In the U.S., people prefer waiting for a table to sitting with people they don’t know. This means a hostess may not seat a small group until a small table is available, even if a large one is. If you are sitting at a table with people you don’t know, it is impolite to light up a cigarette without first asking if it will disturb them.
At American restaurants and coffee shops you are usually served tap water before you order. You may find the bread and butter is free, and if you order coffee, you may get a free refill.
Most cities and towns have no rules about opening and closing time for stores or restaurants, though they usually do make rules for bars. Especially in large cities, stores may be open 24 hours a day.
Serving in restaurants are often large, too large for many people. If you can’t finish your meal but would like to enjoy the food later, ask your waitress or waiter for a “doggie bag”. It may have a picture of a dog on it, but everybody knows you’re taking the food for yourself.
“Supper” and “dinner” are both words for the evening meal. Some people have “Sunday dinner”. This is an especially big noon meal.
Tips are not usually added to the check. They are not included in the price of the meal, either. A tip of about 15% is expected and you should leave it on the table when you leave. In some restaurants, a check is brought on a plate and you put your money there. Then the waiter or waitress brings you your change.
1. According to the passage, which statement is true?
A. American people like sitting with people they don’t know.
B. A Hostess always seats a small group at a large table.
C. American people never sit with people they don’t know.
D. American people would not light up a cigarette if the people who sit at the same table mind their smoking.
2. What is served before you order? ______ .
A. Cold water B. Bread   C. Coffee   D. Butter
3. What do American people always do when servings are too large for them?
A. They take the food home with a doggie bag for their dogs.
B. They leave the food on the table and go away.
C. They ask the waitress or waiter to keep the food for them.
D. They take the food home with a doggie bag and enjoy the food later.
4. What can you learn about “tips” according to the passage?
A. Tips are usually included in the total check.
B. A 15 percent tip in large cities indicates satisfactory service.
C. Tips are supposed to be left on the table when customers leave.
D. People are not expected to pay tips in addition.

Want to take an out-of-this-world trip? Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans to make that possible. Beginning in 2009, people should have the opportunity to become space tourists, traveling at about 3,000 mph to heights about 75 miles above Earth. Branson has high hopes for his latest plans. "It is just the start of what we believe will be a new age in the history of mankind—one day making the affordable exploration of space by human beings a real possibility," he said.  

At the start, though, the trip won’t be cheap. Seats aboard Virgin’s first craft—VSS Enterprise—will cost about $200,000. Prices could drop after the first hundred space flights. Despite the current ticket cost, more than 30,000 people—including celebrities(名人) Sigourney Weaver and Victoria Principal—have expressed interest in getting onboard.  

People who don't have an extra $200,000 still have a chance to get a seat aboard the craft. A computer game contest and a reality television show are in the works. Those who can’t afford a ticket will have an opportunity to win a seat.    

Virgin is expected to be the first commercial spacecraft. It will hold six passengers and two pilots. Passengers will be able to see the Earth from many different viewpoints. The cabin will include 15 floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing for views that extend about 1,000 miles in any direction.

Passengers will have three days of preflight preparation. On the big day, the spacecraft will take off from the Mojave Spaceport in the California desert. The craft will rocket passengers into space at four times the speed of sound. The journey will last about 2 1/2 hours. Passengers will wear spacesuits and helmets(頭盔). They will be able to float around the cabin and do somersaults(空翻) during the five minutes of weightlessness they will experience in zero gravity. At the end of the flight, the craft will land on a runway.

Virgin Galactic could be _____.

A. the engineer of the first commercial spacecraft

B. the name of a series of spacecrafts

C. the company of the first commercial spacecraft

D. a passenger aboard the first commercial spacecraft

The space passengers will do all the following except that _____.

A. they will receive a three-day training course

B. they will wear spacesuits and helmets

C. they will take about $200,000 with them

D. they will experience weightlessness  

Which statement is true according to the passage?

A. More than 30,000 people have got to travel in spacecraft.

B. Many people signed up for space travel in spite of the high ticket cost.

C. Those without much money could also go space travel without occupying the seats.

D. The first commercial spacecraft will have six persons on board.

What is the text mainly about?

A. The exciting moment of the spacecraft’s launching.

B. The living condition of space tourists in the craft.

C. Preparations for a space travel.

D. Plans for the first commercial space flight.

Think of some of your favorite singers. When you listen, they can make you happy or sad, peaceful or angry. They can make you relax or want to get up and dance. Gifted singers have the power to affect us in many ways—emotionally, physically and mentally.

       But becoming a great singer isn’t as easy as listening to one. It takes practice, devotion and strong lungs! Just ask the well-known American opera（歌劇）star Carol Vaness.

       At the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where she often sings, Carol’s voice must be loud enough to be heard by four thousand people. It must reach every person in the theater, without a microphone, even when she’s singing softly. The reason Carol can project her voice that far is the way she breathes.

       “When you breathe, it’s like a swimmer taking a deep breath before going underwater,” Carol explains. “You have to take a lot of air into your lungs.”

       According to Carol, the main difference between pop singing and opera is “how you breathe, how much air you take in, and how you control it coming out. Regular singing is more like speaking, and it’s lot softer. When I sing for children, they’re often surprised by how the vibrations strike their ears—like waves on a beach, ”Carol says. “In opera, the air doesn’t just go out of your mouth—it vibrates in your chest，the way a guitar vibrates when it’s played.”

       Ever since she started piano lessons at the age of ten, Carol has loved music. As she got older, she decided to become a music teacher. When she went to college, she took singing lessons as part of her studies. Her voice teacher discovered that nineteen-year-old Carol had an exceptionally beautiful soprano voice-the highest singing voice for women.

       Carol decided to make opera her goal, not only because she loved to sing but also because she loved the drama. Opera is a play in which the characters sing the words instead of speaking them. The stories of opera can be tragic or comical. They can be personal stories about two people falling in love or grand stories about kings and queens who lived long ago. As the characters in an opera sing, the emotions（情感）expressed by words and music come to life.

       Today, Carol performs throughout the United States and Europe and she has song for almost twenty years. But she has never forgotten where she started singing in the first palace.

       “Put your heart into your singing and enjoy it,” says Carol, “because singing is a great joy. That’s why I sing. In fact, that’s why everybody sings.”

1.According to the passage,  the Metropolitan Opera in New York City      .

       A．is a five-story building                         B．can seat 4,000 people                   

       C．has no microphone in it                        D．can project the singer’s voice

2.What is the best title for this passage?

       A．Opera Singing and Pop Singing            B．The Way an Opera Star Sings        

       C．An Opera Star                                     D．Singing without a Microphone

3.Which statement is true?

       A．A pop singer’s lungs are usually stronger than those of an opera singer’s          

       B．Opera singing is more like speaking.     

       C．A pop singer takes in much more air than an opera singer when singing.

       D．An opera singer breathes differently from a pop singer when singing.

4.From the passage you can conclude all the following EXCEPT that      .

       A．Carol once learned to play the piano     

       B．Carol worked as a music teacher           

       C．Carol has been singing opera for 20 years or so                     

       D．Carol is popular with Americans and Europeans

The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said on Thursday it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.
An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives -- a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean -- virtually uninhabitable by 2100, the UN’s climate change panel has warned.
President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and last month he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention centre, homes and an 18-hole golf course. “It is still early stages and we are awaiting a report on the possibility,” a government official said.
The company, Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai. There was no immediate comment from the firm but its website said it undertook projects that make “l(fā)and from water by providing large-scale floating constructions to create similar conditions as on land”.
The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion. The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat climate change.
Nasheed, who staged the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting in October to highlight his people’s dilemma , has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are flooded. He has also pledged the Hulhumale to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral” by 2020. His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from “green” sources.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. The Maldives plans to build floating homes for the rising sea level.
B. The Maldives’s president signed a deal with a Dutch company.
C. The Maldives staged the first underwater cabinet meeting.
D. The Maldives is considering ways to fight against the global warming.
2. Which statement is true about the Hulhumale?
A. The Hulhumale is a natural island near the capital of Male.
B. The Hulhumale is an artificial island to be built near the capital.
C. The Hulhumale was built in 1997 and has settled over 30,000 people.
D. The Hulhumale is protected by a 30-million-dollar sea wall.
3. According to the passage, the underlined word congestion means _______.
A. being endangered                     B. being crowded   
C. being flooded                        D. being disappearing
4. Which of the following is NOT Nasheed’s idea?_______
A. To purchase land elsewhere in the world to help Maldivians to relocate if their homes are flooded.
B. To make his nation a model for the rest of the world by becoming “carbon neutral” by 2020
C. To stop using fossil fuel and power all vehicles and buildings from “green” sources.
D. To build more artificial islands for people to settle there.
5. We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. By 2100, all the the Maldives will live on artificial islands.
B. The plans to build homes and a golf course that float have been carried out
C. Maldive has been greatly affected by the global warming.
D. . Dutch Docklands is the president of Maldive.

Although women lead healthier, longer lives, the cruel opinion that they become "old” sooner than men is widespread in the workplace, research shows. 
A survey of more than 2,600 managers and personnel professionals showed that age discrimination is not only common in the workplace, but is shot through with inconsistencies (矛盾).
Six in ten managers reported being a victim of age discrimination -- usually because they were turned down for a job for being too old or too young. Yet more than a fifth admitted that they used age as an important standard.
Although the survey found widespread agreement that older workers were better than younger colleagues when it came to reliability, commitment (承擔(dān)義務(wù)), loyalty (忠誠(chéng)) and customer service, these qualities were not necessarily considered to be worthy of advancement.
A large number of persons believed that workers between 30 and 39 had the best promotion chances, with only 2 per cent giving examples of 50-year-olds or above.
There was evidence that people were considered old at different ages in different jobs. A young man working in IT said he was considered too old by the age of 28.
In fact there was no evidence to suggest that older workers were less valuable to companies than younger workers, in fact the opposite was often true because older workers often brought experience.
The findings also suggested that the Government's ideas on age in the workforce may also be out of step with reality.
63.Which is the discrimination mentioned in this passage?
A. The healthier women are, the sooner they will lose their jobs.
B. Society knows women should be respected, but it doesn't offer them any jobs.
C. Female managers respect male workers, but male managers don't respect female workers.
D. victims of age discrimination consider age as an important standard.
64.Older workers are better than younger colleagues because they have many advantages except that they are _____.    
A. dependable          B. married       C. faithful     D. helpful
65.Why does the writer mention a young man working in IT?
A. Because the writer thinks it a pity that this young man is old.
B. Because it's an example of different age standards in different jobs.
C. Because IT industry is developing too fast.
D. Because the writer doesn't think the young man is old.
66. Which statement is true according to the writer's attitude?
A. The present age standard doesn't go with reality.
B. The present age standard is reasonable.
C. women should work longer than men.  
D. Young workers should learn from old workers.