Of course, London is the best city in England and first place to visit for all the tourists. But there are still many other famous cities to visit.

Oxford and Cambridge are England's two most famous university cities. They are full of beautiful old buildings, churches, museums, parks and gardens. Each city has its river the Isis in Oxford, and Cam in Cambridge. You can take a "walking tour" of each city, or there are the Special open-topped tour buses.

Birmingham is England’s biggest city after London. It is famous for art, music and shopping. There are a lot of good eating places, and they are not expensive.

Liverpool stands on the River Mersey on the northwest coast of England. It was the home of the Beatles, the famous pop group from in the 1960s. Beatles's fans can go to see The Beatles Story exhibition, or take a Beatle Tour.

Bath, in the southwest of England, was famous in Roman times and then, again in the nineteenth century. The writer Jane Austen lived at 4 Sydney Place between 1801 and 1804.The city is famous for its Royal Crescent and other beautiful buildings. One of the most interesting museums to visit is the Museum of Costumes.

1．Which is the second largest city in the country?

A．London.        B．Bath.        C．Liverpool.      D．Birmingham.

2．According to the passage,_____________________

A．Jane Austen .lived in Bath for more than four years

B．Birmingham is famous for beautiful buildings.

C．Jane Austen was a French writer

D．the city of London attracts the most tourists in England

3．Which of the following is TRUE?

A．You can visit the Isis when you go to Cambridge.

B．Oxford and Cambridge are famous for the universities.

C．The Museum of Costumes is the most interesting museum in the country.

D．You can still watch the Beatles' performance when you go to Liverpool.

4．After reading we get to know that

A．Bath was once famous in the history of the country.

B．Birmingham is famous for the pop group, the Beatles

C．People can travel around the country on special open-topped buses

D．The city of Bath lies in the northwest of the country

5．The passage mainly introduces

A．some places of great interest for people to visit in England

B．some famous universities and museums in England

C．some famous cities worth visiting in England

D．the ways of traveling around the country

This March is a busy month in Shanghai. There's a lot to do. Here are the highlights.

Live Music - Late Night Jazz

Enjoy real American jazz from Herbie Davis, the famous trumpet(小号) player. He's coming with his new 7-piece band, Herbie' s Heroes. Herbie is known to play well into the early hours, so don't expect to get much sleep. This is Herbie' s third visit to Shanghai. The first two were sold out, so get your tickets quickly.

Scottish dancing

Take your partners and get ready to dance till you drop. Scottish dancing is fun and easy to learn. Instructors(教练) will show the dances. The live band, Gordon Stroppie and the Weefrees, are also excellent.

Exhibitions - Shanghai Museum

There are 120,000 pieces on show here. You can see the whole of Chinese history. It' s always interesting to visit, but doubly(双重) so at the moment with the Egyptian Tombs exhibition. There are lots of mummies(木乃伊) and more gold than you've ever seen before. Let us know if you see a mummy move!

Dining - Sushi chef in town

Sushi is getting really big in Shanghai. In Japan, it' s become an art form. The most famous Sushi 'artist' is Yuki Kamura. She' s also one of the few female chefs in Japan. She' ll be at Sushi Scene all of this month.

For a full listing of events, see our website.

1.If you are going to attend an activity at 8: 00p. m. on Saturday, which one can you choose?

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the advertisements?

3.From the text we may learn that Kamura is _______.

In his lowest days when few people bought his records, Taiwan singer Steve Chou lived alone in Canada and did little. One day, he passed by a local CD store and heard a song that greatly attracted him. “My heart tells me that music is the thing I truly want to do, not for fame（名誉）or money,” Chou said. That’s how we luckily have such a music genius（天才）, who has since then composed（作曲）lots of hits for the pop music charts (排行榜). 

“Sometimes we need to get close to nature to look deeply into our souls and see what we really want to follow,” he said.

Recently he has made public his latest work Lovers Genesis. In this album（集）he explores human relationships in the Internet age. “Technology itself is a good thing, but it depends on how you’re going to use it,” is Chou’s advice to teenagers.

  Chou often gets his music ideas from trips. He has traveled to many places around the world and believes that learning a country’s language is the fastest way of experiencing the culture behind it.      

Chou has worked hard on learning English to push forward his music career(事业). He has flown to the UK to attend months-long English training schools three times. There he lives with local families and practices daily conversations.

  “So I could easily read the English instructions on recording machines and communicate with the local music producers,” said Chou, “The music reviews of the US or British singers that I appreciate（感激） could help me learn and grow with them.”

1.Which of the following about Steve Chou is the correct order?  

①. He made public his work Lovers Genesis.

②. He passed by a local CD store and heard a song that greatly attracted him.

③. He composed lots of hits for the pop music charts.

④. Few people bought his records.

A. ①②③④         B. ④②③①       C. ①③②④      D.④①③②

2.Why has Chou flown to the UK to learn English?

A. Because he wants to live in the UK.

B. Because his record company asks him to.

C. Because he wants to sell his album in the UK.

D. Because he thinks it will be helpful for his music career.

3.Steve Chou may agree with the following except that __________.

A. taking trips gives him some ideas of music

B. what we really want to follow is the most important

C. music is a thing that can bring him fame and money

D. in International age, technology itself is not a bad thing

4.What is Steve Chou like according to the passage?

A. Kind and helpful.                 B. Proud and confident.

C. Active and hard-working.       D. Calm and disappointed.

For many years, artists have flocked（聚集）to Paris, France, to paint or to learn to paint. Perhaps artists first went there because of the city's beauty. They went to paint pictures of the broad tree-lined streets, the great churches, and the graceful river bridges. The artists felt comfortable in Paris because the people of the city had always enjoyed art.  Paris had great art museums, filled with famous paintings and statues from many countries. And the people of Paris had always welcomed new ideas. In this city, artists felt free to experiment with new ways of painting. As soon as famous artists painted in Paris, students came to learn them. People came to buy paintings.  Men called art dealers（商人） set up galleries where paintings could be bought and sold.  Others kept shops that sold artists' paints and supplies. Students and the artists who were not yet famous could live in Paris for very little money. They learned by studying great art in the museums, and they learned from one another.  They held art fairs, hanging their paintings outdoors along the streets.

 Today, New York City and Florence, Italy, are also famous art centers.  But the world's principal art exhibits are still held in Paris.  Important judges of art live there.  Most of the new ways of painting that have started in the last hundred years began in Paris. So artists and art dealers still go to Paris because it is the world's leading art center.

（     ）6. Artists first went to Paris because _____.

A. it was very beautiful

           B. it was cheap to live there

C. there were a lot of streets, bridges and churches

 D. there were a lot of art museums

（     ）7. Artists still go to Paris now because _____.

      A. it is still very beautiful

      B. it is still cheap to live there

      C. there are more art museums

 D. it is the leading art center of the world

（      ）8. The main idea of the story is about _____.

      A. the world's most famous art center

     B. how to buy a painting in Paris

      C. the famous art centers of New York and Florence

 D. art museums and art dealers

（       ）9. The story leads us to believe _____.

 A. all artists who go to Paris will become famous

 B. the people of Paris have never liked new ideas

 C. people can buy fine paintings in Paris

 D. Paris is the most beautiful city in the world

（       ）10. The story makes us think _____.

 A. that Paris is famous for its artist's paints

B. that there is more than one way to paint

 C. that art fairs are held in galleries

 D. that few artists will go to Paris in the future

Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.
Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.
Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.
"I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."
【小题1】What did Nathan put on his desk at college?