Stuart Little Slipcase Gift Set a children’s book written by the famous author E. B. White. Stuart Little, the main character of the book, is no ordinary mouse. Born to a family of humans, he lives in New York City with his parents, his older brother George, and Snowbell the cat. Though he’s shy and thoughtful, he’s also a true lover of adventure.
He is a great help around the house, and everybody except Snowbell the cat likes him a great deal. Though he is very small, Stuart gets around in the world, riding a Fifth Avenue bus, racing (and winning in) a sailboat in Central Park, teaching school for a day, and so on. His size — just over two inches — does give him some trouble now and then, like the time he was rolled up in the window shade, or when he got dumped into a garbage scow. But on the whole, his life is a happy one.
His great adventure comes when, at the age of seven, he sets out in the world to seek his dearest friend, Margalo, a beautiful little bird who stayed for a few days in the Littles’ Boston house. It is on this search that we leave with Stuart, going north in his little car.
In this special gift-book edition of a beloved classic, renowned artist Rosemary Wells has lovingly added watercolor to the original black-and-white drawings by Garth Williams. Stuart Little, small in size only, has the spirit of a heroic figure, and his story, funny and tender and exciting by turns, will be read, reread, and loved by young and old.Stuart Little Slipcase Gift Set is a book mainly about _____.
| A．a special cat |
| B．a special family |
| C．a special bird |
| D．a special mouse |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 shows that Stuart Little _____.
| A．is too self-confident |
| B．is not really that small |
| C．likes taking adventures |
| D．doesn’t like being with his family |
According to Paragrpah 3, why does Stuart Little leave home?
| A．Because he is tired of his life at home. |
| B．Because a friend asks him to go with her. |
| C．Because he wants to find his friend Margalo. |
| D．Because he no longer wants to stay with the cat. |
What’s the difference between the old edition and the new edition of the book?
| A．The new edition has more drawings in it. |
| B．The new edition is a little shorter than the old one. |
| C．Some details have been added to the new edition. |
| D．The drawings in the new edition have been colored. |
We can most probably read this passage on a website _____.
| A．about kids’ health |
| B．selling books |
| C．about adventures |
| D．selling drawings |
Your smartphone(智能手机) can do a lot of things. It can call people. It connects to the Internet. It enables you to play fun games. But there is a dark side to this smart little device（设备）of yours – it might also spread disease.
“People are just as likely to get sick from their phones as from handles of the bathroom,” Jeffrey Cain, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told The Wall Street Journal.
This may be hard to believe, but scientists reached this conclusion after they tested eight random cell phones from an office in Chicago. All the tested phones showed high numbers of coliforms(大肠菌), a kind of bacteria found in excrement(粪便)，with about 2,700 to 4,200 units of the bacteria on each phone. In drinking water, the healthy limit is less than 1 unit per 100 ml of water. This bacteria can cause flu, pinkeye（红眼病）and diarrhea(腹泻).
Although computers, keys and pens all carry germs(细菌), our smartphones get far dirtier. They touch a lot of stuff, including our hands and the inside of our pocket or purse. We take them almost everywhere: the bus, the subway and who hasn’t played Angry Birds of Fruit Ninja while sitting on the toilet?
“Some things that we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine,” Cain said.
What’s even worse is that after the phone returns from its dirty trip, it then spends most of its time cozying up to our faces. You don’t think about how often you touch your phone to your face, do you? Our noses, mouths and ears are all warm and rich in grease（油脂）, an environment that germs really like.
Compared to traditional keypads（键盘）, touch screens transmit（传播）germs more easily to hands. According to Time magazine’s website, an expert in Australia warned that playing with iPads and iPhones at Apple stores is a health risk.
So how do you keep your smartphone clean? Alcohol is effective when used to kill germs from the back and side of your phone. But it might harm the screen. There is one simple and reliable way you can reduce the germs on your phone’s surface: wash your hands regularly.The underlined word “dark” in the first paragraph means .
| A．black | B．hopeless |
| C．unclear | D．unpleasant |
By saying “Some things we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine”, Cain meant that .
| A．people love to share their smartphones more than they realize |
| B．our personal items could be as risky to our health as public items |
| C．smartphones are used in public places more than people realize |
| D．most people don’t know how dirty their cell phones are |
Compared with traditional keypads, smartphones .
| A．make contact with our hands more often |
| B．are greasier and need more alcohol to clean |
| C．get warm more easily and are harder to clean |
| D．get much nearer to our faces |
What is the article mainly about?
| A．Tips on the use of smartphones. |
| B．Health problems caused by the use of smartphones. |
| C．The danger of coliforms infection. |
| D．The influence that smartphones have on our life. |
Just five minutes of exercise a day outdoors can improve mental health, according to a study.
Researchers from the University of Essex, UK have found that as little as five minutes of a “green activity” such as walking, gardening, cycling or farming could help to improve mood and increase self-esteem (自信).
Many studies have shown that outdoor exercise can reduce the risk of mental illness and improve a sense of well-being, but the new study, led by Jules Pretty and Jo Barton, was the first to determine how much time needed to be spent on green exercise for the benefits to show.
Barton and Pretty looked at data from 1,252 people of different ages, genders (性别) and mental health status (情况) taken from 10 studies in Britain.
They analyzed their different outdoor activities including walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming in locations such as a park, garden or nature trail (路径).
They found that the mental health changes were seen after just five minutes. With longer periods of time exercising in a green environment, the positive effects were more apparent.
Looking at men and women of different ages, the researchers found the health changes were particularly strong in the young and the mentally ill.
Green and blue
A bigger effect was seen with exercise in an area that also contained water – such as a lake or river.
“This is because historically we are drawn to water to survive and it is in our genetic (遗传的) make-up to be at one with nature,” the researchers wrote in their report.
Pretty said those who were generally inactive, or stressed, or with mental illness would probably benefit the most from “green exercise”.
“Employers, for example, could encourage staff in stressful workplaces to take a short walk at lunchtime in the nearest park to improve mental health.”
He also said exercise programs outdoors could benefit youth offenders.How is the study this article refers to different from other studies?
| A．It determined the exact amount of time needed. |
| B．It took longer to finish the research. |
| C．It involved more people. |
| D．It was led by just two researchers. |
What can we conclude from the findings of the study?
| A．Gardeners and farmers do not need “green exercise”. |
| B．Just five minutes of “green exercise” daily can help improve mental health. |
| C．Walking in a park with a lake will weaken the effect. |
| D．“Green exercise” is not suitable for the mentally ill. |
According to Pretty, _______ would probably benefit the most from “green exercise”.
| A．stressed, inactive people |
| B．office worker |
| C．youth offenders |
| D．women and children |
What is the main problem discussed in this article?
| A．Physical well-being. | B．Mental illness. |
| C．Outdoor exercise. | D．Harmony with nature. |
WHAT do you do when you feel lonely? Hide yourself away and spend your time reading, watching TV or walking around?
You might think that feeling lonely is just like feeling happy, sad or scared – that it’s just one of your various moods (情绪). That is true. However, if you let yourself be lonely for too long without dealing with it, you could be making a serious mistake.
Doctors have known for some time that feeling lonely is bad for the mind. It can lead to mental（心理的）health problems such as depression（抑郁）,stress and reduced confidence. “Being lonely means not feeling connected or cared for, it’s not about being physically alone,” Lisa Jaremka, scientist from Ohio State University, US, told Live Science in January. But there’s growing evidence that not having friends is connected with physical illness as well.
In 2006, for example, scientists studied 2,800 women who had cancer. They found that those who had few friends or family were five times more likely to die of their disease than women with many social contacts. Also, even healthy people had a better chance of falling ill if they felt left out by others, according to the BBC.
The results have scientists thinking that loneliness might hurt the immune system（免疫系统）, which protects the body from diseases.
Hoping to prove this theory, Jaremka and her research team put volunteers through a stress test. During the test, volunteers were asked to make an unprepared speech in front of a group of stony-faced people. The researchers found that volunteers who said they were lonely in their daily lives felt more stress during the test. And their blood samples showed that all the stress had managed to cause harmful changes to their immune system.
“Loneliness has been thought of in many ways as a chronic stressor（慢性增压器）--- a socially painful situation that can last for quite a long time,” explained Jaremka, who led the study.
The number of people suffering from loneliness is increasing all over the world. However, solving the problem is easier said than done. It won’t work to just “tell anyone to go out and find someone to love you”, said Jaremka. “ We need to create support networks.”If people feel lonely for a long time, .
| A．they won’t feel happy anymore |
| B．they are more likely to fall ill |
| C．they will find the feeling goes away by itself |
| D．they are more mentally harmed than physically |
What was the purpose of the stress test carried out by Jaremka’s team?
| A．To find out how people fight diseases. |
| B．To prove loneliness hurts people’s immune systems. |
| C．To see how people’s emotions change when they give unprepared speeches. |
| D．To find out the relationship between loneliness and stress. |
What makes scientists think loneliness makes the body worse at fighting diseases?
| A．Growing evidence of mental problems linked to loneliness. |
| B．Some research results about the relationship between cancer and loneliness. |
| C．Some studies showed that people who suffered from loneliness fell ill or died more easily than those who didn’t. |
| D．Different results after comparing healthy conditions of people who suffer from loneliness and those who don’t. |
We can conclude from the article that .
| A．loneliness has become the No 1 killer in the world. |
| B．loneliness is increasing due to advanced technologies. |
| C．lonely people lack the courage to make friends |
| D．much more work needs to be done to fight loneliness |
WHEN he was 11 years old, he loved fishing in the lake near his family’s house in New Hampshire.
On the day before bass (鲈鱼) season began, he and his father went fishing in the evening. He tied a small silver lure (诱饵) on his fishing rod (鱼竿) and practiced casting. The lure struck the water and caused ripples (波纹) in the black water.
When his rod bent over, he knew something huge was on the other end. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully pulled the fish in. Finally, he lifted it from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass.
The boy and his father looked at the handsome fish. The father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10pm —two hours before bass season began. The father looked at the fish, then at the boy.
“You’ll have to put it back, son.” he said.
“Dad!” cried the boy.
“There will be other fish,” said his father.
“Not as big as this one,” cried the boy.
He looked around the lake. No other fishermen or boats were anywhere around. He looked again at his father’s stern（坚决的）face. Even though no one had seen them, the boy knew that the decision was not negotiable（可商量的）.He slowly lowered the fish back into the water.
The creature swam away. The boy thought that he would never again see such a great fish.
That was 34 years ago. Today, the boy is a successful architect（建筑师）in New York City. His father’s house is still there by the lake. He takes his own son and daughters fishing there.
He has never again caught such a large fish as the one he landed that night long ago. But he does see that same fish again and again---every time he faces a question of right and wrong. His father taught him it is the practice of doing right that is difficult.
Do we do right when no one is looking?Why did the father ask the boy to put the bass back in the water?
| A．He wanted to teach him to love animals. |
| B．He didn’t want to fish bass at all. |
| C．It wasn’t bass season yet. |
| D．It was the custom to free a fish after catching it. |
We can infer that the son was _____ when his father made the decision.
| A．disappointed | B．confused |
| C．worried | D．determined |
What does the fish in the article stand for?
| A．Rewards. | B．Good lessons. |
| C．Family conflicts (冲突). | D．Right choices. |
The story mainly conveys the idea that ______.
| A．history repeats itself |
| B．opportunity seldom knocks twice |
| C．we might face difficult situations in every stage of life |
| D．whether or not anyone is watching, we should do the right thing |
Hurricane(飓风) Babette reached the northeastern United States today and caused death and destruction everywhere. The killer storm carried winds of 135 miles per hour. The high winds and heavy rains, together with the force of the Atlantic Ocean, created extremely dangerous waves. It is not yet known how many people died or were hurt in this storm, but it is said that the numbers will be very high. The damage to homes, business and crops will run into billions of dollars. Now that the storm is over, the long, slow rebuilding will begin.
With the arrival of the tornado season, the National Weather Service is again telling people how to protect themselves from these deadly storms. The winds from tornadoes are the most violent winds on earth. They can blow up to 400 miles per hour. A tornado looks like a funnel(漏斗). It is also very loud. It may sound like a train coming at you. In fact, the winds from a tornado can pick up a train and throw it around. If a tornado is seen in your area, it is very important that you protect yourself. A basement (地下室) is the safest place to go. Try to wait under a table in the basement. If your building does not have a basement, stay on the ground floor but lie flat under a bed or table. Stay away from windows. If you are outside or in your car, try to find a narrow place to lie down in.
As the area tries to deal with the worst flood of the century, there are many heartwarming stories of people helping other people. From all over the world people have sent food and clothes to help the thousands who have had to leave their homes. Many volunteers have come to help to make sandbags and use them to build walls against the overflowing river. While the result of this disaster will be terrible for many, it is beautiful to see people coming together to help others and save lives, and property (财产).What are the three short passages about?
| A．Newspaper articles about the weather. |
| B．Bad weather forecasts in newspapers. |
| C．Introduction to climate in different places. |
| D．Popular science on climate. |
We can learn from the passages that ________.
| A．Hurricane Babette damaged the northwestern coast of US |
| B．when there’s flooding, sandbags can be made and used to build wall |
| C．the National Weather Service often takes measures to protect the local people |
| D．people are often reminded of how to protect themselves from snowstorm |
What does the word “tornado ”mean?
| A．台风 | B．龙卷风 | C．洪水 | D．冰雹 |
According to the passages, a person who sees a tornado in his area, had better Not _______.
| A．stay on the ground floor but lie down under a bed |
| B．go to the basement and wait under a table |
| C．find a deep narrow place to lie down in |
| D．drive his car away as fast as possible |
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