February 16, 2014（VOA）JAKARTA — The United States and China say they recognize the need for "urgent action" to address the twin challenges of climate change and the air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for greater political will to address a warming planet.
China is the leading producer of greenhouse gases and joins the United States as the largest consumers of energy. So U.S. officials say the world's two biggest economies agreeing to limit emissions and promote energy efficiency in buildings and industry "sends a strong message to the world" that this is an issue that needs to be addressed now.
Following that agreement with Chinese leaders, Secretary Kerry told an audience in Indonesia that Washington hopes this "unique partnership" with Beijing will help set an example for global leadership and global seriousness on climate change.
Kerry Warns About Global Climate Change
"Together we account for roughly 40 percent of the world’s emissions. But this is not just about China and the United States," Kerry said. "It is about every country on Earth doing whatever it can to pursue cleaner and healthier energy sources.
Kerry said scientific evidence compels the world to act.
"It is not a lack of ability that is the problem," Kerry said. "It is a lack of political resolve that is standing in our way.
The European Union is calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says that target is ambitious and affordable.
"It shows that we are beyond debate where we either have to be green or a defender of industry," Barroso said. "We believe these two issues are not contradictory, but can perfectly go together if handled smartly.
Some European parliamentarians and some environmentalists believe the carbon reduction goals do not do enough to encourage cleaner energy. Jason Anderson heads European climate and energy policy for the World Wildlife Fund.
"We want to make sure that they do not put the brakes on the energy transition that we are seeing now," Anderson said. "Their ambitions for renewable energy would actually slow down the pace of change, which it is completely senseless as it is one of those areas of the economy that is growing right now.
Kerry's climate speech was the first in a series of events meant to focus on cutting carbon emissions before talks in Paris next year on coming up with a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which was never ratified by the United States. （www.voa.com）419European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso believes that________.
| A．The European Union accounts for 40 percent of the world’s emissions. |
| B．we either have to be green or a defender of industry. |
| C．we have to be green and a defender of industry if handled smartly. |
| D．the carbon reduction goals do not do enough to encourage cleaner energy. |
What is the main idea of the news report?
| A．China and the United States will join hands to protect the environment. |
| B．The United States is the largest consumers of energy. |
| C．Kerry Warns About Global Climate Change |
| D．The European Union’s target is ambitious and affordable. |
According to the passage, China _______.
| A．is the largest consumers of energy. |
| B．is taking effective measures to limit emissions and promote energy efficiency. |
| C．is the unique partnership with the United States on carbon reduction. |
| D．is calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030. |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that________.
| A．the United States didn’t ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. |
| B．the United States will not attend the meeting to be held in Paris. |
| C．the United States will ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol in Paris. |
| D．the United States will show active attitudes to the climate change and the air pollution. |
For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship（实习）. In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between. Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.
In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable（易受影响的）kids with no jobs and no skills.
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.
However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting (使人气馁的). In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to-19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row.
“The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job.” said Michael, a researcher in the US.In the author’s opinion, American high school leavers__________.
| A．have enough career-related courses |
| B．need more career advice from their schools |
| C．perform better in exams than German students |
| D．can get higher earnings in later years |
According to Robert Schwartz, _________.
| A．there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US |
| B．students should get contact with the working world at high school |
| C．education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams |
| D．teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience |
What can be learned from the text?
| A．Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment. |
| B．Students with career-based courses never have problems finding a job. |
| C．US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment. |
| D．High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job absolutely |
What’s the main idea of the text?
| A．Arguments about recent US education reform. |
| B．Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers. |
| C．The lack of career-based courses in US high schools. |
| D．Advice for American high school leavers. |
Switzerland is the best place to be born in the world in 2013, and the US is just 16th. A new study produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit says American babies will have a dimmer future than those born in Hong Kong, Ireland and even Canada. The EIU, a sister company of The Economist, attempted to measure how well countries will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in years to come.
People born in Switzerland will tend to be the happiest and have the best quality of life judged in terms of wealth, health and trust in public institutions, according to the analysis. The Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark also all make the top five in a “quality-of-life” index（指数）where it is best to be born next year.
One of the most important factors is being rich, but other factors come into play including crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life. In total, the index takes into account 11 factors. These include fixed factors such as geography, others that change slowly over time such as demography（人口学）social and cultural characteristics, and the state of the world economy. The index also looks at income per head in 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood. Small economies dominate the top 10 countries, with Australia coming second and New Zealand and the Netherlands not too far behind.
Half of the top 10 countries are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro-zone. The crisis-ridden south of Europe, including Greece, Portugal and Spain, falls behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate. Interestingly, the largest European economies - Germany, France and Britain — do not do particularly well. Nigeria has the unenviable title of being the worst country for a baby to enter the world in 2013.According to the passage, the happiest people live in .
| A．Denmark | B．Switzerland | C．Germany | D．Nigeria |
The factors of telling the best place to be born don’t include .
| A．economy | B．geography |
| C．trust in public institutions | D．pollution |
From the passage, we know .
| A．the Economist Intelligence Unit is a company |
| B．the Economist attempted to measure the best place to live |
| C．the Scandinavian countries are hardly at the top of the list |
| D．half of the top 10 countries are from the euro-zone |
The purpose of the text is to show people .
| A．the best place to be born in 2013 |
| B．a new study made by the EIU |
| C．the worst country to be born in 2013 |
| D．the factors of measuring the best place to be born |
Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: international contests encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred. There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sports encourage international brotherhood. Not only was there the incident of tragedy involving murders of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by lesser incidents caused principally by minor national contests.
One country received its second-place medals with visible anger after the hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, as the losers disagreed with the final decisions. They believed that one of their goals should have been allowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was in great anger when he said: “This isn’t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished.” The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension(停赛) of the team for at least three years.
The American basketball team announced that they would not yield first place to Russia, after a disputable(有争议的) end to their contest. The game had ended in disorder. It was thought at first that the United States had won by a single point, but it was announced that there were three seconds still to play. A Russian player then threw the ball from one end of the court to the other, and another player popped it into the basket. It was the first time the US had ever lost an Olympic basketball match. An appeal jury (评审委员会) debated the matter for four and a half hours before announcing that the result would stand. The American players then voted not to receive the silver medals.
Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages aggressive patriotism (爱国主义).According to the author, recent Olympic Games have _______.
| A．created goodwill between the nations |
| B．hardly showed any international friendship |
| C．caused only false national pride |
| D．led to more and more misunderstanding and hatred |
What did the manager mean by saying, “...Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished”?
| A．Hockey and the Federation are ruined by the unfair decisions. |
| B．His team would no longer take part in international games. |
| C．There should be no more hockey matches organized by the Federation. |
| D．The Federation should be ended. |
The basketball example implied that _______.
| A．too much patriotism was displayed in the incident |
| B．the announcement to make the match last longer was wrong |
| C．the appeal jury was too hesitant in making the decision |
| D．the American team was right in receiving the silver medals |
Which statement best summarizes this passage?
| A．Athletes should compete as individuals. |
| B．Different teams often have disputes when fighting for the first place. |
| C．Any team that has disrespectful behavior should be suspended. |
| D．The organization of the Olympic Games must be improved. |
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority —someone who actually knows something —and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.Why does the author compare the parent teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ___ ___.
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war |
| C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship |
Here is a true story about a famous man who worked in the White House and a criminal. They once faced the same thing: their mother gave them apples when they were young.
The criminal said: one day, my mother brought some apples and asked my brother and me: “Which one do you want?” “The reddest and biggest one,” my little brother said. My mother stared at him and said to him angrily: “You should learn to give the good things to others; you shouldn’t always think of yourself.” Seeing this, I suddenly changed my idea and then said to my mother: “Mum, please give me the smaller one and give the bigger one to my little brother.” Hearing my words, my mother was very happy. She kissed me on my face and gave the reddest and biggest apple to me as a prize. From then on, I learned to tell lies, fight, steal and rob. In order to get what I wanted, I played hard. As a result, I was sent into prison.
The famous man from the White House said: One day, my mother brought some apples. She said to my brother and me: “You all want the reddest and biggest one, right? Well, let’s have a competition. Now I divided the grassland in front of the gate into two and I will give one to each of you and you must shear(修剪) it well. And I will give the reddest and biggest apple to him who does it the most quickly and best.”
After the competition, I won and I got the biggest apple. In our family, as long as you want to get the best things, you must take part in competition. I think it is fair. No matter what you want, you must pay lots of efforts.The criminal got the reddest and biggest apple because .
| A．he told the truth that he wanted a smaller one |
| B．he knew how to make his mother happy from her answer |
| C．elder brother should of course have the bigger one |
| D．his mother loved him more than she loved the younger brother |
We can conclude from the passage that .
| A．it’s wrong to ask children to choose apples when they are not old enough |
| B．it’s important to make children aware that no matter what they want, they must pay work |
| C．it’s wrong to ask children not to always think of themselves |
| D．it’s always necessary to have a competition when we give children apple |
The writer tells the story by .
| A．organizing it in the order of time |
| B．making a comparison between two men |
| C．providing some scientific information |
| D．describing it in the order of space |
It is implied in the passage that .
| A．we should always try to win competitions which can bring us a lot |
| B．in order to get what we want, we should play hard |
| C．a mother’s educational method has a great influence on a child’s growing |
| D．giving children apples will lead them to become criminals |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号