2023年大学生英语竞赛.doc

2023Reading comprehension Section AA Unique Experience in Indian CuisineOpening night at the Gandhi Restaurant brought cries of praise and delight from customers when hey sampled the unique cuisine on Monday night.Opened by County Councilor, Mr. Tony Peaston, the Gandhi offers the discerning diner authentic Indian dishes, many available for the first time in Hampshire.The secret lies in the preparation only authentic Indian herbs and spices are used to individually prepare each special dish, following ancient recipes, many handed down through generations of Indian chefs.High Standard“Ive travelled extensively and dined at many Indian restaurants throughout the country, but rarely have I tasted Indian food of such a high standard,” extolled Councillor Peaston.“Whilst Ganghi himself was a leader of men, the Gandhi Restaurant could be considered the leader of a new breed of Indian cuisine in Hampshire,” he added.“By far the best curry we have had in the Portsmouth area,” was the comment of Havant diners, Mr. and Mrs. Jim Cairns of Denvilles.“We enjoyed the different menu and found the advice of the staff, explaining how each dish was prepared, very helpful for deciding our choice of menu,” they saidSuch glowing comments reflect the exclusive nature of the dishes available at the Gandhi Restaurant.Original RecipesYou choose from a menu which offers curries and tandoories, knowing each one is specially cooked for you, with individual care and attention, according to strict original recipes, by a top London chef, formerly of Convent Garden.And after you have sampled the spicy delights of your main course, you can select from a choice of original Indian sweets to temper your palate.Relaxing in the comfortable surroundings of the restaurant, you can have a hot towel to freshen yourself or clean your fingers between courses- another touch of Indian living.The Gandhi Restaurant, situated at 139 Kingston Road, Portsmouth, is fully licensed and open seven days a week.You can pop in for a traditional Indian lunch between 12 and 2:30 pm or enjoy a languid evening meal, when the restaurant is open from 6pm to midnight.But take care to book in advance, as demand for this cuisine is expected to be high, so avoid disappointment by telephoning Portsmouth 811966.As proof of confidence in your enjoyment, the Gandhi is offering a 10 percent discount on the cost of your meal, when you produce this advertisement within three months of the opening.The staff at the Gandhi look forward to serving you with your first taste of truly authentic Indian cuisine in this area and they know you will come back again and again.Section BEleven days ago, as he felt himself being crushed from head to toe, Andrew Jepson was certain he was about to die.Yesterday the 26-year-old construction worker was able to stroll around his parents home and tell for the first time how he survived being run over by a four-ton road roller.The accident happened as Mr. Jepson worked at a building site at Heathrow and the roller was reversing at 4 mph.“I was looking away and then I just felt it go over my leg”, he said. “I fell to the floor and felt this amazing pain in my leg as it was being crushed.”“When I felt it running over me I thought this is it, Im dead. Nobody can survive this.”“There was absolutely nothing I could do. The pain was horrendous and all the air was being crushed out of my lungs.”“I couldnt breathe. I thought every breath would be my last.”The machine took more than a second to roll over Mr. Jepsons body.“It came over my head but I had my hard hat on which must have blocked most of the pressure,” he said.Workmates believe he would be dead but the uneven surface, foundation for a road, cushioned much of the weight of the roller and saved him.“Afterwards I tried to get straight up,” he said. “I was fully conscious. I was shock but for some reason I thought, If I stay down, I will die.”“Luckily a labourer ran over and kept me down so that I would not do any more injury to myself.”“The driver rushed over. He was really upset. I said, you are not to blame, it was just an accident.”Mr. Jepson, a site engineer, suffered crushed ribs, bruising, cuts and a collapsed left lung but escaped permanent injury. An air ambulance arrived and doctors operated at the scene.He spent two days in intensive care but six days later was back at his parents home near Spalding, Lincolnshire.“It is like being born again,” said Mr. Jepson, who has amazed doctors with his recovery. “When I came around from the anaesthetic I just cried with joy. Being able walk and breathe again is the most wonderful thing in the world. Mr. Jepsons 62-year-old father, John, said, “When we heard he had been under a roller I feared the worst. We prayed all the way to the hospital. To see him now is just wonderful.”Mr. Jepsons employer, construction firm Laing, said the accident was still being investigated.Section CSand: as children we play on it and as adults we relax on it. It is something we complain about when it gets in our eyes on a windy beach, and praise when it is made into sand castle.But we dont often look at it. If we did, we would discover an account of a geological past and a history of sea life that goes back thousands and, in some cases, millions of years.Sand covers not just seashores, but also ocean beds, deserts and mountains. It is one of the most common substances on earth. And it is a major element in manufactured products too concrete is largely sand, while glass is made of little else.What exactly is sand? Well, it is larger than fine dust and smaller than shingle. In fact, according to the most generally accepted scheme of measurement, grains can be called sand if their diameter is greater than 0.06 of a millimeter.Depending on its age origin, a particular sand can consist of tiny stones or porous grains through which water can pass. These may have the shape of stars or spirals, their edges rough or smooth. They have come from the braking down of rocks, or from the dead bodies of sea creatures, which collect on the bottom of the oceans, or even from volcanic eruptions.Colour is another clue to the origins of sand. If it is a dazzling white, its grains may come from nearby coral, from crystalline quartz rocks or from gypsum, like the white sand of New Mexico. On Pacific Islands, jet black sands form from volcanic minerals. Other black beaches are magnetic and are mined for iron ore.Rain is an important force in the creation of beaches. It washed rock into streams and rivers and down to the sea, leaving behind softer materials. By the time it reaches the sea, the hardest rocks remain but everything else has been broken into tiny particles of 0.02 millimeter diameter or less. The largest pieces fall to the bottom quickly, while smaller particles float and settle only slowly in deeper water, which is why the sandy beach on the seashore so often turns to mud further out.It can be difficult to date the sand on a beach accurately but it is possible to get a general idea of whether or not the sand is “young” or “old”. If the individual fragments still have sharp edges, you can be sure they were formed fairly recently. This is the case on the island of Kamoama in Hawaii, where a beach was created after a volcanic eruption in 1990. Molten Iava spilled into the sea and exploded into glassy droplets.It seems that when the poet William Blake saw infinity in a grain of sand he was not far wrong. Sand is an irreplaceable industrial ingredient which has many uses. In addition, it has one vital function which you might never even notice. Sand cushions our land from the force of the sea, and geologists say it often does a better job protecting our shores than the most advanced costal technology.Section DRare among American actors, Depp has made a name for himself effortlessly switching between mainstream Hollywood movies and more “out of the ordinary” projects. Talking about his choice of roles, he once said, “With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise its not acting. Its lying.” Highlights of a richly diverse career include Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Pirates of the Caribbean.Depp dropped out of school at sixteen to concentrate on a career in music, playing the guitar (he played with more than twenty bands). However, his musical career failed to take off, and he found himself selling pens over the phone to pay the bills. His lucky break came when makeup artist Lori Allison, to whom he was briefly married, introduced him to Nicolas Cage. Although at first they did not like each other, they later became good friends and Cage persuaded him to try acting. Depp signed on with Cages agent, and made his feature film debut in Wes Cravens horror film Nightmare on Elm Street, in which the character he played was eaten by his bed. After that he had his first screen leading role in Private Resort.Depp went on to achieve teen idol status in the TV series 21 Jump Street, but after four reasons, he wanted out, with the hope of making the transition to the big screen. He starred in Cry-Baby, followed by Tim Burtons Edward Scissorhands, after which he went on to win considerable critical acclaim in EdWood, a reunion with Burton. Depp made his feature directorial debut with The Brave in 1997, a film he also co-wrote and starred in. premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, the film also featured Marlon Brando, but earned mostly negative reviews, with most critics blaming its weak script. Sleepy Hollow teamed him with director Burton yet again, before he starred in Ted Demmes Blow, and appeared in the thriller From Hell, about Jack the Ripper.Off screen, his good looks and “bad boy” image (he was once arrested for attacking intrusive paparazzi with a wooden plank) have earned him a lot of media attention. He was voted one of the fifty most beautiful people in the world by People magazine in 1996. he has also had his fair share of celebrity romances; when his engagement to Edward Scissorhands co-star Wonona Ryder ended, he had a tattoo(one of at least eight), which said “Winona Forever” altered by laser to get rid of the last two letters of her name. His relationship with model Kate Moss also ended abruptly in 1998, when he stared dating French singer actress Vanessa Paradis. They are now married and have two children, Lily Rose Melody and Jack. More recent work has included Pirates of the Caribbean with Geoffrey Rush and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.Section ELack of culture, rather an excess of the wrong sort of culture, is often considered to be synonymous with disadvantage. Most commonly associated with low cultural standards are low levels of reading, and some thirteen percent of all twenty-three-year-olds feel they have trouble with reading and writing. One way of compensating such disadvantaged young people is thought to be to provide them with the culture they lack: in particular, high quality reading material.Whereas forty to fifty percent of young people aged sixteen to twenty rarely read a book, the majority appear to read comics. In 1991 sales of Viz, a UK comic, exceeded one million copies per issue, making it the fourth best-selling periodical in Britain. The reading of comics, however, is not restricted to young people: by 1992 it was estimated that two out of three men aged 18 to 23 read Viz. the number of imitators this comic has spawned, including Zit, Gas, Brain Damage and Swiz, indicates the extent of the influence it wields.The reading of comics was traditionally regarded by the educational establishment with considerable suspicion. Whereas the received arts were always assumed to exert an improving or civilizing influence, comics were thought to “rot childrens brains”, to lower educational standards and to threaten morality. They were and are assumed to be an inferior cultural form, their readers assumed to come from the lower social classes, to be low educational attainers and to be easily led astray.Over the past decade, perceptions of comics have shifted. Since the 1970s, the comics format has been commonly used to represent the interests of various disenfranchised groups-community groups, the unemployed, welfare recipients-who became more conscious of a climate conditioned by other contemporary movements such as civil rights, consumerism, self-help and de-institutionalization. As cultural signifiers, comics have become the subject matter of academic courses in cultural and media studies. Indeed, young peoples cultural activities, grounded in the commercial rather than the subsidized sector, are beginning to merit the attention of the arts establishment.