teenagers, or young adults. Never tell them that they are wrong. Don't give them your opinion. They have been taught that they should have respect for old people. The old should have respect for the young as well.”
1. Anna Douglas understands the problems of old people _____D_____.
A. because she likes their music
B. because she has grandchildren
C. because she watches their television programs
D. because she is old herself
2. Anna Douglas' newspaper column_____C_____.
A. is about how to find jobs for old people
B. spreads ideas for youngsters
C. discusses the problems of old people
D. contains mostly funny stories
3. What advice did Mrs. Douglas NOT give to the reader whose grandchildren didn't want to see him？B
A. Listen to popular music.
B. Tell more interesting stories.
C. Try to understand the grandchildren.
D. Watch more popular TV shows.
4. The main point of Mrs. Douglas' advice is_____A_____.
A. old people should understand and respect the young
B. old people have a lot to learn from the young
C. poor hearing often causes old people to misunderstand the young
D. old people should show respect for the young even when they criticize them
Text B
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill.Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet. The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound
in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days, we can write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting.
5. Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ____D_____.
A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B. the painters were animal lovers
C. the painters wanted to show imagination
D. the pictures were thought to be helpful
6. The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that ___C___.
A. the former was easy to write
B. there were fewer signs in the former
C. the former was easy to pronounce
D. each sign stood for only one sound
7. Which of the following statements is TRUE? A
A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B. The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories.
C. The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
8. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ___C___?
A. should be made comprehensible?
B. should be made interesting?
C. are of much use in our life?
D. have disappeared from our life
Text C
As the merchant class expanded in the eighteenth century North American Colonies, the silversmith and the coppersmith businesses rose to serve it. Only a few silversmiths were available in New York or Boston in the late seventeenth century, but in the eighteenth century they could be found in all major colonial cities. No other colonial artisans rivaled the silversmiths’ prestige. They handled the most expensive materials and possessed direct connections to prosperous colonial merchants. Their products, primarily silver plates and bowls, reflected their exalted status and testified to their customers’ prominence. Silver stood as one of the surest ways to store wealth at a
time before neighborhood banks existed. Unlike the silver coins from which they were made, silver articles were readily identifiable. Often formed to individual specifications, they always carried the silversmith’s distinctive markings and consequently could be traced and retrieved. Customers generally secure the silver for the silver object they ordered. They saved coins, took them to smiths, and discussed the type of pieces they desired. Silversmiths complied with these requests by melting the money in a small furnace, adding a bit of copper to form a stronger alloy, and casting the alloy in rectangular blocks. They hammered these ingots to the appropriate thickness by hand, shaped them and pressed designs into them for adornment. Engraving was also done by hand. In addition to plates and bowls, some customers sought more intricate products, such as silver teapots. These were made by shaping or casting parts separately and then soldering them together. Colonial copper smithing also come of age in the early eighteenth century and prospered in northern cities. Copper’s ability to conduct heat efficiently and to resist corrosion contributed to its attractiveness. But because it was expensive in colonial America, coppersmiths were never very numerous. Virtually all copper worked by Smiths was imported as sheets or obtained by recycling old copper goods. Copper was used for practical items, but it was not admired for its beauty. Coppersmiths employed it to fashion pots and kettles for the home. They shaped it in much the same manner as silver or melted it in a foundry with lead or tin. They also mixed it with zinc to make brass for maritime and scientific instruments.
9. According to the passage, which of the following eighteenth century developments had strong impact on silversmiths? C
A. A decrease in the cost of silver.
B. The invention of heat efficient furnaces.
C. The growing economic prosperity of colonial merchants.
D. The development of new tools used to shape silver.
10. In colonial America, where did silversmiths usually obtain the material to make silver articles?
A. From their own mines. D
B. From importers.
C. From other silversmiths.
D. From customers.
11. The passage mentions all of the following as uses for copper in Colonial America EXCEPT ___C___.
A. cooking pots
B. scientific instruments
C. musical instruments
D. maritime instruments
12. According to the passage, silversmiths and coppersmiths in colonial America were similar in which of the following ways? B
A. The amount of social prestige they had.
B. The way they shaped the metal they worked with.
C. The cost of the goods they made.
D. The practicality of the goods they made.
TEXT D
Archaeology has long been an accepted tool for studying prehistoric cultures. Relatively recently the same techniques have been systematically applied to studies of the more immediate past. This has been called “historical archaeology,”a term that is used in the United States to refer to any archaeological investigation into North American sites that postdate the arrival of Europeans.
Back in the 1930's and 1940's, when building restoration was popular, historical archaeology was primarily a tool of architectural reconstruction. The role of archaeologists was to find the foundations of historic buildings and then take a back seat to architects.
The mania for reconstruction had largely subsided by the 1950's and 1960's. Most people entering historical archaeology during this period came out of university anthropology departments, where they had studied prehistoric cultures. They were, by training, social scientists, not historians, and their work tended to reflect this bias. The questions they framed and the techniques they used were designed to help them understand, as scientists, how people behaved. But because they were treading on historical ground for which there was often extensive written documentation, and because their own knowledge of these periods was usually limited, their contributions to American history remained circumscribed. Their reports, highly technical and sometimes poorly written, went unread.
More recently, professional archaeologists have taken over. These researchers have sought to demonstrate that their work can be a valuable tool not only of science but also of history, providing fresh insights into the daily lives of ordinary people whose existences might not otherwise be so well documented. This newer emphasis on archaeology as social history has shown great promise, and indeed work done in this area has lead to a reinterpretation of the United States past.
In Kingston, New York, for example, evidence has been uncovered that indicates that English goods were being smuggled into that city at a time when the Dutch supposedly controlled trading in the area. And in Sacramento an excavation at the site of a fashionable nineteenth-century hotel revealed that garbage had been stashed in the building's basement despite sanitation laws to the contrary.
B13. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. Why historical archaeology was first developed.
B. How the methods and purpose of historical archaeology have changed.
C. The contributions architects make to historical archaeology.
D. The attitude of professional archaeologists toward historical archaeology.