中国大学MOOC:Everythingaboutthetripwasperfect（）theweather.

中国大学MOOC: Everything about the trip was perfect（）theweather.

Istillenjoyedtheweek（）theweather. A: although B: despite C: though D: but

Ihavetakenjoggingforaboutanhoureverymorningasmydailyroutine  _______theweather. A: whatever B: however C: whichever D: whenever

Theweather is __________ warm for this time of year. A: use B: unusually C: using D: useful

Englishmen are careful, which___ A: has something to do with the weather B: has nothing to do with theweather C: is because England is an island country D: is because they know when it will rain

Readtheshortpassageandfinishtheexercises.Inmostlanguages,agreetingisusuallyfollowedby“smalltalk”.Smalltalkmeansthelittlethingswetalkaboutatthestartofaconversation.InEnglish-speakingcountriespeopleoftenmakesmalltalkabouttheweather:“Niceday,isn’tit?”“Terribleweather,isn’tit?”Butthereissomethingspecialaboutsmalltalk.Itmustbeaboutsomethingwhichbothpeoplehavethesameopinionabout.Thepurposeofsmalltalkistoletbothpeopleagreeonsomething.Thismakesmeetingpeopleeasierandmorecomfortable.Peopleusuallyagreeabouttheweather,soitisasafetopicforsmalltalk.ButpeopleoftendisagreeaboutreligionorpoliticssothesearenotsuitabletopicsforsmalltalkinEnglish.Thetopicsforsmalltalkalsodependonwheretheconversationistakingplace.Atfootballmatches,peoplemakesmalltalkaboutthegametheyarewatching:“Greatgame,isn’tit?”Atbusstops,peoplemaycommentaboutthetransportsystem:“Thebusserviceisterrible,isn’tit?”Greetingsandsmalltalkareanimportantpartofconversationinanylanguage.Thewaypeoplegreeteachotherandthethingstheytalkabout,however,maybedifferentfromonelanguagetoanother.Thisshowsthatthereismuchmoretolearnwhenwelearnalanguagethanjustthevocabularyandthegrammarofthelanguage.Wealsohavetolearnthesocialbehaviorofthepeoplewhospeakit.InEnglish-speakingcountries,thefavoritetopicofsmalltalkisabout________. A: games B: politics C: languages D: theweather

Could you reproduce Silicon Valley elsewhere, or is there something unique about it? It wouldn’t besurprising if it were hard to reproduce in other countries, because youcouldn’t reproduce it in most of the US either. What does it take to make aSilicon Valley? It’s the rightpeople. If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from SiliconValley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley. You only needtwo kinds of people to create a technology hub （中心）:rich people and nerds （痴迷科研的人）. Observationbears this out. Within the US, towns have become startup hubs if and only ifthey have both rich people and nerds. Few startups happen in Miami, forexample, because although it’s full of rich people, it has few nerds. It’s notthe kind of place nerds like. WhereasPittsburg has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no rich people. Thetop US Computer Science departments are said to be MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, andCarnegie-Mellon. MIT yielded Route 128. Stanford and Berkeley yielded SiliconValley. But what did Carnegie-Mellon yield in Pittsburgh? And whathappened in Ithaca, home of Cornell University, which is also high on the list. I grew up inPittsburgh and went to college at Cornell, so I can answer for both. Theweather is terrible, particularly in winter, and there’s no interesting oldcity to make up for it, as there is in Boston. Rich people don’t want to livein Pittsburgh or Ithaca. So while there are plenty of hackers （电脑迷）who could start startups, there’s no one to invest in them. Do you reallyneed the rich people? Wouldn’t it work to have the government invest the nerds?No, it would not. Startup investors are a distinct type of rich people. Theytend to have a lot of experience themselves in the technology business. Thishelps them pick the right startups, and means they can supply advice andconnections as well as money. And the fact that they have a personal stake inthe outcome makes them really pay attention. What do we learn about Silicon Valley from the passage? A: It leads the world in information technology. B: Its success is hard to copy any where else. C: It is the biggest technology hub in the U D: Its fame in high technology is incomparable.