The Need for Holidays
You’ve no doubt heard people say how much they “need” a holiday，when what they really mean is that they want one．Certainly，people working under pressure feel a very strong desire to escape from work and become less tight during their holidays，and experience a changed environment. For this reason, holidays away from home are now seen by most people as necessary to their quality life. However, work for many people today are office work and mental, rather than physical tasks. These people may seek much more energy taking activities while on holiday, rather than simply lying on a beach.
Once people become used to going on holiday, taking holidays becomes a habit. Even in a recession(经济萧条时期), for many people the holiday is one of the last things to be given up, and indeed many workers have chosen to spend some of their last pay when being laid off on a holiday, perhaps to give themselves a "lift” before facing a gloomy(暗淡的)future.
Perhaps we don't like to admit it, but most of us also enjoy showing off about the places we have been to, and the lovely tans：dark skins we have got. The idea of tanning, however, is becoming less attractive than it was. So many tourists are now able to afford holidays in the sun that tans have become quite common；and although we join a tan together with health(and it is true that a certain amount of sunshine gives us a feeling of being healthy), it has been fully shown that sunshine，especially when received over a short, focused period of time, results in high danger of skin problems, as well as drying out one's skin and leading to more lines on your face later in life.
57．More and more people choose to have holidays because they ________.
A. hate working indoors all the time B. want to get away from work
C. love enjoying the beauties of nature D. become rich and want a better life
58．From this passage we learned that some people can not live without ______．
A. a tan B. a job C. a pay D. a holiday
59．A holiday may __________ when one has to face some difficulties in life．
A. cheer someone up B. help someone find a job
C. be the last thing to be given up D. bring good luck to someone
60．At the end of the passage the writer tries to tell the reader ________.
A. the importance of getting sunshine B. the bad effect of being on holiday
C. the result of getting sun tanned D. the healthy look of being tanned
Rachel Carson, born in rural Pennsylvania in 1907, had a great impact on the environment. Carson earned a master’s degree in zoology in 1932. It was as a writer and not as a research scientist, however, that she made her mark, sharing her view that human beings are just one element in a larger natural order.
In the articles on natural history Carson wrote for various publications, she expressed dry facts in poetic and persuasive language. She wrote five books. Two of them, The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea, have been called “biographies of the ocean.”
Carson also made the world aware of how scientific discoveries can harm as well as help living things. In her best-selling book Silent Spring, Carson challenged the profligate use of chemical pesticides by large agricultural and government organizations. She was the first to detail how the pesticide DDT had entered the food chain and damaged populations of bald eagles, falcons, and brown pelicans by causing the shells of their eggs to become so thin that they could not withstand the weight of the parent bird.
Carson died of cancer in 1964. Today, the Rachel Carson Council collects and disseminates (散播) information on pesticide-related issues. In 1970, the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge, a large area of salt marsh and freshwater habitat in Maine, was dedicated to her memory.Which of the following words is closest to the meaning of the underlined word in paragraph 3 ?
| A．excessive | B．inadequate | C．authoritative | D．efficient |
Which of the following inferences is correct ?
| A．Carson wrote books that the average person could understand. |
| B．Dangerous properties of new chemical products may be immediately apparent. |
| C．If not for Carson, no one would have learned about the dangers of DDT. |
| D．In 1970, large quantities of salt and freshwater were dedicated to Carson’s memory by the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge |
Which of the statements below expresses the main idea of the passage ?
| A．Writers have played an important role in the battle against pollution. |
| B．The scientist Rachel Carson taught people about environmental issues through her writing. |
| C．Carson’s book Silent Spring changed the way some pesticides were used. |
| D．Many of Carson’s books were about pesticide-related issues. |
Tree House
The Tree House program is for students with an English or bilingual preschool background. Foreign teachers further develop students’ natural English speaking skills from 1st through 6th grades in a total immersion environment. The program is theme-based with different units or themes per semester. Each unit includes a theme-related storybook, song, dialogue, writing and phonic exercises, grammar component, poem, and integrated activities.
Step Ahead
Step Ahead is a standalone course that takes children in 3rd grade with no prior English knowledge and by 6th grade, transforms them into confident, near-fluent English communicators. Our program has a strategic balance of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Regular lessons are broken into phonics, reading, grammar patterns, conversation, songs, and homework preview
Jump Into English, Kids World, Kids Club
Our Jump Into English, Kids World, and Kids Club courses are a great way to develop good English habits at younger ages. Jump Into English is for 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds and is a cost-effective alternative to English preschool. Kids Club and Kids World are for students in 1st and 2nd grades and are full of singing, dancing, games, and fun activities to help young children learn English more easily.
Theme-based and Honors Courses
We have theme-based courses to help learners prepare for specific areas of the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) and to develop the performance skills they will need in some of our exciting activities. When learners graduate from our Tree House and Step Ahead programs, they can continue to excel in English through our Honors programs.A child who hasn’t learned English before can choose _____ to develop confidence and fluency in English communication.
| A．Tree House |
| B．Theme-based and Honors Courses |
| C．Step Ahead |
| D．Jump Into English, Kids World, Kids Club |
One of the advantages of Jump Into English is _____.
| A．saving money compared to English preschool |
| B．helping learners to get prepared for English tests |
| C．helping young children to learn English easily |
| D．that it covers different language skills |
The purpose of the passage is _____.
| A．to introduce an English language school for children |
| B．to persuade more children to learn English in a fun way |
| C．to emphasize the importance of after-class activities |
| D．to introduce English classes of varying degrees for kids |
In the United States and several other countries, 2.5 million children play baseball in an organization called Little League. They play on teams in their hometowns. Their parents and other adults in the community coach or instruct them and serve as umpires to make sure that everyone follows the rules. Local businesses give money for the ball fields and the uniforms. Local teams compete against each other and the winners get to play teams that are more distant. Eventually, the top teams go to the Little League World Series.
One hundred years after Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839, Little League got started in Pennsylvania. Three men started the game for neighborhood boys with a smaller playing field and fewer innings than adult baseball. Little League became popular after World War II when the game spread across the United States. By 1955 it was played throughout North America and within five years it had spread to Europe. Children’s baseball really caught on in Japan and Taiwan of China and teams from those areas won the World Series seven out of eight years. After this, the organization tried banning foreign teams from the World Series, but the ban came to an end after one year.
At first, Little League was only for boys aged nine to twelve. However, in 1974, the parents of girl baseball players brought a law suit. The courts ruled that Little League had to include both boys and girls. Later Little League added on softball and other games for teenagers up to age eighteen. Occasionally a Little Leaguer becomes a professional player. For example, Gary Carter went from Little League to play nineteen seasons in the Major Leagues, ten of them as an All-Star player. But, by and large, youngsters play baseball for fun and because their parents are proud of them.The mothers and fathers of Little League players ______.
| A．help run the games | B．travel in coaches |
| C．give the teams money | D．play in the World Series |
In what year was Little League established?
| A．1839 | B．1939 | C．1955 | D．1960 |
Why do most players take part in Little League?
| A．To play in the Major League. |
| B．To have fun and please their parents. |
| C．They expect a profit from All-Star games |
| D．They want to learn how to serve as umpires. |
What is true about players today?
| A．Little League is only for neighbourhood boys. |
| B．Girl players have to buy their suits. |
| C．Girls and boys can participate to age eighteen. |
| D．Children can only play until age twelve. |
Dan Bebber is a senior research fellow at the University of Exeter in Britain. He says research has shown that wild plants and animals are moving toward Earth's North and South poles as the planet warms.
Mr Bebber wanted to know if the same thing was happening with organisms that attack agricultural crops. He examined reports of first sightings of new insects and diseases around the world. The records came from CABI - the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International. He says the group began collecting information from developing and industrialized countries years ago.
Dan Bebber and his research team studied 612 different organisms - from viruses and bacteria to insects like beetles and butterflies. They found that since 1960, crop pests and diseases have been moving toward the poles at an average rate of about 3 kilometers each year. Mr Bebber says this puts the most productive farmland in the world in danger.
"As new species of pests and diseases evolve and potentially the environment for them becomes more amenable at higher latitudes, the pressure on the breadbaskets of the world is going to increase."
Farmers face other threats. Invasive species passed through trade are also causing problems. Gene Kritsky is an Entomologist at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio. He specialises in the study of insects. He says climate change may improve conditions for some invasive species.
“It means that species in other parts of the world that might do well in warmer temperatures can now do well in the breadbasket of America.”
Another Entomologist Christian Krupke of Purdue University says the effects of these changes will depend very much on the crop, the insect and the disease. But he says the research is a warning sign that people should care about climate change and do something about it.The purpose of Dan Bebber’s research was to find ______.
| A．if farmland could be moved to colder places thanks to global warming |
| B．if diseases and insects harmful to crops were going towards colder areas |
| C．if organisms were moving to the north and south poles |
| D．if the number of crop pests was increasing |
According to Dan Bebber, if crop pests keep moving towards the poles, ______.
| A．it will be hard for farmers to kill them |
| B．the most productive farmland will produce more crops |
| C．the earth will not produce enough food to support the world |
| D．the conditions for some crops may be improved |
Which of the following is not a threat that farmers have to face?
| A．Climate change helps crop pests to adapt to new environment. |
| B．Foreign species are brought in by trade. |
| C．Invasive species doing well in warmer places might do well in America. |
| D．The impacts of the climate and species changes on crops are not easy to determine. |
The underlined word “amenable” in the fourth paragraph most probably means ______.
| A．agreeable | B．terrible | C．unfriendly | D．changeable |
Sam, an unemployed piano tuner, said it was only the second thing he had ever won in his life. The first thing was an Afghan blanket at a church raffle when he was 25 years old. But this was much bigger: it was $120,000! He had won the Big Cube, a state lottery game. To win, a contestant must first guess which number a spinning cube will stop on. The cube has six numbers on it: 1X, 10X, 50X, 100X, 500X, and 1000X. If he is correct, the contestant must then guess which of two selected variables is going to be greater. So, just guessing which number appears on the cube does not guarantee that you will win any money. Sam correctly guessed 1000X, but he still had to choose between two variables. One variable was the number of cars that would run the stop sign at Hill Street and Lake Avenue in six hours. The other variable was the number of times that a teenage boy would change TV channels in a three-hour period. This was a tough decision.
Finally, Sam flipped a coin. It came up heads, so Sam picked the teenager. He picked right. The stop sign was run only 76 times, but the teen clicked 120 times. Sixty-year-old Sam jumped for joy, for he had just won 1000 times 120, or $120,000. Sam dreamily left the lottery studio. Talking excitedly on his cell phone while crossing the street, he got hit by a little sports car.
Sam is slowly getting better. He was in the hospital for a month. His hospital bill was $110,000. And the insurance company for the little sports car's owner sued Sam for $9,000 worth of repairs. Also, Sam still has to pay federal taxes on his winnings. Sam doesn't play the state lottery any more. He says it's better to be unlucky. When Sam won the second thing that he’d won in his life, he was ______.
| A．25 years old |
| B．six years old |
| C．76 years old |
| D．sixty years old |
To win the game, the contestants had to make ______ guesses.
| A．three | B．two | C．six | D．four |
Sam won the lottery because ______.
| A．he was lucky | B．he was good at math |
| C．he was smart | D．he was tough |
Sam’s experience shows that ______
| A．everything has its time and that time must be watched. |
| B．he who risks nothing, gains nothing. |
| C．everything comes to him who waits. |
| D．he who laughs on Friday will weep on Sunday. |
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