Certainly people do not seem less interested in su...

Throughout history, people have been interested in knowing how language first began, but no one knows exactly where or how this happened. However, we do know a lot about languages, the languages of today and also the languages of earlier times. There are probably about three thousand languages in the world today. Chinese is the language with the most speakers. English, Russian and Spanish are also spoken by millions of people. On the other hand, some languages in the world have less than one hundred speakers.

There are several important families of languages in the world. For example, most of the languages of Europe are in one large family called Indo-European. The original (最初的) language of this family was spoken about 4,500 years ago. Many of the present languages of Europe and India are modern forms of the language of 4,500 yeas ago.

Languages are always changing. The English of today is very different from the English of 500 years ago. Some even die out completely. About 1, 000 years ago English was a little-known relative of German spoken on one of the borders of Europe.

If a language has a large number of speakers or if it is very old, there may be differences in the way it is spoken in different areas. That is, the language may have several dialects. Chinese is a good example of dialect differences. Chinese has been spoken for thousands of years by millions of speakers. Their differences between the dialects of Chinese are so great that speakers of Chinese from some parts of China cannot understand speakers from other parts.

The first paragraph mainly tells us that ______.

A．most people in the world speak Chinese

B．there are thousands of languages in the world today

C．man has much knowledge about languages

D．some people know several languages

Mr Lessing If the lift doesn’t come soon, we will （） than most young people. Mr Lessing But I have this heavy briefcase with lots of papers in it for the meeting. Stella Well, let’s just wait two minutes and if the lift doesn’t come,we’ll just have to take the stairs. Mr Lessing Well, OK. I don’t suppose we have any other choice.

It seems quite clearly unjust to pay two people different amounts of money for doing the same work. 对做同样工作的两个人支付不同的报酬，这看上去很不公平。 But it is not as easy as it appeals at first __1__ to introduce equal pay for equal work.

Two people may be working side by side in a factory and doing the same work, but one may be doing it twice as fast as the __2__; or one may be making no mistakes, while the other is making a lot. In some kinds of work, one can solve the problem of speed if one pays by the amount of work to be done and not by the hour: work paid for in this __3__ is called piece-work. But it is not always possible to do this, so it is sometimes useful to pay workers at different rates, which take differences in skill into __4__. This usually means that the younger and therefore less experienced worker gets less than the __5__ and more experienced one, which seems reasonable enough.

(1)、

A：other

B：sight

C：older

D：way

E：account

(2)、

A：other

B：sight

C：older

D：way

E：account

(3)、

A：other

B：sight

C：older

D：way

E：account

(4)、

A：other

B：sight

C：older

D：way

E：account

(5)、

A：other

B：sight

C：older

D：way

E：account

听力原文：Woman: In 1995, 50 men, women and children were involved in mass suicide linked to the Cult "the Solar Temple". Star Daily reporter Marie spoke with Alexander Hilton, author of Cults in Our Midst, who brought with him a first-hand analysis of the tragedy and recent findings of studies on cult.

Woman: Mr. Hilton, a cult or charismatic group is said to be an exclusive group of people devoted to a person, principle or ideal. What can you tell our readers about this cult, The Solar Temple?

Man: Hmm... Let's see. The Solar Temple or "Order of the Solar Temple", was founded in 1984 by a 46-year-old Belgian named Luc Jouret. Living on the Swiss-French border, he recruited members for his seemingly harmless self-help meditation club.

Woman: So, in other words, the Solar Temple started as an innocent group of people interested in New Age practices.

Man: Exactly! Jouret had been a student of natural healing, vegetarianism and homeopathic medicine. He lectured on the "joy of living" through these alternate methods. However, gradually this focus changed. Jouret, a highly attractive, smooth-talking and charismatic leader became hungrier and hungrier for power and influence over his followers and his lectures turned into passionate and angry brainwashing. These speeches were filled with bitterness and hostility toward the world. He spoke in vague abstractions about a doomsday, the end of the world.

Woman: And what did you see as its major appeal to its followers? What kind of people did he attract?

Man: Well, he mostly Seemed to be interested in recruiting the.., what we would consider well-off to well-to-do people, and he wasn't out recruiting youths. He wanted people with money. And the content of what he was selling was an amalgam of homeopathic medicine, New Age alternative medicine ideas, a notion that there was going to be some big cataclysm come, and that people should follow him so that when the doomsday come, they would not die, instead merely transported to life on other planets.

Woman: How was he able to mislead and deceive so many people?

Man: Cult leaders are experts in using manipulative and venal methods to convince their followers of their unrealistic beliefs.

Woman: Mr. Hilton, according to your study, is cult activity around the world increasing, or does it just seem that way in the United States?

Man: Cult activity around the world is increasing. At the moment, we have at a minimum 3,000 and up to 5,000 cults operating in the U.S. today, and they are not all religious- based. Some of them are political cults, flying saucer cults, while others are philosophical-based, but it's true there is a growing number of cults because so many venal people see how easy it is to deceive and manipulate people.

Woman: Do all warnings about dangerous manipulative cults create unwarranted hostility for meaningful, supportive new movements that could help some people find meaning in an admittedly troubled and complicated world?

Man: I don't think so. It hasn't been my observation that media and public attention and research attention on cults is causing a bias toward new religion. Because if a new religion starts up and it's open and they're not deceptive, and they're just open and above-board and there's no lying and trickery in the recruiting, and there's some democracy within the group rather than it being a totally closed organization that's not open to inspection by anybody, I don't see any prejudice being shown toward new religion per se.

Questions:

11.What's the possible definition of Cult according to Star Daily reporter Marie?

12.Which of the following description is NOT true of Luc Jouret?

13.What was thought as the major appeal to Jouret's followers?

14.Which of the following statements is NOT true about Cult activity in the U. S?

15.What does Hilton, the interviewee think about the alleged bias toward new religions?

(31)

A．A club of potential danger which may possible commit mass suicide.

B．An exclusive group usually fascinated with natural healing and homeopathic medicine.

C．An exclusive group of people devoted to a person, principle or ideal.

D．An innocent group of people interested in New Age practices.

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The widowed seem to have a longer life expectance.

B．Those who have a normal marriage life live longer than those who do not.

C．Single people live a shorter life because they are lonely.

D．Mothers of four children live a longer life than childless women.

Complete each of the sentences with less than 10 words.

It seems to me that many British newspapers aren’t really newspaper at all. They contain news. It is true, but much of this news only appears in print because it is guaranteed to shock, surprise appears in print because it is guaranteed to shock, surprise or cause a chuckle(轻声笑).

What should we expect to find in a real newspaper? Interesting political articles? Accurate report of what has been happening in distant corners of the world？ Full coverage of great sporting event? In depth interviews with leading personalities? It is a sad fact that in Britain the real newspapers, the ones that reort the facts, sell in thousands, while the popular papers that set out to shock or amuse have a circulation of several million. One inescapable(不可避免) conclusion is that the vast majority of British readers do not really want a proper newspaper at all. They just want a few pages of entertainment.

I buy the same newspaper every day. In this paper, political matters, both British and foreign, are covered in full. The editorial column may support government policy on one issue and oppose it on another. There is a full page of book reviews and quoted daily. So are the exchange rates of the world’s major currencies. The sports correspondents are among the best in the country, while the standard of the readers’ letters in absolutely first class. If an intelligent person were to find a copy of this paper 50 years from now. he or she would still find it entertaining, interesting and instructive.

So my favorite newspaper is obviously very different from those popular papers that have a circulation of several million. But that does not mean that it is “better” or that they are “worse”. Weare not comparing like with dislike. A publisher printing a newspaper with a circulation of several million is running a highly successful commercial operation. The people who buy this product are obviously satisfied customers and in a free society everybody should have the right to buy whatever kind of newspaper he pleases.

What kind of news can be found most in the newspaper with a circulation of several millions?

What’s the best title for the passage?

What is the attiude of the author toward the popular papers?

What kind of newspaper does the author always buy?

What does the author conclude about the British readers?

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！