When policy experts debate climate change solutions, they often talk about "a price on carbon." They are arguing about whether companies should pay when they put carbon pollution in the air. Proponents say that it's simple economics -- if it's free to pollute, you'll get a lot of pollution. Opponents claim it will raise the cost of energy that's produced from high carbon sources, like coal. But here's the secret that most people seem to be missing: There already is a price on carbon, and it's paid by the taxpayers.
Carbon pollution, like every other form of pollution, has an impact on the environment. Throwing waste into a river will cause the fish to die and the people who drink the water to get sick. And when you produce carbon pollution, you get climate change -- sea level rise, stronger storms, severe droughts, damage to agriculture, and more.
All of those impacts cost money. Insurance rates go up when storms get more destructive. Taxes increase when cities have to rebuild bridges and roads. Military budgets go up when droughts and population changes cause conflicts. Not to mention impacts on agriculture and health care costs.
In other words, the price on carbon is what we all pay when there is no market force to limit the pollution that causes climate change. So the debate is really about who will pay that price -- the companies who are making a profit from the fossil fuels, or the taxpayers who pick up the cost now?
Right now, we have private profit and public cost. It's just like if we allowed every business to throw its garbage in the street because it's too expensive to have it moved away properly. Does it add a little bit to your dinner check to require that restaurants dispose of their trash properly? Sure. But it would be more expensive for you if the city had to clean the streets of their garbage every day. So just like we put a "price on garbage" we need a "price on carbon pollution."
Now, a "price on carbon pollution" can mean a lot of things. You could tax companies based on the amount of carbon pollution they produce, and return the money to taxpayers. You could put a limit on how much they can produce, thereby requiring them to invest in ways to conduct business in a less polluting way.What do the policy experts argue about carbon pollution?
| A．Whether the companies should pay for it. |
| B．Whether taxpayers could get profit from it. |
| C．Who have the ability to change it. |
| D．How much should be paid for it. |
What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Some other forms of pollution |
| B．The effects of carbon pollution |
| C．The signs of carbon pollution |
| D．The way to reduce carbon pollution |
The author referred to restaurants in the passage mainly to________.
| A．prove every business doesn’t perform its duty. |
| B．warn readers to protect the environment around. |
| C．explain the damage of no policy on carbon pollution. |
| D．show some restaurants throw away their trash randomly. |
According to the passage, what does the “price on carbon pollution” means?
| A．Telling the taxpayers to refuse to pay taxes on carbon pollution |
| B．Making the government invest to reduce carbon pollution |
| C．Increasing prices of the products from companies. |
| D．Taxing companies on carbon pollution they produce. |
An 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. Not knowing where to get the money, he and a friend decided to host a musical concert to raise money for their education.
They went to the great pianist Paderewski. His manager demanded $2,000 for the piano recital（独奏会）. A deal was made and the boys began to work to make the concert a success.
The big day arrived. But unfortunately, they hadn’t managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1,600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and gave him the entire $1,600, and promised to pay him the rest $400 back as soon as possible. “No,” said Paderewski. “Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left.” The boys were surprised, and very thankful.
Paderewski later became the Prime Minister of Poland, and he was a great leader. When the World War broke out, more than l.5 million people went hungry, but there was no food to feed them. Paderewski turned to the US Food and Relief Administration for help.
The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover — who later became the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food to Poland.
Paderewski decided to go across to thank Hoover himself. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his kindness, Hoover quickly stopped him and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me, Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college. I was one of them.”Why did the two students decide to raise money?
| A．To help people in Poland. |
| B．To buy the concert tickets. |
| C．To pay for their education. |
| D．To hold a musical concert. |
How much money did the two students raise?
| A．$400. | B．$1,200. | C．$1,600. | D．$2,000. |
What did the two students think of the pianist?
| A．Greedy. | B．Humorous. | C．Shy. | D．Helpful. |
What can we learn about Herbert Hoover?
| A．He was one of the American presidents. |
| B．He didn’t finish his college education. |
| C．He was very rich when he was young. |
| D．He was one of Paderewski’s students. |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Great minds think alike. |
| B．Kindness brings its own rewards. |
| C．Honesty is the best policy. |
| D．Where there’s a will, there’s a way. |
San Francisco(People's Daily Online)-- Apple Inc. Tuesday introduced its mobile payment service Apple Pay alongside the company's iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California.
What apple does is to replace consumers' wallet with its cell phone. Apple said it hopes to speed up the checkout process, make credit-card payments more secure and ultimately, to replace physical wallets.
With the near-field communication technology, Apple's gadgets like iPhone and Apple watch can transmit a radio signal between the device and a receiver when the two are in an inch apart. "To pay, just hold your iPhone near the contactless reader with your finger on Touch ID. You don’t even have to look at the screen to know your payment information was successfully sent," Apple says on its official website.
Apple said that each transaction (交易)would be authorized(授权) with a one-time, unique number, creating a security code that it said is more secure than the one on the back of your credit card because cashiers won’t see your name, card number or security code. The service will work with the three major payment networks — American Express, MasterCard and Visa — and Apple said that there are 220,000 merchant locations that accept these contactless payments.
When some applaud this disrupted service that will compete with Paypal and endanger other online payment companies, some others concern about its safety, especially when another retailer Home Depot confirmed a data opening yesterday and iCloud was reported exposing nude (裸体)pictures of celebrities (名人) a week ago.
Leo Zheng, a technology reporter in Silicon Valley said: "When Apple attracts consumers to put all their cards into one iPhone and promised the security, Jennifer Lawrence should say something."
Which can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Apple announces mobile payment service to replace consumers' wallet. |
| B．Consumers can pay in cash through mobile phones. |
| C．Apple Inc. will introduce new models to the market. |
| D．Mobile payment will be popular soon. |
After reading the third paragraph, we know .
| A．Apple’s new products are popular |
| B．Apple can be used as an ID |
| C．Apple's gadgets can receive message easily |
| D．how Apple's gadgets work |
The attitude of the writer towards the mobile payment is .
| A．indifferent (冷漠的) | B．objective |
| C．skeptical | D．positive |
What could have happened to Jennifer Lawrence?
| A．She made great contributions to Apple. |
| B．She put all her cards into her iPhone. |
| C．Her nude pictures were spread online. |
| D．Her iPhone often broke down. |
For centuries, the body’s blood has been linked closely with the emotions. People who show no human emotions or feelings, are said to be cold-blooded killer. For example, the police are searching for a cold-blooded killer. He seems to kill for no reason, and no emotion, as if taking someone’s life as nothing.
Cold can affect other parts of the body. The expression “get cold feet” has nothing to do with cold or your feet. The expression means being afraid to do something you have decided to do. For example, you agree to be president of an organization. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned, and all the work of the organization will be your responsibility. You are likely to get cold feet about being president when you understand the situation.
The expression “give someone the cold shoulder” probably comes from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face to face. You may give a cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise he made to you. Or, to someone who has lied about you to others.
A cold fish is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and shows no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone. Someone who is a cold fish could be cold-hearted. Now a cold-hearted person is someone who has no sympathy. Several popular songs in recent years were about cold-hearted men or cold-hearted women who, without feelings, broke the hearts of their lovers.
Out in the cold means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise--he was left out in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be.There are _____ expressions related to cold that are mentioned in the passage.
| A．3 | B．4 | C．6 | D．7 |
When you refuse to speak to a man and treat him in a distant way, you may express by “_________”.
| A．I give him the cold shoulder |
| B．I think he is a cold-blooded man |
| C．I think he is a cold fish |
| D．I’m likely to get cold feet |
If Sue shows absolutely no reaction to those awful pictures of starving children in Africa, you will say _________.
| A．she is a cold-blooded killer |
| B．she gets cold feet |
| C．she is a cold fish |
| D．she is out in the cold |
We can use the expression “__________” to describe a man who abandons or hurts his lover without mercy.
| A．cold-blooded | B．cold shoulder |
| C．cold feet | D．cold-hearted |
The topic of this passage is about _________.
| A．the relationship between cold and our body |
| B．some expressions about friendship |
| C．some expressions connected with cold |
| D．how cold weather comes into being |
“Have a nice day!” may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless. When my friend Maxie says “Have a nice day” with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.
“Have a nice day. Next!” This version of the expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out the door. The words come out in the same tone (腔调) with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else’s is the management’s attempt to increase business.
The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression saves us when we don’t know what to say “oh, you may have a tooth out? I’m terribly sorry, but have a nice day.”
The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says “Have a nice day” to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don’t know has tried to be nice to you.
Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that it is a little uninteresting. The salesgirl, the waitress, the teacher, and all the countless others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it’s nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don’t care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.How does the author understand Maxie’s words?
| A．Maxie shows her anxiety to the author. |
| B．Maxie really wishes the author a good day. |
| C．Maxie encourages the author to stay happy. |
| D．Maxie really worries about the author’s security. |
By saying “Have a nice day,” a stranger may _____.
| A．try to be polite to you |
| B．express respect to you |
| C．give his blessing to you |
| D．share his pleasure with you |
According to the last paragraph, people say “Have a nice day”_______.
| A．sincerely | B．as thanks |
| C．as a habit | D．encouragingly |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Have a Nice Day—a Social Custom. |
| B．Have a Nice Day—a Pleasant Gesture. |
| C．Have a Nice Day—a Heart-warming Greeting. |
| D．Have a Nice Day—a Polite Ending of a Conversation. |
I had the meanest mother in the whole world. While other kids ate candy for breakfast, I had to have porridge, eggs or toast. When others had Cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. But at least I wasn’t alone when I was sad. My sister and two brothers had the same mean(刻薄的) mother as I did.
My mother preferred to know where we were all the time. She had to know who our friends were and where we were going. We had to clean clothes and take a bath every day. The other kids got to wear the same clothes for days. We could not lie in bed “sick” in order to miss school.
The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and get up at eight the next morning. We couldn’t sleep till noon like our friends. So while they slept, my mother was brave to break the Child Labour Law. She made us work. We had to wash dishes, make beds, and learn to cook and all sorts of things at home. I believe she lay awake thinking up all things for us to do.
My mother was a complete failure as a mother. Two of her children received higher education. None of us have ever been arrested (taken away by the police) or divorced. She forced us to grow up into educated and honest adults. I am trying to raise my three children this way. I am filled with pride when my children call me “mean”. Why? Because now I thank God every day for giving me the meanest mother in the world.How many children does the writer’s mother have?
| A．Four | B．Two | C．Three | D．Six |
What can you infer(推测) from the passage?
| A．My family was rich, so I ate a sandwich for lunch. |
| B．My mother was a great success. We love her. |
| C．If we didn’t want to go to school, the best way was to pretend to be sick. |
| D．We needn’t share the housework at home. |
The best title for this passage may be________.
| A．My childhood | B．The meanest mother |
| C．I do as my mother did | D．Unforgettable memories |
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