These cameras are _______ by the hour, so no need to worry about the money.

A. borrowed　　 B. allowed　　　　　 C. lent　　　　 D. let out

The First of May is a Bank Holiday—the first public holiday of the year in England.
Most people consider it a special day ,the beginning of summer ,a day when the light lasts long into the evening ,and when we can look for warm weather .We don't always get it .We feel disappointed ,but not surprised if there are cold winds and frosts at night in May .Winter should be over .Most people know that in the past ,when farming occupied almost everyone ,the changing seasons were of great importance .In that older time there was every reason to celebrate May Day .Customs of those celebrations remain.?
Of these customs ,the best known is the choosing of a May Queen and the dancing round Maypole .Even these customs are little more than memories now—but in the last century it was quite common in villages and small towns ,and even in schools and colleges ,for a pretty and popular girl to be chosen Queen of the May .It was a great honour to be chosen .For a day she wore a light and flowery dress, carried garlands（花环）,and was ceremonially crowned with flowers .She presided over a procession ,as a rule with a number of attendants ,and over the Maypole dancing and all kinds of entertainment .The Maypole was slender（苗条的） tree trunk ,cut off its branches, with beautiful ribbons fastened to the top .The dancing was designed in such a way that the dancer's movements move the ribbons into a pattern. This, as you can imagine ,required skill from the dancer ,and was not achieved without practice .
It's the Celtic（凯尔特的）people who celebrated the First of May as a spring festival .Their celebration seems to have had little to do with taking pleasure in early ,beautiful flowers and in warmer weather! They called it Beltane—the fire of the god Bel .They lit fires ,in the expectation that their blaze would help the sun in its struggle to regain its strength. They drove their cattle between banks of flame in the expectation that the terrified beasts would be purified（净化） and protected from disease .A tree ,which must have been blackened with smoke ,stood in the middle of the fires ,and is thought to have been the origin of the Maypole .Their priests（牧师） made sacrifices to the goods in the hope of good harvests and sufficient store of food for the winter. There was dancing certainly ,but it was noisy and cheerful ,since its purpose was not to weave a pattern of colored ribbons ,but to drive out evil spirits from the earth and to arouse those kind spirits.?
1.The main purpose of the passage is to show ________.?
A.the reason why they celebrate May Day?
B.the start and customs of May Day?
C.the way they celebrate May Day?
D.the choosing of a May Queen during May Day
2.According to the passage ,which sentence is NOT true??
A.In the old days they celebrated May Day for the changing of the seasons.?
B.In England summer begins at the first of May.?
C.The custom of the choosing of a May Queen still exists in the present May Day celebration.?
D.The Celtic people celebrated the first of May as a spring festival.?
3.From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the word “presided” means ________.
A.管理 B.越过 C.指挥 D.主持?
4.The best title for this passage is ________.?
A.The First of May  B.The Beginning of Summer
C.May Queen    D.The Holiday of the Year?

In the past, young people in Japan were expected to take on responsibilities to support their parents and grandparents．Now they expect to be supported well into young adulthood．The “New breed”, born since the 1960s, have never known anything but richness．Youth are seen as resistant to entering society as mature adults, to becoming social citizens．Once the great objective of reconstruction after the Second World War was accomplished, a new generation lost the motivating power that had untied the nation together．

Japan’s birth rate has been falling rapidly, partly because of the recession(衰退), and the job and financial（金融的）insecurity that it has caused．In 1999, the figure was 1．38 children per woman, the lowest ever recorded．At the same time, youth crime, although still especially low by western standards, rose to its highest level since record-keeping began 32 years ago．Likewise, the percentage of students dropping out before graduating, at 2．5% also very low by western standards, has been rising．

Entrepreneurial ( 企业家的) role models are few and far between．Bill Gates is often mentioned, but a foreign model can only have so much influence．The problem is that Japanese culture discourages people from revealing details of personal life, including such ordeal（考验）as starting a company．In the past, successful companies such as Honda or Hitachi provided role models of a sort．But today they have been faded by the downturn, and few others have risen to take their place．

Young people also quite often feel isolated from their fathers, who worked too hard at their jobs to establish much of a relationship with their children．“The one thing they’re sure of is that they don’t want to be like their fathers．And the girls don’t want to be with boys who are like their fathers, so the boys are sure not to be,” says Professor Morishma．

1．According to the passage, former young people were expected to ___________．

　 A．to enter the society before adulthood　　　　

B．to hold together

　 C．to work hard and support their family　　　　

D．to study hard and find a good job

2．The word “it” (Line 2, Para．2) most probably refers to _________．

　 A．economic recession　　　　　　　　　　 B．job unsafety

　 C．birth rate　　　　　　　　　　　　 D．financial unsafety

3．The author takes the two examples of the youth crime and students’ dropping out before graduating to show __________．

　 A．the youth are overburdened　　　　　　　　

　 B．the educational system in Japan is not satisfying

　 C．public security and order in Japan is bad

　 D．the ethnical (道德的) level of youth in Japan is falling

4．Today, entrepreneurial models are rarely found in Japan _________．

　 A．because of the discouragement of Japanese culture　 　　

B．because of the worshipping of western models

　 C．because of the lack of experience of starting a company

D．because the “new breed” don’t want to work hard

How     ___  I help them to understand when they won’t listen to me?

A．can                    　 B．would                 C．may                   　　 D．must

Chengdu Metro Line 1, 　　　　into use in October 2010, has made the traffic in this city not so busy.

　 A. to be put　　 B. being put　　 C. having put　　 D. put

He spoke so casually, as though the problem were of little ________.

A. matter　　 B. circumstance C. benefit D. consequence

The harder you_______ , the greater progress you______ .