2010 was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards (暴风雪), landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 – the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.
“It just seemed like it was back-to-back(接二连三) and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
“The term “100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.”
And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.
Even though many disasters have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.
Poor construction and development practices make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings（危房） in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river floods, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.
Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes “are pretty much constant,” said Andreas Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re. “All the change that’s made is man-made.”
The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people – many of them living in poverty- and more poorly built shanties(棚户区) ,than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010; total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International University.
Climate scientists say Earth’s climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warming, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding.
The excessive(过多的) amount of extreme weather that dominated 2010 is a classic sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave – setting a national record of 111 degrees – would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.
Data show that 18 countries broke their records for the hottest day ever.
“The Earth strikes back in response to bad human decision-making,” said Debarati Guha Sapir.” “It’s almost as if the policies, the government policies and development policies, are helping the Earth strike back instead of protecting from it. We’ve created conditions where the slightest thing the Earth does is really going to have a surprising impact.” White House science adviser John Holdren said we should get used to climate disasters or do something about global warming. “The science is clear that we can expect more and more of these kinds of damaging events unless and until society has sharply reduced the amount of heat-trapping gases and particles(颗粒).”From paragraph 1 to paragraph 3, we learn ___________________________.
| A．what natural disasters mean to the people all over the world |
| B．how terrorism attacks struck in the past four decades |
| C．how the Earth struck back in 2010 |
| D．why the world saw so many disasters in 2010 |
The author gives the example of the big earthquake in Haiti to show that ___________ .
| A．poor construction largely accounts for more deaths than expected |
| B．man’s behaviours are to blame for the constant occurrence of natural disasters |
| C．the extreme weather mainly contributes to the disaster of the quake |
| D．the country’s poverty and over- crowdedness results in the disaster |
Which of the following would Debarati Guha Sapir most probably agree with?
| A．Environment protection should be taken into account in policy-making. |
| B．Natural disasters are causing increase. |
| C．The earth wouldn’t strike back but for the destruction by man. |
| D．Conditions should be created to rid the influence of disasters. |
According to John Holdren, the best way to cut back on the number of natural disasters is __________________ .
| A．to forecast the happening of natural disasters accurately |
| B．to build stronger houses that can stand severe earthquakes and floods |
| C．to make better decisions and policies of city development |
| D．to send out much fewer greenhouse gases and particles |
What is the real concern of the writer of this article?
| A．The major causes of natural disasters. |
| B．The human unawareness of environment protection. |
| C．The harmonious relationship between humans and nature. |
| D．The serious results of global warming and earthquakes. |
My father was born on a farm in Tipperary, Ireland. He was the fourth child out of eight children.
My father was the oldest boy so the majority of the responsibility fell upon his shoulders to complete the farm work. He attended school until the fourth grade; his father pulled him out of school to work on the farm permanently (永久地), though he hated it. Though supposed to inherit the farm, my father had other plans. At sixteen he left home for England.
He left without telling his parents anything. He eventually became very homesick and missed his mother greatly. He came back to Ireland and worked on the farm until he was eighteen. He got tired of the farm and left home for England again. He worked as a construction worker for five years, and then a part-time actor. But he couldn’t get a decent (体面的) job because he was Irish. Many times he would walk into an interview and read a sign saying, “The Irish need not apply.”
He was twenty years old with no family and limited friends in a foreign country that didn’t want him. Once he was able to work again my father decided to save money to move to Australia. He lived in a house with a fellow Irishman, a Swede, an Englishman, and an Austrian for five years becoming a successful salesman. He bought a beach house for himself in Sydney. He then traveled through Europe visiting his family in Ireland.
In 1975 my father came to America as an illegal immigrant (移民). My father with a friend of his drove across the country to Los Angeles with the dream of becoming Hollywood stars. My father lived in his car for the first few months in Los Angeles, and worked as a used car salesman. After two years of living in Los Angeles, he became documented. He met my mother and started a family. My parents have kept the family in Los Angeles, and just three years ago my father became a U.S. citizen.The father dropped out of school mainly because .
| A．he often ran away from home |
| B．he couldn’t get along well with others |
| C．he often performed badly in his school |
| D．he had to learn to keep the farm |
The underlined word “inherit” in the second paragraph means “ ”.
| A．take over | B．escape from | C．set up | D．look through |
Which of the following can show the track of the father’s struggle？
| A．Australia—Europe—America. |
| B．England—Australia—America. |
| C．Ireland—America—England. |
| D．Australia—Sweden—England. |
What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．An Irishman travels abroad |
| B．How my father got a job in England |
| C．My father’s escape from his home |
| D．Experience of my father’s struggle |
"Ok," I said to my daughter as she bent over her afternoon bowl of rice. "What's going on with you and your friend J?" J. is the leader of a group of third-graders at her camp—a position Lucy herself occupied the previous summer. Now she's the one on the outs, and every day at snack time, she tells me all about it, while I offer up the unhelpful advice all summer long.
"She's fond of giving orders," Lucy complained. "She's fat," Lucy mumbled（含糊地说）into her bowl "We are going upstairs," I said, my voice cold, "We are going to discuss this." And up we went.
I'd spent the nine years since her birth getting ready for this day, the day we'd have to have the conversation about this horrible word. I knew exactly what to say to the girl on the receiving end of the teasing（嘲笑）, but in all of my imaginings, it never once occurred to me that my daughter would be the one who used the F word-------Fat.
My daughter sat on her bed, and I sat beside her. “How would you feel if someone made fun of you for something that wasn't your fault?” I began. “She could stop eating so much,” Lucy mumbled, mouthing the simple advice a thousand doctors and well-meaning friends and relatives have given overweight women for years．
"It's not always that easy,” I said. “Everyone's different in terms of how they treat food” Lucy looked at me, waiting for me to go on. I opened my mouth，then closed it. Should I tell her that, in teasing a woman's weight, she's joined the long, proud tradition of critics who go after any woman with whom they disagree by starting with "you're ugly" and ending with “no man would want you and there must be something wrong with any man who does"？Should I tell her I didn't cry when someone posted my picture and commented, “I'm sorry, but aren't authors who write books marketed to young women supposed to be pretty?”
Does she need to know, now, that life isn't fair? I feel her eyes on me，waiting for an answer I don't have. Words are my tools. Stories are my job. It's possible she'll remember what I say forever, and I have no idea what to say.
So I tell her the only thing I can come up with that is absolutely true．I say to my daughter ,“I love you，and there is nothing you could ever do to make me not love you，But I'm disappointed in you right now. There are plenty of reasons for not liking someone. What she looks like isn't one of them.”
Lucy nods，tears on her cheeks．“I won't say that again ,”she tells me，and I pull her close, pressing my nose against her hair. We are both quiet, and I don't know if I have said the right thing. So as we sit there together, shoulder to shoulder, I pray for her to be smart．I pray for her to be strong. I pray for her to find friends，work she loves, a partner who loves her, and for the world not to deprive（剥夺）her of the things that make her who she is，for her life to be easy, and for her to have the strength to handle it when it's not. And still, always，I pray that she will never struggle as I've struggled, that weight will never be her cross to bear. She may not be able to use the word in our home, but I can use it in my head．I pray that she will never get fat．The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 indicates that Lucy＿＿＿，
| A．often makes fun of her friend J. |
| B．has turned against her friend J． |
| C．gets along well with her friend J. |
| D．has begun to compete with her friend J. |
Why does the author want to discuss with Lucy?
| A．Because she wants to offer some other helpful advice. |
| B．Because she has prepared the conversation for nine years. |
| C．Because she is really shocked at Lucy's rudeness． |
| D．Because she decides to tell Lucy a similar story of her own． |
What does the author want to tell her daughter?
| A．It is not easy to take the doctors' advice to eat less． |
| B．People shouldn't complain because life is unfair. |
| C．She herself was once一laughed at for her appearance. |
| D．People shouldn't be blamed for their appearance. |
It can be inferred from the passage that
| A．the author earns a living by writing stories |
| B．the author is a fat but good-looking woman |
| C．the author will stop loving her daughter for what she said |
| D．the author's daughter agreed with her from the very beginning |
We can learn from the last paragraph that ．
| A．Lucy deeply moved by her mother's prayer |
| B．a mother's prayer will shape her daughter's attitude towards life |
| C．the author allows her daughter to use the F word in her head |
| D．the author hopes her daughter will never have weight trouble |
The author's attitude towards her daughter can be best described as ．
| A．loving but strict | B．indifferent but patient |
| C．satisfied and friendly | D．unsatisfied and angry |
Last month we reported about a study that showed eating even a little less salt could greatly help the heart. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists used a computer model to predict how just three grams less salt a day would affect heart disease in the United States.
The scientists said the results would be thirteen percent fewer heart attacks, eight percent fewer strokes（梗塞）, four percent fewer deaths and eleven percent fewer new cases of heart disease And two hundred forty billion dollars in health care savings. Researchers said it could prevent one hundred thousand heart attacks and ninety-two thousand deaths every year.
They and public health professionals in the United States are interested in a national campaign to persuade people to eat less salt. Such campaigns are already in place in Britain, Japan and Finland.
Michael Alderman is among the critics. He is a high blood pressure expert and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Doctor Alderman says that eating less salt results in lower blood pressure. But he says studies have not clearly shown that lowering salt means fewer heart attacks or strokes. And he says salt has other biological effects. He says calling for reduction in the national diet could have good effects, but it could also have harmful results. He says there is not enough evidence either way.
Another critic is David McCarron, a nutrition and kidney disease expert at the University of California, Davis. He and his team looked at large studies of diets in thirty-three countries. They found that most people around the world eat about the same amount of salt. Most of them eat more salt than American health officials advise. Doctor McCarron says the worldwide similarity suggests that a person’s brain might decide how much salt to eat.
Both Doctor McCarron and Doctor Alderman have connections to the Salt Institute, a trade group for the salt industry. Doctor Alderman is a member of an advisory committee. But he says he receives no money from the group. Doctor McCarron is paid for offering advice to the Salt Institute.What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．The argument over salt and health. |
| B．Less salt, fewer heart attacks. |
| C．National campaign for less salt. |
| D．Bad effects of salt. |
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．The most likely results of the study made last month. |
| B．The results of eating less salt. |
| C．The results of eating three grams less salt a day. |
| D．The results of eating even a little less salt could greatly help the heart. |
Which of the following about Michael Alderman is NOT TRUE?
| A．He is a high blood pressure expert. |
| B．He says eating less salt results in lower blood pressure. |
| C．He agrees lowering salt means fewer heart attacks or strokes. |
| D．He is a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. |
What does the underlined part “either way” refer to?
A. Reductions in the national diet could have good effects.
B. Reductions in the national diet could have harmful results.
C. Salt has other biological effects.
D. Both A and B.Which of the following about David McCarron is NOT TRUE?
| A．He is a nutrition and kidney disease expert. |
| B．His team found that most people around the world eat about the same amount of salt. |
| C．He says the worldwide similarity suggests that a person’s brain might decide how much salt to eat. |
| D．He says he receives no money from the Salt Institute. |
Have you ever thought of joining a book club and buying new books through the post? Here at the International Book Club, we already have many members buying books from us by mail.
Immediate benefits：
●As a special offer, you may choose any reduced-price books from our new members' book list, to the value of $6 in total (plus postage and packing). By doing this, you will save pounds on the publishers' prices.
●Tick the box on your form to order a free watch.
●If you reply within seven days, we will send you another free gift carefully chosen from our book list by our staff.
●Order a DVD from the many on offer in our list, at half the recommended(推荐) retail price.
●When you've joined：
As a member, you'll enjoy savings of between 30% and 50% off the publisher's price on every book you buy, and what's more, they'll come straight to your door. Your free club magazine arrives once a month, to keep you up-to-date with the latest bestsellers. This means that every year we offer over 1,000 books to choose from. On the Internet, you can find all our titles for the year on our exclusive members' website.
Being a member：
All we are asking you to do while you are a member is to choose four books during your first year. After that, you can decide on the number of books you wish to take.
In each of our monthly club magazines, our experienced staff choose a Club Choice book — a work of fiction or a reference title which they feel is particularly worth buying, and which is offered at an extra-special price. However, if you do not want this book, just say so in the space provided on the form. We will always send the book if we do not receive this.
So, return your application form today, but hurry — it's not every day we can make you an offer like this. To apply to become a member, all you need to do is simply fill in the enclosed form and return it in the envelope supplied.
Before you know it, your books will be with you. Please don't send any money now, as we will send you your bill with the books. And remember, you have up to a fortnight to decide if you wish to keep the books you have ordered. You should then either return the books or send your payment.Which of the following doesn't belong to the benefits of being a club member?
| A．Order a free watch. |
| B．Get a gift for nothing. |
| C．Get four books for free in the first year |
| D．Order a DVD at a low price. |
Every month the club provides a free club magazine in order to ________.
| A．Let readers know the number of books to be sold |
| B．Attract more and more readers to join the club |
| C．Make readers know the club's development |
| D．Keep readers well informed of recent best-selling books |
If a book is worth $100, how much will a member probably save if he buys one?
| A．$40. | B．$60. | C．$20. | D．$70. |
What should you do if you want to join the book club?
| A．Just send the club an email. |
| B．Ask other club members to recommend you to the club. |
| C．Fill in an application form and return it to the club. |
| D．Apply for a membership card. |
After you get your books, you should ________.
| A．Choose whether to keep them or not after you read them carefully |
| B．Decide whether to keep them or not within a certain period of time |
| C．Express your idea in the space provided in the book |
| D．Send money to the club at once |
As we all know, getting benched(板凳) in sports is usually a bad thing. But at one school in Florida, a girl has taken a bench and turned it into something entirely different – a place to find friends. It’s called the Friendship Bench. And it’s the brainchild of a sixth grader at Palm Bay Elementary – a girl named Acacia Woodley.
Acacia’s attitude toward life might be summed up best by a question she recently asked members of the Brevard County School Board – “what if we spend as much time putting the spotlight on kindness as we do on cruelty?” It’s a truth Acacias has learned to live her own life –in spite of having a lot of people would consider a handicap (残疾). She was born without a right hand. And her left hand did not form properly. But Acacia says that she has not stopped her from achieving her goals. “You need to believe in your dreams. If you don’t believe in you dreams, I can definitely tell you that they are not going to come true.” She said.
Acacia came up with the idea for the Friendship Bench after seeing kids getting bullied (欺凌) at school. She says she has also experienced bullying herself – kids whispering about her or picking on her because she is different. “Some people say they feel sorry for me. I tell them not to,” she said. “I don’t care that I’m different. I like being different.”
The Friendship Bench looks like a lot of other benches. It has arm sets and a place to lean on. But there are also words painted on it – words such as “hope”, “respect”, “listen” and “dream”. Acacia put the benches together with the help from her mother and brother.
Any time a kid feels he or she needs a friend, all that kid needs to do is sit on the bench. It is then up to the other kids – or grown-ups – to fill that need. “It’s a perfect idea,” Palm Bay Elementary Principal Lori said. “It’s something we’ve needed so badly.”
The Friendship Bench has been such a success at Palm Bay Elementary that other schools are now interested in installing（安装） one too. “There’s a saying in my teacher’s classroom,” Acacia said. “It says, ‘it you can dream it, you can achieve it.’”What is the function of the first sentence in Paragraph One?
| A．To explain the meaning of getting benched is sports. |
| B．To introduce the important role “bench” plays in sports. |
| C．To introduce what the author wants to say in the text to us. |
| D．To tell us that the passage is connected with the word “bench”. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Acacia has also suffered from other kids’ bullying. |
| B．The kids who sit on the bench feel they need friends. |
| C．Grown-ups are allowed to offer their help to the one in need. |
| D．The Friendship Bench is different from others in the arm sets. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．More Friendship Benches will be installed in other schools soon. |
| B．Students stop bullying other schoolmates at Palm Bay Elementary. |
| C．The students at Palm Bay Elementary have become more friendly. |
| D．Acacia has become a very important figure at Palm Bay Elementary. |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Acacia’s New Invention | B．The Friendship Bench |
| C．Help from a Special Bench | D．Getting Benched in School |
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