Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main points of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
The United States government list of endangered species includes alligators, tigers, grizzly bears, some kinds of whales, and over three dozen species of butterflies. What has led to the scarcity of these animals, which may become extinct without vital protection?
One important factor is that many animals have been widely hunted and killed for food and for their beautiful skins. In accordance with the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal in the United States to hunt, sell, or collect endangered species. Thus, an expensive fur coat made from a tiger killed in Asia cannot be legally sold to a wealthy matron in New York or San Francisco.
Some predators, which kill useful, more common animals, are threatened by farmers who are concerned that predators will carry off chickens and young sheep, and because of this fear they trapped and killed them.
The butterfly is an accidental victim of man’s effort to control his environment, For a long time collectors have searched for unusual specimens for their colorful butterfly collections; now, there is an additional, more Serious threat—widespread use of dangerous pesticides which farmers apply to their crops to control harmful insects.
With various animals being killed for food, for decoration, and for the protection of domesticated animals, or dying because of unfortunate contact with human environments, it is not surprising that some are becoming scarce, that the number of species on the endangered list is growing every year. Man is discovering that his world includes the other animals in it, and one can only hope his discovery is not coming too slowly or too late.
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
Bicycles, roller skates and skateboards are dangerous. I still have scars on my knees from my childhood run-ins with various wheeled devices. Admittedly, I was a foolish kid, but I’m glad I didn’t spend my childhood trapped indoors to protect me from every bump and bruise.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” 1. And now technology has become the new field for the age-old battle between adults and their freedom-seeking kids.
Locked indoors, unable to get on their bicycles and hang out with their friends, teens have turned to social media and their mobile phones to gossip and socialize with their friends. What they do online often mirrors what they might otherwise do if their mobility weren’t so heavily restricted in the age of helicopter parenting. Social media and smart phones have become so popular in recent years. 2..
As teens have moved online, parents have projected their fears onto the Internet, imagining all the potential dangers that youth might face-from violent strangers to cruel peers to pictures or words that could haunt them on Google for the rest of their life.
Rather than helping teens develop strategies to deal with public life and the potential risks of interacting with others, fearful parents have focused on tracking, monitoring and blocking. 3. “Protecting” kids may feel like the right thing to do, but it denies teens the chances of learning as they come of age in a technology-soaked world,
The key to helping youth in the modern digital life isn’t more restrictions. It’s freedom— plus communication. Urban theorist Jane Jacobs used to argue that the safest neighborhoods were those where communities collectively took interest in and paid attention to what happened on the streets. Safety didn’t come from surveillance cameras or keeping everyone indoors but from a collective willingness to watch out for one another and be present as people struggled. The same is true online.
What makes the digital street safe is when teens and adults collectively agree to open their eyes and pay attention, communicate and work together to deal with difficult situations. Teens need the freedom to wander the digital street, but they also need to know that caring adults are behind them and supporting them wherever they go. The first step is to turn off the tracking software.4..
A. Safety didn’t come from keeping everyone indoors.
B. But parents can’t handle it when teenagers put this theory into practice.
C. Then ask your kids what they’re doing when they’re online and why it’s so important to them.
D. Teens want the freedom to explore their identity and the world around them, so they jump online.
E. These don’t help teens develop the skills they need to manage complex social situations, assess risks and get help when they’re in trouble.
F. The safest neighborhood were those where communities collectively took interest in and paid attention to what happened on the streets.
You feel happiest when you create a healthy balance between giving and receiving, If you give and give without making time to fill your own needs, then it’s likely you will burn out, or feel upset. When you take and take without giving anything back, you never feel fulfilled, so you are always searching for ways to fill the void in your life.
The way to create a healthy balance between giving and receiving is to know and then live by your values. I break values up into two groups which I call being and having values. Your being values are the character traits （痕迹，特征）of the ideal person you would like to be. I suggest to my clients that they choose three being values that they are willing to make a commitment （承诺） to live by, Examples of some being values are: kind, loving, generous, inspirational, peaceful, wise and even powerful, By acting on these values you give others through your actions and you inspire others by being a positive role model, Mastering being these character traits becomes your life purpose.
Your having values are the feelings you need to create in order to be happy. These could be companionship, achievement, support, being valued or financial security. They are what you receive. You take responsibility for filling your own needs by taking steps to create these feelings and conditions in your life.
When you make a commitment to live by your being values, it becomes easier to make conscious choices rather than reactionary ones. If your usual pattern is to talk about your problems, you could choose to think and act like a calm person. A calm person might go for a walk, have a deep thinking, or set a time limit before responding. If your usual pattern is to worry, you could choose to act like a responsible or wise person. In other words, you would act like the person you choose to be—this is the key to personal power.
When you choose to act on your values, you not only feel good about yourself, you strengthen your chosen beliefs. Over time acting in this way changes how you see the world, and in turn the way other people think of you.
1.The main purpose of this passage is to ______.
A.persuade the readers to make a commitment
B.explain to the readers what personal values are
C.inform the readers how to be truly happy
D.instruct the readers how to make wise choices
2.The underlined word “void” in Paragraph 1 means ______.
A.a feeling of emptiness B.an absence of one’s mind
C.a break of consciousness D.a state of confusion
3.From the passage we can infer that ______.
A.having values are better than being values
B.a calm person does not choose to complain
C.the way other people think of you decides who you are
D.a responsible person does not care about financial security
Students who date (约会) in middle school have significantly worse study skills, are four times more likely to drop out of school and report twice as much alcohol and tobacco use than their single classmates, according to new research from the University of Georgia.
“Romantic relationships are a symbol of adolescence（青春期）, but very few studies have examined how adolescents are different in the development of these relationships.” said Pamela Orpinas, study author and professor in the College of Public Health.
Orpinas followed a group of 624 students over a seven-year period from 6th to 12th grade. Each year, the group of students completed a survey indicating whether they had dated and reported the frequency of different behaviors, including the use of drugs and alcohol. Their teachers completed questionnaires (调查表) about the students' academic efforts. He found some students never or hardly ever reported dating from middle to high school, and these students had the best study skills according to their teachers. Other students dated infrequently in middle school but increased the frequency of dating in high school.
“At all points in time, teachers rated the students who reported the lowest frequency of dating as having the best study skills and the students with the highest dating as having the worst study skills,” according to the journal article. Study skills refer to behaviors that lead to academic success such as doing work for extra credit, being well organized, finishing homework, working hard and reading assigned chapters.
“Dating a classmate may have the same emotional complications of dating a co-worker,” Orpinas said, “When the couple break up, they have to continue to see each other in class and perhaps witness the ex-partner dating someone else. It is reasonable to think this could be linked to depression and divert (转移) attention from studying.”
“Dating should not be considered a ceremony of growth in middle school.”Orpinas concluded.
1.According to the passage, students who date in middle school may_____.
A.have poorer academic performances
B.be more likely to hurt others
C.enjoy better school lives
D.are less likely to use alcohol and tobacco
2.When doing his study, Orpinas _____.
A.followed a group of students of 6th and 12th grade
B.found that the students' study skills have connection with their frequency of dating
C.completed questionnaires about the students' academic efforts
D.completed a survey and a report each year
3.What can possibly happen to the school couples after they break up?
A.They will miss their ex-partners sometimes.
B.They don't want to see each other any longer.
C.Their attention to studying will be affected.
D.They will think it's reasonable to get depressed.
4.Orpinas’ attitude towards dating in middle school is _____.
A.supportive B.negative
C.indifferent D.positive
It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Christmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货），saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole. And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting.
1.Why was the bike so important to the couple?
A.The man’s job was bike racing. B.It was their only possession.
C.It was a nice Kona 18 speed. D.They used it for work and daily life.
2.We can infer from the text that ____________.
A.the couple worked 60 hours a week. B.people were busy before Christmas
C.the stranger brought over the bike D.life was hard for the young family.
3.How did people get to know the couple’s problem?
A.From radio broadcasts. B.From a newspaper.
C.From TV news. D.From a stranger.
4.What do the couple learn from their experience?
A.Strangers are usually of little help. B.One should take care of their bike.
C.News reports make people famous. D.An act of kindness can mean a lot.
What is time? Is it a thing to be saved or spent or wasted, like money? Or is it something we have no ______ over, like the weather? Is time the same all over the world? That’s an easy question, you say. Wherever you go, a minute is 60 seconds, an hour is 60 minutes, a day is 24 hours, and so forth. Well, maybe But in America, time is more than that. Americans see time as a ______ resource, Maybe that’s why they are fond of the expression, “Time is money.”
Because Americans believe time is a limited resource, they try to conserve and manage it, People in the U.S. often attend lectures or read books on time ______ . It seems they all want to ______ their time better. Professionals carry around pocket planners—some in electronic form to keep ______ of appointments and deadlines. People do all they can to ______ more life out of their time. The early American hero Benjamin Franklin expressed this view best: “Do you love life? Then do not waste time, for that is the stuff life is made of.”
To Americans, punctuality is a way of showing ______ for other people’s time. Being more than 10 minutes late to an appointment usually calls for an apology, and maybe an explanation. People who are running late often call ahead to let others know of the ______. Of course, the less formal the situation, the less important it is to be ______ on time.
American lifestyles show how much people respect the time of others. When people plan an event, they often set the time days or weeks ______. If people want to come to your house for a friendly visit, they will usually call first to make sure it is ______. Also, people ______ to call others late at night for fear they might be in bed. The time may ______, but most folks think twice about calling after 10:00 p.m.
Even Americans would admit that no one can master time. Time—like money—______ all too easily through our fingers. And time—like the weather— is very hard to ______. Nevertheless, time is one of life’s most precious gifts. And unwrapping it is half the fun.
1.A.effect B.sense C.control D.notice
2.A.natural B.valuable C.financial D.forceful
3.A.management B.establishment C.Experiment D.movement
4.A.Spare B.pass C.organize D.kill
5.A.track B.account C.secret D.diary
6.A.drive B.push C.release D.squeeze
7.A.respect B.gratitude C.sympathy D.concern
8.A.excuse B.accident C.delay D.schedule
9.A.extremely B.thoroughly C.automatically D.exactly
10.A.on average B.in advance C.for sure D.on purpose
11.A.convenient B.accessible C.casual D.flexible
12.A.fail B.tend C.hesitate D.hate
13.A.change B.vary C.extend D.range
14.A.spends B.disappears C.shrinks D.slips
15.A.capture B.predict C.announce D.classify
