Ever since you were born, you’ve probably celebrated the anniversary of that day once each year. Would you believe that some people actually celebrate TWICE each year? Not only do they celebrate the anniversary of the day they were born, they also celebrate six months later on their half birthday!

First let’s take a look at how half birthdays are calculated. The first --- and earliest --- is simply to keep the same number of the birth date and add six months to it. For example, if your birthday is January 13, then your half birthday would be on July 13.

Of course, this easy method doesn’t always work, because not all months have the same number of days. For example, an August 30 birthday would become February 30 --- a day that doesn’t exist!

If you want to be really precise, you need to add half the number of days in a year to your birth date. For example, in a normal year, this means adding 182.5 days. In a leap year, you would add 183 days. If this sounds too complicated, don’t worry. There are plenty of websites that will do the work for you!

For starters, consider kids. As they grow, six months can mean huge milestones. It can be a special time to celebrate with them as they grow up, because they grow up all too fast!

Half birthday celebrations can also be great for those people whose regular birthday might be overshadowed by a nearby holiday, such as Christmas. Likewise, kids whose birthdays fall in the summer might enjoy celebrating their half birthday, so that they can share their joy with their friends at school.

Half birthdays aren’t the only special “birthdays” that some people celebrate, though. Adopted children sometimes celebrate both their actual birthday (the day they were actually born) and the day they were adopted. Do you have any other special “birthdays” that you and your family celebrate?

1.The author’s purpose of writing this passage is mainly to tell us ________.

A. what birthday means

B. what half birthday is

C. the kinds of birthdays

D. the history of birthday

2.The author shows us how to calculate half birthdays by ________.

A. offering some practical examples

B. making a list of different numbers

C. comparing a normal year and a leap one

D. telling the difference between birthdays and half birthdays

3.Who are most likely to celebrate half birthdays?

A. People who are not young any longer.

B. People whose half birthday falls in summer.

C. People whose birthday falls near a holiday.

D. People who don’t like their birthdays at all.

4.This passage is taken from a website; which section does it belong to?

A. Science. B. Politics.

C. Hobby. D. Culture.

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Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize for Literature might ignite an explosion of global interest in Chinese literature and lead to more titles translated into English, European experts say.

“Hopefully, the award means more people will read Chinese literature and more works will get translated,” says Michel Hockx, professor of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia from University of London. “Many very good Chinese writers have been accepted globally for a long time already. Mo Yan is probably the most translated Chinese writer alive, with at least five of his novels made available in English over the past 20 years.”

Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, says Mo’s win coincides with growing interest in Chinese literature and recognizes the talents of a distinctive and visionary writer. “We are very excited by the fact that English translations of more of his books should now become available,” Ruppin says. He made the comment after Mo became the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its century-long history.

As East-West cultural exchange has been booming, Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Hockx explains, “It’s mainly because there are many more opportunities for Chinese writers to visit other countries, to publish their works outside China and to interact with readers abroad. At the same time, more and more people globally are learning Chinese and taking an interest in the Chinese language and culture .”

University of Oxford lecturer in modern Chinese literature Margaret Hillenbrand says, “The obvious reason for the growing global presence of Chinese literature is the growing global presence of China itself. People have come to realize that there is a serious knowledge deficit between China and its international counterparts — in particular,China knows incomparably more about Europe and America than the other way round— and reading Chinese literature is an effective, simple means of solving that gap.”

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A. start out B. burn up

C. set off D. appeal to

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A. Chinese writers have been writing more and more books in English

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C. the Chinese government attaches great importance to literature

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D. Foreigners know about China mainly by reading Mo Yan’s works.

4.How do you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?

A. China knows more about Europe and America than before.

B. China knows more about Europe and America than they know about China.

C. China, Europe and America know one another more than before.

D. Compared with America, China knows more about Europe.

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16.A. When B. Before C. Unless D. Until

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假定英語課上老師要求同桌之間交換修改作文，請你修改你同桌寫的以下作文。文中共有10處語言錯(cuò)誤，每句中最多有兩處。錯(cuò)誤涉及一個(gè)單詞的增加、刪除或修改。

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I am a student from No 1 Middle School. Informing that you are looking for a student to serve as a spokesman for pandas, I am very exciting. I hope that I can get the opportunity to do something else for pandas. I have been the panda lover since my childhood. Pandas are too lovely that they bring us comfort and pleasure. They were referred to as a symbol of our country. Unfortunate, such a lovely species is now faced with the danger of becoming extinct. What I am eager to do are to raise people`s aware of protecting pandas. I would appreciate if I could be chosen as a spokesman.

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A Kickstarter launched Friday will allow interested parties to set up a camera and pet toys in their home for anyone to play with their pets remotely. It’s called the ipet Companion, an Internet-connected camera and device that streams video online and allows basic commands from people watching. They can move the camera, look at their pet and press a button to swing a toy around.

Obviously, demand is strong. The Kickstarter proved so popular that Scott Harris, iPet Companion’s founder, said that thousands of people started asking for it.

The reason why people keep talking about this is the emotional(情感的) connection they have from a thousand miles away. If you want, you can enter a queue to move the camera and play with the pets. Each room has toys that are hooked(鉤住) into Internet-connected devices, and you can move them by pressing a button.

But there’s sort of a problem: Pets get bored easily. Young pets will stay more interested than adult pets, but finally even a baby pet will get bored, too. To stop that from happening, you’d better limit the pets’ access(接近) to the boys and change the place where they’re located in the room.

Harris understands this and said you can plug anything into that adapter(適配器) ---toys that you can get on your own. And that’s where the iPet Companion really gets interesting. Harris explained that the device is actually sort of a Trojan horse to bring the “Internet of things” to more homes. You don’t really have to use it for pets. The adapter could be used for any device with an electrical plug---a sprinkler, say, that you’d be able to activate to water your grass.

“Our whole goal, our whole purpose is to let anyone control any physical object that they want to while they travel anywhere in the woorld,” Harris said.

1.What does the underlined word “remotely” in Paragragh 1 probably mean?

A. far away.

B. For free.

C. With pity.

D. Out of control.

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A. it can be used to kill time

B. it is easy to control online

C. it can meet all of their demands

D. they can show their love for faraway pets by using it

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B. They don’t receive rewards from the games.

C. Toys are played with too often at the same place.

D. Adult pets prevent young ones from playing the games.

4.What can we infer from what Scott Harris said?

A. iPet Companion is only a kind of toy.

B. Kickstarter can be used in many other ways.

C. iPet Companion can actually be turned into a toy horse.

D. iPet Companion can look after pets while their owners are away.

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