Across the world, 1.1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. More than 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation (卫生设备).
The combination proves deadly. Each year, diseases related to inadequate (不充足的) water and sanitation kill between 2 and 5 million people and cause an estimated 80 percent of all sicknesses in the developing world. Safe drinking water is a precondition (前提) for health and the fight against child death rate, inequality between men and women, and poverty.
Consider these facts:
The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometers.
Only 58 percent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are drinking safe water, and only 37 percent of children in South Asia have access to even a basic toilet.
Each year in India alone, 73 million working days are lost to water-born diseases.
Here are three ways you can help:
(1) Write Congress
Current US foreign aid for drinking water and sanitation budgets only one dollar per year per American citizen. Few members of Congress have ever received a letter from voters about clean drinking water abroad.
(2) Donate to a project with a faith-based organizations
Many US religious groups already donate to water and sanitation projects, working with partner organizations abroad. Simply a single project by a US organization can make safe water a reality for thousands of people.
(3) Support nonprofit water organizations
Many US-based nonprofits work skillfully abroad in community-led projects on drinking water and sanitation. Some organizations are large, others small, some operate worldwide, others are devoted to certain areas in Africa, Asia, or Latin America. Support them generously.
1.The passage is probably written for .
A. Americans B. people in developing countries
C. religious leaders D. nonprofit water organizations
2.What is the problem that the facts exposed?
A. Inequality between men and women.
B. Many people have no access to clean drinking water.
C. Less effort has been made to improve the basic sanitation.
D. Children suffer most from the lack of basic sanitation.
3.The purpose of the passage is to arouse people to .
A. help the developing countries
B. help solve the water shortage and sanitation problem
C. support nonprofit water organizations
D. help get rid of water-related diseases around the world
4.Which is the best title of the passage?
A. From Water Shortage and Sanitation to Poverty
B. Developing World, A Place Needs Help
C. Water Shortage and Sanitation, What Can We Do?
D. Water Shortage and Sanitation
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will lose most of its coral cover by 2050 and, at worst, the world’s largest coral system could collapse by 2100 because of global warming, a study recently said.
The study by Queensland University’s Center for Marine Studies, commissioned (委托) by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, said that the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef was unavoidable due to global warming, regardless of what actions were taken now. “Under the worst-case scenario, coral populations will collapse by 2100 and the reestablishment of coral reefs will be highly unlikely over the following 200-500 years,” said the report entitled “Implications (可能的影响) of Climate Change for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.”
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living reef formation stretching 2,000 km north to south along Australia’s northeast coast. “Only if global average temperature change is kept to below two degrees Celsius can the Reef have any change of recovering from the predicted damage,” the report said. Coral has a narrow comfort zone and is highly stressed by a temperature rise of less than one degree Celsius. Water temperature rises of less than one degree coincided (同时发生) with the world’s worst recorded coral bleaching (颜色变淡) period in 1988. The warmer water forces out the algae (海藻) that give coral its color and, if all are lost, the coral dies and the reef will die out. In 1988, 16 percent of the world’s coral died, with 46 percent of the Indian Ocean coral destroyed.
Scientists express water temperatures to rise this century by between two and six degrees Celsius. “There is little to no evidence that corals can adapt fast enough to match even the lower temperature rise,” said the report. Over-fishing and pollution from coastal farms were also contributing to the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef supports huge fishing and tourism industries. Even under favorable conditions tourists would only be able to experience real corals in reef “theme parks”.
1.The underlined word “scenario” in Paragraph 2 probably means .
A. imagination B. intention C. expectation D. prediction
2.From the passage, we can infer that .
A. corals have no difficulty in adapting the temperature change
B. if we take quick actions we can avoid the destruction of corals
C. we can find corals in many areas of the seas or oceans
D. the algae help corals to live
3.Which of the following is NOT the cause of the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier Reef?
A. Direct sunshine. B. Over-fishing.
C. Global warming. D. Pollution.
4.By saying “Coral has a narrow comfort zone” (Para. 3), the author means .
A. coral can only live in a small area
B. coral prefers a crowded place
C. coral can hardly adapt to the temperature change
D. coral grows best in a small area
Singles Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one specially for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I googled “Singles Day” on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set up a special day for singles to celebrate their lives.
An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day and played Mahjong. One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the “four columns” card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov. 11. In order to remind them of the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.
Singles Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. These college students carried their university tradition into society after they graduated. Singles Day is now a special day for all.
The main way to celebrate Singles day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it’s important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. People also hold “blind date” parties in an attempt to say goodbye to their single lives.
For breakfast on Singles Day, singles often eat four youtiao (deep-fried dough sitcks) representing the four “ones” in “11.11” and one baozi (steamed stuffed buns) representing the dot in between.
Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on the day. Many attend “blind date” parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In addition to meaning “single”, the four “ones” of the date can also mean “only one” as in “the only one for me”. Some people will use this date and this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only “one” in their heart.
1.Which of the statement is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Singles Day has a long history.
B. Only men celebrate Singles Day.
C. Singles Day is only celebrated in China.
D. Students in Nanjing University started Singles Day.
2.People celebrate the festival mainly by .
A. playing Mahjong B. having dinner
C. getting married D. hanging out with friends
3.What is the best title of the passage?
A. Singles Day
B. Four Single Men’s Singles Day
C. University Culture on Singles Day
D. Symbolic Food on Singles Day
4.Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
(a-para.1 b-para.2 c-para.3 d-para.4 e-para.5 f-para.6)
A.
a B.
a C.
a D. a
b c d b c d f b d b c d e
e
e c
e
f
f f
Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end — with commercials thrown in every three or four minutes. The commercials are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by (滑过) outside the bus window. Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of “You Need It! Buy It Now!”?
The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed — new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is particularly careless or daring, the ride can be as thrilling as a horror story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left-hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus rides more interesting, but you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.
The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat, of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the arm rests — even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at the right time. There just no more ways to sit.
1.The long bus rides and TV shows are alike, because .
A. they both can offer people with thrilling stories
B. they both are boring
C. they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between
D. they both force people to sit for a long time
2.During the whole bus ride, what come to the passengers’ eyes most frequently?
A. Some salty food on the bus. B. The programs on TV.
C. Advertisements on the road. D. Trucks on the road.
3.In order to pass the middle hours of the ride, you can .
A. read the billboards B. have something to eat
C. watch TV shows D. sleep
4.The purpose of the passage is to .
A. show how much bus rides differ from TV shows
B. teach us how to deal with each period of a long bus ride
C. persuade readers to take a long bus ride
D. give the author’s opinion on long bus rides
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Once there was a king who liked pictures very much. One day, he1. a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists 2.. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he 3.liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect 4.for peaceful towering mountains all around it. 5. was a blue sky with fluffy (蓬松的) white clouds. All who saw this 6. thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
7. picture had mountains, too. But these were large, rough and 8.. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning 9.. Down the side of the mountain 10.a foaming (起泡沫的) waterfall. This did not look 11. at all.
But when the king looked 12., he saw behind the waterfall a tiny 13. growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her 14.. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest —15. perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize? The king 16. the second picture. Do you know why?
“Because,” 17. the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place 18. there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and 19. be calm in your heart. That is the real 20. of peace.”
21. A. afforded B. offered C. accepted D. canceled
22.A. collected B. planned C. tried D. directed
23.A. hardly B. slightly C. really D. generally
24.A. bowl B. mirror C. plate D. cover
25.A. Outward B. Indoors C. Overhead D. Downhill
26.A. prize B. result C. artist D. picture
27. A. The one B. Another C. Other D. The other
28. A. bare B. fresh C. green D. distant
29. A. played B. screamed C. wandered D. cheered
30.A. connected B. floated C. fell D. rose
31.A. hopeful B. peaceful C. successful D. careful
32. A. regularly B. suddenly C. closely D. casually
33.A. flower B. ground C. tree D. bush
34. A. house B. business C. nest D. relationship
35.A. of B. in C. by D. for
36.A. protect B. forced C. depended D. chose
37.A. explained B. described C. reminded D. persuaded
38.A. which B. where C. whose D. that
39.A. thus B. even C. also D. still
40.A. story B. meaning C. source D. history
Greatly frightened by the terrible scene, _______.
A. tears came to my eyes B. my heart was full of fright
C. my body trembled D. I couldn’t help crying out
