Food festivals around the world
Stilton Cheese Rolling
May Day is a traditional day for celebrations, but the 2,000 English villagers of Stilton must be the only people in the world who include cheese rolling in their annual plans. Teams of four, dressed in a variety of strange and funny clothes , roll a complete cheese along a 50-metre course. On the way, they must not kick or throw their cheese, or go into their competitors' lane. Competition is fierce and the chief prize is a complete Stilton cheese weighing about four kilos (disappointingly, but understandably the cheeses used in the race are wooden ones). All the competitors are served with beer or port wine, the traditional accompaniment for Stilton cheese.
Fiery Foods Festival—The Hottest Festival on Earth
Every year more than 10,000 people head for the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They come from as far away as Australia, the Caribbean and China, but they all share a common addiction—food that is not just spicy ,but hot enough to make your mouth burn, your head spin and your eyes water. Their destination is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival which is held over a period of three days every March. You might like to try a chocolate-covered habanero pepper—officially the hottest pepper in the world—or any one of the thousands of products that are on show. But one thing's for sure—if you don't like the feeling of a burning tongue, this festival isn't for you!
La Tomatina—The World's Biggest Food Fight
On the last Wednesday of every August, the Spanish town of Bunol hosts Ea Tomatina—the world's largest food fight. A week-long celebration leads up to an exciting tomato battle as the highlight of the week's events. The early morning sees the arrival of large trucks with tomatoes—official fight-starters get things going by casting tomatoes at the crowd.
The battle lasts little more than half an hour, in which time around 50,000 kilograms of tomatoes have been thrown at anyone or anything that moves, runs, or fights back. Then everyone heads down to the river to make friends again—and for a much-needed wash!
1.Where is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival held?
A. In New Mexico. B. In the Caribbean.
C. In Australia. D. In China.
2.The celebration of La Tomatina lasts .
A. three days B. seven days
C. less than three days D. more than seven days
3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. The chief prize for the Stilton cheese rolling competition is beer or port wine.
B.More than 10,000 Chinese take part in the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival.
C. Thousands of spicy foods are on show in the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival.
D. An exciting tomato battle takes place at the beginning of La Tomatina.
It can be rude to talk politics over dinner…explicitly at least. But subtle linguistic cues might reveal more than you think about your political views, whether at the dinner table—or on Twitter. "There's a lot of information in the details of our language." Matthew Purver, a computational linguist at Queen Mary University of London. "The little words we use, the way we join together our sentences, and the kind of interactional patterns, where we react to other people."
Purver’s research team used Twitter as their communications forum, randomly selecting 28,000 users, half of whom clearly followed one political party’s Twitter feeds, for example, @GOP, but not the other, for a more or less even split among Republicans and Democrats. Then they analyzed the words in those users' timelines during a two-week period in June 2014.
As you might expect, the tweets of users who followed Republican accounts were a lot more likely to contain words like "obamacare" and "benghazi," whereas "bridge gate" came up more among Democratic followers.
But the researchers also found that the left-leaners were much more likely to use words like sh#& and fu@$ than were the righties. And whereas Republican followers preferred plural pronouns like "we" or "us," Democratic followers used more singular pronouns, like "I" or "me.".
That pronoun use could reflect previous work on how people on the right and left forge their political views. "People on the right end of the political spectrum are more likely to be concerned with group conformity. Whereas people who tend to be on the left are perhaps more likely to see their morals or their values deriving from individualistic ideas, if you like." The study is in the journal PLoS ONE.
Of course, just following a political account is not proof of political belief. But these findings suggest that algorithms may increasingly be able to read between the lines, detecting nuances in human communication that even we humans can't perceive.
1.What is the meaning of "There's a lot of information in the details of our language." ?
A. Information can be conveyed through the way of word combination, sentence pattern, etc. explicitly or implicitly.
B. We convey our meaning directly through language.
C. People say what they want.
D. Language is the only way we convey our meaning.
2.What result does Purver’s research team find?
A. Republican followers used more singular pronouns.
B. Democratic followers preferred plural pronouns like "we" or "us".
C. Republican followers are more likely to be concerned with group conformity.
D. Democratic followers did not care about government issues because they value individuality
3.What preference can pronoun use reflect?
A. That pronoun use could not reflect people’s political views.
B. Democratic followers are more likely to see their morals or their values deriving from individualistic ideas.
C. Either Democratic or Republican followers choose the pronouns at random.
D. Republican followers’ political views are on the left because they like to use the word conformity.
4.Which of the following is true?
A. It’s right to talk about politics over dinner.
B. People use Twitter to express their political views explicitly.
C. Humans may not perceive what we convey through language.
D. Linguistics has nothing to do with algorithms.
Today, one can trace Venice’s rich past from its buildings. Most cities can claim at least a handful of outstanding churches, palaces or houses of historical interest, but in Venice very nearly everything is remarkable, from the magnificent Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square ) and the palaces that line the Grand Canal to the centuries-old homes of simple fishermen. It would be easy to say that the city itself is an enormous museum if it were not for the fact it is so obviously alive.
At first sight, Venice looks unbelievably permanent, an apparently complete Renaissance (文艺复兴) city so untouched by time that there seems no reason why it should not go on forever. Now the city is slowly sinking, as the clay on which it is built loses its elasticity (弹性) and the massive wooden piles rot (腐烂) away. Flooding, such a rare occurrence a hundred years ago now happens several times each winter.
The damage caused by the flooding is immense, and the fabric of the ancient buildings is now being further damaged by pollution from the mainland town as well as by the wash produced by the constantly increasing number of motor boats that speed up and down the canals.
A further threat to Venice comes from the Venetians themselves, some of whom are not particularly interested in preserving the city as one of the wonders of the world and would prefer to see it modernized.
“What better place is there for the meeting of dear friends? See how it glows with the advancing summer; how the sky and the sea and the rosy air and the marble of the palaces all glimmer and melt together.” Thus wrote the famous author Henry James, of Venice, which provided the setting for his story “The Aspern Papers”, in the nineteenth century. The Splendor of Venice has captured the imagination of artists for centuries --- and not just of the great painters and novelists. How tragic now that she is faced with the double threat of man and nature. Venice indeed will be lucky to survive.
1.Venice proudly boasts .
A. its beautiful churches, palaces and houses
B. its unique St. Mark’s Square and the Grand Canal
C. its picturesque waterscape
D. its marvelous ancient buildings
2.The writer thinks that .
A. Venice can be regarded as a big museum
B. Venice is no longer a big museum
C. Venice is different from a big museum
D. Venice can never be a big museum because of its modernization
3.From the fourth paragraph, we know that .
A. Venetians are eager to modernize their city
B. Venetians value the Grand Canal
C. Venetians don’t care about any threat to the Grand Canal.
D. the threat of man is greater than the threat of nature
4.In the last paragraph, the writer .
A. is very confident that Venice will survive
B. is doubtful whether Venice will survive
C. thinks that Venice will have luck
D. is afraid that Venice will no longer attract artists and novelists
Etymology, the study of words and word roots, may sound like the kind of thing done by boring librarians in small, dusty rooms. Yet etymologists actually have a uniquely interesting job. They are in many ways just like archaeologists (考古学家) digging up the physical history of people and events. The special aspect of etymology is that it digs up history, so to speak, through the words and phrases that are left behind.
The English language, in particular, is a great field to explore history through words. As a language, English has an extraordinary number of words. This is partly due to its ability to adapt foreign words so readily. For example, “English” words such as kindergarten (from German), croissant (from French), and cheetah (from Hindi) have become part of the language with little or no change from their original sounds and spellings. So English-language etymologists have a vast world of words to explore.
Another enjoyable thing about etymology for most word experts is solving word mysteries (谜). No, etymologists do not go around solving murders, like the great detective Sherlock Holmes. What these word experts solve are mysterious origins of some of our most common words.
One of the biggest questions English language experts have pursued is how English came to have the phrase OK. Though it is one of the most commonly used expressions, its exact beginning is a puzzle even to this day. Even its spelling is not entirely consistent-- unless you spell it Okay, it is hard even to call it a word.
Etymologists have been able to narrow OK’s origin down to a likely, although not certain, source (来源). It became widely used around the time of Martin Van Buren’s run for president in 1840. His nickname was Old Kinderhook. What troubles word experts about this explanation is that the phrase appeared in some newspapers before Van Buren became well known. It is likely that Van Buren could be called its primary source. Etymologists will doubtlessly keep searching for the original source. However, it is clear that OK’s popularity and reputation have topped those of the American president to whom it has been most clearly linked.
1.The author mentions the words like “croissant” in Paragraph 2 to show _______.
A. words have changed a lot in the two languages
B. what English-language etymologists are exploring now
C. English has absorbed many words from other foreign languages
D. the English vocabulary is difficult to the non-English-speaking people
2.The underlined word “pursued” in Paragraph 4 means _______.
A. looked upon B. dug up C. put in D. set down
3.We can learn from the passage that etymologists _______.
A. discover the possible origin of words
B. help detectives to solve mysterious murders
C. write interesting stories for some newspapers
D. explore the English language as well as the recent events
4.What most probably is the major purpose of the passage?
A. To present the history of English words.
B. To explain what an etymologist does for his job.
C. To introduce the pleasure of the study of words and word roots.
D. To teach readers how to tell English words from non-English words·
根据短文内容，从短文后的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。
America’s holiday shopping season started on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
1. Shoppers make the most money this time of year, about 20 percent to 30 percent of all revenue all year. About 136 million people shopped during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.
2. In an era of instant information, shoppers can use their mobile phones to find deals. Nearly 80 percent of this year’s holiday shoppers, or about 183.8 million people, shopped on Cyber Monday. 3. Online spending on Black Friday rose 15 percent to hit $2.7 billion this year. Cyber Monday spending increased 12 percent to $3 billion. NBC News reported that for many, shopping online was a more comfortable alternative than crowded malls.
The shift to online shopping has had a big impact on solid shopping malls. Since 2010, more than 24 shopping malls have closed and an additional 60 are struggling. Fortune says the weakest of the malls have closed. However, the business in malls is thriving again, it adds. According to a survey, 94.2percent of malls were full with shops by the end of 2014. 4.
The average American consumer will spend about $805 on gifts. That’s about $630.5 billion between November and December – an increase of 3.7 percent from last year.
5. That goes to China’s Singles’ Day, celebrated on November 11, which posted record sales of $14.3 billion in 2015.
A．More and more people shop online nowadays.
B．That is the highest level in 27 years.
C．It is the busiest shopping day of the year.
D．One-in-five Americans used a tablet or smart-phone.
E．The traditional mall industry can hardly survive.
F．Cyber Monday falls on the Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
G．Nonetheless, Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day in the world.
First Lady Michelle Obama is on a five-day trip to Asia. She is visiting Japan and Cambodia to help publicize a program called "Let Girls Learn". Administration officials set up the campaign to support the education of millions of girls worldwide.
Before her trip, Mrs. Obama and her husband noted the inability of an estimated 62-million girls to attend school. They said educating the girls should be a foreign policy goal.
This week, Mrs. Obama criticized the fact that tens of millions of girls are not receiving a satisfactory education. In her opinion piece, she wrote this failure to educate girls it was more than "a tragic waste of potential." It is both a serious public health issue and a problem for the economic health of nations and the world. She also said it was "a threat to the security of countries around the world".
The First Lady noted by 2012, every part of the developing world was educating both girls and boys in primary schools. But this is not the case in secondary education. She wrote in some areas girls face "the cultural values and practices that limit the prospects of women in their societies ".
The Obama administration launched the "Let Girls Learn" campaign earlier this month. At the time, Mrs. Obama noted plans to involve the U.S. Peace Corps, and the Volunteer Development Agency.
"This effort will draw on the talent and energy of the nearly 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers serving in more than 60 countries. Through this effort, Peace Corps will be supporting hundreds of new community projects to help girls go to school and stay in school. And, I want to emphasize that these programs will be community-generated and community-led. They will be based on solutions devised by local leaders, families and yes, even the girls themselves."
President Obama also spoke at the same White House event, saying that campaign is important to his administration.
1.Why did Michelle Obama make the trip to Asia?
A. To get help from Peace Corps.
B. To set up the "Let Girls Learn" program.
C. To promote an educational program.
D. To develop Japan-US relationship.
2.These statements may be Michelle Obama’s opinion EXCEPT_____.
A. girls in developing countries have greater potential than boys
B. girls have the same right to receive higher education
C. having girls educated should be a foreign policy goal
D. failing to educate girls affects the world’s economy
3.What is the main idea of the sixth paragraph?
A. How the Peace Corps are organized.
B. What the plan for the campaign is.
C. Who are in charge of the program.
D. Where the campaign will be carried out.
4.What may be talked about in the next paragraph?
A. The achievements they have achieved.
B. The measures they have taken.
C. The possible problems they will meet.
D. The importance of the educational program.
