The spirit of Christmas isn’t always so cheerful. Here are four unusual and a little scary Christmas traditions from around the world.

1. Guatmala: Burning devils

In order to make houses free from bad spirits for the New Year, Guatemalans do a full house clean in December. The dirt and dust is gathered from every home and each neighborhood creates a large amount of garbage. A devil statue is built and placed on top of the dirt, and burned. The bad luck is said to burn up with the devil.

2. South Africa: Don’t eat Santa’s cookies

To keep kids from stealing on Santa’s cookies, parents tell children a story about a boy named Danny who ate all of Santa’s cookies and really angered his grandmother. She killed him and now his ghosts visits houses during Christmas time.

3. Iceland: Fear the Yule Cat

Children who don’t receive new clothes by Christmas Eve will be eaten by the Yule Cat, a large and angry cat, which is said to hide in the snow. The strange tradition comes from farmers who used the myth to encourage their workers to finish making the autumn wool before Christmas.

4. Ukraine: A spooky tree

If you find yourself in Ukraine around the holidays, you may be wondering: Is it Christmas or Halloween? Trees here are decorated with artificial(人工的) spider weds and decorative spiders. The unusual tradition comes from a story where a spider wove a web around the tree of a poor family. When morning came, the white strands(線) turned to precious metals and the family became rich. The webs today show good fortune for the next year.

1.To celebrate the New Year, what will people do in Guatemala?

A. Clean their houses.

B. Show their respects to the devil statue.

C. Buy a devil statue.

D. Move to new houses.

2.Which country has a tradition that might cause kids’ fear of eating Santa’s cookies?

A. Guatemala. B. South Africa.

C. Iceland. D. Ukraine.

3.What can we infer about Christmas in Iceland?

A. The Yule Cat usually hides in the grass before Christmas.

B. All the children will receive new clothes on Christmas.

C. New clothes are popular Christmas presents for children in Iceland.

D. The Yule Cat would eat the farmers who don’t finish their work on time.

4.Why do Ukrainians like spiders on Christmas?

A. Spiders are pretty insects.

B. Spiders are believed to bring good fortune.

C. Spiders always help poor families out of pity.

D. Webs of spiders are suitable for decoration.

I live in New York City, and my “neighbors” are people I don’t know. My city, neighborhood and block are filled with people who don’t know me, don’t care to know me, and don’t talk to me. I find that it’s pretty hard to love people you don’t even know. And sometimes, we all, myself included, use that as an excuse not to try.

One day, Brendan, a young man in New York, was coming home to his Brooklyn apartment when a homeless woman called Jackie asked him for money. He said that he had no money. By the end of the week, she asked two more times, and each time he answered “No.” The woman looked sad, so Brendan said, “I am on my way to a job interview. If I get the job, I will take you out for Chinese food.”

Brendan got the job and carried out his promise. That was when their friendship began. They built a strong friendship by supporting each other and spending their birthdays, holidays and tough times together, over a period of eight years. When Brendan’s heater broke, Jackie made him a blanket. Two days later when he told her that he had lost his job, she disappeared, returning minutes later, bringing him food to eat. She continued to do throughout the winter. Even with so little, she never hesitated to give back.

Over these years, Jackie moved from the streets and subway stations, into a halfway house, and is now moving into an apartment. To celebrate it, Brendan wanted to do something special for Jackie. He went with her to Target, and helped her to pick out everything she’d need for her new apartment.

May Brendan’s story encourage us to find a new way to honor, serve and love the people around us.

1.What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 1?

A. He often stays indoors.

B. He cares about his neighbors.

C. He is good at making friends.

D. He hardly talks to his neighbors.

2.What did Brendan do when Jackie asked him for money?

A. He was angry with her.

B. He didn’t give her any.

C. He offered her some food.

D. He gave her some spare change.

3.What does the underlined words “his promise” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A. Giving Jackie some money.

B. Helping Jackie find a place to live in.

C. Taking Jackie out for Chinese food.

D. Making a blanket for Jackie.

4.What happened after Brendan and Jackie had the meal together?

A. They became good friends.

B. They became colleagues.

C. They fell in love with each other.

D. They became neighbors.

It’s inevitable for us to meet and contact with strangers. Also talking to strangers matters but how does it work? There are unwritten rules we tend to follow. The rules are very different depending on what country we’re in and what culture we’re in.

In most parts of the US, the baseline expectation in public is that we maintain a balance between politeness and privacy. This is known as civil inattention(禮貌性疏忽). So, imagine two people are walking towards each other on the street. They’ll glance or wave at each other from a distance. That’s the civility. And then as they get closer, they’ll look away, to give each other some space.

In other cultures, people go to extraordinary lengths not to interact at all. People from Denmark are unwilling to talk to strangers, and they would rather miss their stop on the bus than say “excuse me” to someone that they need to get around. They move the backpacks on purpose or use their bodies to say that they need to get past, instead of using two words.

In Egypt, it’s rude to ignore a stranger, and there’s a remarkable culture of hospitality. Strangers might ask each other for a sip of water. Or, if you ask someone for directions, they’re very likely to invite you home for coffee. We see these unwritten rules most clearly when they’re broken, or when you’re in a new place and you’re trying to figure out what the right thing to do is.

When you talk to strangers, you’re making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life and theirs. You’re making unexpected connections. If you don’t talk to strangers, you’re missing out on all of that. We spend a lot of time teaching our children about strangers. What would happen if we spent more time teaching ourselves? We could make a space for change.

1.Which of the following can be regarded as civil inattention in most parts of the US?

A. Avoiding talking to strangers.

B. Glancing at each other anytime.

C. Greeting someone in the distance.

D. Inviting strangers home for coffee.

2.How does a Dane get past on the bus?

A. By saying “excuse me” politely.

B. By tapping others on the shoulders.

C. By forcing his way through people.

D. By making a gesture.

3.Why does the author advise making a space for change?

A. To let us create private space between strangers and us.

B. To let us show hospitality to strangers.

C. To let us make improvement on how to treat strangers.

D. To let us maintain a balance between politeness and privacy.

4.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. How to contact with strangers.

B. Different rules of treating strangers.

C. The meaning of civil inattention.

D. Making unexpected connections.

There has been a technological revolution where kindles, e-books, and various online reading apps have taken over the world. Is reading a print book out of date? Well, not exactly.

There are so many wonderful factors involved with reading a print copy of the book. I remember the excitement of going to the bookstore with my mom when I was in elementary school. The feel of sitting down in the book store and selecting the books I wanted to read was just so much fun! I think that reading paperback books has its own charm and excitement that cannot be replaced by an electronic book. Holding the physical copy of the book in my hands, and turning over each page makes the reading experience so much more real and memorable.

Admittedly, e-books seem to be more convenient than print books. Purchasing an e-book can take place in seconds and these books are often priced less expensively than print copy books. With e-books, there likely isn’t going to be a storage problem, unless the device has a limit on how many books can be purchased. Then again, in order to read e-books one must have a particular device-tablet, iPad, kindle or laptop to read it on. Thus, an additional payment has to be made in order to read e-books, whereas reading print copies does not involve any extra device.

Print books never actually stopped leading the charge, considering that e-book sales have never made up more than a third of all book sales. And although they rose to that number extremely quickly—Amazon, only introduced the kindle in 2007-the majority of all books sold has always been print. The reality is that there is absolutely no reason print and e-books can’t coexist in the book market, but print books may carry the day.

1.What advantage do e-books have according to the passage?

A. The reading experience is more real.

B. There is no storage problem at all.

C. Purchasing them takes less time.

D. They are very priceless.

2.What can we infer about the book market?

A. E-book sales make up more than 1/3 of all book sales.

B. E-book sales have never surpassed print book sales.

C. Amazon occupies most of the market.

D. Print books and e-books can’t coexist.

3.What’s the author’s attitude towards the future of print books?

A. Worried. B. Optimistic.

C. Indifferent. D. Doubtful.

Restaurants have been around in some form for most of human civilization. As far back as ancient Greece and Rome, there was a trend that inns and taverns(客棧) generally served food to people who had a reason to be away from home. 1. Although taverns and coffee houses were popular places to gather and share beverages in the 17th century, the idea of eating out for fun didn’t take off in Western society until the late 18th century.

Although McDonald’s was the first restaurant to use the assembly-line system, some people think of White Castle as the first fast-food chain. 2. At the time, most people considered the burgers sold at fairs, circuses, lunch counters and carts to be low-quality. Many people thought hamburger came from slaughterhouse(屠宰場) scraps and spoiled meat.

3. They built their restaurants so that customers could see the food being prepared. They painted the buildings white and even chose a name that suggested cleanliness. White Castle was most popular in the American East and Midwest, but its success helped give hamburger meat a better reputation nationwide.

The McDonald brothers opened their redesigned restaurant in 1948, and several fast-food chains that exist today opened soon after. 4. And Wendy’s opened in 1969. McDonald’s is now the world’s largest fast-food chain.

According to the National Restaurant Association, American sales of fast food totaled $163.5 billion in 2005. 5. Total sales for McDonald’s grew 5.6 percent in 2005, and the company now has 30,000 franchised stores in more than 120 countries.

A. The industry is growing globally as well.

B. This trend continued until relatively recently.

C. White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas.

D. Burger King and Taco Bell got their start in the 1950s.

E. It’s hard to imagine fast food without drive-through windows.

F. It allows restaurants to receive and store a large amount of food.

G. White Castle’s founders decided to change the public’s perception of hamburgers.

My family and I never talked about school as the ticket to a future. I was in the classrooms, but I wasn’t there to learn to write, read or even ______. When it was my turn to read, I wanted to ______. I was 13 years old, ______ I already hated being who I was.

I had a(n) ______ teacher, Mr. Creech, who knew I couldn’t read. In one of my first lessons the teacher said that anyone who had a reading age ______ six had to stand up. I felt so ______. But at the same time, it made me realize that I needed to change the situation. I was determined it wouldn’t ______ again. Later that day, Mr. Creech encouraged me and promised he would try his best to help me learn to read. From then on, I ______ gave up practicing reading.

Now I was 41 years old. One day, I planned to ______ back to Texas to visit my friends and family. On my way from the airport, I saw Mr. Creech ______ himself a drink. I rushed over and reached into my ______ to pay for him. “Do I know you?” he asked. “Yes, sir, you do know me,” I answered ______. “My name is Anthony Hamilton. You taught me English.” The look on his face told me that he remembered the ______ he’d once encouraged.

“I’m so ______ I had a chance to see you,” I said. “And Mr. Creech, I have great ______ to share.” I told him I had learned to read. But that wasn’t all. I had become a published ______ and an active speaker. “The ______ time you get another Anthony Hamilton in your ______, please encourage him to read as well," I added.

The experts say what once ______ me has a name: dyslexia(誦讀困難癥). But I can tell you it was a lack of ______ for education.

1.A. dance B. paint C. speak D. act

2.A. jump B. hide C. sleep D. succeed

3.A. but B. or C. therefore D. still

4.A. Chinese B. history C. geography D. English

5.A. above B. at the end of C. below D. at the beginning of

6.A. embarrassed B. desperate C. unwise D. happy

7.A. pick up B. work C. come back D. happen

8.A. always B. ever C. never D. hardly

9.A. drive B. fly C. walk D. ride

10.A. buying B. making C. fetching D. sending

11.A. pocket B. car C. clothes D. arms

12.A. shyly B. proudly C. excitedly D. angrily

13.A. girl B. man C. woman D. boy

14.A. upset B. glad C. regretful D. grateful

15.A. news B. jobs C. chances D. ideas

16.A. author B. assistant C. teacher D. doctor

17.A. first B. last C. next D. every

18.A. company B. factory C. house D. classroom

19.A. hurt B. worried C. hit D. confused

20.A. excuse B. ability C. desire D. help

Tea house, a special place for the Chinese to have tea, is very popular in the Yangtze River area. It is mostly called tea house in provinces like Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, 1. it is called tea pavilion in Beijing and Tianjin of North China. Although these names vary, the forms and contents are basically 2. same.

To the Chinese people, tea house, similar to the cafes in western countries, are social places where various kinds of social information 3.(gather) and spread and where customers taste tea and talk about birds, news and 4.(day) things. In order to attract customers, stages 5.(be) built in some tea houses to play cross talk(相聲), storytelling and Beijing opera, making these tea houses amusement places. The drama Tea House, 6.(write) by the famous Chinese writer Lao She, revealed 7.(vivid) the unstable society of the last phase of the Qing Dynasty through describing various kinds of people’s words and behaviors in a tea house.

The rise of tea house is closely related with Chinese tea culture. After several thousand 8.(year) of development, the tea house has become a part of life for the Chinese people. Now, people 9. come to Beijing will be attracted to those famous tea houses 10.(experience) Chinese tea culture.

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處語言錯誤，每句中最多有兩處。每處錯誤僅涉及一個單詞的增加、刪除或修改。

增加：在缺詞處加一個漏字符號（∧），并在其下面寫出該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用斜線（\）劃掉。

修改：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，并在該詞下面寫出修改后的詞。

注意：1.每處錯誤及其修改均限一詞；

2.只允許修改10處，多者（從第11處起）不計分。

My friend Lily and I met each other when they were five years old. At that time, I moved into a new house next to hers because my father’s work. I felt so lonely when facing the new environment. Then someday, Lily played in her yard, but when she saw me, she smiled at me and asked me if or not I could play with her. I was shy at first, but then I was affecting by her kindness. We became good friend soon. As time goes by, our relationship becomes much close. When I met difficulties, she will help me without a hesitation. I think I am luckily to have her as my friend.

假定你是李華，你的好友王芳喜歡打排球，但老師和家長都極力勸她放棄排球，全身心投入高考。為此，她非常糾結(jié)和郁悶。請你給她寫一封建議信，幫她解除這個困擾。

注意：

1.詞數(shù)100左右；

2.可以適當增加細節(jié)，以使行文連貫。

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A long time ago, there was an emperor(皇帝). One day he told his horseman that if he could ride on his horse and ____ as much land area as he liked, he would give him the area of land he had covered. ____ enough, the horseman quickly jumped onto his horse and _____as fast as possible to cover as much land area as he could. He ____ riding and riding, whipping the horse to go as fast as possible. Even when he was ____ or tired, he did not stop ____ he wanted to cover as much area as possible. When he at last covered a large amount of land, he was exhausted and was __ . Then he asked himself, “Why did I ____ myself so hard to cover so much land area? Now I am dying and I only ____ a very small area to ____ myself.”

The above story is ____ to the journey of our ____. We push ourselves very hard every day to make more ____, to gain power or recognition. We neglect(疏忽，忘記) our ____ , time with our family and to appreciate(欣賞) the surrounding ____ and the things we love to do. One day ____ we look back, we will ____ that we don’t really need that much,______then we cannot turn back time for what we have _____

Life is not about making money. Life is definitely(肯定地) not about work! Work is only ____ to keep us living so as to enjoy the beauty and pleasures of life.

1.A. use B. cover C. work D. get

2.A. Good B. Strange C. Sure D. Interesting

3.A. rode B. ran C. expanded D. struggled

4.A. kept on B. asked for C. gave up D. succeeded in

5.A. sad B. excited C. confused D. hungry

6.A. but B. so C. because D. if

7.A. sleeping B. arguing C. dying D. smiling

8.A. push B. make C. destroy D. prove

9.A. need B. have C. find D. show

10.A. live B. bury C. support D. sleep

11.A. useful B. certain C. similar D. special

12.A. future B. past C. history D. life

13.A. friends B. progress C. discoveries D. money

14.A. health B. career C. honor D. freedom

15.A. things B. condition C. people D. beauty

16.A. before B. when C. unless D. since

17.A. realize B. regret C. apologize D. explain

18.A. or B. until C. however D. but

19.A. saved B. missed C. reduced D. won

20.A. possible B. probable C. necessary D. suitable