题目内容
A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US is how friendly,courteous and helpful most Americans were to them.To be fair,this observation is also frequently made of Canada and Canadians,and should best be considered North American.There are,of course,exceptions.Small-minded officials,rude waiters,and ill-mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US.Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.For a long period of time and in many parts of the country, a traveler was a welcome break in an otherwise dull existence.
Dullness and loneliness were common problems of the families who generally lived distant from one another.Strangers and travelers were welcome sources of diversion,and brought news of the outside world.The harsh realities of the frontier also shaped this tradition of hospitality.
Someone traveling alone,if hungry,injured,or ill,often had nowhere to turn except to the nearest cabin or settlement.It was not a matter of choice for the traveler or merely a charitable impulse on the part of the settlers.It reflected the harshness of daily life: if you didn‘t take in the stranger and take care of him,there was no one else who would.And someday,remember,you might be in the same situation.Today there are many charitable organizations which specialize in helping the weary traveler.Yet,the old tradition of hospitality to strangers is still very strong in the US,especially in the smaller cities and towns away from the busy tourist trails.“I was just traveling through,got talking with this American,and pretty soon he invited me home for dinner—amazing.” Such observations reported by visitors to the US are not uncommon,but are not always understood properly.![]()
【小题1】In the eyes of visitors from the outside world,___________.
| A.rude taxi drivers are rarely seen in the US |
| B.small-minded officials deserve a serious comment |
| C.Canadians are not so friendly as their neighbors |
| D.most Americans are ready to offer help |
| A.culture exercises an influence over social interrelationship |
| B.courteous convention and individual interest are interrelated |
| C.various virtues manifest themselves exclusively among friends |
| D.social interrelationships equal the complex set of cultural conventions |
| A.to improve their hard life |
| B.in view of their long-distance travel |
| C.to add some flavor to their own daily life |
| D.out of a charitable impulse |
| A.tends to be superficial and artificial |
| B.is generally well kept up in the united States |
| C.is always understood properly |
| D.has something to do with the busy tourist trails |
| A.Favorable. | B.Unfavorable. |
| C.Indifferent. | D.Neutral. |
【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】C
【小题4】B
【小题5】A
解析试题分析:文章介绍美国人大都友好、礼貌、乐于助人。这是因为美国的文化决定了美国人的行为,友善好客的旧传统在美国仍是探蒂固的
【小题1】细节题:从第一段的句子:A report consistently brought back by visitors to the US is how friendly,courteous and helpful most Americans were to them.可知外面的游客认为 美国人大都友好、礼貌、乐于助人。选D
【小题2】推理题:最后一段的第一句是全段的主题,该句可译为:像其他发达国家一样,在美国,人际关系的背后是一系列复杂的文化符号、信念和习俗。换言之,美国的文化决定了美国人的行为。选A
【小题3】细节题:第二段指出,在美国历史的很长一段时期(即所谓“拓荒”时代),对许多地区来说,一个旅行者的到来是很受欢迎的,因为它可以对平时单调的生活起一个调节(break)作用。离群索居的家庭共同的问题是日常生活的单调与寂寞,陌生人或旅行者的到来可以使他们暂时摆脱这种生活状况,所以选C
【小题4】细节题:第二、三段探索了形成美国人友善好客传统的原因之后,第四段指出,虽然现在有许多专门的机构帮助旅行者,但是,友善好客的旧传统在美国仍根探蒂固,这突出表现在远离旅游热线的一些小城市中。选B
【小题5】作者态度题:文章最后一段指出,友善好客是倍受美国人珍视的美德,他们同样希望邻国人和其他外国人也表现出这一美德。所以作者对美国人的好客是赞同的,选A
考点:考查社会现象类短文
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes (撞击) through a wind and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars or even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman' s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too.
【小题1】Stuntmen are those who ______.
| A.often dress up as actors |
| B.prefer to lead dangerous lives |
| C.often perform seemingly dangerous actions |
| D.often fight each other for their lives |
| A.playing their dirty tricks |
| B.selling their special skills |
| C.jumping out of high windows |
| D.jumping from fast moving trains |
| A.Strength. | B.Exactness. |
| C.Speed. | D.Carefulness. |
A.Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C. Parachutes must be of good quality.
D. The cliff is too high.
In the Caucasus region of Russia, nearly 50 out of every 100,000 people live to celebrate their 100th birthday, and many don’t stop at 100! By comparison, in America only 3 people in 100,000 reach 100. But these Russian old people aren’t alone. The Pakistanis, who live high in the Himalaya Mountains, and the Ecuadorans of the Andes Mountains seem to share the secret of long life, too.
These people remain healthy in body and spirit despite the passage of time. While many older persons in industrial societies become weak and ill in their 60s and 70s, some Caucasians aged 100 to 140, work in the fields beside their great-great-grandchildren. Even the idea of aging is foreign to them. When asked “at what age does youth end?”most of these old people had no answer. Several replied, “Well, perhaps at age 80.”
What accounts for this ability to survive to such old age, and to survive so well?First of all, hard physical work is a way of life for all of these long-lived people. They begin their long days of physical labor as children and never seem to stop. For example, Mr . Rustam Mamedov is 142 years of age. His wife is 116 years old. They have been married for 90 years. Mr. Mamedov has no intention of retiring from his life as a farmer. “Why?What else would I do?”he asks. All these people get healthful rewards from the environment in which they work. They all come from mountainous regions. They live and work at elevations of 1,660 to 1,000 meters above sea level. The air has less oxygen and is pollution-free. This reduced-oxygen environment makes the heart and blood vessel(血管) system stronger.
Another factor that may contribute to the good health of these people is their isolation. To a great extent, they are separated from the pressures and worries of industrial society. Inherited factors also play some role. Most of the longest-lived people had parents and grandparents who also reached very old ages. Good family genes may, therefore, be one factor in living longer.
【小题1】The example of Mr. and Mrs. Mamedov implies that some Caucasians aged 100 to 140 ____.
| A.become weak and hopeless |
| B.are too old to work in the fields |
| C.benefit from physical work |
| D.are still working in the fields |
| A.Retiring from their lives as farmers. |
| B.Having been married for 90 years. |
| C.Hard physical work. |
| D.Having no intentions. |
| A.Clean mountain air. | B.Daily hard work. |
| C.Good genes | D.Stress and pressure. |
In the Harry Potter films, Hermione Granger is better than her male friends and is considered the brightest pupil in her grade. Isn’t it often the same in schools of our real world? A great many boys fall behind their female classmates.
“It’s surprising but true that most of the top students have been girls since primary school. Girls are class leaders, club presidents and the top ones in exams,” said Wang Feixuan, 15, who studies at a Chengdu school. By any measure, Wang herself is a high-achiever. She is a top student, a team leader in her school’s sports club and a winner in national English and IT competitions.
But why do so many girls outperform their male peers(同辈)?
In Sun Yunxiao’s latest book Save Our Boys, he points out that the education system is “more suited to girls, who are good at memorizing and like to sit quietly and read.” Yet he also says that girls have to do so much more when they compete with males for honors, top universities and later good jobs. They can feel great pressure(压力)nearly every day.
This seems to be the same in most countries in the world. Young women in the United States are also reported to feel the same pressure to be perfect.
“Let’s look at what we ask of our teenage girls,” says an American professor Stephen Hinshaw in an interview.
He thinks that it’s no longer enough that a girl does well in school and is a caring friend. On the TV, on the Internet, and everywhere, girls see images of impossible perfection(完美).
Today’s young women must be good learners, good athletes, and fill their after-school lives with other activities. But they’re also asked to have the styles and looks of popular stars. “Be pretty, sweet and nice. Be athletic, competitive and get straight. Be impossibly perfect.” Stephen Hinshaw sums up.
【小题1】The passage suggests that________.
| A.our society asks far too much of teenage girls |
| B.teenage girls shouldn’t be so perfect at school |
| C.boys are always lazy ones rather than girls |
| D.American girls have less pressure than Chinese girls |
| A.boys are less smart than girls throughout school life |
| B.boys usually don’t have so much pressure as girls do |
| C.girls are all fond of the Chinese education system |
| D.girls are better at school because boys don’t work hard |
| A.mistake | B.misunderstand | C.ignore | D.defeat |
| A.Impossibly Perfect Is Possible. | B.Why Are Girls So Perfect? |
| C.Perfect? Pressure Every Day! | D.Perfect: Boys or Girls? |
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the proportion of a woman's life spent in caring for the children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties ,and would be likely to have seven or eight children, four or five of whom lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work.. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman's youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five years and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement at sixty. Even while she has to take care of children, her work is lightened by moder living conditions.
This important change in women's life-patterns has only recently begun to have its full effect on women's economic position. Even a few years ago most girls took a full-time job after they left school.. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school- leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry older, more married women stay at work at least until shortly before their first child is born. Many more afterwards return to full-or-part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.
【小题1】At what age did most women marry around the 1890 according to the passage?
| A.At about twenty-five | B.In their earl fifties |
| C.At the age of fifteen | D.At any age from fifteen to forty-five |
| A.The youngest child could live to fifteen. |
| B.Four of five children died after they were five. |
| C.Seven or eight children lived to be more than five. |
| D.Some children died when the were very young. |
| A.was usaully expected to die fiarely soon |
| B.would expect to work until she died |
| C.would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs |
| D.was less like to find a job even if she wanted to |
| A.Husbands and wives share equal responsibilities at home. |
| B.More and more women are looked down upon by husbands. |
| C.Today women prefer to get married rather than get jobs. |
| D.A husband plays a greater part in looking after the children. |
If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate(价钱). From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly(相应地).
With so many loopholes(漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.
In a society of such high moral practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?
【小题1】While taking a taxi in Finland, _____.
| A.a passenger can go anywhere without having to pay the driver |
| B.a passenger pays two US dollars for a taxi ride |
| C.a passenger can never be turned down by the taxi driver wherever he wants to go |
| D.a passenger needs to provide good faith demonstration (证明) before leaving without paying |
| A.are mostly poorly managed |
| B.provide meals for any diners |
| C.provide free wine and charge for food |
| D.provide meal for only those who live in the hotels |
| A.The workers in Finland are paid by the hour. |
| B.The workers are always honest with their working hours. |
| C.The workers and their bosses will make an agreement in advance about the pay. |
| D.The bosses in Finland are too busy to check the working hours of their employees. |
| A.people who are dishonest |
| B.people who often have meals in big hotels |
| C.people who often take taxis |
| D.people who are worthy of trust |
People have been talking about health for a long time because people know the importance of it. People's understanding of health also becomes deeper with the progress in scientific research. Recently the term "health" has come to have a wider meaning than it used to. It no longer means just the absence of illness. Today, health means the well-being of your body, your mind and your relationship with other people. This new concept of health is closely related to another term-quality of life. Quality of life is the degree of overall satisfaction that a person gets from life.
Why has the emphasis of health shifted from the absence of disease to a broader focus on the quality of a person's life? One reason for this has to do with the length and conditions of life that people can now expect. Medical advances have made it possible for people today to live longer, healthier lives. Imagine for a moment that you were born in the year 1900. You could have expected on average to live until about the age of 47. In contrast, if you were born in the year 1999, you could expect to live to the age of 75.
【小题1】________ leads to people's deeper understanding of health.
| A.Common knowledge | B.Better conditions of living |
| C.Progress in scientific research | D.Quality of life |
| A.absence of illness | B.overall satisfaction with life |
| C.good conditions of living | D.a long life |
| A.people enjoy better conditions of living and they can live longer |
| B.people pay more attention to their physical health, not their mental health |
| C.people have realized the importance of mental well-being |
| D.people are inspired by medical advances |
| A.different understandings of the term "health" |
| B.improving the quality of life |
| C.the importance of quality living |
| D.people's expectations of a long and healthy life |
“People are ruder today because they are rushed and more ‘time poor’ than ever before,”says Patsy Rowe,“ Manners_have_fallen_off_the_radar(雷达).”Due to our strong attraction to electronic equipment it is a wonder more people don’t wake up each morning and greet the singing birds with a complaint(抱怨)about the noise.Here are some examples of rudeness.
Some people prefer to do almost everything over the internet.To them,dealing with an actual human is like an evolutionary step backward.It feels very slow because humans don’t work at 4G speeds.When you have dinner with friends,you will often notice someone paying more attention to his mobile phone.We have programmed ourselves to think that every new message brings lifechanging news,so taking calls and checking our texts are more important than talking to the people we are with.What is worse,some people even tend to send anonymous(匿名的) rude messages by email.
However,rudeness is never acceptable.Don’t assume it is OK to be rude if the person you’re in touch with won’t recognize you.If you have something awful to say,have the courage to face the person and say it,write a letter or email and sign it,or forget it.Upsetting people with unsigned messages is cruel and disgusting.
We shouldn’t blame technology for our shortcomings.Technology is here to help us,but we should not allow it to take over our lives.An important step ia acknowledging our shortcomings.People spend a lot of time pointing out bad manners but it would be even more helpful if we’d publicly acknowledge good manners when we see them.
【小题1】What can be inferred from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?
| A.People can tell good from bad behavior. |
| B.Radar is able to observe human behavior. |
| C.People care little about their behavior. |
| D.Radar can be used to predict human behavior. |
| A.they are becoming less patient |
| B.they are growing too independent |
| C.they have to handle many important messages |
| D.they have to follow an evolutionary step backward. |
| A.ridiculous | B.disgusting |
| C.acceptable | D.reasonable |
| A.We should applaud good behavior. |
| B.Technology can never be blamed. |
| C.We should keep pointing out mistakes. |
| D.Technology will take over our lives one day. |