Venice is one of the most beautiful cities of the world. Venice is a cultural and tourist center and is famous for its museums, architecture, cityscape and world of art.
Only about 25 % of Venice’s 280, 000 people live in the historical center of the city. 1. The main method of transportation between the islands is by taking boats that travel up and down the city’s many canals. The main waterway is the Grand Canal, which winds through the heart of Venice. Hundreds of bridges connect the island.
2. The city’s most famous church, Saint Mark’s Basilica, and the Doge’s Palace which was the home of Venice’s rulers for hundreds of years, are the main attractions of the piazza. The square is a famous tourist attraction surrounded by cafes and vendor(大排档，小贩).
East of the historical center on the outer part of the lagoon (环礁湖) is Lido, a 10km long sandy island. 3. The Venice Film Festival is one of the major annual film events that take place there.
The location of the city at sea level and global warming have caused many problems for Venice. 4. From November to February they cause a situation in which sea level rises up to one and a half meters and cover many of Venice’s famous areas.
Salt water from the sea has damaged the foundations of many buildings and constant repairs are necessary. 5. Industries and tourism have steadily reduced the level of ground water in Venice, making foundations of building unstable.
A. Over the centuries the Mediterranean town has been regularly flooded by tides.
B. The central location of Venice is the Piazza San Marco or Saint Mark’s Square.
C. It attracts thousands of beach--goers throughout the summer holidays.
D. Water gets into the buildings, and destroys the walls.
E. The cost of living is also lower, in Venice.
F. The rest live on the mainland.
G. The city is full of tourists.
There have been many great inventions that changed the way we live. The first great invention was one that is still very important today—the wheel. This made it easier to carry heavy things and to travel long distances. For hundreds of years after that there were few inventions that had as much effect as the wheel. Then in the early 1800’s the world started to change. There was little unknown land left in the world. People did not have to explore much anymore. They began to work instead to make life better. In the second half of the 19th century many great inventions were made. Among them were the camera, the electric light and the radio. These all became a big part of our life today.
The first part of the 20th century saw more great inventions. The helicopter in 1909. Movies with sound in 1926. The computer in 1928. And jet planes in 1930. This was also a time when a new material was first made. Nylon came out in 1935. It changed the kind of clothes people wear. The middle part of the 20th century brought new ways to help people get over disease. They worked very well. They made people healthier and let them live longer lives. By the 1960’s most people could expect to live to be at least 60. By this time most people had a very good life.
Of course new inventions continued to be made. But man now had a desire to explore again. The world was known to man but the stars were not. Man began looking for ways to go into space. Russia made the first step. Then the United States took a step. Since then other countries, including China and Japan, have made their steps into space. In 1969 man took his biggest step away from the earth. Americans first walked on the moon. This is certainly just a beginning, though.
New inventions will someday allow us to do things we have never yet dreamed of.
1.Why did the world start to change in the early 1800’s?
A.Because there were few inventions that had as much effect as the wheel for hundreds of years.
B.Because people began to work to make life better instead of exploring unknown world.
C.Because there was little unknown land left in the world.
D.Because people did not have to explore much anymore.
2.In Paragraph 2, the word “They” in the sentence “They worked very well” refers to ________.
A.helicopters, computers, jet planes, nylon B.new materials
C.new ways to help people get over disease D.people
3.Why did man have a desire to explore again?
A.Going into space is a dream for man to realize.
B.Man wanted to move to other stars.
C.Other countries wanted to follow Russia.
D.Other countries wanted to catch up with America.
阅读理解。
Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island, New York. Whitman received most of his education outside of the classroom. At the age of eleven, he worked in a law office as an office boy where he became interested in reading. He was soon reading the works of famous authors like William Shakespeare and Homer, and was well on his way to becoming one of America’s most well-known poets.
By the time Whitman was seventeen years old, he had already worked as a printer’s learner, a worker, and a learning games to help his students with spelling and maths. In his early twenties, however, he gave up teaching to pursue (追求) a full-time career as a journalist and poet.
When Walt Whitman first appeared as a poet, his arrival onto the American literary scene was met with controversy. His first collection of poems,Leaves of Grass, was so unusual that no commercial publisher would print the work. In 1855 Whitman published, at his own expense, the first edition of his collection of twelve poems.
Whitman’s poetic style was uncommon in the sense that he wrote poems in a form called parallelism (对句法), in which his goal was to copy the flow of the sea and the quickly-passing nature of human emotion. A common theme in Whitman’s poetry is self-realization. In his work, Whitman moves from conventional patterns of rhyme to create a unique rhythm and a multi-layered, but truly American voice.
“Although Whitman was considered a revolutionary by many, there is little doubt he loved his country deeply.” In his writing, he used slang (俚语) and various images, or voices, to create a sense of national unity.
For Whitman, the “proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” Whitman has undoubtedly become a part of the cultural history and image of America.
1.Paragraph 2 mainly talks about ________.
A.Whitman’s education
B.Whitman’s early career
C.how Whitman became a poet
D.why Whitman’s poems were popular
2.When Whitman first appeared as a poet, ________.
A.he received a warm welcome
B.his literary road was not easy
C.he became famous for his unusual style
D.his poetic style was copied by other poets
3.What was Whitman’s greatest literary contribution?
A.He expressed human emotion in his writing.
B.He showed that flow of the sea in his poems.
C.He used slang to show his love for his country.
D.He created a unique rhythm and An American voice.
Tipping isn’t a big part of British culture, unlike in North America, where waiters and waitresses are paid below minimum wage. Tips are usually appreciated, but offering a tip of some services can cause confusion.
In casual restaurants, where you pay for your order at a counter but food is brought to your table, tipping is uncommon. You are welcome to leave a pound or two if you wish. In restaurants where you place your order with a waiter or a waitress and receive your food and bill at your table, it’s customary to tip around 10 percent. In some restaurants, a service charge may be added to the bill automatically, typically 10 or 12.5 percent. In this case, you don’t need to add a further tip. When you pay by credit card, the machine may ask if you want to add a tip. Check your bill to see if a service charge has already been added before paying—if so you don’t need to add a tip on the machine. You can request the service charge be removed from your bill if you are unhappy with the service. In some cases a restaurant may print “service not included” on the bill or menu. This is a request for a tip. You’re not forced to offer anything, but 10 percent would be normal in this situation. Tipping in cafes and fast food restaurant is not expected.
If you use a taxi, round the fare up to the nearest pound shown on the meter. On a journey from or to the airport in a booked minicab you might wish to trip 2 or 3 pounds if the driver helps with your bags.
Be sure to check a country’s tipping culture before you start your tip. For more information, visit TripAdvisor.com.
1.According to the text, ________ in British culture.
A. it is necessary to tip if you are served in cafes
B. it is confusing to tip if you receive your bill at your table
C. it is customary to tip if “service not included” is printed on the bill
D. it is compulsory to tip even if the service is unsatisfying in some restaurants
2.When you pay by credit card, _________.
A. the service charge can be added on the machine
B. the service charge must have been included in the bill automatically
C. the service charge can’t be refused
D. the service charge needn’t be checked before you pay
3.If the British taxi meter shows 58.4 pounds, you are expected to pay ________.
A. 58.4 pounds B. 59 pounds
C. 61 pounds D. 64 pounds
4.What is the best title for the text?
A. Introduction of TripAdvisor.com B. Occasions for Tipping
C. Advice on Tipping in Restaurants D. British Ways to Tipping
假如你是李华，你一个在英国的笔友Eric得知上月你校组织了校园义卖活动，来信向你询问活动详情，请给他写封回信，内容如下：
1、活动具体时间、地点；
2、活动过程；
3、你的感受；
注意：1.词数:100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Eric,
Very glad to know that you are interested in the Charity Sale held in our school last month.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
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。
My grandmother is 73 year old. She is a great reader, but she reads only newspapers. He has a very good habit of reading the newspaper daily. After her morning housework, she sat down to read the newspaper for at least an hour. She doesn’t like to be disturbing at that time. In fact she is so much updated that everyone else in the house depends her for the daily important news, national or international. My grandmother’s habit of reading newspapers are a great help for the other members of my house, especial my parents. As they both are working very hardly, they have very few time to read the news.
