Passage B 单项选择 根据短文内容， 从各题的四个选项中选出一个最佳答案，并将其代表字母涂（填）在答题卡（纸）的相应位置。

The taxi plays an important role in Britain. When thinking of London, many image （形象）come to mind: Big Ben, the Ferris Wheel（摩天轮）,red telephone boxes…and black London taxis.

But what is so special about a simple taxi? First of all, in shape and style, a London taxi is very different from an ordinary one. It looks like a half-car and half-van（半厢式货车）. It has plenty of room in the back. That means it's easy for disabled people to use. And the black color makes it special on the road.

Besides, taxi drivers play an important part in your travel. They have to pass a taxi driving test, and in London it is very difficult. As there are many tourists in London, drivers must know many roads by memory.

Apart from（除此之外）driving you to your destination, it is normal for the driver and the passenger to have a conversation. A taxi is a social space which the driver and you share. The image of a London taxi driver is one that friendly and talkactive. Every time I take a taxi, I ask how the driver is. Then we usually talk about sports or news events.

.

Carrots are grown all over the world. They are easy to plant and easy to harvest. They have a good taste.

When people think about carrots, they usually think they are a kind of long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. In fact, carrots are in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.

Carrots should be grown in a field that does not have water for a long time. The earth also should not be too hard. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the earth and turn it over(翻土). 

Weather, soil condition(土壤状况), and time affect(影响) the taste of carrots. Warm days and cool nights are the best time to grow great delicious carrots.

The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color is, the better the taste is.

Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow carrots the same way as you do during the summer months.

Carrots are prepared and eaten in many different ways. They are cut into thin pieces and cooked with other vegetables or meat. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground.

    Kataria is the founder of the worldwide laughter movement. The celebration of World Laughter Day is a positive activity for world peace and is to build up a global sense of brotherhood and friendship through laughter. The first “World Laughter Day” gathering（集会）took place in Mumbai, India, on 11th January 1998. 12, 000 members from India and international Laughter Clubs attended it. Now there are about 5, 000 Laughter Clubs worldwide on all 5 continents.

    “HAPPY-DEMIC” was the first World Laughter Day gathering outside India. It took place on 9th January 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark. “World Laughter Day” is now organized on the first Sunday of May every year. Hundreds of people gather worldwide on that day to laugh together.

    Today, the world has never faced so much unrest（动荡）before. People are at war within themselves. Laughter is a universal language, which has the ability to unite humanity without religion（宗教）. Laughter can build a common connection between various religions and create a new world order. So we believe that laughter and only laughter can unite the world, building up a global sense of brotherhood and friendship.

    Studies also say that laughter helps your body do the following: lower blood pressure; reduce stress; work out the heart, especially for those who are unable to perform physical exercise. So in life, when you can laugh, you should laugh loudly and with your entire body—because it's good for you.

    If you love reading books, you must know about the book The Little Prince. It's a famous novel written by a French writer. As one of the best-selling books in history, it has been sold as many as 200 million copies in 253 languages and dialects(方言). Now, around seventy years after the birth of the book, an American director has found a way to make it into a 3D animated film.

    The book tells the story of a pilot, called The Aviator, who crashes(撞击)into the desert and meets a young prince there. However, in the film, the story starts years after the crash when The Aviator is much older. He has got a new neighbor called The Little Girl, whose mother wants her to get ready to enter the grown-up world. Slowly, the Aviator shares his story with The Little Girl by writing it down and sending her a page at a time. The pages are complete with the pictures in the book, speaking about his time in the desert and taking The Little Girl to an amazing world where anything is possible.

    China is the first country in the world to see the film in two versions--in Chinese and English. The film shows The Little Girl's life and tells The Little Prince's story at the same time in a beautiful way.

    Huang Lei, who voices the film together with his 9-year-old daughter, says the film is like a childhood dream which is lost by most adults in this stressed-out society.

    “The most touching part is that every one of us was a good-natured kid like the Little Prince, and it's a pity that this good characteristic(品质)goes away as time flies,” he says.

    The first Starbucks (星巴克) coffee shop opened in 1971 in downtown Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It was a small coffee shop that roasted its own coffee beans. The coffee shops business did well, and by 1981 there were three more Starbucks shops in Seattle.

    Things really began to change for the company in 1981. That year, Howard Schultz met the three men who ran Starbucks. Schultz worked in New York for a company that made kitchen equipment (设备). He noticed that Starbucks ordered a large number of special coffee makers and he was curious about the company. Schultz went to Seattle to see what Starbucks did, and he liked what he saw. He wanted to become part of the company. In 1982, the original (原先的) Starbucks owners hired (聘用) Schultz as the company's head of marketing.

    In 1983, Schultz travelled to Italy. The special atmosphere of the coffee bars there caught his eyes. To Schultz it seemed that Italians spent their daily lives in three places: home, work, and coffee bars. His experience in Italy gave Schultz a new idea for Starbucks back in Seattle.

Schultz created an atmosphere for Starbucks coffee shops that was comfortable, and customers (顾客) everywhere seemed to like it. Between 1987 and 1992, Starbucks opened 150 new shops—and that was only the beginning. In fact, by the year 2000, three new Starbucks shops opened somewhere around the world every day!

    Today, Starbucks has thousands of shops, including shops in twenty-six countries. One thing that helps make Starbucks succeed in cities outside the United States is the way Starbucks works with local shops and restaurants. By working together with a store already in the city, Starbucks gets an understanding of customers in the city. This understanding helps Starbucks open shops in the right locations for their customers.

    How important is your appearance? Although everyone wants to be good-looking, are beautiful people always happier people? For example, it must be a problem to be a really beautiful woman, because some people may be more interested in looking at you than talking to you. They think of you as a picture rather than a person.

    Some people think that women who are exceptionally(格外地) pretty and men who are particularly handsome must be stupid. They believe that only unattractive(无魅力的) people can be intelligent(智慧的).

    On the other hand, no one wants to be really ugly, and have a face that even your mother doesn't want to look at; and no one wants to be plain, either--that is, to be neither attractive nor unattractive, and have a face that is easily forgotten. Being attractive is like being rich. It can help you find happiness, but it doesn't always make you happy.

    So maybe the best thing is not to worry too much about how you look, but simply try to be an interesting person. For interesting people have interesting faces, and interesting faces are almost always attractive.