Friends play an important role in our lives, and although we can’t be more familiar with the fact of friendship, we often don’t clearly understand how we make friends, especially with Americans. Here are some pieces of advice on making friends with Americans:

　　1. Visiting places Americans enjoy: parties, churches, restaurants, parks and sports clubs.

　　2. Be willing to take the first step. Don’t wait for them to get close to you. Americans in China may not know you speak English. They may be uncomfortable if they can’t speak your language.

　3. Use small talks to open the conversation. Ask them where they’re from, why they come to China, etc. . Remember: Be careful not to ask personal questions about age, salary and so on.

　　4. Show an interest in their culture, their country or their job. Americans like to talk about themselves!

　　5. Invite them to join you for dinner or just for coffee or tea. Try to set a specific(明确的)time. Americans sometimes make general invitations like “Let’s go out for dinner sometime. ”Often this is just a way to be friendly. It is not always a real invitation.

　　6. Don’t expect too much at first. Maybe they’re being friendly. But maybe they want to be your good friends. It will take time to tell.

1.According to the text, Americans like to visit the following places except＿＿＿＿.

2.What should you say when meeting an American for the first time?

3.What is mainly discussed in the text?

4.Which is the best way to make friends with an American?

To face the music

Like every language, American English is full of special expressions, phrases that come from the day-to-day life of the people and develop in their own way. Our expression today is “to face the music”.

When someone says, “well, I guess I’ll have to face the music,” it does not mean he’s planning to go to the concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this and did that, and why you didn’t do this or that. Sour music indeed, but it has to be faced. At sometime or another, every one of us has had to face the music, especially as children. We can all remember father’s angry voice, “I want to talk to you.” and only because we did not obey him. What an unpleasant business it was!

The phrase “to face the music” is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old. And where did this expression come from? The first explanation comes from the American novelist, James Fenimore Looper. He said, in 1851, that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on the stage. When they got their cue to go on, they often said, “Well, it’s time to face the music.” And that was exactly what they did — facing the orchestra which was just below them. And an actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved on to the stage in front of an audience that might be friendly or perhaps hostile, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. If he did not, there would be no play. So the expression “to face the music” come to mean “having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you knew you had no choice.”

Other explanations about the expression go back to the army. When the men faced an inspection by their leader, the soldiers would be worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean, shinny enough to pass the inspection? Still the men had to go out and face the music of the band as well as the inspection. What else could they do? 

Another army explanation is more closely related to the idea of facing the results and accepting the responsibility for something that should not have been done. As, for example when a man is forced out of the army because he did something terrible, he is dishonored. The band does not play. Only the drums tap a sad, slow beat. The soldier is forced to leave, facing such music as it is and facing the back of his horse.

How many ways does the phrase “to face the music” comes from?

A. 1        B. 2        C. 3       D. 4

What’s the meaning of “to face the music?”

A. To face something far less pleasant.

B. To face the stage.

C. To face the back of one’s horse.

D. To face one’s leader.

Which of the following is a situation of facing the music?

A. When we are playing basketball.  

B. When we are making a speech.

C. When we are having a party.

D. When we are talking with somebody. 

The underlined word “hostile” means _______. 

A. unfriendly               B. dislike        C. unkind                     D. unnecessary

Perhaps the most famous theory, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks ---- we are not born with them. A baby has generally informed face features. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set the eyebrows by looking at those around-family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some areas of the United States look so much alike, new Englanders or Southerners have certain common face features that cannot be explained by genetics(遗传学). The exact shape of the mouth is not set at birth, it is learned after. In fact, the final mouth shape is not formed until well after new teeth are set. For many, this can be well into grown-ups. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country area people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the South is the part of the country where the people smile most frequently. In New England they smile less, and in the western part of New York State still less. Many southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly, partly because people on Madison Avenue smile less than people on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. People in largely populated areas also smile and greet each other in public less than people in small towns do.

1.Ray Birdwhistell believes that physical appearance ____.

A. has little to do with culture

B. has much to do with culture

C. is ever changing

D. is different from place to place

2.According to the passage, the final mouth shape is formed ____.

A. before birth

B. as soon as one’s teeth are newly set

C. sometime after new teeth are set

D. around 15 years old

3.Ray Birdwhistell can tell what area of the United States a person is from by ____.

A. how much he or she laughs

B. how he or she raises his or her eyebrows

C. what he or she likes best

D. the way he or she talks

ANCHORAGE, Alaska--The 2004 winner of Alaska’s famous 1,000-mile sled-dog race, the Iditarod, won again at age 53 to become the oldest champion in 2013, a year after his son became the youngest winner.

Mitch Seavey got his dogs to the finishing line first in 9 days, 7 hours, 39 minutes and 56 seconds. His son, Dallas Seavey, now 26, ended up ranking fourth, behind the older competitor, 43-year-old Aliy Zirkle, who followed four-time champion Jeff King, now 57.

Mitch Seavey, who lives in Seward, Alaska, operates a seasonal sled-dog touring business. The race was Mitch Seavey’s 20th Iditarod.

This year’s contest was marked by unusual conditions and unseasonable rain in the northern part of the trail, and conditions that Seavey said helped his team. “It seems like the tougher it is, the better we can do.”

He also thought highly of Zirkle, a New England immigrant（移民）who now lives in Two Rivers, Alaska. “She’s a great musher（赶狗拉雪橇的人）, and she’s going to win the Iditarod sometime, and probably more than once. We just had a little more energy, I think.” Zirkle, one of the most popular mushers, was greeted by shouts of  “Aliy, Ally” from the fans as she drove her dog team approaching the finishing line on Nome’s Front Street. “I am pretty happy to be here,” she said. “I was going for it.”

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is one of the few major U. S. sports events in which men and women compete on an equal footing. The name “Iditarod” dates from a local Athabascan term meaning “a far, distant place”. Youthful mushers in the race may have some physical advantages--they can do some things more easily. But more importantly, winning the race needs the experience in dog race.

The year’s event started on Saturday, March 2 with a ceremonial nm in Anchorage. Of the 66 mushers who started the race, 10 had dropped out of competition as of Tuesday night. For his victory, Mitch Seavey will take home $50,400 and a new truck.

1.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Mitch Seavey is the oldest competitor in the sled-dog race in 2013.

B. Mitch Seavey, who operates a touring business, is a New England immigrant.

C. Mitch Seavey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 2004 and 2013.

D. Mitch Seavey managed to help his son become the youngest winner in 2012.

2.On which day did Mitch Seavey probably win the champion in the 2013 Iditarod?

A. On Saturday, March 2.               B. On Monday, March 11.

C. On Saturday, March 9.               D. On Tuesday, March 13.

3. Who ranked the 2nd place in the 2013 Iditarod according to the passage?

A. Aliy Zirkle.     B. Dallas Seavey.

C. Mitch Seavey.     D. Jeff King.

4. According to the passage, we can learn that ________.

A. the sled-dog race is the most important sports event in the US

B. experience also has a major influence on the result of the race besides age

C. men and women can’t compete in the sled-dog race together at the same time

D. all the athletes in the sled-dog race are limited by age to win the sled-dog race

If you look for a book as a present for a child, you will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books, which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all. In 2003, 35% did. And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability（可利用性）of computer games. Maybe the books boom（繁荣）has affected only the top of the educational pile. Either way, Chancellor Gordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class. In his pre-budget（预算） report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds, who receive four months of individual daily half- hour classes with a specially trained teacher. An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress, and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well, but read less – often for fun than those elsewhere. Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on（热衷） reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator（指示物）of future educational success. According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.
【小题1】Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?