President Coolidge’s statement, “The business of America is business,” still points to an important truth today—that business institutions have more prestige（威望）in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?
One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself, it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.
Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly（垄断）of power. In contrast to one all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers’ dollars, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves.
A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important, or even more important, than democracy（民主）in preserving freedom.
Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic（贵族的）idea of inherited privilege.
【小题1】The statement “The business of America is business” probably means ________.
| A．America is a great power in world business |
| B．Business is of primary concern to Americans |
| C．The business institutions in America are concerned with commerce |
| D．Business problems are of great importance to the American government |
| A．by protecting their individual freedom |
| B．when given equality of opportunity |
| C．by way of competition |
| D．through doing business |
| A．People with ideals of equality and freedom. |
| B．Both business institutions and government. |
| C．Honest businessmen. |
| D．Both businessmen and their customers. |
| A．its role in protecting basic American values |
| B．its absolute control of power |
| C．its democratic way of exercising leadership |
| D．its function in preserving personal freedom |
| A．in many countries success often depends on one’s social status |
| B．businesses in other countries are not as competitive as those in America |
| C．American businesses are more democratic than those in other countries |
| D．Americans are more ambitious than people in other countries |
科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Americans like to travel on their yearly holiday.Today，more and more travelers in the United States are spending nights at small houses or inns （客栈） instead of hotels.They get a room for the night and the breakfast the next morning.
Rooms for the night in private homes with breakfast have been popular with travelers in Europe for many years.In the past five to ten years，these bed-and-breakfast places have become popular in the United States.Many of these America’s bed-and-breakfast inns have only a few rooms,others are much larger.Some inns do not provide telephones or televisions in the rooms，others do.
Staying at a bed-and-breakfast inn is much different from staying at a hotel.Usually the cost is much less.Staying at an inn is almost like visiting someone’s home.The owners are glad to tell about the areas and the interesting places to visit.Many vacationers say that they enjoy the chance to meet local families.
【小题1】68.Americans take a holiday trip _____.
| A．all the year round | B．for years |
| C．every year | D．every other year |
| A．the travelers needn’t pay anything |
| B．the travelers don’t have to pay for the telephone or television |
| C．the travelers can meet and talk with the local people |
| D．the owners will show the travelers around the area |
| A．European and American vacationers like staying at bed-and-breakfast inns. |
| B．All Ameicans enjoy traveling |
| C．These bed-and-breakfast inns are all old historic buildings |
| D．Staying at a bed-and-breakfast inns is just like at the traveler’s home |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Dear Reader，
Today I'm going to ask you to support Wikipedia with a donation. Sounds unusual: Why does one of the world's five most popular websites ask for financial support from its users?
Wikipedia is built differently from almost every other top 50.We have a small number of paid staff, just twentythree. Wikipedia content is free to use by anyone for any purpose. Wikipedia is run by the nonprofit Wikipedia Foundation, which I founded in 2003.
Wikipedia's driven by a global community (群体) of more than 150,000 volunteers, all devoted to sharing knowledge freely. More than 275 million people come to our website every month to access information, free of charge and free of advertising.
Your donation helps us in several ways. Most importantly, you will help us cover the increasing cost of managing global traffic to one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Funds also help us improve the software that runs Wikipedia, making it easier to search, easier to read, and easier to write for. We're bent on growing the free knowledge movement worldwide, by employing new volunteers, and building strategic (战略的) partnerships with institutes of culture and learning.
Wikipedia is different. It's the largest encyclopedia (百科全书) in history, all written by volunteers.
Like a national park or a school, we don't believe advertising should have a place in Wikipedia. We want to keep it free and strong, but we need the support of thousands of people like you, for your donation will help keep Wikipedia free for the whole world.
Thank you!
Jimmy Wales
【小题1】In the letter, Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikimedia Foundation tries to ________.
| A．compare some top websites |
| B．explain how Wikipedia works |
| C．introduce a new website to the readers |
| D．appeal to Wikipedia users to make donations |
| A．Due to its less popularity, Wikipedia is no longer attractive to advertising at all. |
| B．Over 275 million people come to Wikipedia to access information for free weekly. |
| C．Wikipedia, the world's most popular website, is run by the Wikipedia Foundation. |
| D．Unlike others, Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in history, is written by volunteers. |
| A．take on some new volunteers |
| B．develop an effective new software |
| C．access free knowledge more easily |
| D．cover the increasing cost of management |
| A．Wikipedia aims to give free access to the sum of all human knowledge |
| B．those donating to Wikipedia will be eventually employed as its volunteers |
| C．most websites including Wikipedia rely on financial supports from its users |
| D．supported by Wikipedia Foundation, Wikipedia wants to be free from advertisements |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Most musicians agree that the best violins were made in Cremona, Italy, about 200 years ago. They even sound better than violins made today. Violin makers and scientists try to make instruments like the old Italian violins. But they aren’t the same. Why are these old Italian violins so special? Many people think they have an answer.
Some people think it is the age of the violins. But there is a problem here. Not all old violins sound wonderful. Only those from Cremona are special. So age cannot be the answer.
Other people think the secret to those violins is the wood. The wood of the violin is very important. It must be from certain kinds of trees. It must not be too young or too old. Perhaps the violin makers of Cremona knew something special about wood for violins.
But the kind of wood may not be so important. It may be more important to cut the wood in a special way. Wood for a violin must be cut very carefully. It has to be the right size and shape. The smallest difference will change the sound of the violin. Musicians sometimes think that this is the secret of the Italians.
Size and shape may not be the answer either. Scientists make new violins that are exactly the same size and shape. But the new violins still do not sound as good as the old one. Some scientists think the secret may be the varnish（清漆）, which covers the wood of the violin and makes it look shiny. It also helps the sound of the instrument. Since no one knows what the Italian violin makers used in their varnish, no one can make the same varnish today.
There may never be other violins like the violins of Cremona. And there are not many of the old violins left. So these old violins are becoming more and more precious.
【小题1】What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Secrets of Cremona Violins |
| B．The History of Italian Violins |
| C．Special Musical Instruments |
| D．How to Make the Best Violins |
| A．list some facts | B．raise a question |
| C．give an opinion | D．offer an answer |
| A．The shape． | B．The size． | C．The wood． | D．The varnish． |
| A．Light． | B．Shining． | C．Valuable． | D．Modern |
| A．Modem things are always better than ancient ones |
| B．Ancient things are always better than modem ones |
| C．Once a cultural relic is lost．it Can never be recovered |
| D．Varnish for violins will become more and more precious |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
The garden city was largely the invention of Ebenezer Howard(1850~1928). After immigrating from England to the USA, and an unsuccessful attempt to make a living as a farmer, he moved to Chicago, where he saw the reconstruction of the city after the disastrous fire of 1871. In those days, it was nicknamed “the Garden City”，almost certainly the source of Howard’s name for his later building plan of towns. Returning to London, Howard developed his design in the 1880s and 1890s, drawing on ideas that were popular at the time, but creating a unique combination of designs.
The nineteenth-century poor city was in many ways a terrible place, dirty and crowded; but it offered economic and social opportunities. At the same time, the British countryside was in fact equally unattractive: though it promised fresh air and nature, it suffered from agricultural depression(萧条) and it offered neither enough work and wages, nor much social life. Howard’s idea was to combine the best of town and country in a new kind of settlement, the garden city. Howard’s idea was that a group of people should set up a company, borrowing money to establish a garden city in the depressed countryside, far enough from existing cities to make sure that the land was bought at the bottom price.
Garden cities would provide a central public open space, radial avenues and connecting industries. They would be surrounded by a much larger area of green belt, also owned by the company, containing not merely farms but also some industrial institutions. As more and more people moved in, the garden city would reach its planned limit---Howard suggested 32,000 people; then, another would be started a short distance away. Thus, over time, they would develop a vast planned house collection, extending almost without limit; within it, each garden city would offer a wide range of jobs and services, but each would also be connected to the others by a rapid transportation system, thus giving all the economic and social opportunities of a big city.
【小题1】What could be the best title for the passage?
| A．City and Countryside |
| B．A New City in Chicago |
| C．The Invention of the Garden City |
| D．A Famous Garden City in England |
| A．Through his observation of the country life. |
| B．By using the nickname of the reconstructed Chicago. |
| C．By taking other people’s advice. |
| D．Through the combination of different ideas. |
| A．as far as possible from existing cities |
| B．near cities where employment opportunities already existed |
| C．in the countryside where agriculture was developed |
| D．in the countryside where the land was cheap |
| A．making use of |
| B．making comments on |
| C．giving an explanation of |
| D．giving a description of |
| A．People would live and work in the same place. |
| B．Each one would continue to become larger. |
| C．Their number would continue to rise. |
| D．Each one would contain a certain type of business. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect （影响） American society in many ways — education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society— one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior（行为）is suitable （合适）at various ages. A person's age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There's no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school ,get a job, or stop working isn't as strong as it used to be. It doesn't surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the firs time. Public ideas are changing. Many people say, 'I am much younger than my mother - or my father - was at my age.' No one says ‘Act your age’ anymore. We've stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.
【小题1】It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America_________ .
| A．has made people feel younger |
| B．has changed people's social position |
| C．has changed people's understanding of age |
| D．has slowed down the country's social development |
| A．a society | B．America | C．a place | D．population |
| A．be active when they are old |
| B．do the right thing at the right age |
| C．show respect for their parents young or old |
| D．take more physical exercise suitable to their age |
| A．normal | B．wonderful | C．unbelievable | D．unreasonable |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
The question this week comes from our listener Herve Acard, who asks about the American word “OK”, which means “all right” or “acceptable”. It expresses agreement or approval. The word is used more often than any other word in the world.
Language expert Allen Walker Read said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”. Old stories say some foreign-born people would write “all correct” as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t and spoke it as “OK”. Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word “okeh” means the same as the American word “OK”. Experts say early explorers in the Western America spoke the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.
According to some people, “OK” was a way to shorten Greek words that mean everything is fine. It is also said that a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. He is said to have put the first letters of his names — O and K — on each object people gave him to place on the train.
Another explanation is that “OK” was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the 1800s. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born — Old Kinderhook, New York.
Not everyone agrees with these explanations, but experts do agree that the word is purely American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech. Serious writers prefer using words, such as “agree”, “approve” or “confirm” instead.
【小题1】Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A newspaper. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A radio program. | D．A language magazine. |
| A．The OK Club |
| B．The Choctaw word “okeh” |
| C．The word invented by Martin Van Buren |
| D．The short form of “all correct” |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Amy Chua, a professor of law in Yale, nicknamed as Tiger Mother, has started a debate over Chinese-style parenting. Amy sets “10 Rules” for her two daughters. For instance, they’ve to get As in all subjects and play the piano or violin and practice hours every day.
There has been wide criticism(批评) across the US. “It’s kind of extreme,” said Jeffrey Seinfeld, a professor at New York University. “Children need parents who can guide them, not force them...”
Lawrence Solomon, a famous journalist for Canada’s Globe and Mail, has quoted statistics to show the failure of Chinese parenting. He writes that only 10 Chinese scientists outside the Chinese mainland have won the Nobel Prize in the past century. In contrast, American scientists have won more than 300 Nobel prizes, and Jews(犹太人), who take up only 1% of the world’s population, have got at least 180 (or almost one-fourth) of the prizes.
However, Amy’s strict rules help her daughters shine in their studies. The elder sister is known for her piano presentation at the Carnegie Hall, and the younger boasts an excellent academic record.
Besides, US statistics show that Chinese-Americans take up only 5% of the US population but 20% of the students in Ivy League schools（常春藤学校）.
Likewise, Chinese-Canadians take up more than one-third of the students in Canada’s two most famous universities, Toronto University and the University of British Columbia. Influenced by Confucius’ teachings, students from Korea and Japan are also excelling in academic fields.
Therefore, the Nobel Prize should not be taken as the yardstick of a country’s education. No culture or tradition, whether Eastern or Western, is better or worse. The same applies to Eastern and Western education systems. Both sides should stop using their concepts and criteria to judge the other. They should learn the good aspects of each other’s systems and clear the misunderstandings.
【小题1】It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
| A．there’re about 720 Nobel Prizes in the 20th century |
| B．Jeffrey Seinfeld agrees children need pushing to succeed |
| C．Amy Chua’s parenting style is widely accepted across America |
| D．Western concepts should be adopted to judge all education systems |
| A．Valuable. | B．Unreliable. |
| C．Unchangeable. | D．Flexible. |
| A．yard | B．footstep |
| C．standard | D．chopsticks |
| A．By inferring. | B．By comparing. |
| C．By reasoning. | D．By explaining. |
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