We live in a sweet world. The average American kid eats more than 20 teaspoons of sugar per day, and adults eat 50% more sugar today than they did in the 1970s. We all know that too much sugar isn’t good for you. But did we know it could be dangerous? A team of researchers at the University of Utah used mice to do a study on the bad effects of sugar. They found it could have serious effects on people’s health.
Sugar is found not only in sweets and candies, but also in many household items like pasta and crackers.
During the 58-week-long study, mice were fed a diet containing 25% more sugar. This percentage equals a healthy human diet along with three cans of soda daily. The team found that these mice were twice as likely to die as mice fed a similar diet without the sugar. Though the mice did not show signs of obesity or high blood pressure, male mice produced 25% fewer offspring (后代) than the other mice.
Scientists often use mice for research because they have a similar genetic (基因) structure to humans. “Since most substances (物质) that are dangerous in mice are also dangerous in people, it’s likely that those physical problems that cause those mice to have increased deaths also work in people,”says study author James Ruff of the University of Utah. Findings from this study show bad effects that are not as noticeable as weight gain or heart problems. Sugar can contribute to long-term changes in the body that can change development and even shorten lives.
Cutting sugar out of the American diet altogether may be difficult. But making the effort to control our nation’s sugar need will provide for a truly sweeter future.The study done by researchers aimed at learning about________
| A．the advantages and disadvantages of sugar |
| B．the bad effects of sugar on people’s health |
| C．the genetic structure of mice |
| D．American’s eating habit. |
According to the study, which of the following statements is wrong?
| A．Sugar can even shorten lives. |
| B．Sugar’s bad effects are not noticeable. |
| C．Eating much more sugar can make mice put on weight and get high blood pressure. |
| D．Mice are more likely to die when fed a diet containing 25% more sugar. |
From the passage we can infer_______
| A．sugar plays a very important role in Americans’ diet |
| B．kids eat more sugar than adults in America |
| C．the study on human beings lasted 58 weeks |
| D．the genetic structure of mice is totally different from that of people |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Living a sweet life | B．Kids eat much more sugar |
| C．Genetic structure of humans | D．Danger of too much sugar |
According to a study by SallieMae, 84 percent of undergraduate students have credit cards, and by the time they are seniors, they have accumulated US＄4,100 in debt, on top of whatever student loans they may have taken out.
Credit cards are the most convenient form of payment, and they are aggressively marketed to college students. Reportedly, a typical college student carries 4.6 credit cards and US＄3,173 in credit card debt.
Credit cards seem to be a fact of life, not just student life. In the long term, using a credit card properly and paying off the balance can help establish a card history and increase your credit score, which will come in handy when you need an important loan, for a house or car, for example. Your credit score can affect even unrelated things like insurance rates. Credit cards also offer more protection for users than debit cards （借记卡）.Under federal law, the credit card holder is only responsible for the first US＄50 in fraudulent(欺诈的)purchases in cases of theft or loss. However, debit card users are responsible for the first US＄500.
SallieMae found some good news in the fact that two thirds of students had discussed credit issues with their parents, but 84 percent said they needed more information. Those who didn’t get any guidance were more likely to be surprised when they found out how much they owed.
While credit cards offer the easiest access to money, they make it easy to live outside your means. Less than a fifth of students surveyed paid off their balance every month, and carrying a balance brings finance charges, sometimes at a very high interest rates.
SallieMae found that almost 40 percent of students chose their first credit card based on direct mail, which is probably why students get credit card offers in the mail. But when the credit card offers flow in, be sure that you read the fine print. Offers of low or no interest rates can disappear, leaving you a debt that climbs beyond your ability to pay it off. What does the first paragraph imply?
| A．Most of the senior students are shocked to see how much they owed. |
| B．Students can only take out loans from credit cards. |
| C．Most of students’ loans come from credit cards. |
| D．Credit cards have a bad effect on college students. |
The underlined part “come in handy” in the third paragraph probably means “_______”.
| A．bring trouble | B．make mistakes | C．be important | D．be useful |
According to SallieMae, what is the possible reason why students get so many credit card offers in the mail?
| A．Many students’ first credit card is based on direct mail. |
| B．It costs the banks little to mail out credit cards. |
| C．Students don’t like to go to the bank to open a credit card account. |
| D．Banks have no other way to let students use their credit cards. |
What is the theme of the third paragraph?
| A．The advantages of using debit cards. |
| B．The similarities between credit cards and debit cards. |
| C．The advantages of using credit cards. |
| D．Credit cards are the most convenient form of payment. |
The largest campaign of killing rats in history is set to poison millions of rats on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. Scientists say the campaign planned for 2013 and 2014 will restore beautiful South Georgia to the position it once held as the world’s most important nesting sites for seabirds.
It was sailors in the late 18th century who unintentionally introduced rats to what had been a fresh environment. “If we can destroy the rats, at least 100 million birds will return to their home on South Georgia,” says Tony Martin, a biology professor at the University of Dundee who was invited to lead the project.
South Georgia is by far the largest island to get rid of animals that destroy native wildlife after being introduced deliberately or accidentally by people. Though rats and mice have done the most damage, cats, foxes, goats, deer, rabbits and other species have been targeted in the campaigns around the world.
South Georgia is seven times the size of New Zealand’s Campbell Island, currently the largest area ever killing rats. The successful war against Campbell Island rats was carried our in 2001 with 132 tons of poison dropped from five helicopters.
“New Zealand pioneered the techniques for ridding islands of rats and in fact our operation on South Georgia is based on New Zealand’s technology.” Says Martin. “Some New Zealanders will be helping our campaign, including our chief pilot, Peter Garden, who was also chief pilot for the projects at Campbell Island and Rat Island, in the Aleutian chain of the north Pacific.”
The second and third stages in 2013 and 2014 will involve dropping as much as 300 tons of poison from the air onto every part of the island where rats might live. It is a huge operation, carried out during the stormy southern autumn when the rats are hungry and the risks of poisoning native wildlife are less than in the spring and summer months. “Ideally we’d do in winter but the weather makes that too risky,” Martin says.
The ecological payback will be priceless. But Martin says, “The full benefits will take decades to arrive, because some of these birds are slow to hatch.”According to the passage, how did the rats appear on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia ?
| A．They were attracted there by wildlife. |
| B．They escaped there from Campbell Island. |
| C．They were introduced there by sailors accidently. |
| D．They were brought in by people deliberately. |
Which of the following is True about Peter Garden ?
| A．He is in charge of the campaign on the sub-Antarctic island. |
| B．He will be the only pilot for the project on the sub-Antarctic island. |
| C．He will benefit a lot from the campaign on the sub-Antarctic island. |
| D．He made great contributions to the project at Campbell Island and Rat Island. |
The operation of ridding South Georgia of rats is to carried out in autumn because _________.
| A．the war against Campbell Island rats failed in all seasons except autumn. |
| B．only then do the New Zealanders to help the operation have the spare time. |
| C．rats then need more food and the operation does less harm to native wildlife. |
| D．the poison kills rats more effectively than it does in any other season. |
What can we infer from the passage?.
| A．The campaign of killing rats will benefit the native wildlife in a short time. |
| B．Rats aren’t the only species to be blamed for the disappearance of wildlife. |
| C．The first stage of killing rats on the sub-Antarctic island didn’t make great achievements. |
| D．The campaign in South Georgia will fully follow in the footsteps of that on Campbell Island. |
I opened my new patient's chart and headed for her room. My son, Eric, had just brought home a disappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver's license. For the next eight hours I wanted to throw myself into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did. Rebekah, mother of three lovely little girls, was only 32, admitted for chemotherapy after breast-cancer surgery, When I gave her an injection, Rebekah shut her eyes tightly and murmured a prayer until it was over. Then she smiled and squeezed my hand. “Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. "Jesus wept. John 11: 35." "Such a sad one," she said. "Why?""It makes me feel closer to Jesus, knowing he also experienced human sorrow." Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and started flipping through her Bible as I shut the door quietly behind me.
During the following months, her hospital stays became frequent and she worried about her children. One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a notebook and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughters, " she said. I read the list on her pad: starting school, confirmation, turning 16, first date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, she was planning for her children's future. She usually waited until the early hours of the morning to record the tapes so she could be free from interruptions. She filled them with family stories and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few precious hours. Finally, every item in her notes had been checked off and she entrusted the tapes to her husband.
I often wondered what I would say in her place. My kids joked that I was like an FBI agent, with my constant questions about where they’d been and who they’d been with. Where, I thought, are my words of encouragement and love?
It was three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hospital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. She was breathing hard when I entered her room. I slipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lips. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly, this is the most important tape." She held my hand and closed her eyes. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Please make her feel special. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tuesday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat sauce on your spaghetti. Molly, don't get mad if there's no apple juice. Drink something else. It's okay to be sad, sweeties. Jesus cried too. He knows about sadness and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll always love you. I shut off the recorder and Rebekah sighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan, "You'll give this one to them, won't you?" she murmured as she slid into sleep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah's children, but right then, after I smoothed Rebekah's blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon also liked her sauce on the side and suddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me so many times, seemed to make her so much more precious. That night the kids didn't go out; they sat with me long after the spaghetti sauce had dried onto the dishes. And we talked, without interrogations, without complaints，late into the night.From the first paragraph we can learn that ____________ .
| A．Nan was in a bad state and wept a lot in her daily life. |
| B．Nan was not on good terms with her children. |
| C．Nan was worried about how to help Rebeka deal with her death. |
| D．Nan laid more stress on attending on her patients than her children. |
Which of the following scenes was most likely to be seen at Nan’s home before she met Rebekah?
| A．The family sat down in a circle and shared an interesting story. |
| B．After dinner, the children either went out or shut themselves up in their rooms. |
| C．The son was the headache of the parents while the daughter their comfort. |
| D．When Eric did poorly at school, the parents comforted him and cheered him up. |
Which was the most vital message Rebekah left to her children?
| A．Bringing home satisfying school report cards |
| B．Landing a job after graduation |
| C．Growing up healthily and happily |
| D．Accepting their step-mother into their lives. |
The writer learnt from Rebekah that a parent’s real concern should be_______. .
| A．protecting the children from the dangers they may be trapped in. |
| B．having encouraging and loving talks with children. |
| C．making tape records to guide the children in their future lives. |
| D．tolerating the children’s annoying quirks. |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas;
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（使孤立）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
What does the underlined sentence in paragraph one mean?
| A．Before you select your job, you should assess your skills and match them with your position |
| B．There are more important things than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
| C．Nothing is important than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job. |
| D．You should ignore your skills when you select job. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design. | B．Changes. | C．Cooperation. | D．Hobbies. |
There is no doubt that Apple is well aware of the increased competition in the market and could be in a hurry to put another product out there, said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC Mobile Devices Technology and Trends. Given its history with product launches and business policy, though, Apple probably isn’t going to rush an iPhone release simply to put it on shelves, he said.
“If you’re Tim Cook (CEO of Apple), you’re thinking if you want to pay more attention to how to keep growing that bottom line and keep investors(投资人) happy, or continue with the same approach from Apple, which is do what we can do and manage products and releases in the best way they can work for us. Apple usually does things in their own time, and I’m having a hard time buying this May or June timeline.” Llamas told Mac News World.
While it’s probable that Apple is surely in a testing stage for its next smartphone, consumers likely have a standard wait for the finished product, said Colin Gibbs, analyst at GigaOm Pro.
“It typically takes a year or longer to create a state-of-the-art smartphone, so no one should be surprised Apple is in the testing stages with the next iPhone. And while it’s possible that Apple could launch the next iPhone this spring or summer, I’m not expecting to see it until a little later in the year,” he told Mac News World.
When it does launch, though, it could be in a variety of colors, said Gibbs. “Apple has already tested the waters with releasing colored products when it revamped (更新，翻新）its iPod line last fall, so it is understood that it would want the new change with its smartphone, as well”.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the new iPhone becomes available in some new colors,’’ he said. “That could be done pretty cheaply, and it would give Apple a new marketing angle.”According to Ramon Llamas, Apple always ______.
| A．tries to please its investors |
| B．rushes to put new products to market |
| C．ignores the fierce market competition |
| D．does things as planned |
As for the next iPhone, Colin Gibbs didn’t mention ______.
| A．the stage of its being tested |
| B．the rough time of its being released |
| C．the function to be improved |
| D．the wide variety of its color |
What’s Colin Gibbs’ attitude towards the next iPhone?
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent (漠不关心的). | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
This passage is presented in the form of ______.
| A．stories | B．comments | C．advertisements | D．debates |
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