Cinderella A rich man’s wife became sick, and when she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said, “Dear child, remain pious and good, and then our dear God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven and be near you.” With this she closed her eyes and died. The girl went out to her mother’s grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife. This wife brought tow daughters into the house with her. They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts. Times soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild. “why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?” they said, “if she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid! “ They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. “just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is !” they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen. There she had to do hard work from morning until evening, get up before daybreak, carry water, make the fires, cook, and wash. Beside this, the sisters did everything imaginable to hurt her, they made fun of her, scattered peas and lentils into the ashes for her, so that she had to sit and pick them out again. In the evening when she had worked herself weary, there was no bed for her. Instead she had to sleep by the hearth in the ashes. And because she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella. One day it happened that the father was going to the fair, and he asked his tow stepdaughters what he should bring back for them. “beautiful dresses,” said the one. “pearls and jewels ,” said the other. “and you, Cinderella ,”he said, “what do you want ?” “Father, break off for me the first twig that brushes against your hat in your way home.” So he bought beautiful dresses, pearls, and jewels for his two stepdaughters. In his way home, as he was riding through a green thicket, a hazel twig brushed against him and knocked off his hat. Then he broke off the twig and took it with him. Arriving home, he gave his stepdaughters the things that they had asked for, and gave Cinderella the twig from the hazel bush. Cinderella thanked him, went to her mother’s grave, and planter the branch on it ,and she wept so much that her tears fell upon it and watered it. It grew and became a beautiful tree. Cinderella went to this tree three times every day, and beneath, it she wept and prayed. A white bird would throw down to her what she had wished for. Now it happened that the king proclaimed a festival that was to last three days. All the beautiful young girls in the land were invited, so that his son could select a bride for himself. When the two stepsisters heard that they too had been invited, they were in high spirits. They called Cinderella, saying, “comb our hair for us. Brush our shoes and fasten our buckles. We are going to the festival at the king’s castle .” Cinderella obeyed, but wept, because she too would have liked to go to the dance with them. She begged her stepmother to allow her to go. “you. ,Cinderella?” she said, “you ,all covered with dust and dirt, and you want to go to the festival? you have neither clothes nor shoes, and yet you want to dance!” However, because Cinderella kept asking, the stepmother finally said, “I have scattered a bowl of lentils into the ashes for you. If you can pick them out again in two hours, then you may to with us .” The girl went through the back door into the garden, and called out, “you tame pigeons, you turtledoves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather: The good ones go into the pot, The bad ones go into your crop. Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window, and then the turtledoves, and finally all the birds beneath the sky came whirring and swarming in, and lit around the ashes. The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick, pick ,pick, pick. And the others also began to pick, pick, pick, pick. They gathered all the good grains into the bowl. Hardly one hour had passed before they were finished, and they all flew out again. The girl took the bowl to her stepmother, and was happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them. But the stepmother said, “no, Cinderella, you have no clothes, and you don’t know how to dance. Everyone would only laugh at you .” Cinderella began to cry, and then the stepmother said, “you may go if you are able to pick two bowls of lentils out of the ashes for me in one hour,” Thinking to herself, “she will never he able to do that. “ The girl went through the back door into the garden, and called out, “you tame pigeons, you turtledoves, and all you birds beneath the sky, come and help me to gather: The good ones go into the pot, The bad ones go into you crop. Two white pigeons came in through the kitchen window, and then the turtledoves, and finally all birds beneath the sky came whirring and swarming in, and lit around the ashes. The pigeons nodded their heads and began to pick, pick, pick, pick. And the others also began to pick, pick, pick, pick. They gathered all the gook grains into the bowls. Before a half hour had passed they were finished, and they all flew out again. The girl took the bowls to her stepmother, and was happy, thinking that now she would be allowed to go to the festival with them. But the stepmother said, “it’s no use. You are not coming with us, for you have no clothes, and you don’t know how to dance. We would be ashamed of you .” with this she turned her back on Cinderella ,and hurried away with her tow proud daughters. Now that no one else was at home, Cinderella went to her mother’s grave beneath the hazel tree, and cried out: Shake and quiver, little tree, Throw gold and silver down to me . Then the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and silver. She quickly put on the dress and went to the festival. Her stepsisters and her stepmother did not recognize her. They thought she must be foreign princess, for she looked so beautiful in the golden dress. They never once thought it was Cinderella, for they thought that she was sitting at home in the dirt, looking for lentils in the ashes. The prince approached her, took her by the hand, and danced with her. Furthermore, he would dance with no one else. He never let go of her hand, and whenever anyone else came and asked her to dance, he would say, “she is my dance partner.” She danced until evening, and then she wanted to go home. But the prince said, “I will go along and escort you,” for he wanted to see to whom the beautiful girl belonged. However, she eluded him and jumped into the pigeon coop. the prince waited until her father came, and then he told him that the unknown girl had jumped into the pigeon coop. The old man thought, “Could it be Cinderella?” He had them bring him an ax and a pick so that he could break the pigeon coop apart, but on one was inside. When they got home Cinderella was lying in the ashes, dressed in her dirty clothes. A dim little oil-lamp was burning in the fireplace. Cinderella had quickly jumped down from the back of the pigeon coop and had run to the hazel tree. There she had taken off her beautiful clothes and laid them on the grave, and the bird had taken them away again. Then, dressed in her gray smock, she had returned to the ashes in the kitchen. The next day when the festival began anew, and her parents and her stepsisters had gone again, Cinderella went to the hazel tree and said: Shake and quiver, little tree, Throw gold and silver down to me. Then the bird threw down an even more magnificent dress than on the preceding day. When Cinderella appeared at the festival in this dress, everyone was astonished at her beauty. The prince had waited until she came, then immediately took her by the hand, and danced only with her. When others came and asked her to dance with them, she said, “she is my dance partner .” When evening came she wanted to leave, and the prince followed her, wanting to see into which house she went. But she ran away from him and into the garden behind the house. A beautiful tall tree stood there, on which hung the most magnificent pears. She climbed as nimbly as a squirrel into the branches, and the prince did not know where she had gone. He waited until her father came, the said to him, “the unknown girl has eluded me, and I believe she has climbed up the pear tree.” The father thought, “could it be Cinderella?” he had an ax brought to him and cut down the tree, but no one was in it. When they came to the kitchen, Cinderella was lying there in the ashes as usual, for she had jumped down from the other side of the tree, had taken the beautiful dress back to the bird in the hazel tree, and had put on her gray smock. On the third day, when her parents and sisters had gone away, Cinderella went again to her mother’s grave and said to the tree: Shake and quiver, little tree, Throw gold and silver down to me. The time the bird threw down to her a dress that was more splendid and magnificent than any she had yet had, and the slippers were of pure gold. When she arrived at the festival in this dress, everyone was so astonished that they did not know what to say. The prince danced only with her, and whenever anyone else asked her to dance, he would say, “she is my dance partner .” When evening came Cinderella wanted to leave, and the prince tried to escort her, but she ran away from him so quickly that he could not follow her. The prince, however, had set a trap. He had had the entire stairway smeared with pitch. When she ran down the stairs, her left slipper stuck in the pitch. The prince picked it up. Ti was small and dainty, and of pure gold. The next morning ,he went with it to the man, and said to him, “no one shall be my wife except for the one whose foot fits this golden shoe .” The two sisters were happy to hear this ,for they had pretty feet. With her mother standing by, the older one took the shoe into her bedroom to try it on. Then her mother gave her a knife and said, “cut off your toe. When you are queen you will on longer have to go on foot .” The girl cut off her toe, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince. He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her. However, they had to ride past the grave, and there, on the hazel tree, sat the two pigeons, crying out: Rook di goo, rook di goo ! There’s blood in the shoe. The shone it too tight, This bride is not right! Then he looked at her foot and saw how the blood was running from it. He turned his horse around and took the false bride home again, saying that she was not the right one, and that the other sister should try on the shoe. She went into her bedroom, and got her toes into the shoe all right, but her hell was too large. Then her mother gave her a knife, and said, “cut a piece off you heel. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot.” The girl cut a piece off her heel, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed the pain, and went out to the prince. He took her on his horse as his bride and rode away with her. When they passed the hazel tree, the two pigeons were sitting in it ,and they cried out: Rook di goo, rook di goo ! There’s blood in the shoe. The shone it too tight, This bride is not right! He looked down at her foot and saw how the blood was running out of her shoe, and how it had stained her white stocking all red. Then he turned his horse around and took the false bride home again. “this is not the right one, either,” he said. “don’t you have another daughter?” “NO,” said the man. “there is only a deformed little Cinderella from my first wife, but she cannot possibly be the bride.” The prince told him to send her to him, but the mother answered, “oh, no, she is much too dirty. She cannot be seen.” But the prince insisted on it, and they had to call Cinderella. She first washed her hands and face clean, and then went and bowed down before the prince, who gave her the golden shoe. She sat down on a stool, pulled her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and put in into the slipper, and it fitted her perfectly. When she stood up the prince looked into her face, and he recognized the beautiful girl who had danced with him. He cried out, “she is my true bride.” The stepmother and two sisters were horrified and turned pale with anger. The prince, however, took Cinderella onto his horse and rode away with her. As they passed by the hazel tree, the two white doves cried out: Rook di goo, rook di goo! No blood’s in the shoe. The shoe’s not too tight, This bride is right! ! After they had cried this out, they both flew down and lit on Cinderella’s shoulders, one on the right, the other on the left, and remained sitting there. When the wedding with the prince was to be held, the two false sisters came, wanting to gain favor with Cinderella and to share her good fortune. When the bridal couple walked into the church, the older sister walked on their right side and the younger on their left side, and the pigeons pecked out one eye from each of them. Afterwards, as they came out of the church, the older one was on the left side, and the younger one on the right side, and then the pigeons pecked out the other eye from each of them. And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as ling as they lived. （　）4. Whenever she expressed a wish to the little tree, Cinderella was always given what she had wished for.

The Joys of Writing The fortunate in the world-the only really fortunate people in the world, in my mind,-are those whose work is also their pleasure. The class is not a large one, not nearly so large as it is often represented to be; and authors are perhaps one of the most important elements in its composition. They enjoy in this respect at least a real harmony of life. To my mind, to be able to make your work your pleasure is the one class distinction in the world worth striving for; and I do not wonder that others are inclined to envy those happy human beings who find their livelihood in the gay effusions of their fancy, to whom every hour of labour is an hour of enjoyment to whom repose – however necessary – is a tiresome interlude. And even a holiday is almost deprivation. Whether a man writing well or ill, has mach to say or little, if he cares about writing at all, he will appreciate the pleasures of composition. To sit at one’s table on a sunny morning, with four clear hours of uninterruptible security, plenty of nice white paper, and a squeezer pen – that is true happiness. The complete absorption of the mind upon an agreeable occupation – what more is there than to desire? What dose it matter what happens outside? The house of commons may do what it like, and so may the house of lords. The heathen may rage furiously in every part of the globe. The bottom may be knocked clean out of the American market. Consols may fall and suffragettes may rise. Never mind, for four hours, at any rate, we will withdraw ourselves from a common, ill – governed, and disorderly world, and with the key of fancy unlock that cupboard where all the good things of the infinite are put away. And speaking of freedom is not the author free, as few men are free? Is he not secure, as few men are secure? The tools of his industry are so common and so cheap that they have almost ceased to have commercial value. He needs no bulky pile of raw material, no elaborate apparatus, no service of men or animals. He is dependent for his occupation upon no one but himself, and nothing outside him that matters. He is the sovereign of an empire, self-supporting, self-contained. No one can sequestrate his estates. No one can deprive him of his stock in trade; no one can force him to exercise his faculty against his will; no one can prevent him exercising it as he chooses. The pen is the great liberator of men and nations. No chains can bind, no poverty can choke, no tariff can restrict the free play of his mind, and even the Times Book Club can only exert a moderately depressing influence upon his rewards. Whether his work is good or bad, so long as he does his best he is happy. I often fortify myself amid the uncertainties and vexations of political life by believing that I possess a line of retreat into a peaceful and fertile country where no rascal can pursue and where one need never be dull or idle or ever wholly without power. It is then, indeed, that I feel devoutly thankful to have been born fond of writing. It is then, indeed, that I feel grateful to all the brave and generous spirits who, in every age and in every land, have fought to establish the now unquestioned freedom of the pen. And what a noble medium the English language is. It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positive pleasure at the richness and variety, the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother-tongue. If an English writer cannot say what he has to say in English, and in simple English, depend upon it, it is probably not worth saying. What a pity it is that English is not more generally studied. I am not going to attack classical education. No one who has the slightest pretension to literary tastes can be insensible to the attraction of Greece and Rome. But I confess our present educational system excites in my mind grave misgivings. I cannot believe that a system is good, or even reasonable, which thrusts upon reluctant and uncomprehending multitudes of treasures which can only be appreciated by the privileged and gifted few. To the vast majority of boys who attend our public schools a classical education is from beginning to end one long useless, meaningless rigmarole. If I am told that classics are the best preparation for the study of English, I reply that by far the greater number of students finish their education while this preparatory stage is still incomplete and without deriving any of the benefits which are promised as its result. And even of those who, without being great scholars, attain a certain general acquaintance with the ancient writers, can it really be said that they have also obtained the mastery of English? How many young gentlemen there are from the universities and public schools who can turn a Latin verse with a facility which would make the old Romans squirm in their tombs. How few there are who can construct a few good sentences, or still less a few good paragraphs of plain, correct, and straightforward English. Now, I am a great admirer of the Greeks, although, of course, I have to depend upon what others tell me about them –and I would like to see our educationists imitate in one respect, at least, the Greek example. How is it that the Greeks made their language the most graceful and compendious mode of expression ever known among men? Did they spend all their time studying the languages which had preceded theirs? Did they explore with tireless persistency the ancient root dialects of the vanished world? Not at all. They studied Greek. They studied their own language. They loved it, they cherished it, they adorned it, they expanded it, and that is why it survives a model and delight to all posterity, Surely we, whose mother-tongue has already won for itself such an unequalled empire over the modern world, can learn this lesson at least from the ancient Greeks and bestow a little care and some proportion of the years of education to the study of a language which is perhaps to play a predominant part in the future progress of mankind. Let us remember the author can always do his best. There is no excuse for him. The great cricketer may be out of form. The general may on the day of decisive battle have a bad toothache or a bad army. The admiral may be seasick –as a sufferer I reflect with satisfaction upon that contingency. Caruso may be afflicted with catarrh, or Hackenschmidt with influenza. As for an orator, it is not enough for him to be able to think well and truly. He must think quickly. Speed is vital to him. Spontaneity is more than ever the hallmark of good speaking. All these varied forces of activity require from the performer the command of the best that is in him at a particular moment which may be fixed by circumstances utterly beyond his control. It is not so with the author. He need never appear in public until he is ready. He can always realize the best that is in him. He is not dependent upon his best moment in any one day. He may group together the best moments of twenty days. There is no excuse for him if he does not do his best. Great is his opportunity; great also is his responsibility. Someone –I forget who –has said, “Words are the only things last for ever.” That is, to my mind, always a wonderful thought. The most durable structures raised in stone by the strength of man, the mightiest monuments of his power, crumble into dust, while the words spoken with fleeting breath, the passing expression of the unstable fancies of his mind, endure not as echoes of the past, not as mere archaeological curiosities or venerable relics, but with a force and life as new and strong, and sometimes far stronger than when they were first spoken, and leaping across the gulf of three thousand years, they light the world for us today. Read carefully the text and decide the answer that best completes the following statements according to the information provided in the text. 2. By saying “even a. holiday is almost deprivation",the author means that ( ).

New Applications Miriam Storley left the bank at 4:15 exactly. People along Division Street said you could set your watch by Miriam; she always left her job at eh First State Bank of Cannon Falls at this hour, Monday through Friday, except on holidays. On Fridays she returned to work the six-to-eight P.M. shift. One this particular day, a Monday, she stopped after closing the front door to the bank in order to look at the window display. Miriam had spent the better part of the afternoon arranging gift items in the bank’s window. First State, which is how everyone in town referred to the bank, was having a promotion in order to attract new business. They were offering gifts which ranged in value all the way from a pocket calulator to a color TV. The value of a new depositor’s gift depended on how much was initially deposited. The display in the window was attractive, but Miriam wondered where the new business was going to come from. Cannon Falls wasn’t a one-stoplight town, but it wasn’t a great metropolis either. There just weren’t that many people to warrant an extravagant new business promotion such as this. The bank manager, Al Gropin, had even invested in some full-page advertisements in the local paper and had hired some clowns to perform on the street in from of the bank---all to try to attract new customers. But Miriam didn’t linger long in front of the window, and she didn’t waste much time on her thoughts of Al’s grand schemes. Her mission today was the same as it had been every weekday for the past several weeks. She nodded at passers-by, shopkeepers, and neighbors as she walked purposefully along the wide sidewalk toward The Computer Shack. There was a pleasant expression on her face as she smiled and said her “hellos” and “good afternoons” and “how are yous” to the people she saw almost every day of her life. Her daily meeting with Officer Quanbeck never failed to amuse her. She smiled to herself as they exchanged greetings and wondered whether he would feel as stupid as he looked after she pulled off the crime of the century. “Right on time, as usual, eh, Mrs. Storley?” The thin, kindly-looking man behind the counter in The Computer Shack seemed to have a perpetual smile on his face. Every day for the past several weeks, Tobe Barksdale had a short, simple conversation with this woman from the bank down the street. She said she wanted to but the home computer which he had hooked up to a printer and which was fully operational, but so far all she did was sit and play with it. Tobe didn’t mind the intrusion, though. Even thought he opened his shop. Gleamingly filled with electronic toys and machines, at noon, the majority of his customers came after six P. M. At first he had closed the store at eight, but the numbers of people interested in the latest gadgetry forced him to stay open later and later, and now he wasn’t closing until ten o’clock. He could have insisted that his daily visitor make up her mind about the computer, or at least stop using the same program all the time, but she wasn’t really any bother, and lately she had acquired such a solid knowledge of the field that he actually enjoyed her increasingly complex questions. She challenged his imagination, probing to see just how far a computer could go, just how much a simple machine could do. Tobe probably knew as much about computer hardware and software as anybody in the entire town of Cannon Falls. Hardware and software. These were terms the general public rarely heard when Tobe began working a number of years back. Now, everyone used the terms to refer to the computers themselves and the programs which told the machines and operators what to do. Miriam Storley had a long way to go to catch up with Tobe in her knowledge of this complex field, but she seemed determined, and Tobe was a patient instructor. Each day she would come to him with a new type of problem, an unusual twist, a tricky flow of information or instructions which she wanted to master. Every day he would guide her through the intricacies of the model which was advertised as the “ latest, most technologically advanced home computer ever designed.” Every day she would listen and absorb, and then experiment for herself. She brought her own tapes and never seemed to tire of learning, even after a day’s work. Tobe believed in leaving people to themselves, so when the lesson was over and Miriam sat at the console, enwrapped in her task at hand, he busied himself in another part of the store. Miriam’s teen-age son, who liked to be called by the nickname Zee, had introduced her to the world of computers through his interest in video games. True, she dealt with computers at the bank every day in her job, but somehow they were just a part of the bank; they didn’t touch her. She learned from her son and, almost by accident--- as most great discoveries in the world seem to be---she discovered that the latest version of the home-type computers was actually compatible with the one she worked with in her office at First State. The idea came to her at the end of a particularly tiring day as she tallied the day’s receipts and entered them into her desk-top computer. It was foolproof! She could transfer funds from various accounts which were relatively inactive by tampering with the program. If she did it skillfully enough, she would never be caught. She would set up some fictitious accounts in other banks in the state, transfer funds, disguise herself and go to the other banks in order to withdraw the money, and then return the program to its original condition. No one would ever be able to figure out what she had done or where the money had gone. And even if they did trace it, they would never suspect her. How could they? She decided not to risk working on the program she needed at home, since Zee might see what she was doing. Tobe Barksdale’s shop was the perfect cover, and that pleasant man certainly wouldn’t suspect her. He didn’t even seem to mind letting her use his floor-model computer. After months of preparation, Miriam carried out her plan. She called Mr. Gropin to say that she was ill and couldn’t come to work. Then she drove to Mankato and Red Wing, disguised, and picked up her money. All went well until she arrived home to find Officer Quanbeck and several others waiting in her living room to arrest her for fraud and bank robbery. As a kindness, to assuage her curiosity, Tobe Barksdale was there, too. He explained, “Your plan was brilliant, Miriam, and you were an excellent student. Indeed, I taught you almost everything you know. But I didn’t teach you everything you did on a master tape which I observed every afternoon after you left. After all, I had to see what kind of progress my pupil was making, didn’t I?” 2. Miriam had arranged tile bank's window in a special display because her bank was promoted to a State Bank.

The Value of Education Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the aim of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life. Life is varied; so is education. As soon as we realize the fact, we will understand that it is very important to choose a proper system of education. 　　In some countries with advanced industries, they have free education for all. Under this system, people, no matter whether they are rich or poor, clever or foolish, have a chance to be educated at universities or colleges. They have for some time thought, by free education for all, they can solve all the problems of a society, and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough. We find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees than there are jobs for them to fill. As a result of their degrees, they refuse to do what they think is "low" work. In fact, to work with one’ s hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. 　　But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is as important as that of a professor. We can live without education, but we should die if none of us grew crops. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns. If there were no service people, because everyone was ashamed to do such work, the professors would have to waste much of their time doing housework. 　　On the other hand, if all the farmers were completely uneducated, their production would remain low. As the population grows larger and larger in the modern world, we would die if we did not have enough food. 　　In fact, when we say all of us must be educated to fit ourselves for life, it means that all must be educated: firstly, to realize that everyone can do whatever job is suited to his brain and ability; secondly, to understand that all jobs are necessary to society and that it is bad to be ashamed of one’s own work or to look down upon someone else’s; thirdly, to master all the necessary know-how（技能）to do one’s job well. Only such education can be called valuable to society. 1. Our purpose of educating children is to 　　.

English World-wide 　　English is now the international language for airline pilots, scientists, medical experts, businessmen and many others. Consequently, more and more people are learning it. The BBC’s English teaching programmers are broadcast daily to four continents and supplied to radio stations in 120 countries. Films and video are on the air or used in institutions in over 100 countries. All this helps to add more speakers to the estimated 100 million who use English as a second language. The rush to learn English has reached even China. The main reason for the upsurge （上升）in interest is recent increase in China's contacts with the outside world. 　　Unlike many other widely used languages, English can be correctly used in a very simple form with less than one thousand words and very few grammatical rules. This was pointed out in the 1920's by two Cambridge scholars, Ogden and Richards, who devised a system called "Basic English". Another reason for the popularity of English is that English-speaking countries are spread throughout the world. An estimated 310 million people in Britain, the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, South Africa etc. use English as their mother tongue. Also in former British colonial areas in Africa and Asia where many local languages are spoken, no common language has been found which would make a suitable substitute for English. 　　In Delhi, although nationalists would prefer to phase out （逐步停止） the use of English, the man from South India finds English more acceptable than Hindi, while the northerner prefers English to any of the southern languages. Turning from India to Africa, a similar problem exists. However reluctant African nations are to use English and, as it were, subject themselves to a kind of "cultural imperialism", there seems to be no alternative language which will do the job of communication effectively. 　　The view that spreading the use of English is entirely beneficial has its opponents. Some teachers who have returned from overseas consider it creates a wider gap between those who are educated and those who have little or no education. Nevertheless, in many parts of the world, the technical and scientific knowledge needed to develop a country's resources and improve people's living conditions, is just not available in the mother tongue. A second language opens the door to the worldwide sharing of skills and discoveries in science, engineering and medicine. As for the future, it seems certain that English in one form or another will be spoken by far more people than it is today. It will doubtless continue to change and develop — as a living language always does. Decide which answer best completes the following statements according to the information in the passage. 1. Approximately( ) people use English on a regular basis.

Social Classes 　　 It is hard to get any agreement on the precise meaning of the term “social class”. In everyday life, people tend to have a different approach to those they consider their equals from that which they assume with people they consider higher or lower than themselves in the social scale. The criteria we use to “place” a new acquaintance, however, are a complex mixture of factors. Dress, way of speaking, area of residence in a given city or province, education and manners all play a part. 　　In ancient civilizations, the Sumerian, for example, which flourished in the lower Euphrates valley from 5000 to 2000 B. C., social differences were based on birth, status or rank, rather than on wealth. Four main classes were recognized. These were the rulers, the priestly administrators, the freemen （such as craftsmen, merchants or farmers） and the slaves. 　　In Greece, after the sixth century B.C., there was a growing conflict between the peasants and the landed aristocrats（贵族）, and a gradual decrease in the power of the aristocracy when a kind of “middle class” of traders and skilled workers grew up. The population of Athens, for example, was divided into three main classes which were politically and legally distinct. About one-third of the total were slaves, who did not count politically at all, a fact often forgotten by those who praise Athens as the nursery of democracy. The next main group consisted of resident foreigners, the “metics”, who were freemen, though they too were allowed no share in political life. The third group was the powerful body of “citizens”, who were themselves divided into sub-classes. 　　In ancient Rome, too, a similar struggle between the plebs, or working people, and the landed families was a recurrent feature of social life. 　　The medieval feudal system, which flourished in Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, gave rise to a comparatively simple system based on birth. Under the king there were two main classes—lords and “vassals”, the latter with many subdivisions. The vassal owed the lord fidelity（忠诚）, obedience and aid, especially in the form of military service. The lord in return owed his vassal protection and an assured livelihood. 　　In the later Middle Ages, however, the development of a money economy and the growth of cities and trade led to the rise of class, the “burghers” or city merchants and mayors. These were the predecessors（前身）of the modern middle classes. Gradually high office and occupation assumed importance in determining social position, as it became more and more possible for a person born to one station in life to more to another. This change affected towns more than the country areas, where remnants of feudalism lasted much longer. 　　With the break-up of the feudal economy, the increasing division of labour, and the growing power of the town burghers, the commercial and professional middle class became more and more important in Europe, and the older privileged class, the landed aristocracy, began to lose some of its power. 　　In the eighteenth-century one of the first modern economists, Adam Smith, thought that the “whole annual produce of the land and labour of every country” provided revenue to “three different orders of people: those who live by rent, those who live by wages, and those who live by profit”. Each successive stage of the industrial revolution, however, made the social structure more complicated. 　　Many intermediate groups grew up during the nineteenth-century between the upper middle class and the working class. There were small-scale industrialists as well as large ones, small shopkeepers and tradesmen, officials and salaried employees, skilled and un-skilled workers, and professional men such as doctors and teachers. Farmers and peasants continued in all countries as independent groups. 　　During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the possession of wealth inevitably affected a person’s social position. Intelligent industrialists with initiative made fortunes by their working-class parents. But they lacked the social training of the upper class, who despised them as the “new rich”. 　　They often sent their sons and daughters to special schools to acquire social training. Here their children mixed with the children of the upper classes, were accepted by them, and very often found marriage partners from among them. In the same way, a thrifty（节俭的）, hardworking labourer, though not clever himself, might save for his son enough to pay for an extended secondary school education in the hope that they would move into a “white-collar” occupation, carrying with it a higher salary and a move up in the social scale. 　　The tendency to move down in social class is less obvious, for a claim to an aristocratic birth, especially in Europe, has always carried a certain distinction, and people have made tremendous efforts to obtain for their children the kind of opportunities they had for themselves. In the twentieth century the increased taxation of higher incomes, the growth of the social service development of educational opportunity have considerably altered the social outlook. The upper classes no longer are the sole, or even the main possessors of wealth, power and education, though inherited social positions still carries considerable prestige. Many people today are hostile towards class distinctions and privileges and hope to achieve a classless society. The trouble is that as one inequality is removed, another tends to take its place, and the best that has so far been attempted is a society in which distinctions are elastic（可变的）and in which every member has fair opportunities for making the best of his abilities. Decide which answer best completes the following statements according to the information in the passage. 2. The decline of the Greek aristocracy's power in the sixth century B. C（ ）. 　　

You're busy filling out the application form for a position you really need; let's assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn't it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University?More and more people are turning to utter deception like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway,but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university. Registrars at most well-known colleges say they deal with deceitful claims like these at the rate of about one per week.Personnel officers do check up on degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicants lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them impostors； another refers to them as special cases. One well- known West Coast school， in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by no such people.To avoid outright lies, some job-seekers claim that they attended or were associated with a college or university. After carefully checking, a personnel officer may discover that attending means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that being associated with a college means that the job-seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claims says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century一that's when they began keeping records，anyhow.If you don’t want to lie or even stretch the truth， there are companies that will sell you a phony diploma. One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast• will put your name on a diploma from any number of non-existent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from Smoot State University. The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the University of Purdue. As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.This passage implies that _______.

How did the Days of the Week Get Their Names? There was a time in the early history of man when the days had no names! The reason was quite simple:Man had not invented the week. In those days,the only division of times was the month,and there were too many days in the month for each of them to have a separate name.But when men began to build cities,they wanted to have a special day on which to trade, a market day. Sometimes these market days were fixed at every tenth day,some every seventh or every fifth day. The Babylonians decided that it should be every seventh day. On this day they didn't work, but met for trade or religious festivals. The Jews followed their example, but kept every seventh day for religious purposes. On this day the week came into existence. It was space between market days. The Jews gave each of the seven days a name,but it was really a number after the Sabbath day (which was Saturday). For example,Wednesday was called the fourth day (four days after Saturday). When the Egyptians adopted the seven-day week, they named the days after five planets, the sun and the moon. The Romans used the Egyptian names for their days of the week: the day of the sun, of the moon, of the planet Mars,of Mercury,of Jupiter,of Venus,and of Saturn. We get our names for the days not from the Romans but from the Anglo-Saxons,who called most of the days after their own gods, which roughly the same as the gods of the Romans. The day of the sun became Sannandaeg,or Sunday. The day of the moon was called Monandaeg,or Monday. The day of Mars became the day of the Tiw,who was their god of war.This became Tiwesdaeg,or Tuesday.Instead of Mercury's name,that of the god Woden was given to Wednesday. The Roman day of Jupiter,the thunder,became the day of the thunder god Thor,and this became Thursday.The next day was named for Frigg,the wife of their god Odin,and so we have Friday.The day of Saturn became Saeterndaeg,a translation from the Roman,and then Saturday. A day,by the way,used to be counted as the space between sunrise end sunset. The Romans counted it as from Midnight,and most modern nations this method. Decide the answer that best completes the following statements according to the information provided in the text. 5.For the Jews in those days,Thursday was of the week( ).

A Day’s Wait E. Hemingway He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed and I saw he looked ill. He was shivering, his face was white, and he walked slowly as though it ached to move. “What’s the matter, Schatz?” “I’ve got a headache.” “You better go back to bed.” “No. I’m all right.” “You go to bed. I’ll see you when I’m dressed.” But when I came downstairs he was dressed, sitting by the fire, looking a very sick and miserable boy of nine years. When I put my hand on his forehead I know he had a fever. “You go up to bed,” I said, “you’re sick.” “I’m all right,” he said. When the doctor came he took the boy’s temperature. “what is it?” I asked him. “One hundred and two.” Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in different coloured capsules with instructions for giving them. One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative, the third to overcome an acid condition. The germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition, he explained. He seemed to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to worry about if the fever did not go above on hundred and four degrees. This was a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger if you avoided pneumonia. Back in the room I wrote the boy’s temperature down and made a note of the time to give the various capsules. “Do you want me to read to you?” “All right. If you want to,” said the boy. His face was very white and there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay still in the bed and seemed very detached from what was going on. I read aloud from Howard Pyle’s Book of Privates; but I could see he was not following what I was reading. “How do you feel, Schatz?” I asked him. “Just the same, so far,” he said. I sat at the foot of the bed and read to myself while I waited for it to be time to give another capsule. It would have been natural for him to go to sleep, but when I looked up he was looking at the foot of the bed, looking very strangely. “Why don’t you try to sleep? I’ll wake you up for the medicine.” “I’d rather stay awake.” After a while he said to me, “You don’t have to stay in here with me, Papa, if it bothers you.” “It doesn’t bother me.” “No, I mean you don’t have to stay if it’s going to bother you.” I thought perhaps he was a little lightheaded and after giving him the prescribed capsules at eleven o’clock I went out for a while. It was a bright, cold day, the ground covered with a sleet that had frozen so that it seemed as if all the bare trees, the bushes, the cut brush and all the grass and the bare ground had been varnished with ice. I took the young Irish setter for a little walk up the road and along a frozen creek, but it was difficult to stand or walk on the glassy surface and the red dog slipped and slithered and I fell twice, hard, once dropping my gun and having it slide away over the ice. We flushed a covey of quail under a high clay bank with overhanging brush and I killed two as they went out of sight over the top of the bank. Some of the covey lit in trees, but most of them scattered into brush piles and it was necessary to jump on the ice-coated mounds of brush several times before they would flush. Coming out while you were poised unsteadily on the icy, springy brush they made difficult shooting and I killed two, missed five, and started back pleased to have found a covey close to the house and happy there were so many left to find on another day. At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone come into the room. “You can’t come in.” he said. “You mustn’t get what I have.” I went up to him and found him in exactly the position I had left him, white-faced, but with the tops of his cheeks flushed by the fever, staring still, as he had stared, at the foot of the bed. I took his temperature. “Something like a hundred.” I said. It was one hundred and two and four-tenths. “It was a hundred and two,” he said. “Who said so?” “The doctor.” “Your temperature is all right,” I said. “It’s nothing to worry about.” “I don’t worry,” he said, “but I can’t keep from thinking.” “Don’t think,” I said, “Just take it easy.” “I’m taking it easy,” he said and looked straight ahead. He was evidently holding tight onto himself about something. “Take this with water.” “Do you think it will do any good?” “Of course it will.” I sat down and opened the Pirate book and commenced to read, but I could see he was not following, so I stopped. “About what time will it be before I die?” “You aren’t going to die. What’s the matter with?” “Oh, yes, I am. I heard him say a hundred and two.” “People don’t die with a fever of one hundred and two. That’s a silly way to talk.” “I know they do. At school in France the boys told me you can’t live with forty-four degrees. I’ve got a hundred and two.” “You poor Schatz,” I said. “Poor old Schatz. It’s like miles and kilometers. You aren’t going to die. That’s a different thermometer. On that thermometer thirty-seven is normal. On this kind it’s ninety-eight.” “Are you sure?” “Absolutely,” I said. “It’s like miles and kilometers. You know, like how many kilometers we make when we do seventy miles in the car.” “Oh,” he said. But his gaze at the foot of the bed relaxed slowly. The hold over himself relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack and he cried very easily at little things that were of no importance. 9. The father made an analogy between the difference of two thermometers and that of miles and kilometers.

Laura House remembers the day with embarrassment. “Mom and I were on our way home after dinner when we stopped at an intersection,” she says. “When the light changed, the guy ahead of us was looking at a map of something and didn't move right away. I leaned on my horn and automatically yelled. I didn't even think about what I was doing. Mom's jaw just dropped. She said, ‘Well, I guess you've been living in the city too long.’ That's when I realized that my anger was out of control."According to Carol Tavris, author of Anger： The Misunderstood Emotion. the keys to dealing with anger are common sense and patience. She points out that almost no situation is improved by an angry outburst. Shouting, fuming, or leaning on the car horn won't make traffic begin to flow, make the screen unlock or make keys appear. Patience, on the other hand, is a highly practical virtue. People who take the time to cool down before responding to an anger-producing situation are far less likely to say or do something they will regret later.Anger-management therapist Doris Wilde agrees. "Like any feeling, anger lasts only about three seconds," she says. "What keeps it going is your own negative thinking."As long as you focus on the idiot who cut you off on the expressway, you'll stay angry. But if you let the incident go, your anger will go with it. "Once you come to understand that you're driving your own anger with your thoughts," adds Wilde, “you can stop it."Experts who have studied anger also encourage people to cultivate activities that effectively release their anger. For some people, it's reading newspapers or watching TV, while others need more active outlets （发泄渠道），such as taking a walk, hitting golf balls, or working out with a punching bag. People who succeed in calming their anger also enjoy the satisfaction of having dealt positively with their frustrations.For Laura House, her experience in the car with her mother was a wake-up call. “Once I saw what I was doing, it really wasn't that hard to develop different habits. I simply decided I was going to treat other people the way I would want to be treated. I'm a calmer, happier person now," she reports.Doris Wilde believes that people stay angry ______.