Suppose you work in a big firm and find English very important for your job because you often deal with foreign businessmen. Now you are looking for a place where you can improve your English, especially your spoken English.
Here are some advertisements about English language training from newspapers.
You may find the information you need.
★Global English Center
＊General English in all four skills：listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
＊3-month(700 yuan), 6-month(1200 yuan)and one-year(2000 yuan) courses.
＊Choice of morning or evening classes, 3 hours per day. Mon-Fri.
＊Experienced college English teachers.
＊Close to city center and bus stops.
Tel：67605272 Add：105 Zhongshan Road, 100082.
★Modern Language School
Special courses in English for business, traveling, banking, hotel management and office skills.
＊Small classes(12-16 students)on Sat. ＆ Sun. From 2∶00－5∶00 p.m.
＊Native English teachers from Canada and USA.
＊Language lab and computers supplied.
＊3-month course：1,050 yuan; 6-month course：1,850 yuan．
Write or phone：Modern Language School, 675 Park Road. 100056
Tel：67353019
★The 21st Century English Training Center
＊We specialize in effective teaching at all levels.
＊We offer morning or afternoon classes, both of which last three months and a half at a cost of 800 yuan.
＊We also have a six-week TOEFL preparation class during winter and summer holidays.
＊Entrance exams: June 1 and Dec. 1.
＊Only 15-minute walk from city center.
Call 67801642 for more information.
★The International House of English
＊Three/Six-month English courses for students of all levels at very low cost: 60 yuan for 13 hours per week; convenient class hours: 9∶00－12∶00 a.m. and 2∶00－5∶00 p.m．
＊A four-month evening program for developing speaking skills(same cost as day classes).
＊Well-trained Chinese and foreign teachers experienced in teaching English as a second/foreign language. Free sightseeing and social activities. Very close to Central Park.
For further information call 67432308.
1.You work from 9∶00 a.m. to 4∶00 p.m. every day. Which schools will you choose?
A. Global English Center and Modern Language School
B. Global English Center and the International House of English
C. Modern Language School and the 21st Century English Training Center
D. The 21st Century English Training Center and the International House of English
2.You will probably prefer to go to the International House because it _________.
A. offers free sightseeing and social activities
B. has a special course in spoken English
C. costs less than the other schools
D. has native English teachers
3.If you take the evening program at the International House, you will pay about _________.
A. 60 yuan
B. 240 yuan
C. 720 yuan
D. 960 yuan
A nine-year-old kid was sitting at his desk when suddenly there was a puddle（水潭、泥坑） between his feet and the front of his trousers was wet．He thought his heart was going to stop because he couldn't possibly imagine how this had happened．It had never happened before, and he knew that when the boys found out he would never hear the end of it. When the girls found out, they would never speak to him again as long as he lived．
He prayed this prayer, "Dear God, I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat!" He looked up from his prayer and here came the teacher with a look in her eyes that said he had been discovered．As the teacher was walking toward him, a classmate named Susie was carrying a goldfish bowl full of water．Susie tripped （绊倒） in front of the teacher and dumped （倒） the bowl of water in the boy's lap．The boy pretended to be angry, but all the while was saying to himself, "Thank you．Lord!"
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy was the object of sympathy．The teacher rushed him downstairs and gave him gym shorts to put on while his trousers dried out．All the other children were on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk．The sympathy was wonderful．But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his had been transferred （转移） to someone else+—Susie．She tried to help, but they told her to get out．
When school was over, the boy walked over to Susie and whispered, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispered back, "I wet my trousers once, too!"
1.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means ____ .
A. the boys would never play with him
B. the boys would treat him as usual
C. he would hardly hear any praise from the boys
D. he would be laughed at by the．boys endlessly
2.After Susie dumped water in his lap, the boy was in a state of ____.
A. excitement B. relief
C. anxiety D. anger
3.What did the other kids do after the incident?
A. They offered him dry clothes．
B. They laughed at the boy rudely,
C. They helped the boy do the cleaning．
D. They urged the boy to get out angrily,
4.Why did Susie dump water in the boy's lap?
A. The boy asked her to do so．
B. She just did it by accident．
C. The teacher tripped her on purpose．
D. She knew the boy's embarrassment．
Where do you go when you want to learn something？School？A friend？A tutor？These are all _________ places of learning.But it may well be that the learning you really want _________ somewhere else instead.I had the _________ of seeing this first hand on a _________．
My daughter plays on a recreational soccer team.They did very well this season and so _________ a tournament，which normally was only for more skilled club teams.This led to some _________ experiences on Saturday as they played against teams _________ trained.Through the first two games，her _________ did not get one serious shot on goal.As a parent，I _________ seeing my daughter playing her best，__________ still defeated.
It seemed that something clicked with the __________ between Saturday and Sunday.When they __________ for their Sunday game，they were __________ different.They had begun to integrate (融合) the kinds of play and teamwork they had __________ the day before into their __________．They played aggressively and __________ scored a goal.
It __________ me that playing against the other team was a great __________ moment for all the girls on the team.I think it is a general principle.__________ is the best teacher.The lessons they learned may not be __________ what they would have gotten in school，but are certainly more personal and meaningful，because they had to work them out on their own.
1.A. public B. traditional C. official D. special
2.A. passes B. works C. lies D. ends
3.A. dream B. idea C. habit D. chance
4.A. trip B. holiday C. weekend D. square
5.A. won B. entered C. organized D. watched
6.A. painful B. strange C. common D. practical
7.A. less B. poorly C. newly D. better
8.A. fans B. tutors C. class D. team
9.A. imagined B. hated C. avoided D. missed
10.A. if B. or C. but D. as
11.A. girls B. parents C. coaches D. viewers
12.A. dressed B. showed up C. made up D. planned
13.A. slightly B. hardly C. basically D. completely
14.A. seen B. known C. heard D. read
15.A. styles B. training C. game D. rules
16.A. even B. still C. seldom D. again
17.A. confused B. struck C. reminded D. warned
18.A. touching B. thinking C. encouraging D. learning
19.A. Experience B. Independence C. Curiosity D. Interest
20.A. harmful to B. mixed with C. different from D. applied to
Plastic-Eating Worms
Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场)，and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. qSo far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass--apparently broken down by enzymes(酶)from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.
Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food-beeswax--also allows them to break down plastic "Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, "she explains. "The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. "
Jennifer Debruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?
Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process-not simply "millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”
1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A. They take plastics as their everyday food.
B. They are newly evolved creatures.
C. They can consume plastics.
D. They wind up in landfills.
2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A. identify other means of the breakdown
B. find out the source of the enzyme
C. confirm the research findings
D. increase the breakdown speed
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A. help to raise worms
B. help make plastic bags
C. be used to clean the oceans
D. be produced in factories in future
I have learned something about myself since I moved from Long Island to Florida three years ago. Even though I own a home in Port St, Lucie just minutes from the ocean, an un- controllable urge wells up to return to Long Island even as others make their way south. I guess I am a snowbird stuck in reverse. Instead of enjoying Florida’s mild winters, I willingly endure the severe weather on Long Island, the place I called home for 65 years.
I’m like a migratory bird (候鸟) that has lost its sense of timing and direction, my wings flapping against season.
So what makes me fly against the tide of snowbirds? The answer has a lot to do with my reluctance to give up the things that define who I am. Once I hear that the temperature on Long Island has dipped into the range of 40 to 50 degrees, I begin to long for the sight and crackling sound of a wood fire. I also long for the bright display of colors-first in the fall trees, and then in the lights around homes and at Rockefeller Center. Floridians decorate too, but can’t create the special feel of a New England winter.
I suppose the biggest reason why I return is to celebrate the holidays with people I haven’t seen in months. What could be better than sitting with family and friends for a Thanksgiving turkey dinner, or watching neighbors children excitedly open gifts on Christmas? Even the first snowfall seems special. I especially enjoy seeing a bright red bird settling on a snow-covered branch. (My wife and I spend winters at a retirement community in Ridge, and I’m grateful that I don’t have to shovel.)
While these simple pleasures are not unique to Long Island, they are some of the reasons why I come back. Who says you can’t go home?
1.What’s the difference between Florida and Long Island?
A. Winters in Florida are milder.
B. The snowbirds in Florida are rarer.
C. Weather in Florida is severer.
D. Florida is nearer to the ocean.
2.What does the underlined word “reluctance” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. Unwillingness.
B. Expectation.
C. Coincidence.
D. Motivation.
3.Which of the following words can best describe the author?
A. Imaginative and outspoken.
B. Hard-working and serious.
C. Homesick and easy-going
D. Anxious and painful.
4.What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To describe his dream to be a free bird.
B. To express his feeling of missing his hometown.
C. To praise the beauty and warmth of his hometown.
D. To explain the reasons for moving from his hometown.
Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you’ll have no trouble answering these questions.
Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child’s day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb(麻木的）to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.
The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they’d felt cold water at first.
Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.
The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what’s around them. I asked them what they’d seen. "Oh, a few birds," they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.
Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.
1.According to Paragraph 2, compared with adults, children are more ____________.
A. anxious to do wonders
B. sensitive to others’ feelings
C. likely to develop unpleasant habits
D. eager to explore the world around them
2.What idea does the author convey in Paragraph 3?
A. To avoid jumping to conclusions.
B. To stop complaining all the time.
C. To follow the teacher’s advice.
D. To admit mistakes honestly.
3.The bird watchers’ behavior shows that they __________.
A. are very patient in their observation
B. are really fascinated by nature
C. care only about the names of birds
D. question the accuracy of the field guides
4.Why do the hikers take no notice of the surroundings during the journey?
A. The natural beauty isn’t attractive to them.
B. They focus on arriving at the camp in time.
C. The forest in the dark is dangerous for them.
D. They are keen to see rare birds at the destination.
