Edward Wilson is America’s, if not the world’s, leading naturalist. In The Future of Life, he takes us on a tour of the world’s natural resources. How are they used? What has been lost? What remains and is it able to continue with the present speed of use? Wilson also points out the need to understand fully the biodiversity(生物多样性)of our earth.
Wilson begins with an open letter to the pioneer in environment protection, Henry David Thoreau. He compares today’s Walden Pond with that of Thoreau’s day. Wilson will use such comparisons for the rest of the book. The problem is clear: man has done great damage to his home over the years. Can the earth, with human help, be made to return to biodiversity levels that will be able to support us in the future?
Biodiversity, Wilson argues, is the key to settling many problems the earth faces today. Even our agricultural crops can gain advantages from it. A mere hundred species are the basis of our food supply, of which but twenty carry the load. Wilson suggests changing this situation by looking into ten thousand species that could be made use of, which will be a way to reduce the clearing of the natural homes of plants and animals to enlarge farming areas.
At the end of the book, Wilson discusses the importance of human values in considering the environment. If you are to continue to live on the earth, you may well read and act on the ideas in this book.We learn form the text that Wilson cares most about ______.
| A．the environment for plants | B．the biodiversity of our earth |
| C．the wastes of natural resources | D．the importance of human values |
How many species are most important to our present food supply?
| A．Twenty. | B．Eighty. | C． One hundred. |
D．Ten thousand. |
Wilson suggests that one way to keep biodiversity is to _______.
| A．learn how to farm scientifically | B．build homes for some dying species |
| C．make it clear what to eat | D．use more species for food |
We can infer that the text is _______.
| A．a description of natural resources | B．a research report |
| C．a book review | D．an introduction to a scientist |
April 27 is Take Our Daughters to Work Day in Britain. Started at first in the United States and brought to Britain in 1994, Take Our Daughters to Work Day has become a special day for girls between 11 and 15. On that day thousands of girls take a day off school and go together with one of their parents to their work places. The purpose of this day is to broaden girls’ horizons and raise their self-confidence.
For many years people have thought that boys can do better than girls in society. But actually, “girls can be whatever they want to be just like boys, whether it is a pilot, a nurse or a chief executive,” says the chairman of Our Sons and Daughters Charitable Trust, an organization which supported the activity of the Day. “Now the girls have a close look at what their parents are doing and this may help them to be more self-confident when they are faced with a choice of work.”
Schools and many companies support the activity too. Palmers Green High School for Girls, in north London, has made the Day a necessary part of career education.
Zarina Bart, 15, from Palmers Green, went with her mother to her lawyer’s office on this year’s Take Our Daughters to Work Day. She found it interesting to see her mother at work. “It’s really strange seeing Mum at work — running around, getting serious and telling people what to do.” She has always liked this idea of going into law and thinks it likely that she will follow in her mother’s footsteps. Having a chance to see how her mother works has given her more self-confidence.
Experts believe that girls with higher self-confidence aim higher and are more likely to be successful in life. Parents have the most important effect on the confidence of teenage girls. If parents believe in their daughters and show examples both at work as well as at home for them, this will give a lot of help to girls. Take Our Daughters to Work Day is surely a step in the right direction.What is the topic of this passage?
| A．Raising daughters’ self-confidence. |
| B．Take Our Daughters to Work Day. |
| C．Equally between boys and girls. |
| D．Following mothers’ footsteps. |
It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that ________.
| A．women pilots are popular in Britain |
| B．girls are sure about their future jobs |
| C．people have wrongly believed that girls can do as well as boys |
| D．for many years boys have had a relatively wider choice of work |
According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Take Our Daughters to Work Day is British in origin. |
| B．Palmers Green favors Take Our Daughters to Work Day. |
| C．On the Day children are taken to their parent’s work places. |
| D．Parents in Britain show good examples both at work and at home. |
After her experience on Take Our Daughters to Work Day, Zarina felt ________.
| A．confident about finding a job in the future |
| B．strange to watch her mother working in the office |
| C．sure about what to choose as her future career |
| D．interested in doing the same job as her mother |
The author’s attitude towards the Day is ________.
| A．favorable | B．unclear |
| C．critical | D．neutral |
BEIJING, (Xinhua) —China’s capital city launched its first underground library, “M Subway Library” on Jan. 12，2015. The theme of its first activity is “Our Characters”. Citizens riding the special train on subway Line 4 now can read e-books provided by the National Library by scanning the QR code in the carriage.
“M Subway Library” is a public welfare program initiated by the Beijing MTR and the National Library to provide qualified book resources to the public through the platform of public transportation. The library will organize different themed activities regularly and recommend a dozen free books to the public each year in the long term.
XINING, (Xinhua) —A bullet train made its maiden trip from Xining city to Lanzhou city in Northwest China on Dec. 26, 2014, marking the start of the full operations of the Lanxin high-speed railway. The Lanxin high-speed railway links Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, and Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, slashing the total travel time from more than 23 hours to 11 hours and 50 minutes. The 1,776-kilometer high-speed rail line, with a designed speed of 250 kilometers per hour, is China’s first high-speed railway built in a high-altitude region.
NINGBO, (Xinhua) —Ningbo Subway Line 1 started running special trains with 3D paintings featuring the city’s culture starting on Dec. 20, 2014．Through the paintings, the city in East China’s Zhejiang province seeks to share its culture and attract more outside visitors. The paintings focus on four themes: rice cake, fishing festival, books and Buddhism.The purpose of launching “M Subway Library” is to .
| A．earn more money by making advertisements in the carriage |
| B．attract more tourists to come to Beijing to take the subway |
| C．make the idea of “Green Travel” go deep into people’s mind |
| D．offer the passengers an additional reading platform |
Which of the following statements is correct according to the news?
| A．The Lanxin high-speed railway covers Gansu, Xinjiang and Tibet. |
| B．It is China’s first high-speed railway. |
| C．It has a length of 1,776 kilometers. |
| D．It will take you 11 hours and 50 minutes to travel from Xining to Urumqi. |
What can you enjoy when you ride the special train on subway Line 1 in Ningbo?
| A．Chinese classical music. |
| B．3D paintings about Ningbo’s culture. |
| C．Traditional Chinese paintings. |
| D．3D films which were shot in Ningbo. |
Three-dimensional printers are fast becoming everyday devices in the United States. Three-D printers are used to make everything from automobile parts to bone replacements for human patients. American research scientists are now working on creating replacements for living tissue.
Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina have been working on creating and manufacturing living tissue since 2003．This process is called biofabrication (生物制造) . It requires special printing equipment and a special kind of ink.
Traditional printers require ink to produce an image or design on a piece of paper. For their three-D printer, the South Carolina researchers prepare complex nutritious solutions they call bio-inks. Bio-inks are made of proteins and glucose (葡萄糖) , which normally provides energy for most cells of the body. The researchers also add living cells taken from the animal that will receive the new, printed tissue. The bio-inks are then added to a device that researchers call the Palmetto bio-printer.
Sarah Grace Dennis is one of the researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina. She says new technology, like the Palmetto bio-printer, is a great help to the biofabrication process.
The bio-inks are placed in three dispensers (分配器) , containers, inside the printer. Lasers control both the position of the printing surface and the places where the bio-ink is released.
Michael Yost is a leader of the research team. He says the printing process is fully automated— machine-operated. He says that the Palmetto bio-printer makes it possible to create complex tissue types.
The researchers say bio-printing is still experimental. But they hope in a few years they may be able to print tissue to replace damaged human organs.
But there are still some problems which need to be solved. Some scientists worry about how to get blood to the replacement tissue. The flow of blood is important to keep the printed tissue alive.
Michael Yost hopes that more people will believe in the benefits of biofabrication.
“Tissue biofabrication is a reality, and it is a reality now, and if you come here and you get to see it. You will get to see it. You can’t touch it, but you will see it and think this is real. And this is really human.”What can we know about the bio-inks?
| A．They are the necessities of bio-printing. |
| B．They only contain proteins and glucose. |
| C．They can be placed in the traditional printers. |
| D．They are available in our local drugstores. |
Which of the following is one of the concerns with biofabrication?
| A．Researchers can’t find enough living cells of animals to make the bio-inks. |
| B．The price of the bio-printer is too high and most people can’t afford it. |
| C．Scientists have some difficulty in getting the blood to the replacement tissue. |
| D．People are worried about the safety of the biofabrication process. |
According to Michael Yost, we can infer that .
| A．the Palmetto bio-printer can workwithout power |
| B．the Palmetto bio-printer has been used to treat the patients |
| C．the Palmetto bio-printer can only be found in the United States |
| D．the Palmetto bio-printer will have a bright future in medical use |
The passage mainly tells us about .
| A．the three-D printer and its working principles |
| B．the bio-inks and their use in bio-printing |
| C．the spread use of the bio-printer in the USA |
| D．the growing demand for biofabrication |
Your kids learn a lot from their friends—things you can’t teach them, no matter how much you
want to.
Probably the most important thing kids learn is how to have peer relationships. As a parent, you can’t do this, because you and your child aren’t equals.
For example, when you’re sitting on your family room floor and your very young child asks you to pass him the blocks, you probably hand them right over. If your child is sitting with a peer and asks the same thing, though, he might not get what he wants.
To succeed, your child will need to learn strategies for getting what he wants. For example, he might simply yank (猛拉) the toy out of his friend’s hand. If he does that, he may learn that it’s not the best way of getting what he wants because it leads to fighting and time-outs. The successful child will learn that he needs to negotiate a trade, to wait patiently, or to find something else equally fun to play with.
Friends also provide emotional support, something that is part of the foundation of healthy adulthood. You can’t be with your child on the elementary school playground or at the high school dance. Your child’s friends will be the ones to stick up for her, to include her in games, and later, to tell her she looks great even if her lousy prom (糟糕的舞会) date wanders off instead of dancing with her.
Friends also help your children learn. Friends solve problems together, imitate each other, and
pass on knowledge .
Some experts believe that the single biggest predictor of your child’s success later in life is her ability to make friends. In fact, they claim it’s even more important than IQ and grades.
This doesn’t mean that the kids who are most popular in school do the best later on in life. What matters is not the number of friends a child has but rather the quality of the relationships.
This is good news for those of us who hate to think that popularity really is the Holy Grail of childhood and adolescence. While it’s true that popularity has many advantages, and that many popular kids really are nice people—and not just the best dressed or best looking—it’s better to have a few good friends than to have the admiration of the masses.By giving the example in Paragraph 3, the author wants to show that .
| A．kids can learn how to deal with the relationships when they stay with their peers |
| B．parents should spend more spare time playing with their kids |
| C．kids should learn how to be polite when they ask their parents for help |
| D．parents can teach their kids how to be good members in the modern society in their daily life |
What does the underlined phrase“stick up for” in the fifth paragraph mean?
| A．envy | B．oppose |
| C．support | D．ignore |
In the author’s opinion, is more important than being popular for kids.
| A．getting high grades |
| B．having some real friends |
| C．developing a good habit |
| D．knowing how to dress themselves up |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Bridge the Generation Gap |
| B．What It Takes to Be a Good Friend |
| C．Why Friends Are Important |
| D．How to Be Popular in School |
Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. These two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their respective houses.
One evening, Brownie’s family noticed that Brownie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no success and by the next week he was still missing.
Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie’s house alone. Barking, whining (哀叫) and generally pestering (纠缠) Brownie’s human family. Busy with their own lives, they just ignored the nervous little neighbor dog.
Continuously,Ted, Brownie’s owner, was disturbed by the angry, determined little dog. Spotty followed Ted about, barking insistently, then rushing toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “Follow me! It’s urgent!”
Eventually, Ted followed Spotty to a deserted spot half a mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie alive, one of his hind legs crushed in a steel leghold trap. Horrified, Ted now wished he’d taken Spotty’s earlier appeals seriously. Then Ted noticed something quite remarkable.
Spotty had done more than simply led Brownie’s human owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found an array of dog food and table scraps which were later identified as the remains of every meal Spotty had been fed that week!
Spotty had been visiting Brownie regularly, in the hope of keeping his friend alive by sacrificing his own comfort. Spotty had evidently stayed with Brownie to protect him from hunger and other dangers, and keep his spirits up.
Brownie’s leg was treated by a veterinarian (兽医) and he recovered. For many years thereafter, the two families watched the faithful friends chasing each other down that well worn path between their houses.Why did Ted pay little attention to Spotty at the very beginning?
| A．Because Ted was tired of listening to Spotty barking. |
| B．Because Ted only cared about Brownie’s safety. |
| C．Because Ted was not free at that moment. |
| D．Because Ted knew where Brownie was. |
When Ted was led by Spotty to Brownie, he .
| A．was curious to find out what had happened |
| B．highly appreciated Spotty’s help |
| C．was worried about Brownie’s health |
| D．regretted not following Spotty earlier |
Not only did Spotty help Ted find Brownie but also .
| A．he went to see his friend and played with him secretly |
| B．he sent messages to some other persons in his community to save his friend |
| C．he managed to lead a veterinarian to treat his friend |
| D．he sent food to his friend, accompanied him and inspired him to cheer up |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Barking dogs seldom bite. |
| B．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| C．Love me, love my dog. |
| D．Every dog has its day. |
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