Thousands of people living in the Chinese capital will celebrate the start of the Chinese New year by heading for the ski resorts (滑雪场). Never mind that Beijing’s dry weather seldom produces snow. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the hills north to the capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this new craze(热潮）.
Since Beijing’s first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed astonishing increase. There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr. Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe. In recent years ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can’t really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts in Europe.
Beijing’s skiing craze is partly a result of the recent increase in private cars. This has led to the growth of a leisure industry in the capital’s suburbs, which until the late-1990s were unreachable to ordinary people. According to Mr. Wei, about 40% of the visitors to his resort come in their own cars. The rest are bused in by schools, businesses or government offices.
The problem is making money. Starting ski resorts requires quite a lot of money: hiring land from the local government, preparing the hills, buying snow machines, making sure there are enough water and electricity to run them, and buying ski equipment for hiring out to customers.
The ski resort where Mr. Wei works cost nearly $4m to set up. And, as so often in China when someone comes up with a good idea, many others rush in and price wars break out. Beijing now offers some of the cheapest ski training classes in the world, though with most people rather new to the sport, expecting a few more doing the same job.
1.What does this text mainly talk about?
A. Convenience for skiers brought about by private cars.
B. Skiing as a new way of enjoying one’s spare time.
C. Things to be considered when starting a ski resort.
D. A sudden increase of ski training classes in Beijing.
2.Why are some Chinese likely to go skiing in Europe?
A. To visit more ski areas.
B. To ski on natural snow.
C. For a large collection of ski suits.
D. For better services and equipment.
3.What is the main problem in running a ski resort?
A. Difficulty in hiring land
B. Lack of business experience
C. Price wars with other ski resorts
D. Shortage of water and electricity
Work your brain!
Between 2 and 3 pounds of wonder, it controls everything we say, do or think, who we are and what we care about. The way we walk or laugh or figure out things. What we like and the talents we possess. How we see and talk and run and jump and process our food.
The brain uses 20 percent of our body’s oxygen and 20 percent of its blood. Somewhere within its protein, fat, 100,000 miles of blood vessels and 100 billion nerve cells, it helps us remember where we put our gym shoes. Change our temperature so we don’t die because of the heat or cold. Speed us up or slow us down. Help us choose between orange juice or orangeflavored drinks.
Its complexity are stunning, far beyond anything most of us can imagine. To keep this work of art as polished as possible we need to eat right, exercise and keep mentally stimulated. Good nutrition helps brain cells communicate with each other. Exercise stimulates a hormone in our brain that improves memory. Mental stimulation keeps you sharp even as you age.
“It’s very important that we tell people to be physically active and mentally active,” said neurologist Malcolm Stewart.“People cannot stop aging, but you’re able to reduce the damage; you’re able to keep the function up.”
Following are Dr. Stewart’s advice for improving brain health：
|
Nutrition |
Avoid fast food. Follow the old adage(格言): For breakfast, eat like a king; for lunch, like a queen; for supper, like a beggar. |
|
Exercise |
Do a combination of stretching aerobic and muscle strengthening every day. |
|
Mental games |
Try to have a sense of hope about the future. Do puzzles. Listen to music. Reach out to others to make their lives better. |
1.The purpose of the author in writing this passage is to ______.
A. inform us how the brain works
B. give us advice on how to keep the brain healthy
C. tell us that the brain plays an important role in our lives
D. show how special the brain is to us
2.The underlined word “stunning” means ______.
A. interesting B. strange C. significant D. amazing
3.According to the text，more exercise ______.
A. keeps our mind sharp
B. helps improve our memory
C. gives our brain a rest
D. is good for brain cells communicating with each other
4.In order to keep brain healthy，we should avoid ______.
A. eating a good lunch B. doing puzzles
C. eating a large supper D. taking aerobic exercise
Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families. The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions while also cutting costs.
Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.
ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally clever and affordable homes which are called the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.
Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities, such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.
1.What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?
A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people.
B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.
C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.
D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.
2.What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards? 5
A. Lower running costs.
B. Costing less in construction.
C. Less air to be lost in hot days.
D. Better prices for homeless people.
3.It can be learned from the text that .
A. New York City is seriously polluted
B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City
C. a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in
D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City
4.What is the main purpose of this text?
A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.
B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.
C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.
D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever and affordable housing.
How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, impolite waiter，rude boss，or an insensitive employee your day?
One day I was in a taxi and we headed the airport. We were driving in the lane when suddenly a black car drove out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his ，slide sideways，and at the very last moment our car stopped and the other car by just inches！The driver of the other car looked around and started at us.
My taxi driver just and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really . So I asked，"Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital！”
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call “The Law of the Garbage Truck”. He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of , full of frustration，full of anger，and full of disappointment. As their garbage up，they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on ．Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave，wish them well，and move on.
Believe me. You’ll be ．Don’t take their garbage and it to other people at work，at home，or on the streets. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with ．The mark of your success is how quickly you can refocus on what’s in your life. Roy Baumeister，a psychology researcher from Florida State University，found in his extensive research that you bad things more often than good things in your life. You store the bad memories more easily, and you them more frequently.
So…Love the people who treat you right. Ignore the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you it！
When you follow “The Law of the Garbage Truck”，you take back control of your life. You make room for the good by go of the bad. Have a Garbage-Free Day！Have a marvelous，garbage-free day！The seeds you plant today the harvest you reap tomorrow.
1.A. enrich B. ruin C. spare D. obtain
2.A. through B. to C. in D. for
3.A. latter B. right C. opposite D. free
4.A. brakes B. door C. window D. seat
5.A. knocked B. overtook C. missed D. lost
6.A. laughing B. throwing C. glancing D. yelling
7.A. wondered B. smiled C. ignored D. guessed
8.A. friendly B. angry C. tired D. disappointed
9.A. expectation B. passengers C. garbage D. goods
10.A. turns B. pushes C. holds D. piles
11.A. roads B. children C. you D. dustbin
12.A. upset B. happier C. pitiful D. frightened
13.A. spread B. share C. explain D. contribute
14.A. surprise B. pleasure C. doubt D. regrets
15.A. funny B. important C. strange D. embarrassing
16.A. remember B. forget C. value D. appreciate
17.A. enjoy B. exchange C. recall D.imagine
18.A. inspire B. take C. mend D. notice
19.A. letting B. consisting C. making D. dreaming
20.A. distinguish B. deserve C. deliver D. determine
— I hear Kris had an accident as he was riding his bike to school yesterday.
— ________? He is always so careful when he is riding.
A. What for B. How come C. Why that D. So what
______ the numbers in employment, the hotel industry was the second largest industry in this country last year.
A. In spite of B. In case of C. In terms of D. In favor of
