TV Game Shows
 
　　One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the "best seller" lists with a sale of fewer than 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight.
 
　　This is the principle behind "quiz" or "game" shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars in the U.S. and almost everyone watched them. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show's producers who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular contestants beforehand. Why? Because if the audience didn't like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. The result of this cheating was a huge scandal. Based on his story, a movie under the title "Quiz Show" is on 40 years later. [云南考试网]ynexam_cn
 
　　Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren't taken as seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliation them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.
 
　　1. TV can make a beggar world-famous overnight.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　2. The principle behind "quiz" and "game" shows is to put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　3. Prizes and money are usually provided by TV stars and large companies for winners.
    　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　4. One of the TV personalities, Charles Van Doren was proved to be cheating by persuading the Show's producers to give him the answers beforehand.

Dyslexia
 
　　As many as 20% of all children in the United Stated suffer from some form of the learning disorder called dyslexia.
 
　　Experts on dyslexia say that the problem is not a disease. They say that persons with dyslexia use information in a different way. One of the world's great thinkers and scientists Albert Einstein was dyslexic. Einstein said that he never thought in words the way that most people do. He said that he thought in pictures instead. The American inventor Thomas Edison was also dyslexic. Dyslexia first was recognized in Europe and the United States more than 80 years ago. Many years passed before doctors discovered that persons with the disorder were not mentally slow or disabled. The doctors found that the brains of persons with dyslexia are different. In most people, the left side of the brain-the part that controls language-is larger than the right side. In persons with dyslexia, the right side of the brain is bigger. Doctors are not sure what causes this difference. However, research has shown that dyslexia is more common in males than in females, and it is found more often in persons who are left-handed. No one knows the cause of dyslexia, but some scientists believe that it may result from chemical changes in a baby's body long before it is born. They are trying to find ways to teach persons with dyslexia. Dyslexic persons think differently and need special kinds of teaching help. After they have solved their problems with language, they often show themselves to be especially intelligent or creative. ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　1. One out of five American children suffers from dyslexia.
　　A. Right     
　　B. Wrong     
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　2. Many great thinkers and scientists in the world are dyslexic.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　3. The first cases of dyslexia in Europe were discovered less than a century ago.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　4. The left side of the brain in a dyslexic person is bigger than the right side.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　5. Generally speaking, dyslexia is more common in left-handed males than in right-handed females.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　6. It is believed that dyslexia is related to the bad habits of a baby's mother.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　7. Dyslexic people often turn out to be intelligent or creative once they have learned to handle language properly. [云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　KEY: ACABACA

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Plants and Mankind
 
　　Botany, the study of pants, occupies a peculiar position in the history of human knowledge. We don't know what our stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of preindustrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapon, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter, and many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all.
 
　　Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct out knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose an apple or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer yields the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the marvel of agriculture: cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and intimacy with plants in the wild would begin to fade away. [云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ
 
　　1. It is logical that a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　2. People cannot survive without plants.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　3. Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon teach botany to their children at school.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　4. Our direct contact with plants grows with the process of industrialization.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　5. Today people usually acquire a large amount of botanical knowledge from textbooks.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　6. People living in the Middle East first learned to grow plants for food about 10,000 years ago.
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　7. Once mankind began farming, they no longer had to get food from many varieties that grew wild. ynexam.cn[云南考试网]
　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned
 
　　Key: AABBBAB

The Sea

  ｗｗｗ．ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　What do you know about the sea? We know that it looks very pretty when the sun is shining on it. We also know that it can be very rough when there is a strong wind. What other things do we know about it? ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

  [云南考试网]ｗｗｗ＿ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　The first thing to remember is that the sea is very big. When you look at the map of the world you will find there is more water than land. The sea covers three quarters of the world. [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

  ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　The sea is also very deep in some places. It is not deep everywhere. Some parts of the sea are very shallow. But in some places the depth of the sea is very great. There is one spot, near Japan, where the sea is nearly 11 kilometers deep! The highest mountain in the world is about 9 kilometers high. If that mountain were put into the sea at that place, there would be 2 kilometers of water above it! What a deep place!

ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

　　If you have swum in the sea, you know that it is salty. You can taste the salt. Rivers, which flow into the sea, carry salt from the land into the sea. Some parts of the sea are saltier than other parts. There is one sea, called the Dead Sea, which is very salty. It is so salty that swimmers cannot sink! Fish cannot live in the Dead Sea!

　　In most parts of the sea, there are plenty of fishes and plants. Some live near the top of the sea. Others live deep down. There are also millions of tiny living things that float in the sea. These floating things are so small that it is hard to see them. Many fish live by eating these. [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　The sea can be very cold divers who go deep down in the sea, know this. On the top the water may be warm. When the diver goes downwards, the sea becomes colder and colder. Another thing happens. When the diver goes deeper, the water above presses down on him. It squeezes him. Then the diver has to wear clothes made of metal. But he cannot go very deep. Some people who wanted to go very deep used a very strong diving ship! They went down to the deepest part of the sea in it. They went down to a depth of eleven kilometers!

ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

  [云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

　　1. The sea looks beautiful when it is calm.

[云南考试网]ynexam_cn

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

  [云南考试网]ｗｗｗ＿ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　2. The land takes up 25% of the world. ｗｗｗ．ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

  [云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　3. The sea is 6 kilometers in depth on average. [云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

[云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned [云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

  ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　4. The Dead Sea is so salty that nothing can live in it.

[云南考试网]ynexam_cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned [云南考试网]ｗｗｗ＿ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　5. The deeper one goes down in the sea, the fewer fishes and plants he can find.

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　6. The deeper a diver goes down in the sea, the greater water pressure he hears.

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

   [云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

　　7. Divers have to use a very strong diving ship when they want to go down to the deepest part of the sea mainly because it is extremely cold there. ｗｗｗ．ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

[云南考试网]ｗｗｗ＿ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned [云南考试网]ynexam_cn

　　KEYS: CACCBAB

[云南考试网]ynexam_cn

Dining Custom www.ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

  www.ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

　　Every land has its own dining custom, and the United States is no exception. Americans feel that the first rule of being a polite guest is to be on time. If a person is invited to dinner at 6:30, the hostess expects him to be there at 6:30 or not more than a few minutes after. Because she usually does her own cooking, she times the meal so that the coffee and meat will be at their best at the time she asks the guest to come. If he is late, the food will not be so good, and the hostess will be disappointed. When the guest cannot come on time, he calls his host or hostess on the telephone, gives the reason, and tells at what time he thinks he can come.

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　　As guests continue to arrive, the men in the group stand when a woman enters and remain standing until she has found a chair. A man always rises when he is being introduced to a woman. A woman does not rise when she is being introduced either to a man or a woman unless the woman is much older.

ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

  www.ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

　　When the guests sit down at a dinner table, it is customary for the men to help the ladies by pushing their chairs under them.

　　Even an American may be confused by the number of knives, forks, and spoons beside his plate when he sits down to a formal dinner. The rule is simple, however, use them in the order in which they lie, beginning from the outside. Or watch the hostess and do what she does. The small fork on the outside on the left is for salad, which is often served with the soup. The spoon on the outside at the right is for soup, and so on. Sometimes there is a separate little knife, called a butter spreader, on a small bread-and-butter plate at the left. As the bread is passed, each guest puts his piece on the bread-and-butter plate.

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　1. As a country of immigrants, the U.S. does not have its own dining customs.

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

  ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　2. The guest is expected to arrive on time because the coffee and meat will be at their best at the time he is required to come.

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

[云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

  [云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

　　3. A woman usually rises when she is being introduced to an aged gentleman.

[云南考试网]ｗｗｗ＿ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

[云南考试网]www_ynexam_cn

  ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

　　4. At a dinner table, it is customary for the men to arrange chairs for ladies. [云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned

   ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　5. At formal American dinner, the knives, forks, and spoons beside the plate are placed in a certain order. [云南考试网]ynexam_cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned ｙｎｅｘａｍ．ｃｎ[云南考试网]

　　6. The right order to use the knives, forks and spoons at a formal dinner is from the left to the right.

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

[云南考试网]ｙｎｅｘａｍ＿ｃｎ

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　7. At a formal dinner, bread is usually served together with salad and soup.

[云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　A. Right
　　B. Wrong
　　C. Not mentioned www.ynexam.cn[云南考试网]

  [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn

　　KEY: BABCABC [云南考试网]网址:http://www.ynexam.cn