The Mayan（玛雅的）Indians lived in Mexico for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The ...

题型：阅读选择题类：常考题难易度：普通

   The Mayan（玛雅的）Indians lived in Mexico for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived in the 1500s. The Mayan achievements were many. They had farms, beautiful palaces, and cities with many buildings. The Mayan people knew a lot about nature and the world around them. This knowledge helped them to live a better life than most people of that time, because they could use it to make their lives more comfortable and rewarding（值得的）. Knowledge about tools and farming, for example, made their work easier and more productive.
   The Maya believed in many gods, including rain gods, sun gods, and corn gods. The people built large temples to honor the Mayan gods. Skillful workers built cities around these temples. It was difficult for them to build these cities, because they had no horses to carry the heavy stone they used to build with. Workers had to carry all of the building materials themselves. Today, many of these ancient Mayan cities and temples are still standing.
   Although the cities that the Maya built were beautiful, and the people worked hard to build them, very few of the people lived in them. Usually, only the priests（牧师）lived in the cities.
   The other people lived in small villages in the forests. Their houses were much simpler than the elaborate buildings in the cities. They lived in small huts（小屋）with no windows. The walls were made of poles covered with dried mud, and the roof was made of grass or leaves. Most Maya lived a simple life close to nature.
   The Mayan priests studied the Sun, the Moon, stars, and planets. They made a calendar from what they learned. The year was divided into 18 months of 20 days each with five days left over. The Mayan calendar was far more exact than the European calendars of the time.
   Around the year 800, the Maya left their villages and beautiful cities, never to return. No one knows why this happened. They may have died from some disease. They may have left because the soil could no longer grow crops. Archaeologists（考古学家）are still trying to find the lost secrets of the Maya.

（1）、What does the underlined word “elaborate'' mean?

A、easily built B、carefully made C、slowly fixed D、quickly designed

（2）、From the passage we can infer（推理）that .

A、most Maya lived in beautiful cities B、many Mayan cities and temples are still standing C、the Maya were intelligent and culturally rich people D、the Mayan calendar was the same as European calendars

（3）、Why it is said that the Mayan people lived a better life than most people of that time?

A、They had better building skills and housing conditions. B、They believed in many gods, and honored the Mayan gods. C、They had knowledge about tools and faming. D、They studied about nature and the world around them.

（4）、What can be the best title for this article?

A、Mayan Gods B、Mayan Buildings C、Productive Maya D、Mysterious（神秘的）Maya

举一反三

    The giant panda is one of the most popular animals in the world. A giant panda can grow up to 1.5 meters long and weigh up to 160kg. People think the giant panda is very lovely. ①So it is not surprising that the World Wide Fund for Nature chose the giant panda as its symbol. The WWF tells people about animals that they are in danger and raises money to save them.
    The giant panda only lives in the wild in China. In the early 1980s, were only 1,000 left in the wild. The main reason why pandas are endangered is that the area where pandas can live has become smaller.
    The WWF works to help giant pandas in the wild in many ways. One of the ways that helps them is to increase the size of panda reserves(自然保护区). Some reserves need to be joined together by planting bamboo between them to make “corridors”. These are paths that lead from one reserve to another. No one may harm the pandas in these areas. The corridors let pandas move from one habitat (栖息地) to another to look for food. ②People are working very hard to make sure the giant panda does not die out.

Running a marathon (马拉松)
Have you ever taken part in a marathon? A marathon is 42km long. It is the longest race in the world. To make the runner's body work, harder training is quite necessary. A runner should start to prepare for a marathon at least three months before. Preparation may have races, many hours of running at different speeds and changes in diet(饮食). During the training time the runner must eat a fit diet. The diet should have lots of things needed in training the players.
In the early days of training, runners run 80km per week. The running is increased every two or three weeks and at least two long runs per week are needed.
Two weeks before the marathon, the training programme becomes less, from 100km per week down to 60km and then to 30km in the final week. On the last two days they may not run at all.
Breakfast should be eaten at least three hours before the race. Easily digested(消化) food such as cereal(麦), toast(烤面包) and scrambled(捣碎) egg is best, with as much fluid(液体) as possible. Runners should drink water about half an hour before the race to keep up the body fluid.

Have you ever been in a meeting while someone was making a speech and realized suddenly that your mind was a million miles away? You probably felt sorry and decided to pay attention and never have daydreaming again. Most of us have been told from earliest school days that daydreaming is a waste of time.
L. Giambra, a psychologist（心理学家）, says,” On the contrary , daydreaming is quite necessary. Without it, the mind couldn't do all the thinking that it has to do during a normal day. You can't possibly do all your thinking with a conscious （神志清醒的）mind. Instead, your unconscious mind is working out problems all the time. Daydreaming may be one way that the unconscious and conscious states （状态）of mind have silent conversations .”
Early psychologists paid no attention to the importance of daydreams or even thought they were harmful. At one time people thought that some psychological illness caused day dreaming. They did not have a better understanding of daydreams until the late 1980s. Eric Klinges, a professor, is the writer of the book Daydreaming. Klinges says, “We know now that daydreaming is one of the main ways that we organize our lives, learn from our experiences, and plan for our futures. Daydreams really are a window on the things that we fear and the things we long for (渴望) in life.”
Daydreams are usually very simple and direct（直接）, quite unlike sleep dreams. Sleep dreams may be hard to understand. It's easier to get a deep understanding of your life by paying close attention to your daydreams than by trying to examine (分析)your sleep dreams carefully. Daydreams help you know the difficult situations（情况）in your life and found out a possible way of dealing with them.
Daydreams cannot be predicted（预言）: they move off in unexpected directions which may be creative and full of useful ideas. For many famous artists and scientists, daydreams were and are a main source of creative energy.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。

What do you think of black cats? Are they unluckier than cats of other colors? Many people in Western countries think so. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), did a study on cat colours and people's understandings of cat personalities.

The study found that people do judge(判断) cat personalities by color. Scientists did a survey(调查) on the Internet. There were 49 statements (描述) matching five cat colorings with 10 personalities. People think orange and bi-colored (双色的) cats are friendly, tri-colored (三色的) cats are not generous, and white cats are calm, lazy and shy. As for black cats, people think they don't have special personalities.

But why do so many people dislike keeping black cats as pets? People think black cats have less special personalities, which might be because of their bad reputation (口碑). They think black cats may bring bad luck, especially at Halloween. Movies and television shows also make people believe that.

Although people have these ideas, UC Berkeley scientists give another reason: people don't think black cats are pretty enough. After all, nothing can show black cats are unluckier than other cats. “You can't judge a cat by its color, because it's the personality of the cat, not the color, that will let you know if the cat is right for you,” Cathy Marden, a scientist said.

阅读理解。

Ted, my little brother, is in Grade One. Last Friday he came back from school with a letter. The letter was from his teacher. “I got a red flower today. Could you please sign this note?” he said to mum. The note showed that he had been talking in class.

Ted hardly gets top scores in his school work. The best he gets is “OK”, but he often gets “You can do better than this.” Mum knows what it means. She tells me “You can do better than this” means “Extremely bad” in China.

In the USA, teachers never say anything too bad about their students, even if the students are making trouble in class or not working hard enough. The worst they might say is “Please be nicer tomorrow”. Many parents are satisfied with a B-grade for each subject.

But things in Chinese schools are quite different. Parents have high expectations for their children. I sometimes felt that my second-grade cousin spend more time on homework than I did when I was 6^th grade in the US! Yet his parents and teachers didn't think he worked hard enough.

Is it too strict in China? Or is it not strict enough in the USA? Maybe both are true.

阅读理解

Table manners are how to behave when you have a meal. They include how to handle knives, forks and spoons and how to eat in a polite manner. To behave well abroad, you should know some table manners.

EATING MANNERS

Japan: It is ＂perfectly＂ okay to slurp when you eat noodles. Unlike making big noises, slurping slightly is not rude. Japanese also say it tastes better if you slurp.

Russia: Your wrists should be placed on the edge of the table while eating, fork in left hand, and knife in the right. It is not good manners to rest them on your lap. Keep your elbows off the table. Leave some food on your plate to show that the host has give you enough to eat.

France: Never discuss money or religion over dinner. What is different from the manners in Russia is that finishing everything on your plate is considered good manners.

Mexico: Whenever you catch the eye of someone who's eating, even a stranger, it's good manners to say ＂provecho＂, which means enjoy. In Mexico, dining is more than a meal. It's a social occasion — lunches are seldom quick and suppers can last for hours. Before you get seated, look for place cards, or wait until the host seats you. And you must say ＂enjoy your meal＂ before you leave the table.

DRINKING MANNERS

America: If you empty a bottle into someone's glass, it obliges that person to buy the next bottle. It's polite to put the last drops into your own glass.

Australia: In a pub it's usual to buy a round of drinks for everyone in your group. When it's your turn, say ＂It's my round＂. When it's their round, they will buy it for you. Don't leave before you've bought a round.

Japan: Don't fill your own glass of alcohol. Instead, you should pour for others and wait for them to do it for you.

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