American and British use different greetings. In the USA the commonest greeting is “Hi”. In Britain it is “Hello！” or “How are you？”. “Hi！” is creeping(不知不覺的)into British, too. When they are introduced to someone, the Americans say, “Glad to know you.” The British say, “How do you do？” or “Pleased to meet you.” When Americans say “Good­bye”， they nearly always add, “Have a good day，” or “Have a good trip，” etc. to friends and strangers alike. Britons are already beginning to use “Have a good day”。
The British usually use “got”in the sense of “have”. The Americans hardly ever do.
Am.E: Do you have a car, room，etc.？Yes, I do.
Br.E: Have you got a car, room, etc.? Yes, I have.
Finally, there are a number of differences between American and British English in the spelling of words, e．g.check(US)/cheque(UK); center(US)/centre(UK). Many American words ending in “or”， e．g. honor, vigor, labor are spelt in British English with an “our”， e．g. honour, vigour, labour. Many verbs in American English with “ize”or “izing” forms, e．g. organize, realizing are spelt in Br.E “ise”or “ising”，e.g.organise，realising.In American English, “practice”is used both for the verb and noun.In Br.E, the verb is spelt “practise”， and the noun “practice”. In the main, American English  avoids the doubling up of consonants(輔音字母)in nouns and verbs while British English does not.In American English, for example, one writes “travel, traveled, traveling, traveler，” while in British English, one writes  “travel, travelled, travelling, traveller”．
It was once predicted that British and American English would became separate languages finally. But the opposite has happened. The links(連接)between the two countries are so strong that linguistically(語言上的), and probably culturally(文化上的)too, they are closer together than ever.
【小題1】The Americans hardly say________.

A．Good­bye.Have a good day!	B．Glad to know you!
C．Hi!	D．Have you got a car?

【小題2】A British writes________.

A．cheque；center	B．honor；organise
C．traveled；practice	D．labour；traveller

【小題3】What does the fifth paragraph talk about?

A．There are lots of differences in spelling between Am.E.and Br.E.

B．Why do the Americans and the British use different spellings?

C．There are few differences in spelling between Am.E.and Br.E.

D．The different usages of words in Am.E and Br.E

【小題4】Which of the following is TRUE?

A．The two languages will become separate languages.

B．American English will be used more and more.

C．The two languages will be closer and closer.

D．British English will be used more and more.

Homesick is a compound word made up of HOME and SICK. You know what each word means on its own, of course. But think about what the words mean when they are used together. Homesick means SICK FOR HOME.
Now think for a minute about SEASICK. If you change the word home in the definition(釋義)to the word sea, would the definition fit SEASICK? Seasick means SICK BY THE MOVEMENT ON THE SEA. When you are homesick ,the only place you want to be is at home. When you are seasick, the last place you want to be is at sea.
Have you ever heard of a person being heartsick? Heartsick doesn’t mean that something  is wrong with a person’s heart. people are heartsick when they are hurt deep inside and when they feel as if their hearts are broken.
But, on the other hand, we have such compound words as handshake, handstand, and handbag. Perhaps you may write definitions for them.
【小題1】The word SEASICK means“______”.

A．to be eager to go to the sea	B．what has nothing to do with the sea
C．to be sick because of the sea	D．that the sea is terrible

【小題2】When we say a person is heartsick, we mean that________.

A．his heart is sick	B．his heart needs testing
C．he’s sorry at heart	D．he’s terribly disappointed and sad

【小題3】“The last place you want to be” is_________.

A．where you want to be most	B．where you want to be least
C．where you go the last	D．the last place you go to

【小題4】The definitions of handshake, handstand and handbag are_______.

A．easy to know	B．difficult to know
C．impossible to learn	D．unnecessary to learn

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden change in pronunciation started, with vowels (元音) being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact (接觸) with many people from around the world. This meant that lots of new vocabulary entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary came out.
Early Modern English and Late Modern English are mostly different in the number of words. Late Modern English has many more words, mainly because of the following two reasons: First, the Industrial Revolution (工業(yè)革命) led to the need for new words. Second, the British Empire covered one quarter of the earth’s surface, and the English language took in foreign words from many countries.
From around 1600, the English colonization (殖民地化) of North America led to American English. Some English pronunciations and words “froze” when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English. Some expressions that are called “American English” are in fact from British expressions. They were kept in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain. Spanish also had an influence (影響) on American English. For example, words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante are from Spanish. They entered English by the people of Spain who settled in the American West. French words and West African words also influenced American English.
Today, American English has a greater influence, because of the USA’s movies, television, popular music, trade and technology.
【小題1】The main difference between Early and Late Modern English lies in _____.

A．vocabulary	B．pronunciation
C．spelling	D．grammar

【小題2】 What helped to increase the vocabulary of Late Modern English?
a. the invention of printing
b. the Industrial Revolution
c. the colonization
d. the contact with other countries

A．a(chǎn), b, c

B．a(chǎn), c, d

C．a(chǎn), b, d

D．b, c, d

【小題3】From the passage, we can learn the word “canyon” is from _____.

A．American dialect	B．African dialect
C．Spanish	D．French

【小題4】The third paragraph mainly talks about _____.

A．English colonies in North America

B．the development of American English

C．other languages influence on American English

D．the difference between American English and British English

【小題5】 The underlined word “froze” can best be replaced by _____.

A．remained unchanged	B．disappeared
C．improved	D．kept active

Are you an optimist? Do you look at your glass and see it as half full? Do you believe that every cloud has a silver lining and that things generally turn out for the best? Do you believe that if something is meant to be, it will be? If you reply “yes” to all of these questions, then you are an optimist. You probably are enthusiastic, cheerful and outgoing. You may be successful at work and in love.
But you may be misguided because things don’t turn out for the best. You may believe that when one door closes another one opens (for example, you may fail to obtain a new job; another chance will come around soon). Wrong. When one door closes, another door slams (砰然關(guān)上) in your face. That’s bitter reality.
Now a book has been published which confirms what pessimists (悲觀者) have suspected all along. It’s called The Positive Power of Defensive Pessimism. Its author argues that defensive pessimism can lead to positive results. Defensive pessimism is a strategy used to manage fear, anxiety and worry. Defensive pessimists prepare for the things by setting low outcomes for themselves. They carefully consider everything that may go wrong and plan for ways to handle these problems. And this gives them a sense of control. Lawrence Sanno, a psychology professor, says, “What’s interesting about defensive pessimists is that they tend to be very successful people, so their low opinion of the situation’s outcomes is not realistic. They use it to motivate themselves to perform better.”
So far, so good. This is not rocket science. Defensive pessimists prepare carefully and consider what might go wrong, whether at work, on date or even in a sports game. It makes sense to have a back-up plan. There are many sayings in English urging caution. For example, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” And “Don’t count your chickens until they hatch.” To have a confident and optimistic approach to life’s problems is good. But listen to what Woody Alien, the American comedian says, “Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.”
There are pros and cons to being an optimist and a pessimist. Don’t feel bad if you see the glass half empty. You are a realist. But lighten up and hook up with someone who sees the same glass half full.
【小題1】What’s the passage mainly about?

A．The benefits of defensive pessimism.

B．A book that has recently been published.

C．The dangers of being too optimistic.

D．How to become successful in life.

【小題2】The underlined sentence “This is not rocket science” (Para. 4) means __________.

A．there is no real proof	B．it is quite simple to understand
C．the cost is not so high	D．it’s not a dangerous thing to do

【小題3】Which of the following English expressions would a defensive pessimist believe?

A．Whatever will be, will be.	B．The glass is half full not half empty.
C．Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.	D．Every cloud has a silver lining.

【小題4】The writer would probably describe himself as __________.

A．a(chǎn) realist

B．a(chǎn)n optimist

C．a(chǎn) defeatist

D．a(chǎn) scientist

Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes? Let’s see if I can name a few proverbs “off the cuff” since I haven’t prepared for it.

English expressions with “pants”

People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are restless or nervous have “ants in their pants.” They might also “fly by the seat of their pants” -- they use their natural sense to do something instead of their learned knowledge. Sometimes, people may “get caught with their pants down” -- they are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say “she wears the pants in the family.”

When people want to say something about money

Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can “burn a hole in your pocket.” Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to “tighten your belt” -- you may have to live on less money and spend your money carefully. But once you have succeeded in budgeting your money, you will have that skill “under your belt.” I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really “take my hat off to them.” Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it “at the drop of a hat” — immediately, without waiting. And sadly, you cannot “pull money out of a hat” —you cannot get money by inventing or imagining it.

English expressions with “shoes”

Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are “too big for their boots” think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people. I really do. You can bet your boots on that! Yet, truly important people are hard to replace. Rarely can you “fill their shoes” -- or replace them with someone equally effective.

English expressions with “shirt”

My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too firm and severe. They think he is a real “stuffed shirt.” But I know that my father “wears his heart on his sleeve” —he shows his feelings openly. And, he knows how to “keep his shirt on”—he stays calm and never gets angry or too excited.

【小題1】What is this passage mainly about? 

A．Which words can be used to describe my father.

B．Why English expressions include words about clothes.

C．What people mean when they use some proverbs.

D．How to say English correctly and properly.

【小題2】Which of the following proverbs are not related to money?

A．tighten one’s belt	B．take one’s hat off to them
C．burn a hole in one’s pocket	D．get caught with their pants down

【小題3】Tim often considers himself the most important person in the world, which is far from the truth .We may say ______.

A．he “wears his heart on his sleeve ”.	B．he “bet his boots on that ”.
C．he is “too big for their boots”.	D．he “ fill their shoes”.

【小題4】If you want to praise somebody for his calmness when facing danger, you may say______.

A．“Amazing! How can you keep your shirt on at that time!”

B．“You really fill your shoes”

C．“Awesome ! You wear your heart on your sleeve!”

D．“Cool! You are truly a stuffed shirt”.

Across the planet there are millions of people who engage in some type of meditation, the practice of concentrating and clearing the mind to bring the body into a state of peace, at least a semi-regular basis. For some, particularly among practitioners of Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, this is part and parcel of their religious practice.
For others, particularly in Western cultures, meditation tends to be a response to stress. With the world economy approaching meltdown and people worried about their job or their ability to keep their home, it’s a way for people to attain a state of peace of mind and well-being.
For those interested in taking up the practice, instruction in meditation for beginners can be found in literally thousands of sources.
One of the most popular styles of mediation in the West, with classes offered in most major cities, is called Transcendental Meditation. TM, as it is known among its practitioners, first came to worldwide attention when the Beatles began practicing it in 1967. For direct, guided, personal instruction in meditation for the beginner, TM may be the hallmark.
Part of the confusion about how to practice meditation effectively is due to the fact that there are literally hundreds of techniques championed by various groups and individuals. As a general principle, it might be said that all meditation techniques seek to have the practitioner attain a state of consciousness that is different to our ordinary state of awareness. They attempt to train people to clear their minds and achieve a sense of inner peace. It sounds simple enough, but of the huge number of people experiment with meditation, very few are able to maintain its practice over the long haul. In most cases, this is due to frustration over the inability to experience any dramatic, instantly recognizable effects.
This is quite a sad state of affairs, that so few these days are willing or equipped to persist in something that doesn’t provide immediate life-changing results. It reflects a culture in which demands for discipline and sustained effort are considered unnecessary or even unfair. It is no surprise therefore that many people abandon their efforts at meditation before they have a chance to bear fruit.
But for anyone who does decide to take up this worthwhile practice, please remember. You must clear your mind, relax and “take it as it comes”. Maintain the practice with a sense of discipline and devotion, and eventually benefits of inner peace and calm will be yours.
【小題1】The underlined part “part and parcel of” in paragraph 1 is nearest in meaning to ________.

A．closely associated with	B．a(chǎn)n important element of
C．very different to	D．usually sent from

【小題2】The goal of meditation is ________.

A．to develop a technique	B．to practice a religion
C．to clear the mind	D．to carry out an experiment

【小題3】What can we infer about meditation from the passage?

A．It has two main types.

B．Its benefits are not immediately obvious.

C．It is practiced by many famous artists.

D．Most people find it a very good way to relax.

【小題4】According to the writer, what has attracted many Western people to meditation practices in recent years?

A．Their improved understanding of foreign culture.

B．The need to fill in their growing free time.

C．Migration from countries in which meditation is traditional.

D．Increasing employment instability.

【小題5】Who is the probable audience for this article?

A．People interested in starting to learn meditation.

B．Experienced meditation practitioners.

C．Buddhists and Hindus.

D．People who are very religious.

I was brought up in the British, stiff upper lip style. Strong feelings aren’t something you display in public. So, you can imagine that I was unprepared for the outpouring of public grief(悲傷) at a Chinese funeral.
My funeral.editorial team leader died recently after a short illness. He was 31. The news was so unexpected that it left us all shocked and upset. A female colleague burst into tears and cried piteously at her desk. Somehow we got through the day's work. The next day was the funeral.
Our big boss stepped forward to deliver a eulogy and was soon in tears. She carried on, in Chinese of course, but at the end said in English: "There will be no more deadlines for you in heaven." Next came a long-term colleague who also dissolved in tears but carried on with her speech despite being almost overcome by emotion. Then a close friend of the dead man paid tribute(哀悼), weeping openly as he spoke. Sorrow is spreading. Me and women were now sobbing uncontrollably. Finally, the man's mother, supported between two women, addressed her son in his coffin. At one point, the mother almost collapsed and had to be held up. We were invited to step forward to each lay a white rose on the casket. Our dead colleague looked as if he was taking a nap. At the end of the service I walked away from the funeral parlor stunned at the outpouring of emotion.
In the UK, families grieve privately and then try to hold it together and not break down at a funeral. Here in China it would seem that grieving is a public affair. It strikes me that it is more cathartic to cry your eyes out than try to keep it bottled up for fear of embarrassment, which is what many of us do in the West.
Afterwards, a Chinese colleague told me that the lamenting at the funeral had been restrained(克制) by Chinese standards. In some rural areas, she said, people used to be paid to mourn noisily. This struck me like something out of novel by Charles Dickens. But we have all seen on TV scenes of grief-stricken people in Gaza and the West Bank, in Afghanistan, Iraq and the relatives of victims of terrorist bombings around the world. Chinese grief is no different. I realized that it's the reserved British way of mourning that is out of step with the rest of the world.
It was our newspaper's production day. We were bussed back to the office to resume work. No more deadlines for our former colleague, but we had to pull together to put the newspaper to print. The boss invited the team to go out for dinner after work. We relaxed, smiled, joked. There was no mention of the funeral or our poor colleague. Enough sorrow had been shed already. We needed a break.
【小題1】The underlined words “stiff upper lip style” in Paragraph 1 mean “________”.

A．cold-blooded	B．warm-hearted
C．light-hearted	D．self-controlled

【小題2】At the funeral, ________.

A．five individuals made speeches

B．the boss’s speech was best thought of

C．the writer was astonished by the scene

D．everyone was crying out loudly

【小題3】According to the writer, people in the West ________.     

A．a(chǎn)re not willing to be sad for the dead

B．cry their eyes out at the public funeral

C．prefer to control their sadness in public

D．have better way to express sadness

【小題4】It is implied that ________.  

A．Chinese express their sadness quite unlike other peoples

B．the English might cry noisily for the dead in Dickens’ time

C．victims of terrorist bombings should be greatly honored

D．English funeral culture is more civilized than the others

【小題5】This passage talks mainly about________.       

A．a(chǎn)n editor’s death	B．bad funeral customs
C．cultural differences	D．western ways of grief

Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思維定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.
【小題1】What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?

A．Betty was talkative.

B．Betty was an interrupter.

C．Betty did not take her turn.

D．Betty paid no attention to Sara.

【小題2】According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?

A．Americans.

B．Israelis.

C．The British.

D．The Finns.

【小題3】We can learn from the passage that ______.

A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing

B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US

C．one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes

D．one should receive training to build up one's confidence

"Indeed," George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, "some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home." But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen hade been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightning-bug(螢火蟲). But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
　　The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs, and the like.
　　Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, "to install (安裝) an alarm". Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others' conversation. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant "to cheat", and since the 1940s it has been annoying.
　　We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as "little problems and difficulties" that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison "had been up the two previous nights discovering 'a bug' in his invented record player."
【小題1】We learn from Paragraph 1 that __________________.

A．Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug

B．George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug

C．the word bug was still popularly used in English in the nineteenth century

D．both Englishman and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century

【小題2】What does the word "flaw" in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Fault.

B．Finding.

C．Origin.

D．Explanation.

【小題3】The passage is mainly concerned with__________________.

A．the misunderstanding of the word bug

B．the development of the word bug

C．the public views of the word bug

D．the special characteristics of the word bug

Cold weather has a great effect, on how our minds and our bodies work. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions that use the word “cold”. For centuries, the body’s blood has been linked closely with the emotions. People who show no human emotions or feelings, for example, are said to be cold-blooded. Cold-blood people act in a merciless way. They may do brutal things to others, and not by accident. For example, a newspaper says the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. The killer murdered someone, not in self-defense. He seemed to kill with no emotion.
Cold can affect other parts of the body, the feet, for example. Heavy socks can warm your feet, if your feet are really cold. But there is an expression ---- to get cold feet--- that has nothing to do with cold or your feet. The expression means being afraid to do something you decided to do. For example, you agree to be president of an organization. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned. All the work of the organization will be your responsibility. You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation.
Cold can also affect your shoulder. You “give someone the cold shoulder” when you refuse to speak to them. You treat them in a distant, cold way. The expression probably come from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face-to- face. You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you or to someone who has lied about you to others.
“A cold fish” is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and show no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone.
“Out in the cold” is and expression often heard. It means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise. He was left our in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be.
【小題1】 The text is intended to tell us that ______.

A．cold weather has a great effect on human bodies

B．“cold” is a word closely linked with human emotions

C．many English expressions contain the word “cold”

D．the word “cold” has many different meanings in English

【小題2】The underline word “brutal” in paragraph 1 most probably means ______.

A．merciless

B．illegal

C．impolite

D．extreme

【小題3】Which phrase can best describe a person who is unwilling to offer anything to others?

A．Cold-blooded.	B．To get cold shoulder.
C．A cold fish.	D．A cold shoulder.

【小題4】If the teacher gives all the boys except Tom a pen as a prize, you can say he ______.

A．is given the cold shoulder	B．is punished by a cold fish
C．has got cold feet	D．is left out in the cold