The basic flag of the United States is one of the world’s oldest national flags. Only the basic flags of Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland are older. During the discovery and settlement of what is now the United States, the flags of various European nations were flown over the land, as symbols of possession. Later, in the Colonial and Revolutionary War periods, flags representing famous persons, places, and events were flown in the American Colonies. The first official flag of the United States was created by Congress on June 14, 1777. It consisted of 13 alternate red and white stripes and 13 white stars in a field of blue, representing the 13 colonies that had declared their independence in 1776. Congress adopted a new flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes in 1795, to give representation to the two new states admitted into the Union, Vermont and Kentucky. By 1817, there were 20 states in the Union, and it became apparent that adding one stripe for each new state would destroy the shape of the flag. As a result, Congress in 1818 restored the original design of 13 stripes and provided that each state was to be represented by one star. In 1912 President William H. Taft made the first official provision for the arrangement of the stars. He ordered that there be six even rows of eight stars each. Previously the arrangement of the stars had been left to the flag-maker’s fancy. The evolution of the Stars and Stripes reflects the growth of the United States. After the admission of Hawaii into the Union in 1959, the flag was officially changed for the 26th time since its creation. There are many government flags flown in the United States in addition to the national flag. Among them are the president’s and vice president’s flags and those of the federal departments and some federal agencies. Each state in the Union has an official flag. The United States Navy uses special flags for signaling. The basic flag of the United States is ______.
A. the oldest national flag in the world
B. one of the world’s oldest flags
C. the most beautiful flag in the West
D. as old as the basic flags of some European nations
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A film was at the Circle Five Ranch to film a Marlboro advertisement. This was in 1868, before they prohibited cigarette ads from American television. Darrle Winfield was watching the crew set up the equipment. The scene included an actor crossing a river on horseback, but when the time came to shoot, the man was too drunk to ride. Someone from the crews saw Winfield and asked him if he would ride the horse for $50. "Well," said Win-field, "for 50 bucks, I’ll jump that damn horse over the moon!" To people in many countries, Winfield is just a familiar but nameless face, a simple cow-boy with an advertising message about a connection between the West and a brand of cigarettes. Few people know that he is 55, a family man who’s been married to the same woman for 37 years and has 5 children and 7 grandchildren. Most surprisingly, he’s a real working cowboy who raises horses in his ranch in Wyoming. One of the more striking things about the Marlboro Man is that the success hasn’t changed him much. He says that complete strangers sometimes come up to him and say, "I’ve met you. I know you from somewhere." Whenever it happens, he says that he gets embarrassed. When they filmed the ad, ______.
A. the actor in the ad was too drunk.
B. Winfield was too drunk.
C. Winfield was setting up the equipment.
D. Winfield was riding a horse.
The temperature of the Sun is over 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface, but it rises to perhaps more than 16 million degrees at the center. The Sun is so much hotter than the Earth that matter can exist only as a gas, except at the core. In the core of the Sun, the pressures are so great against the gases that, despite the high temperature, there may be a small solid core. However, no one really knows, since the center of the Sun can never be directly observed. Solar astronomers do know that the Sun is divided into five layers or zones. Starting at the outside and going down into the Sun, the zones are the corona, chromospheres, photo-sphere, convection zone, and finally the core. The first three zones are regarded as the Sun’s atmosphere. But since the Sun has no solid surface, it is hard to tell where the atmosphere ends and the main body of the Sun begins. The Sun’s outermost layer begins about 10,000 miles above the visible surface and goes outward for millions of miles. This is the only part of the Sun that can be seen during an eclipse such as the one in February 1979. At any other time, the corona can be seen only when special instruments are used on cameras and telescopes to keep out the glare of the Sun’s rays. The corona is a brilliant, pearly white, filmy light, about as bright as the full Moon. Its beautiful rays are a sensational sight during an eclipse. The corona’s rays flash out in a brilliant fan that has wispy spike-like rays near the Sun’s north and south poles. The corona is thickest at the Sun’s equator. The corona rays are made up of gases streaming outward at tremendous speeds and reaching a temperature of more that 2 million degrees Fahrenheit. The rays of gas thin out as they reach the space around the planets. By the time the Sun’s corona rays reach the Earth, they are weak and invisible. The corona can be seen ______.
A. only in an eclipse
B. with naked eyes
C. with any cameras or telescopes
D. with cameras equipped with special instruments
A film was at the Circle Five Ranch to film a Marlboro advertisement. This was in 1868, before they prohibited cigarette ads from American television. Darrle Winfield was watching the crew set up the equipment. The scene included an actor crossing a river on horseback, but when the time came to shoot, the man was too drunk to ride. Someone from the crews saw Winfield and asked him if he would ride the horse for $50. "Well," said Win-field, "for 50 bucks, I’ll jump that damn horse over the moon!" To people in many countries, Winfield is just a familiar but nameless face, a simple cow-boy with an advertising message about a connection between the West and a brand of cigarettes. Few people know that he is 55, a family man who’s been married to the same woman for 37 years and has 5 children and 7 grandchildren. Most surprisingly, he’s a real working cowboy who raises horses in his ranch in Wyoming. One of the more striking things about the Marlboro Man is that the success hasn’t changed him much. He says that complete strangers sometimes come up to him and say, "I’ve met you. I know you from somewhere." Whenever it happens, he says that he gets embarrassed. From the passage, we know that Winfield was ______.
A. an ordinary man
B. a superstar
C. an actor
D. a rich man
Directions: Scan the following passage and find the words which have roughly the same meanings as those given below. The number in the brackets after each word definition refers to the number of paragraph in which the target word is. Write the word you choose on the Answer Sheet.This strategy has been highlighted by several tobacco journals which have carried articles on "targeting the female smokers" and suggesting that retailers should "look to the la-dies". Among the 20 US magazines that received the most cigarette advertising revenue in 1985, eight were women’s magazines. In the same year, a study on the cigarette advertising policies of 53 British women’s magazines (read by more than half of all British women) showed that 64 per cent of the magazines accepted cigarette advertising, which represented an average of seven per cent of total advertising revenue. Research in industrialized countries has shown the subtle method used to encourage girls to smoke. The impact of such method is likely to be even greater in developing countries, where young people are generally less knowledgeable about smoking hazards and may be more attracted by glamorous, affluent, desirable images of the female smoker. This is why WHO, together with other national and international health agencies, has repeatedly called for national legislation banning all forms of tobacco promotion, and for an appropriate "high price" policy which would slow down the "enthusiasm" of young women for tobacco consumption. Young girls and women have a right to be informed about the damage that smoking can do to their health. They also need to acquire skills to resist pressure to start smoking or to give it up. Several countries have developed integrated school and preschool health education programs which have successfully reduced girls’ smoking rates~ but this education should not be restricted to what happens in school. There are many other examples of effective cessation programs in the workplace and primary health centers. Unfortunately, many women do not have the opportunity to be involved in such programs, and programs have generally been less successful with women than men. Smoking amongst women has already reached epidemic proportions and will continue to escalate unless action is taken now. Delays can only cause further suffering and deaths of women; this is why WHO’s new program on tobacco or health is giving high priority to action to protect women and children. a short pause or a stop (Para. 3)