America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending sometimes deeply into both families.
ericans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily. Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home.
【小题1】In which part of a newspaper can this article be found?

A．Culture.

B．News.

C．Story.

D．Travel.

【小题2】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

【小题3】The underlined words “flower”(in Line 5) probably means ___________.

A．weaken

B．develop

C．stretch

D．disappear

【小题4】From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be___________.

A．treated hospitably at his home	B．offered a ride to his home
C． warmly welcomed at the airport	D．treated to dinner in a restaurant

【小题5】The writer mainly talks about ___________ in the text.

A．friendships between Chinese	B．Americans’ hospitality
C．different views of friendship	D．friendships between Americans

阅读理解

　　It is hard to get any agreement on the accurate meaning of the term “social class”. In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to “place” a new acquaintance(熟人), however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part.

　　In Greece, after the sixth century B． C．, there was a growing conflict between the peasants and the landed aristocrats(贵族), and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of “middle class” of traders and skilled workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was divided into three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About one third of the total were slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of democracy. The next main group consisted of resident foreigners, the “metics”, who were freemen, though they two were allowed no share in political life. The third group was the powerful body of “citizens”, who were themselves divided into subclasses.

　　In the later Middle Ages, however, the development of monetary economy and the growth of cities and trade led to the rise of another class, the “burghers” or city merchants and mayors. These were the predecessors of the modern middle classes. Gradually high office and occupation assumed importance in determining social position, as it became more and more possible for a person born to one station in life to move to another. This change affected the towns more than the country areas, where remnants of feudalism lasted much longer.

　　With the break up of the feudal economy, the increasing division of labour, and the growing power of the town burghers(公民), the commercial and professional middle class became more and more important in Europe, and the older privileged class, the landed aristocracy, began to lose some of its power.

1．The main idea of the first paragraph is that ________.

[　　]

A．to define the term social class does not involve much difficulty

B．there is much alternation in people's social classes

C．to evaluate a person's social class is a very complex procedure

D．we can tell which social class a person belongs to by the way he behaves

2．In Paragraph 1, “criteria” most probably means ________.

[　　]

3．Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE, according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Slaves in Greece in the sixth century B. C. were not politically significant.

B．The “burghers” of the later Middle Ages constituted an entirely new social class.

C．To some extent, social mobility can be attributed to the growth of trade.

D．The new class made up of traders and executive officials of the later Middle Ages made the development of a money economy possible.

4．The best title of the passage might be ________.

[　　]

A．The criteria for classifying social groups

B．Social classes

C．Changes in social system

D．The evolution of human society

  Ed Jocelyn and Andy McEwen might have appeared to be a bit mad---the two set off on their own “Long March” through the remotest regions of China on October 16. The idea was to take a year to retrace one of the epic movements of modern military history.

   The two British men in their mid-30s were working as editors in Beijing when they decided to reexperience the tales of the original marches. “We hold these people in such respect,” McEwen says.

   They plan to keep diaries but will not share the contents during the trip. “When we get to the end we’ll put our heads together and try and come up with a book,” Jocelyn said.

   Their trip has had some auspicious beginning, they have already met two Long March veterans(老战士) in less than a month of travel.

   In this modern version, the pair are aided by high-tech equipment including a satellite phone, mini-computer, video camera and solar panels to recharge batteries. A mountain tent and portable stove will help them in the remoter stretches.

   They plan to average 35-40 kilometers a day, and rest about every third day. Ed admitted that their trip would be very tough.

   If they succeed, they will be the first foreigners to complete the entire Long March route since Otto Braun, the German military advisor who accompanied the Red Army on the Long March.

This text is mainly about           .

  A．high-tech equipment helpful to the Long March   

  B．first foreigners to walk the Long March

  C．British recall of the Long March spirit

  D．British editors’ adventure original in China       

The underlined word “auspicious” most probably means           .

   A．friendly        B．favourable      C．strange       D．surprising

Which of the following statements is NOT true about the two foreigners?

 A．They will use anything modern on the way.

 B．They will do some cooking by themselves.

 C．They’re planning to have a book published one year later.

 D．They will send off news about what happens day by day.

  Ed Jocelyn and Andy McEwen might have appeared to be a bit mad---the two set off on their own “Long March” through the remotest regions of China on October 16. The idea was to take a year to retrace one of the epic movements of modern military history.
The two British men in their mid-30s were working as editors in Beijing when they decided to reexperience the tales of the original marches. “We hold these people in such respect,” McEwen says.
They plan to keep diaries but will not share the contents during the trip. “When we get to the end we’ll put our heads together and try and come up with a book,” Jocelyn said.
Their trip has had some auspicious beginning, they have already met two Long March veterans(老战士) in less than a month of travel.
In this modern version, the pair are aided by high-tech equipment including a satellite phone, mini-computer, video camera and solar panels to recharge batteries. A mountain tent and portable stove will help them in the remoter stretches.
They plan to average 35-40 kilometers a day, and rest about every third day. Ed admitted that their trip would be very tough.
If they succeed, they will be the first foreigners to complete the entire Long March route since Otto Braun, the German military advisor who accompanied the Red Army on the Long March.
【小题1】 This text is mainly about          .

A．high-tech equipment helpful to the Long March

B．first foreigners to walk the Long March

C．British recall of the Long March spirit

D．British editors’ adventure original in China

【小题2】 The underlined word “auspicious” most probably means          .

A．friendly

B．favourable

C．strange

D．surprising

【小题3】 Which of the following statements is NOT true about the two foreigners?

A．They will use anything modern on the way.

B．They will do some cooking by themselves.

C．They’re planning to have a book published one year later.

D．They will send off news about what happens day by day.

  Ed Jocelyn and Andy McEwen might have appeared to be a bit mad---the two set off on their own “Long March” through the remotest regions of China on October 16. The idea was to take a year to retrace one of the epic movements of modern military history.

   The two British men in their mid-30s were working as editors in Beijing when they decided to reexperience the tales of the original marches. “We hold these people in such respect,” McEwen says.

   They plan to keep diaries but will not share the contents during the trip. “When we get to the end we’ll put our heads together and try and come up with a book,” Jocelyn said.

   Their trip has had some auspicious beginning, they have already met two Long March veterans(老战士) in less than a month of travel.

   In this modern version, the pair are aided by high-tech equipment including a satellite phone, mini-computer, video camera and solar panels to recharge batteries. A mountain tent and portable stove will help them in the remoter stretches.

   They plan to average 35-40 kilometers a day, and rest about every third day. Ed admitted that their trip would be very tough.

   If they succeed, they will be the first foreigners to complete the entire Long March route since Otto Braun, the German military advisor who accompanied the Red Army on the Long March.

1. This text is mainly about           .

  A．high-tech equipment helpful to the Long March   

  B．first foreigners to walk the Long March

  C．British recall of the Long March spirit

  D．British editors’ adventure original in China       

2. The underlined word “auspicious” most probably means           .

   A．friendly        B．favourable      C．strange       D．surprising

3. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the two foreigners?

 A．They will use anything modern on the way.

 B．They will do some cooking by themselves.

 C．They’re planning to have a book published one year later.

 D．They will send off news about what happens day by day.