Prince Charles yesterday promised to reduce the royal impact on the environment through sweeping changes to his personal lifestyle and official schedule. The prince will replace carbon-heavy private jets and helicopters with scheduled flights and train services.
The move came as Prince Charles urged business leaders to publish the environmental pact of their activities.
He said, “Few accountants and business decision-makers ask, ‘How much of our critical natural resource is left? How many miles of polar ice cap has our business helped melt this year? By how many inches have we raised sea levels? How many species have we put at risk? How many homes will be flooded, how many people will die of thirst or starvation because of our activities? ’ These are not comfortable questions, but, by God, they need to be asked. ”
He added, “At the moment these costs do not appear in anyone’s books… Yet they are real, they are incurred now and in a relatively short time, the damage being caused may be beyond remedy. ” He said the world was “running up the biggest global credit card debt in history, but with little or no thought for how the bill will ever be paid”.
Flanked by the prime minister and bus
iness and community leaders at St James’ Palace, the prince said his new “accounting for sustainability” project would give consumers the power to choose products that caused less damage to the planet.
Duchy Originals, the prince’s food company, is taking steps to work out how much carbon dioxide and other green-house gases are emitted in growing, processing and distributing its products. The changes to the prince’s travel arrangements announced yesterday are part of a wider review of the carbon footprint associated with activities at all three of his residences. Clarence House in London, Highgrove and Birkhall on the Balmorals estate(庄园), as well as the activities of his 21 personal and 105 full-time staff. Measures include a review of electricity use, commuter and other staff travel and are intended to identify further reductions in ca
rbon dioxide emissions. The review will report in June , when Clarence House will announce annual targets to reduce carbon emission. How does Prince Charles feel about business leaders in terms of environmental protection?
| A．Dissatisfied. | B．Disappointed. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Impatient. |
In response to Prince Charles’ calls, Duchy Originals will ______.
| A．make as much green food as possible |
| B．cut down its cost |
| C．figure out its greenhouse gas emission |
| D．continue its greenhouse gas emission |
The underlined phrase in paragraph 4 probably refers to ______.
| A．the great amount of waste produced by industry |
| B．the great damage caused to the environment |
| C．the great amount of debts of the royal family |
| D．the high cost of industry in their producing process |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Prince Charles promised Greener Royal Lifestyle |
| B．Better Late than Never |
| C．Prince Charles and His Concern for Environment |
| D．The Royal Family Has a Role to Play in Environment Protection |
Like every other Olympics, the London 2012 Olympics will depend upon thousands of volunteers to help with the smooth running of the event. To show the importance of the role, London 2012 volunteers are to be called ‘Game Makers’. Lord Coe has said recently: “London 2012 is relying on brilliant Game Makers to help us create a great Olympic and Paralympic Games. ”
London 2012 Olympics volunteers will provide the face of London 2012, working behind the scenes and making sure the games are as well organized, efficient and, most importantly, as enjoyable as possible.
Despite the hard-work and often unsociable hours required of volunteers, applications to be considered as a Game Maker were unprecedented（空前的） with all the 70, 000 available positions applied within days. But, for those still interested in helping out during 2012 and being in the middle of the action, there are still a lot of opportunities available.
If you were one of those who missed out on the chance of becoming London 2012 volunteers, you can now apply to be one of the 8, 000 London Ambassadors（大使）. This important role involves greeting fans from all over the world, welcoming them to the fantastic capital city of London and providing a friendly face as well as help, advice and a good old traditional warm British welcome. The view of London most visitors take away with them after the 2012 Olympics will mostly be down to the volunteers and ambassadors, so these roles play a very important part in the process of making the UK a great place to travel to.
Becoming a London Ambassador is a brilliant way to be involved with the London 2012 volunteers scheme and become a part of what should be an historic summer. Why are London 2012 volunteers called “Game Makers”?
| A．They’ll decide whether the London 2012 Olympics are a success. |
| B．They play an important role in the London 2012 Olympics. |
| C．The London 2012 Olympics won’t be organized without them. |
| D．They will work hard and effectively. |
Which of the following can replace the underlined part “be down to” in Paragraph 4?
| A．be the responsibility of |
| B．be under the control of |
| C．be in harmony with |
| D．be in charge of |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To appeal to more volunteers. |
| B．To introduce the London 2012 Olympics. |
| C．To show the importance of volunteers. |
| D．To guide how to spend the historic summer. |
Zhu Haoyu, 18, a history major, wears his iPod everywhere on campus. The freshman has it going out for a walk, visiting the library or lying in bed. However, he found that his habit is like displaying a big “Do not disturb ”sign for himself.
As time slips away, he has begun to regret not having conversed much with his peers around . “As I put the little buds (耳机) into my ears, I’m immersed in a universe of my own, forgetting all troubles in the real world,” said Li.
The MP3 player is one of a number of gadgets (小玩意)—starting with the Sony Walkman, which led to the iPod, iPhone and iPad —that give people the ability to shut themselves off from world around them.
Youngsters delight in handset (手持的) technology. In public, students chat on their cell phones, stopping only to talk briefly to friends. On buses or trains it’s common to see youngsters with PlayStations instead of playing poker or sharing jokes or games. And during airline flights, people watch episodes (连续剧) of US TV dramas on their iPads, rather than talking.
The BBC News magazine recently published an article saying that headphone wearing culture is making us anti-social. “Half of humankind is wired to a parallel universe that leaves them ignoring their surroundings and fellows,” wrote Tom de Castella.
Actually, it’s a decade since Apple unveiled the iPod, which promised “1,000 songs in your pocket”. In 2007 more than half of Western residents were using an iPod or MP3 player.
Entertainment is on offer in all surroundings, not just at home. But in the meantime, it has created barriers between us. Many people subscribe to the view that the headphone culture is creating a “spoilt, selfish generation that lacks civic（公民的）culture”.
However, many users of portable MP3 players argue that the device, as a mind drug, helps them relieve stress by escaping for a while. It is also said to be able to help some students concentrate on work or study. “If you want to get away from the hucksters (小贩) on the way, just start listening to your player,” said Liu, a freshman. “They do not approach people with headphones on.” This might also mean he’s blocking those who want to ask him for the directions.
Experts, however, say that short contacts or mini conversations with strangers are helpful to our mind. Many experts warn that it is dangerous to lose touch with people in our lives.Zhu Haoyu found that his wearing the iPod .
| A．disturbed others |
| B．made it easy for him to keep in touch with others |
| C．made it easy for him to visit the library |
| D．made others unwilling to talk to him |
The underlined word “immersed” can be replaced by .
| A．lost | B．involved | C．engaged | D．interested |
What is the main idea of the fourth paragraph?
| A．Students are always busy chatting on their cell phones in public. |
| B．Young people are fond of portable listening or visual devices. |
| C．Young people like to watch US TV dramas on their iPads. |
| D．People like to enjoy the networking. |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．Headphone wearing culture makes people ignore their surroundings and fellows. |
| B．Apple released the iPod ten years ago. |
| C．There are still many people support the headphone culture. |
| D．It’s dangerous to have conversations with strangers. |
What is the writer’s attitude towards the headphone culture ?
| A．Agreeable. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Neutral. |
It takes less than six seconds to leave a first impression. It is said that we ought not judge a book by its cover, but come on, isn’t it the color, the design, the layout, and the title that draw us to pick up a book we’ve never heard of before? Notice what your assumptions are about a person when you are first introduced to her or him.
Something that most of us don’t take notice of is how we stand or walk. Let’s say you are going for a job interview. Within seconds you have already said a lot about yourself by the way you walk. The majority of us walk around everyday without paying any attention to what we are saying even though we are not uttering a word. There is a lot that can be said about body language from the clothes you wear to the gestures you make.
I took notice of this topic recently as I recalled something about changing my posture to improve my level of confidence. I was about to venture on a new project, which would take me out of my comfort zone. My gremlins (小精灵) were having a field day with me uttering all kinds of reasons why I couldn’t do a good job with this new opportunity. I tucked in my tummy (收缩肚子) , put my shoulders back , held my head high , and took a walk. Soon thereafter, I felt so much better. I approached the project with new possibility. Wow, what a difference ! Try it !
The ability to capture your audience when you walk into a room is sure to start you off on the right foot when going on an interview. Non-verbal signals have five times the impact of verbal (言语的)signals. So you can count on losing your audience when you walk in with head down dragging your feet regardless how much you try to change it.In the first paragraph the author intends to tell us .
| A．we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover |
| B．a person’s appearance can be misread |
| C．the first impression really means a lot |
| D．we should focus more on a person’s qualities |
The author approached his project with new possibility after .
| A．his gremlins stopped talking |
| B．he got rid of all his negative thoughts |
| C．he walked out of his comfort zone |
| D．he changed his posture to improve his confidence |
According to the author , when we go for a job interview , we .
| A．shouldn’t say a lot about ourselves |
| B．shouldn’t walk with our head high up |
| C．should pay enough attention to our body language and gesture |
| D．should only pay attention to the way we walk within the first few seconds |
The author probably believes that .
| A．non-verbal signals are more important than verbal signals |
| B．non-verbal signals are not so easy to catch |
| C．we mainly rely on verbal signals during an interview |
| D．we shouldn’t pay too much attention to our non-verbal signals |
What is mainly talked about in the passage?
| A．How to prepare for a job interview |
| B．The way we walk says a lot about us. |
| C．How to read a person from the way he walks. |
| D．How complicated body language is. |
Many women write to me perplexed(困惑的)about why they can’t form close friendships. They try new approaches, put themselves in all the right places, see therapists, and read relevant self-help books. They consider themselves interesting, loyal, kind and friend-worthy people. But for reasons unknown to them, they have a tough time forming intimate relationships. Many admit to not having even one close friend.
A recent study published in the Journal of personality and Social Psychology offers some clues as to how both nature (personality) and nurture (experience) impact our friendships. Researchers at the University of Virginia and University of Toronto, Mississauga studied more than 7,000 American adults between the ages of 20 and 75 over a period of ten years, looking at the number of times these adults moved during childhood. Their study, like prior ones, showed a link between residential mobility and adult well-being: The more times participants moved as children , the poorer the quality of their adult social relationships.
But digging deeper, the researchers found that personality—specifically being introverted (内向的) or extroverted (外向的) — could either intensify of buffer (缓冲) the effect of moving to a new town or neighborhood during childhood. The negative impact of more moves during childhood was far greater for introverts compared to extroverts.
“Moving a lot makes it difficult for people to maintain long-term close relationships,” stated Dr. Shigehiro Oishi, the first author of the study, in a press release from the American Psychological Association, “This might not be a serious problem for outgoing people who can make friends quickly and easily. Less outgoing people have a harder time making new friends.”
Families often have to relocate — across town, across the country, or across the globe. Yet, in many cases, their kids and young adolescents haven’t yet built up a bank of friendships. So the conventional wisdom is to try to minimize moves for the sake of your child, whenever possible , and to move at the end of the academic year.The passage is written mainly to .
| A．offer advice to women on how to form intimate relationships . |
| B．explain how nature and nurture impact our friendships. |
| C．explain how moves during childhood affect children. |
| D．tell us how to help children make friends. |
Which of the following is true according to the second paragraph?
| A．People who moved less during childhood have better social relationships. |
| B．The more people moved during childhood, the more friends they have. |
| C．The more people moved during childhood, the better they adjust to society. |
| D．There is no link between residential mobility and adult well-being. |
In order for children to maintain long-term close relationships , parents .
| A．should not relocate their homes |
| B．should relocate their homes within the town |
| C．had better move at the end of school year |
| D．had better move when their children couldn’t build up a bank of friendships |
We learn from the fourth paragraph that moves during childhood .
| A．have a bigger impact on an introverted person compared to extroverts. |
| B．have no impact on an outgoing person |
| C．are a big problem for both introverts and extroverts |
| D．help children better adapt to new environment |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．our friendships are mainly affected by our nurture |
| B．we can move when children have made a lot of friends |
| C．the impact of moves will disappear when one reaches adulthood |
| D．there is some way to minimize the impact of moves during childhood on children |
Betty Skelton was often called “The First Lady of Firsts’’ because of the many records she set. She grew up in Pensacola, Florida, watching airplanes flying to and from a nearby navy base. As a child, she persuaded her parents to let her take flying lessons. By 12, Betty made her first flight alone, though not legally permitted to do so until she turned 16.
During the 1940s, female pilots were mostly prevented from commercial and military flying. So Betty Skelton decided to use her flight skills in aerobatics(特技飞行)，performing difficult turns, drops, and other exercises. She began performing and competing around the country.
She won the International Feminine Aerobatic Championship(IFAC)for three years in a row, starting in 1948. She and her little Pitts Special plane the “Little Stinker’’ became famous.
Dorothy Cochrane is an aviation expert who once studied and worked with Betty Skelton. “Betty was such a wonderful aerobatic pilot that she really set the bar high for other women to follow and she was a great role model for them. She really was as good as some of the men.”
Once Ms. Skelton had made her mark on flying, she moved on to racecars, becoming the first female test driver in the racecar industry. She set several land speed records. She also set a cross-country record, driving from New York to California in under 57 hours. And she became one of the top women advertising experts working with General Motors in support of the company’s Corvette car.
Ms. Skelton died in August, 2011, at the age of 85. Visitors to the Washington area can see her “little Stinker” plane at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The small red and white plane hangs high in the air above the entrance to the museum.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．Betty Skelton was the first Lady of the US. |
| B．16 was the legal age for people to fly an airplane. |
| C．Betty became a navy pilot when she was 16. |
| D．Betty’s parents didn’t support her flying interest. |
What happened to Betty Skelton in 1950?
| A．She moved on to racecars. |
| B．She became an aerobatic pilot. |
| C．She was 20 years old. |
| D．She won the IFAC for the third time. |
What can we know from the words by Dorothy Cochrane?
| A．It is not easy for other women to break Betty Skelton’s records. |
| B．She was even more excellent than some men in skills. |
| C．It is difficult for other women to reach the height Betty Skelton flew to. |
| D．Betty Skelton is an inspiring role model for pilots worldwide. |
What is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Betty started to fly alone at a nearby navy base at the age of 12. |
| B．“Little Stinker” was Betty Skelton’s Pitts Special plane. |
| C．Betty set several speed records in car racing. |
| D．Betty even set a cross-country record. |
What is the correct order of the events that happened in the passage?
a. Betty won the international Feminine Aerobatic Championship.
b. Betty became an advertising expert.
c. Betty made her first flight alone.
d. Betty began her aerobatic performance.
e. Betty became the first female test driver.
| A．a→b→c→d→e | B．a→e→b→c→d |
| C．c→d→a→e→b | D．c→b→d→a→e |
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