题目内容

Taxpayers(纳税人) in America pay less in income tax than many Europeans, according to a Pew Research Center report. Belgium has the highest income tax rate, at nearly 56 percent of income, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. Taxpayers in the U.S. pay less than 36 percent of their incomes into the national treasury. Taxes pay for services provided by the government. The U.S. ranks 25 of the 34 developed countries polled in the report.

An unmarried person with no children was used as an example in the report. In America, an unmarried person, with no children, making the average wage of $50,000 in 2014 paid 24.8 percent of their income in federal (联邦的) income tax and payroll taxes (工资税). A similar person living in Belgium would pay 42.3 percent of their income. The average among the 39 countries in the poll was 27.3 percent income tax.

The deadline to pay taxes in America is usually April 15. This year, the deadline is April 18. American taxpayers complain that wealthy people and large companies pay too little tax, according to a Pew Research Center poll from 2015.

Americans pay tax to fund programs like Social Security and Medicaid, according to the Pew Research Center. Last year, American taxes paid for $888 billion in Social Security benefits. Social Security pays the elderly an income after they stop working. The government also paid more than $546 billion in Medicaid and Medicare benefits. Those programs pay for health and medical care to people who cannot afford it, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

1.According to the article, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. The income tax rate of America ranks 25 of the world.

B. No countries in the world have a higher income tax than that in Belgium.

C. Taxpayers in America pay more in income tax than many Europeans.

D. The deadline to pay taxes in America is usually between April 15 and April 18

2. The majority of people benefiting from the taxes in America are ________.

A. wealthy people and corporations

B. unmarried people

C. married couples

D. the elderly retirees

3.How is Passage 2 mainly developed?

A. By showing differences B. By analyzing causes

C. By describing process D. By explanations

4.The author mainly wants to tell us ________.

A. how Americans use their taxes

B. how much do Americans pay their taxes

C. that Americans pay less income tax than many others

D. that many people are complaining about the taxes

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In American schools there is something called Homecoming Day. Many high schools and colleges with a football team have a homecoming game. This can be the most important event of the year except graduation or commencement (毕业典礼)Day. Students plan Homecoming Day many weeks in advance.

Several days before Homecoming, students start to decorate the school. There are signs to wish luck to the team, and many other signs to welcome all the graduates. Many people still come to Homecoming twenty or thirty years after their graduation.

The members of school clubs build booths(售货棚) and sell lemonade(柠檬汽水),apples and sandwiches. Some clubs help to welcome visitors.

During the day alumni and their wives will gather at the school. They like to look for teachers that they remember. Often they see old friends and they talk together about those happy years in school.

Everyone soon comes to watch the football game. When the game is half over, the band comes onto the field and plays school songs. Another important moment is when the Homecoming Queen or King appears. All the students vote the most popular student Homecoming Queen or King. It is a great honor to be chosen.

Homecoming is a happy day, but it is not perfect unless the football team wins the game. Even if the game loses, the students still enjoy Homecoming. Some stay at the school to dance, and others go to a party. For everyone it is a day worth remembering.

1.The best title of this passage is ________.

A. American School B. Homecoming Game

C. Homecoming Queen or King D. Homecoming Day

2.Which of the following is NOT done on Homecoming?

A. To see old friends.

B. To organize clubs.

C. To watch the football game.

D. To call on teachers they remember.

3.The underlined word “ alumni” refers to ________.

A. female former students of a school or college

B. male former students of a school or college

C. grandfathers of the students in a school or college

D. grandmothers of the students in a school or college

In August 2015, President Obama announced that North America’s highest mountain, Mount McKinley, would be renamed. Its new moniker(名字), Denali, was actually its original Aleut name, meaning “the high one”. The previous name, on the other hand, only dates back to 1896—the year when it was named in honour of William McKinley(1843—1901), who was shortly to become President of the United States. Denali is of course not the only mountain with an interesting linguistic history, so let’s travel to Asia, and across Europe, to explore the naming of those continents’ most famous peaks and mountain ranges.

The Nepalese name Himalaya comes from a Sanskrit word meaning “Abode of Snow”, from hima for “snow” and ālaya for “abode”. In Buddhist sources, Himalaya is known by various names such as Himavā and Himavanta.

In 1856, Mount Everest was named after Sir George Everest (1790—1866), who was the superintendent (负责人) of the Trigonometrical Survey of India. Everest himself was initially displeased by the naming, since he feared that local inhabitants might not be able to pronounce it.

K2 stands for Karakoram 2, because it was the second peak to be surveyed in the Trigonometrical Survey in the Karakoram system. It was also formerly known as Mount Godwin Austen after Col. H. H. Godwin Austen, who first surveyed it. Another alternative name for the mountain is Chhogori.

Annapurna is a household Goddess for Hindus, who guarantees to her worshippers (崇拜者)that food will not fail. The name derives(源出) from a Sanskrit word meaning “one who gives nourishment”.

The Matterhorn’s name derives from the name of the nearby town of Zermatt, the second element of which is apparently Matte “meadow”, and Horn, “horn”. Horn is not an unusual element in German names of mountains with jutting(突出的)peaks. The mountain is called Mont Cervin in French and Monte Cervino in Italian, from the Italian adjective cervino “deer-like”, which conjures up (使想起)a deer’s antlers.

Ben Nevis is the Anglicized form of the Scottish Gaelic name Beinn Nibheis, which means“Mountain by the(River)Nevis”. The name of the river apparently derives from a Celtic root for “water”.

1.How many continents’ mountains are mentioned in the passage?

A. 2 B. 3 C. 4 D. 5

2.Himalaya is a mountain also named ________.

A. Nepalese B. Abode of Snow C. Alaya D. Himavā

3.Which of the following is FALSE according to the passage?

A. Everest was unhappy about the name of Mount Everest at first.

B. K2 was once called Col. H. H. Godwin.

C. Annapurna means “one who offers food”.

D. Matterhorn comes from the name of the nearby town of Zermatt.

4.The above mountains’ names come from sources other than _________.

A. color B. a Sanskrit word

C. a person’s name D. geographic name

Most evenings, before watching late-night comedy or reading emails on his phone, Matt Nicoletti puts on a pair of orange-colored glasses that he bought for $8 on the Internet.

"My girlfriend thinks I look ridiculous in them," he said. But Mr.Nicoletti, a 30-year-old consultant in Denver, insists that the glasses, which can block certain wavelengths of light emitted by electronic screens, make it easier to sleep.

Studies have shown that such light, especially from the blue part of the spectrum (光谱),inhibits the body's production of melatonin(褪黑激素),which helps people fall asleep. Options are growing for blocking blue light, though experts caution that few have been adequately tested for effectiveness and the best solution remains avoiding brightly lit electronics at night.

A Swiss study of 13 teenage boys, published in August in The Journal of Adolescent Health showed that when the boys wore orange-colored glasses, also known as 'blue blockers' and shown to prevent melatonin, in the evening for a week, they felt "significantly more sleepy" than when they wore clear glasses.The boys looked at their screens, as teenagers tend to do, for at least a few hours on average before going to bed, and were monitored in the lab.

Older adults may be less affected by blue light, experts say, but blue light remains a problem for most people, and an earlier study of 20 adults aged 18 to 68 found that those who wore orange-colored glasses for three hours before bed improved their sleep quality considerably relative to a control group that wore yellow-colored lenses, which blocked only ultraviolet(紫外线) light.

LEDs used in devices such as smart phones, tablets and televisions tend to emit more blue light than incandescent products(白炽产品). LEDs are also increasingly popular as room lights, but "warm white" bulbs, with less blue, tend to be a better choice than "cool white" for nighttime use. The lighting company Philips also makes a reduced-blue LED bulb, meant to be used before bedtime."In theory, anything that will decrease that blue light exposure at night will be helpful." said Christopher Colwell, a scientist at the UCLA, "I know some gainers who swear by those orange-colored glasses."

But orange glasses are not a panacea(万能药). Dr. Skene said."It isn't just getting rid of the blue and everything's fine," she said. The intensity of light, in addition to color, can affect sleep, she said, and not all brands of orange-colored glasses have undergone enough independent testing for their ability to aid sleep.

During the daytime, experts say, exposure to blue light is good. Best of all is sunlight, which contains many different wavelengths of light."That's what our brain knows," said Kenneth P.Wright Jr., director of the sleep and chronobiology(生物钟学) lab at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

A 2013 study he led, published in the journal Current Biology, showed just how different things can be without nighttime lights. After participants had camped in the mountains for a week, their bodies began to prepare for sleep about two hours earlier than normal.

Short of cutting out all evening electronics, experts say, it's advisable to use a small screen rather than a large one; dim the screen and keep it as far away from the eyes as possible; and reduce the amount of time spent reading the device.

"If you can look at the iPhone for 10 minutes rather than three hours, that makes a lot of difference," Dr.Skene said.

1.What does the underlined word "inhibit" in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A. preventB. promoteC. projectD. process

2.Which of the following statements is true?

A.The older a person is, the less he or she will be affected by blue light.

B.The exposure to the blue light does nothing but harm to the human body.

C.Traditional lighting companies are facing a dead end due to backward technology.

D.All brands of orange-colored glasses are not reliable for their ability to aid sleep.

3.What are the contributing factors of a better night's sleep?

①Limited screen time before bed.

②A pair of color glasses.

③A small-sized screen of electronics.

④A place without nighttime lights.

⑤Devices with LED backlighting.

A. ①②③B. ③④⑤C. ②③⑤D. ①③④

4.The purpose of this article is to ________.

A.advertise a brand of orange-colored glasses which can block blue light

B.question the effectiveness of orange-colored glasses on the market

C.introduce a kind of orange glasses that may help people sleep better

D.teach readers about the most effective ways to have a better sleep

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