Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.

Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4, 1619, the Pilgrims (朝圣者) from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.

The first New England Thangksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three-day feast. The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.

In time, other colonies (殖民地) began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed (宣布) the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving. Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November, Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbors. But the Canadian Thanksgiving Day falls on the second Monday in October.

The passage mainly tells us _______

   A. how Thanksgiving Day came into being and the different ways it is celebrated

   B. how to celebrate Thanksgiving Day

   C. how Thanksgiving Day changed with the time and places

   D. why Thanksgiving Day is a harvest holiday

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated _______.

   A. in spring           B. in summer         C. in autumn       D. in winter

The first to celebrate thanksgiving were _______ .

   A. people in Canada                        B. Governor Bradford

   C. some people from England                D. the American Indians

We can infer from the passage that New England must be ______ .

   A. in England                             B. in Canada

   C. on some island off the Atlantic             D. in America

Which of the following statements is NOT ture?

   A. There’s little difference between the American way and the Canadian way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

   B. Abraham Lincoln was not the first to decide on thanksgiving celebrations.

   C. Thanksgiving Day used to be a holiday to celebrate a good harvest.

   D. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated to express the American and Indian people’s thanks to God.

●Ms Tan, you’ve referred to your new novel as your eighth book.

That’s because it took me six or seven attempts at a second novel before I started and completed this one.

●Why do you think you had so many false starts?

I would say that my reasons were wrong. I was trying to prove that I wasn’t just a mother-daughter storyteller, or I was trying to prove that I didn’t just have to write about things that were strictly Chinese or Chinese-American. Those were never the right reasons for writing those early stories. And I could never come up with other better reasons for continuing them.

●What kept you going on this book?

This book was different because it was based on my mother’s real life. The reason for writing it became more personal and emotional. After The Joy Luck Club came out, my mother was always explaining to people that she wasn’t any of the mothers in that book. And at one point she said to me, “Next book tells my true story.” And then she started telling me things I never knew before. She also told me many, many stories, because my mother doesn’t generalize(笼统地表达). The book really grew out of that.

●Have you ever visited China?

Yes. I’ve been there twice: about three years ago and then again last November, both times with my mother and my husband.

●Was it difficult to understand the Chinese-American dialect(方言) without sounding like a parody(拙劣的模仿)?

No, because it’s the language I’ve heard all my life from my mother. She speaks English as it’s direct translation from Chinese. But it’s more than that. Her language also has more imagery than English.

●Can you think of an example?

Somebody might say to me, “Don’t work so hard. You’ll kill yourself.” My mother will say to me，“Why do you press all your brains out on this page for someone else？” So it’s very vivid. That’s the way she talks.

●Have many readers told you that the Chinese mother in your book reminded them of the typical Jewish (有癖好的) mother?

Many people have told me that. I think the mother-daughter relationship is very intense(紧张) in both cases. Culturally there is an acceptance that mothers have the power to tell their children, especially their daughters, how to conduct their lives --- not simply up until the time they are 18, but for the rest of their lives. However, when children grow up in a different culture from their parents’，they tend to keep more secrets from their parents. The children think, “They just wouldn’t understand that I had to do this.” And that can really create a gap, and it can grow as the number of secrets grows.

1.Based on the questions in this interview, what do you think Ms Tan’ s profession is?

A．A journalist.        B．A story-writer.      C．An interviewer.     D．An interviewee.

2.What’ s TRUE about Tan’ s second book?

A．It’ s about her real life in America.

B．The name of the book is The Joy Luck Club.

C．It is the result of many times of carefull thought.

D．It includes many works of her mother.

3.Which question is NOT answered in the interview?

A．How does she think of her mother’ s language?

B．How many books does she plan to write?

C．When did she visit China?

D．How is generation gap created?

4.We can infer that________.

A．Tan’ s mother is a good storyteller

B．Tan plans to write another book about her mother

C．Tan plans to return to China

D．Tan’ s mother is hard to communicate with because of personality

5.The last paragraph mainly talks about________.

A．how to keep secrets from parents

B．how to deal with the mother-daughter relationship

C．how to conduct the lives

D．how the generation gap comes about

 

 

What can be found in the two recent studies?

One showed that adults are much more cooperative if they work in a system based on rewards．Researchers at Harvard University in the United States and the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden did the study, which appeared last month in the journal Science．They had about two hundred college students play a version of the game known as the Prisoner's Dilemma．The game is based on the tension between the interests of an individual and a group．The students played in groups of four．Each player could win points for the group, so they would all gain equally．But each player could also reward or punish each of the other three players, at a cost to the punisher．Harvard researcher David Rand says the most successful behavior proved to be cooperation （合作）．The groups that rewarded most earned about twice as much in the game as the groups that rewarded least．And the more a group punished itself, the lower its earnings．The group with the most punishment earned twenty-five percent less than the group with the least punishment．

The other study referred to children, which was presented last month in California at a conference on violence and abuse．Researchers used intelligence tests given to two groups．More than eight hundred children were ages two to four the first time they were tested．More than seven hundred children were ages five to nine．The two groups were retested four years later, and the study compared the results with the first test．Both groups contained children whose parents used physical punishment and children whose parents did not．The study says the IQs ?or intelligence quotients—of the younger children who were not spanked were five points higher than those who were．In the older group, the difference was almost three points．Murray Strauss from the University of New Hampshire' worked with Mallie Paschall from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation．Professor Strauss has written extensively about physical punishment of children．He says the more they are spanked, the slower their mental development．He also looked at average IQs in other nations and found them lower where spanking was more common．

72．We can learn from the passage that ____．

         A．the first study began last month at Harvard University in America

         B．the Prisoner's Dilemma is a game that can teach you how to be cooperative

         C．the study on the IQs of children was carried out by Professor Murray Strauss

         D．Professor Mallie has done lots of researches on family violence

73．What study method was adopted in the two recent studies according to the passage?

         A．Observation．          B．Questionnaire．        C．Conclusion．    D．Experiment．

74．The underlined word "spanked" in the third paragraph refers to ____．

         A．scolded constantly        B．punished physically

         C．praised frequendy               D．rewarded mentally

75．Which of the following charts is TRUE according to the passage?

 

Another food which is closely associated with Americans is apple pie．Apple pie is often served hot with a spoon of ice cream or a slice of cheese at the end of the biggest meal of the day—dinner, and it is a favorite dessert throughout the nation.If a person is typical of Americans, we can say, "He is as American as apple pie．"

It is true that the apple and apple pie do not originate in America, but the expression "as American as apple pie" is not the product of a pure imagination．As early as 1625, the English colonists, having brought orchards （果园） on this new land and in most of the colonial times, the apple was a main material of both plain and fancy cooking．The first Massachusetts governor, William Endicott, was one of many keen apple planters who helped to lay the foundations for today' s apple-growing industry in America．

A major attraction of the apple for the colonists was that it could be made into cider （苹果酒）. Like most Europeans, English colonists held a strong suspicion （怀疑） of drinking water, and since grape growing was hindered by plant peats, cider became an alternative to wine．Cheap and easy to produce, it was the American drink of first choice well into the nineteenth century． Whether it was dried, raw or cooked, the apple also found its way into numerous colonial dishes, including apple sauces, pudding, stuffing and many desserts．Therefore, the conclusion to be drawn here is obvious．The apple pie became known as American, not because it was invented on this land （since it was proved that Europeans had been eating apple pies for centuries）, but because, thanks to the huge orchards in the states of Washington and New York, America became the world's largest apple-producing nation．

1..

If a person is said to be as American as apple pie, it means that _______．

    A．he always prefers apple pie as a dessert        

B．his favourite pie is apple pie

    C．he behaves and thinks in the American way       

D．he is good at making American apple pie

2..

The apple can be used to make into all of the following except _______．

    A．wine             B．sauces           C．pudding          D．cider

3..

The underlined word hindered in Paragraph 3 means．________．

    A．promoted         B．prevented        C．improved         D．enlarged

4..

It can be concluded from the passage that_______．

    A．the apple pie was first served in America

    B．the English colonists developed a taste for the apple only after they, arrived at the New World

    C．the expression "as American as apple pie" is a pure imagination

    D．the apple pie is traditionally associated with Americans due to their large apple production

 

 

Would you like to be a king or queen? To have people waiting on you hand and foot? Many Americans experience this royal treatment every day. How? By being customers. The American idea of customer service is to make each customer the center of attention. Need proof? Just listen to the commercials. Most of them sound like the McDonald’s ad: “We do it all for you.” Actually, not all stores in America roll out the red carpet for their customers. But wherever you go, good customer service means making customers feel special.

People going shopping in America can expect to be treated with respect from the very beginning. Most places don’t have a “furniture street” or a “computer road” which allow you to compare prices easily. Instead, people often “let their fingers do the walking” through the store hot lines. From the first “hello”, customers receive a satisfying response to their questions. This initial contact can help them decide where to shop.

When customers get to the store, they are treated as honored guests. Customers don’t usually find store clerks sitting around watching TV or playing cards. Instead, the clerks greet them warmly and offer to help them find what they want. In most stores, the clear signs that label each department make shopping a breeze. Customers usually don’t have to ask how much items cost, since prices are clearly marked. And unless they’re at a flea market or a yard sale, they don’t bother trying to bargain.

When customers are ready to check out, they find the nearest and shortest checkout lane. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, whichever lane they get in, all the other lanes will move faster. Good stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes get too long. Some even offer express lanes for customers with 10 items or less. After they pay for their purchases, customers receive a smile and a warm “thank you” from the clerk. Many stores even allow customers to take their shopping carts out to the parking lot. That way, they don’t have to carry heavy bags out to the car.

1. By quoting (引用) the McDonald’s ad: “We do it all for you”, the author intends to_______.

A. suggest that customers believe what commercials say deeply

B. show readers the American idea on good customer service

C. express all the stores pay much attention to the customers

D. persuade readers to choose the stores with ads correctly

2.In the USA, what may you do at first if you want to do some shopping?

A. To visit a professional street with lots of similar stores.

B. To compare prices in many shops in the same street.

C. To make phone calls and get better shopping choices.

D. To receive other customers’ answers to the questions.

3.The underlined words “a breeze” in Para.3 most probably means _________.

A. an easy job　　 B. a trouble　　           C. a funny thing　　     D. a boring task

4.Which of the followings shows American stores offer convenience to customers in this passage?

A. The store clerks don’t usually sit around watching TV or playing cards.

B. Some stores offer price bargain to the customers like a yard sale.

C. The clerks give customers a smile and a warm “thank you” after paying.

D. Some stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes are crowded.

5.Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?

A. Customer Service in America                     B. Excellent Stores in America

C. Shopping Rules in America                           D. Being King or Queen in America