Many of us already know about several American superstitions(迷信). Having a black cat cross your path, walking under a ladder, and breaking a mirror are all bad luck. In addition, there are many other superstitions that are worth knowing. Understanding them will keep you safe from evil spirits —if you believe in such things —and impress your American friends when you mention them.
Like the superstitions in other cultures, American superstitions often involve the things important in daily life, such as health, numbers, and marriage. For example, have you ever had a cough that would not go away? According to one American superstition, you should take a piece of your hair and put it between two slices of buttered bread. Next, feed this hair sandwich to a dog and say, “Eat well, you hound, may you be sick and I be sound.” This will trick the evil spirits and help your cough. It will also raise some eyebrows if you try it.
In American superstitions, the number three is very important. Often, Americas will say, “All things come in threes.” Three is lucky because it represents the traditional family: mother, father, and child. Therefore, gifts, letters, and guests will often arrive at your home in groups of three. However, it is also possible for bad events, like accidents and funerals, to come in threes as well.
Another time people pay attention to superstitions is when they get married. During a wedding, brides must wear or carry “something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue”. The old and borrowed things will bring luck to the person who gives them to the bride. The new and blue things will bring good fortune to the bride herself. The next time someone you know is getting married, be sure to recite this phrase.
As it would be unlucky to discuss one more superstition, we will wind things up here. Keep your fingers crossed, and stay lucky!
【小題1】The passage is most probably entitled .
A.American’s Bad Luck | B.Cross-culture and Superstitions |
C.American Superstitions | D.Daily Life in Superstitions |
A.when you try it, the dog will raise its eyebrows. |
B.you will make people surprised when you try this trick |
C.only if you raise your eyebrows can the trick work |
D.you will believe in the trick after you try it |
A.lucky | B.unlucky | C.special | D.ordinary |
A.save some money for the wedding |
B.bring good luck to the people who give them to the bride |
C.give the good luck to the bride herself |
D.pass the bad luck to others |
A.formal | B.serious | C.humorous | D.critical |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
This is the age of being busy. Many of us live in busy places and have busy lives. Even the roads are busy as we try to get from here to there. Adults are busy going to jobs and taking care of their families. Kids are busy, too, going to school and doing a lot of homework after school and on weekends.
Busy isn’t bad, necessarily. If you are not busy enough you might be bored. But if you are too busy, you might break down. For example, if you have a soccer game that runs late on a school night and you haven’t eaten dinner or done your homework, that’s a not-so-fun kind of busy. We wanted to know what kids thought, so we did a kidsPoll about being busy with 882girls and boys aged 9 to 13.
Almost all of them said they felt stressed because they were too busy. About half said they felt this way once in a while or some of the time. But 17% said they felt this way most of the time and 24% said they felt this all the time! Oh dear, that’s no fun.
Only 4% of kids said they wanted less free time and 18% said they already had just the right amount. But, no big surprise, 61% of kids wish they had a lot more free time. If they had more time, most would spend it hanging out or playing with friends.
Often, adults plan large parts of a kid ’s day, especially during the school year. kids can’t tell their parents they’ll be skipping school(逃學(xué)) today to get more free time! But they can tell their parents they’d like to play a game or read a book during their free time instead of watching TV.
The purpose of the first paragraph is to _____.
A. Introduce the topic
B. Support the main idea
C. Raise the topic sentence
D. Attract the readers’ attention
By giving the example of a late soccer game, the writer intends to tell us______.
A. Being too busy is bad for the kids
B. It is no fun to be busy for the kids
C. Homework should go before gam.
D. Being busy may cause the kids to feel bored
According to the passage, the KidsPoll is done to carry out research on _____.
A. How kids arrange their free time
B. What kids think of being busy
C. How many kids felt stressed
D. What kids do with their study
From the passage, we can infer that the writer agrees kids can_____.
A. Spend their free time hanging or playing out
B. Get a lot more free time from their parents
C. Have a right amount of free time with permission
D. Get more free time from school work sometimes
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科目:高中英語 來源:2010年浙江省金華一中高一上學(xué)期期中考試英語卷 題型:填空題
下面短文中有10處語言錯(cuò)誤。請?jiān)谟绣e(cuò)誤的地方增加、刪除或修改某個(gè)單詞。
增加:在缺詞處加一個(gè)漏字符號(hào)(^),并在其下面寫上該加的詞。刪除:把多余的詞用斜線(\)劃掉。修改:在錯(cuò)的詞下劃一橫線,并在該詞下面寫上修改后的詞。
注意:1.每處錯(cuò)誤及其修改均僅限一詞;
2.只允許修改l0處,多者(從第11處起)不計(jì)分。
Dear teacher,
Let me tell you why I have got so many deductions (扣分) for the last four weeks. Sometimes I got up lately. In order not to be late for class, I did everything in hurry. So I often forgot to put all my roommates’ shoes under their bed. As a rule, we should do a general cleaning in Monday afternoon, but I don’t know. Of course I did not go back to the room to do some cleaning. What a shame! What’s the worse, nobody came to help me when I in trouble. I think they are too selfish.
By the way, many of us are always saying the dormitory administrator (寢管員) is too strict with us. As a matter of fact, I have never met such a cruel person. But maybe, she is right. I promise that I would do well than before in the future.
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科目:高中英語 來源:2013-2014學(xué)年高考二輪復(fù)習(xí)訓(xùn)練:專題7 并列句與狀語從句英語試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解
It’s a great sunny day,so it’s time to get out and enjoy the weather.Many of us would like to,but we have projects due,tasks that need to be done,people that we need to see,and money that needs to be made.
What if your company gave you that time off as compensation for the great effort that you gave to the team to finish a project on time?See,when it comes to teamwork,the main focus is for the team to work together.In a “winning” team there is an equal balance of people who have unique strengths and weaknesses.
Take the example of the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s.Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player to play the game,but did they win a championship every year when Michael had played?No.It took a (D?type) Michael Jordan to lead the team and control the outcome.It took a(n) (I?type) wild and energetic Dennis Rodman to keep the team fun and interesting.It took (S?types) Scottie Pippin,Bill Cartwright,and John Paxson to support the team.And it took the (C?type) analytical mind of Coach Phil Jackson to create a foundation for the players to play on.In the end they,the Chicago Bulls,were able to win six championships within eight years.
What is your team made up of?All Jordans?All Jacksons?All Rodmans?Or all Pippins,Cartwrights and Paxsons?It is you who can choose who’s on your team.Try finding the right people for the right job,and you will have a “winning” team every time!
1.We can infer from the first paragraph that________.
A.we need to finish the task
B.we are eager to make more money
C.we are all very busy every day
D.we often go out and enjoy the fine weather
2.The underlined word “compensation” in the second paragraph means “________”.
A.reward? B.present
C.money? D.duty
3.According to this passage,a winning team is made up of________.
A.a group of people who are tall and strong
B.a group of people who don’t have weaknesses
C.a group of people who don’t quarrel with each other
D.a group of people whose strengths and weaknesses can get to balance
4.What would be the best title for this passage?
A.Working Is Happy
B.The Story of the Chicago Bulls
C.Good Choice
D.Working Together for a Team
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科目:高中英語 來源:2016屆江西省景德鎮(zhèn)市高一上學(xué)期期末質(zhì)檢英語試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解
A good friend of mine lives about one hour away. I called her last week and found out that she wasn’t doing well at work, which would make the following year a little more difficult. After hanging up the phone, I decided to offer to help her, but I couldn’t think of what to do. However, opportunities come themselves when you’re not even looking for.
A few days later, some friends and I happened to be eating desserts at a restaurant in her city. As we were looking at the menu, I turned to my friends and asked them if they wanted to join in a game. After explaining the idea, they decided to take 15 minutes to make someone’s day. We ordered an extra dessert, wrote a note, added a smile card and were off. However, there was one problem: I had no idea where she was.
Therefore, it was time to rely on the network. I called up a friend and got him to call her to see what she was doing and found out that she was at work.
We drove to her work place and one of my friends became the delivery(投遞)person.He went in to look for my friend, found her, didn’t really answer her questions and walked out, saying he’s simply a delivery person.
He ran out quickly and I bent down as we drove by to make sure she didn’t follow him out. Afterwards, all of us had this huge smile on our faces. We felt as if we had just planned a surprise party or something.
A simple opportunity turned into a moment that many of us can now share.
1.Why is the following year a little more difficult for the author’s friend?
A. Because she lives too far away from work.
B. Because she was out of work.
C. Because she didn’t do well at work.
D. Because she failed a test.
2.In Paragraph 2, the underlined phrases “make someone’s day” probably means “make someone________”.
A. satisfied B. busy C. sad D. happy
3.The author got to know where her friend was by________.
A. asking her friend herself by phone
B. asking another friend to call her
C. asking what she was doing directly
D. asking her friend herself on the Internet
4.When given the dessert, the author’s friend________.
A. refused the offer B. knew the entire thing
C. asked some questions D. followed the delivery person out
5.The author and her friends might feel________at last.
A. joyful B. thankful C. pitiful D. fearful
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科目:高中英語 來源:2014屆天津市高三上學(xué)期第一次月考英語試卷(解析版) 題型:閱讀理解
Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.
But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some, this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委員會(huì))is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down lo four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.
1.The passage is probably written by .
A. an experienced teacher B. a city council member
C. an inspired student D. a working parent
2.The underlined word "they" in the second paragraph refers to " ’.
A. environments B. wages C. holidays D. benefits
3.It is suggested in the passage that the summer break be reduced to .
A. 2 weeks B. 6 weeks C. 5 weeks D. 4.5 weeks
4.The plans for a shorter summer holiday will help students_____ .
A. obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs
B. get a chance to spend six weeks a term with teachers in school
C. have more school days to receive free school meals
D. benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment
5.It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. some school staff will say “ No" to the plans for a shorter summer holiday
B. the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out
C. the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time"
D. working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children
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