Sometimes you may have a strong desire to do something strange or terrible. However, chances are that you don’t act on your impulse (沖動), but let it pass instead. You know that to take the action is wrong in some way and that other people will not accept your behavior.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the phenomenon of taboo behavior is how it can change over the years, how certain behavior and attitudes once considered taboo can become perfectly acceptable and natural at another point in time. Topics such as death, for example, were once considered so upsetting that it was a taboo to even talk about them. Now with the publication of important books such as On Death and Dying and Learning to Say Goodbye, people have become more aware of the importance of expressing feelings about death and, as a result, are more willing to talk about this taboo subject.
One of the newest taboos is the topic of fat. Unlike many other taboos, fat is a topic that people talk about constantly. It’s not taboo to talk about fat; it’s taboo to be fat. The “in” look is thin, not fat. In the work world, most companies prefer youthful-looking, slim manager to sell their image as well as their products to the public. The thin look is associated with youth, vigor, and success. The fat person, on the other hand, is thought of as lazy and lacking in energy, self-discipline and self-respect. After all, how can people permit themselves to become fat? In an image-conscious society, thin is ‘‘in”, fat is “out”.
It’ s not surprising that millions of people have become obsessed (著迷) with staying slim and “in shape”. The pursuit of a youthful physical appearance is not, however, the only reason for people’s obsession with diet and exercise. Recent research has shown the importance of diet and exercise for personal health. As in most technologically developed nations, the life-style of people has changed since last century. Modern machines do all the physical labor. Cars and buses transport us quickly from point to point. As a result of inactivity and disuse, people’s bodies can easily become weak. In an effort to avoid such a fate , millions of people are spending more of their time exercising. Parks are filled with joggers and bicyclists, and many companies are providing special exercise equipment for their employees to use during the work day.    
【小題1】What does the word “taboo’’ refer to in the passage?

In our life, we have rarely expressed our gratitude to the one who’d lived those years with us.In fact, we don’t have to wait for anniversaries to thank the ones close to us—the ones so easily overlooked. If I have learned anything about giving thanks, it is this: give it now！While your feeling of appreciation is alive and sincere, act on it. Saying thanks is such an easy way to add to the world’s happiness.
Saying thanks not only brightens someone else’s world, but it also brightens yours. If you’re feeling left out, unloved or unappreciated, try reaching out to others. It may be just the medicine you need.
Of course, there are times when you can’t express gratitude immediately. In that case don’t let embarrassment sink you into silence—speak up the first time you have the chance.
Once a young minister, Mark Brian, was sent to a remote parish of Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia. He had been told that the Indians did not have a word for thank you. But Brian soon found that these people had exceptional generosity. Instead of saying thanks, it is their custom to return every favor with a favor of their own, and every kindness with an equal or superior kindness. They do their thanks.
I wonder if we had no words in our vocabulary for thank you, would we do a better job of communicating our gratitude? Would we be more responsive, more sensitive and more caring?
Thankfulness sets in motion a chain of reaction that transforms people all around us—including ourselves, for no one ever misunderstands the melody of a grateful heart.
【小題1】When we say something for what others do for us, it ______.

XUE Bai, a 21-year-old university student, hopes to volunteer for Beijing's 2008 Olympics. "I want to do something for the Olympics. It is also a kind of learning for me," said the fourth-year student at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Now it is time for Xue to act on her plan. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 2008 Olympiad  will start to recruit(招募)volunteers on August 28.

The Olympics will need around 70,000 volunteers and the Paralympic Games(殘疾人奧運會) will need another 30,000. University students like Xue will make up the majority of the volunteers. But the Olympics also need other volunteers - ordinary citizens and foreigners, for example. Students in Beijing should apply through their universities. Other volunteers may apply online or submit a written application. The online application system and a hotline will be open next Monday. For applicants outside Beijing, the application process begins in December. There is plenty of work for volunteers to do. For example, there will be chances to help publicize the games over the next two years. During the games themselves, volunteers will clean, serve food, marshal(禮儀引導(dǎo))or offer language help.

The Sydney Olympics in 2000 was the first that placed special emphasis on the role of volunteers. It used more than 45,000 volunteers in different roles. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, around 45,000 volunteers were used. More than 70,000 volunteers will be needed for the Olympic games and Paralympic Games in 2012, the London Olympic Organizing Committee has said.

1.Xue Bai is willing to be a volunteer for the Beijing Olympics for the purpose of_____.

A．watching live Olympic matches             B．learning more

C．meeting his favorite sports stars            D．making money

2.It is estimated that volunteers for Beijing's 2008 Olympics are mainly _____.

A．ordinary citizens                        B．foreigners

C．university students                      D．a(chǎn)pplicants outside Beijing

3.Volunteers have played an very important role in Olympics since_____.

A．the 1996 Atlanta Olympics                B．the 2000 Sydney Olympics

C．the 2004 Athens Olympics                D．the 2008 Beijing Olympics

4.The passage mainly tells us______.

A．the history of volunteers in Olympics.

B．hat volunteers will do in the 2008 Olympics.

C．who can apply to be volunteers for Beijing Olympics.

D．volunteers for the 2008 Olympics are wanted.

假定英語課上老師要求同桌交換修改作文，請你修改你同桌寫的以下作文。文中共有十處語言錯誤，每句中最多有兩處。錯誤涉及一個單詞的增加，刪除，或修改。
增加：在缺詞處加一個漏字符號(∧)，并在下面寫出該加的詞。
刪除：把多余的詞用斜線( \ )劃掉。
修改：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，在該詞下面寫出改正后的詞。
注意：每處錯誤及修改均僅限一次;只允許修改10處，多者從第11處起不計分。
One day I went shopping at a gift shop in Shanghai. I was greatly interesting and I lost me in beautiful goods. After I paid for that I had bought, I left my handbag on the counter. There was about two thousands yuan in it. I had already walked out of the shop while a young shop assistant walked up to me in my handbag. He insisted on my check it. I opened the handbag and found nothing losing. I thanked him and offered him a reward of 100 yuan, he refused to take anything. I was deeply moved by his selfless act on that day.

To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of a good actor; you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching, in order to make its meaning clear.
Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit still before his class:he stands the whole time he is teaching; he walks about, using his arms, hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his voice always changing according to what he is talking about.
The fact that a good teacher has some of the gifts of a good actor doesn’t mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage, for there are very important differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s. The actor has to speak words which he has learnt by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part, even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed beforehand. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.
A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play：they ask and answer questions, they obey orders, and if they don’t understand something, they say so. The teacher therefore has to meet the needs of his audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.
I have known many teachers who were fine actors in class but were unable to take part in a stage-play because they could not keep strictly to what another had written.
【小題1】
What is the text about?