Everyone was home for the holiday. What could make for ______Christmas than that？

A . the welfare state B . the National Health Service C . the compulsory education D . the Women.s Liberation Movement

A . is B . are C . being D . ha

(28) A．The store should compensate me for the suit. B．Even though the suit was of bad quality, I would take it due to its low prices. C．Soon after I bought the coat, I had it shortened to fit my size. D．The store refused to take my suit of inferior quality.

A．ill B．sick C．disease D．illness

At my high school, everyone had a group; no one was an individual. Wait, I take that back. There were a few individuals, but they were completely outcast from our social order. Never in my life can I remember stronger feelings of hate in high school. But we never called it hate. We called it loyalty. As adults, most of us are better at being an individual than we were in high school, but the influences of group identity continue to promote competition and prejudice in our world. If you are like me, you want to avoid teaching rivalry, conflict and prejudice to your children. One possible strategy for stopping the negative influences of group identity would be: recognize and replay. Look for the prejudice in your life and replace it with charity. Treat every person as an individual and ignore the social classifications created by a group-dependent world. A good friend and I once discussed our differing religions beliefs. He identified with a certain group and I with another. Because of our dependence on group identity, our conversations revolved around the beliefs of the groups. Our individual beliefs, which were quite similar, took a back seat while we discussed topics we knew little about. We defended our groups even when we did not understand or know the official group position on many issues. The resulting rivalry has damaged our friendship ever since. My behavior. in this situation is exactly what scripture and wisdom teach us to avoid. How stupid I was to judge my friend by a group standard! How stupid I was to defend my own group even in areas I knew nothing about! I hope I can teach my children to behave differently. Here, I have used religious beliefs to point only one area in which the influence of group identity can create problems. There are many others to consider also. Some of these are marriage, race, culture, language, geographic origin, education, and behavior. We should treat all people as individuals regardless of these conditions. Finally, loyalty and group identity are not always bad. At times, they can help a lonely person to feel loved or a broken soul to feel success. Group identity can also help us to live a higher standard. But positive peer pressure should never replace individual, one-to-one acts of service and love. According to the article, ______came along with group identity. A．rivalry B．prejudice C．conflicts D．all of the above

A、white property-owners B、women C、people without property D、slaves

A．stage B．state C．sight D．spectacle

However, I can say that the spectators were delighted with the game. They particularly admired the French forwards, who were already fast and often threatened the Welsh defence. Once it looked as though the Welsh goalkeeper was in serious trouble. He dived to his right to save a shot from the French center forward and crashed his head against the goal post. A doctor examined him but he soon began to play again. Of course the large, friendly crowd applauded him. This report is about a game of ______. A．baseball B．football C．basketball D．tennis

M: I don't think so, but returning back home was really hard. W: Why？ M: Well, for many students, returning back to their home countries can be a very confusing experience. W: Re-entry Shock! That sounds quite interesting. Can you explain it？ M: For example, many students who come to the United States experience freedoms they have never enjoyed in their country. W: Sure, such as freedom from family, freedom from cultural norms they didn't like and freedom from the pressures of working in a real job. M: However, too much freedom and unstructured life can lead to other problems. Students sometimes skip classes, stay out late, and engage in activities that their families and cultures might not approve of, but students want to enjoy "freedom" while it lasts. W: So when students return back to their countries, they can struggle with fitting back into the cultural norms and family expectations of the past. M: Yes. Naturally, depression is possible and a loss of self can result. W: Then what can students do to minimize this Re-entry Shock？ M: First of all, keep in contact with your family and friends while you are abroad. They will be your first source of advice and support once you return. W: What else？ M: Second, have a clear plan what you will do when you return. Start looking for a job now or apply to enter a school months before you return. Re-entry Shock can be greatest when you have nothing to do when you return. (23) A．How to go abroad for study. B．How to enjoy the freedom abroad. C．How to look for a job after returning back from abroad. D．Re-entry Shock and how to reduce it.

The town had changed, but then it hadn't. On the highways leading in, the cheap metal buildings and mobile homes were gathering as tightly as possible next to the roads for maximum visibility. This town had no zoning whatsoever. A landowner could build anything with no permit, no inspection, no notice to adjoining landowners, nothing. Only hog farms and nuclear reactors required approvals and paperwork. The result was a slash-and-build clutter that got uglier by the year. But in the older sections, nearer the square, the town had not changed at all. The long shaded streets were as clean and neat as when Ray roamed them on his bike. Most of the houses were still owned by people he knew, or if those folks had passed on the new owners kept the lawns clipped and the shutters painted. Only a few were being neglected. A handful had been abandoned. This deep in Bible country, it was still an unwritten rule in the town that little was done on Sundays except go to church, sit on porches, visit neighbors, rest and relax the way God intended. It was cloudy, quite cool for May, and as he toured his old turf, killing time until the appointed hour for the family meeting, he tried to dwell on the good memories from Clanton. There was Dizzy Dean Park where he had played little League for the Pirates, and there was the public pool he'd swum in every summer except 1969 when the city closed it rather than admit black children. There were the churches—Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian—facing each other at the intersection of Second and Elm like wary sentries, their steeples competing for height. They were empty now, but in an hour or so the more faithful would gather for evening services. The square was as lifeless as the streets leading to it. With eight thousand people, Clanton was just large enough to have attracted the discount stores that had wiped out so many small towns. But here the people had been faithful to their downtown merchants, and there wasn't a single empty or boarded-up building around the square—no small miracle. The retail shops were mixed in with the banks and law offices and cafes, all closed for the Sabbath. He inched through the cemetery and surveyed the Atlee section in the old part, where the tombstones were grander. Some of his ancestors had built monuments for their dead. Ray had always assumed that the family money he'd never seen must have been buried in those graves. He parked and walked to his mother's grave, something he hadn't done in years. She was buried among the Atlees, at the far edge of the family plot because she had barely belonged. Soon, in less than an hour, he would be sitting in his father's study, sipping bad instant tea and receiving instructions on exactly how his father would be laid to rest. Many orders were about to be given, many decrees and directions, because his father (who used to be a judge) was a great man and cared deeply about how he was to be remembered. Moving again, Ray passed the water tower he'd climbed twice, the second time with the police waiting below. He grimaced at his old high school, a place he'd never visited since he'd left it. Behind it was the football field where his brother Forrest had romped over opponents and almost became famous before getting bounced off the team. It was twenty minutes before five, Sunday, May 7.Time for the family meeting. From the first paragraph, we get the impression that ______. A．Ray cherished his childhood memories. B．Ray had something urgent to take care of. C．Ray may not have a happy childhood. D．Ray cannot remember his childhood days.

While Microsoft, which stole a move out of the Apple playbook, won cheers from high-end, creative-class consumers like business analysts, media designers and music producers. Microsoft launched several new products, but the big one was the Surface Studio--a 28-inch, extremely-high-resolution(分辨率) touchscreen tablet that doubles as a desktop PC screen. There’s also the Surface Dial, which can be placed on the Studio’s screen and revolved(旋转) to select menu items. As Hayley Tsukayama remarked at The Washington Post, the Studio is really just a super-sized version of the Surface Books product that Microsoft has been selling for years. But if you’ve ever watched science fiction movies like Minority Report--where Tom Cruise seems to operate pictures and data hanging in mid-air by touching them, spreading their fingers to increase on details, and seeding files and information sliding from one folder(文件夹) to another with a click of the fingers, you can see how Microsoft is trying to show the same experience. Meanwhile, Apple’s new products were almost like some fine promotions for its Apple TV. They boast(自夸) that the new MacBook Pros has a smaller size and more functions, and a new touchscreen bar on laptop keyboards where function keys used to be. So what’s going on？ In many ways, Apple is focusing on attracting the average consumers who have been attracted by Microsoft. And Microsoft is focusing on targeting the high-end professionals Apple has historically been associated with. You can even see this in the companies’ ad campaigns: Microsoft’s ads stress imagination and creativity, while Apple’s commercial chief designer Jony Ive, in calm and professional British accent, explained Apple has improved the performance and convenience of its MacBooks. So Apple is trying to control the world of devices and laptops from the top down, starting with the high-end market and moving on to appeal to a broader base of consumers. Microsoft, having already strengthened itself within the bigger low-end market, is now attempting the opposite with a bottom-up strategy. Will these succeed？ Time will tell… What can we learn from the first paragraph？ A.Microsoft’s new products made a big hit B.Apple’s products aim at high-end consumers C.Apple and Microsoft developed the same products D.The design of Microsoft’s products is original and unique Why does the author mention the science fiction movie in Paragraph 3？A.To tell us Microsoft’s new products can be used in movies B.To show how trendy Microsoft’s new products are C.To show Microsoft’s new products are inspired by the movie D.To advocate more people to see the science fiction movie What is Paragraph 4 mainly about？ A.The features of Apple’s new products B.The bright future of Apple’s new products C.The reason why Apple designed the new products D.The difference between Apple’s new products and Apple TV What can we learn about the two companies in promotion？A.They push forward high tech development B.They lead the development of IT industry C.They adopt different business strategies D.They astonish the world from time to time

A、the welfare state B、the National Health Service C、the civil service D、the National Insurance Fund

A．to be seen B．to see