Could you survive on your own in the wild if everyone was fighting against you?

It must be hard, as 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen has found out in the book The Hunger Games, written by American author Suzanne Collins, the novel has stayed on the New York Times best-seller list for 51 weeks．

The novel takes place at a time when the United States no longer exists．North America has become Panem, and its biggest city is called the Capitol．The rest of Panem is divided into 12 districts．

Long ago, the districts started a war against the Capitol and lost．Giving up the fight, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to appear in an annual TV event called “The Hunger Games”．

The teenagers have to fight each other in a desolate （荒凉的） environment．The rules and audience may change but one rule always stays the same: kill or be killed．

Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister in District 12, the poorest district of Panem．She struggles to support her family by secretly hunting beyond the border of her district．When Katniss’ sister is chosen by the lottery, Katniss steps up to take her sister’s place in the reality TV show．However, her friendship with the other District 12 contestant （选手）, a baker’s son named Peeta Mellark, makes her situation even more complicated. Katniss knows it may be her death sentence．In order to survive, she must choose which is most important: her own survival or humanity; life or love．

The twists and turns of her adventure make it hard to put the book down．You can feel Katniss’ pain, confusion, love and hatred. And this is how a novel should be: you don’t just read it; you live it．

1.The purpose of writing this passage was mainly to _______．

       A．give us an example of how to survive in the wild

       B．introduce to us a New York Times best-seller

       C．teach us how to win The Hunger Games

       D．tell us what might happen in North America in the future．

2.Which of the following is TRUE, according to the passage?

       A．“The Hunger Games” is a televised competition held every two years．

       B．Katniss takes her sister’s place to compete because she loves adventure．

       C．The new country Panem is divided into 12 parts altogether．

       D．The young competitors in the Hunger Games are forced to kill or be killed

3.The word “complicated” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _______．

       A．difficult               B．hopeless          C．advantageous       D．impossible

4.In The Hunger Games, Katniss faces more challenges because she has to think about _______．

       A．who will support her family

       B．what is most important in life

       C．how she can defeat her opponent

       D．why she has to compete in such a violent game

One is not born able to speak a language. One is born able to make a noise. I have heard babies cry in America and in China. I can’t tell any difference. But when I hear someone from America speak English and hear someone speak Chinese, I can tell you there are a lot of differences.
I believe a common(普遍的) problem with Chinese students’ learning English is that they were not taught to think in English. They have an idea spoken in English and want to translate the idea into Chinese, then they think in Chinese of the proper reply and translate it into English. After a long period of speaking the language, one begins to think in the foreign language naturally. You will learn faster if you begin to think in English at the very beginning of your study. Many students ask me: What can I do to improve my spoken English?
My reply is: The more English you speak, the better English you will speak. There are many things you can do to improve your spoken English. Of course, the best way is to live where English is spoken as a language of the country.
【小题1】The cries of American and Chinese babies are _______.

One is not born able to speak a language. One is born able to make a noise. I have heard babies cry in America and in China. I can't tell any difference. But when I hear someone from America speak English and hear someone speak Chinese, I can tell you there are a lot of differences.

   I believe a common problem with Chinese students’ learning English is that they were not taught to think in English. They have an idea spoken in English and want to translate the idea into Chinese, Then they think in Chinese of the proper reply and translate it into English. After a long period of speaking the language, one begins to think in the foreign language naturally. You will learn faster if you begin to think in English at the very beginning of your study. Many students ask me: What can I do to improve my spoken English?

    My reply is: The more English you speak, the better English you will speak. There are many things you can do to improve your spoken English. Of course, the best way is to live where English is spoken as a language of the country.

49．  The cries of American and Chinese babies are ________.

A. different                B. the same                 C. not like each other   D. like each other

50．  The underlined sentence ( in Paragraph 2 ) means that ________.

A. some teachers didn't teach students to think in English

B. teachers never gave the students the way of learning English

C. students didn't remember the way teachers taught them

D. teachers didn't want their students to think in English

51．  The underlined word “they” ( in Paragraph 2 ) refers to “________”.

A. Chinese students     B. English students      C. Chinese teachers     D. English teachers

52．  According to the article, which of the following is TRUE?

A. You must think in English all the time.

B. If you translate a sentence into Chinese, you should think about the meaning of the sentence in Chinese carefully first.

C. After speaking English for a long time, you may probably think in English naturally.

D. The best way of learning English is to live in America.

Who are these people rushing by you in the street? More than 215 million people now call America “home”, but most of them can trace their families back to other parts of the world. If you look at the names on shop windows, you will see that Americans come from many different lands. The idea that these people, who once were strangers to the United States, have lost the customs and cultures of their original countries and have become “American” is really not true. In fact, what exists in America is more often a kind of “side-by-side” living in which groups of people from other countries often have kept many of their customs and habits. They join the general American society only in certain areas of their lives—such as in schools, business, and sports—but they keep many of their own native customs and manners socially and at home. This living “side-by-side” has both advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it may cause disagreements to develop between groups whose ways of life are very different from one another. However, there are also great advantages that come from the variety of cultures brought by settlers from other lands. There is great freedom of choice among ideas and dress, food, and social customs in America. Everyone can find some part of his or her familiar world in the United States, in churches, music, food, national groups, or newspapers.
【小题1】More than 215 million people call America “home” because_______.