“If you want to see a thing well, reach out and touch it!”
That may seem a strange thing to say. But touching things can help you to see them better.
Your eyes can tell you that a glass ball is round. But by holding it in your hands, you can feel how smooth and cool the ball is. You can feel how heavy the glass is. When you feel all these about the ball, you really see it. With your skin, you can feel better. For example, your fingers can tell the difference between two coins in your pocket. You can feel a little drop of water on the back of your hand, too. You can even feel sounds against your skin. Have you ever wanted to know why some people like very loud music? They must like to feel the sounds of music.
All children soon learn what “Don't touch!”means. They hear it often. Yet most of us keep on touching things as we grow up. In shops, we touch things we might buy: food, clothes. To see something well, we have to touch it. The bottoms of our feet can feel things, too. You know this when you walk on warm sand, cool grass or a hard floor. All feel different under your feet.
There are ways of learning to see well by feeling. One way is to close your eyes and try to feel everything that is touching your skin. Feel the shoes on your feet, the clothes on your body, the air on your skin. At first, it is not easy to feel these things. You are too used to them!
Most museums are just for looking. But today some museums have some things to touch. Their signs say, “Do touch!” There you can feel everything on show.
If you want to see better, reach out and touch. Then you will really see!By touching things, .
| A．you will have a strange feeling |
| B．you will learn how to reach out your hand |
| C．you can learn more about them |
| D．you can tell what colors they really are |
Which of the following can be the best title of the story?
| A．Touching by Feeling | B．To See or to Feel |
| C．To See Better—Feel | D．Ways of Feeling |
Which of the following parts can tell you the difference between two coins in your pocket?
| A．Your fingers. | B．Your eyes. | C．Your skin. | D．Your back. |
What can't your skin feel according to the passage?
| A．Sounds. | B．Darkness. | C．Water. | D．Coins. |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Touching is helping us to see better. |
| B．Our skips may help us enjoy music. |
| C．People don't have to learn to feel. |
| D．Visitors can't feel the things on show in any museums. |
Jasmine Meyers had the last laugh when the ocean swallowed her SUV Monday morning and brought it up an hour later, damaged, on the beach. Meyers was staying in Campbell River’s Eagles Nest Motel（汽车旅馆）during the wild storm that attacked the east coast of Vancouver Island early this week.
“We woke up to my mom screaming ‘Your car! Your car! Your car’s about to go in the water,’”she said Wednesday.
She’d parked her car in the hotel’s parking lot that she described as a sort of a sea wall.
The storm that swept throughout coastal areas hit extra hard in the Campbell River area.
At about 8:30 am the bank below the parking lot gave way. Huge waves caught hold of the Toyota and took it into the water.
Her mother took pictures while the terrible waves pulled the car out to sea. Then Meyers and her family members could only watch helplessly as the car was struck and pushed around in front of the hotel.
“It floated around out there for about an hour.”
Then the ocean spit the car back up on the beach. Meyers said it sat there until Wednesday, when a tow truck finally recovered the destroyed car.
That’s the crazy part of the story. The fun part is what happened next.
“I went mad,” said Meyers. “I didn’t cry because I knew that I had insurance, but I went mad and I didn’t know what to do.”
Yeah, insurance: not just insurance, but replacement insurance.
“Replacement insurance only ever lasts for three years,”said Meyers. “Mine ends on Nov.22 I would have been crying if it had been 10 days later.”Who witnessed the disaster first according to the passage?
| A．Jasmine Meyers. |
| B．Jasmine Meyers’ husband |
| C．Jasmine Meyers’ mom |
| D．The hotel manager |
What can we learn about the motel from the passage?
| A．It has a large car park. |
| B．It is not far away from the coast. |
| C．It sells cars and insurance. |
| D．It can stand a storm. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Jasmine is very brave. |
| B．The car is very expensive |
| C．The mother enjoys taking pictures |
| D．The insurance company will pay for Jasmine’s loss |
Our environment isn’t as green and beautiful as it should be. There are steel monsters blocking out the sun, blowing out dangerous smoke, and letting out poisonous chemicals into rivers, cars producing harmful waste gas, people throwing out waste in a wrong way and all other kinds of sources that ruin the planet. Facing current environmental problems, people need to do their best to save the Earth.
You can see many big garbage dustbins in the streets. They’re not there for a show, but for you to drop your waste. We should realize that what a little we do does count. So next time you get that urge to throw gum or a chocolate package out of the car window, or “ accidentally” drop as you walk down the street, ask yourself how much waste you’ve been contributing to the environment with that bad habit going on for years.
At home, the first thing we can do to protect the environment is avoid letting water run continuously and make sure that taps（水龙头）are not leaky（泄露的），which would help greatly in scrimping. Another is to use energy-saving lights, and turn them off before you leave the rooms. It’s not only energy-saving, but also cuts down electricity costs.
Recycling is a method to make items reusable. Many things you want to throw out can be made into new products through the reproducing process. Use your imagination to come up with ways on things that you can use again.
Pass the message of simple ways to save the environment on to kids. Starting with kids is a good way of teaching the message early in their lives, in the hope that they can carry it forward as they grow older.
With environmental protection awareness in mind, we can do what we can, for the results are to have a big effect on the planet. As long as we do our part, the world is one small step closer to being saved.The underlined word “scrimping” in the third paragraph can be replaced by _____.
| A．saving | B．cleaning |
| C．cooking | D．drinking |
From the fifth paragraph, we can know that ________.
| A．protecting the environment begins with small chores |
| B．protecting the environment should start from childhood. |
| C．wonderful life comes from environmental protection |
| D．protecting the environment benefits the country and the people |
Which of the following isn’t true?
| A．The more people do their part, the greener the environment will be. |
| B．Selling what you don’t want any more is a kind of recycling. |
| C．To protect the environment may help you save some money. |
| D．Your bad habits for the environment are a valuable contribution. |
Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
| A．The Use of Garbage Dustbin |
| B．How to Save Water and Electricity |
| C．How to Save the Environment |
| D．Our Current Environmental Problems |
A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package: What food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Retreating（撤退） to the farmyard, the mouse declared the warning, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house.”
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me, I cannot be bothered by it.”
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so sorry, Mr Mouse,” sympathized the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, “A mouse trap, am I in grave danger, huh?”
So the mouse returned to the house, head down and depressed to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was an evil snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knew to treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.We may infer that the passage is most probably a ______.
| A．fairy tale | B．fable |
| C．science fiction | D．news report |
We could see from the passage that the mouse was ______.
| A．kind and warm-hearted | B．well-informed |
| C．good at cheating others | D．foolish and rude |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The pig was comparatively less friendly than the others in the farmyard. |
| B．The mouse trap that the mouse discovered was not a practical one. |
| C．The farmer and his wife trapped an evil snake that night. |
| D．The farmer’s family was in fact poor and they had no friends. |
The underlined word “ingredient” (Paragraph 7) refers to ______.
| A．the mouse | B．the pig |
| C．the snake | D．the chicken |
Studies have documented that smiling is a universal and effective way to lift mood. But in the latest research on the power of the smile, researchers led by Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol in England found that even seeing smiles on the faces of others can have a profound effect on a person's tendency toward violence or aggression — that is, as long as that person recognizes the smile as one of happiness, and not as a sneer (讥笑)．
Munafo and his colleagues conducted a series of experiments involving normal adults and highly aggressive teens referred to a youth program, either by educational authorities or the courts. About 70% of the teens already had a criminal record.
In the first experiment, 40 healthy adults, aged 1830, looked at facial expressions on the computer ranging from happy to angry with increasingly difficult ones to discern in between. Participants were asked how angry they felt and then had to rate the images as displaying either happiness or anger — there was no option for “unclear” or “unable to tell”. From these ratings, the scientists could generate a score of their preference toward happiness or anger.
Previous research found that aggressive people — including violent offenders — tend to consider even a common expression as an unfriendly one. “You looking at me？” can easily turn a simple question into a tragic fight.
Based on their original scores, half of the participants were then told by the computer that some of the unclear faces that they had rated as angry should have been scored as happy. This was intended to guide them toward judging the inbetween faces more positively. The other 20 received feedback that simply proved their first choices, creating a control group.
After this training, both groups were tested again and the group that received the biased (有偏见的) feedback shifted its ratings of unclear faces toward the happy side. Participants were also asked to rate their level of angry feelings again after completing the second round of testing. Those who were trained to consider unclear faces as happier reported feeling less angry afterward.
The researchers next focused on the 46 adolescents from the high risk youth program. These teens completed the same testing, but both the youth and the staff reported on the teens' levels of aggressive behavior before the testing started and for two weeks afterward. The teens trained to interpret unclear facial expressions more positively were significantly less aggressive two weeks later.
“The results of our experiments strongly suggest that the understanding of emotional facial expressions plays a causal role in subjective anger and aggressive behavior，”the authors conclude.
That doesn't mean that smiles alone are the answer to violence among adolescents — previous research in which antisocial youth were trained to better recognize emotions, for example, did not have any effect on their level of aggressive behavior. But this earlier study focused on improving teens' understanding of clear facial signals, not unclear ones. Since unclear signals are more likely to be misunderstood, it may be that violent behavior in some youth exists with their constant misunderstanding of angry expressions where they don't exist, which push them to aggressive responses. The findings suggest that helping young people, particularly those easy to be violent, to learn to give others the benefit of the doubt when they see what they think is a threatening face could help end the vicious (恶性的) cycle of violence.The underlined word “discern” (Paragraph 3) means ________.
| A．display obviously | B．identify clearly |
| C．describe correctly | D．value properly |
According to Munafo's research, the anger and violent behavior in some youths resulted from ____.
| A．their misunderstanding of facial emotions of others |
| B．their lack in knowledge of emotion recognition |
| C．their inborn tendency toward violence or aggression |
| D．their experience of being offended by others on purpose |
The method Munafo and his colleagues used in their research is ________.
| A．field investigation |
| B．case study |
| C．observation and analysis |
| D．experiment and comparison |
What happens to the participants after receiving certain feedbacks?
| A．They can interpret unclear facial expressions. |
| B．They put an end to their aggressive behavior. |
| C．They tend to judge the inbetween faces positively. |
| D．It makes no difference in their level of aggressive behavior. |
Which of the following will Munafo and his group probably agree with?
| A．Just smile as much as possible. |
| B．Misunderstanding is the root of violence. |
| C．Seeing smiles can lower aggression. |
| D．Control our anger to avoid violence and aggression. |
Since the beginning of the year, smog has covered parts of North China. In January, Beijing saw only five days without smog. The rising PM2.5 readings terrified many people, and some health experts said that whenever the smog gets serious, hospitals receive more patients suffering acute respiratory (呼吸系统) and heart diseases.
Later, news of polluted underground water in some provinces scared people who wondered whether the water they drink is safe.
So the need to emphasize environmental protection while developing the economy is heard everywhere.
Smog is especially a common concern. As a popular online post said, air may be the only thing that is equal for everyone, despite your income or profession. People with higher incomes are able to drink only bottled spring water and eat only organic food by paying higher prices, but they breathe the same air as everyone else.
At a meeting on Monday, many representatives have expressed their concerns about the air quality, too. One talked about his experience in Beijing. “After taking a taxi from the capital airport to my hotel, which took about an hour, I washed my nose and found the inside of my nose was black. We should ask ourselves this question: Why do we want to develop? It's for living a better life. Dirty air is definitely not a better life，” he said.
China needs to develop its economy and invest (投资) in hightech. Every Chinese has a dream to make China stronger. But without blue sky, clean water and safe food, the achievements in the economy will become meaningless. Space technologies are not to be developed for building a base on Mars so that one day all human beings can move to the red planet because they have destroyed Earth.
What the public wants is a strong and beautiful China. The great efforts must be made to promote ecological progress and build a beautiful China. The words have shown the central government's determination to address the environment issue.The effect of smog doesn't include ________.
| A．the rising of PM2.5 readings |
| B．more people suffering diseases |
| C．the increase of people's income |
| D．patients increased in hospital |
Why has smog become a common concern?
| A．Because people have to pay higher prices. |
| B．Because nobody can avoid it. |
| C．Because we have to develop industry. |
| D．Because a popular onlinepost discussed it. |
To make China stronger we have to develop economy, but ________.
| A．we have to sacrifice air as the price |
| B．the dirty air is not what we want |
| C．ecological progress can be ignored |
| D．the smog is the only byproduct |
From the last two paragraphs we can infer that ________.
| A．hightech can completely solve the problem of pollution |
| B．space technologies should be developed in a large scale |
| C．we can move to Mars after the earth has been destroyed |
| D．we must protect the environment while developing economy |
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