Imagine your body is like the house you live in. Every day, your family creates rubbish. The rubbish builds up until it is put out for the weekly garbage collection.
Now, say you put three bags of garbage out, but because one of the collectors was away sick, only two bags are collected. You take the leftover bag inside to be put out again next week. The following week you put out another three bags, plus the leftover bag from last week. But again, only two bags are collected. Imagine this cycle is repeated over the following weeks.
This is a simple description of what happens to your body when your kidneys (肾) don’t work efficiently. Your body is not thoroughly emptied of waste products. Other areas of the body such as blood pressure and red blood cell production are affected and the insidious process that may lead to kidney failure begins.
It’s not uncommon for people to lose up to 90 percent of their kidney function before developing any symptoms. There may be no warning signs. This makes early detection(诊察) difficult.
Kidney’s main job is to remove toxins (毒素) and unwanted water from our blood. Every day our kidneys clean an average of 200 litres of blood. Kidney failure may be a gradual and silent process, going unnoticed because there is no apparent pain.
Research shows that more than 25 percent of patients found to require dialysis (透析) do not see a kidney specialist until less than 90 days before dialysis starts. Some risk factors for kidney disease such as age and genetic make-up are out of our control; however, some changes in lifestyle may help prevent kidney damage. Two major risk factors for kidney disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, have been on the rise over the last few decades. Both conditions are chiefly affected by being overweight and not getting enough exercise, which are the potential factors for the disease.
1.The author gives the example of the house we live in to indicate that ________.
A.it’s safe and harmless for our body to keep some waste
B.it doesn’t matter much if the waste in our body is not emptied in time
C.it’s important for our body to empty the waste in time every day
D.our body will not produce any waste if our kidneys work efficiently
2.The underlined word “insidious” (in Paragraph 3) means ________.
A.gradual and unnoticed B.apparent and fast
C.smooth and safe D.painful and long
3.We can infer that when we find some symptoms related to our kidneys, ________.
A.the kidney failure begins
B.the kidneys may have been seriously damaged
C.we have lost about 10 percent of kidney function
D.the kidneys can still work properly
4.How many factors of kidney disease are mentioned in the passage?
A.Three. B.Four. C.Five. D.Six.
5.Which of the following helps prevent kidney damage?
A.Go to see a kidney specialist shortly before dialysis starts.
B.Go to see a kidney specialist whenever you find any warning sign.
C.Try to keep low blood pressure and a stable lifestyle.
D.Take enough exercise and make early detection of kidney disease.
We all, at one time or another, have pretended to be a rock star, singing and dancing along to our favorite song. Most of us have done this in the privacy of our own room when we were kids and as adults, in the privacy of our homes. Me? I love to do that when I drive! I turn on the radio, find a song that I can sing along too and pretty soon my arms are in the air and I am moving along to the rhythm. Most of the time, I do this on my way to work.
Yes, that is true. I will be in my nice work clothes, jamming while driving or stopped at a traffic light. I get weird looks from some people and others laugh. Personally, I love to get lost in the rhythm of a song which leads me to share with you the importance of being silly!
The definition for the word silly, according to the dictionary is: stupid, foolish and nonsensical. I know many people do not want to look foolish. So they walk around all serious, which in all honesty, is foolish!
No one is perfect, I repeat: no one is perfect. I don’t care how educated, how thin, how beautiful, how simple, how frugal, how rich, and so on… No one is perfect! So why pretend to be something you are not?
Life is so short… You never know when this beautiful journey will be over, so why waste a single second on being so full of rigidity(呆板)? Here is a quote by Souza, that I think says it all and is a great recipe for life:
"Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth."
When we were kids, we had no idea of what limitations were and we had no care in the world so we could do things without worrying about how we appeared to others. However, as we grew up, we lost that childlike innocence.
So don’t lose the child that still lives within you. The next time you feel down, go turn on your favorite song, and sing and dance along like there is no tomorrow. Or watch something that makes you laugh. Laughter is the best medicine to whatever ails you and nothing is better than laughing so hard that your tummy hurts. Trust me, you will feel a whole lot better, and who doesn’t want to feel good?
1.According to the passage, what does the writer usually do?
A.He pretends to be a rock star. B.He dances in his own home.
C.He sings songs while going to work. D.He gets jammed on his way to work.
2.What do other people think of the writer?
A.They think that the writer is strange. B.They look down upon the writer.
C.They believe that the writer is lonely. D.No one is interested in the writer.
3.What is the writer’s opinion about the people who look very serious?
A.They are honest. B.They are silly.
C.They are perfect. D.They are educated.
4.The writer quotes Souza to show that _______.
A.life is a beautiful journey B.life is full of rigidity
C.life is like a great recipe D.life is to be treasured
5.The underlined part “the child” in the last paragraph probably refers to _______.
A.the writer B.any child
C.the feeling of being a child D.the time of being a child
Kincaid looked at his watch: eight-seventeen. The truck started on the second try, and he backed out, shifted gears, and moved slowly down the alley under hazy sun. Through the streets of Bellingham he went, heading south on Washington 11, running along the coast of Puget Sound for a few miles, then following the highway as it swung east a little before meeting U.S Route 20.
Turning into the sun, he began the long, winding drive through the Cascades. He liked this country and felt impressed，stopping now and then to make notes about interesting possibilities for future expeditions or to shoot what he called “memory snapshots.” The purpose of these causal photographs was to remind him of places he might want to visit again and approach more seriously. In later afternoon he turned north at Spokane, picking up U.S Route 2, which would take him halfway across the northern United States to Duluth, Minnesota.
He wished for the thousandth time in his life that he had a dog, a golden retriever, maybe, for travels like this and to keep him company at home. But he was frequently away; overseas much of the time and it would not be fair to the animal. Still, he thought about it anyway. In a few years he would be getting too old for the hard fieldwork. “I must get a dog then.” He said to himself.
Drives like this always put him into a sentimental mood. The dog was part of it. Robert Kincaid was alone as it’s possible to be – an only child, parents both dead, distant relatives who had lost track of him and he of them, no close friends.
He thought about Marian. She had left him nine years ago after five years of marriage. He was fifty–two now, that would make her just under forty. Marian had dreams of becoming a musician, a folksinger. She knew all of the Weavers’ songs and sang them pretty well in the coffeehouse of Seattle. When he was home in the old days, he drove her to the shows and sat in the audience while she sang.
His long absences – two or three months sometimes – were hard on the marriage. He knew that. She was aware of what he did when they decided to get married, and both of them had a vague (not clear) sense that it could all be handled somehow. It couldn’t when he came from photographing a story in Iceland and, she was gone. The note read, “Robert, it didn’t work out, I left you the Harmony guitar. Stay in touch.”
He didn’t stay in touch. Neither did she. He signed the divorce papers when they arrived a year later and caught a plane for Australia the next day. She had asked for nothing except her freedom.
1.Which statement is true according to the passage?
A.Kincaid’s parents were dead and he only kept in touch with some distant relatives.
B.Kincaid would have had a dog if he hadn’t been away from home too much.
C.Kincaid used to have a golden retriever.
D.Kincaid needed a dog in doing his hard fieldwork.
2.Why did Kincaid stop to take photos while driving?
A.To write “memory snapshots”.
B.To remind himself of places he might want to visit again.
C.To avoid forgetting the way back.
D.To shoot beautiful scenery along the road.
3.What can you know about Marian?
A.She died after five years of marriage.
B.She was older than Kincaid.
C.She could sing very well and earned big money.
D.She was not a professional pop singer.
4.We can draw a conclusion from the passage that
A.Marian knew what would happen before she married Kincaid.
B.Kincaid thought his absence would be a problem when he married Marian.
C.It turned out that Marian could not stand Kincaid’s absence and left him.
D.After Marian left him, they still kept in touch with each other.
My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat which was hanging at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass. While the other coats drooped(低垂), this one looked as if it were _______ itself up. The coat had beautiful tailoring, a Fifth Avenue label and a(an) _______ price of $28, which was popular just then with _______, but could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better, bearing that _______ of classic elegance（优雅）. John tried it on and the fit was perfect.
John _______ the coat to school the next day and came home wearing a big smile“Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said, _______ folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a _______ came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and reasoned discussion replaced fierce _______. He became more mannerly and _______, eager to please. He would generously loan his younger brother his tapes and lecture him ________ his behavior.
When I mentioned this incident to his teacher and ________ what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It ________ be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good ________ not only because he had earned ________ but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran into a friend “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly, ________ John’s new height, assessing the cut of his coat and extending his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never ________a person’s clothes for the real person within them. ________ there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for ________ what is on the inside to what is on the outside.
For John it is a time when it is as easy to try on different approaches to ________ as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape ________ all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.
1.A.turning B.showing C.holding D.hanging
2.A.unreasonable B.expected C.acceptable D.unbelievable
3.A.adults B.teenagers C.women D.strangers
4.A.color B.style C.price D.size
5.A.wore B.carried C.lent D.sent
6.A.carefully B.comfortably C.casually D.quickly
7.A.happiness B.matter C.smile D.change
8.A.doubt B.argument C.fight D.war
9.A.thoughtful B.handsome C.hopeful D.curious
10.A.of B.with C.on D.at
11.A.discovered B.confirmed C.concluded D.wondered
12.A.can B.should C.will D.must
13.A.present B.mark C.word D.result
14.A.it B.them C.this D.one
15.A.taking up B.looking down to C.checking up D.looking up at
16.A.trust B.exchange C.mistake D.regard
17.A.Though B.But C.Since D.So
18.A.matching B.attaching C.relating D.connecting
19.A.career B.life C.study D.success
20.A.how B.why C.where D.when
—How long have you been going to work on foot?
—Since last month when I ________ from a heart attack.
A.recovered B.have recovered
C.was recovering D.would recover
— The light is so weak that I can’t _______ the words in the article.
— Maybe your eyesight is failing.
A.leave out B.make out C.check out D.figure out
