Starving polar bears are eating one another in the Arctic. Flowers are blooming too soon and die. The ice caps are melting so fast that rising water levels will threaten coastal towns along Florida within several decades. These are just a few examples of the terrible consequences of climate change supported by a new analysis in Nature.
In the past three decades, average global temperatures have risen about 0. 6°C and are projected to jump by about 1. 7°C by the end of the century, says Cynthia Rosenzweig, who leads the Climate Impacts Group at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University in New York. “We’ve already seen that a relatively low amount of warming,” she says, “can lead to a broad range of changes. ”
The unnatural warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide produced by cars and coal-powered plants, brings trouble for entire ecosystems. In North America alone, scientists have identified 89 species of plants, such as the American holly that have flowered earlier in the spring. In Spain, apple trees bloom 35 days ahead of schedule in response to the higher temperatures. Other wildlife, like the insects that use certain plants for food and the birds that feed on the insects, must then move forward their seasonal stirrings(萌动) and mating（交配） patterns to survive.
To try to follow this time shift, some birds such as robins, the classic symbol of winter’s thaw(解冻时期), are returning to Colorado from their migrations some two weeks earlier than in years past. All these changes can throw a food chain in disorder. Some bird species that arrive before the insects reappear may starve to death.
“Around the world, plants and animals are waking up to an earlier alarm clock than they used to,” says Terry Root, a biologist from Stanford University. The underlined word “projected”(in Paragraph 2) probably means “____”.
| A．forced | B．presented | C．indicated | D．predicted |
According to the third paragraph, as a result of climate change ____ .
| A．the warm weather wakes animals up earlier |
| B．certain trees bloom a season ahead of time |
| C．the birds need to change patterns of living |
| D．the American holly will flower in late spring |
What can we know about robins according to the passage?
| A．Farmers depend on them to tell the time. |
| B．They used to come back when spring came. |
| C．They used to predict the change of weather. |
| D．They usually migrate when seasons change. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Man is to blame for global warming |
| B．Great changes take place on Earth |
| C．Bird migration and climate change |
| D．Global warming changing nature’s clock |
Every day on the road, accidents are caused. They do not only happen. The reason may be easy to see: an overloaded tray, a shelf out of reach, a patch of ice on the road. But more often than not there is a chain of events leading up to the misfortune-frustration, tiredness or just bad temper-that show what the accident really is, a sort of attack on oneself.
Road accidents, for example, happen frequently after a family quarrel, and we all know people who are accident-prone, so often at odds with themselves and the world that they seem to cause accidents for themselves and others.
By definition, an accident is something you cannot predict or avoid, and the idea which used to be current, that the majority of road accidents are caused by a minority of criminally careless drivers, is not supported by insurance statistics. These show that most accidents involve ordinary motorists in a moment of carelessness or thoughtlessness.
It is not always clear, either, what sort of conditions make people more likely to have an accident. For instance, the law requires all factories to take safety actions and most companies have safety committees to make sure the regulations are observed, but still, every day in Britain, some fifty thousand men and women are absent from work due to an accident. These accidents are largely the result of human error or misjudgment-noise and fatigue, boredom or worry are possible factors which contribute to this. Doctors who work in factories have found that those who drink too much, usually people who have a high anxiety level, run three times the normal risk of accidents at work.This passage might be written to .
| A．college students | B．drivers |
| C．ordinary citizens | D．businessmen |
“Accident-prone” in Paragraph 2 means .
| A．likely to have accidents | B．injured in accidents |
| C．likely to die in accidents | D．responsible for road accidents |
The passage suggests that .
| A．accidents mostly result from slippery roads |
| B．accidents are usually caused by psychological factors |
| C．doctors run three times the normal risk of accidents in factories |
| D．about 50,000 people lost their lives at work in Britain every day |
Which of the following is NOT discussed as a factor of accidents in this passage?
| A．Mood | B．Carelessness | C．Tiredness | D．Weather |
What do you think would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Accidents and Human | B．Why accidents happen |
| C．Human Factors in Accidents | D．How to Prevent Accidents |
Researchers have found more evidence that suggests a relationship between races (种族) and rates (率) of lung cancer among smokers. A new study shows that black people and Native Hawaiians are more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking. It compared their risk to whites, Japanese-Americans and Latinos.
Researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii did the new study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. The eight-year research studied more than 180,000 people. They included present and former smokers and people who never smoked. Almost 2.000 people in the study developed lung cancer.
Researchers say genetics (遗传学) might help explain the racial and ethnic（种族的） differences. There could be differences in how people's bodies react to smoke. But environmental influences, including the way people smoke, could also make a difference.
African-Americans and Latinos in the study are reported smoking the fewest cigarettes per day. Whites are the heaviest smokers. But the scientists point out that blacks have been reported to breathe cigarette smoke more deeply than white smokers. This could fill their lungs with more of the chemicals in tobacco that cause cancer.
Scientists know that some diseases effect different groups differently. And some drug companies have begun to develop racially targeted (针对) medicines. Last June, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug designed to treat heart failure in black patients. The name is BiDil. The agency called it "a step toward the promise of personalized medicine." Researchers agree that it is that may probably determine black people’s risk of lung cancer.
| A．the larger amount of smoking than white people |
| B．the living style or habit of the blacks |
| C．the depth of cigarette smoke into their lungs |
| D．the physical strength to react to cigarette smoke |
People in the new study are made up of .
| A．heavy smokers in America | B．smokers and non-smokers |
| C．the Asians and Hawaiians | D．the black and white people |
The production of BiDil referred to in the last paragraph is to .
| A．explain different races react to some diseases differently |
| B．tell the readers that racial differences exist in smokers |
| C．show a big step people have taken in the medicine area |
| D．support the idea that it is easy for blacks to have cancers |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the author?
| A．The way of smoking may increase the risk of lung cancer. |
| B．Race has nothing to do with the risk of having a lung cancer. |
| C．The research was started by the New England Journal of Medicine. |
| D．he risk of lung cancer lies I how much a person smokes. |
London, Reuters--What could annoy teenagers enough to make them stop hanging out with friends and go home？
No, it's not a visit from their mothers, and not a threat to take away their cellphones or pocket money.
It's high-frequency noise. The UK police recently agreed to use a device (装置) called the Sonic Teenager Deterrent. It sends out a sound that makes teenagers become so impatient and angry that they have to cover their ears tightly and walk away.
The sound is at extreme high-pitch that can be heard by those under 20. The body's natural ability to detect some wave bands decreases almost entirely after 20, so few adults can hear the sounds. The black-box device, nicknamed the Mosquito because of its sound, can be fixed to the outside walls of shops, offices and homes. It sounds to youngsters like a crazy insect or a badly played violin. But it causes no physical damage.
A number of police forces and councils have given permission to use the system and want to install (安装) it at trouble spots.
Staffordshire Police Inspector Amanda Davies, who has given the device to shopkeepers in the Moorlands area, said," It is controlled by the shopkeepers--if they can see through their window that there is a problem, they turn the device on for a while until the group has run away."The device can be used to _______.
| A．threaten teenagers in public |
| B．drive away trouble-makers under 20 |
| C．help mothers control their teenage children |
| D．help the police control shopkeepers |
From the passage we can know that _______.
| A．young people often suffer from pains in ears |
| B．shopkeepers are troubled by noisy insects |
| C．high-frequency noise is beyond the listening ability of people over 20 |
| D．the police invented a new device to deal with teenagers |
The purpose of the writer to write the passage is ______.
| A．to advertise a new hi-tech device |
| B．to tell the reader a piece of news |
| C．to sell the device to shopkeepers |
| D．to inform the public as the spokesman of the police |
Who will welcome the device most?
| A．Shopkeepers. | B．The police. | C．Young people. | D．The producer. |
Luo Gaoqi hopes to join the increasing number of Chinese students in the United States because he wants the experience of studying in a foreign land as it will help his future job at home. “I want to try Western education because people there think differently,” said the 21-year-old who is in his final year of undergraduate studies. “I also hope to meet friends from different cultures. The social connections may help in the future.”
The latest report from the US-based institute of International Education said China, for the first time, has become the top country of origin for international students in the United States.
For Yang Fan, a journalism student, said studying in the United States is a way to escape the competition for places in China’s top universities.
“Due to limited education resources, only about 60 percent of high school graduates in China enter college, and a much lower rate enters the top-level ones. “A foreign degree will definitely help when I seek a job in China,” Yang said.
Both Yang’s and Luo’s parents are supportive of them studying abroad. Neither of them is thinking of settling down in the United States after graduation.
“It is not realistic to do so. As a journalism student, there would be no advantage for me to work in the United States,” Yang said. “But in China, with a US degree and good English, I may stand out against other students who have only studied in China.”
China still needs to improve its environment for scientists and high-level talents, said Xiao Mingzheng, director of the Center for Human Resource Development and Management Research of Peking University, adding that, in particular, the country needs to improve its policies relating to research environments.
In June, the Chinese government published a plan concerning talent development for the next 10 years. In it, it has improved policies and increased budgets to attract talented students back home.Why does Luo Gaoqi wants to study in a foreign land according to his words?
| A．Because the people there are more intelligent. |
| B．Because the foreign countries are more developed. |
| C．Because he can make more friends there. |
| D．Because the culture there is different from that in China. |
What do Guo Gaoqi and Yang Fan have in common?
| A．Their major is the same, which is journalism. |
| B．Both of them want to go back to China after graduation. |
| C．Their parents are against their decision. |
| D．They are forced to study in a foreign land by their parents. |
From the passage, we can infer that _______.
| A．scientists and high-level talents need a better environment in China |
| B．the students abroad are unwilling to go back to China |
| C．China doesn’t need those people to come back to our country at all |
| D．we all need to go abroad to study and then serve our own country |
To American visitors, Iceland is a very interesting country, partly because it is different in so many ways from what he or she is used to seeing at home. There are quite a few things that are not done, or that do not exist on the island - quite a few "No's".
There is no pollution, for instance. No dogs are permitted in Reykjavik, the capital. There is no television on Thursdays or during the entire month of July, and only three hours of black-and-white TV the rest of the time. There is no hard liquor on Wednesdays and no beer at any time. There are no handguns; only one jail of thirty-five cells（牢房） in the entire land – an admirable figure, even for a small country of 313,376 people.
There is no army, air force or navy. There is no tipping for anything. There are no large stores open on Saturdays or Sundays. Since Iceland is situated just under the Arctic Circle, there is no darkness in summer and do daylight in winter. But thanks to Gulf Stream, the climate is rather mild, with temperatures ranging from 34 degrees Fahrenheit to 52 degrees in July.
The rules on television, liquor, and guns are the result of governmental decision. But the absence of pollution is due in great part to the fact that Iceland gets its power from the enormous geyser（间歇泉）and the thousands of hot springs that come out of the ground. They provide all the energy needed by the country. In fact, Iceland uses only 3 percent of all its available power.
Iceland has been described as a democratic (民主的) independent country where more fish are caught and more books published per person than anywhere else in the world. The Icelanders have always felt a particular love for literature. They composed their first works in the ninth and tenth centuries AD. These works were poems and tales about the kings, heroes, and heroines of Iceland and Norway. At first the stories were memorized and passed from generation to generation. The Icelanders have never stopped writing ever since. “Rather shoeless than bookless," they proudly say. American visitors enjoy visiting Iceland probably because .
| A．no dogs are permitted in the capital |
| B．the police do not carry handguns |
| C．it is very different from America |
| D．the climate is rather mild. |
The following statements are true EXCEPT .
| A．there are no soldiers in Iceland |
| B．the Icelanders don't drink beer |
| C．there is no service fee of any kind |
| D．there are no crimes in Iceland |
There is no pollution in Iceland mainly because .
| A．Iceland uses only 3 percent of all its available power |
| B．the Icelanders use hot water from the ground below as their energy |
| C．it is located just under the Arctic Circle |
| D．it is a democratic independent country |
"Rather shoeless than bookless" means .
| A．they regard books more important than shoes. |
| B．they would rather have shoes on than write books |
| C．they prefer traveling to reading |
| D．they prefer not to have shoes or books |
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