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 |
The koala(考拉) is possibly one of the best known Australian animals, and is found in four states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The word “koala” comes from an Australian aboriginal word meaning “no drink”.
Sometimes people call them “koala bears” but koala is not a bear. It belongs to a special group of Australian mammals, called marsupial(有袋类). Female marsupials have a pouch where the baby animals live after they are born.
Koalas have soft, thick, grey or brown fur on their backs. The fur on the stomach is white. Koala that live in the south have thicker fur than those in the north because of the cold winters, whereas the koalas in the northern part of the country live in warm to hot weather most of the year so have thinner fur. A koala has a large hairless nose and round ears. Koalas don’t have tails. Adult koalas measure between 7 and 14 kilograms.
Koalas spend nearly all their time in the trees using their sharp, curved claws and long toes to climb about and to hold on to the tree branches. They sleep most of the day, and feed and move from tree to tree mainly at night.
The reason koala sleep for much of the day is because their food eucalyptus(桉树) leaves are very tough so they use a lot of energy to digest. Sleeping saves energy. Eucalyptus leaves are poisonous to almost every other animal. Koalas rarely drink water; they get water from the leaves they eat.
Each koala has a home range made up of several trees that they visit regularly. They normally do not visit another koala’s home trees except that a male is looking for a female to mate with.Which of the following statements is NOT true about the name “koala bear”?
| A．The name was given by the native in Australia |
| B．The word “koala” is an original English word |
| C．The name describes one of its living habits |
| D．The name is partly false |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word “punch”？
| A．House | B．Cave | C．Pocket | D．Nest |
Why do the koalas live in the south have thicker fur than those in the north?
| A．The thicker fur can protect them from the colder weather |
| B．It’s always hot in summer in the north |
| C．It’s always cold in the winter in the south |
| D．They have to move to the north in the winter |
Why do koalas sleep much in the day?
| A．Their foods are poisonous |
| B．They want to save energy for the activities at night |
| C．They can’t get enough energy from their tough foods |
| D．They can’t get enough water from their leaves |
Now, there is a growing movement to pay the students in American schools---in some cases, even just for coming to class.
Students at one school in New Mexico can earn up to three hundred dollars a year for good attendance. In Baltimore, Maryland, high scores in state graduation tests can be worth more than one hundred dollars. And a New Jersey school system plans to pay students fifty dollars a week to attend after---school tutoring programs.
Schools that pay students can be found in more than one---fourth of the fifty states. Other schools pay students with food or other rewards.
Robert Schaefer is a public education director. He says paying students may improve performance in the short term, but students develop false expectations for the future. He sees a lack of long term planning in these programs because of the pressure on schools to raise test scores.
Public schools need to show improvement under the education reform law. Low---performing schools may lose their federal money; teachers and administrators(行政人员) may lose their jobs. Often these schools are in poor neighborhoods where getting students to go to school can be a continual problem.
Critics(评论家) say paying students sends a message that money is the only valuable reward. But some students say it makes school more exciting. And some teachers have reported getting more requests for extra help.
In two thousand four, the city schools in Coshocton, Ohio, launched a program. They wanted to see if paying elementary school students as much as one hundred dollars would help in passing the state exams.
Now, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University (EUCWRU) has reported mixed results. Math scores increased, but only white students were able to get paid. And there was no evidence of higher scores in reading, social studies and science. Official will decide later this year whether to continue the program.Paying students who show improvement in tests __________.
| A．has been done in most American schools |
| B．is becoming a growing practice in the USA |
| C．is not very popular with teachers |
| D．only aims at high scores at school |
According to the text, Robert Schaefer _____________.
| A．is a very excellent teacher |
| B．thinks highly of paying students |
| C．thinks students will show improvement in study in the future |
| D．thinks people should make a careful plan for the paying program |
From the last paragraph we can see __________.
| A．EBCWRU has got great success in its paying program |
| B．not all the students in EUCWRU have made progress in all subjects |
| C．only students who study math can get paid |
| D．EBCWRU will go on with the paying program |
The text is mainly written to _____________.
| A．persuade teachers to give students more prizes |
| B．tell people how to become an excellent student |
| C．introduce something about American paying students program |
| D．explain the advantages of American paying students program |
Throughout his early years, Obama was known at home and at school as “Barry”. Obama’s parents met while both were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled(登记入读) as a foreign student. They separated when he was two years old and later divorced(离婚). His father received Master’s degree in Economics from Harvard University, then returned to Kenya, where he became a finance minister before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. His mother married another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro’s home country of Indonesia in 1967. Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, from age 6 to 10, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.
During his time in Indonesia, he first attended St. Francis Assist Catholic school for almost three years. When Obama was in third grade he wrote an essay saying that he wanted to be president. His teacher later said that his reason for becoming president was that he wanted to make everybody happy.
Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his materal(母亲一方的) grandparents while attending Punahou School, a private college elementary school, from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. Obama’s mother, Ann, died of cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir(传记), Dreams from My Father.
In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother’s middle class family. Of his early childhood, Obama writes, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me---that he was black as pitch(沥青), my mother white as milk .”
Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star—Bulletin that Obama was mature(成熟的) for his age as a high school student and that he sometimes attended parties and other events in order to connect with African American college students and military service people.When Obama was a child, _________.
| A．people used to call him Berry |
| B．his father died of serious illness |
| C．his father became a finance minister of America |
| D．his parents attended Harvard University |
Which of the following is TURE about Lolo Soetoro?
| A．He got college education in Indonesia |
| B．He is a person from Kenya in Africa |
| C．He is Obama’s stepfather and is a black |
| D．He is a foreign student in America |
Obama’s mother, Ann, died of cancer in about ________ while his father died in _________.
| A．1982; 1967 | B．1967; 1982 | C．1979; 1967 | D．1995; 1982 |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Obama’s father was very black while his mother very white |
| B．Obama’s materal grandparents lived in Honolulu of Indonesia |
| C．Obama wanted to be president because he liked making people happy |
| D．Obama’s classmates thought he was mature for his age as a high school student |
Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough rain. Other times there is too much. Maybe thereisn’t a lot we can do to control the rain, but there is a lot we can do to reduce problems caused bydifferent rainfall patterns.
A new development at the London Wetland Centre in Barnes solves the problems of managingwater with a “Rain Garden”. We are likely to be hearing about it a lot more often over the next fewyears. The idea is that the garden owner can store rainwater and use it in dry periods. They canreduce the problems caused by extra rain this way.
One of the key problems that the rain garden tries to deal with is the problem caused by toomuch water in the street. In a natural environment, a lot of rainwater is sent back into the air byplants. Much is also absorbed deep into the ground, and flows into streams and rivers. What happensin city environments can be completely different —— a large amount of rainwater flows straight offthe hard surfaces of roofs and roads. The harder the rain, the less likely it will be absorbed into theground —— floods are the result. Rainwater running off roads is often polluted.
The rain garden deals with living plants rather than hard surfaces. Plants are designed to holdwater and release it slowly, either into the ground, to be absorbed by plant roots (and so eventuallyback up into the atmosphere) or to go down into the water table. Not only does the rain gardenreduce the amount of water that flows onto the street, but it helps to clean it because plants are very goodat breaking down pollutants(污染物).What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．Explaining why there is a lack of rain at times. |
| B．Introducing several different patterns of rainfall. |
| C．Telling us how to avoid problems caused by rain. |
| D．Giving the idea that there are ways to manage rain water. |
According to the second paragraph, “Rain Gardens" are likely to _____.
| A．harm the environment in the short run |
| B．become popular over the next few years |
| C．be turned down by most new developments |
| D．be too expensive for common people to accept |
We can learn from the third paragraph that _____.
| A．floods are often the results of small rains |
| B．a heavy rain is less difficult for plants to absorb |
| C．the rain garden helps send rainwater back into the air |
| D．larger amounts of rainwater flow straight off in city environments |
According to the last paragraph, what does the rain garden help to clean?
| A．The plants | B．The ground. | C．The water. | D．The street. |
D
At the railway stations all across Britain next week, groups of students will gather with their backpacks to wait for the trains that will carry them home for Christmas. This is a large movement of human beings as before, but with more contradictory traffic flows, so that trains filled with the young pass each other travelling in every direction.
At first, I went home every weekend with my washing, but then those visits became less regular. How did I let my parents know I was coming? They had no phone. Perhaps I wrote to them (“Expect me with dirty shirts this Friday afternoon”), but more likely I didn’t let them know, and just turned up or didn’t turn up, not understanding that my parents’ hopes of seeing me were a greater disappointment of my carelessness than a spoiled tea.
And in all this I suspect I was typical (有代表性的), at least of young men. As for our fathers and mothers, none of them talked of “empty-nest syndrome (综合症)”, even though its possible effect that the main human duty is to protect and feed the young would have suited their generation better than ours. Then, the feeling of loss went without a name. Today, it’s a condition with remedies, which will make parents feel more enjoyable in their life, The Mayo Clinic, for example, suggests you try to maintain regular contact with your children through “visits, phone calls, emails, texts or video chats”. If you feel unhappy, lean on (depend on … for support) loved ones or your mental health providers. Above all, stay positive: “Thinking about the extra time and energy that you might have to devote to your marriage or personal interests after your last child leaves home, it might help you adapt to this major life change.”
What can’t be denied, however, is that children often leave home. In modern societies, this is what they do. Christmas is the very time they can be depended on to return. For the non-religious, that may be this season’s true comfort and significance.The main reason for the busy traffic across Britain next week is that _______.
| A．young students will travel home for Christmas. |
| B．young people will travel in every direction. |
| C．it is a large movement of human beings |
| D．the traffic flows will be more contradictory |
From the second paragraph we can learn that the writer _______.
| A．went home every week to wash dirty clothes |
| B．understood his parents’ desire of seeing him |
| C．didn’t understand his parents’ feelings |
| D．went home to see his parents regularly |
The underlined word “remedies” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _______.
| A．reasons | B．excuses | C．habits | D．solutions |
From the last paragraph we know that _______.
| A．in modern society, children should leave home |
| B．Christmas is likely a time for family reunion |
| C．the significance of Christmas is celebration |
| D．Christmas is not a comfort for the non-religious |
From the passage we can infer that by writing the article the writer is to _______.
| A．persuade the young to show concern for their parents |
| B．ask the young to go home regularly |
| C．make the young understand their parents’ interest |
| D．enable the young to be more independent |
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