政治经济文化类 知识点题库

    It was the last day of the final exam in a college. On the steps of building, a group of engineering students were waiting for the last exam. On their faces was confidence（自信的）. 
    They knew the exam would be easy. The professor (a teacher at a college) had said they could bring any books or notes during the test.
Right after they came into the classroom. The professor handed out the papers. There were only five questions on it.
    Three hours passed. Then the professor began to collect the papers. The students no longer looked confident. On their faces was nervous expression（表情）. The professor watched the worried faces before him, and then asked, “How many of you have finished all five questions?” No hand was raised. “How many of you have answered four?” Still no hands. “Three? Two?” The students moved restlessly in their seats.    “One, then? Certainly somebody has finished one.” But the class kept silent. The professor said, “That is exactly what I expected. I just want to make you know clearly that even though you have completed four years of engineering. There are still many things about the subject you don't know. These questions you could not answer are common in everyday practice.” Then, smiling, he added, “You will all pass this course, your education has just begun.”
    The years have obscured the name of this professor, but not the lesson he taught.

Every year on April 22, People all over the world celebrate Earth Day. It is a time to work to keep our earth clean. People plan projects to clean up the land, air and water.
U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson first thought of the idea for Earth Day in 1962 when he saw polluted rivers and cities with smoke. He needed to get support from Americans to clean up the earth. Finally, on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day! Now many countries around the world celebrate it, and you can, too.
How can you celebrate Earth Day? Here are a few ideas:
Join a clean-up project——Clean up your street or a favorite beach.
Save energy——Turn off the lights when you leave a room, and use public transportation.
Use less water.
Reduce(减少)/ Reuse/ Recycle —— Practice the three Rs: First, reduce how much you use. Then reuse or recycle what you can.
You can make a difference on Earth Day and every day!

阅读理解

    As I was leaving to meet Lynne, my roommate told me that I'd better take some money. But I didn't listen to him. I thought that Lynne would pay because she had invited me. I arrived at the restaurant exactly on time. I'd been told that Americans expect you to be on time. Lynne and I sat at a table in the corner of restaurant and a waitress came and took our order.

    The dinner was a great success. I talked a lot about Saudi Arabia and Lynne told me all about herself. After two hours, the waitress finally came and asked if we wanted one check or two. Lynne said two. We went to the cashier and Lynne paid her check. I was embarrassed (尴尬) when the cashier gave me my bill. I had no money to pay for my meal. Then I had an idea. I pretended to look for something in my pockets and said, “Oh! I forgot my wallet! Can I call my roommate, please?” The cashier showed me where the phone was and I quickly called my roommate. In a few minutes, he arrived with some money, but he couldn't hide how he felt. He laughed all the way home. Now, I think it's funny too, but at that time I was terribly embarrassed. I thought that an invitation to have dinner in the United States meant the same thing as that in China. I guess you have to understand that your customs are only your customs. When you visit a foreign country, you have to learn about their customs, too.

阅读下面材料，从题中所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

    One day, an American man Simon went to London to visit his friend, Rick. Rick told him that his flat(公寓) was on the first floor. When he arrived, Simon went straight to the first floor of the building. But a man told him that there was no Rick on that floor. Do you know why?

    In fact, the British (英国人) call the first floor of a building the ground floor. The floor above the ground floor is the first floor, but Americans would call it the second floor.

    The story shows that there are a few culture differences between Britain and America, though the British and Americans both speak English.

    The British don't like showing their feelings. They hardly start a small talk with strangers. For example, on the train the British often spend their time reading newspapers or books. But Americans are quite different. They're more active and easier to talk with.

    The British and Americans may use different terms for the same things. The British usually use "football" "holiday" and "lift", but Americans like to use "soccer" "vacation" and "elevator".

阅读理解

    People who go to a formal Western dinner party for the first time may be surprised by table manners in Western culture. Knowing them will help you to behave properly.

    First you should know how to put knives and forks. The forks are always on the left while knives on the right of the plate. When you see two spoons, you should know the big one is for soup and the small one for dessert. When you sit down at the table, you can take your napkin, unfold it and put it on your lap.

    Then dinner starts with a small dish. Some people pray before they start eating, and other people may keep silent for a moment. After that everybody starts. After the small dish, you will get a bowl of soup-but only one bowl of soup and never ask for a second. Many Westerners like to use their fingers when they eating chicken or other birds at table, but never touch beef or other meat in bones. It is polite to finish eating everything on your plate, so don't take more food than you need. Of course you should try to speak quietly and smile a lot, but do not laugh all the time at the table.

    However, table manners change over time. They follow the fashion of the day. Beside, table manners are only important at formal dinner parties. If you're not sure what to do, you can always follow your hosts. Although good manners always make you look good, you do not need to worry about all these rules while having dinner with your friends or family.

根据短文理解，选择正确答案。

    Though chopsticks are used in many Asian countries, they have their beginning in China. Chinese history says that the Chinese had chopsticks as far as the Xia Dynasty(朝代)(about 4, 00 years ago). In the Spring and Autumn Period(时期) copper and iron chopsticks appeared. With the Han Dynasty lacquered(上漆) chopsticks came, followed by gold and silver chopsticks still later. Today we have chopsticks made of plastics. The most expensive are made of part of tusks of elephants and hard green stone.

    Chopsticks tell Chinese tradition in their way. In ancient (古代的) times the rich used hard green stone or gold chop-sticks to show their wealth(富有). In history many kings used silver chopsticks to take their food to see if it was poisonous(有毒的). It was said that if it was, the silver chopsticks would turn colour. Chopsticks are traditionally given to a daughter when she marries to show that they should have a son very soon, for “Chopsticks” in Chinese is pronounced like “quick a son”!

    Tianzhu chopsticks from Hangzhou, wooden chopsticks from Shanyang of Shanxi Province, and Beijing's chopsticks are well-known.

    Many westerners, businessmen, tourists put aside(一边) their knives and forks in favour(爱好) of chopsticks in China. Chopsticks appeared in the old Chinese story: an old man teaches his sons a lesson by showing how he could easily break a single chopstick but not a number of them. In China, chopsticks are connected with good luck. So on the country's New Year's Eve many families will lay out new chopsticks at dinners as a way of making requests for luck.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。

    In summer, it's common on the street to see many Chinese women holding parasols¹ to protect themselves from the sun.  But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand.  She wrote on her blog, "Unlike Chinese women, American women like to put on their tank tops and sunglasses during summer. If you walk around an American college campus², you will probably see girls out on the grassy fields reading, but they really hope to get a head start on their summer tan³."

    This may be caused by the different standards of beauty between the US and China. Many Americans don't want white skin. They would rather be tanned³. Amy also wrote, "Having darker skin is so popular that many women and men will pay for fake⁴ tans so that they can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too."

    Why do they like tanned skin? Michelle Louis reported in her research, "The process of tanning can help make people's skin smooth and hide marks." She further explained, "Tans make people's skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner than when they have pale skin."

    Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. In different cultures and at different times of history, the standards change. On Amy's blog, she also gave two examples: Some women carried parasols around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago; During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought attractive. But now, Chinese women prefer to be slim.

    In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. People may grow up with only one idea of what beauty is, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the correct or the best idea.

New words:

①parasol n. umbrella used to protect people from the sun 阳伞

②campus n. grounds of school, college or university校园

③tan n. the brown colour of sun-kissed skin 晒成的棕褐

④become brown by the sun 晒成棕褐色，晒黑

⑤fake adj. not real 假的

阅读理解

    Different countries have different eating habits.There is a saying “Eat good things for breakfast, eat a big meal for lunch, but eat less at dinner.” in China.Many Americans agree that one should start the day with a good breakfast, but their ideas about lunch and dinner are different.

    Most Americans only give themselves a short time for lunch because they have not so much long time to have a rest at noon. So they eat a small lunch. After work they will have more time to eat a big dinner. Also a quiet dinner at home with all the family talking about their day is a way to take a good rest after a long, hard day of work.

    Eating at restaurants is also different. In China, people like to talk and laugh while eating. Very often you can hear people talking and laughing loudly, and they just having a good time. In America it is not like this. They want a quiet place where they can eat a good meal far away from the noises of the outside world．If someone is talking too loudly, the manager of the restaurant will look at him or her angrily. If some people are talking too loudly, the manager of the restaurant may come out and ask them to be quiet.

阅读理解

B

    These days, we see a lot of shopping festivals(节日). Singles' Day is a big one for Chinese shoppers. It's on November 11^th(11月11日). In the US, Black Friday is the most well-known one.

    Black Friday is always on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday(感恩节). On this day, stores(商店) give special deals(特价). Shoppers get up very early. They wait in line in front of the stores at 2 or 3 am before the stores open. Sometimes there are too many people. They can't get inside the store. Black Friday is not the only shopping festival in the US. Another one is CyberMonday(网络星期一). This day is always on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

    Personally, I don't like these holidays, because they put too much importance（重要性）on buying things. And that's a trend of over-consumption(过度消费). What do you think of these holidays?

阅读下列短文，从下面每小题的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

    Tea culture is varied in different countries by the way tea is made and drunk, and by the places for tea drinking. How to make tea may be different. According to the ways of making tea, tea is classified (分类) into white tea, green tea, black tea, etc. And how to prepare tea may be different, too. In Tibet, tea is commonly boiled (煮) with salt and butter. People may drink tea at home or in public, for example, at tea houses.

    As part of culture, tea has a relationship with history, health, education, and communication. It is commonly used at social activities. For example, afternoon tea is a British custom. Families or friends can communicate with each other while having afternoon tea.

    Tea has remained a way of daily life in China and drinking tea has a lot of advantages. It makes people less tired, clears heat in the human body and helps people lose weight.

    Chinese people are good at using tea to make other things delicious. Tea, originally (最初) served as a medicine in ancient times, is now not just a kind of drink, but also excellent seasoning (调味品). Here are two delicious dishes made with tea:

    Tea Eggs: You can find them cooked and sold in street markets in almost every city in China.

    Dragon Well Tea Shrimp(龙井虾仁): It's one of the most well-known dishes in Hangzhou.

    Before you drink tea, please check the following tips:

    Drank hot tea.

    The best time to drink is in between meals. It is bad for your stomach if you drink tea just before meals, during meals or soon after meals.

    Do not drink too much strong tea.

根据短文内容，选择最佳选项。

    Do you have a special talent or skill but there is no one that enjoys it? If so, you might want to go to Christ church, New Zealand, for the World Buskers Festival.

    January is summer time in New Zealand, and the entertainment (娱乐活动 ) takes place outside. However, this is not the typical outdoor music concert or festival you have known. The buskers-people who perform on the streets and in other public places—bring the city to life with amazing entertainment.

    The event begins in late January and attracts (吸引) around 300,000 visitors every year with about 500 performances. The performances include the circus(马戏表演) and magic acts, street dancing and singing, and other crazy forms of entertainment.

    One of the best things about the festival is how well it attracts many people, from the youngest to the oldest .Laughs are everywhere, especially when unprepared visitors are asked to become a pan of the performance.

    The festival director says, "We have performers from all over the world. Most of the performances are free, so it means you can bring your family and spend a whole day here."

    There's something for everyone at the World Buskers Festival, one of the biggest and most popular street festivals in the world.

根据内容，判断下列句子正误。

    China is a country with many colorful days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day (Longtaitou) is one of them. This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It stands for the start of spring and farming.

    The dragon is important for Chinese. We Chinese call ourselves the "descendants (传人,) of the dragon". Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs.

    On the day in ancient times, people put ashes (灰) in the kitchen. This was to "lead the dragon into the house." People believed that with the help of the dragon, they could have a good harvest (收成) in autumn.

    Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods are usually named after dragons. For example, people eat "dragon whisker(细须)" noodles and dumplings called "dragon teeth".

    Today, many customs have disappeared. But one that has remained is the cutting of hair. It is said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the uncles of the family--mainly mothers' brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

阅读理解

    If you were in Xi'an in Shanxi Province on April 18, you might feel like you were back in ancient China. There were catwalk shows and traditional music concerts held by people wearing traditional Chinese clothing, or huafu. Huafu fans from across the country got together there to take pictures and post them online for a huafu photo competition, which will last for a month. People were doing these to celebrate a new national holiday — the first China Huafu Day. It wants to encourage young Chinese to be proud of traditional clothing, as well as classic Chinese culture.

    The government chose the third day of the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar(农历) as China Huafu Day. This day is said to be the birthday of the. Yellow Emperor. This year, the China Huafu Day fell on April 18.

    Huafu includes the traditional clothing of all ethnic (民族的) groups in China. Among them, hanfu, the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group, has the most fans in recent years. Hanfu is the traditional clothing of the Han people who lived in China before the Qing Dynasty. It has been around for about 3,000 years and changed greatly across different dynasties. It is hard to count the number of people who wear hanfu today. But hanfu clubs may be found almost in every university and city. Many young people wear hanfu to look like characters from comics and games. This really brings us back to the ancient fashion.

    "China is becoming a leading power in the world, and the Chinese feel more confident about its traditional culture," Chen Chuyu, leader of a Beijing-based hanfu institution (学院), told People's Daily Online. "Wearing traditional clothing might be an interesting way of showing how they feel about this."

阅读理解

    Toronto, the capital of Ontario, is an important city in Canada(加拿大). People like to visit it and live there. It's large, but not too large; rich, but not too expensive. Most importantly, Toronto is very open.

    Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. People in Toronto come from different countries and they speak more than 140 languages. With all the different people in the city, you have different kinds of food to eat. And, there are many different restaurants in Toronto. Many of them are in the Kensington Market area. There you can also enjoy different kinds of music and art.

    Alyssa James says to BBC News, "I love Toronto and I want to live here because I can always see something different. It's a city of secrets." James also talks about the beaches(海滩) near the city. They have very clean sand and water.

    Another good thing is that with a lot of buses and trains, travelling in Toronto is easy. It's also home for many computer geniuses(天才). So, if you want to work in IT, you can surely choose to live in Toronto.

    Now you can see that Toronto is really a good place to travel or look for a home.

阅读材料，然后从各小题所给的四个选项中选出最佳选项。

 

    One of the most famous buildings in the United States is Carnegie Hall, the home of classical and popular music concerts in New York. Carnegie Hall is known not just for its beauty and history, but also for its amazing sound, it has been said that the hall itself is an instrument. It takes the music and makes it larger than life.

    Carnegie Hall is named after Andrew Carnegie, who paid for its construction. He was a wealthy man who also gave a lot of money to schools and public libraries. Construction on Carnegie Hall began in 1890 and the official opening night was on May 5, 1891.

    The hall was owned by the Carnegie family until 1924 when it was sold to Robert E. Simon. The building became very old and in 1960, the new owner made plans to destroy it and build an office block. Isaac Stem led a group of people who fought to save Carnegie Hall and finally, the city of New York bought it for ￥5 million. It was then fixed up between 1983 and 1995.

    In 1986, people realized that Carnegie Hall had never kept proper records of its history. Advertisements and stories in newspapers about how Carnegie Hall needed help to recover its history led people to send in old concert programmes and information from all over the world. Over 12, 000 concert programmes were received and with these it was possible to make a proper record of Carnegie Hall's concert history.

    Because the best and most famous musicians of all time have played at Carnegie Hall, it is the dream of most musicians who want to be great to play there. This has led to a very old joke which is now part of Carnegie Hall's history. Question: "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Answer: "Practise, practise, practise."

阅读理解

    The construction(建设)of high﹣speed railways in China began with the building of the Qinhuangdao﹣Shenyang High﹣Speed Railway（HSR）in 1999.Now the high﹣speed rail network in China is the largest in the world. So far, there have been about 1700 kilometers of HSR in service, along with trains of an average(平均)speed of 220 km/h.

    Now Chinese government plans to spend $300 million building the largest and fastest HSR system in the world by 2020. It's said that the trains can run 400 km/h and create new business for China and other countries through the Belt and Road.(一带一路)

    It's predicted that the HSR network in China will reach 30,000 kilometers and it will be like a grid, which is mainly made up of 8 long﹣distance high﹣speed rail lines:  four north﹣south HSR lines and four east﹣west HSR lines. Except for the Qingdao﹣Taiyuan HSR, all HSR lines of the railgrid are longer than 1,000 kilometers.

    Feng Hao, an expert, says "Many markets along the Belt and Road, especially in Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern European countries, are planning to build HSR lines. They look forward to getting technological support from China".

根据短文内容，完成下列小题。

    As we know, the 2012Olympic Games will be held in London, the UK. The torch relay (火炬接力) is starting. It begins on May 19, 2012and it ends on July 27. During the 70-day torch relay, it will pass through towns and cities including Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, and Dover. London's Olympic Games will be held from July 27 to August 12.

    The Olympic Flame(火焰) will travel 8, 000miles across the UK. 8, 000torchbearers (火炬手) will carry the Olympic Flame for about 300meters each. Half of the torchbearers should be aged between 12and 24and the rest include people with a story of achievement.

    The torch was designed by Edward Barber and Jay Osger by. It looks like a large triangle (三角形), which stands for the three words faster, higher, stronger. It also means that London is hosting(举办) the Olympic Games for the third time. This is great in Olympic history. The torch has 8, 000circles, standing for the 8, 000torchbearers. The torch relay is one of the most important parts of the Olympic Games.

根据短文内容，判断下列句子正、误。

    Americans and Chinese have quite different views about how to treat friends.

    Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon. They don't feel hurt. If the same two people meet again, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand. Friendships between us develop more slowly but may become lifelong feelings, extending(扩展) deeply into both families.

    There is another difficult point for us to understand. Although Americans treat friends warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to them if they are asked to spend a lot of time staying with friends. But in China, we are usually generous(慷慨) with our time. We, as hosts, will appear at an airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days of from our work to act as guides to our friends. It is opposite in America. Americans can't manage the time to do so much with a visitor outside their daily plans. They will probably expect the visitors to get to the hotels by themselves and expect the visitors to phone them there. Once the visitors arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real.

    For Americans, it is often considered more friends to invite friends to their homes than to restaurants, except for business matters. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. So accept their hospitality(款待) at home and enjoy your visit in America!

阅读理解

    If you walk into a bookstore, you might see shelves of books labelled(标注) "self-help". You may not know what these books are about. In fact, more and more people are turning to self-help books for advice these days. You can't imagine that sales of these books in the UK reached 3,000,000 last year.

    Self-help books are usually written by psychologists (心理学家), famous writers or successful businessmen. They teach you how to deal with problems in your life, for example, how to get on well with your classmates or friends, how to plan your time well or how to find happiness.

    Paul Sweetman, the owner of City Books in the UK, said that social problems might be the reason why more people are reading self-help books. "They come into the shop and look for ways to deal with these problems in their life," Paul said. Besides, it seems to be easier for young readers to find their mistakes, especially those born after 2000. They want to improve themselves by reading self-help books.

    Self-help books used to be something people laughed at. Many people didn't take chicken soup stories and "success theory(成功学)" books seriously. But now they are recognized by young people.

    No matter why there is growing interest in self-help books, it's good to know that help is at hand if we need it. But are these books truly helpful? Read one and find out.

阅读理解

    As China's economic power grows, its culture also develops. Away from the high street and Western luxury brands (奢侈品牌) , there are a growing number of brands in China. Chinese designers are bringing their brands to the world, showing Chinas soft power.

    Wang Peiyi is an independent Chinese fashion designer. He showed his works at Milan Fashion Week. He is the first mainland designer to hold a show at the event. The collection, influenced (影响) by the northern lights, was an important success.

    Meanwhile, Italian Vogue (时尚) has a photo spread of Wang's collection on its official website. His work has been seen like film stars Gong Li and Fan Bingbing. He has been a model for many other young designers in China.

    It may come as a surprise that independent designers like Wang don't have economic help they badly need. Most of them set up studios, hire workers and produce collections out of their own pockets. His experience shows the difficult situation faced by many other designers.

    On the bright side, independent designers are finally starting to receive some support. The Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week—a landmark event opened with Wang's collection.