To get a chocolate out of a box requires a lot of unpacking: the box has to be taken out of the paper bag in which it arrived, the cellophane (玻璃纸) wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the paper removed, the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper. But this overuse of wrapping is not limited to luxuries. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not done up in beautiful wrapping.
The package itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately. Useless wrapping accounts for much of the refuse put out by the average London house-hold each week. So why is it done? Some of it, like the cellophane on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling. This is absurd. Packaging is using up valuable energy and resources and polluting the environment.
Recycling is already happening with milk bottles which are returned to the dairies (牛奶场）, washed out, and refilled. But both glass and paper are being threatened by the growing use of plastic. More dairies are experimenting with plastic bottles.
The trouble with plastic is that it does not rot. Some environmentalists argue that the only solution to the problem of ever increasing plastic containers is to throw away plastic altogether in the shops, a suggestion unacceptable to many producers who say there is no alternative (替代品) to their handy plastic packs.
It is evident that more research is needed into the recovery and re-use of various materials and into the cost of collecting and recycling containers rather than producing new ones. Unnecessary packaging, intended to be used just once, and to make things look better so more people will buy them, is clearly becoming increasingly absurd. But it is not so much a question of throwing away packaging as using it wisely. What is needed now is a more advanced approach to using scarce resources for what is, after all, a relatively unimportant function.The underlined part “this overuse of wrapping is not limited to luxuries” in Paragraph l means ______.
| A．more wrapping is needed for ordinary products |
| B．the wrapping used for luxury products is unnecessary |
| C．more wrapping is used for luxuries than for ordinary products |
| D．too much wrapping is used for both luxury and ordinary products |
Why is packaging important to producers?
| A．It is easy to use it again. |
| B．Packaged things will not go rotten. |
| C．They want to attract more shoppers. |
| D．Shoppers are all interested in beautiful packaging. |
According to the passage, dairies are ______.
| A．reusing their paper containers |
| B．giving up the use of glass bottles |
| C．increasing the use of plastic bottles |
| D．experimenting with the use of paper bottles |
Some environmentalists think that ______.
| A．too much plastic is wasted |
| B．shops should stop using plastic containers |
| C．no alternative can be found to plastic packaging |
| D．plastic packaging should be made more convenient |
Parents whose children show a special interest in a particular sport feel it very difficult to make a decision about their children’s careers. Should they allow their children to train to become top sports men and women? For many children it means starting school work very young, and going out with friends and other interests have to take a second place. It’s very difficult to explain to a young child why he or she has to train five hours a day, even at the weekend, when most of his or her friends are playing.
Another problem is of course money. In many countries money for training is available from government for the very best young sportsmen and women. If this help can not be given, it means that it is the parents who have to find the time and the money to support their child’s development—and sports clothes, transport to competitions, special equipment, etc. can all be very expensive.
Many parents are worried that it is dangerous to start serious training in a sport at an early age. Some doctors agree that young muscles may be damaged by training before they are properly developed. Professional trainers, however, believe that it is only by training young that you can reach the top as a successful sports person. It is clear that very few people do reach the top, and both parents and children should be prepared for failure even after many years of training.This article is most probably taken from________.
| A．a letter |
| B．an advertisement |
| C．a personal diary |
| D．a newspaper article |
According to the passage, parents whose children show a special interest in a sport _______.
| A．feel uncertain if they should let their children train to be sports men or women |
| B．try to get financial（财务的）support from the government for their children’s training |
| C．have to get medical advice from doctors about training methods |
| D．prefer their children to be trained as young as possible |
The underlined phrase“to take a second place”means_________.
| A．to repeat the activities at some other place |
| B．to become less important |
| C．all things considered, they are of poor quality |
| D．to happen again |
Strange things happen when you travel, because the earth is divided into twenty-four zones. The time difference between two zones is one hour. You can have days with more than twenty-four hours and days with fewer than twenty- four hours. You can have weeks with more than seven days and weeks with fewer than seven days.
If you make a five-trip across the Atlantic Ocean , your ship come into a different time zone every day. As you come into each zone, the time changes one hour. If you travel west, you set your watch back. If you travel east, you set it ahead. Each day of your trip has either twenty-five or twenty-three hours.
If you make a trip by ship across the Pacific Ocean , you cross the International Date Line. This is the point where a new day begins when you cross the line, you change one full day. If you travel east, today becomes yesterday, if you travel west it is tomorrow.Something interesting will happen to the time if you travel because .
| A．a day has always fewer than twenty-four hours |
| B．a day has always more than twenty- four hours |
| C．a day has more or fewer than twenty-four hours, |
| D．some time zones are large and some time zones are small |
The time difference between two time zones is .
| A．twenty-four hours | B．one hour |
| C．two hours | D．twenty-three hours |
If we cross the Atlantic Ocean, we .
| A．change one full day | B．set our watch back |
| C．set our watch ahead | D．set our watch back or ahead |
If we travel east across the International Date Line on July 5th, the date becomes July .
| A．3rd | B．4th | C．5th | D．6th |
Which of the following sentences is true?
| A． If we travel around the world, we will get into trouble in telling the time. |
| B．If we travel west across the Atlantic Ocean, we will have twenty-three hours. |
| C． If we travel by ship across the Atlantic Ocean, we will cross the International Date Line. |
| D． If we travel across the Pacific Ocean, today becomes tomorrow. |
A rainforest is an area covered by tall trees with the total high rainfall spreading quite equally through the year and the temperature rarely dipping below 16℃.Rainforests have a great effect on the world environment because they can take in heat from the sun and adjust the climate. Without the forest cover, these areas would reflect more heat into the atmosphere，warming the rest of the world. Losing the rainforests may also influence wind and rainfall patterns, potentially causing certain natural disasters all over the world.
In the past hundred years, humans have begun destroying rainforests in search of three major resources (资源): land for crops, wood for paper and other products, land for raising farm animals. This action affects the environment as a whole. For example，a lot of carbon dioxide(二氧化碳)in the air comes from burning the rainforests. People obviously have a need for the resources we gain from cutting trees but we will suffer much more than we will benefit.
There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, when people cut down trees, generally they can only use the land for a year or two. Secondly, cutting large sections of rainforests may provide a good supply of wood right now, but in the long run it actually reduces the world’ s wood supply.
Rainforests are often called the world’s drug store. More than 25% of the medicines we use today come from plants in rainforests. However, fewer than 1% of rainforest plants have been examined for their medical value. It is extremely likely that our best chance to cure diseases lies somewhere in the world’s shrinking rainforests.Why did humans destroy rainforests in the past hundred years?
| A．They tried to get crops and paper |
| B．They needed other products |
| C．They wanted to raise farm animals |
| D．They aimed to get three major resources. |
Rainforests can help to adjust the climate because they________.
| A．reflect more heat into the atmosphere |
| B．bring about high rainfall throughout the world |
| C．rarely cause the temperature to drop lower than 16℃ |
| D．reduce the effect of heat from the sun on the earth |
What does the word “this” underlined in the third paragraph refer to?
| A．We will lose much more than we can gain. |
| B．Humans have begun destroying rainforests. |
| C．People have a strong desire for resources. |
| D．Much carbon dioxide comes from burning rainforests. |
It can be inferred from the text that________.
| A．we can get enough resources without rainforests |
| B．there is great medicine potential in rainforests |
| C．we will grow fewer kinds of crops in the gained land |
| D．the level of annual rainfall affects wind patterns |
What might be the best title for the text?
| A．How to Save Rainforests |
| B．How to Protect Nature |
| C．Rainforests and the Environment |
| D．Rainforests and Medical Development |
America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily. Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably. For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home! The writer of this passage must be ______.
| A．an American | B．a Chinese | C．a professor | D．a student |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families. |
| B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives. |
| C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy. |
| D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break. |
From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
| A．warmly welcomed at the airport |
| B．offered a ride to his home |
| C．treated hospitably at his home |
| D．treated to dinner in a restaurant |
The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.
| A．strict with time | B．serious with time |
| C．careful with time | D．willing to spend time |
A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
| A．Friendships between Chinese |
| B．Friendships between Americans |
| C．Americans’ hospitality |
| D．Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed. As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated on the test.The story took place exactly ____ .
| A．in the teacher’s office | B．in an exam room |
| C．in the school | D．in the language lab |
The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____ .
| A．she had not brought a pen with her |
| B．she had lost her own on her way to school |
| C．there was something wrong with her pen |
| D．her own had been taken away by someone |
The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____ .
| A．to go on writing his paper |
| B．to stop whispering |
| C．to leave the room immediately |
| D．to stay behind after the exam |
The thing(s) emphasized in the teacher’s talk was (were) ____ .
| A．honesty | B．sense of duty | C．seriousness | D．all of the above |
The boy knew everything ____ .
| A．the moment he was asked to stay behind |
| B．when the teacher started talking about honesty |
| C．only some time later |
| D．when he was walking out of the room |
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