Birthdays are strange things. The more you have, the more you try and pretend they don’t matter, and the more     1    . I’m not really sure why they think so. It’s true that you are getting older, but as     2     , “Who isn’t getting older every day?” The problem may be that a birthday reminds people of all the things    3    , but have not. I certainly understand that feeling, though I think     4     that I most want to do — a kind of personal re-ordering （重新排序） of the to-do list. What makes you depressed（郁闷） on your birthday is that you realize your re-ordered to-do list is exactly the same as it was last year. That makes you feel     5     , and not been anywhere. I have not had that experience this year. I look back at where I was last year and find things have changed since then.

Take a look at teenagers around, dressed in baggy-pants (宽松裤), drinking soft drinks such as coke, reading Japanese cartoons. Whether you are in Beijing, Wuhan or Hong Kong, you will get the same impression. But should we copy others or should we maintain (保留) our differences?

It sounds convenient that people around the world speak the same language, dress in the same style, eat the same food and play the same games. If the world was like this, you won’t feel strange in any corner of world. But just imagine living in such a strange world. How dull and colorless it would be!

Different kinds of food that people can taste, the colorful and fashionable clothes that we dress in and different languages we speak are all part of the different cultures that our ancestors left us. These differences represent their creativity (创造力) and talent. And we all enjoy different cultures in our daily lives. When you travel to other places, you want to see different things. When you talk to foreigners you expect to listen to interesting stories. These differences in culture are what make life colorful.

But the whole world is shrinking into a small village as globalization (全球化) takes effect and many different cultures are disappearing. In most big cities around the world people wear the same clothes. Fast food stores are everywhere. Hollywood movies are kicking traditional performing arts out of our lives. The colors of our life are disappearing.

There is joke that even the panda and zebra want to live a colorful life. So let’s take action to protect our colorful culture before it becomes as simple as black and white.

It’s not difficult. Learning some folk songs, trying on a traditional clothing and even eating local food instead of going to KFC can help. And we’re sure you will enjoy it.

1.The passage is written to _______.

A．explain cultural differences               B．convince readers to maintain cultural differences

C．predict the future of globalization           D．show some cultural phenomena(现象)

2.The author thinks that cultural differences _______.

A．make the world colorful                  B．make communication difficult

C．only exist in food and clothing              D．will never fade away

3.The author starts the argument by ________.

A．mentioning certain cultural phenomena

B．mentioning his view at the very beginning

C．mentioning the opposite view at the very beginning

D．giving examples of cultural differences

4.The underlined word “shrink” probably means “_______”.

A．expand           B．disappear         C．become smaller     D．grow in number

5.The author talks of all the following cultural phenomena except _______.

A．food             B．clothing           C．language          D．architecture

从方框中选择适当的单词或短语补全下列短文，有两个是多余的选项。

       We all have dreams, usually while we’re asleep. For example, you have a dream of eating chocolate and then you wake up and find nothing1       your mouth .Well ,I’m not talking about that type of dream .Rather, I’m thinking about one’s plan or hope for the future .The dream tells us what the soul（灵魂）wants .Life without a dream is boring and2        .

       Most of us have a dream, 3       most of us set the on/ off button（按纽）of our dream OFF. Whenever we say “I can’t” we set the button to OFF. Whenever we believe we can ,we set the button to ON. Simple ,isn’t it? Being confident doesn’t mean there won’t be any4      .But once I believe I can do it ,I will find an answer to every problem I have .Any good dream is a dream that can come true .Once I realize I can do it ,the5        step is to make it come true .We never know that our dreams will come true 6        we stop talking and start acting.

       Our dreams don’t have to be big or to be great. We don’t have to become the world’s greatest pianist, an Olympic7       ,or a superstar .An aunt of 8        sold gloves in a department store for most of her life. Her 9       was to be the friendliest and most helpful salesperson around and she 10       it. Year after year, the same customers would return and look for her .She made everyone’s day beautiful and touched the lives of thousands of people. We all can follow a dream that will make a different to us and those we meet.