This year some twenty-three hundred teenagers(young people aged from13~19)from all over the world will spend about ten months in U.S. homes. They will attend U.S. schools, meet U.S. teenagers, and form impressions of the real America. At the same time, about thirteen hundred American teenagers will go to other countries to learn new languages and gain a new understanding of the rest of the world.

Here is a two-way student exchange in action. Fred, nineteen, spent last year in Germany with George’s family. In turn, George’s son Mike spent a year in Fred’s home in America.

Fred, a lively young man, knew little German when he arrived, but after two months’study the language began to come to him. School was completely different from what he had expected—much harder. Students rose respectfully when the teacher entered the room. They took fourteen subjects instead of the six that are usual in the United States. There were almost no outside activities.

Family life, too, was different. The father’s word was law, and all activities were around the family rather than the individual. Fred found the food too simple at first. Also, he missed having a car.

“Back home, you pick up some friends in a car and go out and have a good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon learn to like it.”

At the same time, in America, Mike, a friendly German boy, was also forming his idea. “I suppose I should criticize(批评)American schools,” he said. “It is far too easy by our level. But I have to say that I like it very much. In Germany we do nothing but study. Here we take part in many outside activities. I think that maybe your schools are better in training for citizens. There ought to be some middle ground between the two.”

This year ________teenagers will take part in the exchange programme between America and other countries.

A. twenty-three hundred          B. thirteen hundred

C. over three thousand           D. less than two thousand

The whole exchange programme is mainly to__________.

A. help teenagers in other countries know the real America

B. send students in America to travel in Germany

C. let students learn something about other countries

D. have teenagers learn new languages

Fred and Mike agree that__________.

A. America food tasted better than German food

B. German schools were harder than American schools

C. Americans and Germans were both friendly

D. There were more cars on the streets in America

What is particular in American schools is that________.

A. there is some middle ground between the two teaching buildings

B. there are a lot of after-school activities

C. students usually take fourteen subjects in all

D. students go outside to enjoy themselves in a car

In 1955, a man named Raymond Kroc entered a partnership with two brothers named Mcdonald. They operated a popular restaurant in California which sold food that was easy to prepare and serve quickly. Hamburgers, French fries, and cold drinks were the main foods on the limited menu. Kroc opened similar eating places under the same name, “McDonald’s” and they were a quick success. He later took over the company and today it is one of the most famous and successful “fast-food” chains(连锁店) in America and the world.
Why was his idea so successful? Probably the most important reason was that his timing was right. In the 1950s, most married women stayed home to keep house and take care of their children. During the 1960s, the movement for equality(平等) between men and women and an economy(经济) that needed more families to have two money-earners resulted in many women returning to the workplace. This meant that they had less time and energy to do housework, so they depended more on fast-food restaurants.
Single parents also have little time to spend in the kitchen. People living alone because of divorce(离婚) or a preference for a “single lifestyle” also depend on this type of food, since cooking for one is often more trouble than it is worth.
Fast food is not part of the diet of all Americans. Another of the 1960s was called back-to-nature movement. More and more Americans based their diets on natural foods. This preference for natural foods continues to this day. These products can now be found not only in the special health food store but also in many supermarkets.
【小题1】The passage is mainly about ____.

A．how and why “McDonald’s” became successful

B．the effect social and economic changes have on people’s eating habits

C．why Americans prefer natural food

D．American eating habits

【小题2】Which of the following was NOT a reason for Raymond Kroc’s success?

A．His partnership with the McDonald brothers.

B．A changing economy.

C．The back-to-nature movement.

D．Women’s equality movement.

【小题3】We can infer from the passage that ____.

A．natural foods can also be found in McDonald’s

B．many married women in America returned to work in the 1960s

C．McDonald’s fast food is popular among the young

D．divorce caused people to change their eating habits

We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has-discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.
【小题1】Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair because      .

A．he found a new kind of microorganism

B．he contributed much to environmental protection

C．he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time

D．he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way

【小题2】 Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to      .

A．make the live bacteria work better	B．test how effective his method was
C．know which bacteria worked faster	D．control the temperature in the process

【小题3】
Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because       .

A．plastics can get hot easily	B．microbes can produce heat themselves
C．much carbon dioxide is produced	D．the temperature can be controlled

【小题4】 Daniel Burd got his idea from       .

A．his school textbook	B．the failure of researchers
C．his everyday work	D．the practice of other people

For over one hundred and fifty years, Americans of all social classes have worn blue jeans.  1.  Whether they are worn for work or for fashion today, Strauss’ invention continues to be popular not only among Americans but also among people around the world.

Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829.     2.   He grew up in Kentucky before moving to New York in 1847. Before becoming an American citizen and moving to the West in 1853, Strauss worked in his brother’s dry goods business. This gave him a chance to produce his famous invention. After the gold rush of 1849, Strauss decided to move to the West to seek his fortune.

Strauss did not want to be a person who searched an area for minerals. Instead, he knew he could make a good living by selling supplies to the miners. At first, he planned to sell sewing supplies and cloth.     3.  When he heard miners complaining that their clothes were easily broken or they usually tore their pockets during mining, he decided to use a special fabric to make pants for the miners. These pants proved so popular that he quickly ran out of materials to make more.

In 1873, Strauss received a letter from a Jewish tailor named Jacob Davis who had invented a process of connecting pockets with copper rivets(铆钉). This made the pants last a long time. Because Davis did not have the money to patent his idea, he offered to share it with Strauss if Strauss would agree to pay for the patent.    4.  

By the time Strauss died in 1902, he had made a great contribution to American fashion.

 5.  The business has been growing ever since and Levi Strauss' company is now one of the largest clothing companies in the world.

A．As a young boy, he moved with his family to the United States.

B．Nobody knew what kind of material was suitable.

C．He did and Levi jeans have been made with metal rivets ever since.

D．However, he did not get much business for those products.

E. He also made a great contribution to America's clothing industry.

F. Since they were invented by Levi Strauss, they have become a symbol of American consumer culture.

G. As the business grew, Strauss got much money from it.

 

Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality (理性), but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that’s not what I did.
I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn’t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by communicating with people who weren’t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.
　I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn’t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.
　Now I’m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.
　The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult.
【小题1】Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university?

A．He intended to become an engineer and humanist.

B．He intended to be a reasonable student with noble ideals.

C．He wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality.

D．He wanted to communicate with liberal-arts students.

【小题2】According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ___________.

A．become noble idealists

B．broaden their knowledge

C．find a better job in the future

D．balance engineering and liberal arts

【小题3】 Which word below can replace the underlined word “reconcile”?

A．confuse

B．compare

C．combine

D．compete

【小题4】The underlined sentence in 1st paragraph means ___________.

A．he has failed to achieve his ideal aims

B．he is not a practical and rational student

C．his choice of attending to a small liberal-arts university is reasonable

D．his idea of combining engineering with liberal - arts is noble and wise

【小题5】 The author suggests in this passage that ___________.

A．liberal-arts students are supported to take engineering courses

B．technical experts with a wide vision are expected in the society

C．successful engineering students are more welcomed in the society

D．engineering universities with liberal-arts courses are needed