“When an American asks me this question, it’s like a wall of ice crashing down between us.” my Moscow-born friend Galina said. The question is “How are you?”.

The answer Americans give, of course is, “Fine.” But when Russians hear this they think one of two things: you are experiencing a rare moment of fineness or you are lying.

Ask a Russian, “How are you?” and you will hear, for better or worse, the truth. I have experienced many painful minutes of silence after my grandmother made her stock response: “Terrible,” to which she might add, “Why? Because being old is terrible and I am very old.”

“‘Fine’ makes Russians think that Americans have no soul,” I explained recently to an American-born friend. “That they just want to go home, eat a frozen dinner in front of the TV, and wait out the hours before going to work to make money again.” He laughed, “You know, there’s something to that.”

The thing most Russians don’t realize is that, in English, “How are you?” isn’t a question at all, but a form of “hi”, like the Russian “privyet!”

Psychologists at the University of Michigan have shown that, while Russians are, indeed, easier to be depressed than Americans, their open acceptance of bad experiences might be healthier.

Recently, when I looked through a few American guides on traveling to Russia, I was disappointed to find that they all suggested that tourists adopt the American approach to “How are you”.

1.When you ask a Russian “how are you” the Russian will ________.

A. answer “fine” B. tell you the truth

C. make no answer D. get angry and walk away

2.If an American answers “fine” to the question “how are you”, the Russian will think ______.

A. he is not honest B. he will go home

C. he likes watching TV D. he is living a bad life

3.We can infer Russians’ answer to “how are you” can make Americans feel ________.

A. happy B. angry

C. puzzled D. touched

A mother’s ad calling for her son to come home for Chinese New Year ran on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily newspaper on January 14.

It placed a full page ad, saying “Dear Peng, I’ve called you many times but you don’t pick up, maybe you will see this. Dad and mom won’t ever force you to get married anymore, come home for Chinese New Year! From your mom who loves you.”

The ad, which appeared on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily on Tuesday, would cost $2,796.80 Australian dollars ($2465). The newspaper serves the city’s Chinese community. The mother, who lives in Guangzhou had placed the ad after losing contact with her son.

Every year around this time, many Chinese prepare to head home for China’s most important festival. But many of the younger generation are afraid of facing family confrontations about their love life.

On the online Chinese forum Tianya. cn, a single man asked for advice on facing his family. “It’s almost that time of the year. How should I explain to my family and relatives that I am single?” a user in Guangzhou “1979xiaozhu” posted. Many of the replies were telling him not to go home instead.

User “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” wrote: “Going home means they will either arrange blind dates for you or you get scolded.”

“This year my mom gave me an ultimatum. One, bring 50,000 yuan; second, bring a wife home. If I don’t have both then she said I don’t need to come home. What a tragedy!” said user “fghjkh84”.

Those girls who can’t handle the pressure of parents can rent a boyfriend for the day through China’s online shopping giant, Taobao.com. Rental boyfriends come with services such as meeting the parents, shopping and watching movies.

1.The mother placed a full page ad in order to _______.

A. ask her son to come back to China for the festival

B. beg her son to answer her telephone more times

C. force her son to come home and get married

D. make her son become famous in Melbourne

2.Why did the mother place the ad in the Chinese Melbourne Daily?

A. Because her son didn’t want to get married in China.

B. Because she couldn’t get in touch with her son any more.

C. Because her son wanted to live alone in Australia.

D. Because she wanted her son to come back to work.

3.What leads many Chinese young people not to go home for New Year?

A. Their busy work. B. The long distance.

C. Their low pay. D. Their love life.

4.From the passage we can infer ______.

A. the user “1979xiaozhu” is a married young man

B. the user “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” will go home

C. the user “fghjkh84” will bring a wife home

D. some single girls have to bring an untrue boyfriend home

Every day it seems that people are coming up with new and innovative ways to use mobile devices like cellphones and smart phones. Researchers at Princeton University are looking for new ways to measure a person’s sense of wellbeing with mobile devices.

To gain a better understanding of how cellphones and other mobile devices can measure our sense of happiness, the research team conducted a study that was published recently in the journal Demography. To gather data for their study, the team created an application for mobile devices using the Android operating system.

Once the app was developed, the researchers invited people to download it and take part in their study. Over a three-week period, the research team was able to collect data from some 270 participants living in 13 countries.

Participants came not only from the United States, but also from other nations like Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Over the course of the study, participants received occasional text questions from the researchers that asked “How happy are you?”. Along with recording their response, the app used the mobile device’s built-in GPS to keep track of the participant’s location.

The study participants were asked to rate their current state of happiness on a scale of zero to five. As they gathered data from the information collected through the application, the researchers then were able to create new methods that could help provide a better understanding of how our surroundings can influence our emotional well-being.

The researchers learned that mobile devices can provide an effective way to quickly grab information that, because of today’s active lifestyle, can be difficult to record. Being able to quickly grab this information was something the researchers felt was important. They said feelings and emotions that were recorded as they were happening were most likely to be more honest and precise than using other methods like writing down how they felt on a piece of paper after the fact.

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

A. The study the team conducted has not been published yet.

B. About 270 people from 13 countries participated in the study.

C. The participants didn’t need to download the app to participate.

D. None of the participants came from the United Kingdom.

2.What did the researchers find vital as to rate people’s sense of happiness from the passage?

A. Recording people’s feelings and emotions quickly.

B. Writing down how they felt on a piece of paper.

C. Answering the text question “How happy are you?”

D. Knowing how the surroundings affect people’s happiness.

3.The underlined word in the first paragraph probably refers to ______.

A. emotion B. wealth

C. happiness D. technology

4.The best title of the passage is most likely to be “_______”.

A. People’s Sense of Happiness Related to Mobile Phones

B. Scientists Track Happiness with Cellphones

C. Methods to Rate People’s Happiness

D. A Better Understanding of People’s Sense of Happiness

In high school, “cool” is the rule, so teenagers will do anything to avoid possibly embarrassing situations.

But not Samantha Elton, 15. She seeks them out. And if she can make a fool of herself as in the process, well, that’s even better.

For the past two years, Elton, has been a practitioner of improvisation, doing things that others would be embarrassed to consider.

Elton is a member of High School Jesters, a group that teaches improvisation techniques to students. The group was founded two years ago by Nicholas Kopatich, himself a keen improviser.

“I was sitting in my dorm room and some friends were having chats about comedy and improvisation,” Kopatich recalls. They asked for lessons after Kopatich told them he had improvisation experience. The small group turned out to be pretty good at it, so they did a show for the dorm. And things snowballed.

While even her mother marvels at Elton’s ability to get up in front of audience without a script to fall back on, the teen enjoys such opportunities. Performing improvisation comes with a certain freedom that theater doesn’t provide.

“What I like about it the most is that I don’t have to be a certain character or a certain way, and because of that I can’t get anything wrong,” Elton says, “I get to write the story while I’m doing it.”

Monica Elton, Samantha’s mom, thinks the workshops are a valuable outlet that a lot of students may not get in their schools. High school kids don’t usually like to act silly or look uncool, she says, but improvisation teaches them that it’s OK to have flaws.

“I like to think we give kids positively that allows them to gain confidence,” says Brent Mukai, a High School Jesters instructor. The great thing about improvisation is that it is an art form that is open to anyone. But there’s more to it than getting up in front of audience and telling jokes or acting silly.

“You don’t need to be the most amazing actress to be an improviser,” Samantha Elton says, “It’s really a place where I can show people my creativity. I can paint pictures for people and entertain others.”

It’s really free.

1.What do we know about improvisation?

A. Performers act as a certain character.

B. Performers need a script to act on.

C. Performers intend to make audience embarrassed.

D. Performers develop the story as they are playing.

2.According to Monica, practicing improvisation made Elton _______.

A. treat flaws as normal things

B. accept cool as the rule

C. avoid doing embarrassing things

D. care about what others comment on her

3.It can be inferred that Kopatich formed High School Jesters _______.

A. on purpose B. by accident

C. for business D. out of curiosity

4.The passage mainly tells us that ________.

A. teens make a fool of themselves

B. teens perform improvisation to be cool

C. teens express creativity through arts

D. teens gain confidence in the improvisation

Public speaking is a common cause of stress for everyone. The idea of standing in front of a large group with all eyes on you can make you feel fearful in almost all kinds of situation, for example giving a presentation in class, proposing a toast at dinner or making a work-related presentation. It seems to be a fear that’s impossible to overcome. If you have ever experienced this, you know while the anxiety may develop at the actual event, it is a feeling that begins much earlier than the actual day. There are many ways you can work on your confidence and prepare yourself for a public speaking event.

A consultant specializing (專門研究) in presentation skills can help you to overcome your sense of panic. Working with a consultant does not indicate that you have a major problem; it is only an approach to receiving guidance on relaxation strategies, such as deep breathing, which can help you deal with public speaking problems with ease.

Consultants can also help you work on your confidence. Confidence is extremely important in public speaking as it lets a speaker sound more convincing. Even well-established public speakers practice techniques such as meditation (沉思冥想) to calm themselves before a public appearance.

It’s well worth the time and effort to overcome the fear of public speaking, particularly if talks and presentations are part of your work description. Keep in mind that many of those around you are also struggling with this fear of public speaking. It will help you to become an able speaker if you can prepare beforehand. For example, you can put in time on planning your presentation in detail and practicing it many times in secret. As you get more and more familiar with your material, you’ll be able to fine-tune (微調(diào)) the details of your presentation and this will make you a confident speaker. Your speech will become excellent in terms of style and content.

Remember that the more you get into this pattern of feeling good about yourself, the stronger you will feel about approaching events when you have to make a speech. You can also work on physical details such as adjusting your tone (音調(diào)) before the presentation by doing some warm-up exercises.

In a word, believing in yourself and presenting yourself well can help you deeply impress your audience. And after a few speeches you’ll notice yourself overcoming the sense of panic that you now feel in public speaking situations.

閱讀下面短文，然后按要求寫一篇150詞左右的英語短文。

Many students in the colleges and universities are found taking no notice of the waste of water, electricity or paper.

Very few students use washbasins when washing faces. Some schoolgirls do not turn off the taps when putting the facial cream on their faces, leaving the water flow away. There is a phenomenon which can often be seen in students’ public washrooms. A basin of clothes is put under a tap which is turned on at the maximum, and the water in the basin is spilling over, but there is no one in the washroom. The owner of the clothes comes back and pours out half of the water in the basin.

The same thing happens in the use of electricity in the colleges and universities. During supper time, all the lights are turned on. However, there are only several or even no students in the classroom, which can hold over a hundred students. At night, some of the dormitories are locked, but the lights are still on inside. Quite a few students explain themselves that they don’t have to pay the extra electricity cost even if they overuse it because they have paid the school fee already.

【寫作內(nèi)容】

1. 以約30個詞概括上文的主要內(nèi)容。

2. 以約120個詞就“學(xué)生應(yīng)增強節(jié)約能源意識”這個話題發(fā)表你的看法，內(nèi)容要點包括：

(1) 學(xué)生增強節(jié)約能源意識的必要性；

(2) 你認(rèn)為生活中如何做到節(jié)約能源。

【寫作要求】

作文中可以使用親身經(jīng)歷或虛構(gòu)的故事，也可以參照閱讀材料的內(nèi)容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子。

【評分標(biāo)準(zhǔn)】概括準(zhǔn)確，語言規(guī)范，內(nèi)容合適，語篇連貫。

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New iPhone goes on sale on Friday with ________ bigger screen and 4G wireless technology, as ________ company seeks to keep its competitiveness.

A. a; a B. a; the

C. the; the D. the; a

All the rooms are air-conditional and beautifully decorated, thus_______ a warm and comfortable atmosphere.

A. to create B. create

C. creating D. which create

---Did you enjoy the party last night?

--- _______! Everybody was in high spirits.

A. Not a little B. Not a bit

C. I couldn’t agree more D. I don’t believe so

— How do you like the new book?

—To be honest, it is a little difficult________.

A. understood B. being understood

C. understanding D. to understand