B
“The 13th of June, 1325, I left Tangier, my birthplace, with the intention of making thepilgrimage(朝圣)to Mecca...to leave all my friends, to abandon my home as birds abandontheir nests.” So begins an old manuscript in a library in Paris—the travel diary of Ibn Battuta.
Almost two centuries before Columbus, this young Moroccan set off for Mecca, returning homethree decades later as one of history’s great travelers. Driven by curiosity, he journeyed toremote corners of the Islamic world, traveling through 44 modern countries, three times as faras Marco Polo. Little celebrated in the West, his name is well known among Arabs. In hishometown of Tangier, a square, a hotel, a cafe, a ferry boat, and even a hamburger are namedafter him.
Ibn Battuta stayed in Mecca as a student for several years, but the urge to travel soon tookover. In one adventure, he traveled to India seeking profitable employment with the sultan—the Muslim ruler of Delhi. On the way, he described his group being attacked in the opencountry by 80 men on foot, and two horsemen: “…I was hit by an arrow and my horse byanother, but God in his grace preserved me ...” In Delhi, the sultan gave him the position ofjudge, based on his previous study at Mecca. But the sultan had an unpredictable character,and Ibn Battuta looked for an opportunity to leave. When the sultan offered to finance a tripto China, he agreed. Ibn Battuta set off in three ships, but misfortune struck while he was stillon the shore. A sudden storm grounded and broke up two ships, scattering (散播)treasureand drowning many people and horses. As he watched, the third ship, with all his belongingsand slaves—one carrying his child—was carried out to sea and never heard from again.
After a lifetime of amazing adventures, Ibn Battuta was finally ordered by the Sultan of Moroccoto return home to share his wisdom with the world. Fortunately, he agreed and wrote a bookthat has been translated into numerous languages, allowing people everywhere to read abouthis unparalleled journeys.
60. What can we learn about Ibn Battuta from the passage?
A. Hehad great interest in the Islamic world.
B. He returned to his homeland to write a book.
C. His journeys were less important than Marco Polo’s.
D. His journeys were very common for people of that time.
61. The Sultan of Delhi gave Ibn Battuta a position of judge because _______.
A. Ibn Battuta had studied in Mecca
B. Ibn Battuta had been a judge before
C. Ibn Battuta had worked as a translator
D. Ibn Battuta had traveled to many countries
62. Which is the best title for the passage?
A. TheLearned Ibn Battuta B. A Visitor to Mecca
C. The Travels of Ibn Battuta D. Desire for Adventures
C
Culture and Cuisine
The United States is known for jazz and blue jeans. But travel to Paris and ask your averageFrench citizen about American cuisine (烹饪) and he’s likely to answer, “ McDonalds.” Ask thesame thing of any American citizen on any American street and I’m afraid you’d get the sameanswer, or something close to it.
Hamburgers and hotdogs and fries are all fine, but with American malls and other outletsstandardizing everything from clothing to food, the sad truth is that American cuisine isbecoming more homogeneous―all the same―no matter where you live. True, many Americansare eating more varied foods these days, but these are largely the cuisines of immigrantgroups, and they are quite likely to be affected by homogenization of American cuisine.
So what exactly is American cuisine? Well, to some extent it is a reflection of our melting potculture, meaning that Europeans made huge contributions in the form of wheat, dairyproducts, pork, beef and poultry. But American cuisine also includes products that once wereknown only to the New World, including potatoes, corn, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, andpeanuts.
The one region of the country where you still find all these things in daily use is the DeepSouth. The South lost the Civil War, but children of the southerners are winning the battle topreserve and advance their cooking traditions—and in this case one of the few cuisines cantruly be called American, which is why we’re pleased to have Low Country cuisine in this issue offood creation. That’s right, grits and gravy are back in a big way in cities like Charleston andSavannah. Truth is, they never really left, but up until a decade ago Low Country cuisine wasmore common at home than in restaurants.
In fact, a large number of tourists now go to the lower Atlantic regionin order to experience thisextraordinary cuisine for themselves. Time will tell whether Low Country cuisine becomespopular in other regions of the country in the way that, say, Italian cuisine has, but it’samazing and heartening to see one of our true cultural treasures enjoying renewed popularityin these increasingly homogeneous times.
63. According to the passage, American cuisine impresses people as being _______.
A. dull and changeless B. rich and various
C. popular and delicious D. disagreeable and unpleasant
64. It can be seen that the writer feels regretful that _______.
A. cuisines of other countries play a more important role in America
B. American cuisine has become increasingly lacking in variety
C. American cuisine tends to vary because of immigration
D. American cuisine is being changed by foreign cuisines
65. From the passage, we know that grits and gravy _______.
A. were cooked with new materials after the Civil War
B. are gaining popularity in the south of America
C. were more popular over ten years ago
D. are seldom served in restaurants
66. What’s the writer’s attitude towards the renewal of Low Country cuisine in America?
A. Concerned and cautious. B. Hopeless and doubtful.
C. Positive and supportive. D. Critical and disapproving.
D
The Enigma(谜)of Beauty
The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over4,000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发) of long, white hair to make themselvesattractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.
There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive: beauty is power. Studiessuggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and areregarded as friendlier.
But what exactly is beauty? It’s difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we seeit. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-oldbabies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated forattractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more timelooking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.
The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. Instudies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes,fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and anarrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that thesetraits―the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders―equal health and genetic well-being.
Not everyone thinks the same way, however. “Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts ofexpectations—mostly cultural,” says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University ofMichigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at mostWestern fashion magazines: the women on the pages are thin. But is this “perfect” body typefor women worldwide? Scientists’ answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective andvaries around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapesregarded overweight in Western cultures.
For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describeexactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certainphysical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not alwayskeep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of thebeholder.
67. People’s ideas about beauty_______.
A. have existed since ancient times B. can be easily described
C. have little influence on a person’s success D. are based upon strict criteria
68. In Paragraph 3, the babies in the study _______.
A. were rated for their appearance
B. were entered in a beauty contest
C. were shown photos of a group of college students
D. were able to tell attractive faces from unattractive ones
69. The underlined word “traits” in Paragraph 4 probably means _______.
A. qualities B. measurements C. judgments D. standards
70. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. the ideas of beauty vary as people grow up
B. the search for beauty is rooted in lack of confidence
C. the standards for beauty are based on scientific researches
D. the understanding of beauty depends on cultural backgrounds
第二节(共5小题;每小题2分，共10分)
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Virtual (虚拟) Teams
Virtual teams are a great way to enable teamwork in situations where people are not sitting inthe same office at the same time. 71 This is particularly so for businesses that use virtual teamsto build global presence, or need less common skills or knowledge from people who areunwilling to travel.
Virtual teams are governed by the same basic principles as traditional teams. 72 It is the waythe team members communicate. They rely on special communication channels enabled bymodern technologies, such as emails, faxes, and teleconferences, and alike. Due to morelimited communication channels, the success of virtual teams is much more sensitive to thetype of project the group works on, what people are selected, and how the team is managed.
73 One challenging case is the projects that rely heavily on integrated work. That is to say,when each person’s work depends significantly on what someone else is doing at the samemoment, like in a sports team, there is an ongoing heavy exchange of information in real time,and the tasks have to go through a strict order within a short time.
Not everyone can perform well in a virtual team environment. 74 Another important quality iscommunication skills. The team members must be able to communicate clearly and positively.
Managers of virtual teams need to pay much more attention to having clear goals,performance standards, and communication rules. People have various assumptions on whatto expect from each other. 75
One of the biggest challenges of virtual teams is building trust between the team members.Trust is important for unblocking communication between members and increasing motivationof each person in the team. The issue of trust needs special attention at any stage of teamexistence.
A. Yet, there is one significant difference.
B. Not every type of project is suitable for a virtual team.
C. A virtual team can choose whatever project they like to work on.
D. The members must be self-motivated and able to work independently.
E. Such teams are now widely used by companies and organizations to cut business costs.
F. Members of virtual teams communicate quite wellalthough they never meet face-to-face.
G. To avoid misunderstanding, clear rules that everyone understands and agrees on arenecessary.
第四部分：书面表达(共两节，35分)
第一节 (15分)
你的美国朋友Chris目前在北京学习汉语，他对中国传统文化非常感兴趣。本周五下午你校将要举办一个文化讲座，请你根据以下提示给他写一封电子邮件，邀请他来参加。
1.农业大学张教授讲解中国茶文化的历史和传播;
2.讲座后有交流和品茶活动;
3.你将陪同Chris并帮其翻译讲解。
注意：1. 词数不少于50。
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
3. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Hi Chris，
_____________________________________________________
Yours，
Joe
第二节(20分)
假设你是红星中学高二(1)班的学生李华，上周日你班组织到首都图书馆参加一天的文化志愿活动，请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，用英语写一篇日记，记述活动的全过程。
注意： 1. 词数不少于60。
2. 日记的开头已给出， 不计入总词数。
March 29th, Sunday Fine
Today some classmates and I served at Capital Library as volunteers.