Although Americans are well known for getting down to business, Indians working in overseas teams, MNCs, and BPOs should know the importance of small talk. While Indians have a true interest in talking to Americans and getting to know them, they also hesitate to do so for some reasons. Americans engage in less personal small talk than Indians. And the topics and questions used in English vary widely based on language differences and cultural differences. Here are three things to keep in mind while you are trying to make small talk with your American clients and colleagues.

      Amencans love to ask about, and then complain about the weather. They may talk about how the weather prevented them from having fun or how the weather supported their outdoor events. You can talk about the weather with them to begin a conversation. While talking, they always try to follow up on their answer by asking another open-ended question or make a statement, such as "Wow, that sounds like fun ! " or "You went to St. Louis. In which state is that?" Be creative in your questions. Feel free to ask one or two, but not very personal ones about relations. Stick to the facts or events that were already referred to.

      Sometimes, some words used in India will totally confuse an American. For example, Americans use the word "weekend" instead of "holiday"  for Saturdays and Sundays ( non-working days) , and use the word " vacation"  or " days off"  instead of " out-of-station" .

      Always be interested, optimistic and happy. Talk with a smile! Vary the sound of your voice. Do not sound like a computer. If you are unsure how you sound, a good tip is to record yourself and listen to it later.  Doing this helps you know how your voice sounds, and if you don't sound as you want to be heard, it may be time to work on enhancing your voice.

21. For Indians, having small talk with American colleagues is          .

   A. boring        B. useless  C. important        D. interesting

22. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

    A. What Americans like talking about in their daily life.

    B. How Americans usually start a conversation with others.

    C. Why talking about the weather is good to begin a conversation.

    D. What people can say when having small talk with Amencans.

23. What does the underlined word "enhancing" in the last paragraph mean?

    A. Lowering.       B. Replacing.        C. Improving.      D. Examining.

24. What’s the writer's purpose in writing the passage?

    A. To prove that having small talk is not very hard.

    B. To explain why Indians hesitate to talk with Americans.

    C. To show the differences between Americans and Indians.

    D. To tell how to make small talk with American clients and colleagues.

      Consider yourself warned. Sunday is April Fools' Day, a day when you are encouraged to play tricks on loved ones and even the people you meet at the bus stop. It's a strange tradition, but how did it get started?

     Nobody is completely sure about the origin of this, the silliest of holidays. However, the urban legend experts at Snopes. com say that most experts owe it to Pope Gregory XⅢ, who, in the 1500s, gave the world the Gregorian calendar.

       In 1562, the Gregorian calendar moved the first day of the year from April l to January l.  Word did eventually get around, but some people were a bit slow to hear the news. These folks continued celebrating the new year on April l , unaware that they were now three months behind the times. These "April fools" were tricked by those who knew it. The tradition eventually made its way to the US.

     And it's still going strong. Over the past week, Web searches on " April Fools'  Day jokes"  and " April Fools' Day tricks" have more than doubled, and related lookups for "easy April Fools' Day tricks" and "April Fools' Day jokes for work" have also increased greatly. Bottom line: Keep your guard up,  especially if somebody offers you a word search puzzle. Lookups for "impossible April Fools' Day word searches" are up by 200%.

     But really, there is no way to be certain you'll escape trickery because even companies are out to trick you on April l. In 1957, the BBC reported Swiss farmers were harvesting spaghetti(意大利面)  from trees.  And in 1996,  Taco Bell took out ads in major newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell.

25. What is the author's purpose of writing the text?

A. To teach us how to avoid being tricked.

B. To point out the best way to trick others.

C. To introduce the history of April Fools' Day.

D. To stress the importance of April Fools' Day.

26. What can we know from Paragraph 3?

    A. April lst was once the first day of the year.

    B. April Fools' Day was set by Pope Gregory XⅢ.

    C. April Fools' Day has been celebrated for thousands of years.

    D. Started in the US, April Fools' Day is popular around the world.

27. From the 4th paragraph, we can learn that     .

    A. people enjoy being April Fools

    B. April Fools' Day is still very popular

    C. those tricks used on April 1 are much the same

    D. people like to celebrate April Fools' Day online

28. The examples listed in the last paragraph are used to show      .

    A. a modern farming technology

    B. what newspapers without ads are like

    C. how the Taco Liberty Bell got its name

D. how some companies trick the public

Twelve years ago, Rachel Miller was lost when it came to her son John. The 7-year-old was seriously disabled because of his autism(自闭症).  Unable to speak, he withdrew from people at school and, worse, from his family.

In March 2003, Miller was introduced to Jeff Hancock, a one-on-one therapist(治疗师) for people with autism. Hancock was hired to be John's companion. The two would go people-watching at the mall on the weekend. Hancock chatted throughout their trips, even though John couldn't talk back.

Their relationship developed when Hancock introduced John to the Special Olympics. Whenever John was running or being active, he was smiling.

When John turned 12, Hancock introduced him to track at the Special Olympics. For the first three years, the pair just observed the sport by watching practices and events. Hancock worked daily with John, showing him everything, including where to sit, stand and walk, so he would understand the flow of the events.

Eventually, the lessons clicked, and John was off doing 50-meter sprints. But as John got older, he got stronger and faster. At 16, he was jumping hurdles and doing 800-meter races. Miller started seeing her son as a serious athlete.

In May 2014, John's training brought him to the Special Olympics State Summer Games in Orlando. The 18-year-old was competing in the 800 meters and the 110-meter hurdles.

As the 800 was setting up, Miller remembered, she pressed her face against the fence, anxiously waiting for John to compete. But as soon as the race started, all Miller saw was an athlete, her athlete.

"I just wanted to see the best performance. It seemed much more significant than whether he would ever speak or respond to me," she said.

John ended up winning the gold medal for the 800. Sports completely changed John, and Miller said that is because of Hancock."A person with a disability can feel hopeless and isolated, and I think that can happen to parents, too. "

29.  The first paragraph mainly tells us

A. how Rachel Miller felt 12 years ago

B. how serious John's autism was

C. John wasn't good at communication

D. when John became seriously disabled

30.  Miller considered John to be a serious athlete      .

A. in 2011       B. in 2012      C. in 2013      D. in 2014

31. When Miller saw John's performance in the 800, she felt         .

A. curious       B. amazed       C. delighted        D. upset

32. The passage is mainly carried out        .

A. by giving examples            B. in a sad tone

C. in space order                D. in time order

OSLO ( Reuters) -Six of the world's eight bear species are under threat of extinction after the addition yesterday of the sun bear, the world's smallest type of bear, to a "Red List" which says China's panda is most at risk. The sun bear is threatened partly by poachers(偷猎者)  who sell its bile(胆汁)as medicine, said the World Conservation Union which runs the list of the threatened wildlife.

"Things are getting worse for all the bear species except the American black bear which is unquestionably increasing," said Simon Smart, senior species adviser for the Union.

The addition of the sun bear to the authoritative "Red List" after a major review means the American black bear and the brown bear, found from Europe to Alaska, are the only two of eight species still considered robust(强的) .  The sun bear, found in Asia from Bangladesh to Borneo and weighing up to about 70kg, was rated "vulnerable(脆弱的) " by experts at the Union,which consists of more than 80 governments, conservation groups and scientists. The union said there were several thousand sun bears in the wild. "We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30 percent over the past 30 years, and continue to decline at this speed," said Ron Steinmetz, head of the Swiss- based Union's sun bear expert team.

Scientists did not change the level of threat to any bear species (except sun bears). Deforestation, loss of habitat to roads and cities and poaching are among risks. The Asian black bear, the sloth bear and the Andean bear were all proved again as vulnerable after reassessment of land-living bears.  The polar, the only species not reassessed, is separately rated as vulnerable. Pandas were regarded again as endangered, one step closer to extinction than vulnerable, in spite of China's protection efforts for the bamboo-eaters.

33. How many kinds of threats are particularly mentioned to bear species?

A.2.         B.3.            C.4.            D.5.

34. According to the text, pandas        .

A. are in the greatest danger of extinction on the "Red List"

B. are in less danger of extinction now with the China's protection efforts

C. are one step closer to extinction than ever before

D. are not among the 8 bears mentioned in the text

35. We can infer from the text that         .

A. the World Conservation Union is not in charge of protecting wildlife in the world

B. pandas are rated as endangered after the reassessment

C. there are several kinds of land-living bears in the world

D. sun bears remain " vulnerable ", compared with 30 years ago

    The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe.

      36   The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes. Through many years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or old English.

    The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about l,100 years ago. People called Vikings came to the coastal areas of Britain.   37   Words like "sky" , "leg" , "skull" , "egg" , "lift" and "take" are from the old languages of the far northern countries.

     The next invasion of Britain took place more than 900 years ago, in 1066.    38    William the Conqueror led it.

    The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France.  They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time.    39   But the common people of Britain still spoke old English.

     Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include "damage", "prison" and "marriage". The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by 800 years ago.   40   Middle English sounds like modern English.  But it is very difficult to understand now.  The history of the English language continues as Middle English becomes Modern English, which is spoken today.

   A.  History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest.

   B. It was the language of educated people.

   C. English became what language experts call Middle English.

   D. Therefore most common people speak the language.

   E. Few people spoke Middle English at that time.

   F. Many English words used today come from these ancient Vikings.

   G. The first invasions were by a people called Angles about l,500 years ago.