Usually on February 5th each year, 4 days after the New Year celebration, a bull fighting game is staged among nearby villages.

A．the weather

B．whose weather

C．its weather

D．when the weather

ays of festivals.China has seven legal holidays in a year, including New Year’s Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, May Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Day and National Day.Employees have 5 to 15 days of paid annual leave.Students and teachers have summer and winter vacations for about three months.The summer vacation in China generally starts around July 1st and ends around August 31st, and the winter vacation usually falls on January or February according to the date of the Spring Festival.

's Day, a special day for lovers. The origin of this holiday is uncertain but according to one story it gets its name from a Christian named Valentine who lived in Rome during the 3rd century A.D. His job was to perform. marriages for Christian couples. Unfortunately, the Emperor of Rome didn't allow Christian marriages. So they had to be performed in secret. Finally Valentine was arrested and put into prison. While he was in prison he fell in love with the daughter of the prison guard. After one year the Emperor offered to release Valentine if he would stop performing Christian marriages. Valentine refused and so he was killed in February, 270 A.D. Before he was killed Valentine sent a love letter to the daughter of the prison guard. He signed the letter "from your Valentine". That was the first Valentine.

Today Valentines are cards usually red and shaped like hearts with messages of love written in them. On Valentine's Day tens of millions of people send and receive Valentines. Whether it is an expensive heart-shaped box of chocolates from a secret admirer or a simple hand-made card from a child, a Valentine is a very special message of love.

1)、The passage is mainly about a special holiday.

A.T

B.F

2)、Valentine was put into prison because he sent a love letter to the daughter of the prison guard.

A.T

B.F

3)、It is because he refused to accept the Emperor's offerthat Valentine was killed.

A.T

B.F

4)、Valentines are cards usually red, and shaped like hearts with messages of love written in them.

A.T

B.F

5)、People send Valentines to each other nowadays to celebrate Valentine's birthday.

A.T

B.F

that question is not certain, but a group of people get together every February 2 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to watch Punxsutawney "Pete" leave his burrow. What "Pete" does next, many believe, will indicate whether spring is just around the comer or a long way off, You see, in Pennsylvania on this date there is usually a great deal of snow on the ground, and the little animal has been hibernating during the long, cold winter. He gorged himself during the autumn months and then went into his burrow for a long sleep, his body fat helping keep him alive. But as he emerges on February 2, he looks very thin. If the sun is shining brightly and he sees his shadow, according to legend, it scares him back into his home where he will stay another six weeks. Should it be cloudy and gray, the little animal will supposedly wander While many believe in the groundhog's predictions, it is unwise to accept them as factual.

According to this reading, why do people gather every year to observe the groundhog？

A．He's cute and playful, and children love to watch him.

B．He's looking for food and the people want to help him find it in the snow.

C．Many people believe him to be a harbinger of spring.

D．The people want to be sure he is alive after such a long winter.

ination of pagan (异教徒的) and Christian influences. Some of the day's customs probably came from an ancient Roman holiday caned Lupercalia, Which honored Juno (wife of Jupiter, the goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth) and Pan (the God of nature). During the Lupercalia festival, young women dropped poems bearing their names into a large vase. Each young man picked a name from the vase to find his sweetheart for that year.

During the Middle Ages, church leaders wanted to relate this pagan holiday to Christianity, so they renamed it after a Christian saint and moved the holiday from February 15 to February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine. St. Valentine was a third-century Christian martyr, a young man who was imprisoned in Rome for refusing to worship pagan gods. According to legend, before Valentine was beheaded on February 14, he restored the eyesight of his jailer's blind daughter. Then he sent her a farewell letter signed, "From your Valentine". This phrase is now a common expression of affection that appears on many of the holiday greeting cards.

Perhaps another reason that February 14 was picked as a holiday for lovers was that the ancient Romans believed that birds began to mate on this date.

In modern times, early in February of each year, card shops, drugstores, and department stores begin displaying a wide variety of greeting cards called valentines. Most of them are illustrated with the symbolic red heart, which stands for love. Many also show a picture of Cupid with his bow and arrow. Some valentines are very fancy--decorated with paper lace, scented satin, feathers, ribbons, or bows. Some contain affectionate verses, while others simply say, "Be my Valentine". There are special Valentines for various family members, sweet hearts, and friends. People sometimes send anonymous valentines to the persons whom they are in secret love with.

On that day, children usually buy packages of small, inexpensive valentines to give to classmates and teachers. Sweet-hearts and married couples may exchange more expensive cards, along with small gifts. Men often give red roses or chocolates wrapped up beautifully in red, heart-shaped boxes to their girlfriends or wives.

The best title for this passage is ______

A．The Origin of Valentine's Day

B．Valentine's Day Celebration

C．Valentine, a Love Festival

D．Be My Valentine

cal waters in the Pacific that can trigger devastating drought and flooding. Scientists are finding that the phenomenon exists in reverse; some call it La Nina. Typically E1 Nino, like the calamitous 1982 - 1983 event that brought misery to places as far apart as Ecuador, Australia, and southern Africa (National Geographic, February 1984), announces itself with strong westerly winds along the Equator, accompanied by a warm current that usually arrives off western South America around Christmas, which led to its name, Spanish for "the Child". Ocean fisheries suddenly collapse, and coastal deserts reel under torrential rains that sweep away villages.

Scientists now believe that between E1 Ninos there often are La Ninas: one-or-two-year periods when the surface water of the equatorial Pacific becomes cooler. Experts detected the onset of La Nina in the spring of 1988, leading some to link it to last summers' drought in the United States, flooding in Bangladesh, and the abnormal cold winter in Alaska and western Canada.

The early detection of E1 Ninos and La Ninas is an invaluable tool for long-range weather forecasting.

The best title for the passage would be ______.

A．E1 Nino

B．La Nina

C．La Nina or E1 Nino？

D．A Companion for El Nino

听力原文：W: Hi, Jack.

M: Hi, Jean. I was just looking for you.

W: What's up？

M: Which semester should I apply for the schools？

W: Usually, American schools start in the fall, about the end of August. You can apply for the spring semester as well, but your chance of getting financial aids is lower.

M: For the fall semester, when should I send the application materials？

W: All the application materials should arrive at the schools before the end of February to make sure you get full attention. You'd better start early since it takes 10 days for letters to get there.

M: I got the forms for taking TOEFL and GRE. When do you think I should take them？

W: It takes a month for the score to get to schools, so you'd better take them before the end of this year if you apply for the fall of next year.

M: I'm going to apply for ten schools. It will cost me a fortune to send the scores to every school.

W: Tell me about it! Plus the application fees, $ 20 to $ 50 for each school. Good luck!

M: I have my fingers crossed.

W: Right. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

(23)

A．You will have less possibility to get enrolled in.

B．You will get more financial aid.

C．You will get less financial aid.

D．You will have more possibility to get enrolled in.

听力原文：W: Hi, Jack.

M: Hi, Jean. I was just looking for you.

W: What's up？

M: Which semester should I apply for the schools？

W: Usually, American schools start in the fall, about the end of Au gust. You can apply for the spring semester as well but your chance of getting financial aids is lower.

M: For the fall semester, when should I send tile application materials？

W: All the application materials should arrive at the schools before the end of February to make sum you gel full attention. You'd better stain early since it takes 10 days for letters to get there.

M: I got the forms for taking TOEFI, and GRE. When do you think I should take them？

W: it takes a month for the scorn to get to schools, so you'd better take them before the end of this year if you apply for the fall of next year.

M: I'm going to apply for ten schools. It will cost me a fortune to send the scores to every school.

W: Tell me about it! Plus the application fees, $20 to $50 for each school. Good luck!

M: I have my fingers crossed.

W: Right. Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

(23)

A．You will have lees possibility to get enrolled in.

B．You will get more financial aid.

C．You will get less financial aid.

D．You will have more possibility to get enrolled in.

n on the final days of the last lunar month, when most families clean their homes, cut their hair and buy new clothes. Houses are festooned with paper scrolls bearing auspicious poetry. On New Year's Eve, all the members of families come together to hold feasts. Jiaozi is popular in the North, while southerners favor a sticky sweet glutinous rice pudding called "Niangao". At midnight on New Year's Eve, people set off firecrackers to greet the arrival of the new year.

On the 15th day of the 1st month of the Lunar calendar is the Lantern Festival. It normally falls at the end of February, when people traditionally come out to see lanterns in the streets or parks and eat round, sweet rice-flour dumplings, called Yuanxiao in China.

The National Day celebrates the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Celebrations usually take the form. of parties in amusement parks in the daytime and fireworks and grand TV ensembles during the evening. During this time, people can have seven paid-days off.

The Dragon Boat Festival falls in May on the Lunar Calendar, is in memory of Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet and statesman of the State of Chu during the Warring States period. Qu Yuan drowned himself to protest his fatuous king. In order to protect his body from being eaten by fish, people launched dragon-like boats and threw rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river. Nowadays, people still eat Zongzi to remember him, and the dragon boat contests enjoy great popularity.

What do Chinese people often do before the New Year？