The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it ran after the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.
That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up—how to catch wild elephants. Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life. “Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase,” she says.
But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. “My work,” she says, “is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man.” And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly—caught elephant. “Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans.” she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!
1.For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to ______.
A.get long lasting excitement B.keep both man and elephants safe
C.send them back to the jungle D.make the angry elephants tame
2.Before Parbati studied in a boarding school, ______.
A.she spent her time hunting with her father
B.she learned how to sing love songs after class
C.she was taught how to hunt tigers in the woods
D.she had already been called an elephant princess
3.Why are Indian elephants beginning to fight back?
A.Because illegal hunters catch them and kill them
B.Because they are caught and sent for heavy work
C.Because they are attacked and their land gets limited
D.Because dogs usually bark at them and interrupt them
4.The elephant story in the beginning shows that in India ______.
A.dogs are often as powerful as elephants
B.people easily fall victims to elephants' attacks
C.elephant tamers are becoming fewer and fewer
D.the man-elephant relationship is getting much worse
Last Friday, a new couple decided that instead of hosting their friends and family for a traditional feast reception, they would feed the victims from an earthquake-stricken area. Michael and Linda stood behind large food trucks distributing meals to 4,000 homeless people for their wedding reception on the border town of Kilis.
The idea came from the bridegroom's father, Ted, who volunteers for a Turkish relief organization. For the past few years, the organization has distributed daily meals to thousands of people who've suffered from natural disasters. He approached a representative of the organization and suggested that the family cover part of the costs of feeding them for the day.
Then he told his son, who was surprised by the suggestion, but soon won over. When he told that to the bride, she was really shocked but finally accepted because in southeastern Turkey there is a real culture of sharing with people in need. They love to share their food, their table and everything they have. And afterwards she was quite amazed about it. So, they arrived at the distribution center on Thursday to spend the day serving food and taking photographs with their grateful recipients (接受者).
That evening, the newly married couple were still pleased with their decision to quit a personal celebration for one with a greater good. “It's like sharing a dinner with your friends and family who have this kind of thing on a daily basis or sharing something with people who don't even have the most basic things,” Michael said. “Hopefully, this will also give the start for other wedding dinners to be held here with our brothers and sisters in need.”
1.How did the couple celebrate their wedding?
A.They treated their guests to a big dinner. B.They paid all for feeding victims of the day.
C.They took photos of the grateful victims. D.They spent the day with the victims in Kilis.
2.Why did so many people crowd in Kilis?
A.To help distribute free daily meals. B.To escape the damaging earthquake.
C.To attend Michael and Linda's wedding. D.To rescue the victims from the earthquake.
3.What does the underlined word “approached” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A.consulted with B.moved towards
C.came across D.took in
4.We can learn from the text that ________.
A.Ted was a representative of the organization
B.Linda adapted the suggestion when she heard it
C.Kilis is a place which lies in southeastern Turkey
D.Linda doubted if any new couples would follow him
A university in southwest China's Chongqing City set up a reading room as part of a campaign that stops students from taking their mobile phones with them in case the device prevents them from concentrating on their studies.
Reportedly a student named Hu Xiaopeng participating in the campaign studied 530 minutes without using his mobile phone. Unlike Hu, another one picked up his mobile phone in less than 20 minutes. “Having seen many students use their mobile phones in the library, a habit that shortens their study time and negatively impacts their learning, we decided to open this reading room,” said Zhang Shuran, the person responsible for the project at the university.
Zhang added that students can keep their phones in appointed bags with numbers on them. The bags are placed on a desk near the door of the reading room. “Staff members at the reading room will check the phones when there's a call,” said Zhang, adding that they will inform students when their parents or teachers call them, but will not tell students if an unknown person is calling or when there is a text message. Based on the time students hand in their phones when they come to the reading room and the time they get them back when they leave the room, Hu Xiaopeng from College of Animal Science and Technology of the university set a record of the longest time. Hu spent 530 minutes studying without using his phone. Though feeling somewhat surprised, Hu said, “It's bad to keep a mobile phone with you when you are reading or studying.”
The campaign has attracted nearly 200 students since it was launched a week ago. Some Internet users praised the campaign. One user named Liu Jingchang said, “It's good. I don't bring my phone when going to the library in case I get distracted(分心).”
1.What is the purpose of opening the reading room here?
A.To encourage students to read more books.
B.To help students concentrate on their studies.
C.To prevent the mobile phones from being stolen.
D.To stop students using mobile phones in the library.
2.What can we infer from Paragraph 3?
A.The bags are on the desk near the students.
B.Hu Xiaopeng thinks the campaign is a bad idea.
C.The student will be informed if a stranger calls him.
D.The longest time that the phone is not used is recorded.
3.What is the attitude of the students toward the reading room?
A.Supportive. B.Cautious.
C.Doubtful. D.Anxious.
阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
CLEAN UP YOUR BUTTS AND BAGS
All sorts of items become litter, but two of the most common and most dangerous are cigarette butts and plastic bags. Litter is a big problem for our environment, but it is a problem that individuals can easily do something about. Not littering at all or cleaning up litter, such as cigarette butts and plastic bags, greatly improves the quality of our environment.
Although cigarette butts are small, they are bad for the environment. Over 1,600 billion cigarettes are smoked each year in China and large quantities of the butts are thrown away. Worldwide, about 4.5 trillion butts are littered every year. Apart from the fact that butts spoil the beauty of the environment, they contain some very toxic chemicals. These find their way into the water supply where they decrease the quality of the water and endanger plants and animals that live there. Because there are so many butts and because they can take up to 5 years to break down, the toxic chemicals add up to a large amount. So, if people have to smoke, they should not throw away the butts but put them in the rubbish bin instead.
Plastic bags are another common form of litter that is a danger to the environment. There are several reasons for this. They are made from oil and gas, which are non-renewable resources, if they are not recycled, these resources are lost to us. In China, 2 billion plastic bags are used every day. An enormous number of these become litter. This is a huge problem because they last from 20 to 1,000 years in the environment. They float easily in air and water and travel long distances. They find their way to rivers, parks, beaches and oceans. Plastic bags kill up to one million seabirds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish each year worldwide. When the animal dies and breaks down, the plastic bag can become free again to kill another animal. It is up to people not to let plastic bags become litter. It would be better if they used fewer and recycled them.
Cleaning up your cigarette butts and plastic bags would improve the environment. The earth would be a better place because it would be less polluted. And we would know that we were doing something to look after our planet. However, I believe the best solution would be not to smoke or use plastic bags at all.
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假设你是李华，你喜爱的英语学习报 Colorful English 创刊五周年之际征集读者意见，请你根据以下内容给主编写封信,主要包括：
1. 说明你是该报的忠实读者
2. 说明该报优点：1）刊登国际新闻 2）提供音频二维码
3. 提出建议：增加外国文学欣赏
注意： 1. 词数80左右。
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
3. 参考词汇： 周年 anniversary 二维码 QR code
Dear Editor-in-Chief,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours
LiHua
I used to live in the country. My neighbor Carl was a knowledgeable, self-taught man and just _______ him was a blessing. Each day, I'd spend some time on his porch (门廊), just _______ life with him. I often _______ a lot through talking with him. One day, I found that his brother Tom had the same wisdom, too.
That day, while I was showing the _______ towards someone I knew, Carl's brother Tom drove up. Tom was an old country boy. He sat chewing, _______ and listening and then declared his truth slowly. _______ I paused from my bad-mouthing for a moment, Tom said, "Have you ever _______ when you got your finger pointing out at someone, there are three fingers on the very same _______ just pointing back at yourself?" I _______ and told Tom that he had just saved me thousands of dollars. He gave me such wisdom right there and I didn't even have to go off to India and ________ with some foreign master! I also joked that going to India would be ________ because I was poor.
It was still amazing to me how that one little moment, that ________ statement changed my life. I immediately started ________ what I was saying about others. Yes, it was true whatever I said, I was ________ talking about myself! Holding my tongue while I waited for the kinder, gentler, ________ feelings to surface in my mind burnt off something ________ and self-doubt I stored inside for years. On that day, I began to really look at myself and be truthful about how I created my life, and my relationships where I looked for payoffs, rewards and________.
Ten minutes later, I wrote this ________ and a friend of mine sent me a(n) ________ appropriate poem. It was appropriate in an unexpected way.
Here is the poem:
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become ________.
Watch them; they become characters.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
1.A.raising B.knowing C.coaching D.assisting
2.A.taking over B.referring to C.turning to D.talking about
3.A.required B.expressed C.learned D.showed
4.A.interest B.annoyance C.affection D.appreciation
5.A.interpreting B.regretting C.shouting D.thinking
6.A.Though B.Therefore C.When D.Unless
7.A.imagined B.noticed C.informed D.explained
8.A.hand B.face C.foot D.head
9.A.feared B.screamed C.escaped D.laughed
10.A.live B.perform C.tour D.study
11.A.horrible B.simple C.costly D.exhausting
12.A.ancient B.wise C.familiar D.original
13.A.paying attention to B.looking down upon C.making use of D.looking forward to
14.A.gradually B.hardly C.actually D.never
15.A.boring B.angry C.meaningless D.harmless
16.A.confident B.painful C.enthusiastic D.meaningful
17.A.attention B.action C.shock D.sorrow
18.A.notion B.document C.report D.story
19.A.roughly B.probably C.amazingly D.slightly
20.A.dreams B.habits C.thoughts D.words
