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.

 

The traditional tent cities at festivals such as Glastonbury may never be the same again. In a victory of green business that is certain to appeal to environmentally-aware music-lovers, a design student is to receive financial support to produce eco-friendly tents made of cardboard that can be recycled after the bands and the crowds have gone home.

Major festivals such as Glastonbury throw away some 10,000 abandoned tents at the end of events each year. For his final year project at the University of the West of England, James Dunlop came up with a material that can be recycled. And to cope with the British summer, the cardboard has been made waterproof.

Taking inspiration from a Japanese architect, who has used cardboard to make big buildings including churches, Mr. Dunlop used cardboard material for his tents, which he called Myhabs.

The design won an award at the annual New Designers Exhibition after Mr. Dunlop graduated from his product design degree and he decided to try to turn it into a business.

To raise money for the idea, he toured the City’s private companies which fund new business and found a supporter in the finance group Mint. He introduced his idea to four of Mint’s directors and won their support. Mint has committed around ??500,000 to MyHab and taken a share of 30 per cent in Mr. Dunlop’s business. The first Myhabs should be tested at festivals this summer, before being marketed fully next year.

Mr. Dunlop said that the design, which accommodates two people, could have other uses, such as for disaster relief and housing for the London Olympics.

For music events, the cardboard houses will be ordered online and put up at the sites by the Myhab team before the festival-goers arrive and removed by the company afterwards. They can be personalized and the company will offer reductions on the expense if people agree to sell exterior (外部的) advertising space.

The biggest festivals attract tens of thousands of participants, with Glastonbury having some 150,000 each year. Altogether there are around 100 annual music festivals where people camp in the UK. The events are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious.

“Eco-friendly tents” in paragraph 1 refer to tents _______.

   A. economically desirable       B. favorable to the environment

   C. for holding music performances D. designed for disaster relief

Mr. Dunlop established his business ______.

   A. independently with an interest-free loan from Mint

   B. with the approval of the City’s administration

   C. in partnership with a finance group

   D. with the help of a Japanese architect

It is implied in the passage that _______.

   A. the weather in the UK is changeable in summer

   B. most performances at British festivals are given in the open air

   C. the cardboard tents produced by Mr. Dunlop can be user-tailored

D. cardboard tents can be easily put up and removed by users.

The passage is mainly concerned with ______.

A. an attempt at developing recyclable tents

B. some efforts at making full use of cardboards

C. an unusual success of a graduation project

   D. the effects of using cardboard tents on music festivals

A sixth of undergraduates in Beijing this year have registered at driving school. The students,mostly from majors such as business management or international trade, will finish their driving courses within 20 days or so.

    Training costs have dropped to 2,600 yuan for students, according to the Haidian Driving School in Beijing. The price is not really low,but students will accept it, seeing it as an investment (投资) in their future. Familiarity with the operation of computers and fluent English are the basic skills graduating students need to find a job. But a driver's permit has become another factor  (因 素).

"in the job market, owning a driver's permit someumes strengthens a graduating student's competitiveness for a good position,'' says Zhou Yang, an undergraduate at the China University of Political Science and Law.

Cars will become a necessary part of many people's lives in the coming years, and it is difficult to get a permit of campus because of the pressures on working people's time. "Having a full-time job after graduation offers limited time to learn to drive. We senior students have plenty of spare time, plenty of opportunity to learn. "Zhou says.

    Xu Jian, an official at the driving school, said undergraduates were very able and serious, and could grasp in an hour what ordinary people took four hours to learn. In this driving school, mid-die-aged people, young women and college students are the main customers.

    To get a driver's permit, a beginner is now required to have at least 86 hours' practice before the .final road test.

_________ in Beijing want to learn to drive.

    A. Most of the undergraduates

    B. Many undergraduates

    C. Many students in the driving school

    D. Most of the students who learn business or international trade

The undergraduates are learning to drive because _________.

    A. they need this skill to find a good job

    B. they like to drive cars

    C. they will not have any time to learn to drive after they have found a full-time job

    D. most of them will be able to buy cars in the future

Which of the following is likely to be Xu Jian's opinion of students learning to drive?

A. He thought it was better to learn it at college than at work.

    B. He decided it was a waste of money and time to learn to drive.

    C. He agreed that they could learn to drive.

    D. He thought they would spend three times more time to learn to drive than usual.

Which of the following can be the best headline for the passage?

    A. Students Pay Less to Learn to Drive Now.

    B. Students Learn to Drive.

    C. It is Better to Learn to Drive at Colleges.

    D. Welcome to the Driving School.

完成句子：(共5小题，10个空，每空1分，满分10分)

1.He decided to travel by car ______         (而不是) by train.

2.Milu deer has ______ ________ from China.

3.He was late for the meeting               the bad weather.

4.The novel ____        you’re interested was written by Mark Twain.

5.The twins have a lot            .

 

Few buildings on earth can compete with the legendary beauty of the Taj Mahal. Towering over the ancient Indian city of Agra, the Taj Mahal is the grandest monument (纪念碑) to love ever created.

The lovers in this story are the 17th century Indian emperor Shah Jehan and his wife Mumtaz Mahal. She took a leading role in advising him, which is something unusual for a woman to do for a husband who’s an emperor. Over the course of their nineteen-year marriage she gave birth to 14 children. But in 1631 while trying to deliver their fifteenth — she tragically died. He was heartbroken when she died. And after her death, he decided to build the world’s greatest monument ever built, for love.

He ordered the royal architects to design the most beautiful building the world had known and decided to name it after his beloved, Mumtaz Mahal. He called on twenty thousand workers and sent many more people to all corners of his country in search of valuable metals and jewels. And after seventeen years of hard work, Shah Jehan’s monument was completed and his beloved empress was moved to her final resting place.

       Everything had gone according to plan, but Shah Jehan’s luck was about to change ... In 1658, just four years after the completion of the Taj Mahal, he was thrown out of power. Unfortunately, his son, Aran Azibe imprisoned him, his own father. And he spent the last seven years of his life in prison. And he was allowed to look at the Taj Mahal through a window. His life was in ruins, but when he died his last wish was promised. He was buried beside his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal was built for ______.

A. Mumtaz                      B. Shah      C. Mumtaz or Shah           D. Mumtaz and Shah

The Taj Mahal was completed in ______.

A. 1658   B. 1662          C. 1665      D. 1654      

What was unusual for Mumtaz Mahal according to the passage?

A. She gave birth to 14 children for her husband.   B. She gave important advice to her husband.

C. She asked her son to imprison his father.   D. She planned to build the world’s greatest monument.

Which of the following is TRUE about Shah Jehan?

A. He was killed by his own son.  B. He lost his power as a result of the Taj Mahal.

C. He put his own son into prison.  D. He hoped to be buried together with his wife.