Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.

That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversation”－events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to get the past “Where are you from?”

Mr. Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.

The “feast” in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of conversation” includes topics like “How have your priorities(优先考虑的事) changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against the past?”

As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain. Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another. “We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,” he says. “But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions.”

The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom they would be ‘intimate’ with for hours. But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.

“It’s encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,” Zeldin summed up. “What we did is not ordinary, but it can’t be madder than the world already is.”

Some said they felt “liberated” to talk on sensitive topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”

1.What can the “conversations” be best described as?

A．Deep and one-on-one.                   B．Sensitive and mad.

C．Instant and inspiring.                     D．Ordinary and encouraging.

2.In a “feast of conversations”, participants ______.

A．pair freely with anyone they like

B．have a guided talk for a set of period of time

C．ask questions they themselves would not answer

D．wear clothes reflecting multi-racial features.

3.In paragraph 6, “they would be ‘intimate’” is closest in meaning to “______”.

A．they would have physical contact           B．they would have in-depth talk

C．they would be close friends               D．they would exchange basic information

4.From the passage, we can conclude that what Zeldin does is ______.

A．an attempt to promote thinking interaction

B．one of the maddest activities ever conducted

C．a try to liberate people from old-fashioned ideas

D．an effort to give people a chance of talking freely

 “Tom!”

    There was no answer.

    “Tom!”

    Still no answer.

    “Where’s that boy gone? Tom!”

    The old lady looked all around the room. She looked under the bed, but found only the cat.

    “If I catch that boy, …” she murmured to herself.

    She opened the door and looked out into the garden.

    “Tom!” she shouted.

    Then she heard a slight noise behind her. She turned round just in time to catch the boy as he came out of a cupboard.

    “And what have you been doing in there?”

    “Nothing,” said the boy.

    “Nothing! Look at your hands and your mouth! What is that stuff?”

    “I don’t know, Aunt.”

“Well, I know. It’s a jam. I’ve told you forty times that if you touched that jam, I’d skin you.

Give me that stick.”

    “Look out, Aunt! Look behind you!”

    The old lady turned round and Tom was out of the door in a flash, over the garden fence and away.

    “Damn that boy! Will I never learn? He’s always playing tricks on me. And he seems to know just now how far he can go, too. But I can’t take a stick to him. I really can’t. After all, he’s my dead sister’s boy. Ah well, he’ll play truant today and I’ll have to make him work tomorrow.”

At supper Aunt Polly tried to trick Tom into admitting that he hadn’t gone to school.

    “It was rather hot today, wasn’t it, Tom?”

    “Yes,” answered Tom.

    “You didn’t have to open your shirt collar where I sewed（缝） it, then.”

    Tom was confident, now. He opened his jacket. His collar was securely sewed.

    “Oh Tom,” said Aunt Polly. “You’re a good boy really.”

    She was sorry that she had been wrong about him.

    “But Aunt,” came a voice. It was Sidney, Tom’s younger brother. “Didn’ t you sew Tom’s collar with white cotton? Look! Now it’s black.

    Tom was already running out of the door.

                                     ---The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

1.The underlined word “skin” probably mean in the passage?

A. praise             B. cheat                            C. touch                    D. beat   

2.Which of the following words can be best used to describe Tom?

A. stupid             B. clever                       C. naughty           D. brave

3.What can be inferred from Sidney’s words in the passage?

A. Tom made his jacket dirty on purpose.

B. Tom didn’t go to school that day.

C. Tom was a dirty boy.

D. Sidney hated Tom so he wanted to punish him.

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Tom’s mother passed away.                            

B. Tom’s aunt was a good sewer.

C. Tom was good at sports.

D. Aunt Polly felt sorry for his misunderstanding to Tom.

Once upon a time, there was a poor boy working for a king day and night, but the king treated him badly. Every day, the boy went cold and hungry, so he ran away. Then one day, he met a big lion in the desert. The lion looked angry and the boy was afraid. He was about to run away when the lion said, “I am angry because there is a thorn(刺) in my foot.” “Don’t worry. I will help you.” So the boy sat down and helped to pull the thorn out. From then on, they became good friends.

One day, the king went hunting in the desert and he caught the lion! He threw it into a net. On his way back he saw the boy and caught him as well. “I will punish you for running away. I will throw you to the lion’s den(兽窝)!” said the king angrily. So he did! But to the king’s surprise, when the lion saw the boy, it lay down and smiled. The boy smiled too and put his arm around his friend. Greatly moved, the king let the boy and the lion go.

1.Why did the boy run away from the king?(回答词数不超过8个)

2.What did the lion do when the boy was thrown to its den?(回答词数不超过8个)

3.What have you learnt from the story?(回答词数不超过12个)

用所给的短语的适当形式填空

to put it another way,   in detail,  look into,   click into,  in terms of ,  link to , die of ,   as a result of ,   on demand,   figure out,   do with

1.I can’t give you any good suggestions until you tell me the whole thing ________.

2.If you like listening to rock music, you can ______________ this website.

3.The murder case is _____________ by the police now.

4.You can __________your computer _________the Internet only after you have paid the service.

5. ______________ population, China is the largest country in the world.

6.His speech was very long but few people could _____________ what he meant .

7.His sister _______________ cancer last year.

8.The boss is not satisfied with your work, ______________ , you lose your job.

9.What have you been __________________ the conflict?

10.He is unable to work _______________ the fall from his horse.

So far, the moon is the only one of the heavenly bodies in space ______ reached by manned spaceships.