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Are you looking for a new pastime that will create a balance between physical activity and relaxation? Then yoga may be the perfect choice for you. Yoga can be practiced by people of all ages and levels of fitness.1. It's a great way to strengthen your muscles and become more flexible.

In the 1930s, Indian Sri Tirumali and K. Pattabhi developed one of the most popular forms of yoga practised worldwide today. They worked together using an ancient Sansknt text called Yoga Korunta to create a set routine of yoga movements and breathing exercises. 2.

Ashtanga is different from other forms of yoga. It is a very powerful form of aerobic (有氧的)exercise which creates deep heat in the body. 3. In other forms of yoga, however, the routine can change each time and the stretching exercises aren't aerobic.

4.As well as making you stronger and more flexible, it can also help you to stay calm. By focusing on your breathing while doing physical exercise, you are able to get a balance between mind and body. In addition, yoga helps to make us healthier so we are less likely to get common illnesses like colds.

Furthermore, yoga encourages you to think about what you're doing. Often you will close your eyes while doing certain movements.5.After a few lessons you'll stop looking at what the others around you are doing. You will stop comparing yourself and start focusing on yourself.

A. It can also be done anywhere at any time.

B. The result of their co-operation was ashtanga yoga.

C. Whatever kind of yoga you choose, there are many long-term benefits.

D. This allows you to concentrate better and it makes you less competitive.

E. Every time someone practices ashtanga, he or she does exactly the same movements.

F.  If you're interested in yoga, but can find a class near you, then it might be   an excuse to travel.

G. Recently, it has become extremely common for beginners as well as advanced yoga students to go on yoga holidays.

    A remarkable variety of insects live on this planet. Insects have survived on earth for more than 300 million years, and may possess the ability to survive for millions more.

Insects can be found almost everywhere—on the highest mountains, in the cold South Pole and in bubbling hot springs. They dig through the ground, jump and sing in the trees, and run and dance in the air. They come in many different colors and various shapes. Insects are extremely useful to humans,pollinating (授粉) our crops as well as flowers in meadows,forests, deserts and other areas. But some insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas, can transmit disease.

There are many reasons why insects are so successful at surviving. Their amazing ability to adapt permits them to live in extreme ranges of temperatures and environments. They can survive on a wide range of natural and artificial foods - paint, books, grain, plants and animals. Because they are small, they can hide in tiny spaces.

A strong, hard but flexible shell covers their soft organs and is resistant to chemicals, water and physical impact. Their wings give them the option of flying away from dangerous situations or toward food or mates. Also, insects have an enormous reproductive capacity: An African ant queen can lay as many as 43,000 eggs a day.

Another reason for their success is the strategy of protective color. An insect may be right before our eyes, but nearly invisible because it is cleverly disguised (伪装) like a green leaf, lump of brown soil, a seed or some other natural object. Some insects use bright, bold colors to send warning signals that they taste bad. Others have wing patterns that look like the eyes of a huge predator, confusing their enemies.

1.What does the underlined word “transmit” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A.cure. B.catch.

C.prevent. D.spread.

2.How can the insects protect themselves from chemicals?

A.Have a strong shell. B.Fly away when necessary.

C.Hide in tiny spaces. D.Change colors or shapes.

3.Why do some insects disguise like natural objects?

A.To look bad—tasting. B.To send warning signals.

C.To avoid being discovered. D.To frighten away their enemies.

4.What’s the main idea of this text?

A.How insects survive in different places.

B.Why insects can survive so successfully.

C.What insects can do to the environment.

D.Where insects can be found in quantity.

    Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding about black culture in America.

Her poems described conditions in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women. But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She was an expert at the language of poetry. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.

In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was A Street in Bronzeville that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skill and her powerful descriptions of the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks won Pulitzer Prize for her second book of poems called Annie Allen. Annie Allen is `a collection of poetry about the life of a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and being poor. Ms. Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.

Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called Maud Martha, which received little notice when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult life of many women are popular among female writers today.

In some of her poems, Gwendolyn Brooks described how what people see in life is affected by who they are. One example is this poem, Corners on the Curing Sky.

By the end of the 1960s, Gwendolyn Brooks’s poetry expanded from the everyday experiences of people in Bronzeville. She wrote about a wider world and dealt with important political issues.

1.What does the text mainly talk about?

A.The life of Gwendolyn Brooks. B.The struggles of black women.

C.The poems of Gwendolyn Brooks. D.The understanding about black culture.

2.What can we learn about Gwendolyn Brooks from the second paragraph?

A.She was good at using the language of poetry.

B.She mainly wrote about the struggles of black women.

C.Her writing skills were a little worse than her ability.

D.Her poems were mainly about the African experience.

3.The author develops the passage mainly by ________.

A.using statistics B.providing examples

C.comparing opinions D.describing her experiences

4.In the next part, the author would most probably talk about ________.

A.the poems related to political issues B.the difficulties Ms. Brooks would meet

C.the awards Gwendolyn Brooks gained D.the struggles that the black had to face

    One evening, when I asked my 17-year-old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response took me by surprise. “What’s a colander (漏勺)?” he asked.

I could only blame myself. In the family, nobody’s hands went in the sauce except my own. But as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for. Suddenly it hit me: He’d be leaving the house in a year to attend college. No way was I going to send a spoiled prince into the world.

As parents,while we focus on our children’s character,we are also raising someone’s future roommate, husband, or father. I’d raise a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, “What’s for dinner?” So, I came up with a plan to offer Ray a private home economics course. Gladly, he didn’t say no.

For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine. One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting. Then he rolled out the piecrust and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven.

One day we covered Advanced Laundry, in which I taught him never to mix a red sweatshirt with white. I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother - he tried to beg off sewing lessons - but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. “I appreciate what you do as a mom,” he told me one day.

Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there s nothing masculine (男子气概的) about being helpless. Not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family. That’s what I call a man.

1.Hearing her son’s question, the author felt ________.

A.angry B.disappointed

C.shocked D.calm

2.What made the author so panic?

A.Ray’s lack of basic living skills. B.Ray’s absence in the kitchen.

C.Ray’s leaving to attend college. D.Ray’s misunderstanding of a colander.

3.What can we learn from the text?

A.Ray preferred sewing to cooking.

B.Ray made great progress in cooking.

C.Ray thought doing housework was helpless.

D.Ray was unwilling to take the course originally.

4.The underlined part “more than just housekeeping” in Paragraph 5 shows that Ray ________.

A.fell in love with housework B.did other work in the house

C.acknowledged his mother’s efforts D.began to be more independent

    Looking for a winter vacation destination? Try these four resorts (度假胜地) on for size.

Solitude Mountain Resort, Utah

Solitude Mountain is a place to go if you love skiing in winter but hate waiting on lift lines. Loving a bargain doesn’t hurt either since the accommodations here are less expensive than at nearby and more well-known Park City, Alta, and Snowbird.

Key West, Florida

The crowds thin out and the prices fall in Key West in winter. Key West, the southernmost point in the United States, has a remote, romantic feel. It has inspired many poets and has drawn such literary greats as Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams.

Taos,New Mexico

Taos, New Mexico is a popular winter ski spot. But if you’re not a skier, you’ll want to head there anytime between Thanksgiving and April since there are fewer people there then. You’ll still be able to experience all the culture and sights, including the thousand-year-old Taos Pueblo, the only living Native American community that is regarded as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Big Sky, Montana

Big Sky, Montana, has more than 5,800 acres of skiing area spreading across several mountains, with a vertical (垂直的) drop of 4,350 feet, as well as 85 km of Nordic tracks. So it s a good choice to head for Big Sky for the fantastic skiing in winter when it is called “the least crowded resort ever”.

1.What’s the advantage of Solitude Mountain Resort?

A.Being close to modern cities. B.Having warmer climate in winter.

C.Having cheaper accommodations. D.Providing store bargains for visitors.

2.What is Taos Pueblo?

A.It is a hotel in Mexico. B.It is the name of a skier.

C.It is a popular ski spot. D.It is an ancient community.

3.What do the places have in common in winter?

A.Uncrowded. B.Risky.

C.Cheap. D.Unpolluted.