For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, where the people gather together to socialize and exchange news.
As a result, British pubs are often old and well preserved. Many of them have bee historic sites. The most famous example is the pub in the city of Nottingham called “Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.
However, British pubs are not just for kings and queens; they wele people from all classes and parts of society. On a cold night, the pub’s landlord or landlady can always find a warm place for you by the fire. There is always honest and hearty food and plenty of drink available at an affordable price.
That’s how things used to be. Things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit crunch(信贷紧缩) is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.
This decline is happening despite the fact that in 2005 the UK government started to allow pubs to stay open after 1l pm. Previously, with 1l pm as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for munities.
In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be “Working Men's Clubs”, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.
【小题1】. The passage mainly tells us something about    A．the past and present of British pubsB．the decline of British pubsC．the long history of British pubsD．the importance of British pubs【小题2】. Which may not be the cause of the decline of British pubs?A．The credit crunch.B．The present closing time.C．The ban of smoking.D．Having no spare money.【小题3】.. We can infer from the passage that    A．British people used to like drinking slowlyB．closing the pubs early will reduce social problemsC．binge drinking means drinking less beerD．British government aims to discourage people from binge drinking【小题4】. We can see from the last paragraph that the author     A．is against the admission of too many women to the pubsB．holds an optimistic attitude towards the British pubsC．thinks that women in the pubs will cause less social problemsD．thinks that British pubs should offer everything you need.A