18、CLASSIFIED ADS

17、                               A  

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.

As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “The Old Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.

However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.

That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

56. The passage mainly tells us something about ______.

A. the past and present of British pubs           

B. the decline of British pubs

C. the long history of British pubs        

D. the importance of British pubs

57. Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?

A. The credit crunch.                           B. The present closing time.

C. The ban of smoking.                              D. Having no spare money.

58. We can infer from the passage that ______.      

A. British people used to like drinking slowly

B. closing the pubs early will reduce social problems

C. binge drinking means drinking less beer

D. British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking

59. We can see from the last paragraph that the author _______.

  A. is against the admission of too many women to the pubs

  B. holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs

  C. thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems

  D. thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need

15、Not having a good ________ of English can be a serious barrier to achieving your goals.

  A. demand             B. appreciation                                        C. command      D. experience

二、完型填空

（每空？ 分，共？ 分）

14、_______, nobody was injured in the accident．

       A．As it may seem strange                   B．Because it may seem strange

       C．Strange as it may seem                   D．Strange as may it seem

13、—Do you mind if I take off my jacket?   

—_______.

A. Of course not, make yourself at home  

B. I’m glad if I can be of any help

C. Oh, thanks. That’s really nice of you           

D. It’s really cold here

12、 That hero who died in the war was so brave that he never ______ to the enemies until death.

A. gave in        B. gave out     C. gave up       D. gave away

11、Those young men were____ by the police with making trouble in the neighborhood.

   A. charged     B.blamed   C.scolded     D.accused

10、What you said just now did ________ her a lot. She felt very sad.

  A. injure            B. damage         C. wound          D. hurt.

9、The police were seeking more information to find out ______ the rich merchant.

A. who was it that killed              B. who it was that killed

C. it was who killed                  D. who was it killed