Searching for airfares（飞机票价） often seems like a game that passengers are bound to lose．
Prices change from day to day, even minute to minute． Looking through multiple websites for the best deal can be a big challenge． Even when you do book, there’s no guarantee that you are going to get the best price．
"You just don’t know when to pull the trigger． It’s not like buying anything else I can think of,” said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog．com．
Harriet Levy paid $179 for a recent round-trip flight on American Airlines between New York and Fort Lauderdale, Florida． Sitting just one row behind her, Shirley Harrison paid $215． A few rows back, Ellis and Dianne Traub paid $317 each．There were at least 12 fares on the flight, ranging from $169 to $360．
There’s no reason for it, Harrison said．
Fares can change significantly in just a few hours． One Delta flight from New York to Los Angeles jumped from $755 to $1,143 from a Friday to Saturday in late April, then fell to $718 0n Sunday．
The flight was one of a dozen the Associated Press followed over three months for a vacation between July 16 and 22． The number one finding: avoid booking tickets on weekends． It’s the most expensive time to buy．
There’s no way to guarantee the best fare． But before booking, travelers should pay attention to this additional advice:
Book on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday． That’s when airlines most often offer sales．
Buy in advance, but not too early． The best time is four to six weeks before traveling． In general, prices for any given flight are highest eight to ten weeks and two to three weeks in advance．
Make use of social media． Airlines are giving more benefits like exclusive（独有的 ） sales to travelers who interact with them on Twitter and Facebook． Those specials are often gone within hours．
The so-called discount airlines - JetBlue, Air-Tran, Southwest and Frontier-adjust their fares less frequently than other airlines, so you can feel more confident that the price will stay the same． But their prices aren’t always the lowest．Researching multiple airlines’ fares is the only way to get a good deal．
1.What can we infer from the first sentence of the text?
A．Passengers are unable to search for airfares．
B．Airlines often play games with passengers．
C．Airfares are set in different situations．
D．It’s difficult for passengers to get the best price．
2.The underlined phrase "pull the trigger" in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.
A．start searching B．get the highest price
C．make a purchase D．get on board the plane
3.By using a lot of figures, the author intends to ________.
A．show there is standard price for every single airline
B．discover the rules behind airfares
C．guarantee passengers a low price
D．prove airfares can vary widely
4.Passengers are advised to book flights ________.
A．in the middle of the week
B．on special websites
C．several months before traveling
D．with airlines which are famous for offering discount prices
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
“A very disruptive (调皮捣蛋的) six-year-old child kicked my legs and clawed at my hand,” said one teacher. “I broke up a fight and was kicked between my legs,” said another. Many people have heard stories like this. But the situation is more worrying still and it involves parents.
Every child, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born, has the right to achieve their potential, regardless of their parents’ wealth and class. And we recognize that, as a nation, it is a long way to achieve this goal. But with rights come responsibilities and what worries people is that we are in danger of neglecting the latter.
Far too many children are behaving badly at school, even to the point of being violent to staff. This is terrible enough, but it is hard to be surprised since many children are just mirroring the behaviour of their parents. Too many are starting school unable to hold a knife and fork, unused to eating at a table, and unable to use the lavatory(卫生间) properly.
We are in danger of becoming a nation of families living separate lives under one roof. The bedroom, once a place to sleep, has become the living space for the young. Spending hours in front of computer screens, on social networking sites or being immersed (沉迷于) in computer games, children and young people spend little time with their parents. Parents are unable to monitor just what their children are watching.
Schools cannot right the wrongs of society and teachers cannot become substitute parents. Both parties need to work together. Parents must be helped and given confidence to take back control. They are responsible for setting boundaries for their children’s behaviour and sticking to those boundaries. They are responsible for setting a good example to their children and for devoting that most precious of resources---time---so that children come to school ready and willing to learn.
1.In the opinion of the writer, what problem do people ignore?
A. The violence in the school
B. The pressure of students’ learning
C. The right to achieve students’ potential
D. The responsibilities of the students.
2.The underlined part in paragraph 4 means________.
A. parents care little about children’s life at home
B. parents and children live in their separate rooms
C. children don’t live with their parents in the same house
D. children live a different life from that of parents at home
3.The writer’s attitude to the behaviours of parents may be_______.
A. unconcern B. understanding
C. dissatisfied D. tolerant
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
What did your school smell like? Was it noisy or peaceful? It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that smells and sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity．
Bridget Shield has been conducting studies and advising people on the effects of all sorts of noises, such as traffic and sirens, as well as noise made by the children themselves． "Everything points to a harmful impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,” says Shield．
Shield says the sound of “babble” －the chatter of other children, is particularly distracting in the classroom．。People are very distracted by speech-particularly if it is understandable, but you’re not involved in it．” This phenomenon is also known as the irrelevant speech effect, she says, adding that “it’s a very common finding in open-plan offices as well．’’
In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low． Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity． Ravi Mehta suggests there maybe some benefit to playing music or other sounds in an art class or other situations where creativity is the key．
Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class． Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in their tasks, the so-called Mozart effect． While the evidence actually suggests it’s a guess to say classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well, says Ravi Mehta," If you like the music or you like the sound-even listening to a Stephen King novel-then you did better． It didn’t matter about the music,“ he says．
However, it’s worth considering that music is not always helpful while you’re trying to work． Trying to perform a task which involves serial recall - for instance, doing mental mathematics-will be distracted by sounds with audio variation, says Ravi Mehta． Songs with lyrics, on the other hand, are more likely to interfere（干扰）with tasks that involve languages-such as reading comprehension．
This isn’t the only sense being related to affecting learning．
1.The second paragraph implies that _________.
A．general noise also has a harmful effect．
B．students are sensitive to noise．
C．some children need special sounds to do tasks．
D．children aren't affected by their own noise．
2.The irrelevant speech effect refers to the fact that _________.
A．you don’t understand what others are talking
B．you are interrupted by the chatting of others
C．you are unwilling to chat with other people
D．you find what others are talking irrelevant to you
3.According to the text, Ravi Mehta believes that __________.
A．music matters when you want to do better．
B．music will help you do mental arithmetic．
C．any music can be beneficial as long as you like it．
D．songs with lyrics will improve your reading comprehension．
4.What might be discussed in the following paragraph?
A．Whether music is helpful all the time．
B．What sound can promote a person’s creativity．
C．When smell can improve students’ behavior．
D．How smell affects children’s performance．
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
If you could take a large snapshot (照片) of everyone in the United States today, it would contain six minion more females than males. In this country, women outlive men by about seven years. Throughout the modern world, cultures are different, diets are different, ways of life and causes of death are different, but one thing is the same--- women outlive men.
It starts before birth. At conception, male fetuses(胎儿) outnumber female by about 110 to 100; at birth, the rate has already fallen to about 105 boys to every 100 girls. By the age of 30, there are only enough men left to match the number of women. Then women start taking a lead. Beyond the age of 80, there are nearly twice as many women as men.
“If you look at the top ten or twelve causes of death,” said Deborah Wingard, a disease expert at the University of California at San Diego, “every single one kills more men.” She listed out one sad fate after another – heart disease, lung cancer and so on. Each kills men at roughly twice the rate of that it does women.
More than a century ago American men surpassed and outlived the women. But in the 20th century, women began living longer, primarily because pregnancy（怀孕) and giving birth to children had become less dangerous. The gap grew steadily. In 1946, for the first time ever in the United States, females outnumbered males.
Parts of the reasons are self-made. Men smoke more, drink more and take more life-threatening chances than women. Men are murdered (usually by other men) three times as often as women are. They commit suicide at a higher rate and have more than twice as many fatal car accidents as women do. Men are likely to be involved in alcohol-related deaths.
But behavior doesn’t explain away the longevity gap.
Today, some scientists studying the gender gap believe that the data point to one conclusion Mother Nature may be partial(偏袒) to women.
Every living thing is assembled according to instructions on its chromosomes (染色体), and humans have 23 pairs of them. But in males, one of these is a weak non-matching pair, expressed by “xy”. The agreement pair in females is “xx”, and its genetic “backup” power is sometimes listed as a clue to woman’s superior restoring force. If the male’s single “x” chromosome isn’t perfect, it is possible for a serious genetic disorder to appear. Some blood diseases, for instance, are diseases caused by a shortcoming in a single gene on the “x” chromosome. They are far more common in males than females.
1.What may the underlined word “outlive” in Paragraph1 mean?
A. Become stronger than. B. Live longer than.
C. Be wiser than. D. Be born more earlier than.
2.What can we infer from the second paragraph?
A. Female fetuses are more than male.
B. The female are surpassing the male with age increasing.
C. By the age of 30, the female are more than the male.
D. Over 90, men are more than women in the United States.
3.How many exact diseases are mentioned as examples killing twice men than women?
A. Two. B. Three. C. Ten. D. Five.
4.The best title for this passage is _____
A. Why women live longer than men
B. Women are different from men
C. American men once lived longer than the women
D. Men smoke and drank more than women
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Helping Students Find Their Writing Voices
One of the most frustrating things for writing teachers is reading papers that simply lack style. When all of the research has been completed and all of the sentences are structured well, but the paper still lacks some pizzazz（活力），it can be boring to grade. If you are searching for ways to help your students find their voices, why not try making students themselves the topic of the writing? 1.
Who are you?
One of the most difficult questions for students to answer is “Who are you?” 2. In doing this, through writing, students will start to see their personalities differently and, hopefully, be able to add a feature to their writing.
Dear John
3. Encourage them to write to a famous person they’ve always admired, and then the one they absolutely hate. Explore how their language changes between the two letters. When students know their audiences, it is much easier for them to add the kind of personality their audience wants to see．
4.
When students write about what matters most to them, they will often give you the best writing you’ve ever seen. You’ll get those when you ask questions that hit home. When students have something to say about a given topic, it can be easier for them to get their ideas down and then work on their writing style.
Get the words on paper, and then edit them
The most valuable lesson students can learn is to write first, and edit later. Have students write for five minutes about their topics. If they can get their ideas down on paper, that’s 90% of the battle.
5. This can help them realize that, once they have the ideas down, the rest is just fine tuning（微调）. Once they have this skill mastered, it’s easy for them to start adding their own personal voices to their papers.
A. What matters to you?
B. What style is taught in class?
C. When they write about themselves, students’ voices often shine through.
D. Writing letters is a great way for students to explore their writing style.
E. Have your students explore who they are and what makes them unique.
F. Voice is that magical quality which is able to make a creative writing idea sing!
G. After that, have them edit these ideas into a really strong introductory paragraph.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The music industry is never short of teen pop stars with wonderful looks, 1.____ it doesn’t often find one like US singer Taylor Swift. “Beneath Taylor Swift’s not-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman sweetness hides a very 2._____(skill)songwriting technique (技巧),” writes Leah Greenblatt with Entertainment Weekly.
Songwriting, the country singer explains, is “how I deal with problems. I am used to 3._____(write) about things that really influences me most.” So in her songs, there is always 4.___ true and honest. They seem like stories from 5._____ diary and that certainly helps Swift attract her audience.
She 6.____(sell) more than 13 million copies worldwide of her first two albums, 2006’s self-titled debut (首张专辑) and 2008’s Fearless. She’s the youngest artist ever to 7.______(name) Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. Not surprisingly, there were great expectations for her third album, Speak Now, 8._____ came out late last month, where she again returned 9._____ her own life for material. “The 14 songs are all about the last two years... when life was a little bit bigger and10.______(crazy),” says Swift. “So I’ve written about the lessons and confusion and heartbreak and all the different things that go along with being 18, 19 and 20.”
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The requirements for high school graduation have just changed in my community. As a result, all students must sixty hours of service learning, they will not receive a diploma. Service learning is academic learning that also helps the community. of service learning include cleaning up a polluted river, working in a soup kitchen, or tutoring a student. a service experience, students must keep a journal and then write a about what they have learned.
Supporters claim that there are many __ of service learning. Perhaps most importantly, students are forced to think their own interests and become of the needs of others. Students are also able to learn real-life skills that ___responsibility, problem-solving, and working as part of a team. . , students can explore possible careers service learning. For example, if a student wonder what teaching is like, he or she can choose to work in an elementary school classroom a few afternoons each month.
there are many benefits, opponents problems with the new requirement. First, they that the main reason students go to school is to learn core subjects and skills. Because service learning is time-consuming, students spend time studying the core subjects. Second, they believe that forcing students to work without goes against the law. By requiring service, the school takes away an individual’s freedom to choose.
In my view, service learning is a great way to to the community, learn new skills, and explore different careers. , I don’t believe you should force people to help others---the to help must come from the heart. I think the best is one that gives students choices: a student should be able to choose sixty hours of independent study or sixty hours of service. Choice encourages both freedom and responsibility and as young adults, we must learn to handle both wisely.
1.A. spend B. gain C. complete D. save
2.A. and B. or C. but D. for
3.A. Subjects B. Ideas C. Procedures D. Examples
4.A. With B. Before C. During D. After
5.A. diary B. report C. note D. notice
6.A. courses B. benefits C. challenges D. features
7.A. beyond B. about C. over D. in
8.A. careful B. proud C. tired D. aware
9.A. possess B. apply C. include D. develop
10.A. Gradually B. Finally C. Luckily D. Hopefully
11.A. through B. across C. of D. on
12.A. So B. Thus C. Since D. While
13.A. deal with B. look into C. point out D. take down
14.A. argue B. doubt C. overlook D. admit
15.A. much B. full C. less D. more
16.A. cost B. pay C. care D. praise
17.A. contribute B. appeal C. attend D. belong
18.A. Therefore B. Otherwise C. Besides D. However
19.A. courage B. desire C. emotion D. spirit
20.A. decision B. purpose C. solution D. result
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：把缺词处加一个漏符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
It is three years now since I graduate from Jixing High School. Last Sunday, the class that I was on held a get-together, which took us a long time prepare. It was indeed not easy to get in touch with everybody and set a properly time for all of us. We all enjoyed a precious day greatly, remember the time we spent together. It reminded us of the interesting stories and the people they were familiar with. It was a pity which some of us were not present as they had gone to abroad for further studies, but they called back or sent greeting card from different places
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
假设你是新华中学学生卜曼宜，请你根据以下要点给消费者协会(consumers' association)写一封投诉信，讲述一次糟糕的旅行。
1. 乘坐的大巴老化、车内拥挤、空调打不开、半路上还出了故障；
2. 旅馆服务差、饭菜不可口、房间小且不干净；
3. 导游更热衷于带游客购物。
4. 投诉要求：旅行社向游客道歉，改进旅游服务，退赔部分旅行费用
注意：
1. 根据以上内容写一篇短文，不要逐句翻译，可适当增加细节以使行文连贯；
2. 准确使用语法和词汇；使用一定的句型、词汇，清楚、连贯地表达自己的意思；
3. 词数：100-120左右。开头已给出，不计词数。
Dear Sir,
I’m Bu Manyi , a Senior Three student in Xin Hua Middle School. I’m writing to complain about …
Yours,
Bu Manyi
难度: 中等查看答案及解析