Once eating alone was just that: sitting down...

Once eating alone was just that: sitting down in a restaurant on one’s own and eating a meal. Everyone did it sometimes, and when they did so, 1. . To eat alone might suggest that you didn’t have any friends. There was a kind of shame attached to it.

Nowadays, however, there is more and more solitary (独自的) eating for pleasure. 2. . “Foodies”—people with a passionate interest in cuisines—do it because all they need is the chance to eat good food. They don’t want company or conversation, but only the joy of eating some special dish. Other people eat alone because it’s simply practical for them to do so. For instance, it’s estimated that nearly a third of all the customers of fast-food restaurants eat alone. They are served with their food fast， eat it fast and then leave fast. 3.

But the appeal of eating alone is quite different. 4. . For the hour or so that it takes to have a meal, they can forget all the pressures of their lives. They don’t have to deal with their family or job. They can relax and let their mind wander. Maybe they’ll bring a book, a newspaper to enjoy a quiet time.

David Annand, editor of Conde Nast Traveler magazine, who delights in dining alone, speaks of his pleasure in the “rhythm of a meal in a restaurant—its ebb and flow (人来人往), the periodic arrival and departure of the waiter”. 5. .

A.It’s an experience of freedom

B.they might be a little embarrassed

C.People choose to eat alone for various reasons

D.none of them would feel bad about themselves

E.Sometimes staying alone is quite cosy when you don’t work

F.This restaurant rhythm allows him to sit back, observe and think

G.It saves time if they have a meeting or a child to pick up from school

高二英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析

Some people were eating and drinking in a coffee house. A young woman was sitting alone at a table. She was wearing a beautiful diamond necklace. There was an ugly man at a table not far from her. He was looking at her necklace all the time.

Suddenly the lights went out. The coffee house was in darkness. The woman started to shout. She was very frightened. A few minutes later the lights came on again. The woman was crying. Her necklace was missing.

The manager quickly closed all the doors. He telephoned the police. No one could get out of the coffee house. The policemen soon came. The police inspector told his men to search everyone. The necklace was not on anyone. They then searched the whole coffee house. The necklace couldn’t be found.

The police inspector then looked at the faces of all the people in the coffee house. He saw the ugly man and looked at the man carefully. He went up to the man and picked up the bowl of soup that was on his table. He then poured the soup into a glass. The necklace fell out. The policemen caught hold of the man and took him away. The young woman was happy to get back her necklace.

1. A young woman lost her necklace in ______________.

A. a hospital      B. a shop    C. a coffee house    D. a restaurant

2.The manager closed all the doors and _______________.

A. searched everyone in the coffee house

B. searched the whole coffee house

C. telephoned the police

D. looked at all the people in the coffee house

3.The police inspector found the necklace in __________.

A. a cup of coffee                   B. a bowl of rice

C. a glass of milk                   D. a bowl of soup

4.The necklace was stolen by ___________.

A. a beautiful girl                   B. an old woman

C. a young student                 D. an ugly man

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

I always felt sorry for the people in wheelchairs. Some people, old and weak, cannot get around by themselves. Others seem perfectly healthy, dressed in business suits. But whenever　　 I saw someone in a wheelchair, I only saw a disability, not a person.

Then I fainted(昏倒)at Euro Disney due to low blood pressure. This was the first time I had ever fainted, and my parents insisted that I rest for a while after first aid. They said to me, “Never mind!” I agreed to take it easy, but as I stepped toward the door, I saw my dad pushing a wheelchair in my direction! Feeling the color burn my cheeks, I asked him to wheel that thing right back to where he found it.

I could not believe this was happening to me. Wheelchairs were fine for other people but not for me, as my father wheeled me out into the main street, people immediately began to treat me differently.

Little kids ran in front of me, forcing my father to stop the wheelchair suddenly. I was thrown back and forth. “Stupid kids! They have perfectly good legs. Why can’t they watch where they are going?” I thought. People stared down at me, pity in their eyes. Then they would look away, maybe because they thought the sooner they forgot me the better.“I’m just like you!” I wanted to scream.” The only difference is you’ve got legs, and I have wheels.”

People in wheelchairs are not stupid. They see every look and hear each word. Looking out at the faces, I finally understood: I was once just like them. I treated people in wheelchairs exactly the way they did not want to be treated. I realized it is some of us with two healthy legs who are truly disabled.

1.The author once　　　　 　　 when she was healthy.

A.helped disabled people

B.looked down upon disabled people

C.imagined herself sitting in a wheelchair

D.saw some healthy people moving around in wheelchairs

2.The experience of the author tells us that　　　　 　 .

A.life is the best teacher

B.people often eat their bitter fruit

C.life is so changeable that nobody can foretell

D.one should not do to others what he would not like others to do to him

3.What is the best title for this passage?

A.How to get used to wheelchairs.

B.People in wheelchairs should be treated equally.

C.People whth two lges are truly healthy.

D.The difference between healthy people and the disabled.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Is it to control their body temperature? Save energy? Find food? Tiger sharks at the Ningaloo Reef are thought to search the seafloor for prey as they dive down and swim up. But could there be other reasons why the sharks often move up and down through the water column?

That’s what UWA student Sammy is hoping to find out for her Ph.D. research. Sammy caught 24 tiger sharks at the Ningaloo Reef and attached tracking devices to them for up to 48 hours. The devices recorded activity rates and other data 20 times a second. The tags also contained video cameras, so Sammy could see the habitats the sharks moved through and the animals they met. She watched how the sharks reacted to prey and how the prey reacted to them.

Tiger sharks can be pretty lazy — something as simple as a turtle noticing a shark and turning away could cause the shark not to bother hunting it.

“Stomach content analysis has found their normal prey items, such as turtles, rays and fish,” Sammy said. “But have also found some really interesting things, such as license plates, cans and nails.”

Sammy said that studying tiger sharks can help her better understand the ecosystem as a whole. How they move through the Ningaloo Reef and feed can help her figure out how they might be impacting the animals beneath them in the food chain.

But hours of watching tiger sharks hunt hasn’t put Sammy off the animals at all. She said her time tagging sharks at the Ningaloo Reef was the best month of her Ph.D., if not her life. “At first, I was a bit apprehensive about it ... getting that close to some very big animals,” Sammy said. “But they were very frightened once you had them restrained alongside the boat. They’d just sit there; you’d attach the tag; you’d take the line off and they’d just swim off really calmly. It was pretty amazing to see these. They’re just absolutely beautiful animals.”

1.What can be the function of the first paragraph?

A.To give an example. B.To introduce the topic.

C.To make a comparison. D.To provide the background.

2.What does Sammy want to know through her research?

A.Why tiger sharks swim up and down. B.What tiger sharks like to hunt and eat.

C.How tiger sharks react in front of humans. D.Whether tiger sharks are endangered or not.

3.What can be inferred from the stomach content analysis?

A.Tiger sharks live happily in the sea. B.Tiger sharks are sensitive to some food.

C.Tiger sharks are lazier than expected. D.Tiger sharks have a very broad diet.

4.What does the underlined word “apprehensive” in the last paragraph mean?

A.Careless. B.Curious. C.Fearful. D.Cautious.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Free Haircuts on a Red Chair

Last summer, Katie Steller was on her way to work. She stopped at a traffic light, where a man, in his 60s,looking out of luck, was sitting alone. She rolled down her window.

“Hey!” she shouted.“ I’m driving around giving free haircuts. Do you want one right now?”

The man, missing a few teeth, paused and laughed. “Actually,” he said, “I have a funeral(葬礼)to go to this week. I was really hoping to get a haircut.”

Then, Steller unloaded a red chair from the car. The man,named Edward, took a seat.As Steller was cutting his curly graying hair,he told her about growing up in Mississippi,about moving to Minnesota,and how he still talked to his mom over phone every day.

To date,Steller has given 30 or so such haircuts to people around the city.They are all living on the margins,and she is aware of the power of her work.

“It’s more than a haircut,”she says.“I want it to be a gateway,to show value and respect,but also to get to know people.”

Steller knows that a haircut can change a life.One changed hers:As a teen,she suffered from ulcerative colitis(溃疡性结肠炎)that was so serious,her hair thinned severely.Seeing this,her mother arranged for Steller’s first professional haircut.

“To sit down and have somebody look at me and talk to me like a person and not just an illness,it helped me feel cared about and less alone,”she says.

After that,Steller knew she wanted to have her own hair salon so she could help people feel the way she’d felt that day.Not long after finishing cosmetology school(美容学校)in 2016,she realized her dream.Two years later,she began what she now calls her Red Chair Project,reaching out to people on the streets.

Steller said,“I can’t fix their problems,but maybe I can help them feel less alone for a moment.”Steller listens to people’s stories of loss,addiction,and struggle to get back on their feet.

An offshoot of the Red Chair Project is the Steller Kindness Project,in which people who commit acts of kindness are invited for a free makeover(美容)at Steller’s salon.In exchange,they tell their stories,which Steller shares on her website.Her hope is that by reading about kind acts,others will be inspired to do their own.

So far,it’s working.“You have no idea what people are going to do with the kindness that you give to them,”says Steller.

1.Edward agreed to have a haircut by Steller because________.

A.he wanted to talk with Steller about his life

B.he wanted to look good for a special occasion

C.he was too old to go to a hair salon by himself

D.he was just waiting for a free haircut on the street

2.In paragraph 5,the underlined words“living on the margins”can probably be replaced by________.

A.living with little care and attention

B.living far from downtown areas

C.living with serious illnesses

D.living in untidy conditions

3.What made Steller want to set up her own salon?

A.Her excellent haircut skills.

B.Her mother’s encouragement.

C.Her experience of a formal haircut.

D.Her dream to offer people free haircuts.

4.What’s the purpose of Steller Kindness Project?

A.To make contributions to charity.

B.To encourage people to spread kindness.

C.To reward kind people with free makeovers.

D.To collect moving stories for Steller’s website.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Narayana Peesapaty was sitting on a flight when he noticed a passenger trying to reach food with a biscuit after breaking his spoon. At that moment, the researcher’s mind gave birth to a simple yet revolutionary concept — edible spoons.

How do you like your spoon?

Peesapaty’s company, Bakeys, makes edible spoons mainly out of sorghum(高粱）though rice, wheat and water are also ingredients. They combine to form a dry eating tool that remains hard even when used in moist or hot foods. Bakeys also makes ginger and garlic flavored(风味) spoons to meet specific requests. All spoons are completely natural and acceptable for nearly all diets.

A rice replacement

An environmentally-minded water researcher, Peesapaty, designed his spoons to be eco-friendly in several ways. Sorghum was chosen as the main ingredient of the spoons instead of rice, which requires 60 times as much water. Sorghum was also chosen for the strength it would lend eating tool, and the grain requires little water, low energy and no chemicals to grow.

In place of plastic

The goal that Peesapaty hopes to attain through Bakeys is to prevent plastic from any contact with food. Plastic products can contain cancer-causing substances that come into food, and average plastic bottles take 450 years to break down. In contrast, a Bakeys’ spoon is nutritious and break down in 10 days or less if thrown away. Peesapaty admits that using plastic is cheaper, but he also says that his spoons will be equally inexpensive when mass-produced.

1.Why is “the edible spoon” called a revolutionary concept?

A.It is natural and eatable. B.It remains hard in hot foods.

C.It offers various flavors. D.It meets all customers’ requests.

2.What’s Peesapaty’s main concern when choosing sorghum as main ingredient?

A.Being delicious. B.Being strong.

C.Being nutritious. D.Being eco-friendly.

3.What’s the main advantage of edible spoons over plastic ones?

A.Cheaper. B.Breaking down easily.

C.Tougher. D.Contacting food directly.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

In my opinion, classical music is a bit like mushrooms! You don't see the link? Let me explain. When I was a young girl, I didn't like mushrooms. They had a horrible texture and no taste at all, and I used to pick them out of every dish in which my mum tried to hide them. But gradually, as I got older, my view changed. I started to enjoy mushroom-flavoured things like soups and sauces, and eventually I found I could eat mushrooms without grimacing. And now I even quite enjoy them! So my mum's prediction that I would "grow into them" has proved quite correct.

Similarly, I always thought of classical music as a boring genre that only grown-ups liked. Whenever my parents played it in the car, I would count down the minutes until we could change it to my preferred genre: pop. But while at university, I found that calming orchestral music was just the thing for library revision playlists—it had no lyrics (歌词) to distract me, and the pieces tended to be very long: perfect for long work sessions!

Recently, my developing relationship with classical music reached a new level when I voluntarily chose to go to a ballet. Admittedly it was the dancing that originally attracted me, but once there I thoroughly enjoyed the music too. It was The Nutcracker, and I was surprised by just how much of the music I recognised! The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, The Russian Dance, The Waltz of the Flowers—they all sounded familiar. I didn't know how I knew them, I just knew that I did! And I loved them. My parents would be proud.

1.Why does the author think classical music is a bit like mushrooms?

A.Because they are both boring.

B.Because they both interest grown-ups.

C.Because they are both great.

D.Because they both take time to get used to.

2.What does the underlined word "grimacing" in paragraph 1 mean?

A.Using hands. B.Changing facial expression.

C.Taking care. D.Feeling extremely embarrassed.

3.What did the author think of classical music while at university?

A.It was too long. B.It was very popular.

C.It was great background music. D.It was perfect for relaxation.

4.What do we know about the author in paragraph 3?

A.She was familiar with the dance.

B.She became a fan of classical music.

C.Classical music became her favorite.

D.Her parents were unhappy with her change.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析

Every time I take part in a friend’s big party I always go to talk to those who just sit alone so that they don’t feel ________.

A. let out　　　　　　 B. wiped out

C. left out　　　 　　 D. faded out

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

People are being invited to sit down to eat with their neighbors in a nationwide lunch party designed to promote community spirit. The Big Lunch is the idea of the Eden Project in Cornwall. It aims to persuade people up and down the country to hold street lunch parties.

Tens of thousands of vegetables, fruits and flowers were used to construct a giant 2,000-square-foot lunch invitation in London’s Convent Garden. More than 9,000 cauliflowers and 800 bananas were used.

According to the organizers, people who decide to take part in the activity will get support from large companies which will supply many of the necessities, including plants to be given out to people to grow. The organizers think that the Big Lunch is a great opportunity for people to get together and spend time with their neighbors, friends and families. Events like this also help build strong communities. People can show their talents, get over their embarrassment, shake hands and get to know their neighbors, and realize that the neighborhood where they live can be a great source of happiness and enjoyment.

The Eden Project’s leader, Tim Smith, says, “It’s a good way to face this recession. Imagine a day on which millions of us, throughout the UK, sit down to have lunch together with our neighbors in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks, and on every patch of common ground. We’ll have cooked our own food, made our own entertainment, and created our own decorations. It will be a day to share bread with our neighbors, and put a smile on Britain’s face.”

1.      The Big Lunch aims to _____.

A. persuade people to eat healthy food             B. encourage people to cook at home

C. help poor people in the community                D. develop community spirit

2.      Which of the following is false?

A. Large companies will give participants enough money to hold the lunch parties.

B. The Big Lunch may be a good opportunity to show talents and make friends.

C. The Big Lunch is a nationwide activity designed by The Eden Project.

D. The giant lunch invitation in London used a lot of vegetables, fruits and flowers.

3.      Big Lunch is a good opportunity for people to _____.

A. enjoy free food                                                  B. have fun with neighbors and families

C. shop on the street                                            D. eat without cooking

4.      The underlined word “recession” in the last paragraph probably means_____.

A. nice environment                                              B. grand ceremony

C. rapid progress                                                    D. economic decline

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Michael and I did not know when the waiter put the plates on our table. At the time we were sitting in a small restaurant, hidden from the busy Third Street, in New York City. Even the smell of fresh serving blintze did not interfered our conversation. In fact, we let the blintze soaked in the sour cream. We just enjoy the conversation too much that we forgot to eat. Our conversation was so delightful though we did not speak about important things. We laughed and spoke about the film which we have just watched.

While our fun conversation continued, my eyes went across the room and stop on the corner. A couple of old folks sat in there. The woman wearing the flower dress with faded color, the same with the pillow where she laid her pallid handbag. The man’s top head shined just like the boiled egg which he ate very slowly. The woman chewed her oatmeal(燕麦片) very slowly too, seemed with very much effort.

But what made my mind thought about them was the silence around them. Michael and I paid our food and went on. When we passed the corner where the couple sat, my wallet fell. When I stopped to get it, I saw under the table, they were tenderly holding each other’s hand. They were eating in silence while holding each other’s hand! I was very touched to see the simple yet the very meaningful action reflecting the close relationship of the couple.

Their silence was the pleasant and relaxing one, it was the expression of the tender love and it did not always need the words to express it. They might spend the hours holding each other’s hand like this in the morning.

When I and Michael went out of the restaurant, I thought, maybe it was nothing bad at all if some day we have something like that. Maybe, it will become the expression of the tender and complete love.

1.From the first paragraph we may know the fact that the author and Michael ___________.

A.saw a film just now

B.were talking about something important

C.talked about a film about the couple

D.laughed when they were eating

2.What did the author see on the corner of the restaurant?

A.A boiled egg.

B.A wallet.

C.Two people.

D.Delicious food.

3.We can infer from the passage that ___________.

A.the author paid little attention to the couple

B.the couple kept talking while eating

C.the author paid for the couple’s food

D.the author was moved by the couple’s action

4.Why did the author think the silence around the old couple pleasant and relaxing?

A.Because they had nothing important to talk about.

B.Because the silence expressed the tender love between them.

C.Because they spent hours keeping in silence every morning.

D.Because they were eating very slowly.

高二英语阅读选择中等难度题查看答案及解析