CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) - Think twice before eating those dropped crumbs off your computer keyboard -- you might as well be eating off a toilet seat, according to a new study on the amount of germs on keyboards.
A study by British "Which? Computing" asked a microbiologist to examine for bugs on 33 keyboards in a typical London office, a toilet seat and a toilet door handle.
Four keyboards were judged potential health hazards and the microbiologist recommended the removal of one keyboard as it had 150 times the pass limit of bacteria -- five times filthier than the swabbed toilet seat.
"Most people don't give much thought to the grime that builds up on their PC, but if you don't clean your computer, you might as well eat your lunch off the toilet," said Sarah Kidner, the consumer magazine editor of "Which? Computing" in a statement.
The study found that eating lunch at desks is the main cause of a bug-infested keyboard. Dropped crumbs and food encourages the growth of millions of bacteria.
Poor personal hygiene, such as not washing hands after going to the toilet, may also add to the dirtiness of keyboards.
But despite the health hazard of a dirty keyboard, a survey of 4,000 people by the magazine found one in 10 people ever cleaned their keyboard while another two in 10 never cleaned their mouse.
Almost half -- or 46 per cent -- cleaned their keyboard less than once a month.
To clear out bugs, the magazine recommends users unplug keyboards, turn them upside down and shake them. The purpose of the passage is .
| A．tell us something about the keyboards. |
| B．warn people to clean the keyboards often. |
| C．tell us how to clean the keyboard |
| D．tell us the germs on keyboards |
What do you think the expression “Think twice before eating those dropped crumbs off your computer keyboard” stands for?
| A．Think several times before eating beside your computer |
| B．Don’t drop foods onto the computer keyboard. |
| C．Don’t eat foods dropped onto the computer keyboard. |
| D．Be careful when you are eating by the computer. |
What are the main causes of a bug-infested keyboard?
| A．Dropped crumbs and food encourages the growth of millions of bacteria. |
| B．Poor personal hygiene |
| C．Much dirt on the computer keyboard. |
| D．Dropped crumbs and food and Poor personal hygiene |
"Which? Computing" is probably a name of .
| A．An organization | B．a newspaper |
| C．a report | D．a magazine |
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If you are an English beginner, you’d better choose .
| A．General English | B．High School ESL |
| C．Night Classes | D．Academic English |
Which course would be helpful for students who want to take the IELTS exam?
| A．Course 1. | B．Course 2. |
| C．Course 3. | D．Course 4. |
How much will you pay if you spend two weeks taking the High School ESL course?
| A．$ 200. | B．$ 300. |
| C．$ 500. | D．$ 600. |
What can we learn from One on One according to the passage?
| A．Its lessons are given in the morning. |
| B．It’s especially designed for English beginners. |
| C．It’s more expensive than the other courses. |
| D．Its lessons are designed to only improve writing skills. |
There was a gardener who looked after his garden with great care .To water his flowers, he used two buckets(水桶) .One was a shiny and new bucket. The other was a very old and dilapidated one，which had seen many years of service, but was now past its best.
Every morning, the gardener would fill up the two buckets. Then he would carry them along the path, one on each side, to the flowerbeds. The new bucket was very proud of itself. It could carry a full bucket of water without a single drop spilled (溢出). The old bucket felt very ashamed because of its holes: before it reached the flowerbeds, much water had leaked (漏出) along the path.
Sometimes the new bucket would say,“ See how capable I am ! How good it is that the gardener has me to water the flowers every day! I don't know why he still bothers with you. What a waste of space you are!”
And all that the old bucket could say was. “ I know I am not very useful, but I can only do my best. I am happy that the gardener still finds a little bit of use in me, at least.”
One day, the gardener heard that kind of conversation .After watering the flowers as usual, he said , “You both have done your work very well .Now I am going to carry you back .I want you to look carefully along the path.”
Then the two buckets did so. All along the path, they noticed, on the side where the new bucket was carried, there was just bare（光秃秃的）earth; on the other side where the old bucket was carried, there was a joyous row of wild flowers, leading all the way to the garden.What was the old bucket ashamed of?
| A．His past. | B．His aging. |
| C．His manner. | D．His leaking. |
What does the underlined word “dilapidated” probably mean?
| A．dirty | B．dark |
| C．worn-out | D．ordinary-looking. |
The new bucket made conversations with the old one mainly to _________.
| A．take pity on the old one |
| B．laugh at the old one |
| C．show off its beautiful looks |
| D．praise the gardener’s kindness |
Why was the old bucket still kept by the gardener?
| A．Because it was used to keep a balance |
| B．Because it stayed in its best condition |
| C．Because it had its own function |
| D．Because it was taken as a treasure |
Every time you go to the supermarket you come away with your purchases packed in plastic bags. But wouldn’t it be kinder to the environment if you asked for paper bags instead?
The answer is not as easy as it might seem. Environmentalists say there are drawbacks to using both plastic bags and paper bags.
80 percent of groceries in the US are packed in plastic bags and the numbers are becoming huge. Consumers use between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags per year worldwide.
Some experts believe that all these bags harm the environment. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down and, as it does so, poisonous materials are released into the water and soil.
Further damage is caused if plastic bags enter the sea. For example, endangered sea turtles cannot tell the bags from jellyfish, their main source of food, and often choke on them.
However, this kind of bag does have its advantages.
Paper bags use more energy and create more waste than plastic bags. Plastic bags require 40 percent less energy to produce and cause 70 percent less air pollution. They also release as much as 94 percent less waste into the water than paper ones do.
But paper bags do break down more quickly than plastic bags. They don’t endanger wildlife, either.
So what should we do? One possible solution would be to use biodegradable plastic bags. “Biodegradable” means that the bags break down naturally just like a piece of banana peel when it is left outside.
But until biodegradable technology improves, it might be easier to pack things you buy in reusable cloth bags.Compared to paper bags, plastic bags ______.
| A．produce 6 percent more waste |
| B．can be made biodegradable more easily |
| C．can be used as a source of food |
| D．save 40 percent of the energy |
By saying “The answer is not as easy as it might seem,” (in paragraph 2) the writer means _____.
A. biodegradable plastic bags can compete with paper
B. paper bags seem to be kind to environment
C. it’s difficult to say whether plastic or paper bags are better for the environmentWhat does the author suggest people use at the present time?
| A．Paper bags |
| B．Plastic bags |
| C．Biodegradable plastic bags. |
| D．Cloth bags. |
Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems. For example, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants of a country. If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become annoyed and unhappy. They begin to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely. They forget how much tourism can help the country and how tourism affects them. Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists. Tourism should also advance the well-being (health and happiness) of local inhabitants.
Too much tourism can be a problem. If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry. This means that other parts of the country’s economy can suffer.
On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs. Businesses can also lose money. It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, air terminals, first-class roads, and other support facilities needed by tourist attractions. For example, a major international-class tourism hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build. If this room is not used most of the time, the owners of the hotel lose money.
Building a hotel is just a beginning. There must be many support facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers（阴沟） to handle waste, arid water. All of these support facilities cost money. If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost.Which of the following has most probably been discussed in the paragraph that goes before the passage?
| A．It is extremely important to develop tourism. |
| B．Building roads and hotels is essential. |
| C．Support facilities are highly necessary. |
| D．Planning is of great importance to tourism. |
Too much tourism can cause all these problems EXCEPT ______.
A. a bad impact on other industries
B. A change of tourists’ customs
C. overcrowdedness of places of interestIt is good for local people to be well aware that tourism will _____.
| A．use up a large amount of water |
| B．weaken their economy |
| C．help establish their traditions |
| D．help improve their life |
What I like to advise people is to find out what it is that makes them happy. What do you love to do? If you truly love what you do just go ahead and try to make a living by doing it. People will throw money at you to do it. But you will always have to work hard at it. I have to draw every single day of my life. I have to draw about 20 ideas. My advice is to put aside a certain amount of time every day and make you draw or whatever, especially when you don’t feel like it. Only in this way will you be able to perfect your talent.
The first step you take is to go to your local library and ask for the publications issued in the current years. When you get these publications, try to find the names of the top people concerned and their presidents. After you find these, write down their names and addresses. Keep this list and update it every year. Next thing you want to do is to create at least 40 cartoons. Get a grid（格子） from one of the strips in the newspapers, enlarge it to whatever size you wish and draw inside this grid. Now take the best 20 of your ideas and make them into finished pieces. To do this, you would want to copy them in ink because if you were a professional cartoonist, that was what you should do. Now you can reduce the size of the finished cartoons to fit onto a regular comic’s page. By comparing yours with the others already in print, it gives you a good idea of clarity to your cartoon.
The next step is to write letters to presidents of the publication. In the letters, explain who you think would read your work, or in other words, what group do you think you would target. After you complete these, send all of your information enclosed with letters in the appropriate envelope.
Now as soon as you send out these letters, start to create a brand new strip with all new characters. Don’t get married to one idea because if your idea gets turned down then you will give up. And always remember. If you receive a rejection from any of them, keep in mind that you are working on something better. You will be working on something new and more exciting and the rejection letter will not have any impact. With this in mind…What is the advice from the writer in the first paragraph when you want to succeed in your life?
| A．Stop doing anything until you find something quite suitable for your future career. |
| B．Put aside a certain amount of time every day to consider how to make a living. |
| C．Make a living by something that you truly like to do as your profession and work hard at it. |
| D．Perfect your talent only by drawing some cartoons. |
The purpose of writing a letter to the president was to ____.
| A．get some money to support the later career |
| B．enclose the information on how to become cartoonists with the letter |
| C．focus his attention on the work |
| D．explain who would be the readers of the work |
The underlined phrase “get married to one idea” in the last paragraph probably refers to ______.
| A．having a strong desire to get married |
| B．fixing all attention on one idea |
| C．marrying someone is a good ideas |
| D．refusing one idea to get married |
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