.

There is one language that is used in every country in the world. The people who use it are young and old, short and tall, thin and fat. It is everybody’s second language. It is easy to understand, although you can’t hear it. It is sign language.

When you wave to a friend who is across the street, you are using sign language. When you smile at someone, you are saying, “I want to be friendly”, but you are not using speech. You are using sign language. When you raise your hand in class, you are saying, “Please ask me. I think I know the correct answer.”

Babies who can’t talk can point at things. They are using sign language. A policeman who wants to stop traffic holds up his hands. He is using sign language.

Many years ago, a French priest, Charles Michel de Epee, became interested in education for deaf people. He invented a finger alphabet (字母表). It is still in use. People can make the sign for letters and spell words with their hands, and deaf people can read and understand them. Soon there were schools for the deaf in many countries. The only university for the deaf is Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.

Today, in the United States, there are special TV news programs for deaf people. The newsreader tells the news in sign language. At the same time, the words appear on the TV screen.

The actors in the Theatre of Deaf don’t spell every word. Sometimes they use hand signs. When they put two hands together, it means sandwich. They can make a roof with their hands when they want to show a house. One finger in front of an actor’s mouth can mean quiet. You can talk to people who are behind windows that are closed. And when you go swimming with your friends, you can have conversations under water.

How many hand signs do you use every day?

63. Which of the following about sign language is TRUE?

A. It is a special language used in a few countries in the world.

B. It is a way to express one’s ideas without words.

C. It is only used by the deaf.             

D. It can be heard.

64. If you want to express the idea that “I am very friendly” to someone, you will ______.

A. raise your hand                          B. put one hand onto the other

C. smile to the person                     D. make a roof with your hands

65. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Hand signs instead of finger signs are used everyday.

B. There are schools, colleges and universities for the deaf in the USA.

C. The French priest Charles invented sign language. 

D. Even babies are using sign language.

66. The passage is mainly about ______.

A. an introduction to sign language      B. the importance of sign language

C. a famous priest in France            D. how to use sign language 

 

French surgeons have performed what they said on Wednesday was the world's first partial face transplant--- giving a new nose, chin and lips to a woman attacked by a dog.

Specialists from two French hospitals carried out the operation on a 38-year-old woman on Sunday in the northern city of Amiens by taking the face from a brain-dead woman, who had hanged herself just hours before the operation. Her family agreed on the operation.

 “The patient is in an excellent state and the transplant looks normal,” the hospitals said in a brief statement after waiting three days to announce the pioneering surgery.

The woman had been left without a nose and lips after the dog attacked her last May, and was unable to talk or chew properly. Such injuries are “extremely difficult, if not impossible” to repair using normal surgical techniques, the statement said.

The statement did not say what the woman would look like when she had fully recovered, but medical experts said she was unlikely to resemble the woman who had been the source of her new face.

The operation was led by Jean-Michel Dubernard, a specialist from a hospital in Lyon who has also carried out hand transplants,

Skin transplants have long been used to treat burns and other injuries, but operations around the mouth and nose have been considered very difficult because of the area's high sensitivity to foreign tissue.

Teams in France, the United States and Britain had been developing techniques to make face transplants a reality

There was a short-term risk for the patient if blood vessels became blocked, a medium-term danger of her body rejecting the new skin and a long-term possibility that the drugs used could cause cancers.

Experts say that although such medical advances should be celebrated, the transplant had thrown up moral（道德的）and ethical(伦理的)issues. Little is known about the psychological effect of the transplant.

The best title for the passage would be ________.

A. French Woman has First Partial Face Transplant

B. First Face Transplant Opens Debate

C. Risks and Ethical Problems of a Face Transplant

D. A Complete Face Transplant of a French Woman

Why did the woman need such an operation?

A. Her face had been bitten by a dog

B. Her face had been burnt in a fire.

C. She was born especially ugly

D. She wanted to test such an operation.

The underlined word "resemble"  means ________.

A. to remember forever

B. to recognize immediately

C. to set as an example

D. to present similarity or likeness to

What can we learn about the operation?

A. The woman had used the dead woman' s whole face.

B. There has arisen a debate about the operation.

C. The woman will suffer from psychological damage soon.

D. Such transplants have been performed by doctors.

Street art can be found on buildings, sidewalks, street signs and even trash cans from Tokyo to Paris to New York City. This special kind of art can take the form of paintings, sculptures, cloth or even stickers. Street art has become part of a global visual culture. Now, even art museums and galleries are collecting the work of street artists. 

It is not easy to provide an exact history of the street art movement. This kind of art has developed in many kinds of ways in places all over the world. Also, because it is illegal to paint public and private property without permission, street artists usually work secretly. This secretive nature of street art and its countless forms make it hard to define exactly. And people have different opinions about the movement. Some think street art is a crime and destroys property. But others see this art as a rich form of non-traditional cultural expression.  Many experts say the movement began in New York City in the nineteen sixties. Young adults would use paint in special cans to spray their TAG on walls and train cars around the city. This tag was a name they created to identify themselves and their artwork. This colorful style of writing is also called graffiti. It is visually exciting and energetic. 

Graffiti also became a separate movement expressing the street culture of young people living in big cities. Graffiti art represented social and political rebellion. These artists could travel around areas of the city making creative paintings for everyone to see. Sometimes this street art created a dispute between artists and city officials. Graffiti artists created their images and city officials quickly painted over them. During the 1980s, two famous New York painters—Keith Haring and Jean Michel began showing their work in art galleries and museums. This is when street art started to become part of the more general popular culture.

1.What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A. Street art has become popular and is accepted as a kind of culture.

B. Street art is very special compared with other forms of popular art.

C. Many people are beginning to learn street art.

D. Street art is better developed in big cities than in rural areas.

2.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A. TAG was a word created by people to distinguish street artists and the other artists.

B. There are three reasons to explain why it is hard to define the history of street art.

C. The movement of street art began in the 1980s in New York City.

D. Not all the people think that the street art is a rich form of cultural expression.

3.The city officials used to do away with graffiti probably because        .

A. they caused arguments between people

B. they were ugly in someone’s eyes

C. they were not painted under proper guidance

D. they didn‘t express good traditional culture.

4.They best title of the passage is        .

A. The way to become a street artist.

B. What does Graffiti art stand for?

C. The history of an art movement.

D. The work of street artists.

 

HOUSTON (Reuters) — Houston tops a U.S. magazine’s annual fattest cities list for the fourth time in five years, with four other Texas cities in the top 25.

　　Fast food restaurants — Houston has twice the national average number — are partly to blame for the dishonor, Men’s Fitness editor-in-chief Neal Boulton said.

　　“Americans work long hours, don’t take vacations, and when they’re faced with the worst food choices, they indulge (沉溺于) in those,” he said.

　　High humidity, poor air quality and some of the nation’s longest commute (每天去上班的路程) times also helped Texas’ most populous city unseat Detroit, the 2003 heavy weight champion, the magazine said.

　　Houston Mayor Bill White, who has worked with a major food company to develop healthy food products and the city’s public schools to improve lunch menus, called the report “mostly ungrounded and nonsense.”

　　“On the other hand, it calls attention to real issues the mayor is trying to deal with,” his spokesman, Frank Michel, said.

　　The magazine said it looked at factors such as the number and types of restaurants, park space, air quality, weather and the number of health clubs.

　　Philadelphia, Detroit, Memphis, Tennessee, and Chicago followed Houston on the seventh edition of the fat list. Texas cities Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso were in the top 14, which Boulton said was no surprise.

　　“It’s pure big indulgence, just living big, and that’s part of the culture,” said Boulton.

　　Seattle ranked as the fittest city. Austin and Arlington, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, were the only Texas cities on the fit list. Austin was 19th and Arlington 22nd out of 25.

What decides the magazine’s annual fattest list?

       A. The size of fat population.       B. The number of fast food restaurants.

       C. The economic growth rate of the state.    D. Things related to unhealthy ways of life.

Which city topped 2003 fattest cities list?

　    A. Houston.         B. Dallas.          C. Detroit.   D. Philadelphia.

By saying “living big” (in Paragraph 9), Boulton means people _________.

       A. are growing fatter                B. are living wastefully

　    C. eat too many fatty foods           D. are spending too much time working

Which of the following is best supported by the text?

       A. Texas has the most fat cities in the U.S.

       B. Bill White is happy with the newspaper report.

       C. People in Texas are the most hardworking in the U.S.

       D. Most school children in Houston have weight problems.

Street art can be found on buildings, sidewalks, street signs and even trash cans from Tokyo to Paris to New York City. This special kind of art can take the form of paintings, sculptures, cloth or even stickers (张贴物). Street art has become part of a global visual culture. Now, even art museums and galleries are collecting the works of street artists.
It is not easy to provide an exact history of the street art movement. This kind of art has developed in many kinds of ways in places all over the world. Also, because it is illegal to paint public and private property without permission, street artists usually work secretly. This secretive nature of street art and its countless forms make it hard to define exactly. And people have different opinions about the movement. Some think street art is a crime and destroys property. But others see this art as a rich form of non-traditional cultural expression.
Many experts say the movement began in New York City in the 1960s. Young adults would use paint in special cans to spray their “tag” on walls and train cars around the city. This tag was a name they created to identify themselves and their artwork. This colorful style of writing is also called graffiti (涂鸦). It is visually exciting and energetic. Some graffiti paintings were signs marking the territories of city gangs or illegal crime groups.
Graffiti also became a separate movement expressing the street culture of young people living in big cities. Graffiti art represented social and political rebellion (叛逆). This was art that rejected the accepted rules of culture and power. These artists could travel around areas of the city making creative paintings for everyone to see. Sometimes this street art created a conflict between artists and city officials. Graffiti artists created their images and city officials quickly painted over them.
During the 1980s, two New York painters — Keith Haring and Jean Michel began showing their work in art galleries and museums. This is when street art started to become part of the more general popular culture.
【小题1】What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A．Street art has become popular and is accepted as a kind of culture.

B．Street art is very special compared with other forms of popular art.

C．Many people are beginning to learn street art.

D．Street art is better developed in big cities than in rural areas.

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

A．“TAG” was a word created by people to distinguish street artists and the other artists.

B．There are three reasons explaining why it is hard to define the history of street art.

C．The movement of street art began in the 1980s in New York City.

D．All the people don’t think that the street art is a rich form of cultural expression.

【小题3】The city officials used to get rid of graffiti probably because _____________.

A．they caused arguments between people	B．they were ugly in someone’s eyes
C．they were not painted under proper guidance	D．they didn’t express traditional culture