Ever wonder how this season’s celebrations affect the environment? Guest blogger Krista Fairles takes an amusing look at this very topic:
The holidays are a wonderful, cheerful time when most people wait for Santa to bring them presents. But I’m not like most people. I spend my time wondering just what the environmental impacts of Santa Claus and his reindeer are, and more importantly, how I can calculate those impacts.
Lately I’ve been particularly curious as to whether Santa’s old sled is a clean green flying machine, or if he should be replacing his 8 reindeer with an environmentally-friendly car.
I should mention that, surprisingly, I was unable to find statistics specific to Santa’s magical flying reindeer, so these calculations use numbers from various sources and may not represent actual pollution caused by Santa and his animals. In other words, don’t complain to the government about the damage Santa is causing the environment based on this article.
Santa’s yearly trip around the globe is 44,000km long, twice the average of a North American driver. If we assume that the magic provides the altitude for this trip, then reindeer power only needs to push Santa’s sled forward. To complete the trip in 12 hours, I estimate they must travel at a speed of about 3100km/h. To travel at this speed, for this length of time, the reindeer need to eat an incredible 980 million calories each!!
So the next question is: how much food is in 980 million calories? Well, if they’re eating corn, they’d need to eat 16,500 lbs each — or 1.6 acres of food. Growing 12.8 acres of corn has its own implications for the environment that we’ll leave for another calculation.
We now need to consider that during the global trip the reindeer are “letting out” some of that corn in the form of methane (甲烷，沼气). A resting cow produces 110 kg of methane per year, so flying reindeer would each let out about 4.8 tons. With methane causing 20 times the global warming damage of CO2, and the altitude increasing that damage by 1000% that another 20 times, we can put Santa’s round-trip emissions at 15,488 tons. This is much more than the 100 tons an environmentally-friendly car would release on the same trip!
Bad Santa.
1. Which aspect does the writer NOT include in her analyses about reindeer’s influence on environment?
A. Distance covered. B. Calories consumed.
C. Tons of waste let out. D. Money spent on food.
2. According to Paragraph 6, how many acres of corn would Santa need to feed 10 reindeer?
A. 1.6. B. 16. C. 12.8. D. 128.
3. Which of the following statements would the writer most probably agree with?
A. Christmas celebrations are really a waste of money.
B. Vegetarians are more likely to survive than meat-eaters.
C. Raising animals has a negative influence on environment.
D. The car industry does less harm to environment than farming.
4. Which of the following words best describes the language style of the passage?
A. Humourous and concerned. B. Cheerful and friendly.
C. Academic and formal. D. Serious and boring.
5. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
A. Is Santa driving clean and green?
B. Santa, watch where you’re going!
C. Santa Claus is coming to town!
D. Let’s reduce waste on Christmas celebrations!
假设你是李华, 因家庭贫困, 就读高中以来一直受到美国友人Carter先生的热心资助。新年来临之际, 请给远在美国的Carter先生写一封信, 信中包括：
1.问候Carter先生并表达感激之情；
2.介绍自己高三以来的学习生活情况以及新年的打算；
3.祝福Carter先生, 希望他能来中国。
注意：
1.词数120~150；
2.开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数。
Mr. Carter,
How I miss you and your family! Stepping into the New Year, I’m writing to______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
Modern inventions have speeded up people's lives amazingly. Motor cars cover a hundred miles in light more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never ending. Every year motor cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts(吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price.When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet lag；our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also , according to some scientists；too much use may put harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people's lives were devoted simply to the cultivation(耕耘) of the land or the care of cattle. No multi tasking there；their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to make tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.
1.What's the passage mainly about?(within 10 words)
2.List the difficulties our ancestors met according to the text.(within 15 words)
①
②
③
3.Fill in the blank in the 2nd paragraph with proper words or phrases.
4.Why do we make new products more and more time-saving according to Paragraph 1 of this passage?
5.Translate the underlined sentence in the 3rd paragraph into Chinese.
India is traditionally a tea-drinking country. But, it is now gaining a new taste for coffee. This has led international coffee companies to consider opening businesses in the huge market. Local business people are also hoping to profit from the country’s tea-drinking habits. They want to open new stores that offer tea.
It is ten thirty in the morning in India. Two cafes are within meters of each other, near a college in New Delhi. And they are selling a lot of tea. Their main customers are undergraduate students.
“We have a lot of break between classes, so whenever we get time, we just go and we enjoy ourselves. It’s a lot of fun, especially when you are with people you enjoy spending time with.”
In the past ten years, cafes have become increasingly popular in India. The country’s huge young population have quickly taken to the coffee culture.
Coffee stores have spread from major cities like New Delhi and Mumbai to smaller towns. Coffee use has doubled in the last ten years. It is the success of this market that has gained the attention of companies like the American-based coffee chain Starbucks. The company will open its first store in India later this year. Other companies like Lavazza and Costa Coffee are already there.
Yet, the growth of coffee will not reduce the popularity of tea. Indians drink eight times more tea than coffee. They have been drinking tea for more than one hundred and fifty years. India is one of the world’s biggest producers of tea, which is known locally as “chai”. Outside homes and offices, it is mostly sold by small businesses on the street.
1.Why do international coffee companies consider opening businesses in India?
A. India consumes very little coffee. B. India has a large population.
C. People in India now prefer coffee to tea. D. Indians come to like the taste of coffee.
2.Which one is correct about undergraduate students?
A. They only have tea in the cafes.
B. They are the main customers in the cafes.
C. They like enjoying coffee with friends in cafes.
D. They like to go to the cafes to escape lessons.
3.What can we learn about coffee in India?
A. Coffee is consumed more than tea in India now.
B. Coffee is much more welcomed by young Indians than tea.
C. Coffee consumed today doubles that of ten years ago.
D. The growth of coffee will reduce the consumption.
4.Which statement is wrong according to the passage?
A. Coffee stores have spread to small towns in India.
B. Some foreign coffee companies are trying to open Indian coffee market.
C. Local people worry about losing profit on tea.
D. Indians drink eight times more tea than coffee.
5.What is the text mainly about?
A. Undergraduate students are main coffee consumers in India.
B. Indians mainly consume both tea and coffee.
C. India is traditionally a tea-drinking country.
D. India is becoming a big new coffee consuming country.
How often do you sit still and do absolutely nothing? The usual answer these days is“never” or “hardly ever”. As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life. There is no way to avoid it, since it takes many and varied forms-driving in traffic, problems with personal relationships are all different forms of stress. Stress, in fact, is not the “baddy” it is often reputed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first sight of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make a choice between “fight” or “fright” and in more primitive days the choice made the difference between life and death. The crisis we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. All the energy is shifted to cope with the stress. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established links with stress.
Stress in some people produces stomach disorders, while others experience tension headaches. Since we cannot remove stress from our 1ives, We need to find ways to cope with it.
1.People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because .
A. they are working harder than they used to
B. they are often too busy to find the time
C. they are not clear of how to relax by themselves
D. they are suffering from the effects of stress
2.What is implied but not stated in the passage?
A. The art of relaxation can greatly help people bear stress.
B. People in primitive days know certain ways to deal with stress.
C. If one gets into the habit of relaxing every day he can overcome stress easily.
D. Stress can lead to serious health problem if one is exposed to it for too long.
3.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 suggests that .
A. stress is not always a bad thing for people
B. stress has a bad reputation of causing ill health
C. stress is not so terrible as people often believe it to be
D. stress is always harmful to people all the time
4.According to this passage, which of the following statements is true?
A. Relaxation in life only benefits us mentally.
B. Different people can stand different amounts of stress.
C. All the stress can lead to poor performance.
D. Large amounts of stress is important to people's lire.
5.What is the writer's attitude to stress according to the passage?
A. Stress as well as relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
B. Stress should not be rid completely from the life.
C. Stress produces both positive and negative effects on people.
D. People usually work better under stress if they are healthy.
A baby born in India has been declared the world's seven billionth person by child rights group Plan International. Baby Nargis was born at 07:25 local time (01:55GMT) in Mall village in India's Uttar Pradesh state. Plan International says Nargis has been chosen symbolically as it is not possible to know where exactly the seven billionth baby is born. In addition to baby Nargis in India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Cambodia have all identified seven billionth babies. The United Nations estimated that on Monday 31 October, the world's population would reach seven billion.
Populations are growing faster than economies in many poor countries in Africa and some in Asia. At the same time, low birth rates in Japan and many European nations have raised concerns about labor shortages.
Population experts at the United Nations estimated that the world reached six billion in October 1999. They predict nine billion by 2050 and ten billion by the end of the century. China's population of one and a third billion is currently the world's largest. India is second at 1.2 billion. But India is expected to pass China and reach one and a half billion people around 2025.
India will also have one of the world's youngest populations. Economists say this is a chance for a so-called demographic dividend. India could gain from the skills of young people in a growing economy at a time when other countries have aging populations. But economists say current rates of growth, although high, may not create enough jobs. Also, the public education system is failing to meet demand and schooling is often of poor quality. Another concern is health care. Nearly half of India's children under the age of five are malnourished(营养不良).
Michal Rutkowski, the director of human development in South Asia at the World Bank, says reaching seven billion people in the world is a good time for a call to action. He says, “I think the bottom line of the story is that the public policy needs to become really, really serious about sex equality and about access to services—to fight against malnutrition, and to provide for access to health services, water and schooling.”
1.What is true about the world's seven billionth person?
A. Baby Nargis is not the only child chosen as the seven billionth baby.
B. Baby Nargis has been chosen carefully so it is exactly the seven billionth baby.
C. Three countries have all declared Baby Nargis as the seven billi011th baby.
D. The United Nations declared Baby Nargis as the world's seven billionth person.
2.Which of the following problems do many European countries worry about?
A. Labor shortage. B. Poor health care.
C. Not enough jobs. D. Schooling of poor quality.
3.According to population experts, how long will it take for population to grow from six billion to nine billion?
A. About 12 years. B. About 40 years. C. About 50 years. D. About 110 years.
4.What does the underlined phrase “demographic dividend” in the fourth paragraph refer to?
A. Possibility of lower birth rate.
B. Benefit gained by working young people.
C. Chances for more employment.
D. Disadvantages caused by aging population.
5.Which of the following public policies does Michal Rutkowski call on?
A. To encourage late marriage. B. To reduce world's population.
C. To gain economic equality. D. To improve health and education.
