Visitors to Spain often feel jet lagged(时差综合症)forever.Work time,meal time and sleep time all come at strange hours.From Krakow to Cordoba,most of Continental Europe is in the same time zone(时区),but once you're in Spain,you're out of the time zone system.
The Spanish day consists of four parts.Morning runs from about 7:00 a.m.to 3:00 p.m;afternoon lasts until around 10:00 p.m.After night comes la madrugada-a fourth part of the active say special to Spain.You may have a prelunch business meeting at two o'clock de la manana (meaning 2:00 p.m),for example,then stay with the same people at a night club till two o'clock de la madrugada (2:00 a.m.)。Similarly,foreigners might be puzzled when given an appointment at 8:30 “in the afternon”,an hour feels like evening to the end.
Such customs,developed long ago when the sun and the heat were the ,most important tacts of life,present some obvious difficulties in the year of Olympics in Europe.There are only very few hours when Spaniards(西班牙人)and their counterparts on the rest of the Continent are in the office at the same time;from about 8:30 a.m.to about 12:30 p.m.To try to make up for it,many ,modern Spaniards have given up the traditional afternoon nap.
4)Which of the following is the best topic of the passage?A.A peculiar way of holding meetings.
B.People who have dinner late.
C.Different customs is Spain.
D.A country with a very different timetable.
5)According to the passage,the Spaniards developed a different timetable from other European countries because of ________.
A.their unbearable hot climate
B.their different time zone
C.their different business habits
D.their historical and cultural traditions
6)According to the passage,some Spaniards try to make up for time difference from other countries by ________.
A.setting the clock right
B.sleeping less during the night
C.not having a light sleep in the afternoon
D.making themselves fit for the jet lag as quickly as possible
Passage 3
You might think that the world no longer believes in demons (魔鬼雕像)or magic symbols.But are you sure?consider military regiments(军团),they have mascots(吉祥物),often a goat or a horse,while ships'captains still believe having a cat on board will bring luck.
Certain symbols have a very ancient ancestry;the swastika,for example,is an ancient sign brought to Europe by the Crusaders from the Saracens in the Middle Ages.It signified the movement of the seasons,and used to appear on horse brasses along with stars,circles,crescents(新月)and other protective symbols.In the Second World War a clockwise swastika was adopted by Adolf Hitler as the Nazi symbol.Hitler was extremely superstitious(迷信的)and believed in the swastika's lucky power,rather misguidedly as it turned out.
Corn dollies(洋娃娃),made from the last bundle of corncut,are still popular in countries as far apart as Mexico,the Balinese Islands and Great Britatin.Originally they were a means of encouraging pagan(异教徒)gods to provide a good harvest the following year;now they are just hung up as a decoration in the kitchen,but perhaps some of the old powerful meaning attached to them is dimly remembered.
The peasants in southern China when working on their harvests used to wear special dresses.The patterned border on these always had two broad hands,representing rivers enclosing lands,and numerous squares represented fileds,each with a different pattern symbolising a particular crop.In this way the peasants indicated to their gods what was expected in each field.These dresses nowdays are worn for festivals and ceremonies connected with agriculture-so the original symbolism is not for gotten.Another wuperstition of the Chinese was that demons fly in straight lines,hence all the important public buildings in China have curved corners to confuse the demons and prevent them from getting a hold as they fly past.For the same reason,the paths up to chinese front doors are winding,and the doors are painted a ‘demon-defying’red as an added protection.
To find some kind of protection aggainst the power of demons has always been of importance,and all over the world certain strange customs evolved.In Asia and Europe,because baby boys were always valued above girls,the curous habit of dressing boy as girls to trick the demons occurred.Even in Victoran Britain boys wore dresses until they were about seven years old.Nowadays,girls and boys both wear ieans so perhaps the demons are still being confused. 7)the author's mention of animals,such as goats,horses or cats,is meant to show________.A.how superstitious people were in the past
B.the ignorance of the army and merchant navy
C.an example of present-day wuperstition
D.the necessity of having a mascot for luck
8)Hitler's faith in the power of the swastika was misguided bacause it ________.
A.only offered protection to horses
B.possesssed symbolic meaning only
C.was ineffective facing the wrong way
D.had only a seasonal use
9)the continued use of corn dollies seems to indicate mankind's________.
A.dependence on agricultural symbols
B.wish to be surrounded by decoration
C.continued belief in ancient gods
D.desire to keep a link with the past
10)Crops were represented in the Chinese peasant's dresses by ________.A.an abstact design
B.a varied pattern
C.a chequered effect
D.some wide stripes
6.完形填空
There are many commonly held deliefs about glasses and eyesight that are not proven facts.1)________,some people believe that wearing glasses too soon 2)________the eyes.But there is no evidence to show that the structure of eyes is changed by wearing glasses 3)________a young age.Wearing the wrong glasses,however,can prove harmful.Studies show that for adults there is no danger,but 4)________children can develop loss of vision 5)________they have the wrong glasses.
We have 6)________heard some of the 7)________myths about how eyesight gets bad.Most people believe that reading in dim light causes poor eyesight,but that is untrue.Too 8)________ light makes the eyes work harder,so they do get tired and strained.Eye strain also results 9)________reading a lot,redaing in bed,and watching too much television,But,10)________eyestrain may cause some pain or headache,it does not permanently damage eye-sight.1)
A.Yet
B.That is
C.However
D.For instance
2)
A.weaken
B.weakens
C.has weakened
D.are weakening