We all love bank holidays. In the UK, we only get eight bank holidays in one year, and atleast five of those occur around Christmas time and Easter time! A bank holiday is a British English term. This is an official day that is decided by the government, when banks, shops and offices close for the day even though it’s a weekday — usually a M onday, and a lot of people have a day off work.
Bank holidays are different in Colombia — firstly, they are called “festivos”. There are twenty festivos for the whole country in one year ! In Britain, people get more holiday allowance (津贴) than Colombians but fewer bank holidays. There can be even more festivos in Colombia, depending on which region of Colombia you live in. This is because different regions have their own holidays. For example, some regions have a patron saint (守护神) in their region, so they have an extra festivo to celebrate that saint.
However, there are some days that are national holidays for historical reasons. There is an Independence Day celebration on July 20 every year. This is just like Bastille Day in France on July 14, or Independence Day in the United States on July 4. Other important festivos in Colombia are： Labor Day, on May 1, and Columbus Day on October 12. Columbus Day is a historical bank holiday that almost every country on the continent of A merica celebrates. This includes Colombia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico and the United States. It is a memorialization of the day that the Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, first reached land on the continent in the year 1492. Many people criticize this day and say it is not something to celebrate because of the way Columbus and his teams treated the people that were already living there.
1.What is a “bank holiday” according to the text?
A.A holiday only for the bank staff.
B.A British traditional religion festival.
C.A celebration for Christmas and Easter.
D.An official nationwide rest day.
2.What can we learn from paragraph 2?
A.Colombia and Britain have the same number of festivos.
B.All Colombians have the same number of festivos.
C.Colombians have more bank holidays than the British.
D.Different regions in Colombia have different patron saits to celebrate.
3.Why do many Americans refuse to celebrate Columbus Day?
A.Because Columbus wasn’t an American at all.
B.Because Columbus once treated the locals badly.
C.Because it wasn’t Columbus that found America first.
D.Because Columbus didn’t live in the continent of America.
4.What is the suitable title for the text?
A.Bank Holidays in Western World
B.How to Celebrate Bank Holidays
C.Celebrations of National Holidays
D.Why People Celebrate National Holidays
Hee Ah Lee was born in 1985 in Seoul, South Korea with only two fingers on each hand, disfigurement (缺陷) of her legs, and a minor brain injury. Her mother thought her baby was beautiful, however, and was determined that she would live a successful life.
When Lee was a pre-schooler, her mother decided to send her to take piano lessons, and this was for two reasons. One was that she felt it would help her strengthen her hands so she could hold a pencil. The other was that she felt that if she could master the piano, she could master anything. For six months, piano schools turned them down, and then the one teacher who did accept the task became discouraged and wanted to quit. It became a three-month contest of wills between mother and daughter that led to a confrontation (对抗) in which mother actually threw her daughter on the floor in disappointment. She said Lee got back up on the piano seat and for the first time played the children’s song she had been trying to learn. That was the turning point, and one year later Lee won a prize in a piano concert for kindergarten children. It was at the age of seven that Lee won South Korea’s 19th National Handicap Conquest Contest and was presented with her award by the President of South Korea.
Today, Lee is 32. She has become a successful concert pianist. Lee gives credit to her mother for challenging her to master the piano and said that although her training was difficult, “As time went by, the piano became my source of inspiration and my best friend.”
1.How does the text develop?
A.By doing analysis. B.By following the time order.
C.By making comparison. D.By giving examples.
2.Why did Lee’s mother want her to learn the piano?
A.She found Lee had a gift for the piano.
B.The doctor advised her to do so.
C.She hoped Lee could master a skill.
D.She thought it would help Lee to recover.
3.What probably led to the confrontation between Lee and her mother?
A.That Lee’s laziness discouraged her teacher.
B.That they were turned down by piano schools.
C.That Lee took no effort in her study.
D.That Lee couldn’t play the song.
4.What does Lee think contribute to her success?
A.Her hard work and willpower.
B.The challenges her mother gave her.
C.Her teacher’s encouragement.
D.The inspiration from the President.
Walk Through History
It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been to Charleston that it is among the best US cities to visit. “It can feel like you’re in a dream sometimes, like you’ve stepped back 200 years,” says Brian Sim ms, the owner of Charleston Sole Walking Tours. These are Sim ms’s must-sees.
African-American Heritage(遗产)Tour
“People don’t realize how much African culture is here.” says Sim ms. He recommends learning about the African-A merican heritage that shaped the city, region and country to fully understand Charleston.
Gullah Tours offers a two-hour bus tour for $ 18.www.gullahtours.com
Battery and White Point Gardens
A large public park and garden with walking paths and artifacts (人工制品)—all shaded by beautiful trees.
Free admission. Simms provides two- hour guided tours for $10 to $20. www.charlestonsole.com
Middleton Place
Middleton Placeis a historic plantation(种植园) with vivid exhibits and a working table. It provides an all-around view of what was going on with the history of the families that ran the plantation.
$ 28 / adult; $ 15 / student 14 and older; $ 10 / child 6-13; free / under age 6.www.middleton place.org
Fort Summer National Monument
Marking the site where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, this historic place includes several sites around Charleston Harbor and an education center at Gadsden’s Wharf. The best time of yearto visitis spring—when the azaleas(杜鹃花) are flowering—or fall.
Admission is free； boat ride is $ 19.5 / adult, $ 12 / child. www.nps.gov/fosu
1.Where can you book a tour to learn about African A merica culture?
A.On www.nps.gov / fosu. B.On www.gullahtours.com.
C.On www.charlestonsole.com. D.On www. middletonplace.org.
2.What can we do at Middleton Place?
A.Visit an education center.
B.Appreciate the beauty of azaleas.
C.Learn about the history of American familes.
D.Learn about the operation of a historic plantations
3.How much should a young couple pay for a boat ride around Charleston Harbor?
A.$20. B.$36.
C.$39. D.$56.
假设你是光华中学高三学生李华，你班英国交换生Jim要参加面向外国友人举办的“点赞中国”活动，向你寻求帮助，希望通过亲身体验，更好地认识中国。请你给他写封邮件，内容包括：
1. 推荐他做一件事；2. 说明推荐的理由；3. 表达愿望。
参考词汇：点赞中国：Thumbs-up for China
注意：1. 词数不少于80;
2. 邮件的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
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。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(＼)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，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。
Yesterday, we had great fun. We participated in a competition of Tang poems at hall of our school on April 24. The competition enjoyed great popular among us students. It was holding in an attempt to not only enrich our campus life and greatly motivate our passion for Tang poems. There was a great variety of interesting so well as exciting activity in the competition. We all fall in love with the competition. We true valued the chance to appreciate it the beauty of our culture from this competition. We all looked forward to more competitions aims at promoting Chinese culture.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Recent months have seen a return of bikes across China, with an increasing number of people 1.(choose) cycling instead of driving to schools, to workplaces or to go sightseeing. The introduction of bike-sharing programs has brought the trend to a new level.
The bikes 2. (equip) with GPS and can be left anywhere in public for the next user. They’re popular among many Chinese people as they provide 3. effective solution in places 4. it’s difficult to change from one kind of transport to another. Bike-sharing is a 5. (green) method of transportation and 6.(provide) a more friendly experience.
However, the programs have also led to problems such as 7. (legal) parking, deliberate damaging and theft. To deal with these problems, the company came up with the idea of encouraging people 8.(return) the bikes to stations 9. rewarding free time for their next rides. Now, Chinese service operators are also trying to address the problem, too. For example, Mobike sets a 100-point credit score for each user, with points taken in case of bad 10. (behave). Once a score drops below 80, bike rental is increased to 100 yuan per 30 minutes, up from 0.5—1 yuan.
