Unit 2 Exploring English 知识点题库

    I came to the United States ten years ago. I would always say that I was trying to study, but there were always things like work and my kids that would not allow me to start.

    Now I realized that those were only excuses. What stopped me was that I was afraid to start studying again. I always believed I would learn by myself.

    One day, however, my son told me that he was sad because his friends would come over and I didn't understand them because I didn't speak English. He was also sad because I could never help him with his homework. That same day, I told myself, "Rocio, you have to start believing in yourself and you will see you can make it."

    The next day, I went downtown to look for a big banner (横幅) in front of the school which said that they offered classes for adults. I came in to see if I could join, but the classes were closed already. That night I took the kids to the movies, and on the way back, I told them we would take a new route. I ended up getting lost. That's the way I found Chaffey College. The following Monday, I went to ask for information. They told me that summer school was starting that week.

    That's how I started studying English last summer. It is difficult, but I have had great rewards. My daughter had written a story for school. It was about the female they most admired and why. She wrote that I was the person she most admired because I had started going to college. I will never forget this.

Foreign visitors to the UK might be disappointed when they learn that not everyone there speaks like Harry Potter and his friends. Usually, there's an assumption by many non­Brits that everyone in Britain speaks with what's known as a Received Pronunciation (RP，标准发音) accent, also called "the Queen's English". However, while many people do talk this way, most Britons speak in their own regional accents.

Scouse, Glaswegian and Black Country dialect—from Liverpool, Glasgow and the West Midlands—are just three of the countless non­RP accents that British people speak with. There are even differences in accents between towns or cities just 30 kilometers apart. What is even more disappointing is that not speaking in a RP accent may mean a British person is judged and even treated differently in their everyday life.

In a 2015 study by The University of South Wales, videos of people reading a passage in three different UK accents were shown to a second group of people. The group then rated how intelligent they thought the readers sounded. The lowest­rated accent was Brummie, native to people from Birmingham, a city whose accent is considered working class.

However, there is no need to be disappointed though you are not speaking in a RP accent. In fact, doing the opposite may even give you strength.

Kong Seong ­jae, 25, is an internet celebrity from Seoul. After studying in the UK, he picked up several regional accents. He's now famous for his online videos, where he shows off the various accents he's learned. "British people usually get really excited when I use some of their local dialect words, and they become much friendlier. I think it makes a bit of bond between local people and foreigners to speak in their local accent," he said.

So if you're working on perfecting your British accent, try to speak like someone from Liverpool, Glasgow or Birmingham. You may not sound like Harry Potter, but you are likely to make more friends.

He can play basketball play football.

Lily Lucy English .

—That is _______ he likes the place so much.

— _________ in Urumqi and children go skating on it then.

What does "barking (犬吠) up the wrong tree" mean? In this article, let's learn the (express).

The phrase "barking up the wrong tree" means (follow) a mistaken plan of action. The phrase comes from the old hunting (捕措) practice in which dogs would bark to show they have made other animals up trees unable (run) away. Sometimes the dogs were mistaken, and the animals had (actual) run away. When this happened, the dogs were barking up the wrong tree.

This phrase first began appearing in (write) works after the 1820s, and was later widely used by western writers. It was used to describe anyone was following a wrong lead. Below is an example of how to use the phrase. Recently friend of mine needed a large amount of money his new business idea. So he went to an event to meet possible investors (投资者). However, the people he met (be) those also looking for money. Then we can say that he was barking up the wrong tree!

When using the phrase, avoid (mistake) in spelling. For example, don't write it as "barking up in the wrong tree".

Growing up in the 1960s, I was taught from an early age to send a handwritten thank­you note expressing1for kindness. My mother used to buy me a box of paper and 2 me in the art and value of saying "thank you". She 3 to be right.

A study showed that it took less than 5 minutes to write the thank you notes. Just 5 minutes to make another person feel overjoyed! 4, in our "instant" world, the idea of getting an actual pen and writing an actual note seems to never come to mind. We tend to do what is 5to us—a quick text or an email.

It is easy to use the excuse of being busy, but even very busy and 6 businessmen find time to 7 thank you notes. For example, when Douglas Conant became CEO of Campbells, the company had 8 half of its market value and morale (士气)was at an all­time low. He 9 fixing that by doing some simple things that probably not 10 in any MBA class. For one thing, Conant wrote to every 11. He gained their confidence and naturally, turned the company around.

In his ten years as CEO, Conant wrote over 30,000 notes to employees. It's 12 not to ask how he did it. 13, he had many other things to do 14 writing thank­you note. Conant made time for it because he knew the impact each one would have. An expression of 15 in this crazy world still makes a difference.

On a clear night in 1994, an earthquake hit Los Angeles and caused a city－wide power cut just before dawn. Awake in surprise, some residents who had escaped outside called various emergency centers to report a mysterious cloud overhead.

That unusual object turned out to be the band of the Milky Way, which had long been unclear from view by the city's lights.

Arguably, the light bulb (电灯泡) is the most transformative invention humans have introduced to this planet. By pressing a switch or pushing a button, we can lift the veil (面纱) that would naturally cover our lives each night. Now, we work long after the sun sinks below the horizon. We play games outside far into the night. We more safely wander around city streets after dark.

But if light bulbs have a dark side, it's that they have stolen the night. The extra light brightening our environments is endangering ecosystems by harming animals whose life cycles depend on the dark. We're endangering ourselves by changing the biochemical rhythms (节律) that normally go out and flow with natural light levels. And in a basic sense, we've lost our connection to night­time skies, on the basis of which our ancestors made up their star－related stories, timed the planting and harvesting of crops, and inferred the physical laws governing the universe.

"The disappearance of the night sky is tied up with our ever more fast－paced world," says Amanda Gormley of the Tucson－based International Dark－Sky Association. "We lose something vital; we lose a part of ourselves when we lose access to the night sky. We lose that sense of stillness that should be right over our heads every night."

Now, as the consequences of light pollution arise out of the shadows and into the spotlight, cities, regulatory agencies, and conservation groups are seeking solutions. And in some areas, lots of improvements are already in place, powered by a new wave of cheaper, more energy－saving light bulbs.