It’s about fifty()from here to my school.
A.minutes’ walk
B.minute walk
C.minute’s on foot
D.minutes’ on foot
A.minutes’ walk
B.minute walk
C.minute’s on foot
D.minutes’ on foot
Recently the attack on illiteracy has been stepped up. A world plan has been drawn up by a committee of UNESCO experts in Paris, as part of the United Nations Development Decade, and an international conference on the subject has also been held. UNESCO stresses that functional literacy is the aim. People must learn the basic skills of responsible citizenship: the ability to read notices, newspapers, timetables, letters, price lists, to keep simple records and accounts, to sort out the significance of the information gathered, and to fill in forms.
The major areas of illiteracy are in Asia, and Central and South America. In Africa there are at least one hundred million illiterates, making up eighty to eighty-five per cent of the total population. In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million, most of them is Southern Europe, with Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Yugoslavia heading the list (the United Kingdom has about seven hundred thousand).
According to the estimate, the illiterate population in the world is ______.
A.two hundred and fifty million
B.one hundred million
C.about half of the total population in the world
D.seven thousand million
Few people experience this type of lifelong relationship or sense of community togetherness now. The American society is much more unsettled now; people often move from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, and coast to coast. It is rare to find people who have lived all their lives in one community. Because people move so frequently, they do not have a chance to get to know their neighbors. Perhaps this is also why Americans tend to have a more casual attitude about friendships than people from some other cultures; Americans are accustomed to leaving friends and making new friends. In such an impersonal society, people have lost the habit of saying hello to people they pass on the streets or in the hallways of their apartment buildings.
What is described in the first paragraph?
A.Entertainment in small towns.
B.Americans' adjustment to a moving society.
C.The life style. of Americans in the past.
D.Personal relations in small communities.
For example, it is recorded in many history books the people who lived over three thousand years ago ate salted fish. Thousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used to preserve the dead.
In some periods of history, a person who stole salt was thought to have broken the law. Take the eighteenth century for an example, if a person was caught stealing salt, he would be thrown into prison. History also records that only in England about ten thousand people were put into prison during that century for stealing salt! About one hundred and fifty years ago, in the year 1553, if a man took more than his share of salt, he would be thought to have broken the law and would be seriously punished. The offender' s ear was cut off.
Salt was an important item on the dinner table of a king. It was always placed in front of the king when he sat down to eat. Important guests at the king' s table were seated near the salt. Less important guests were given seats farther away from it.
Thousands of years ago in Egypt, salt was used ______.
A.to punish people who had broken the law
B.to keep dead bodies from decay
C.to keep fish alive
D.to make chemicals
Perhaps the warmest part of the country is the southwest, which consists of the counties of Devon and Cornwall. The warm Gulf Stream flows across the North Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico and makes the coastal regions of the southwest quite warm. Palm trees, bamboo (竹) and many semi-tropical (亚热带的) plants grow well in the southwest of England.Flowers and vegetables ripen(成熟) as much as a month earlier than those elsewhere. Farmers in the area obtain a higher price for their vegetables and flowers because they are ready earlier. (77) In winter there may be several feet of snow in other parts of England but there will probably be no snow at all in the southwest. This may be one of the reasons why the southwest is one of England's most popular holiday areas.
The distance from the center of England to the south coast is about ________.
A.one hundred miles
B.three hundred miles
C.one hundred and fifty miles
D.six hundred miles
Originally the White House was gray and was called the Presidential Palace. It was built from 1792 to 1800. At this time, the city of Washington itself was being built. It was to be the nation's new capital city. George Washington, the first President, and Pierre Charles L'Enfant, a French engineer, chose the place for the new city. L'Enfant then planned the city. The President's home was an important part of the plan.
A contest was held to pick a design for the President's home. An architect named James Hoban won. He designed a large three-story house of gray stone.
President Washington never lived in the Presidential Palace. The first President to live there was John Adams, the second President of the United States, and his wife. Mrs. Adams did not really like her new house. In her letters, she often complained about the cold. Fifty fireplaces were not enough to keep the house warm.
In 1812 the United States and Britain went to war. In 1814 the British invaded Washington. They burned many buildings, including the Presidential Palace.
After the war James Hoban, the original architect, partially rebuilt the President's home. To cover the marks of the fire, the building was painted white. Before long it became known as the White House.
The White House is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States. Every year more than 1. 5 million visitors go through the five rooms that are open to the public.
The White House was built in Washington______.
A.because a French engineer was invited to design it
B.because President George Washington liked to live in it
C.because the British invaders lived in it in 1812—1814
D.because it was to be the nation's capital city
- _________
A.It costs fifty pounds.
B.It's very nice.
C.It's a bargain.
D.It's a birthday present from my parents.
Passage Two
Questions 26 to 30 are based on the following passage.
Tides are created mainly by the pull of the moon on the earth. The moon's pull causes water in the oceans to be a little deeper at a point closest to the moon and also at a point farthest from the moon, on the opposite side of the earth. These two tidal “waves” follow the apparent movement of the moon around the earth and strike nearly every coast line at intervals of about twelve hours and twenty-five minutes. After reaching a high point, the water level goes down gradually for a little more than six hours and then begins to rise toward a new high point. Hence, most coast lines have two tides a day, and the tides occur fifty minutes later each day. Differences in the coast line and in channels in the ocean bottom may change the time that the tidal wave reaches different points along the same coast line. The difference in water level between high and low tide varies from day to day according to the relative positions of the sun and the moon. The sun also exerts a pull on the earth, although it is only about haft as strong as the pull of the tides arise higher and when they pull at right angles to one another. the tide is lower. The formation of the coast line and variations in the weather are additional factors which can affect the height of tides. Some sections of the coast are shaped in such a way as to cause much higher tides than are experienced in other areas. A strong wind blowing toward the shore may also cause tides to the higher.
Which of the following is right according to the passage?
A. Some coast lines do not have two tides each day.
B. Tides are not affected by the shape of coast line.
C. The sun has as much effect on tides as does the moon.
D. Tides usually rise to the same land day after day.
Aluminum is lightweight, rustproof and easily shaped into different forms. By mixing it with other metals, scientist have been able to produce a variety of alloys, some of which have the strength of steel but weigh only one third as much.
Today, the uses of aluminum are innumerable. Perhaps its most important use is in transportation. Aluminum is found in the engines of automobiles, in the hulls of boats. It is also used in many parts of airplanes. In fact, the huge "airbus" planes would probably never have been produced if aluminum did not exist. By making vehicles lighter in weight aluminum has greatly reduced the amount of fuel needed to move them. Aluminum is also being used extensively in the building industry in some countries.
Since aluminum is such a versatile(多用的) metal, it is fortunate that bauxite(铝土矿) , which is one of its chief sources, is also one of the earth's most plentiful substances. As the source of aluminum is almost inexhaustible, we can expect that more and more uses will be found for this versatile metal.
The price of aluminum was sharply reduced when people discovered a new refining process with the aid of______.
A.wind power
B.solar energy
C.hydraulic power
D.electricity
A.a woman was driving the car
B.someone was standing by a street lamp
C.a man and a woman were walking up the street
D.a woman was walking by herself up the street