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Birthdays are celebrated all over the world. Some ways to celebrate birthdays are rather similar from county to country---candles, cakes and birthday wishes. But there are also different ways to celebrate birthdays. Here are a few:
Denmark
A flag is flown outside a window to show that someone who lives in the house is having a birthday. Presents are placed around the child’s bed while he is sleeping so he will see them at once when he wakes up.
IndiaUsually Indian children wear white to school. However, on their birthdays, children wear colored clothes to school and give out chocolate to everyone in the class. Their best friends help them to do this.
Japan
The birthday child wears new clothes to mark the special time. Certain birthdays are more important than others. These are the third and seventh for girls and fifth for boys.
Holland
The birthday child receives an especially large present. The family also puts flowers on the birthday child’s chair to make it beautiful.
1.When someone is having a birthday in Denmark, what can you see outside the window? A. flowers B. presents C. a flag D. a chair
2.Flowers are put on the chair of the birthday child in .
A. Japan B. Denmark C. India D. Holland
3. In India, birthday children .
A. give out chocolate to their classmates
B. share chocolate with their best friends
C. go to school in white clothes
D. wear new clothes to mark the special time
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what "keeping up withthe Joneses" is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant(仆人) and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
It was like a race, but one could never finish his race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it "Keeping up with the Joneses" because "Jones" is a very common name in the United States. "Keeping up with the Joneses" came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’ s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
1.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they _______.
A. want to be as rich as their neighbors
B. want others to know or to think that they are rich
C. don't want others to know they are rich
D. want to make themselves happy
2.It can be inferred（推断）from the story that rich people like to_______.
A. live outside New York City B. live in New York city
C. live in apartments D. have many neighbors
3.According to the writer, it is_______ to keep up with the Joneses.
A. correct B. interesting
C. impossible D. good
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Although I didn’t have any interest in being a school bus driver, I became one. Many years later, I was still working on the school bus. There are so many good reasons. Firstly, the talk brought me different kinds of information. I also got to hear all the family secrets of the newcomers. I have a toy bear who was a great comforter(安慰者) for the little ones. The kids got to look after him on the trip to school and he waited patiently for them to get on for the trip home.
Our bus would often pass a place where we could see some alpacas (羊驼) in front of a farm house. Little Michael would cry excitedly from the seat, “Look, Miss! Look at the camels!” He used to put his head out of the bus window. When I warned him that a little insect would come into his nose if he wasn’t careful, he smartly gave up the habit.
I remember a little girl got on the bus one morning 5 years ago and sobbed(抽泣) all the way to school. We arrived at the school gate. As she waited to get down the bus, she threw her arms around my neck and cried that her grandfather had died the night before.
A school bus driver needs to keep one eye on the road and the other on the mirror to watch what the little ones are doing down the back.
Now, it’s important to think how many lives I’ve been responsible(负责的) for, and how many kilometers I’ve driven in order to get my passengers home safely during the 20 years. I’ve enjoyed it, but it’s time to rest and park my school bus.
1.What does the underlined word “them” in the first paragraph refer to (所指)?
A. toy bears B. kids
C. school buses D. secrets
2.Which of the following is TRUE?
A. Children didn’t like the driver.
B. The driver likes the job all the time.
C. The little girl was excited at seeing the camels.
D. Children sometimes talked about their family secrets on the bus.
3.The writer didn’t give up her job because .
A. driving was her hobby
B. children made her valuable
C. drivers were paid well
D. children loved her toy bear
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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It’s good to make mistakes, and here is why.
First of all, mistakes are a clear sign that you are trying new things. It’s always good to try new things because when you are trying new things you are growing. If you never try anything new, how can you improve? How can you make yourself stronger? The simple answer is “You can’t.” Look around you. With very few exceptions(例外), either everything you see in your world or every single detail of every single thing is the result of someone trying something new．
Another good thing about mistakes is this: When you are making mistakes, you are learning．Consider this: Edison failed 10,000 times before he perfected the light bulb. When asked how it felt to fail that many times, he said that he hadn’t failed 10,000 times, but rather had learned 10,000 things that didn’t work．
Finally, when you make a mistake you are much closer to success. Why? Because when all is said and done, you will have tried some numbers of things before you succeed．Every time you make a mistake, you eliminate one of those things and are one step closer. But this all doesn’t mean that you should go ahead without considering the consequences(后果) of a mistake. However, when you try something new you have to be willing to set some reasonable limits（限度） so that in the event that it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, you will be in a normal place to try again．
We all have limited time and money so don’t blow them all on one problem. Realize that it probably won’t be perfect the first time and deal with these resources(资源) properly so you can learn, make corrections, and try it again．If you accept and use your mistakes in this way ,you can make great progress in your business and your career．
There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.”
So go ahead and make mistakes. And learn. And grow. And succeed．
1.From the second paragraph, we can know that _______．
A. mistakes are unnecessary for development
B. we are afraid of trying new thing
C. it’s common for people to make mistakes
D. mistakes are better than not trying
2.The underlined word “eliminate” means _______．
A. study B. remove C. accept D. solve
3.According to the article, one thing you should pay attention to about making mistakes is_____．
A. not making the same mistakes
B. accepting the punishment willingly
C. taking consequences into consideration
D. trying things out one by one
4.What would the writer probably suggest we say to ourselves when we make a mistake?
A. Never mind, I can always try again．
B. I’d better stay out of trouble．
C. Ok! Now I can learn something．
D. Look at this mess. Anyone would be sad．
难度: 困难查看答案及解析