One of the biggest difficulties in learning a language is learning the idiomatic phrases, slang and common usage of native speakers. These four books focus on giving students a hand when they are learning North American idiomatic language.
Ya Gotta Know It! by Hania Hassan
It provides an excellent mixture of materials for classroom lessons and American slang reference. Its unique feature is that students are provided with ongoing contexts reminding learners of idioms learned while improving their understanding by using the same characters and a developing storyline. Exercises provide a chance for students to practice in proper situations.
Price: $ 11.66
ISBN: 9780074560167
Common American Phrases in Everyday Contexts by Richard A. Spears It has a wide variety of resources on American English. It contains more than 2,000 phrases and idioms. It is excellent for classroom use as this reference guide focuses on standard phrases that can be found in everyday standard usage.
Price: $ 7.06
ISBN: 978007405607
American Idioms and Some Phrases Just for Fun by Edward Swick
The book's strength is its translation of more formal English of a number of idioms. These phrases are then repeated in a number of different contexts giving students a good idea of common usage. There are also a number of exercises designed to help students put their new-found idiomatic understanding into use.
Price: $ 5.49
ISBN: 9780764108075
American Slang by Robert L. Chapman
It provides a guide for advanced level English students. This reference guide to slang is best used by those interested in the very latest and up-to-date slang and slang you might hear in the latest films from Hollywood.
Price: $ 1.99
ISBN: 9780062731722
【小题1】What do the books have in common?

A．They all contain lots of exercises.

B．They are suitable for students of all language levels.

C．They teach students knowledge of idiomatic language.

D．They are good for students to learn about informal English.

【小题2】In what way is Ya Gotta Know It! different from the other books?

A．It offers readers ongoing contexts.

B．It is mainly about American slang.

C．It has the largest number of idioms.

D．It is made up of some short stories.

【小题3】Which book helps you understand the latest Hollywood films?

A．Ya Gotta Know It!.

B．Common American Phrases in Everyday Contexts.

C．American Idioms and Some Phrases Just for Fun.

D．American Slang.

   Bandhavgarh National Park in India is best known for its amazing setting, as well as having the largest number of tigers in India. In addition to tigers, there are also bears, deer, wolves, birds, etc.

Location: In the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh state. The nearest village is Tala, which is the access to the park.

Opening Hours and Safari (游猎) Times

Safaris operate twice a day, starting at dawn until late morning, and mid-afternoon until sunset. The best time to visit the park is early in the morning or after 4 p. m. to spot the animals. The park is closed from July 1 to September 30 because of the monsoon season (季风季节).

Bandhavgarh Zones

Bandhavgarh is divided into three main zones: Tala (the park’s best zone, with the most tigers), Magdhi (the second best zone to see tigers) and Khitauli (scenic and less visited, although tiger sightings do occur there; particularly good for birding).

Entry Fees and Charges for Jeep Safaris

Bandhavgarh has become expensive to visit in recent years. Entry fees have increased since October 2014. When you are going on a safari, separate fees must be paid for park entry and jeep hire. Entry tickets are priced per vehicle (up to six people). From 2015 to 2016, park entry tickets’ costs were as follows:

Tala Zone: 2,400 rupees for Indians, 4,800 rupees for foreigners. (Up to six people)

Other Zones: 1,200 rupees for Indians, 2,400 rupees for foreigners. (Up to six people)

Jeep Hire

Expect to pay about 2,200 rupees to hire a jeep, in addition to the entry cost. This can be done at the park entrance. All hotels can organize jeep hire and tours, but at a higher rate. It’s much less trouble though. Besides, unlike many national parks in India, it’s possible to take private vehicles into Bandhavgarh.

【小题1】What is Bandhavgarh National Park most famous for?

A．Species of bears.	B．Lots of tigers.
C．Beautiful birds.	D．A number of wolves.

【小题2】How much should five Americans pay for entry to Magdhi Zone in 2016?

A．1,200 rupees.	B．2,400 rupees.
C．4,800 rupees.	D．6,000 rupees.

【小题3】What can we know about jeep hire in the park from the passage?

A．Tourists don’t have to hire jeeps.

B．Hiring jeeps from hotels costs less money.

C．Tourists can only hire one jeep from the park.

D．Jeep hire fees are included in the entry cost.

There are many places to go on safari（观赏野生动物）in Africa, but riding a horse through the flooded waters of Botswana's Okavango Delta must rank as one of the world's most exciting wildlife journeys.
Several safari camps operate as the base for this adventure, providing unique rides twice a day to explore deep into the delta. The camps have excellent horses, professional guides and lots of support workers.Theyhave a reputation for providing a great riding experience.
The morning ride, when the guides take you to beautiful, shallow lakes full of water lilies, tends to be more active. It is unlike any other riding experience. With rainbows forming in the splashing water around you and the sound of huge drops of water bouncing off your body and face. It is truly exciting. You are very likely to come across large wild animals, too. On horseback it is possible to get quite close to elephants, giraffes and many other animals. The sense of excitement and tension levels rise suddenly though, as does your heart rate, as you move closer to them.
In the evening, rides are usually at a more relaxed and unhurried pace. With golden light streaming across the grassy delta and the animals coming out to eat and drink sedate though they are, rides at this time of day are still very impressive. As the sun's rays pass through the dust kicked up by the horses, the romance of Africa comes to life.
Back at the camp you can kick off your boots and enjoy excellent food and wine. Looking back on your day, you will find it hard to deny that a horseback Safari is as close as you will ever come to answering the call of the wild.
【小题1】What does the underlined word "They" refer to?

A．Flooded waters.	B．Wildlife journey.
C．Safari camps.	D．Unique rides.

【小题2】What does the author find most exciting about a horse safari?

A．Seeing and feeling the real African life.

B．Enjoying good food and wine at the camp.

C．Hunting large animals just as our ancestors did.

D．Being part of the scene and getting close to animals.

【小题3】What does the underlined word "sedate" probably mean?

A．Wild and romantic.	B．Slow and peaceful.
C．Hurry and thirsty.	D．Active and excited.

【小题4】The author introduced the riding experience in the OKavango Delta mainly by________.

A．Following space order	B．Following time order
C．Making classifications	D．Giving examples

Several Jobs That Will Be Automated By Artificial Intelligence(AI) And Robots
Translator
Image recognition software and voice recognition software are bringing some major advances to language translation．Applications like Google’s Word Lens can translate words from signs and documents in real time and there are a lot of translation apps that allow you to type in a word or phrase and will translate it for you．
Some will even speak the phrase for you and raw word-to-word translation will be fully automated soon．
Fast food workers
Automated ordering booths have already made their way into a few McDonald’s restaurants around the world，and cooking positions could be removed next．The booths probably can’t handle customer service problems well，so televideo systems could bring in an office employee to deal with complaints．
Field technician
New advances in the Internet of Things could make this work obsolete.
Low-cost sensors combined with high availability cellular／satellite communications and cloud technology are being started to automate and alarm these sites, and can be checked and maintained from a desktop or mobile device.
Sales representative
But, e-commerce is changing how we make purchasing decisions, especially those where there isn’t much differentiation among the major competitors.
If you’re selling a high-differentiation product and／or a high-price, low-volume product you have some job security, but if you’re selling a high-volume, low-differentiation product, you better start polishing your resume, said Doug Camplejohn, CEO of Fliptop. “These kind of product sales are all moving online.”
【小题1】What can Google’s Word Lens do?

A．Translate by image and voice recognition software.

B．Speak the phrase or word for you.

C．Make real-time translation.

D．Allow you to type in a word or phrase.

【小题2】What can we infer from the second part?

A．All the restaurants own automated ordering booths.

B．Service problems can’t be handled automatically.

C．Cooks will not be automated by AI and robots.

D．Customers will have no complaints because of AI．

【小题3】What does the underlined word“obsolete”mean in Part 3?

A．Abandoned.	B．Welcome.
C．Forbidden.	D．Efficient.

【小题4】What does the author mean by“you better start polishing your resume” in the last paragraph?

A．You must value your present work.

B．You have some job security.

C．Your resume needs correcting further.

D．You should consider changing the job.