Weddings in the United States vary as much as the people do. There are church weddings with a great deal of fanfare(仪式上用的短曲); there are weddings on mountain-tops with guests barefooted (赤脚的); and there have been weddings on the ocean floor with oxygen tanks for the guests. But many weddings, no matter where or how they are performed, include certain traditional customs.
Before a couple is married, they become engaged. And then invitations are sent to those who live nearby, their close friends and their relatives who live far away. When everything is ready, then comes the most exciting moment.
The wedding itself usually lasts between 20 and 40 minutes. The wedding party enters the church while the wedding march is played. The bride carrying a bouquet (花束)enters last with her father who will "give her away ". The bridegroom enters the church from a side door. When the wedding party is gathered by the altar, the bride and bridegroom exchange vows (誓言). It is traditional to use the words "To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part ". Following the vows, the couple exchange rings. Wearing the wedding ring on the fourth finger of the left hand is an old custom.
After the ceremony there is often a party, called a "reception" which gives the wedding guests an opportunity to congratulate the new couple . The car in which the couple leaves the church is decorated with balloons, streamers and shaving cream. The words "Just Married" are painted on the trunk or back window. The bride and bridegroom run to the car under a shower of rice thrown by the wedding guests. When the couple drives away from the church, friends often chase them in cars, honking (鸣汽车喇叭)and drawing attention to them. And then the couple go on their honeymoon.
【小题1】This passage is written mainly to let us know something about _______ .
A.health and lifestyle | B.science and technology |
C.culture and custom | D.education and entertainment |
A.To wish them good luck . | B.To make fun of them. |
C.Not mentioned . | D.To draw attention to them . |
A.They are always held in churches whoever they are . |
B.The bride’s father is usually present to lead his daughter to the bridegroom and give her to him . |
C.Only bridegrooms send rings to brides . |
D.Brides needn’t make vows before bridegrooms . |
A.e-b-c-d-a | B.e-c-d-a-b | C.b-c-d-a-e | D.e-a-c-d-b |
科目:高中英语 来源:2011-2012学年广东省实验中学高一下学期期末考试英语试卷(带解析) 题型:阅读理解
Barditch High School decided to hold an All-School Reunion.Over 450 people came to the event.There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park.Several former teachers were on hands to tell stories about the old days.Ms.Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.
Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans(嘟囔声)when Ms.Yates was about to speak.Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.
Then Ms.Yates started to speak:
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here.I haven’t seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies.I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students.Although I haven’t appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth of your children, in my imagination.”
Ms.Yates paused and started crying a bit.Then she continued:
“It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me.Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”
“There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work.You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”
There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping.The clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar(呼喊).Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.
【小题1】What activity was organized for the school reunion?
A.Telling stories about past events. |
B.A picnic on the school playground. |
C.Sightseeing in the park. |
D.Graduates’ reports in the old building. |
A.Some graduates were too busy to listen to Ms.Yates’ speech. |
B.Some people got tired from the reunion activities. |
C.Many graduates disliked Ms.Yates’ ways of teaching. |
D.Most people had little interest in the reunion. |
A.attended her students’ college graduations |
B.gave her students advice on their careers |
C.kept track of her students’ progress |
D.went to her students’ wedding ceremonies |
A.Hard-pushed students are more likely to succeed. |
B.Pressure on students from teachers should be reduced. |
C.Teachers’ knowledge is the key to students’achievements. |
D.Students’ respect is the best reward for teachers. |
A.Reliable and devoted. |
B.Strict but caring. |
C.Proud but patient. |
D.Tough and generous. |
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科目:高中英语 来源:2013届甘肃省高二下学期第二次月考英语试卷(解析版) 题型:单词拼写
单词拼写
1.He _________(捐赠)his collection of pictures to the museum.
2.The sailors had to _________(遗弃)the sinking ship .
3.Everybody in the class is expected to _____(参加)in these discussion.
4.The People’s Republic of China was founded on _________(十月)1st.
5.Is _________(星期六)the last day of the week?
6.This kind of mushroom is _________(有毒的)though it looks beautiful. Don’t eat it!
7.It is _________(方便的)to place the toilets near the entrance to the cinema.
8.You can use the cards for any special occasion—weddings, births, _________(周年纪念日),etc.
9.He decided to stay there for a _________(两星期)
10.I was nearly scared to _________(死)when I saw a snake yesterday.
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科目:高中英语 来源:2010年山东省枣庄市高三年级调研考试英语试题 题型:其他题
阅读下面短文,并根据短文后的要求回答(请注意问题后的字数要求)
[1]China will change the world as much as the world changes China, if the country continues its opening up.
[2]How could it not? The rest of the world cannot remain unaffected by the culture of one-fifth of humanity. As China strengthens its economy, allows its citizens more overseas travel and participates in global efforts, the West surely will learn more about Chinese ways.
[3]And once it does, its people might choose to adot some of them.
[4]It might surprise Chinese that Westerners . When I announced my Beijing job to American friends, family and neighbors, they were very curious and mostly uninformed about China.
[5] Our media carries little news about China except during unusual circumstances, which typically are times of stress between the two countries.We hear about arguments with China over climate change, Taiwan and Tibet, but that doesn' t tell average Americans anything about average Chinese.
[6]Most American- don't know that Chinese weddings feature firecrackers; that Chinese parents make extraordinary sacrifices for their children; that Chinese diners eat off plates smaller than any on a Western table; that favorite Chinese drinks include hot soy milk and the potent white-grain alcohol, baijiu; and that elderly Chinese sometimes walk down streets backwards to keep their balancing skills sharp.
[7]Westemers will learn as they and the Chinese increasingly mingle(接触).As they do there' s no telling which Chirac customs will take root in foreiffl soil.but some of them surely will.
[8] Maybe we' 11 see baijiu and green tea served at baseball stadiums along with beer and soda pop.That wouldn' t make the game any less American.
[9] Meanwhile, I hope China continues to take in what the world has to offer and transform it into something typically Chinese.To think that exposure to Western ways weakens China, instead of strengthens it, assumes the country' s culture is fragile.That' s a surprising attitude for any Chinese to take.
1.What does the passage mainly tell us? (within 10 words)
2.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words. (within 6 words)
3.What an attitude should we Chinese take towards Western culture according to the author? (within 20 words)
4.Which sentence in the text is the closest in meaning to the following one?
In that case, some of the Chinese way of life will, possibly, be accepted by the westerners.
5.Translate the underlined sentence in Paragraph 7 into Chinese.
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科目:高中英语 来源:2010届湖北省高考英语总复习练习系列(一) 题型:阅读理解
Despite rising education levels, Americans of every age are reading less and less for pleasure these days, according to an analysis by the National Endowment for the Arts. The decline(下降) could have bad effects as people tune out books, tune in popular culture and become less socially engaged.
"We've got a public culture which is almost entirely commercial(商业化)and novelty - driven (追新)," says NEA chairman Dana Gioia. "I think it's letting the nation down."
The study gathers years of data on Americans' reading habits and finds that, at every age group, we're reading less.
Most of the data have appeared in private, government and university surveys, but today's report is the first to combine them into a single portrait. It suggests that the demands of school, work and family and the decisive advantage of other forms of entertainment have caused the decline in reading for millions of Americans.
·Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure.
·65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.
·30% of 13 - year - olds in 2004 said they read for fun "almost every day," down from 35% in 1984.
According to Gioia, a poet, they decline is probably the single most important social issue in the United States today. The findings should be a wake - up call to educators to change the way they teach literature at every level. It was once believed that if someone went to college, they would become a lifelong reader. What we're seeing right now is that we're no longer producing readers. We're producing B. A. s and M. A. s and Ph. D. s.
Cioia also wants main media to wake up to how they can promote good books in many ways. He notes that when a character in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral recited a few lines of W. H. Auden's poem Funeral Blues, the poet briefly became a best seller.
65.The underlined phrase "tune out" in the first paragraph probably means________.
A.close B.publish C.prove D.read
66.According to Dana Gioia, the change of Americans' reading habit________.
A.is positive and valuable B.does harm to the nation
C.is caused only by popular culture D.can make poets best sellers
67.Which of the following is NOT the cause for the change in reading habit?
A.Demands of getting a B. A., M. A. or Ph. D.
B.Demands of family, school and work.
C.The change in the way the literature is taught.
D.Advantages of the entertainment.
68.We can infer that the number of teenagers reading for pleasure reduced by________in 20 years.
A.30% B.38% C.65% D.5%
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科目:高中英语 来源:2010年高考试题(陕西卷)解析版 题型:信息匹配
根据短文内容,从下框的A-F选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余项。
A Gift giving proven to be valuable. B. Memories from gift giving C. Moments and events for gift giving D. Various functions of gift giving E. Gift giving as a wasteful practice F. Gift giving as a two-way social activity |
Gift Giving
1.
There are many occasions(场合) for giving gifts in modern industrialized societies; birthdays, naming ceremonies, weddings, anniversaries, New Year, It is common to give gifts on many of these celebrations in western cultures. In addition, special events, such as one’s first day of school or graduation from university, often require gift fiving.
2.
What is happening when we give gifts? Most important, we are exchanging gifts. If someone gives me a gift for my birthday, I know that I am usually expected to give one on his or her next birthday.gift builds up or confirms a social obligation(义务).
3.
Gifts tighten personal relationships and provide a means of communication between loved ones. People say that a gift lets the recipient(接受者) know we are thinking of them, and that we want to make the person “feel special.” We want people to feel wanted, to feel part of our social or family group. We give presents to say “I’m sorry.” Sometimes it is difficult for us to find a present that someone will like. Sometimes we give things that we like or would frrl comfortable with. In all these cases, the gifts are sending out messages-often very expressive ones.
4.
People tend to talk about presents in a fairly loving way.woman whose mother had died years ago described the many gifts around her house. These were gifts that her mother had given her over the years: “I appreciate these, and they mean something to me,” the woman said, “because I remember the occasions they were given on, and that they were from my mother, and the relationship we’ve had.” The gifts remain and keep the relationship alive in mind. This woman felt the same way about the gifts she gave to others. She hoped that the recipients would look at here gifts in years to come and
5.
Emotions(情感)like these suggest that a positive spirit still lies behind gift giving. They prove that the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss was wrong to say that modern western gift giving is highly wasteful. Studies in Canada and elsewhere have also shown that this is not the case. Each gift is unique even if so many are given.The emotional benefit for those who exchange gifts is the very reason for the tradition to continue.
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