Have you ever stayed up late? If so, you know that not getting enough sleep can make you tried and grumpy. Not sleeping enough sleep can also make it harder to think clearly the next day.
Sleep scientists have long known that getting a good night’s sleep is very important. It helps kids be able to do their best during the day.
A recent study shows that sleep helps improve problem-solving skills and creative(创造性的) thinking. For the study, two groups of students answered a math problem. The group that slept for eight hours solved the problem correctly more often than the group that did not get enough sleep.
While you sleep at night, your brain is busy doing its “homework”. It sorts out(整理) al
l the informa
tion that you get in the day. Getting enough sleep each night can improve your thinking ability. That will surely help you do your best at school. Experts say that, i
n return, can lead to better grades.The underlined word grumpy in the first paragraph means_______.
| A．excited and happy | B．active and creative |
| C．impatient and angry | D．bored and weak |
Choose the best title for this pass
age.
| A．Sleep to Success | B．A Recent Study |
| C．Do Sleep Well | D．The More Sleep, the Better |
Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realize just how much unnecessary materials are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?
| A．Using too much packaging. |
| B．Recycling too many wastes. |
| C．Making more products than necessary. |
| D．Having more material than is needed. |
The author uses figures in Paragraph 2 to show _______.
| A．the tendency of cutting household waste |
| B．the increase of packaging recycling |
| C．the rapid growth of super markets |
| D．the fact of packaging overuse |
According to the text, recycling ______.
| A．helps control the greenhouse effect |
| B．means burning packaging for energy |
| C．is the solution to gas shortage |
| D．leads to a waste of land |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult. |
| B．Needless material is mostly recycled. |
| C．People like collecting recyclable waste. |
| D．The author is proud of their consumer culture. |
A study by St.. Louis University has found that a lovable dog named Sparky and a robotic dog, AIBO, were about equally effective at reducing the loneliness of nursing home residents. The study confirmed previous findings that dogs have a good effect on nursing home residents.
Dr. Andrew Smith led the Stanford University team that built a home-assistance robot. “If humans can feel an emotional tie with robots, some day they could be not just our assistants, but also our companions,” he said.
To test whether residents responded better to Sparky, a trained dog, or the Sony-made robotic dog, researchers divided 38 nursing home residents into three groups at three long-term care centers in St. Louis.
One group had weekly 30-minute one-on-one visits with Sparky; another group had similar visits with AIBO; a control group had no contact with either dog. The groups’ respective levels of loneliness were tested by having them answer a number of questions at the beginning and near the end of the visits.
After two months, both groups that had contact with the dogs were less lonely and more attached. Most of the elderly regarded Sparky, a 9-year-old dog, as an audience for their life stories, said investigator Marian Banks.
“He listened attentively, wagged his tail, and allowed them to pet him,” said Banks, who adopted and trained Sparky after finding him in a street behind her home seven years ago.
Those who were together with AIBO took a little longer to warm to the robotic creature. Over time, however, they grew comfortable with him, and petted and talked to him. He would respond by wagging his tail, vocalizing, and blinking his lights..
“AIBO is charming once you start to interact with him,” said the study’s author, Dr. William Banks, “He’s an attractive sort of guy. He gives a feeling of being personal, not just a robot.”Before the new study, it was known that ____.
| A．robots were effective at reducing people’s loneliness |
| B．robots could build close connection with humans |
| C．dogs could help get rid of old people’s loneliness |
| D．dogs and robots were equally effective at reducing loneliness |
Those who had contact with the robotic dog found that ___.
| A．they didn’t feel comfortable with it |
| B．it was hard for them to interact with it |
| C．they weren’t comfortable with it at first |
| D．the robot’s vocalizing and blinking confused them |
The findings of the researchers tell us that___.
| A．robots are better at caring for old people than nurses |
| B．robots can to some degree replace dogs as companions for old people |
| C．it’s easy for people to become close with robots |
| D．every home will have a robot assistant one day |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Robots Serve People Better Than Thought |
| B．No More Lonely Old Age with Emotional Robots |
| C．Advanced Technology Used to cheer up the Elderly |
| D．Robots and Dogs Can Equally Cheer up the Elderly |
Skinner Creek ESL Guest Ranch offers a unique outdoor adventure camp for international students.
Students who come to Skinner Creek have the opportunity to learn English in an environment entirely different from a regular school setting. English classes are designed to meet the academic and spoken levels of each student. All English classes will be taught by instructors qualified in teaching English as a second language. All levels of English are available.
After class, students can enjoy many outdoor activities in a controlled and safe environment. Experienced managers and camp teachers will prepare each activity to the level appropriate for each student.
Students’ safety is a priority for the staff of Skinner Creek ESL Guest Ranch. Students are monitored at all times and supervisors are in the cabins with the students at night. Staff members have St. John’s First Aid and Transportation and Wilderness First Aid. An emergency clinic is nearby and accessible 24 hours.
English Classes:
Class hours are from Monday to Friday, 9:00 am—2:00 pm with a one-hour break for lunch.
Students are challenged in reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary building and conversational English.
Fun After-class Activities:
Great after-class activities include: horseback riding lessons, hiking, baseball, volleyball, badminton, mountain hiking, bonfires and much more.
Time to watch videos and TV and play games.
Experience Canadian family life.
Weekends:
Special all-day and overnight weekend activities include: camping, days at the lake (fishing, swimming and boating) and more.
Travel Information:
Students will be picked up at Vancouver airport and dropped off again for their individual flights. Transportation to and from the ranch will be provided as well as overnight stays in Vancouver.
Please contact the ranch directly for prices: skinnercreek@telus. net.If you attend Skinner Creek Summer Camp, you will___.
| A．sometimes have English Classes outdoors. |
| B．learn how to deal with dangers in the wild. |
| C．enjoy different sports activities after class |
| D．experience the traditional farmer lifestyle. |
How many hours of English classes do students have every week in Skinner Creek?
| A．35 hours | B．28 hours |
| C． 25 hours | D．20 hours |
How will most students travel to Skinner Creek if they want to attend the camp?
| A．By air | B．By car |
| C．By boat | D．By train |
At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer(拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.
We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house – something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.
On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, "What do you want for your new room?" Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were surprised when Josh responded, "I just want a bed."
The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.
When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.
That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.
As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, "What is that?"
"A pillow," she replied.
"What do you do with it?" Eric continued to ask.
"When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to our eyes as she handed Eric the pillow.
"Oh . . . that's soft," he said, hugging it tightly.
Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my Dad gently asks, "Do you have a pillow?"
We know exactly what he means.The writer’s first volunteer project was .
| A．working on a poor trailer |
| B．helping a poor family |
| C．donating beds and bedding |
| D．dealing with a housing problem |
On hearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because .
| A．the family lived in a trailer |
| B．he expected to get some toys |
| C．he didn’t know what a bed was |
| D．the boys had no bed to sleep in |
From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen before.
| A．a trailer | B．a truck | C．a pillow | D．a house |
By saying “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that .
| A．what they want to get may be unnecessary |
| B．they should not waste money on small things |
| C．they should do more volunteer work for the poor |
| D．what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow |
There are many ways to find a job. It can be as easy as walking into a neighborhood store to look at the announcement board. Local stores often have areas where people can put small signs telling what kind of service they need or can provide. Such services include caring for children or cleaning houses.
Or, job searchers can look in the newspaper. Local newspapers have employment announcements placed by companies seeking workers.
Another popular tool for finding jobs is the Internet. For example, people in four hundred and fifty cities around the world can use the Craigslist Web site to buy objects, meet people or find a job. Craigslist says that it receives two million new job listings each month.
Another useful way to find a job is through a college or a university. For example, students at the University of Texas in Austin can go to the Career Exploration Centre to get help in finding a job. Of course, looking for a job requires knowing what kind of work you want to do. For example, there is a book called “What Color is Your Parachute(降落伞)？”by Richard Bolles. This book has been helping people choose a career since it was published in nineteen seventy.
Some experts also help people find jobs. Susan W. Miller owns a company called California Career Services in Los Angeles. She says her company helps people find jobs by first helping them understand their strengths, goals and interests. Then she provides them with methods and resources to help them find the right job.What is the passage mainly about? __________
| A．Finding a job | B．College students’ part-time jobs |
| C．Craigslist Web site | D．The relation between study and work |
By logging on the Craigslist Web site, you can _________ .
| A．sell your old things | B．do some shopping online |
| C．create your own announcement board | D．get useful information about 450 cities |
“What Color is Your Parachute(降落伞)？”is a book giving tips to those who want to ________ .
| A．work on the plane | B．buy a parachute | C．publish a book | D．find a suitable job |
It can be learned from the passage that _______ .
A. companies often put job information in local shops.
B. the Internet is the most popular tool for job hunters in the USA.
C. Susan W. Miller’s company is helping people choose careers
D. California Career Services mainly serves university students.How many ways of finding jobs are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Three | B．Four | C．Five | D．Six |
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