In our daily life, it is necessary to make small talk in certain situations. It helps to fill time between people when it is completely quiet. You may not feel like talking with someone else or you are very shy at the beginning, but it is sometimes thought to be rude to say nothing.
People use small talk almost every day. It usually takes place when you meet someone you don’t know at all or someone you’re not familiar with. For example, waitresses and hairdressers often make small talk with their customers. If you happen to be outside when the mailman comes to your door, you might make small talk with him, too.
Most often, small talk happens in places where people are waiting for something. For example, you might talk with another person who is waiting for the bus to arrive. People also make small talk in a doctor’s waiting room, or when they are waiting in a line to buy something. At the office, people make small talk in elevators or lunchrooms, especially if there is a line-up. Mingling（交际） is often required among people who don’t know each other very well at a party. In other words, they are expected to walk around and talk with others.
The most common time for small talk to happen is the first time you see or meet someone on a given day. For example, if you see a co-worker in the lounge (休息室) you might say hello and discuss the sports or weather. However, the next time you see each other you might just smile and say nothing. If there is very little noise, it might be the right time to start a pleasant conversation. If someone is reading a book at the bus stop, it is probably not a good idea to start a conversation. Another good time to make small talk is during a break in a meeting when there is nothing important going on. However, it is important to recognize the signal when the other person wants the conversation to stop.
1.Small talk happens most probably except when _____.
A. you’re having your hair cut
B. you’re having a meeting
C. you’re waiting for a bus
D. you’re waiting in a line to buy something
2.It is the right time to make small talk when
A. there is nothing important going on during a break in a meeting
B. the other person doesn’t want to start a conversation
C. On the same day, you see a co-worker in the lounge again
D. someone is reading a book at the bus stop
3.The author develops the last paragraph mainly by _____.
A. giving explanations B. discussing questions
C. telling stories D. providing examples
4.We can learn from the text that small talk _____.
A. won’t happen among strangers
B. can help to break the silence
C. is often thought to be unnecessary
D. always makes people uncomfortable
假如你是红星中学高三1 班的李华。请按以下四幅图的顺序，给你校“英语园地”投稿，介绍上学期你们班参加学校组织的“2015，中国”的主题板报的比赛过程。
注意：1.词数不少于60；
2.开头已给出，不计入总词数。
3.提示词：阅兵式military parade
Last term, our school held a blackboard newspaper contest on “Unforgettable 2015 in China”. __________________________________________________________________________
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书面表达
美国友好校学生来你校参加为期一周的艺术交流活动，你负责接待并致辞。发言内容包括：
1.表示欢迎；
2.简要介绍学校的某艺术社团的基本情况（例如：合唱团、戏剧社、舞蹈队、书画社等）；
3.表示美好祝愿。
注意：
1.词数不少于50；
2.开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear friends,
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根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
What Is Emotional Eating?
Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger．__1.__ Have you ever finished a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while preparing for a big test? But when done a lot — especially without realizing it — emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.
Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.
_2.__ One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it’s caused by negative feelings．Yes, people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored．But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine’s Day or the celebration of a holiday feast．Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce．__3.__
Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done．__4._ It’s not easy to “unlearn” patterns of emotional eating．But it is possible．And it starts with an awareness of what’s going on.
We’re all emotional eaters to a degree．But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems．The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain．__5.__ That’s why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.
Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.
A．Believe it or not, we’ve all been there.
B．If a crying boy gets some cookies, he may link cookies with comfort.
C．One study found that people who eat food like pizza become happy afterwards.
D．And you often may feel worse about eating the amount or type of food you like.
E．Understanding what drives emotional eating can help people take steps to change it.
F．Boys seem to prefer hot, homemade comfort meals, while girls go for chocolate and ice cream.
G．More often, though, it’s the countless little daily stresses that cause someone to seek comfort in food.
The U．S．Postal Service (USPS) is losing billions of dollars a year．The government company that delivers "small mail" is losing out to email and other types of electronic communication．First-class mail amount fell from a high point of 104 million pieces in 2000 to just 64 million pieces by 2014.
Congress permits the 600,000-empIoyee USPS to hold a monopoly (垄断) over first-class and standard mail．The company pays no federal, state or local taxes; pays no vehicle fees; and is free from many regulations on other businesses．Despite these advantages, the USPS has lost $52 billion since 2007, and will continue losing money without major reforms.
The problem is that Congress is preventing the USPS from reducing costs as its sales decline, and is blocking efforts to end Saturday service and close unneeded post office locations．USPS also has a costly union-dominated workforce that slows the introduction of new ideas or methods down．USPS workers earn significantly higher payment than comparable private-sector workers．The answer is to privatize the USPS and open postal markets to competition．With the rise of the Internet, the argument that mail is a natural monopoly that needs government protection is weaker than ever.
Other countries facing declining letter amounts have made reforms．Germany and the Netherlands privatized their national postal companies over a decade ago, and other European countries have followed suit．Britain floated shares of the Royal Mail on its stock exchange in 2013．Some countries, such us Sweden and New Zealand, have not privatized their national postal companies, but they have opened them up to competition.
These reforms have driven efficiency improvements in all of these countries．Additional number of workers have been reduced, productivity has risen and consumers have benefited．Also, note that cost-cutting measures—such as closing tone post offices—are good for both the economy and the environment.
Privatization and competition also encourage new changes．When the USPS monopoly over "extremely urgent" mail was stopped in 1979, we saw an explosion in efficient overnight private delivery by firms such as FedEx.
The government needs to wake up to changing technology, study postal reforms abroad and let businessmen reinvent our out-of-date postal system.
1.What do we know about the USPS?
A．Its great competitor is the delivery firm FedEx.
B．It is an old public service open to competitions.
C．Its employees don't pay federal, state or local taxes.
D．It has complete control of first-class and standard mail.
2.The author mentions some other countries in Paragraph 4 to __________.
A．explain the procedures of reform to the USPS
B．show the advantages of private postal services
C．set some examples for the government to learn from
D．prove the situation is very common around the world
3.The author probably that the USPS __________.
A．needs government’s protection as ever
B．can work together with other businesses
C．must be replaced by international companies
D．should be sold out and become a private service
4.Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?
A．
B．
C．
D．
Music for Humans and Humpback Whales As researchers conclude in Science, the love of music is not only a universal feature of the human species, but is also deeply fixed in complex structures of the human brain, and is far more ancient than previously suspected.
In the articles that discuss the field of bio-musicology, the study of the biological basis for the creation and appreciation of music, researchers present various evidence to show that music-making is at once an original human "business", and an art form with skillful performers throughout the animal kingdom.
The new reports stress that humans hold no copyright on sound wisdom, and that a number of nonhuman animals produce what can rightly be called music, rather than random sound．Recent in-depth analyses of the songs sung by humpback whales show that, even when their organ would allow them to do otherwise, the animals converge on the same choices relating to sounds and beauty, and accept the same laws of song composition as those preferred by human musicians, and human ears, everywhere.
For example, male humpback whales, who spend six months of each year doing little else but singing, use rhythms (节奏) similar to those found in human music and musical phrases of similar length—a few seconds．Whales are able to make sounds over a range of at least seven octaves (八度音阶), yet they tend to move on through a song in beautiful musical intervals, rather than moving forwards madly．They mix the sounds like drums and pure tones in a ratio (比例) which agrees with that heard in much western music．They also use a favorite technique of human singers, the so-called A-B-A form, in which a theme is stated, then developed, and then returned to in slightly revised form．
Perhaps most impressive, humpback songs contain tunes that rhyme．"This suggests that whales use rhyme in the same way we do: as a technique in poem to help them remember complex material," the researchers write.
1.The underlined words "converge on" in Paragraph 3 probably means__________.
A．tend towards
B．refer to
C．turn into
D．put forward
2.Which of the following shows the advanced musical ability in humpback whales?
A．They can remember complex material.
B．They can create pleasing patterns of music.
C．They can make sounds like drums continuously.
D．They can sing along with rhythms of western music.
3.What is the main idea of the article?
A．Animals are able to compose and enjoy music like humans.
B．Human beings borrow ideas in music from humpback whales.
C．Humpback whales are skillful performers in the animal kingdom.
D．Music-making is an ancient activity of both humans and animals.
4.The main purpose of the passage is to __________.
A．argue and discuss
B．inform and explain
C．compare and advertise
D．examine and assess
