The Friends of the Amazon is a nonprofit association helping to preserve the forest, its wildlife and its native cultures in the Peruvian Amazon. We are located 3 degrees south of the equator in the Region of Loreto, which is roughly the size of Montana and is one of the richest areas in the world in terms of flora(植物群) and fauna（动物群）. Our team consists of lawyers, ecologists, sociologists, medical professionals and native Amazonians working together to protect the forest and its people from destruction. We use litigation（诉讼）, filing lawsuits against those who seek to destroy the forest and its native cultures. In addition to legal processes, we promote health, education, and the conservation of native plants and animals.
The Amazon Rainforest is commonly referred to as the "lungs of the planet" whose trees are essential for absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2, a greenhouse gas that causes global warming) and converting it into oxygen, thereby mitigating the rise of global temperatures and climate change. An estimated 120 billion tons of carbon dioxide is absorbed in the Amazon Rainforest and global emissions of carbon dioxide increase with every tree of the rainforest that is cut down. That is why the survival of the Amazon Rainforest is vital for the survival of our planet, without which rising global temperatures could melt the polar icecaps and cause flooding of our coastal cities.
Currently, the Amazon is under siege（围攻）, with an estimated 1000 hectares being destroyed everyday. After harvesting old growth forests, corporations are often replacing the native forest with palm oil plantations instead of reforesting with native tree species. Palm oil trees are native to Africa, not the Amazon, and due to high profits, their promotion by international aid agencies and recent legislation in Peru, palm oil plantations represent perhaps the single greatest threat to the native Amazon Rainforest.
In addition to conventional logging and deforesting to make room for crops such as palm oil and soybeans, the Amazon forest faces a new threat in the form of REDD projects and “Carbon Cowboys”. REDD refers to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation by using carbon offsets (“carbon credits”). Under the guise of REDD projects, scammers are tricking native communities into signing unjust contracts in English without legal representation which essentially give these so called Carbon Cowboys the forest for free. These cheaters are making false promises of "billions of dollars in profits" from REDD and voluntary carbon offset （碳补偿）projects by lying that they are representatives of the United Nations and World Bank in order to trick vulnerable indigenous Amazonians into ceding their land by signing unjust contracts with hidden clauses that give the Carbon Cowboys a power of attorney to do whatever they want with the forest for a period of 100 years. Friends of the Amazon is actively filing lawsuits against these Carbon Cowboys and those who support them.
For further information on our programs and to find out how you can help preserve the Amazon Rainforest, please contact:
Friends of the Amazon
153 Túpac Amaru Street
Iquitos, Peru
Phone: (+51) 985665374
For more specific information on supporting the goals of our nonprofit organization, please contact us using the email address listed below.
If you would like to learn how you can help preserve the Amazon Rainforest and its indigenous people, please contact us for more information at:
info(at)friendsoftheamazon.org The Friends of the Amazon is the name of _________.
| A．your best friend | B．a non-profit organization |
| C．a historic hero | D．a famous carbon cowboy |
What does the underlined word “converting ” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．changing | B．increasing | C．reducing | D．burning |
Why is the survival of the Amazon Rainforest vital for the survival of our planet?
| A．Because this forest absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide emitted by the world |
| B．Because people rely on this forest to get enough wood to build houses and furniture |
| C．Because people living here can get a large sum of compensation to offset carbon dioxide |
| D．Because the United Nations and the World Bank are helping preserving the land here |
We can learn from the passage that palm oil trees _____________.
| A．have produced much profit for the local people. |
| B．are native to Amazon and fit in well with their surroundings |
| C．are native to Africa and may do great harm to the native Amazon trees |
| D．are used to replace the native forest because the local people can profit from them |
The purpose of this article is _______.
| A．introduce the largest rain forest in the world |
| B．to appeal to the government to take some measures to get rid of Carbon Cowboys |
| C．to advertise the rain forest as a favourite tourist destination |
| D．to arouse the awareness of the public to help conserve the “lungs of our planet” |
Thirty years ago, the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights, with two teen-aged children Hindley and Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool, where he adopts a homeless Gypsy boy, naming him "Heathcliff". Hindley finds himself robbed of his father's love and care and becomes bitterly jealous of the newcomer. However, Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon, the two children spend hours on the moors (荒原) together and hate every moment apart.
Because of the conflict, Hindley is eventually sent to college. However, he marries a woman named Frances and returns three years later, after Mr. Earnshaw dies. He becomes master of Wuthering Heights, making Heathcliff their servant instead of a family member.
Months after Hindley’s return, Heathcliff and Catherine travel to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Linton family. However, they are found and try to escape. Catherine is caught by a dog, and then brought inside the Grange to have injuries tended to while Heathcliff is sent home. Catherine eventually returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed woman, looking and acting as a lady. She laughs at HeathcIiff’s dirty appearance. When the Lintons visit the next day, Heathcliff dresses up to impress her. It fails, however, when Edgar, one of the Lintons' children, argues with him. Heathcliff is locked in the attic, where Catherine later tries to comfort him. He swears revenge on Hindley.
In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, but she dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to fall into a life of drunkenness and waste. Two years pass and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from Heathcliff.
One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine. Before long, they declare themselves lovers. Catherine explains to Nelly, her servant, that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately, she could never marry Heathcliff because of his lack of status and education. She therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff’s status. Unfortunately, Heathcliff has overheard the first part and runs away, disappearing without a trace. After three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.
Six months after their marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and richer. Catherine is delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen. Edgar's sister, Isabella, now eighteen, falls in love with Heathcliff. He looks down upon her but encourages the adolescent love, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces Isabella one day at the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar, which causes Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill.
Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging（抵押) the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay his debts.
While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff leaves with Isabella, causing Edgar to disown（与…断绝关系) his sister. The two marry and return two months later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges to visit her in secret. In the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, and then dies. Hindley dies six months after Catherine. Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton.From the first paragraph, we can know ______ .
| A．Hindley hates the fact that his parents give all their love and care to Catherine |
| B．Mrs. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff in Liverpool |
| C．Hindley is the oldest of all three children |
| D．Catherine likes Heathcliff so much that she enjoys staying with him for long |
After Frances dies, Hindley________.
| A．lives a disordered life |
| B．locks Heathcliff in the attic |
| C．argues with Heathcliff very often |
| D．returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed man. |
The underlined part "the first part" in Paragraph 5 most probably refers to ________ .
| A．Catherine says that Edgar has asked her to marry him and she has agreed |
| B．Catherine loves Heathcliff but can't marry him because of his lack of status and education |
| C．Catherine decides to marry Edgar, with whose help she can help raise Heathcliff’s status |
| D．Catherine and Edgar declare themselves lovers to the family |
At the end of the story________.
| A．Isabella dies after his brother disowns her |
| B．Catherine becomes the master of Wuthering Heights |
| C．Wuthering Heights falls into the hands of Heathcliff |
| D．Hindley dies and leaves Wuthering Heights to Cathy |
You may not pay much attention to your daily lift ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, the US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Lift Guy”．
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette(礼仪) is sort of odd(奇怪的)，” Gray told the BBC. “They (Lifts) are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want—it's your own little box.
If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally(对角线地) across from each other to create distance.
When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person, it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple—look down, or look at their phones.
Why are we so awkward in lifts?
“You don't have enough space，” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people, we have about an arm's length of distance between us. And that's not possible in most lifts.”
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed(解释) as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact，”she said.The main purpose of the article is to ________．
| A．remind us to enjoy ourselves in the lift |
| B．tell us some unwritten rules of lift etiquette |
| C．share an interesting but awkward lift ride |
| D．analyze what makes people feel awkward in a lift |
According to Gray, when people enter a lift, they usually ________．
| A．turn around and greet one another |
| B．look around or examine their phones |
| C．make eye contact with those in the lift |
| D．try to keep a distance from other people |
Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in a lift? (The point in the chart refers to one person)
A city child's summer is spent in the street in front of his home，and all through the long summer vacations I sat on the edge of the street and watched enviously the other boys on the block play baseball. I was never asked to take part even when one team had a member missing—not out of special cruelty, but because they took it for granted that I would be no good at it. They were right，of course.
I would never forget the wonderful evening when something changed. The baseball ended about eight or eight thirty when it grew dark. Then it was the custom of the boys to retire to a little stoop(门廊) that stuck out from the candy store on the corner and that somehow had become theirs. No grownup ever sat there or attempted to. There the boys would sit, mostly talking about the games played during the day and of the game to be played tomorrow. Then long silences would fall and the boys would wander off one by one. It was just after one of those long silences that my life as an outsider changed. I can no longer remember which boy it was that summer evening who broke the silence with a question；but whoever he was，I nod to him gratefully now. “ What’s in those books you're always reading？” he asked casually. “Stories,” I answered. “What kind？”asked somebody else without much interest.
Nor do I know what drove me to behave as I did，for usually I just sat there in silence，glad enough to be allowed to remain among them；but instead of answering his question，I told them for two hours the story I was reading at the moment. The book was Sister Carrie. They listened bugeyed and breathless. I must have told it well，but I think there was another and deeper reason that made them so keen an audience. Listening to a tale being told in the dark is one of the most ancient of man's entertainments，but I was offering them as well，without being aware of doing it，a new and exciting experience.
The books they themselves read were the Rover Boys or Tom Swift or G．A. Henry. I had read them too，but at thirteen I had long since left them behind. Since I was much alone I had become an enthusiastic reader and I had gone through the booksforboys series. In those days there was no reading material between children’s and grownups' books，or I could find none. I had gone right from Tom Swift and His Flying Machine to Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie. Dreiser had hit my young mind，and they listened to me tell the story with some of the wonder that I had had in reading it.
The next night and many nights thereafter，a kind of unspoken ritual(仪式) took place. As it grew dark，I would take my place in the center of the stoop and begin the evening's tale. Some nights，in order to taste my victory more completely，I cheated. I would stop at the most exciting part of a story by Jack London or Bret Harte，and without warning tell them that was as far as I had gone in the book and it would have to be continued the following evening. It was not true，of course；but I had to make certain of my newlyfound power and position. I enjoyed the long summer evenings until school began in the fall. Other words of mine have been listened to by larger and more fashionable audiences，but for that tough and athletic one that sat close on the stoop outside the candy store，I have an unreasoning love that will last forever.The writer feels grateful even now to the boy who asked the question because the boy ________.
| A．invited him to join in their game |
| B．liked the book that he was reading |
| C．broke the long silence of that summer evening |
| D．offered him an opportunity that changed his life |
According to Paragraph 3，storytelling was popular among the boys basically because ________.
| A．the story was from a children's book |
| B．listening to tales was an age-old practice |
| C．the boys had few entertainments after dark |
| D．the boys didn't read books by themselves |
Sometimes the writer stopped at the most exciting part of a story to ________.
| A．play a mean trick on the boys |
| B．experience more joy of achievement |
| C．add his own imagination to the story |
| D．help the boys understand the story better |
What is the message conveyed in the story?
| A．One can find his position in life in his own way. |
| B．Friendship is built upon respect for each other. |
| C．Reading is more important than playing games. |
| D．Adult habits are developed from childhood. |
Do you enjoy seeing the stars twinkling at night? Or do you love the ocean and sea, diving and racing with lovely dolphins? With heavy burdens on their shoulders, teenagers find it hard to pull out. Even if they are free, they prefer to occupy themselves with computer games or watching TV. How to get children away from screens is a great concern for parents. Now there is some good news for those concerned parents and teachers.
A campaign is being launched to encourage children to surrender 30 minutes of screen time a day to head for the great outdoors.
The newly formed Wild Network, a collaboration of nearly 400 organizations, is attempting to attract youngsters away from television and computer screens and into fields, woods and parks.
Organizers say it is the UK's biggest ever campaign to reconnect children with nature and outdoor play, and claim it could help improve fitness, mental alertness and general well－being.
A documentary film, Project Wild Thing, will herald the launch at more than 50 cinemas across the UK from Friday. It looks at the increasingly fragile link between children and nature.
Members of the network include the National Trust, RSPB, Play England and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit.
Andy Simpson, chairman of Wild Network, said, “The tragic truth is that kids have lost touch with nature and the outdoors in just one generation.” Time spent outdoors is down, roaming ranges have fallen drastically, activity levels are declining and the ability to identify common species has been lost.
Suggestions of how to get more time in nature include collecting conkers(七叶树果实), camping, snail racing, and observing autumn colors on trees.
From January, the network will aim to make suggestions to politicians on how government can do more to get children muddy and bright－eyed.
This is not the first time the message of fewer screens, more play has been brought up. Children in the 1980s were entreated to do the same by the BBC TV series Why Don't You, which somewhat confusingly called on its viewers to “switch off your TV set, and go to do something less boring instead”．What is the main purpose of the campaign in the UK?
| A．To save 30 minutes for watching TV programs each day. |
| B．To encourage children to play outdoors. |
| C．To see the documentary film Project Wild Thing. |
| D．To teach students how to learn more efficiently in schools. |
According to the organizers of Wild Network, there will be many advantages from the campaign EXCEPT ________．
| A．improving health conditions |
| B．keeping touch with nature |
| C．learning more about wildlife |
| D．teaching children how to make full use of their spare time |
The underlined part “to get children muddy and bright－eyed” in Paragraph 9 means “________ ”．
| A．to make children covered with mud |
| B．to urge politicians to do more things for children |
| C．to encourage children to take part in outdoor activities |
| D．to help children identify common species |
Which of the following could be the best title for the passage?
| A．A new campaign |
| B．Fewer screens, more play outdoors |
| C．A newly formed Wild Network |
| D．Children get to know wild things |
Some inventions are so useful, but seem so simple, that we wonder why no one thought of them long ago.
Post-it Notes were invented about twenty years ago by Art Fry, a scientist at 3M Company. The idea for the product came from an awful experience he often had while singing in his church choir. Fry used pieces of paper as bookmarks to mark the places in his book of songs, but these bookmarks were always falling out. Around that time, Fry heard about a new adhesive (粘合剂) that a colleague, Dr. Spence Silver, had created. This adhesive was special because it was strong enough to hold papers together, but not strong enough to tear the paper when it was removed.
A short time later, Fry realized that his new invention had even more uses than being a great bookmark. He came to this realization when he wrote a note on one of his new “bookmarks” and attached it to a report he was going to give to a colleague. Soon, co-workers were asking Fry for more of his invention so that they could use the new type of notes themselves.
Fry and some other people at 3M believed so much in the new product that they asked the company to give away thousands of the “sticky pieces of paper” for trial use. When some salespeople at 3M went to offices and showed workers just how helpful the new type of notes could be, they immediately received many orders. As more and more people discovered how useful Post-it Notes could be, the product took off.How did Dr. Spence help Art Fry?
| A．He created the Post-it Notes. |
| B．He offered the new adhesive to Art. |
| C．His adhesive made Art’s invention possible. |
| D．He often worked and discussed science with Art. |
Which of the following is a possible use of Post-it Notes?
| A．A note on a friend’s door |
| B．An ad in a newspaper. |
| C．A postcard from abroad. |
| D．An e-mail to a friend. |
Which of the following shows the proper order of the events?
a. The company gave away many “sticky pieces of paper” for people to try.
b. Dr. Spence created a new adhesive.
c. Many orders were received and the Post-it Notes became successful.
d. Fry invented Post-it Notes.
e. His colleagues began to use the new types of notes themselves.
| A．d b a e c | B．b a e d c |
| C．d e a b c | D．b d e a c |
In which column of a newspaper can we read this passage?
| A．Economy | B．Recreation |
| C．Science | D．Culture |
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