allow me to introduce you to Terry, a window salesman from England. If I could take you back about 20 years, you’d know Terry as a complete green hand, who was wet behind the ears in just about everything he attempted. A person couldn’t sell false teeth to his own Granny, let alone he could compete with the other salespeople in the industry. You know, the kind who could sell snow to Eskimos.
Terry’s boss decided to send him out on a practical field trip on his first day. So off he went, but he was extremely nervous. With his hands and his knees shaking, he approached the front door and knocked at is. And old woman appeared. After dozens of cups of tea and pieces of biscuits, the woman signed a contract and purchased over $7,000 worth of windows.
The woman had already talked with 6 excellent salesmen that week, all of whom offered her cheaper ones! That’s right---Terry’s price was the most expensive and he was also the most inexperienced salesman there ever was.
So, what happened then? Here comes the secret. The woman said she liked the young lad more than the others. That’s all there was to it. She didn’t care about the extra expense. Even the other salesmen couldn’t persuade her to pay less than this young lad was asking for.
The truth is that the young lad left on the woman the first impression that shone brighter than any of the salesman’s talk. First impressions count, not the sales techniques, not the low prices. The actual “personality” the kid honestly gave was all that was required. If you market your own products and services, consider what impression you are giving to others. If you appeal to them, then you’ve already done half of the work. If this means redesigning your presentation, then so be it. If this means going out of your way to be polite, helpful and giving the best possible shopping experience to your customers, the so be it.
1.When Terry was offered the job of salesman, he .
A. was good at sales techniques
B. was too young to do it
C. was believed in by his boss
D. knew little about sales skills
2.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 suggests that .
A. Terry couldn’t trade with Eskimos
B. Terry loved his Granny more
C. Terry was too honest to do the job
D. Terry was afraid to compete
3.What made the young lad succeed in selling the window to the old woman?
A. Being honest and childish.
B. First impression of good personality.
C. High quality and expensive window.
D. Strange ways of sales.
4.The passage is most likely written to .
A. new salesmen
B. general readers
C. window makers
D. new graduates
书面表达
假如你是李华，从互联网上得知Banks夫妇的餐厅在登广告招聘兼职服务员。请写一封电子邮件应聘。主要内容包括：
1. 发邮件的目的； 2. 自我介绍； 3. 应聘理由（至少两条理由）；
4. 表达自己的希望。
注意：1. 词数120词左右；2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 邮件开头结尾已为你写好，但不计入总词数。
Dear Mr.﹠Mrs.Banks,
I’m Li Hua, who has just graduated from high school this summer. _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Regards,
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。
Being responsible is actually not that difficult. I used to think it is hard to grow up into a responsible member of the society. An incident happening in a rainy Sunday afternoon changed my attitude. I was on my way to the bookstore and was waiting for the green light while a girl was knocked down by passing car, which drove off quickly. A man immediately gave her first aid and I had joined in without hesitation. Soon many help was given to the girl. Because we sent her to the nearest hospitals in time, she was able to receive properly treatment. Not badly injured, I expressed gratitude to those giving help. Compared with the escaping driver, I was proud of what I did.
