A British businessman with the lifelong dream...

A British businessman with the lifelong dream of building a yacht (游艇) has almost achieved his goal. Mike Ludgrove is putting the finishing touches on the 60ft boat that he has spent the past 12 years crafting by hand. He has spent several thousands of hours on the classic sailing yacht that he has named “Helena”.

Ludgrove originally thought that he could complete his dream yacht in just three years. He soon realized, however, that both the timeline and budget were overly ambitious. To raise more funds, Ludgrove and his kind wife Elaine sold their London flat, their primary home in Exeter, Devon, and now live in a rented house. Five years ago, the couple sold their food business to raise additional money for the boat. Ludgrove also asked his son and some friends to work alongside him to make his dream a reality.

“Helena has been my dream for almost 40 years,” Ludgrove, who started working on the project in 2006, told the Daily Mail. “It has taken 12 years, and I have enjoyed most of it, although there have been some low points when I’ve wondered whether we were going to make it.

The boat is coated with fiberglass to protect the wood and has a captain’s room and two large cabins which can accommodate up to six people.

Ludgrove claims that his dream was inspired by a childhood experience when he participated in the London Sailing Project, a charitable foundation that gives young people the opportunity to experience a sailing adventure. “Helena” is due to launch, and Ludgrove hopes it will benefit young people who usually don’t have a chance to sail.

1.What does the underlined sentence in Para. 2 mean?

A. Building a yacht was impossible for Ludgrove.

B. It was wrong of Ludgrove to build a yacht by hand.

C. Ludgrove was trapped in a lack of time and money.

D. The problems of timeline and budget were easy to solve.

2.What are the attitudes of Ludgrove’s family and friends to his yacht-building plan?

A. Indifferent.　　 B. Doubtful.

C. Objective.　　 D. Supportive.

3.Why was Ludgrove determined to build a yacht?

A. It was his childhood dream.

B. It was part of his worldwide sailing plan.

C. He never sailed in the sea.

D. He wanted to memorize “Helena”.

4.What will Ludgrove do with “Helena” most probably?

A. Give it to the London Sailing Project for renting.

B. Inspire young people to have a chance to sail.

C. Set up a charitable foundation for “Helena”.

D. Sail around the world with his family and friends.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.

As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “The Old Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.

However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.

That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men’s Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

1. The passage mainly tells us something about ______.

A. the importance of British pubs

B. the decline of British pubs

C. the long history of British pubs

D. the past and present of British pubs

2. Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?

A. The present closing time.

B. The ban of smoking.

C. The lack of enough spare money.

D. The credit crunch.

3.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. binge drinking means drinking less beer

B. closing the pubs early will reduce social problems

C. British people used to like drinking slowly

D. British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking

4. We can see from the last paragraph that the author _______.

A. holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs

B. thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need

C. thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems

D. is against the admission of too many women to the pubs

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.

As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “The Old Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.

However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.

That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

1.The passage mainly tells us something about ______.

A. the past and present of British pubs

B. the decline of British pubs

C. the long history of British pubs

D. the importance of British pubs

2.Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?

A. The credit crunch.

B. The present closing time.

C. The ban of smoking.

D. Having no spare money.

3.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. British people used to like drinking slowly

B. closing the pubs early will reduce social problems

C. binge drinking means drinking less beer

D. British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking

4.We can see from the last paragraph that the author _______.

A. is against the admission of too many women to the pubs

B. holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs

C. thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems

D. thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.

As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have become historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “The Old Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.

However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they welcome people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.

That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

1. The passage mainly tells us something about ______.

A. the past and present of British pubs         B. the decline of British pubs

C. the long history of British pubs             D. the importance of British pubs

2.Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?

A. The credit crunch.                   B. The present closing time.

C. The ban of smoking.                  D. Having no spare money.

3.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. British people used to like drinking slowly

B. closing the pubs early will reduce social problems

C. binge drinking means drinking less beer

D. British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking

4.We can see from the last paragraph that the author _______.

A. is against the admission of too many women to the pubs

B. holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubs

C. thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problems

D. thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

For thousands of years the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. In fact，until a place has a church and a pub，it isn’t really considered a community worthy of a name. Traditionally，the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, since it is where people gather to give and receive news. In fact, the word ‘pub’ is short for public house’.

That's how it used to be, but things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit decline is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People don’t have lots of spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 11 p. m. Previously，with 11 p. m. as closing time，customers would have to drink quite quickly，meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as ‘binge drinking’(狂饮)，and it causes some long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities. The UK government is changing the law to discourage binge drinking, and regularly spends money on television advertisements to warn people of the problems of drinking too much.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. Now, there are a number of different types of pubs.

As you can see, British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be working men’s clubs, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

高二英语信息匹配中等难度题查看答案及解析

With the average number of children in a British family falling beneath an average of 2.0,the population of the UK has been declining for quite a few years. The size of the British workforce is declining. This trend (趋势) is quite worrying for the British economy.

There is a whole range of reasons accounting for the worrying trend. One of them is that British people are new having their children at a much older age than previously, meaning they have fewer years in which they can have children. Most young People today tend to choose to go university first and build up work experience before getting desired jobs.

Expensive houses also play a part. Many young people are forced to stay with their parents early in their careers. So it's not until people are about 30 years old that they can afford to buy their own home, and then they can start to think about settling down and having children.

So a British person manages to get a job, get a home and get married. Why isn’t he or she then having at least two children on average? The major reason is that it is relatively expensive to bring up a child in the UK. Usually both parents need to work to cover their living expenses, which means they then need to pay someone to look after their child during the day, such as nanny (保姆) or nursery school.

In addition, uncertainty in the global economy often affects British family size. In face of an economic downturn, young British find it more difficult to find jobs or keep their existing ones This discourages them from having larger families. And with this much pressure on families, it’s no wonder that the divorce rate remains so high

To save the British family, the government is taking active measures, for example , by increasing monthly Child Benefit money and offering increasing amount of government subsidy (津贴)for parents to claim. There are also laws allowing parents to take more time off work so that they can look after their children themselves rather than having to pay others to do it.

Let's hope it's not too late to save the British family. Otherwise, the British won't have enough time, energy or money to have children. And where's the fun in that?

1.According to the author, what may account for the decrease of UK's population?

A.People's choice of being single to acquire further education.

B.The trend for people to have children at a younger age.

C.Larger family size brought by weak global economy.

D.The relatively high expenses in raising children.

2.What does the author mainly imply in the last paragraph?

A.It is important to raise people's awareness of saving the British family.

B.It is necessary to reduce subsidies for families and nursery schools.

C.It is urgent to handle the present serious situation.

D.It is difficult for parents to balance life and work.

3.What is the best title for the passage?

A.Disappearing Families. B.Declining Economy

C.Increasing Divorce D.Worrying Workforce

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Over the centuries the French have lost a number of famous battles with the British. However, they’ve always felt superior in the kitchen. France has for centuries had a reputation for cooking excellence, and Britain for some of the worst cooking in the world. But according to a recent survey, that reputation may no longer reflect reality.

In the survey, 71% of the Britons said they cook at home every day, while only 59% of the French said they cook daily. British home cooks spend more time cooking each week and also produce a greater variety of dishes than French home cooks.

The reaction in London was predictably enthusiastic. British food has greatly improved since the 1990s. Once upon a time, the menu for many family meals would have been roast beef, potatoes and over-cooked vegetables, but not now. Home cooks are experimenting with the huge range of ingredients now available in British supermarkets and are preparing all kinds of new dishes, using the cookbooks that sell millions of copies every year. As a result, there’s much more diversity in British food now, compared to French food, which tends to be very traditional.

Some French people say that the survey did not show the whole picture. They agree that during the week French women don’t cook as much as they used to because most of them work and don’t have much time. They tend to buy ready-made or frozen dishes, but many of them make up for it on the weekend. There’s also a difference between Paris and the countryside. It’s true that people in Paris don’t cook much, but elsewhere, cooking is still at the heart of daily life.

For many French people, opinions about British food have not changed. When Bernard Blier, the food editor at a magazine, was asked about British food, he replied: “I don’t go out of my way to try it. It is not very refined. You can say that I’m not a fan at all.”

1.According to the passage, nowadays British people ______.

A.cook less at home than the French every day.

B.no longer eat roast beef and over-cooked vegetables.

C.are more willing to try cooking all kinds of new foods.

D.buy more cookbooks than French people do.

2.What can we infer from the fourth paragraph?

A.French women cook less often now.

B.The French prefer ready-made dishes.

C.French women seldom cook on the weekend.

D.Cooking is at the heart of people’s life in Paris.

3.What is Bernard’s attitude towards British food?

A.He would love to try it. B.He shows no interest in it.

C.He considers it worse than before. D.He considers it better than before.

4.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A.The history of British food. B.The history of French food.

C.The change in British food. D.The change in French food.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Millions of British people have ditched the traditional ‘thank you’ and replaced it with the less formal ‘cheers’, according to a survey.

Although the average person will say ‘thank you’ nearly 5,000 times a year, one in three are more likely to throw in a ‘cheers’ or ‘ta’ where it’s needed, rather than risk sounding old fashioned.

One in 20 now say ‘nice one’ instead, while younger generations are more likely to offer a ‘cool’ than a ‘thank you’.‘Merci’, ‘fab’ and even ‘gracias’ were also listed as common phrases to use, as was ‘much appreciated’.

One in twenty who took part in the survey of 2,000 people by the Food Network UK for Thank You Day, which is marked on November 24, 2011, said a formal ‘thank you’ was now not often needed in everyday conversation. More than one in ten adults said they regularly won’t say thank you if they are in a bad mood. Most people declared that saying thank you was something drilled into them by their parents. A huge 70 percent of those questioned will say thank you to a person’s face without even meaning it, while a fifth avoid saying it when they know they should — on at least two occasions every day.

It seems our friends and family get the brunt (压力) of our bad manners with half admitting they’re not good at thanking those closest to them — many justifying (为…辩解) the lack of thanks because their family ‘already know I’m grateful’.

When spoken words won’t do, it falls to a nice text to do the job for most people. A third will still send a handwritten thank-you note — but 45 percent admit it’s been more than six months since they bothered to send one.

A quarter of British people say thank you with food, with 23 percent cooking a meal to show their appreciation to someone. Another 15 percent bake a cake.

It follows that 85 percent of people will be annoyed at not getting the gratitude (感激) they feel they should receive.

1.Most of the people who took part in the survey say that they say “thank you” _____.

A．when they are in good mood

B．completely out of habit

C．when they feel truly grateful

D．purely out of politeness

2.The underlined word “ditched” in Paragraph 1 means “________”.

A．given up          B．used             C．shared            D．grasped

3.It can be learned from the passage that _______.

A．different ways of expressing gratitude are all fashionable

B．people should avoid saying “thank you” nowadays

C．a thank-you note is still appreciated by most people

D．people in a bad mood never say “thank you”

4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Most people express their gratitude to others by buying food for them.

B．About fifty percent of people try not to say thank you when they should.

C．Most people may feel natural when they fail to receive others’ gratitude.

D．Many people think it unnecessary to say thanks to their family members.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Why do you need British Accent Training? With the growth in the number of employees from Egypt, Spain and China, organizations need to ensure that their workers are able to communicate effectively with customers and colleagues alike.

First Language Influence (FLI) can have a great effect on an employee’s accent.　 British Accent Training from Communicaid will help your overseas workers decrease the influence of their first language.

Whether through online training courses or face- to- face classes, Communicaid offers suitable training solutions for your organisation’s international business.

A Communicaid’s British Accent Training course will provide your workers with the ability to :

---increase their customer experience and satisfaction,

---communicate more effectively with customers and colleagues by decreasing first language influenced accent,

---strengthen relationships with customers and colleagues through more successful communication.

Course content

All Communicaid’s British Accent Training courses are designed to meet the specific needs of our clients depending on their specific situations.

Generally, a British Accent Training course includes:

---rhythm and stress patterns,

---pausing and breathing,

---relationship between spelling and pronunciation,

---accent familiarisation and listening practice.

Ways to learn

Training can be received worldwide through either face-to-face classes or one of our many online learning methods. Using a combination of published materials and those offered only by Communicaid, we design and offer programmes that will meet the need of our clients.

Our trainers

All Communicaid’s British Accent course trainers are native speakers with at least 3 years’ professional training experience in the field. A client’s British Accent trainer will be decided according to his goals and areas of focus.

1.We can learn from the article that Communicaid is a company that 　　　　 .

A .sells books

B .designs ads

C .offers communication skill training

D .offers language training

2.Who are the target readers of the article?

A .Overseas students.

B. Overseas workers.

C. Bosses employing workers whose first language is not English.

D. People whose partners come from a non- English-speaking country.

3.The article was written mainly to 　　　　　 .

A .attract people to attend Communicaid’s courses

B .introduce the history of the company Commuicaid

C .give instructions on English pronunciation

D .tell the readers the importance of the British accent

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The British are not so familiar with different cultures and other ways of doing things, _________ is often the case in other countries.

A. what　　 B. as　　 C. so　　 D. that

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析