“China now has 350 million smokers, accounting for one-third of the world total. Chinese smokers now become addicted to nicotine at the age of 19, five years earlier than the average starting age of 24 in 1997,” a report said a couple of years ago.
Of the 1.1 billion smokers all over the world. more than 800 million are in developing countries. And as the world's largest developing country, China also has the largest number of smokers.
Some frightening facts start to appear when we examine who China’s smokers are. Of the 350 million addicts, more than 100 million are under the age of 18, while more than 50 percent of male teachers and doctors are smokers.
Such a high rate of addicts among male teachers and doctors will certainly have a bad impact on the young generation.
Teachers are usually expected to be role models for students who tend to consider whatever they do is right and follow their example. It is very likely that the number of teenage smokers will increase in the near future unless measures are taken to forbid teachers from smoking in front of their students or designate schools as no-smoking zones.
What is truly puzzling is why so many doctors smoke. They are aware of the results of the habit, such as high blood pressure and lung cancer. Their example only helps justify the addiction of so many others.
If educated people set an example by stopping smoking at least in public places. it would be much easier to drive home the notion that it is uncivilized to smoke in public places.
In China, there should also be a national law to ban smoking in public places. These would make a massive contribution to cutting the number of people in China who are smoking themselves into early grave.Which of the following can serve as the best title for the passage?
| A．Time to Kick the Habit |
| B．China Bans Smoking in Public Places |
| C．Smokers in China |
| D．Make People Aware of Smoking |
In developing countries, China has the largest number of smokers, which covers .
| A．one-third of its total |
| B．one-eighth of its total |
| C．1ess than half its total |
| D．more than half its total |
In the writer's opinion, who have influenced young smokers, especially those under l8?
| A．Parents. | B．Teachers only. |
| C．Advertisements. | D．Teachers and doctors. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．In China. those who get into the habit of smoking seem to be younger and younger. |
| B．More than half of the teachers and doctors are smokers in China. |
| C．The writer suggests schools should be designated as no-smoking zones. |
| D．It is of great benefit to forbid smoking in public places. |
Dear Editor,
I have just returned home after studying for a year in Germany. But it seems that my parents don’t understand me now. They expect me to be the same person I was before I went abroad, but I’m not! Why can’t they let me be myself?
Jimmy
Hi, Jimmy,
As far as I know, people who have lived abroad often find that the adjustment （调整） to returning home is more difficult than their adjustment to living in a foreign culture. Why? We expect to have some problems when we go to a new place, speak a different language and learn the rules of a different culture ... But home? ... we know that place!
Your parents expect that the same person who boarded the airplane one year ago will be returning. Especially if they have never been abroad themselves, your parents probably won’t understand the changes that living abroad can cause in a person. On the other hand, you may have maintained (保持) an ideal mental image of your loved ones while abroad, an image that is broken into pieces when you return.
Remember you have been living a different lifestyle in your host country, and you have probably become very independent while staying there alone. Now that you’re home, you will be expected to conform （顺应） again to the lifestyle of your family. As a result, you may be upset about your parents’ involvement in your life.
Communication is the key to overcoming this problem. Tell your parents how you are feeling. Share with them information about cultural re-entry（重归）, and ask them to be patient. This does not mean that you have to forget your experience and give up everything you’ve learned! Learn to find a balance between the old and new, just as you did when first adjusting to your host country’s culture.What is Jimmy’s main purpose in writing the letter?
| A．To criticize his parents. |
| B．To ask for advice about his studies. |
| C．To complain about his parents. |
| D．To ask for help. |
What does the editor think of Jimmy’s problem?
| A．It’s unusual. | B．It’s normal. | C．It’s serious. | D．It’s interesting. |
The editor thinks that both Jimmy and his parents ______.
| A．have changed in the past year |
| B．have unrealistic expectations of each other |
| C．need to behave like they did before |
| D．need to find a balance between the good and bad |
The author suggests that ______ would help solve Jimmy’s problem.
| A．patience and trust |
| B．patience and politeness |
| C．better communication between family members |
| D．a deeper understanding of the host country’s culture |
Fourteen is not an age at which you try to earn millions of dollars. But for Bangalore boy, Suhas Gopinath, it was.
One day in August, 1999, Suhas, studying at the Air Force School in Hebbal, was surfing the Net at a cyber cafe. He happened to hit an MSN source code （源码）. That made him decide to learn more about HTML （超文本标记语言） and to design and set up his own website under the address of a US-based company, Network Solutions.
He kept updating his website, posting interesting things on it. This impressed Network Solutions and they invited him to attend a class on Web design and development. His mom and uncle criticised him for not taking his education seriously. But gradually, his dad started encouraging him and even bought him a computer and Net connection. In fact, that was his first investment in the company.
On May 14, 2000, along with friends Clifford Leslie and Binay M. N, he floated （筹资开办） his own website — www.coolhindustani.com. He did not have the money to start, for his parents refused to give him a penny. So he wrote to Network Solutions Inc. in the US and they readily agreed.
In August, the same year, he set up Globals Inc., a Web solutions and networking company, with a team of four. Now, he has 400 employees, more than 200 customers across the globe and offices in 11 countries, and he is worth over $100 million.
After finishing his high school education, he studied at Stanford University for two years. But Suhas says: “Education alone will not make a good professional （专业人员）.”When Suhas Gopinath was praised by Network Solutions, his mother ______.
| A．felt proud of his success |
| B．forbade him to enter a cyber cafe |
| C．worried about his studies |
| D．wanted to buy him a computer |
Suhas Gopinath’s website “coolhindustani” was supported by ______.
| A．his parents | B．an American company |
| C．his uncle | D．Stanford University |
In which order did the following events happen?
a. Suhas was invited by Network Solutions to attend a class.
b. Suhas set up his first website.
c. Suhas set up Globals Inc.
d. Suhas went abroad for further education.
| A．a-c-b-d | B．b-a-d-c | C．a-b-c-d | D．b-a-c-d |
What is TRUE about Globals Inc.?
| A．It is a world-class company. |
| B．It is owned by Suhas and his two friends. |
| C．It is a branch of Network Solutions. |
| D．It earns about 100 million dollars each year. |
A federal agency on Tuesday called for a ban on all cellphone use by drivers -- the most far-reaching recommendation up to now — saying its decision was based on a decade of investigations into distraction-related (与分散注意力有关的) accidents, as well as growing concerns that powerful mobile devices are giving drivers even more reasons to look away from the road.
As part of its recommendation, the National Transportation Safety Board is urging states to ban drivers from using hands-free devices, including wireless headsets. No state now has made laws to ban such activity, but the Board said that drivers faced serious risks from talking on wireless headsets, just as they do by taking a hand off the wheel to hold a phone to their ears.
However, the concern was heightened by increasingly powerful phones that people can use to send e-mails, watch movies and play games.
“Every year, new devices are being on sale.” she said. “People are attracted to update their Facebook page, to play music with cellphone, as if sitting at a desk. But they are driving a car.”
The agency based its recommendation on evidence from its investigation of numerous crashes in which electronic distraction was a major contributing factor.
Ms. Hersman said she understood that this recommendation would be unwelcome in some circles, given the number of drivers who talk and text. But she compared distracted driving to drunken driving and even smoking, which required wholesale cultural shifts to change behavior.
“It’s going to be very unpopular with some people.” she said. “We’re not here to win a popularity contest. We’re here to do the right thing. This is a difficult recommendation, but it’s the right recommendation and it is time.”
The agency’s recommendation is not required for states to adopt such a ban. And it won’t likely be agreed upon by state lawmakers who are unwillingly to anger those who have grown accustomed to using their device behind the wheel.
The ban also deserves attention because it is the first call by a federal agency to end the practice completely, rather than the partial ban that some lawmakers have put in place by allowing hands-free talking.The ban on all cellphone use by drivers was put forward ______.
| A．after a long discussion and recommendation |
| B．after about ten years’ investigation in it |
| C．because of the most powerful mobile devices |
| D．for the reason of heading away from the road |
We can know from the passage that ______.
| A．electronic distraction resulted in numerous crashes |
| B．numerous crashes were caused by drunk driving |
| C．electronic distraction contributed much to the ban |
| D．the recommendation was based on electronic distraction |
Ms Hersman thinks that distracted driving, drunken driving and smoking ______.
| A．are just common behaviors | B．can be shifted to behaviors |
| C．are behaviors to be changed | D．are just cultural behaviors |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．Cellphone Ban in Cars |
| B．Valuable Ban for Cellphones |
| C．Drivers Ban Cellphones |
| D．Cellphone Ban while Driving |
What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.
For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.
Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can’t be seen during most scans.
According to the data they presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.
This pattern of white matter loss is “similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury”, like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.
The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.The passage is most probably a______.
| A．news report | B．research report |
| C．story for soccer players | D．text for doctors |
In which way can we find the structural changes in the brain?
| A．Computerized test. | B．Questionnaire.. |
| C．Scanning. | D．M.R.I. technique. |
From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have_____.
| A．significant effect on brain | B．little effect on one’s brain |
| C．nothing to do with the brain injury | D．one’s memory improved |
The underlined word "fumbling" is closest in meaning to______.
| A．remembering | B．misunderstanding |
| C．recalling | D．missing |
After my dad died on Aug.30, 2001, my mother made sure we marked each anniversary. At first, my brothers and sister and I would travel hours to get home, but eventually we got to the point where just one or two of us would make it back to go to Mass with her and spend the day together.
The great love of her life, the man who broke up with her right before her college graduation, only to return two years later claiming he’d traveled the world and hadn’t found anyone to compare with her, remained a daily presence in her life. She spoke about him so often and kept his memory so alive that people were sometimes surprised to learn that he was gone. She took over the garden where he’d planted and made it her own.
When the 10th anniversary of his death approached, my mom began talking about it and planning for it weeks in advance. The date on her kitchen calendar was circled and marked R.I.P. (Rest in Peace). Of course she wanted all of us there and settled the dates for our coming back.
On Monday — the day before the anniversary — she went to morning Mass and walked downtown for lunch with friends, and later told my sister on the phone that she felt Dad still so close that as she was walking back home, she heard someone yell and thought, “Oh, there’s Dick.”
That evening she went out to water flowers, just as my father, 10 years before, had gone out to the garden to pick vegetables before he died. A neighbor heard the tin watering can strike the ground as she fell and hit her head. My mother died within hours, on Aug.30, 2011, the 10thanniversary. She needed to mark that anniversary, she wanted us all home and my dad had waited long enough.From the second paragraph we know that the author’s father______.
| A．traveled around the world and left her mother |
| B．left her mother first but returned two years later |
| C．had a quarrel with her before her graduation |
| D．was not the right man her mother wanted at that time |
We can infer from the passage that the author’s mother _____.
| A．knew her last day was coming on Aug.30 |
| B．kept everything of her father’s home |
| C．missed Father though he had passed away |
| D．remained a daily presence in his life |
Which of the following statements is true EXCEPT that _____.
| A．Mother died the day before the anniversary of Father’s death |
| B．Mother died in the garden as Father did ten years ago |
| C．Mother died because she fell to the ground accidentally |
| D．Mother died on the same date when Father did ten years ago |
What does the writer imply in the underlined part of the last sentence?
| A．She wanted us to stay at home. | B．Mother missed us very much. |
| C．Mother expected us to get back. | D．That day was her last day. |
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