They say money doesn’t grow on trees.  But it certainly appears to do so on the mysterious coin-studded  trunks around the UK’s woodland.  The strange phenomenon of old trees with coins embedded(镶嵌) all over their bark has been spotted on trails from the Peak District to the Scottish Highlands.

The coins are usually knocked into the trunks of the trees which were cut down using stones by passers-by, who hope it will bring them good fortune.

These fascinating spots often have coins from centuries ago buried deep in their bark. The tradition of making offerings to spirits of trees dates back hundreds of years, but this combination of the man-made and the natural is far more rare. 

It used to be believed that spirits lived in trees, and they were often decorated with sweets and gifts—as is still done today at Christmas. The act reminds us of tossing money into ponds for good luck, or the trend for couples to attach “love padlocks” to bridges and fences to symbolize lasting romance.

There are seven tree trunks with coins pushed into them in the unique village of Portmeirion, in Wales.

Meurig Jones, a manager at the tourist destination, told the BBC: “We had no idea why it was being done when we first noticed the tree trunk was being filled with coins. ” He also said: “I did some detective work and discovered that trees were sometimes used as ‘wishing trees’. In Britain it dates back to the 1700s—there is one tree in Scotland somewhere which apparently has a coin stuck into it. ”

He said that a sick person could press a coin into a tree and his illness would go away. “If someone then takes the coin out though, it’s said they then become ill. We haven’t announced it at all, it’s just happened, ”he added. “It’s quite amazing really. ”

56. What is the best title of the passage?

A. How to get good luck in Britain?

B. A fantastic way to recover from disease

C. Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?

D. Can the tree really bring you good luck?

57. The passers-by knocked coins into the trunks of the trees_______.

A. to get more money back

B. to ensure the trees are theirs

C. to attract the spirits of the trees

D. to pray for good luck

58. Which method of blessing is not mentioned in the passage?

A. decorating fences with sweets

B. pressing a coin into a tree

C. throwing money into ponds

D. attaching “love padlocks”

59. When did pressing coins into tree trunks begin?

A. about two hundred years ago

B. about three hundred years ago

C. about four hundred years ago

D. about five hundred years ago

60. From this passage we can learn_______.

A. seeing trees with coins in them is quite common in the UK

B. Jones understood why there were coins on trees from the start

C. Jones believes the wishing trees can bring people’s illness away

D. if someone takes the coin out,  he can get good luck soon

America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect (影响) American society in many ways --- education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society - one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior (行为)is suitable (合适) at different ages.
A person’s age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There’s no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn’t as strong as it used to be. It doesn’t surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.
Many people say, ‘I am much younger than my mother -  or my father - was at my age.’ No one says ‘Act your age’ anymore. We’ve stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.
【小题1】From the passage, we know in America____.

A.they used to go to school or stop work at a certain age
B.people won’t tell you their social position
C.the children no longer go to school.
D.people hold the old ideas about the age as before
【小题2】It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America         .
A.has made people feel younger
B.has changed people’s social position
C.has changed people’s understanding of age
D.has slowed down the country’s social development
【小题3】The underlined word ‘one’ refers to          .
A.a societyB.AmericaC.a placeD.population
【小题4】‘Act your age’ means people should _______  .
A.be active when they are old
B.do the right thing at the right age
C.show respect for their parents young or old
D.take more physical exercise suitable to their age
【小题5】 If a 25-year-old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it       .
A.normalB.wonderfulC.unbelievableD.unreasonable

I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.

I have mixed feelings about having the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.

You see, it chimes. It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.

When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged. Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.

Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.

I took it to a local clock shop the other day.

“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.

I went on to describe the problem.

“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery-operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.

“You can’t fix this?”

“No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”

I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.

“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.

How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship with convenience and easy fixes. We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明).

Sadly, the same goes for our attitude to life itself.

Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another style than to develop our own.

We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than hey-world-look-at-mes.

We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else.

1. Why did the author decide to get the clock fixed?

A.Because it was a really old and valuable clock.

B.Because it was the only thing that her mother had left her.

C.Because it brought her memories of being with her mother.

D.Because it left the author with mixed feelings.

2. What did the clock shop owners tell the author?

A.The parts that the clock needed were electronic.

B.It would cost a lot to repair the clock.

C.They had never repaired a clock like this before.

D.They could only make the clock electronic.

3. The author intends to ________.

A.criticize the irresponsible clock shop owners

B.criticize people who do not value things with a history

C.criticize people who do not have a creative attitude toward life

D.criticize people’s ignorance of traditional craftsmanship

 

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