American culture is unique because it is formed and developed under certain conditions. The major factors contributing to the making of this new nation and the forming of a new culture are the hard environment, ethnic diversity (多样性;差异) and plural religion, which is quite different from other nations in the world. What is more, these elements are still influencing the American culture.

The early immigrants(移民)who were English Puritans settled down in northeast part of America from 1607 to 1892. Frontiers were pushed further west. The frontiersmen looked for a land of rich resources and a land of promise, opportunity and freedom. Actually they looked for a better life. So individualism(个人主义), self-reliance, and equality of opportunity have perhaps been the values most closely associated with the frontier heritage(遗产)of America.

In history, people from different countries in the world rushed to America three times. They brought their own culture to America and later on, different cultures were mixed together. Thus the unique American culture was formed, a common cultural life with commonly shared values.

The fundamental American belief in individual freedom and the fight of individuals to practice their own religion is at the center of religious experience in the United States. The great diversity of ethnic backgrounds has produced religious pluralism(多元化); almost all of the religions of the world are now practiced in the United States.

Nowadays, we can see the continual influence of the three elements in the current American society. American family is typically parents and their unmarried children. Middle-aged and elderly people generally do not live with their married children. The people in America have a very strong desire to start a new life in a new place. Quite a number of people change residences every year. The average American moves fourteen times in his lifetime.

1. We can learn from this article that ________.

A. the population of the United States includes a large variety of ethnic groups

B. the early immigrants brought about the unique American culture

C. people in the world once rushed to America because of its unique culture

D. the American family members don't get along well with each other

2. What's the author's attitude towards American culture?

A. He is critical of it.

B. He admires it very much.

C. He just states the facts.

D. He looks down upon it.

3.The last paragraph is about________.

A.the family structure in American society
B.the influence of the three elements in the current American society
C.the new life style of American family
D.the reason why American people like to change residences

4.What might be the most suitable title of this article?

A.The Immigrants in America

B.Why American Culture Is Unique
C.The Influence of American Culture

D.Plural Religion and American Culture

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阅读下列短文并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词,每空格1词

Zebras have their own bug repellent(驱虫剂)?

Eww bugs! They are so annoying! We humans are lucky that we can apply repellents to avoid nasty bites. But what’s an animal to do? They have no choice but to spend their days shooing them off with their tails, unless, of course, they are zebras, who apparently have their own automatic repellent--- their striped skin!

Scientists had originally thought that the reason why the animal had developed the black and white lines was to help protect itself from predators (食肉动物)in the African savannah(大草原), because the stripes make it difficult to single out one zebra that is traveling with a herd.While that may be true, the theory has never been tested or proven. Now the experts have another---that the stripes have evolved to repel the annoying horse flies that not only feed off their blood, but also, transmit dangerous germs into the bodies of these innocent animals.

The study was performed by a team of Swedish scientists. One of the clues that got them thinking along these lines was the fact that darker horses got bitten more often than light-colored or white ones.

The fact that zebras are born black and only develop stripes as they grow older made the scientists theorize that the stripes may be something the animals have developed to make themselves less attractive to flies.

To test if this may be the case, they painted some boards at a horse-infested(寄生的) horse farm in Budapest with patterns of black and white stripes of varying widths and applied a layer of glue on them. What they noticed was that the places where the black and white stripes were at their narrowest (similar to what zebras have) attracted the fewest flies. They achieved similar results when they painted horses with black and white zebra-like stripes.

While the research are not sure why this may be the case, they believe it may be something to do with the way insects operate---horseflies are attracted to horizontally polarized light(偏振光); since white does not reflect it, white horses are luckier than black ones. But zebras seem to be the luckiest of all. When the researchers measured the polarized light reflected from real zebra skins, they found that it matched light patterns that were the least attractive to horseflies.

While this theory does make logical sense, nobody is 100 percent sure that it is really true, given that it has never been tested on a real zebra. If it is true, it does raise the question of why a horse, a close relative of the zebra has failed to develop stripes. The researchers believe that this could be because there are more horseflies in Africa, where zebras reside, then anywhere else in the world.

Title

Zebras have their own bug repellent?

Reasons why zebras develop their strips

Original belief

With the black and white lines, one zebra is difficult to single out while traveling with a herd, thus ___1.__ it from its enemies.

New theory

Zebras, residing in Africa where there are most horseflies in the world have developed strips to ___2.___ being attacked.

A study

Researchers

A team of scientists from ___3.___

_4.___

To test if strips are developed to make zebras less attractive to flies.

Clues

*White or light-colored horses are less __5._ to get bitten than dark ones.

*Zebras develop strips as they grow older though born black.

Method

*Some boards at a horse farm are painted with patterns of black and white stripes variously ___6.__ , a layer of glue applied on them.

*Measured the polarized light reflected from real zebra skins.

_7.___

*The places where the black and white stripes at the narrowest were similar to the __8.__zebras have attracted the fewest flies.

*Strips of zebras matched light patterns that were the least attractive to horseflies.

Principle of zebras’ black and white strips repelling the flies

Horizontally polarized light, which white does not reflect, ___9.__ to horseflies.

Conclusion

___10.___tested on real zebras, the theory isn’t definitely true.

七选五

Last month, students from one hundred and three universities in eighty-eight countries took part in an international computer programming contest. The Battle of the Brains took place in Harbin, China. 1.

Jerry Cain, coach of Stanford University Team, California, says “One of the programming problems was trying to figure out how to break a chocolate bar into a certain number of pieces of a certain number of sizes and to do it as quickly as possible. 2.

The students first listed the problems in order of difficulty. 3. They designed ways to test their solutions. And they wrote needed software systems. Even the winning team from Shanhai Jiaotong University in China was not able to solve all the problems within the given time limit. Stanford’s team solved five problems and finished in 14th place. Stanford was one of twenty-one American universities that took part in the contest this year.

4. . It began in 1970 at Texas A and M University. The contest quickly became popular in the United States and Canada. It developed and grew as more and more schools took part in local and area contests.

The first final competition was held in 1977 at the Association for Computer Machinery Computer Science Conference. Today, a network of universities holds area competitions that send the winners to the world finals, now organized by IBM. Contest spokesman Doug Heintzman says the world champions receive prizes and scholarships. 5.

A. The competitors show great interest in IBM.

B. Then they figured out the requirements of each.

C. And that’s probably the simplest of all of them.

D. This competition is an opportunity to be recognized by famous universities from the world.

E. Three-person teams from each school had five hours to solve eleven real world problems.

F. The official name of the Battle of the Brains is the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.

G. They are also guaranteed an offer of employment with IBM.

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