English teenagers are to receive compulsory (必修的) cooking lessons in schools. The idea is to encourage healthy eating to fight the country’s increasing obesity (肥胖 )rate. It’s feared that basic cooking and food preparation skills are being lost as parents turn to pre-prepared convenience foods.
Cooking was once regarded as an important part of education in England---even if it was mainly aimed at girls. In recent decades cooking has progressively become a minor activity in schools. In many cases the schools themselves have given up cooking meals in kitchens in the schools. But the rising level of obesity has led to a rethink about the food that children are given and the skills they should be taught.
“What I want is to teach young people how to do basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce, a bolognaise, a simple curry, a stir-fry---which they can use now at home and then in their later life”, said Ed Balls, the minister responsible for schools.
The new lessons are due to start in September, but some schools without kitchens will be given longer to adapt. There is also likely to be a shortage of teachers with the right skills, since the trend has been to teach food technology rather than practical cooking. Also the compulsory lessons for hands on cooking will only be one hour a week for one term. But the well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, believes it will be worth it.
“If we’d done this thirty years ago we might not have the crisis we’ve got now about obesity and lack of knowledge about food and so on. Every child should know how to cook, not just so that they’ll be healthy, but because it’s a life skill which is a real pleasure”.
The renewed interest in cooking is primarily a response to the level of obesity in Britain which is among the highest in Europe, and according to government figures half of all Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not stopped.
【小题1】The passage mainly talks about        .

A.the reason for obesityB.the lost cooking skills
C.the healthy eatingD.the compulsory cooking classes
【小题2】Which of the following is NOT the purpose for English teenagers to receive cooking lessons?
A.To encourage teenagers to eat healthy food.
B.To reduce the country’s increasing obesity rate.
C.To stop parents from turning to pre-prepared convenience foods.
D.To prevent basic cooking and food preparation skills from being lost.
【小题3】In what way will cooking lessons benefit the students?
A.They will be healthy and enjoy the pleasure of such a life skill as well.
B.They will be able to do some basic, simple recipes like a tomato sauce.
C.They will be able to make food experiments with the knowledge and skills.
D.They will be able to control the level of obesity in the whole country.
【小题4】The well-known cookery writer, Pru Leith, thinks it        to offer compulsory cooking lessons in schools.
A.difficultB.necessaryC.funnyD.timely
【小题5】It can be inferred from the passage that       .
A.cooking has always been an important part of school education in England
B.the obesity rate in Britain has been rapidly growing in recent decades
C.English teenagers will have their cooking lessons twice a week for one year
D.the students will pay a lot of money to the school for the

   Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had looked into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of the book,” thought Alice, “without pictures and conversations?”
So she was considering in her own mind whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain(雏菊花环) would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; but when the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit- hole under the bush.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think. I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. ‘Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?’ And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask.”
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, when suddenly, thump! thump! Down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
【小题1】What kind of books do you think will interest Alice most?

A.Books that her sister was reading.
B.Books without pictures or conversations.
C.Books about white rabbits.
D.Books with pictures and conversations.
【小题2】Which of the following is true?
A.Alice suddenly saw a white rabbit with a strange umbrella.
B.Alice managed to fall right through the earth.
C.Alice ran after the white rabbit across the field out of curiosity.
D.The people on the opposite side of the earth walk with their heads downward.
【小题3】Which is the right order of the story?
a. Alice jumped into a large hole.
b. A white rabbit ran close by her.
c. Alice sat by her sister, doing nothing.
d. She fell upon some sticks and dry leaves.
A.c-b-a-dB.d-a-c-bC.a-b -c-dD.d-c-a -b
【小题4】 From the passage, we can see Alice is a(n)________girl.
A.helpful and friendlyB.curious and imaginative
C.brave and curiousD.ignorant and pretty
【小题5】 The following paragraph “In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” can be put between_________.
A.Paragraphs 1 and 2B.Paragraphs 2 and 3
C.Paragraphs 3 and 4D.Paragraph 4 and 5

Many people say pennies are not worth saving. After all, a penny is only worth a cent. But one unusual penny turned out to be worth a lot more when a coin collector paid $1.7 million for it earlier this month.

The coin is one of a kind. It is the only penny that the Denver mint(铸币厂) made out of copper, instead of steel, in 1943. Because it is unique, it is also very valuable. No penny has ever sold for so much money.

The Changing Penny

The Lincoln penny first appeared in 1909. For 34 years, the one-cent coin was made out of copper. Then, in 1943, the penny changed. World War II was going on, and copper was needed for equipment. So for one year, pennies were made out of steel instead. At least most of them were.

Only a few coins were made out of unused copper. There are three main mints, or places where coins are made, in the United States. Of the known copper pennies from 1943, twelve were made in the Philadephia mint, and five were made in the San Francisco mint. Only one was made in the Denver mint.

Nobody knows for sure why a copper penny was made at the Denver mint in 1943, coin dealers Andy Skrabalak told Time for Kids. “There is a rumor that a mint employee made the coin in the middle of the night.”

A Special Set

The coin collector who bought the $1.7 million penny wants to remain unknown. But the reason for the trade is known. He already had two copper pennies from 1943 – one from the San Francisco mint and one from the Philadephia mint. To complete the set, he needed the Denver penny. The three coins will go on display at a coin exhibition in Tampa, Florida.

The collector who sold the penny is also keeping his name a secret. It took four years to convince him to give up the rare coin. Now that he has finally donating all of the money to charity.

1.Why is the Lincoln penny worth over one million dollars?

A.Because it has a history of thirty-four years.

B.Because it was made out of a rare material.

C.Because it was made on one night of 1943 by the Denver mint.

D.Because it was the only coin Denver mint made out of copper in 1943.

2.Before the Lincoln penny was sold, people thought one-cent coins __________.

A.were worth collecting for selling later

B.were surely valuable if not made out of steel

C.wouldn’t be sold for large amounts of money

D.were only useful for some coin museums

3.At least how many copper coins were made in 1943?

A.Five              B.Twelve            C.Seventeen         D.Eighteen

4.What can we learn about the collector who sold the penny?

A.He already had two copper pennies from 1943.

B.He wanted to complete the set of copper pennies.

C.He didn’t want to sell his penny in the beginning.

D.He was a well-known coin dealer in Tampa, Horida.

 

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