Sagrada Familia ( 2,056,448 visits/year)

Opening hours: 09:00—18:00 (October—March); 09:00—20:00 (April—September)

Admission: $ 11, or $ 10 with the Barcelona Card.

Disabled Access: Yes.

The temple have been under construction since 1882 and they’ve still got another 30 to 80 years to go before it will be finished. The project’s vast scale and its special design have made it one of Barcelona’s top tourist attractions for many years.

La Pedrera (1,133,220 visits/year)

Opening hours: November—February: 09:00—18:30; March—October: 09:00—20:00

Admission: $ 9.50. Save 20% with the Barcelona Card.

Disabled Access: No.

This building used to be called Casa Mila but nowadays it’s more commonly known as La Pedrera. It is a unique modernist building in Barcelona and was made of bricks and had colorful tiles (瓦). It was built between 1906 and 1912 by famous Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852—1926) and in 1984 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site with other Gaudi buildings in Barcelona. Visitors to La Pedrera can see the amazing 800 square meters attic with 270 brick arches that give you a feeling that you are walking inside the skeleton (骨架) of a whale. The roof is equally impressive and is preserved exactly the way that it was built in 1912 with six staircases and seven chimneys each made in a unique style.

Barcelona FC Museum (1,032,763 visits/year) 

Opening hours: 6^th April—4^th October: (Monday to Saturday) 10:00—20:00; the rest of the year: 10:00—18:30

Admission: $ 8.50 for entry to the museum and $ 17 for a guided tour.

Disabled Access: Yes.

   When you buy your ticket you have two options. You can buy a ticket for the museum to see the football stadium or you can buy a dual (双的) ticket for $ 15 where you get to see the museum and the scenes at the club.

Miro Museum (518,869 visits/year)

Opening hours: Check the web site for details as they vary depending on the time of the year.

Admission: $ 8. Save 20% with the Barcelona Card.

Disabled Access: Yes.

This museum has a wide range of Miro’s work dating back as far as 1914. This artwork collection not only includes his paintings but also a good selection of sculptures (雕塑).

L’Aquarium de Barcelona (1,375,271 visits/year)

Opening hours: 09:00—19:00 (October—March); 09:00—20:00 (April—September)

Admission: $ 7. Save 10 % on the entrance fee to the aquarium with the Barcelona Card.

Barcelona Aquarium is a popular Barcelona attraction to take the kids and young ones. I have to admit I love the aquarium.

Picasso Museum (887,958 visits/year)

Opening hours: Check the website for details as they vary depending on the time of the year.

Admission: $ 9 for main exhibition—extra for special showings. Save 50% with the Barcelona Card.

Disabled Access: Yes. The museum has arranged Picasso’s paintings in chronological order from his early days to his final works. Arranging the paintings in this way gives you a fascinating insight into the development of Picasso thinking over time and shows how he developed the distinctive designs that he is famous for today. Very popular art gallery.

1.Which of the following attractions is the most popular with people?

A. Sagrada Familia                     B. La Pedrera

C. Barcelona FC Museum            D.Picasso Museum

2.What do we know about the tourist attractions mentioned in the above passage?

A. Sagrada Familia is the largest building in Barcelona.

B. La Pedrera is well-known for its colorful material.

C. Barcelona FC Museum may attract football fans.

D. Miro Museum was built in 1914.

3.If you visit the stadium and the club with a tour guide in Barcelona FC Museum, you should pay ________.

A. $ 25.5                               B. $ 32                         C. $ 42.5                                 D. $ 34

4.What do the attractions have in common?

A. They are all famous for their architectural style.

B. They are available for the disabled people.

C. Their opening hours are changeable in different seasons.

D. Tourists can have a discount of 20% with the Barcelona Card.

When did you last see a polar bear?On a trip to a zoo,perhaps?If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago,you would have seen a whole polar bear club.These "Polar Bears" are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water.That day,the air temperature was 3℃,and the water temperature was a little higher.The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island,New York are usually about the age of 60.Members must satisfy two requirements.First,they must get along well with everyone else in the group;this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club.Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February. 
Dcotors don't agree about the medical effects of cold-winter swimming.Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body's temperature drops so low that finally the heart stops.Other doctors,however,point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and water temperature is much greater in summer than in winter. 
The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits of cold-water swimming.They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory system(循环系统）because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm.Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water.A person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and should not try cold-water swimming. 
The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental.The Polar Bears love to swim all year round;they find it fun and relaxing.As one 70-year-old woman says,"When I go into water,I pour my troubles into the ocean and let them float away." 
【小题1】The members of the Polar Bear Club must meet the following requirements except that_____. 

Which is sillier: denying we ever went to the moon or trying to convince the true non-believers?

Once upon a time—July 20, 1969, to be specific – two men got out of their little spaceship and wandered around on the moon for a while. Ten more men walked on the moon over the next three and a half years. The end.

Unfortunately, not quite. A fair number of Americans think that this whole business of moon landings really is a fairy tale. They believe that the landings were a big hoax (骗局) staged in the Mojave Desert, to convince everyone that U.S. technology was the “best” in the whole wide world.

Which is the harder thing to do: Send men to the moon or make believe we did? The fact is that the physics behind sending people to the moon is simple. You can do it with computers whose entire memory capacities can now fit on chips the size of postage stamps and that cost about as much as, well, a postage stamp. I know you can because we did.

However, last fall NASA considered spending $15,000 on a public-relations campaign to convince the unimpressed that Americans had in fact gone to the moon. That idea was mostly a reaction to a Fox television program, first aired in February 2001, that claimed to expose the hoax. The show’s creator is a publicity hound (猎狗) who has lived up to the name in more ways than one by hounding Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Mr. X (as I will call him, thereby denying him the joyous sight of his name in print) recently followed Buzz Aldrin around and called him “a thief, liar and coward” until the 72-year-old astronaut finally lost it and hit the 37-year-old Mr. X in the face.

Anyway, NASA’s publicity campaign began to slow down. The nonbelievers took the campaign as NASA’s effort to hide something while the believers said that $15,000 to convince people that the world was round — I mean, that we had gone to the moon — was simply a waste of money. (Actually, the $15,000 was supposed to pay for an article by James E. Oberg, an astronomy writer who, with Aldrin, has contributed to Scientific American.)

If NASA’s not paying Oberg, perhaps it could put the money to good use by hiring two big guys to drag Neil Armstrong out of the house. Armstrong is an extremely private man, but he is also the first man on the moon, so maybe he has a duty to be a bit more outspoken about the experience. Or NASA could just buy Aldrin a commemorate plaque (纪念匾) for his recent touch on the face of Mr. X.

1.We can learn from Paragraphs 2 and 3 that some Americans believe _______.

A．moon landings were invented

B．U.S. technology was the best

C．moon landing ended successfully

D．the Mojave Desert was the launching base

2.According to the writer, which of the following is to blame for the story about the hoax?

A．NASA’s publicity campaign.               B．The Fox television program.

C．Buzz Aldrin.                            D．James E. Oberg.

3.The believers think that NASA’s publicity campaign is ________.

A．proof to hide the truth

B．stupid and unnecessary

C．needed to convince the non-believers

D．important to develop space technology

4.What is implied in the last paragraph?

A．NASA should not bother with the non-believers.

B．Armstrong was a very private and determined person.

C．Armstrong should be as outspoken as Buzz Aldrin.

D．NASA should send more astronauts to outer space.

Betty Friedan, born in 1921 in Peoria, Illinois, attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She finished her studies in psychology in 1942. After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies. Later, she moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers.

In 1947, Betty married Carl Friedan. They had a child, the first of three. When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper. After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines. But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of w omen.

In 1966, Betty Friedan helped found NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs. She wanted women to take part in social and political change. Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration(游行) in New York City for women’s rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities.

In 1981, Betty Friedan wrote a book called “The Second Stage” about the condition of the women’s movement. Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed. She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life. Some younger members of the movement criticized her as too conservative.

Betty Friedan died on February 4, 2006. She was considered the mother of modern women’s liberation movement. Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered: “She helps make women feel better about being women.”

1.According to Paragraph 2, Betty lost her job because         .

A. she was pregnant                                                 B. she got married

C. her editors didn’t like her                                           D. she was too independent

2.Betty led a huge demonstration to           .

A. fight against the government

B. fight for women’s rights

C. take part in political life

D. get support from the government

3.The book“The Second Stage”            .

A. was popular among young women readers

B. thought highly of those huge demonstrations

C. was about the condition of the women’s movement then

D. decreased the movement’s influence on American political life

4.Fr om the last paragraph, we know that         .

A. Betty help ed women live better

B. Betty wanted to be remembered forever

C. Betty thought it better to be a woman

D. the television reporter knew Betty well

The snow has paralysed(使瘫痪) transport in China during the country’s most important vacation period, the celebration of the Chinese New Year. Not only have transport delays hindered personal trips, but they have also slowed the delivery of fresh produce to markets. Consequently, in Zhengzhou, the capital city of the Henan province, tomato prices have doubled, and the cost of 47 other vegetables has increased by 36%, as reported by local media at the end of January.

     According to an inside PR source, “wholesalers in Beijing were quoted as saying that only about 20% of the usual fresh vegetable supplies were reaching the city.” As an Asian country with a diet based on fresh produce, the shortage of vegetables and the rise in prices is not only affecting fresh food producers, but also the final consumers.

     In terms of production, this is the worst snow disaster to hit China in the last 50 years, affecting a total of 9.4 million hectares of farmland in the country, according to a report published on 4 February 2008 by Feng Tao of Xinhua News, at the Chinese government website. Most of the crops devastated（毁坏）by the frost are located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the traditional natural border between North and South China.

Chen Xiwen, Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Rural Work, pointed out at the end of last week that “the blizzard disaster in the south has had a severe impact on winter crops, and the impact on fresh vegetables could be catastrophic in certain areas”, as stated in the Xinhua News report.

     The Chinese government has been quick to take extreme measures. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has sent 13 teams of experts to 8 of the areas most seriously affected by the harsh weather. The aim of this initiative is to provide farmers with technical assistance to minimize their losses.

From this passage, we can know that the snow happened _____.

   A. During the Spring Festival

   B. In the coldest days of the winter

   C. In the North of China.

   D. It’s not mentioned here.

What’s the meaning of the underlined word in paragraph four?

   A. worst  B. snowstorm  C. cold weather  D. biggest

This passage mainly tells us _____ .

   A. The snow in the south of China caused many problems.

   B. The effect of the snow in the south of China on the fresh food

   C. The snow in the south of China slowed the delivery of fresh produce to markets.

   D. The Chinese government has taken extreme measures to help the suffered farmers.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has sent 13 teams of experts to 8 of the areas to _____ .

   A. help the farmers plant crops          B. give money to the farmers

   C. give directions to the farmers with their technic（技术；技巧）.

   D. deliver crops for the farmers.