For many years ,the majority of Irish people earned their living as farmers. Today, many people will work on the land but more and more people are moving to the cities to work in factories and offices. Life in the cities is very different from life in the countryside,where things move at a quieter and slower pace .
The lrish are famous for being warm-bearted and friendly .Oscar wilde, a famous lrish writer, once said that the lrish were “the greatest talkers since the Greeks”. Since independence ,Ireland has revived (复兴)its own culture of music ,language , literature and singing .Different areas have different styles of old lrish songs which are sung without instruments .Other kinds of lrish music use many different instruments such as the violin, whistles, etc.
21．What does the author tell us in Paragraph 1?
A．How the lrish fought against the English.
B．How Ireland gained independence
C．How two “lrelands”came into being
D．How English rulers tried to conquer Ireland .
22．We learn from the text that in lreland _______．
A．food shortages in the 1840s led to a decline in population
B．people are moving to the cities for lack of work in the countrysids
C．it is harder to make a living as a farmer than as a factory worker
D．different kinds of old lrish songs are all sung with instrnments
23. The last paragraph is mainly about .
A．the lrish culture B．lrish character
C．lrish musical instruments D．a famous lrish writer
24．what can be the best title for the text ?
A．life in lreland
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竞赛试题英语试题
竞赛试题
B．lreland．past and present
C．A Very Difficult History
D．The independence of lreland
B
One day I heard a few local musicians talking:
“I hate all the pianos in this town. I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They can’t even understand a bit of music.”
“Nobody wants to pay musician anything. I’m sick of all the people who want you to play without paying you.
One younger musician said, “There are a few clubs that wanted me to play, and I’m trying to find other places to play. I’m also planning to take part in a few summer festivals.”
I really liked what the younger musician said, so I made friends with him. Attitude is important. Whether they’re positive or negative, it’s all rubbing off on you. If you’re around people who are always complaining, it is possible that you will start doing the same as well. If you spend lots of time with the people who don’t support your dream, it’s time to take a look at the people you call “friends”.
This is an easy exercise: Make a list of the people who are often around you, and simply stop spending time with the negative people on your list. Set a new standard (标准) for yourself and don’t become friends with people who fall below that standard. Of course, this exercise is entirely different from making friends only for the good of oneself. We really should try to help and spend time with those who are working towards a dream.
25. The underlined sentence “it’s all rubbing off on you” in Paragraph 5 means ______.
A．they’ll push you ahead B．they’ll influence you
C．they’ll cover your shortcomings D．they’ll help you achieve your goal
26.The musicians’ words at the beginning are written mainly to show ______.
A．the musicians’ living conditions are quite poor
B．People have different taste in music
C．People have different attitudes towards the same thing
D．Young people have greater chances of succeeding
27. By taking the exercise mentioned in the last paragraph, you can ______.
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竞赛试题英语试题
竞赛试题
A．improve a lot in making more friends
B．come to the right way of making friends
C．develop a better relationship with your friends
D．arrange the time with your friends properly
C
Martha Payne is 9 years old. She lives in a small community in Scotland. Martha is interested in the food at her school. She is interested in how good it tastes, and how healthy it is, and whether it contains any hairs! A few months ago, she started to write a blog about her school dinners. She took her camera into school, to photograph her school dinner, and then she posted the picture in her blog and told us what she thought about the food. Most days, she thought the food was OK, and on some days she thought it was really good.
Children in other schools, and in other countries, started to read Martha’s blog. Some of them left comments on Martha’s school dinners. And some sent Martha pictures of their own school dinners, and Martha published these on her blog. Then Martha started to use her blog to raise money for a charity called Mary’s Meals, which provides school meals for children in poor communities in developing countries.
And at this point, the officials who run the education system in the part of Scotland where Martha lives became aware of her blog. They did not want publicity about the food in their schools. Perhaps they were afraid that people would start to criticize(批评) their school dinners and say that they were unhe althy. They decided that Martha’s blog had to stop.