The relationship between humans and animals has always been complex. Some cultures have developed entire belief systems around favored animals. Even in cultures with less formal belief systems, connections between people and animals still lead to commonly accepted opinions about animals.

These belief systems usually develop around the animals that interact (互动) with humans most frequently. Therefore, it should not be surprising that so many stories surround the most common of animals: rats. Rats live side by side with humans all over the world and regularly interact with people. Human-rat coexistence may be common all around the world, but different cultures respond to that closeness in different ways.

In the United States and Europe, one typical attitude is that the rat is a pest. This could be due to the common belief that rats spread disease. Actually, they don’t, at least not directly, but many people don’t know that. The Pied Piper of Hamlin, a well-known children’s story, is one example of how rats have been described in Western literature: in that story, rats cause such a problem that a town has to hire a piper to call them all away.

In many Latin American countries, the rat is described in a very different way. The story of the tooth fairy (a fairy believed by children to leave money while they sleep in exchange for a tooth that has come out) is common all over the world, but in Latin America, the “fairy” is a rat! Rats do have very strong teeth, which could explain the association. Clearly, this shows another attitude toward rats that is much more positive.

Yet another attitude toward the rat can be seen in the Chinese Zodiac (生肖). The Rat is one of the animals of the Zodiac. Like the other zodiac animals, the Rat is neither entirely good nor entirely bad. It’s described as clever and friendly, but also tricky and not entirely honest. That may be the most accurate description of the rat so far. Whether you like rats or not, it’s hard to deny their reputation for cleverness.

As many people are discovering these days, rats can even make excellent pets, so long as you remember to close the cage carefully!

1.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. A trend of keeping rats as pets.              

B. How different cultures look at rats.

C. How humans get along with animals.          

D. Favored animals in different cultures.

2.The rats in The Pied Piper of Hamlin appear______.

A. unpleasant        B. honest         C. smart        D. unusual

3.The tooth fairy in Latin America mentioned in Paragraph4 is to show______.

A. the tooth fairy is lovely                     

B. rats look very frightening

C. rats are welcome in Latin American countries

D. the story of the tooth fairy is common all over the world

4.According to the author, rats______.

A. don’t spread disease               

B. should be treated as pests

C. are fairly described in the Chinese Zodiac         

D. are kept as pets by more and more people

5.The passage is probably taken from a ______.

A. travel guide           B. news report        C. nature magazine       D. history textbook

I once had my Chinese MBA students brainstorming on “two-hour business plans”. I separated them into six groups and gave them an example: a restaurant chain. The more original their idea, the better, I said. Finally, five of the six groups presented plans for restaurant chains. The sixth proposed a catering（饮食）service. Though I admitted the time limit had been difficult, I expressed my disappointment.

My students were middle managers, financial analysts and financiers from state owned enterprises and global companies. They were not without talent or opinions, but they had been shaped by an educational system that rarely stressed or rewarded critical thinking or inventiveness. The scene I just described came in different forms during my two years’ teaching at the school. Papers were often copied from the Web and the Harvard Business Review. Case study debates were written up and just memorized. Students frequently said that copying is a superior business strategy, better than inventing and creating.

In China, every product you can imagine has been made and sold. But so few well developed marketing and management minds have been raised that it will be a long time before most people in the world can name a Chinese brand.

With this problem in mind, partnerships with institutions like Yale and MIT have been established. And then there’s the “thousand talent scheme”: this new government program is intended to improve technological modernization by attracting top foreign trained scientists to the mainland with big money. But there are worries about China’s research environment. It’s hardly known for producing independent thinking and openness, and even big salary offers may not be attractive enough to overcome this.

At last, for China, becoming a major world creator is not just about setting up partnerships with top Western universities. Nor is it about gathering a group of well-educated people and telling them to think creatively. It’s about establishing a rich learning environment for young minds. It’s not that simple.

1.Why does the author feel disappointed at his students?

A．Because there is one group presenting a catering service.

B．Because the six groups made projects for restaurant chains.

C．Because all the students copied a case for the difficult topic.

D．Because the students’ ideas were lacking in creativeness.

2.We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．China can make and sell any product all over the world

B．high pay may not solve the problem of China’s research environment

C．cooperation with institutions has been set up to make a Chinese brand

D．the new government program is aimed at encouraging imagination

3.Which is the best title of the passage?

A．Look for a New Way of Learning.

B．Reward Creative Thinking.

C．How to Become a Creator.

D．Establish a technical Environment.

基础知识检测
【小题1】He recognized the offer of a job in the factory as a chance to be grabbed at without ____（犹豫）.
【小题2】Some people have a firm belief that online shopping will finally end up ____ store shopping in the future.（代替）
【小题3】Night ____, they stopped talking about some hot issues happened these days because of darkness.（临近）
【小题4】The system has been designed to give students a quick and easy ___ to the digital resources of the library.（使用的机会、通道、路径）
【小题5】I would ______ if they stopped interrupting me when I was delivering a speech.（感激）
【小题6】If it is __ to you, call me tomorrow before noon.（方便的）
【小题7】双星是两颗星，是由相互围绕旋转的两颗星组成。
A binary star is a double star, _____ two stars turning round each other.
【小题8】Parents __ much importance __ education. They will do their best to give their children that priceless gift.（使-----附着于）
【小题9】The Chinese language __  __ Western languages in that it uses characters which stand for ideas, objects or deeds.（与……不同）
【小题10】你被闪电击中的可能性要比受到鲨鱼袭击的可能性大两倍。
You are ______ to be hit by lightning than be attacked by a shark.
【小题11】 ____ physical problems, those patients also show a lot of concerns.（除了）
【小题12】He expects to ____ the business when his father retires.（接管）

Throughout the history of the arts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change-to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.

 Landscape(风景) is another unchanging element of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists. In the 1970s, Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists, continued this practice. Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature, Leslie paints what he actually sees. In his paintings, there is no particular change in emotion, and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography(摄影术) to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.

 Besides, all art begs the age-old question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up, understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods.

 Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present, Eastern or Western, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.

1.The underlined word “poetry” most probably means __________.

A. an object for artistic creation                                    B. a collection of poems

C. an unusual quality                                                        D. a natural scene

2. Leslie's paintings are extraordinary because        .

A. they are close in style to works in ancient times

B. they look like works by 19th-century painters

C. they draw attention to common things in life

D. they depend heavily on color photography

3.What is the author's opinion of artistic reality?

A. It will not be found in future works of art.

B. It does not have a long-lasting standard.

C. It is expressed in a fixed artistic form.

D. It is lacking in modern works of art.

4.What does the author suggest about the arts in the last paragraph?

A. They express people's curiosity about the past.

B. They make people interested in everyday experience.

C. They are considered important for variety in form.

D. They are regarded as a mirror of the human situation.

5.Which of the following is the main topic of the passage?

A. History of the arts.

B. Basic questions of the arts.

C. New developments in the arts.

D. Use of modern technology in the arts.

The most important holiday in spring, especially for Christians, is Easter. This Christian holiday is not on the same date every year，but it’s always on a Sunday. It can be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. Many people celebrate Easter by buying new clothes. Children celebrate by hunting for colored eggs that their parents have hidden around the house. People also give Easter baskets filled with candy and other goodies to one another to celebrate the day.

But the holiday is more than new clothes and good things to eat. On Easter, many people go to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection（复活）from the dead. Most people color Ester eggs. Some people hide them. Others just eat them. But no matter what one does with Easter eggs，they are an important Easter tradition throughout the Western world. People from many different cultures celebrate Easter. In both America and Belgium, children look for Easter eggs hidden on lawns and in bushes. In America, children believe the eggs are hidden by the Easter bunny (兔子).But in Belgium, the hidden eggs are supposed to have fallen from church bells. In Bulgaria (保加利亚), red Easter eggs are lucky in churches. Bulgarian families also hit these Easter eggs together to see whose is the strongest. The winner looks forward to good fortune that year. Still dozens of other Easter traditions exist. In parts of Austria，for example，children sing from door to door and are rewarded with colorful eggs.

1.Easter comes _______.

A．on the same date every year               B．on Sunday on March 22

C．on Sunday on April 25                    D．on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25

2.To celebrate Easter, people ___________.

A．go shopping, hide colored eggs and children hunt for them

B．give Easter baskets filled candy and goodies to one another

C．buy new clothes, hide colored eggs and children look for them around the house

D．both B and C

3.For Christians the more important thing to do on Easter is________.

A．going to church to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection  B．buying new clothes

C．eating delicious food and paint color eggs     D．exchange beautiful gifts each other

4.In some places of Austria, children sing from door to door for_______.

A．blesses           B．Easter eggs        C．candy and goodies   D．Easter bunny